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The next day...
Warm sunlight poured down from the horizon, completely driving away the cold gloom lingering in the forest and finally bringing a hint of summer heat beneath this sky.
"Urgh..."
The young boy with tattoos on his face awoke from his sleep and slowly opened his eyes.
"Ah..."
The moment he opened his eyes, the tattooed boy heard a tiny cry of surprise, adorable yet very childish.
"Brother Noah, that person woke up!"
Who?
The tattooed boy abruptly opened his still half-closed eyes wide and sprang upright like a released coil, his face full of vigilance as he looked around.
He discovered that he was in a cave of unknown location.
The cave was not very large, even smaller than an ordinary family room. He could clearly see the blazing sunlight outside the cave and the rock walls that immediately entered his vision.
He himself was lying on a protruding ledge beneath the innermost rock wall.
As for the cave entrance, the tattooed boy saw two people.
One was an eleven- or twelve-year-old boy with sleek black short hair, eyes as deep as the stars, and a long cloth bag that seemed to contain some kind of weapon slung against one shoulder. An extraordinary aura radiated from him.
The other was a blue-haired little girl around seven or eight years old, hiding at the boy's side and peeking out from behind him at the tattooed boy with eyes full of confusion, curiosity, and a trace of timidity.
At that moment, the boy was sitting on the ground by the cave entrance with his back against the wall. One hand rested on the blue-haired girl's head as he stroked it, while he turned to look at the tattooed boy with a faint smile.
"You're awake?"
The tattooed boy did not respond immediately, but the vigilance in his eyes lessened considerably. After a moment of silence, he spoke softly.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Noah Dreyar from Fairy Tail. Just call me Noah!" Noah introduced himself concisely, then patted the blue-haired little girl beside him on the head.
"She's Wendy!"
"H-Hello..." Wendy said timidly, then fell silent.
"Fairy Tail..." The tattooed boy's eyes flickered. He lowered his head, hesitated for a moment, then introduced himself as well.
"My name is... Jellal. Did you save me?"
"The one who saved you wasn't me." Noah shrugged, still patting Wendy's head.
"Wendy saved you. She used healing magic to help you recover. Honestly, even I was a little surprised."
That was the truth.
After all, the power of Natsu's Dragon Slayer Magic was truly remarkable. Even though Natsu was still young and could not yet bring out its full might, its current power was already enough to leave ordinary mages far behind.
However, Dragon Slayer Magic was magic meant to fight dragons, so such power was hardly surprising.
What Noah had not expected was that Wendy's Dragon Slayer Magic did not possess the immense power of Natsu's Dragon Slayer Magic. Instead, it possessed supportive and healing abilities.
According to Wendy herself, because she was not good at fighting, she had learned supportive magic from Sky Dragon Slayer Magic relatively quickly. In contrast, she had not even grasped the basics of combat magic yet, unlike Natsu, whose magic was so destructive.
In other words, compared to Natsu's Fire Dragon Slayer Magic, which was purely for combat, Wendy's Sky Dragon Slayer Magic could not only be used in battle, but could also support combat and heal injuries by applying all kinds of effects. It was an exceptionally rare all-purpose magic.
If Wendy had been a little older, perhaps this boy named Jellal would not have remained unconscious for an entire night. He might have awakened under Wendy's treatment last night.
Of course, without Wendy's treatment, Jellal might not even have awakened by now.
Hearing Noah's explanation, Jellal looked at Wendy in surprise. Wendy immediately became embarrassed, burying her face in Noah's chest and not daring to look up.
Seeing this, what little wariness remained in Jellal's heart vanished. He sincerely thanked Wendy.
"Thank you for saving me."
"I-I only helped a little..." Wendy said in a shy, mosquito-like voice.
"It was Brother Noah who carried you here. You should thank Brother Noah instead."
"No need to thank me." Noah shook his head and looked directly at Jellal.
"But if you can tell me why the sky underwent such a strange change last night, I'd be extremely grateful."
"You..." Jellal's gaze sharpened.
"You saw it all?"
"I was in the forest. How could I not have seen such a change in the sky?" Noah said with a smile.
"And you don't look like someone who knows nothing about it. So, can you tell me what it was?"
"That was..." Jellal's expression sank, and his voice grew heavy.
"That was Ultra-Spatial Magic—Anima!"
"Anima?" Wendy tilted her head, as though a question mark had appeared above it.
"Ultra-Spatial Magic?" Noah frowned.
"What exactly is going on?"
Jellal lowered his head even further, and struggle appeared in his eyes.
"Sorry, it isn't convenient for me to explain the details to you. Please don't ask any further."
Noah's frown deepened. He watched Jellal's evasive gaze and conflicted expression. After a while, his tightly furrowed brow relaxed, and he spoke.
"I already told you, I'm a mage from Fairy Tail. I came here because of a request from a nearby village. They said that a ghost who could cast a curse that shattered the sky was crying in this forest, and I came to resolve this unbelievable incident!"
Jellal and Wendy both froze.
However, Jellal seemed to realize something from Noah's roundabout words and finally smiled.
"You don't need to worry about that. Anima has indeed been triggered here many times, but I stopped it every time. Last night's should have been the final activation. From now on, Anima will not activate here again. As for the crying ghost, I know nothing about that."
"I did resolve the crying ghost." Noah glanced at Wendy beside him, whose face was full of confusion, and spoke with amused exasperation.
"It really was a crybaby ghost, and quite a cute one at that."
Now, Noah understood the whole sequence of events.
If he was not mistaken, the crying ghost mentioned by the village chief was merely the sound Wendy had made while searching the forest for Grandine these past days.
As for the claim that the sky had been cursed and shattered whenever the ghost cried, that was purely because of the unknown Ultra-Spatial Magic, Anima.
In other words, Wendy's crying and Anima's activation had happened to coincide, causing panic among the villagers hunting in the forest and giving rise to the whole incident about a crying ghost cursing the sky.
Everything had merely been caused by coincidence and misunderstanding.
Noah could not help but laugh, while also feeling deeply moved.
As expected, ghosts did not exist.
"Hm?" Wendy, who knew nothing, looked as though question marks were about to pile up over her head.
Jellal, on the other hand, seemed to understand and smiled helplessly as well.
"Since the truth has been uncovered, and there won't be any more ghostly crying or Anima in the future, my request is complete. The rest has nothing to do with me, and I won't ask any more questions." Noah stood up and skillfully reached out to take Wendy's hand just as she hurriedly tried to offer it.
"I'm going back to the village now. Would you like to come with us?"
Jellal looked at Noah gratefully, nodded, and stood up.
The three left the cave together and headed out of the forest.
Before you continue