See the People Around You Clearly

(Heartfelt thanks to Qi Guanxuanqi for the 6,000 reward! Jun Lin Tian Xia and Ailuoli's Ice Ling for the 1,000 rewards! And thanks to Bing Yue Ying, Xiao h Zhai, Yun Qi Qing Gu, Er Ci Yuan Wo Men De Meng, Zhuān Zhū's Assassination of King Liao, Jun Lin Tian Xia, Sing Zai, Xing Hun, and Long Tiani for their rewards!)

(Please bookmark! Please recommend! Please click! None of these cost money! So please, Friends, take a little time to give a bookmark, a recommendation, and a click!)

Night had already deepened...

Since night had fallen by the time they reached their destination, after discussing it with the middle-aged man sent by the Council of Magi, Noah and the others decided to rest for the night and carry out the mission tomorrow: injecting magic power into the Lake of Rituals and activating it.

Laxus did not say a word. He simply left Noah and Erza behind and returned to the inn the Council of Magi's middle-aged representative had arranged for them. Erza also left alone without a word, and no one knew where she had gone.

Such a team, mismatched in every possible way, was probably one of a kind. But Noah had more or less expected this, so he did not mind. After leaving his luggage in his room at the inn, he took a large number of beads used to train magic power control and headed out by himself.

This was a very unfamiliar city to Noah.

If another eleven-year-old child had come here, they definitely would not have dared to wander around. Noah was no different. To avoid any accidents, even though he wanted to train his magic power control, he did not go too far from the inn. After choosing a small river that could be clearly seen from the inn's entrance, he headed in that direction.

However, to Noah's surprise, someone had already beaten him to the riverbank.

"Ha—hah—!"

A young girl stood alone by the riverbank. She wore a simple dress beneath a cold suit of armor, a medical eyepatch over one eye, and red hair that remained strikingly visible even in the night. Holding a Knight Sword with a relatively short blade that suited her small frame, she swung it with a stern expression.

"Erza?"

Watching the red-haired girl repeatedly swing her Knight Sword by the riverbank, Noah froze for a moment before falling silent. Without a word, he walked to a spot on the bank some distance away from Erza.

"Hm?" Erza, who was continuously swinging her Knight Sword, naturally noticed Noah's arrival. She stared blankly as he walked to a nearby section of the riverbank, grabbed a handful of beads, and tossed them into the sky.

Before Erza could react, an extremely powerful surge of magic power suddenly erupted from Noah. Like a swirling current of air, carrying specks of fluorescent light, it washed toward the beads scattered into the air.

In the next instant, many of the beads were enveloped by magic power and floated around Noah, while others fell straight to the ground or were flung away.

Erza did not know what Noah was doing, but she could clearly feel the magic power pouring from him, far stronger than her own by an unknown number of times. Her heart was immediately filled with shock and surprise.

At that moment, Erza recalled Makarov and Laxus's assessment of Noah that morning.

"He can't use magic, yet he possesses magic power so strong that even the Guild Master is shocked..." Erza frowned slightly. The image of Noah leaving her a cheesecake yesterday, then departing without another word, surfaced in her mind.

As if possessed, Erza put away the Knight Sword she had swung countless times and unconsciously walked toward Noah.

Still tirelessly training his magic power control, Noah suddenly heard a stern voice rise from behind him.

"With such powerful magic power, why don't you learn magic?"

The magic power surging from Noah's body faltered slightly, then slowly withdrew into him. The beads floating around him all fell to the ground, producing a string of clattering sounds.

Noah turned around and looked at Erza, who stood behind him with a Knight Sword in hand. Her one exposed eye was fixed tightly on him, yet it contained not the slightest emotion. He shook his head and answered her question.

"It is precisely because I have such powerful magic power that Grandpa won't allow me to learn magic!"

"The Guild Master won't allow it?" Erza was stunned.

"Why?"

"I still can't completely control my own magic power," Noah said quietly.

"Grandpa said that if I use magic with such unstable magic power, then once my magic power goes out of control, the magic will go out of control too. When that happens, I'll bring a terrible disaster upon the people around me!"

Hearing Noah's explanation, Erza understood Makarov's intentions.

Indeed, once Noah, with magic power like this, learned to use magic, his strength would surely surpass that of ordinary mages by far!

Then, if Noah's magic ever went out of control, it truly would bring an unimaginable disaster!

What Erza did not know was that even without learning magic, Noah's magic power was already powerful enough to cause disasters through pure magic power alone!

It was just that with Makarov's strength, dealing with Noah's loss of control before he learned magic was more than manageable. But once Noah learned magic, if he lost control, even Makarov would not be confident in suppressing him!

That was why Makarov had solemnly required Noah to train his magic power until he could control it with ease before learning magic. As a result, Noah had spent an entire year training his magic power control.

And after a whole year of training, Noah's control over his own magic power had only barely reached a passing grade!

One could imagine just how powerful the magic power within Noah truly was.

"But..." Erza frowned slightly.

"Your brother seems very opposed to your decision not to learn magic, isn't he?"

"His situation is a little unusual..." Noah gave a bitter laugh.

"Because of certain things, he is now almost blindly pursuing strength. So in his eyes, my decision to abandon powerful strength that is practically within reach must look extremely unpleasant."

"What about you?" Erza stared intently at Noah.

"Don't you want powerful strength?"

"Me?" Noah met Erza's unwavering gaze and suddenly smiled.

"If this power is meant to hurt people, then I'd rather not have it!"

Erza's heart trembled slightly, and her previously emotionless eyes began to waver.

"Grandpa once said that the power of magic is the power of the heart, and also the power of the soul. A person's magic can reveal the essence of that person's heart and soul!" Noah said, word by word.

"So, he hopes that I can use this power to protect the people around me, and he hopes that I will work toward that goal!"

After saying that, Noah extended his hand. Under Erza's gaze, he touched her cold cheek, then touched the eye beneath the medical eyepatch on her delicate face.

"You're the same..."

"Even if one eye is covered, don't let your heart be covered too. Even if only one eye remains, please use it to see clearly..."

"The people around you..."

The gentle words and the warmth of the hand against her cheek made Erza's completely frozen heart shudder violently. By the time she came back to herself, the person before her was already gone, and so was the warmth on her cheek.

However, a strawberry cake had been placed on the ground in front of Erza. Its sweet fragrance drifted into her nose, leaving her standing there in a daze for a long time, unable to react.

Night continued to deepen...

The next day, Noah got up early. After changing clothes and putting on a coat, he opened his door, left his room, and headed downstairs.

The first floor of the inn was much like an ordinary tavern. Wooden tables filled the room, and nearly every table had alcohol on it. Quite a few people had risen early, while some had not slept at all. They were noisily competing in drinking, making the place exceptionally lively.

At one of the wooden tables, Laxus sat with his feet propped directly on the tabletop. Wearing Magic Items that played music over his ears, he looked at Noah coming down from upstairs, curled his lip, and stood up. As he walked, he said the exact same thing he had said when they set off yesterday.

"Hurry up and finish this boring mission for me!"

Just then, Erza also came downstairs. Her gaze immediately settled on Noah, and, in a rare gesture, she nodded at him as a greeting.

Only then did Noah smile and head outside the inn.