(Thank you very much to Wu Fa Ru Yuan for the 1,888 reward, and to Bing Yue Ying, Book Friend 150313094047194, Diying, Mi Ye Canying?, Yun Qi Qing Gu, ha$ Guang, Xiao h Zhai, Liunian Chengshang Love, and Er Ci Yuan Wo Men De Meng for their rewards!)
"..."
An indescribable atmosphere of silence filled the enormous library.
Noah held a thick book in his hands, but his attention was barely on it. Instead, he kept glancing ahead, his eyes filled with complicated emotions.
Across from Noah, the sisters Mira and Lisanna sat side by side. Yet unlike usual, neither of them was making a fuss. On closer inspection, both of them were acting rather strangely.
First, there was Mira.
Mira had cast aside her usual violent delinquent-girl demeanor. Sitting there, she seemed somewhat embarrassed, and her cheeks were flushed pink. It was adorable, certainly, but this was not the Mira Noah knew at all.
Lisanna, on the other hand, was the complete opposite.
Although Lisanna was the youngest among them, she was usually the most mature and precocious. Yet today, she was acting like a child instead, looking sullen and upset, as though she were angry.
This scene had continued ever since Noah had been woken up by Lisanna, who had inexplicably been fuming.
Looking at the adorable sisters, who were both stranger than usual in every way, Noah felt quite troubled as well. As a result, he simply could not focus on the book in his hands.
So Noah simply lifted his head from the book and looked at Lisanna first.
"Hmph!" Lisanna snorted and turned her head away, still looking furious.
Noah blinked, then shifted his gaze to Mira.
"—!" Mira gave an exaggerated shudder. Her already pink cheeks instantly turned crimson. She glared at Noah and cried out in extreme embarrassment.
"What? Want to fight?!"
"..." Noah was, unsurprisingly, baffled.
It was not strange for Mira to challenge someone to a fight.
What was strange was that in the past, Mira's "Want to fight?" had always sounded domineering and fierce. What was with this blushing, sweetly coy version of "Want to fight?" today?
Noah truly had no idea what had happened to these sisters, so he decided not to dwell on it and simply asked.
"Say, are you two hiding something from me?"
Upon hearing that, the white-haired sisters reacted differently once again.
Mira shuddered all over and turned her head away like a guilty thief.
Lisanna, however, looked even angrier and even shouted at Noah in a clear voice.
"Noah, you big idiot!"
"????" The question marks in Noah's heart practically shot into the sky.
Could this be the legendary girl's heart that men could never understand?
"Then... instead of chatting when you have so much free time, why don't you hurry up and find the magic you like?" Mira awkwardly changed the subject.
"Don't you want to learn magic anymore?"
"Of course I do..." Noah felt that he would not get any answers even if he kept pursuing the matter, so he could only sigh and heft the magic book in his hand.
"Isn't that what I'm doing?"
Seeing that the topic had finally returned to normal, Lisanna gradually returned to her usual self and asked with her head tilted.
"You've been looking all night. Haven't you found anything suitable yet?"
"Basically, all the magic books stored in the guild library are here!" Noah patted the stacks of books piled like small mountains on the table beside him, looking completely at a loss.
"But I've looked all night and still don't think I've found anything suitable."
"Is it that hard?" Mira muttered as she picked up a book and flipped through it.
"You're just choosing magic, not clothes. Can't you just pick the strongest, most powerful, and most useful magic?"
"It's not true that stronger magic is always better. Your Take Over Magic is considered very ordinary, while Natsu's Dragon Slayer Magic is a precious Lost Magic from ancient times. But aren't you still much stronger than Natsu?" Noah supported his cheek with one hand, his tone becoming somewhat listless.
"That's why I'm choosing carefully. Otherwise, I would've gone straight to Grandpa long ago. He definitely knows plenty of precious, rare, and powerful magic."
Actually, Noah had considered learning magic through self-awakening.
After all, while self-awakened magic was not necessarily the strongest, it best reflected its user's abilities and was the magic most suited to its user.
However, accomplishing that was not so easy. There was one critical problem.
That was, Noah had no idea how to awaken the magic hidden inside him.
Everyone awakened their own magic differently.
For example, Mira had awakened Take Over Magic only after coming into contact with demons.
Erza had likewise learned magic through self-awakening.
According to Erza herself, she had firmly held onto her true heart in a moment of crisis, which was how she awakened Requip Magic.
Noah did not know how he was supposed to awaken his own magic.
Ninety percent of the mages in this world chose to learn magic themselves for precisely that reason, and Noah was naturally no exception.
Besides, what if the magic most suited to him after awakening turned out to be unsuitable for combat?
The method of awakening magic was unknown, and the type of magic awakened was unknown as well. That was why ninety-nine percent of the mages in this world used magic they had learned themselves.
Noah had already been delayed for a full two years because of his magic power issue. Now that he could finally learn magic, he had no intention of placing his hopes on an uncertain self-awakening.
"How about it, Noah? Why don't you learn Take Over Magic like us?" Lisanna suggested, her eyes shining slightly.
"Then we can use the same magic!"
Hearing that, Noah looked at Mira and accidentally caught a trace of anticipation in her eyes. He scratched his cheek.
"It's not like I haven't considered Take Over Magic, but I'm not as special as Mira. I can't accept the power of demons, so I've been thinking it over."
Mira and Lisanna both opened their mouths at the same time, just about to say something, when a tremendous sound interrupted them.
"Ding-dong—ding-dong—ding-dong—ding-dong—!"
It was a resounding sound like church bells.
Like some grand festival, enormous bells suddenly rang throughout Fairy Tail and even across all of Magnolia. They were so loud that nearly everyone in Magnolia could hear them.
Before Noah, Mira, and Lisanna could react, a huge commotion echoed from the Fairy Tail guild outside the library.
"Gildarts!"
"It's Gildarts!"
"Gildarts is back!"
At the same time as the uproar erupted, Noah, Mira, and Lisanna also heard an alarm sounding above Magnolia.
"Magnolia is switching to Gildarts Mode. All residents, please proceed to the designated locations as quickly as possible!"
As the alarm ended, Noah, Mira, and Lisanna felt the ground begin to tremble.
"W-What's going on?"
Looking at the books on the surrounding shelves shaking back and forth as though they were trembling from the quaking ground, Noah stood up. Mira quickly grabbed Lisanna and instinctively shielded her behind her.
"Gildarts—!"
The guild was still in an uproar.
"Gildarts?" Mira and Lisanna looked at each other.
"Who is Gildarts?"
Noah frowned as well and immediately headed for the door. Mira and Lisanna hurried after him, leaving the library.
By the time Noah, Mira, and Lisanna left the library and arrived at the bar on the guild's first floor, they saw the following scene.
Every mage in the guild had fallen completely silent, as though the earlier uproar had all been an illusion. Their gazes were all fixed on the entrance.
And at the guild's entrance, a figure was slowly approaching.
Before you continue