Chapter 585 What Exactly is Your Relationship With Erza? Do Not Tell Me You Are Just 'Friends'

Noah paused, realizing he had just casually dropped a massive, world-altering revelation onto an already traumatized mother.

Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy absolutely would not undergo complete dragonification. But the price they paid—having their biological parents extract their souls and seal themselves inside their children's bodies to manually generate the antibodies—was unimaginably horrific.

If Igneel, Metalicana, and Grandeeney had told the kids what they were planning to do, none of the Slayers would have accepted it.

"Anyway, the specifics of their situation are incredibly complex," Noah quickly pivoted, wanting to avoid explaining the tragic fate of the Dragon parents right now. "When we return to Ishgar, I'll introduce you to them. Analyzing how their bodies generate antibodies to suppress the Dragon Seed will be vital in developing your cure."

Irene stared at him for a long moment, slowly absorbing the information.

The initial shock of hearing that others had succeeded where she failed was overwhelming, but his explanation grounded her. If their method involved an unimaginably high, unreplicable cost, then her four hundred years of failure didn't mean she was incompetent. It just meant she hadn't sacrificed what they had.

"Very well. I will wait until we arrive in Ishgar to meet them," Irene nodded, her frantic heartbeat finally steadying.

The heavy, suffocating despair that had haunted her for centuries lifted significantly. Knowing that a genuine, biologically viable path to humanity existed—and that Noah had the materials, the knowledge, and the allies to walk that path with her—completely shifted her paradigm. She didn't feel the need to lash out anymore.

"Since we have reached an agreement, I assume you are prepared to return to the Eastern Continent immediately?" Irene asked, watching Noah meticulously dismantle the massive, multi-layered containment ward he had erected.

"If I say yes, are you going to demand we leave right this second?" Noah asked, glancing over his shoulder with an amused smirk.

"Obviously," Irene stated flatly. "Restoring my true humanity is my absolute highest priority."

"And what about your duties here?" Noah gestured toward the distant city. "You are one of the Spriggan 12. You govern this territory. You can't just abandon your post."

"I can, and I will," Irene waved her hand dismissively, not caring in the slightest. "Heine and Juliet can manage the territory perfectly well. I already spend the vast majority of my time locked in my laboratory researching my condition. To the citizens and the military, there will be functionally zero difference if I am here or in Ishgar."

She paused, looking at him thoughtfully. "Besides, you possess High Spatial Magic. If a genuine crisis arises that requires my presence, you can simply teleport me back here in an instant."

"That's incredibly inefficient, and frankly, I don't want to act as your personal taxi service," Noah sighed, shaking his head. "More importantly, having you physically absent from the continent for months on end could eventually draw unwanted suspicion from Zeref or the other shields."

Noah rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment before snapping his fingers.

"I have a better solution. Do you know Thought Projection Magic?" Noah asked. "I've developed a highly advanced, optimized formula for it. I can teach it to you. It allows you to split off a fully tangible, physically active clone powered by a dedicated reserve of your Ethernano.

"You can leave the clone here to govern the city and respond to any immediate threats in real-time, while your true body travels with me to Ishgar."

Irene's eyes widened in genuine surprise. "A tangible, independently functioning Thought Projection? That is an incredibly high-tier utility spell."

Standard Thought Projections were merely intangible holograms used for communication. A physical clone capable of casting spells and managing a territory was a completely different dimension of magic.

"If you are willing to teach it to me, I gladly accept," Irene nodded, immensely pleased with the solution. Leaving a powerful clone behind completely eliminated any logistical or political issues regarding her absence.

"Perfect. I'll teach it to you once we're done cleaning up," Noah smiled.

With the containment ward fully dismantled, Noah turned his attention to the apocalyptic devastation they had caused. The mountain range looked like it had been repeatedly struck by orbital bombardments.

Noah raised his hands, manipulating the earth to fill the massive craters. He pulled the shattered bedrock together, artificially sculpting new peaks to replace the ones they had leveled, and used subtle Wood-Make magic to rapidly stimulate the growth of new trees over the scorched earth.

Having spent years in Fairy Tail—a guild notorious for catastrophic collateral damage—Noah had developed a profound habit of meticulously cleaning up his own messes. Plus, with his raw power, landscaping a mountain range took relatively little effort.

Seeing him work, Irene casually raised her staff and began casting large-scale earthen enchantments to assist in repairing the terrain.

However, her mind was entirely focused on the future.

"When will you teach me the spell? When exactly are we leaving for Ishgar?" Irene pressed, effortlessly lifting thousands of tons of dirt to fill a nearby crater.

She was practically vibrating with impatience. Four hundred years was a very long time to wait; every second she wasn't actively working on the cure felt like agony.

"We can't rush this. There are a few things I need to handle here before we leave," Noah replied calmly, smoothing over a newly formed hill. "Plus, before we head back, I need to introduce you to the two people who will be assisting us."

"Assistants?" Irene frowned, her skepticism returning instantly. "Do they genuinely possess the capabilities to contribute to this level of biological and magical engineering?"

She knew her condition intimately. Reversing four centuries of draconic mutation required an absolute, peerless mastery of magic. She didn't believe anyone on the Western Continent—aside from Zeref—could possibly help her.

"They are incredibly capable. You can trust them unconditionally," Noah assured her.

Irene remained highly doubtful, but given Noah's track record so far, she decided to withhold judgment until she met them.

Working together, the two High Enchanters rapidly repaired the devastated mountain range. They smoothed over the craters and seamlessly re-sculpted the landscape as they walked back along the massive trench they had carved during their brawl.

As they worked, the adrenaline from the fight faded, and Irene's frantic impatience slowly cooled.

With her mind clear, she began to analyze the situation more rationally. And as she did, a glaring, previously ignored anomaly became blazingly apparent.

She stopped walking and turned to stare directly at Noah.

"By the way... what exactly is your relationship with Erza?" Irene asked, her voice dropping into a dangerously quiet, interrogative tone. "And do not insult my intelligence by claiming you are simply 'friends.'"

When Irene had first approached Noah in the boutique, she hadn't just smelled Erza's biological scent on him. The scent was incredibly dense, deeply ingrained into his magic and his clothes. It wasn't the scent of someone who merely stood in the same room as her daughter. It was the scent of prolonged, incredibly intimate physical proximity.

Furthermore, Noah's actions defied all logic.

Why would a man travel across an ocean, infiltrate a hostile, militarized empire, explicitly seek out the second strongest mage on the continent, and risk his life in a catastrophic brawl... all just to ask why she abandoned her daughter?

Even the most fiercely loyal friend wouldn't go to such suicidal lengths.

The sheer magnitude of his effort, combined with the undeniable intimacy of the scent, painted a very clear, very specific picture.

"Ah... well... you see..."

Hearing her question, Noah froze mid-step. The confident, unshakable aura he had maintained throughout the entire apocalyptic battle instantly vanished.

Suddenly faced with the intense, interrogating glare of his girlfriend's mother, the all-powerful Guild Master began to sweat profusely.

"We... we are both members of the same magical guild. In Fairy Tail, if a member has a problem, we all do our absolute best to help them..." Noah stammered, frantically trying to deploy his standard, rehearsed guild rhetoric.

Irene didn't say a word. She just crossed her arms and stared at him, her eyes completely flat.

She had encountered countless magical guilds over her four hundred years of life. None of them functioned like that. Guilds were business platforms; mages were colleagues, perhaps close friends. No one risked absolute annihilation against a Dragon Queen just to solve a colleague's mommy issues.

"I mean it! Our guild is different! We treat each other like genuine family!" Noah insisted, seeing that she wasn't buying it for a second.

Under her unblinking, terrifyingly maternal glare, Noah's resolve completely crumbled.

"Okay, fine," Noah sighed, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "My relationship with Erza is significantly closer than the rest of the guild.

"Years ago, when she was living alone in Rosemary Village, the village was attacked by slavers. I happened to be there. I saved her, brought her back to the guild, and she's lived in my house ever since."

Hearing that Erza had been targeted by slavers, a dark, murderous shadow flickered across Irene's eyes. The guilt of abandoning her child violently flared in her chest. If Noah hadn't been there, what horrific fate would her daughter have suffered?

Noah noticed the shift in her expression, but he knew he couldn't stop now. He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the final blow.

"Also... roughly two years ago... Erza and I officially started dating..." Noah muttered, his voice dropping several decibels, unable to meet her gaze.

Despite his quiet tone, Irene's draconic hearing picked up every single syllable.

Her eyes widened to comical proportions.

A chaotic, violent storm of conflicting emotions visibly warred across her face.

Shock. Disbelief. Fury.

Then, an overwhelming wave of profound gratitude that this man had saved her daughter from slavery and given her a home.

Then, a sudden, startling realization that her daughter had grown up, fallen in love, and chosen a partner.

Finally, a deep, analytical appraisal. She looked at Noah—a young, incredibly handsome man possessing god-tier magical power, a brilliant intellect, and the sheer, suicidal devotion to challenge a Dragon Queen just to give his girlfriend closure.

Honestly... she couldn't have engineered a better son-in-law if she tried.

Noah, however, couldn't read the complex emotions swirling in her eyes. The prolonged silence was absolutely agonizing. Terrified that she was about to incinerate him for dating her daughter, he quickly turned around and practically sprinted forward, frantically using his magic to repair the remaining craters at breakneck speed.

Irene watched him flee, a strange, complicated smirk slowly pulling at the corners of her lips.

She followed him silently, her eyes never leaving his back.

For the rest of the walk, the two of them worked in complete silence. Noah was too terrified to speak, aggressively focusing on landscaping to avoid eye contact. Irene was lost in thought, desperately trying to process the overwhelming reality that she was not only going to be cured, but that she also had a son-in-law to deal with.

Working efficiently, they quickly repaired the final stretch of the devastation, arriving back at the spot where the battle had originally begun, a few kilometers outside the city.

Noah smoothed out the last patch of pulverized dirt, letting out a long breath.

Suddenly, a subtle, highly refined ripple of magic echoed from the dense forest to their right.

"Who's there?!"

Irene's head snapped toward the treeline, her staff instantly raised, her eyes blazing with draconic hostility.

She was genuinely alarmed. Even though her mind had been distracted, for someone to have slipped past her passive draconic radar and gotten this close meant they possessed a terrifying mastery of concealment magic.

"Relax. It's fine," Noah sighed, profoundly relieved to have a distraction. He turned toward the trees with a bright smile. "These are the highly reliable assistants I mentioned earlier."

"Oh? Let's see if they live up to your praise," Irene lowered her staff slightly, her curiosity piqued. If they could evade her senses, they were undoubtedly powerful.

The air shimmered, and two figures stepped out of the dense foliage.

The moment Irene's eyes landed on the tall, elderly man with the massive white beard, she physically recoiled in shock.

"You?!" Irene gasped.

"Ah. It makes perfect sense now. I couldn't sense anyone because you were the one maintaining the stealth ward. But what in the world are you doing here? And why are you acting as this boy's assistant?" Irene demanded, staring at August in sheer bewilderment.

"I must admit, the revelations of today are equally shocking to me," August chuckled softly, stroking his beard as he looked between Noah and Irene.

August and Mavis had been safely hidden inside the stealth ward when the battle began. They had heard Noah's initial interrogation, and they had heard Irene confirm that Erza—the scarlet-haired girl Mavis adored—was her biological daughter.

Because Noah and Irene had relocated their brawl to the distant mountains, August hadn't heard the rest of the conversation regarding the cure or Noah's relationship status.

But simply knowing that Erza was Irene's daughter was mind-bending enough.

"To think that the second strongest shield of the Alvarez Empire also shares a profound connection with Fairy Tail," August sighed, shaking his head in absolute amazement.

~~~

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