~

After returning to the guild empty-handed from his search for Acnologia, Allen happened to see Ultear teaching Dimaria something.

When Ultear saw Allen, she quickly ended her lesson with Dimaria and ran over to hug Allen, leaving Dimaria to stare at him with a resentful look.

Unable to withstand Dimaria's gaze, Allen hurried away with Ultear.

Ultear, now nineteen, had fully matured. When she came of age last year, she had insisted so strongly that she and Allen held a wedding ceremony.

Allen still remembered the way Sorano and Yukino had looked at Laxus with such eagerness during the wedding. After the three of them discussed it in private, they decided to hold their wedding this year after the S-Class Mage promotion exam.

Although Allen thought it would be better not to jinx things, he still felt that if the Ankhseram God had no stronger allies and only relied on Acnologia, he was confident he could end this war.

As Ultear held Allen's arm and walked through the guild, she said, "I can tell from that look on your face that you came back empty-handed again, right?"

Allen shook his head. "It doesn't count as coming back empty-handed. I did gain something. We now know that Acnologia has awakened. I just don't know when or where the Ankhseram God will launch its attack, so I plan to have the guild and the merchant guild scale back their activities over the next two years. Unless it's necessary, it would be better not to travel far from home. Then we'll have the guild's S-Class Mages patrol around the clock. After all, the Ankhseram God is hiding in the shadows while we're out in the open, so we're at a disadvantage."

After thinking for a moment, Ultear said, "We can't just defend passively