No—he couldn't keep thinking about things that would only make his own headache worse!
Shane shook his head hard, exhaled a puff of white breath, then turned to Ur.
"Then after you finish scolding those two idiot disciples, we'll all come back here together."
"Good! That's the plan!"
Ur nodded firmly, clearly thrilled with the suggestion.
Once the agreement was made, the three of them—none of whom were afraid of the cold—still had no intention of lingering in this dark, damp ice cellar. It wasn't exactly the kind of place for a long reunion chat.
"Let's go back to Magnolia!"
Stepping out of the cave, Shane inhaled the sharp, freezing wind. The black dragon wings behind him snapped open, blasting up a cloud of snow.
"We could leave tomorrow," Ultear said, frowning. She knew what condition Shane's body was in.
He looked lively on the surface, but inside he was weak as hell.
"No."
Shane shook his head and refused her concern.
The backlash from failing to invoke a true name was brutal. The last time he'd suffered a similar backlash—"Gorō's," as he called it—he'd needed nearly half a month just to barely recover.
Resting for a day or two wouldn't help much. He might as well ride the momentum and fly back now.
Before she could argue, he stepped forward and, without warning, wrapped an arm around each of them and lifted the mother and daughter up.
"Hold on tight!"
"BOOM—!"
The air exploded with a sharp crack, and the three of them shot straight into the sky.
Watching the pure white clouds skim past her hair and the endless snowfield shrink beneath them, Ur stared around like a child discovering the world for the first time.
"Whoa…"
This was her first real flight.
She'd heard that places with advanced magic had things like magitech airships, but as a mage who'd lived hidden in the northern wilderness, she'd never ridden one—let alone flown like this, cradled in someone's arms as they slipped through the clouds.
The wind howled in her ears, but it wasn't biting cold, thanks to a faint barrier field in front of them.
That sense of freedom was completely new. Ur's eyes sparkled—she was already starting to look forward to her future life.
"By the way, I've heard about 'Fairy Tail' for ages!"
Ur raised her voice, excited.
"Shane, does your guild have… like, this insanely strong guy with an orange-red slicked-back pompadour? Like a monster?"
"Hm?"
Shane froze for a beat, then nodded with a weary sigh.
"Yeah… we do. That bastard uncle actually came all the way to the north before?"
"Seriously, he never sits still…"
Thinking of the guild's always-out-of-line strongest mage, Shane's expression suddenly turned deadly serious as he looked at Ur.
"Did that guy… touch you inappropriately? Or say anything like sexual harassment?"
"Uh…"
Ur tugged awkwardly at the too-tight zipper across her chest and tried to recall.
"Hard to say… I don't think so? He was just… kind of enthusiastic? Like, 'Wanna grab a drink together?'"
"…"
Then there absolutely was.
Shane instantly reached a verdict.
That pervert uncle who hit on anything remotely pretty!
"No. Absolutely not. When we get back, I'm telling the master to discipline him properly!"
Shane fumed internally.
"Gildarts hasn't changed at all! He even dared to flirt with Ur-senpai?!"
But then his brain helpfully supplied an image of Makarov grinning creepily over a dirty magazine.
Shane realized, with despair, that their guild master was basically the same—if not worse.
"…Sigh."
Shane sank into existential hopelessness.
The two strongest people in the guild were both like that. When the beam is crooked, the whole house tilts—no wonder the guild's atmosphere was chaos.
"Honestly… maybe some other 'normal' guild wouldn't be so bad…"
He muttered under his breath.
"Huh? What did you say?"
With the wind roaring and Shane speaking too quietly, Ur didn't catch it. She turned her head and looked at him in confusion.
And that head-turn made Shane's blood run cold—
The jacket he'd just forced onto her… was gone.
Gone. Vanished.
Ur's upper body was once again protected by nothing but that flimsy rabbit-fur bandeau.
A vast expanse of full, pale skin and an impossibly deep cleavage was out in the open again, visibly trembling with the flight's motion.
"…."
Shane fell silent—again.
He stiffly turned his head away.
You really could say weird people were drawn to each other.
With a talent for spontaneous wardrobe detonation like this, Ur was—on some level—perfect for Fairy Tail.
Meanwhile, Ur kept firing questions like a machine gun.
"Shane! Does your guild fight a lot? I heard you're great at demolition!"
"How strong is Gray now? Did he learn the essence of my modeling magic?"
"And Tear—how has Tear been all these years? Did anyone bully her?!"
Ur rattled on nonstop.
Shane's head throbbed from the noise. He could only look helplessly at Ultear for backup.
He was highly suspicious that whatever Ultear whispered earlier was why Ur was suddenly this aggressively affectionate and overly familiar with him.
"Mom…"
Finally, the girl who'd been coldly observing everything smiled and smoothly took over.
"Yes, the guild really is lively. Gray works hard… and as for me, Shane has always taken good care of me."
Ultear was absurdly patient.
No matter how trivial or ridiculous Ur's questions were, she'd think carefully and answer with calm, gentle precision.
Honestly, talking to someone like that would feel great—you could chat all day.
But only if that warmth was directed at you.
Shane watched Ultear speak softly to her mother and felt a sour jealousy bubble up.
When is this bad woman ever going to talk to me like that?
She's either snide, sarcastic, or looking at me sideways…
The more he thought, the worse he felt.
So, to spare himself, Shane stopped listening and focused entirely on flying.
"Lancelot!"
Midway through, to speed things up, he transformed into his Lancer form again.
They pushed hard, and before night fully fell, he carried them back to Magnolia.
…
"Whew…"
The moment they landed, Shane finally breathed out.
It'd been two days.
By the clock, that idiot Gray should've woken up ages ago, right?
Leading Ur into the noisy guild hall, Shane scanned the crowd—but didn't see the familiar half-naked menace anywhere.
"Where's Gray?"
He grabbed Wakaba as he passed and asked.
"Huh? Oh, Shane."
Wakaba, pipe in mouth, blinked—then exhaled a smoke ring.
"That guy hasn't shown up for two days. No idea where the hell he is."
"Probably 'playing corpse' in the boys' dorm," Macao chimed in.
But while those two old lechers answered, their eyes never once looked at Shane.
Their shameless, greedy gaze was glued to Ur at his side like magnets.
Because after landing, Shane had shoved another coat at Ur to avoid trouble.
And yet in the short time it took to walk here… the coat had mysteriously disappeared again.
Ur was back to that breezy, bold outfit, wandering around and inspecting the guild's decor with wide-eyed curiosity—completely unaware of the burning, drooling stares.
"Go talk to her!" Shane hissed, elbowing Ultear in desperation.
Ultear turned her head and stared at a pillar like she was studying the grain patterns.
In moments like this, she genuinely didn't want to acknowledge the shameless woman as her mother.
"Uh… this beautiful lady looks familiar."
Even though Macao was married, his bad habits were alive and well. He was the first to step in and flirt.
"She looks a lot like the little girlfriend Shane's always bringing back… are you sisters?"
"Little girlfriend—?!"
Shane's stomach dropped.
And then he saw it:
Ur smiling like she'd already made peace with the world…
And Ultear's eyes turning sharply amused.
Ur didn't even blink, like she'd already been mentally prepared for this.
Shane covered his face in despair.
His last thread of hope snapped cleanly in half.
You definitely told her something, didn't you?!
He leaned close and snarled at Ultear through gritted teeth.
Ultear answered him with the flattest look imaginable—as if to say, Isn't it true?
"…"
Shane choked and had nothing to say.
More and more sleazy uncles started swarming over, and before it could spiral out of control, Shane charged forward.
"Sorry, everyone! Move, move!"
He waved them away like flies while dragging Ur toward the exit.
"We've got urgent business with Gray! Excuse us, excuse us!"
Amid the guild's hoots and teasing, Shane fled the hall in full disgrace, dragging his "family" behind him.
…
After finally escaping the overenthusiastic old men, the three of them arrived at the boys' dorm building.
But before they could even go inside—
Shane's feet locked in place like he'd been hit with a paralysis spell.
"This…?"
Standing at the dorm entrance was someone he absolutely did not expect.
Scarlet hair fluttered lightly in the evening breeze.
She wore her signature sleeveless shirt, arms crossed, looking sternly down at something on the ground.
And at her feet, on the grass…
Lay a pitiful boy foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back, very much unconscious.
"Gray?! Erza?!"
"What the hell is going on?!"
Shane's eyes went wide, a thousand question marks detonating in his head.
Then cold sweat burst across his forehead in a rush.
He wasn't ready.
He was not ready to face Ultear and Erza at the same time in a situation like this.
This wasn't a "battlefield."
This was walking a tightrope while both ends were on fire—and there were crocodiles waiting underneath.
"Gulp."
Shane swallowed.
Almost purely on instinct, he shot out his hand and locked onto Ultear's wrist in a death grip.
Ultear raised a brow, actually a little surprised.
But this was not a sweet handhold.
This was tactical restraint—pure, desperate survival instinct.
Shane's mind was blank of anything else.
His only thought was: Do not let go.
Because if he released her for even a second, he was certain this chaos-loving bad woman would stroll right up to Erza and whisper something that would kill him on the spot.
~~~
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