Leaving the Town, Heading to Fairy Tail

After Erza played with her magnetic powers for a while, everyone began dinner for the day.

A little later, once everyone had nearly finished eating, Ywen looked at Aileen and said softly, "Well, the time is about right. I think it's time for us to leave this town."

"Huh? We're leaving?"

Erza did not seem to want to leave. After all, this was where she had grown up.

Ywen gently stroked Erza's little head and said, "How about coming with your brother to a place where you can meet lots of friends your age?"

"Lots of friends my age? All right!"

Erza thought for a moment, then nodded firmly.

Seeing that he had persuaded Erza, Ywen turned to Aileen.

"Alright, I understand!"

Aileen smiled and nodded lightly. She supported every decision Ywen made.

Aileen did not ask any further questions. She trusted Ywen from the bottom of her heart and knew that if he wanted to leave, he surely had his reasons.

A few more days passed...

Ywen, Aileen, and the others packed their luggage before dawn and appeared at the edge of town.

In front of the carriage...

Ywen looked back at the town behind him for a long time before finally withdrawing his gaze and boarding the carriage. With Ian and Eden driving, the carriage headed into the distance.

Their destination this time was the Fiore Kingdom, a permanently neutral nation with a population of seventeen million, as well as the kingdom with the strongest magical power on the entire Ishgar Continent.

And the place Ywen and the others were headed for was naturally Fairy Tail, the Mage Guild in Magnolia Town of the Fiore Kingdom!

On the carriage, Erza was drowsy. Illya, dressed in a black maid outfit, sat beside her and occasionally covered Erza back up whenever she kicked off her blanket.

Meanwhile, Aileen held a book in her hands and kept flipping through it. It was a comprehensive guide to the Mage Guilds of the Ishgar Continent. Although she had lived on this continent for over four hundred years, she had spent most of that time in seclusion in the mountains, so she did not know much about the distribution of powers across the continent.

Ywen first watched Aileen for a while. Then, after confirming that she did not get motion sickness, he closed his eyes to rest and adjust his condition.

Yes, after seeing that Aileen could read normally inside a vehicle, Ywen confirmed something!

After Aileen became a Dragon Slayer Mage, the flaw caused by the differences between dragon and human organs had been made up for by Ywen's Human-Human Fruit.

As the sky gradually brightened...

The town where Ywen and the others had once lived slowly came back to life. Ordinary townspeople opened their front doors, ready to begin their day, only to find a basket of bread and an exquisite letter placed outside.

The letter was brief, merely thanking the townspeople for their care over the years.

"No way?!"

When the townspeople read the letters in their hands and hurried to the bakery, they found it completely empty. Aileen's family had already left.

"They're gone..."

John, who lived next door to the bakery, looked at the now-empty bakery with a complicated expression.

"What? Feeling sad?"

Someone saw the look on John's face and teased him.

"I'm fine..."

John shook his head. In truth, he had given up pursuing Aileen long ago.

Ten years had spared Aileen, but not him. Over the years, countless wrinkles had appeared on his face, white streaks had grown in his hair, and his skin had been baked red and dark from constant blacksmithing...

Yet those ten years seemed to have forgotten Aileen. Not the slightest trace of them could be seen on her. Aileen was still Aileen, beautiful as a crimson rose, a flower that would never wither.

John had long suspected that Aileen's family was no ordinary family. An ordinary person like him should simply live his own life honestly.

"Why don't we preserve this bakery? If Aileen and the others come back someday, they'll still have a place to stay. What do you all think?"

As everyone whispered and discussed among themselves, the town mayor, an old man with a graying beard and a cane in hand, asked for their opinions.

"Sounds good!"

"It's not like this place has any other use..."

"Yeah, yeah! Let's keep it!"

"If Aileen, Ywen, and Erza come back someday and have nowhere to stay, how sad would that be?"

"That's true! That's true!"

"We still want to eat Aileen's bread again someday!"

Following the town mayor's suggestion, the townspeople chimed in one after another and decided to preserve the Scarlet Celestial Maiden Bakery.

The simple-hearted townspeople looked forward to the day when they could once again eat the bread Aileen made...

Time passed...

One week later...

With the carriage enhanced by Divine Speed traveling tirelessly onward, they finally arrived near Magnolia Town.

Compared to the town where Ywen and the others had previously lived, Magnolia Town was far more prosperous. Its streets were packed with endless traffic and crowds. Rather than a town, it resembled a vast city.

Near the rear of the town center stood the Mage Guild with a long history, Fairy Tail! It was also the destination of Ywen and the others' journey...

Ywen's carriage traveled all the way to the front of Fairy Tail before slowly coming to a stop.

"We're finally here."

Ywen studied the historic building before him, feeling deeply moved.

"This is the place?"

Aileen stepped down from the carriage and looked over the Mage Guild before her. She did not need to enter; simply standing outside allowed her to see through the entire guild in an instant.

"Oh~ There are two brats with fairly decent strength~"

"And a few children with pretty good potential..."

"By this continent's current standards, this guild is indeed quite good."

Standing outside, Aileen gave the guild before her a brief assessment.

At the same time...

The two people who had been drinking near the bar at the very back of the guild suddenly stiffened, as though they had sensed something, and stopped moving.

"Did you sense it, Gildarts?"

At the old bar, a short old man dressed like a circus performer asked the muscular Mage seated beside him. The Mage had short reddish-brown—or perhaps orange-red—hair and had been chatting up the young woman behind the guild's bar.

"Yeah! Someone incredible has arrived, Guild Master!"

Gildarts set down his wineglass and looked toward the guild entrance.

The next moment...

The guild's wooden doors were pushed open.

The first to enter were two adorable children, a boy and a girl. They were followed by a beautiful woman dressed in casual clothes. Both her face and figure perfectly matched the preferences of most men. After her came three adorable girls: one dressed as a maid, one as a chef, and one as a warrior.

Those three girls clearly followed the woman's lead. They were evidently servants of some sort.

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