Bad News

Ishgar

Secret Realm, Montes Sacretaa

"Doctor, it's wonderful to have you here! My wounds already feel much better!" Acunologiya felt the pain from his injuries gradually fading and spoke to the man casting magic.

"You flatter me, sir. I merely stopped the wounds from bleeding; I cannot heal them," the doctor said to the Holy Dragon Acunologiya, inwardly helpless over the inadequacy of his own power.

"I'm not flattering you. Thanks to your help, I truly feel much better now!" Acunologiya did not think his praise was inappropriate at all. Instead, he felt the doctor was being too modest, which further convinced him that coexistence with humans was the right path. Then he recalled a rumor he had heard. Rising to his feet, he walked to the edge of the mountaintop and stared at the bustling scene below. After a long while, he finally made up his mind. Turning to the doctor, he said, "Doctor, I recently heard from merchants traveling from the west that the dragons of the Western Continent are slaughtering the local humans and treating them as food. So I'm going to the Western Continent to investigate the situation myself."

"Eating humans? This... this is far too cruel! Humans and dragons can clearly coexist, so why must they slaughter one another?" The doctor could hardly believe his ears, to the point that he failed to hear what Acunologiya said afterward.

"If the dragons of the Western Continent thought that way, they wouldn't be slaughtering humans. All right, I should be going. Take good care of yourself!" Acunologiya had no intention of wasting any more time. After hurriedly saying farewell to the doctor, he set off for the Western Continent. The doctor stared blankly at Acunologiya's retreating figure, silently praying for his safe return and for the dragons of the Western Continent to stop harming humans.

If Young Master Sordil had been here, he would have pinned the doctor to the ground and beaten him senseless. It was because he had let Acunologiya go to the Western Continent that the Secret Realm of Montes Sacretaa was later destroyed, Acunologiya became the Dragon King, and Zeref nearly destroyed Fairy Tail. As a brainless, diehard fan of the guild, Sordil's hatred for Zeref was not even a tenth as great as his hatred for this doctor. If circumstances allowed, Sordil would make him collect his lunchbox right this instant.

Western Continent, Outskirts of Mildian

After more than a month of travel, Sordil's group of five finally arrived on the outskirts of Mildian. Standing atop an earthen slope, scene after scene replayed in Sordil's mind. Without realizing it, he had already been in the world of Asland for three years, and he and Zeref had been apart for a year. He wondered how Zeref was doing and whether he had avoided the "contradiction."

"Brother Sordil, it's time to eat!" Diphiya's sweet voice pulled Sordil from his memories, and he saw her walking over with a serving of food. Sordil had been in a fairly good mood when he heard it was time to eat, but the moment he saw the food in Diphiya's hands, it felt as though a hundred thousand alpacas were stampeding through his heart. His expectations for delicious food instantly crumbled, and he felt as though the rest of his life had become bleak and miserable.

The cause of this incident had occurred a month earlier. Sordil had failed to catch a fish and had instead been swallowed by one, only to be rescued in the end by his group of bodyguards. Afterward, the four of them frequently teased him over it. Murellia even made a dish called "Escape from the Fish's Mouth" every time they rested, just to remind him of it, nearly driving Sordil to go on a hunger strike.

"By the way, Brother Sordil, why didn't you use your breath attack on that fish?" Sordil had only just recovered from the shock of "Escape from the Fish's Mouth" when Diphiya stabbed him in the heart again, making him almost shout at her, "Are you one of the Four Great Constables, Flying Dagger Di?"

Compared to being swallowed by a fish, the fact that he was a dragon yet could not use dragon magic hurt Sordil even more. Whenever he thought of it, he wanted to ask the great deity who had sent him here, Couldn't you make my life... uh, no, my dragon life go a little more smoothly? I'm not asking for much. Couldn't you at least let me be a complete dragon? I only want to be a normal dragon with a dragon's body who can use dragon magic. Do you really have to target me this much?

"Thank you for the reminder, Sister Diphiya. I'll be more careful next time and won't make you worry so much again!" Though Sordil was weeping endlessly inside, he still answered Diphiya's question in a calm tone.

"Diphiya, there you are. Come here quickly, I need to tell you something." Just as Sordil was helplessly struggling to deal with Flying Dagger Di, Murellia came to his rescue in time and finally pulled him out of his awkward situation. Watching the two women depart, Sordil vented all his anger on the food. In less than a quarter of an hour, he finished off a fish weighing over ten pounds.

After eating, Sordil and the others rested for a while before he led them toward Mildian Magic Academy. This time, they did not fly straight there. Instead, they walked step by step, since aside from Sordil, it was the first time the other four had come here, and they wanted to take a good look at this City of Time.

As time passed, the group drew ever closer to Mildian, and Sordil gradually sensed that something was wrong. At this time in the past, Mildian should have been overflowing with voices and bustling with activity, yet now it was far too quiet. It was so quiet that it felt as though the entire city contained only the five of them. The closer they got to Mildian Magic Academy, the stronger that feeling became.

When they arrived at the gates of Mildian Magic Academy, the tragic sight around them shocked everyone even more. Dead fish floated across the pond before the academy. The flowers in the pond had withered, the surrounding trees had lost all vitality, and lifeless animals lay scattered across the grass. The sight before him reminded Sordil of a scene he had seen in an anime in his previous life. The next second, he rushed through the academy gates at top speed. Though he had already guessed the outcome, Sordil refused to believe it. Right now, he only wanted to confirm the safety of the old man who was like a teacher and elder to him.

The sight of corpses strewn everywhere did not appear before his eyes, which allowed Sordil to breathe a sigh of relief. He quickened his pace and hurried toward Hissell's residence. Yet it was empty. Still unwilling to give up, Sordil searched room by room. It took him a full five hours to search all of Mildian Magic Academy, but he found neither Hissell nor even a single person. Just as Sordil was comforting himself that they might have gone elsewhere to take refuge and were therefore not at the academy, one discovery by Lindel completely shattered all his illusions.

Staring at the newly added graves before him, Sordil could no longer deceive himself. That damned curse had arrived right on schedule after all! Yet he had failed to make any change before it happened. He had not even had time to offer a single warning, and could only let these innocent lives lie beneath the cold earth.