Chapter 207: The Notebook of Lies

At that moment, Isvarn’s gaze drifted away from the cocoon and settled upon Yuuta. A faint smile appeared on the old dragon’s face as realization finally struck him.

"Now I understand where we went wrong," he said quietly.

Yuuta slowly lifted his head from the ground. Instead of relief, his face only showed exhaustion. After failing over and over again almost 179 times, he had already begun doubting himself.

Part of him had accepted that perhaps aura simply wasn’t something he was destined to wield. Isvarn was about to explain the solution in the simplest way possible, but the instant their eyes met, he stopped.

The hopelessness in Yuuta’s gaze immediately caught his attention.

The old dragon’s expression slowly hardened, and a trace of frustration appeared on his face.

"So..." Isvarn said, folding his arms across his chest,

"this is how much you truly love my granddaughter?" His voice was calm, yet every word carried weight.

"Just because you failed a few times, you’ve already decided to Give up."

Yuuta stared at him in confusion.

The accusation genuinely caught him off guard. He lowered his eyes for a moment before looking back at Isvarn.

"Give up?" he repeated, trying to understand what the old dragon meant.

"When did I ever decide to give up?" He slowly shook his head and sighed.

"No, Grandpa... you’ve misunderstood me. I haven’t given up." He paused halfway through his sentence, unable to explain the emptiness growing inside his heart.

"I just..." The words refused to come out.

Isvarn took a step closer, his ancient eyes never leaving Yuuta’s face.

"If you stop now," he said firmly,

"you will never have enough evidence that you truly pursued aura." Seeing Yuuta’s puzzled expression, he continued before the young man could interrupt.

"Think about it carefully. If you give up today, no one in this world will ever know how much you struggled to obtain this power. No one will know how many times you failed. No one will know how many wounds you endured or how many hours you spent chasing this dream. The moment you surrender, you erase all of it yourself."

Yuuta remained silent.

Isvarn’s voice grew heavier as he continued.

"Every hardship you’ve overcome... every painful lesson... every drop of sweat... every dream that pushed you forward... the moment you abandon your goal, you destroy all of it with your own hands. Giving up doesn’t simply end your journey. It erases the proof that you ever fought for it in the first place. The suffering that shaped you becomes meaningless because you chose to walk away before reaching the end."

Yuuta lowered his head once more, but this time it wasn’t out of despair. The old dragon’s words slowly echoed through his mind.

He remembered every bruise, every failure, every painful attempt to reach the Silent Realm.

He remembered the countless times he had fallen only to stand up again.

Somehow, Isvarn’s words reached a place inside him that logic never could.

The hopelessness clouding his heart began to weaken, replaced by quiet reflection.

Noticing the subtle change in Yuuta’s expression, Isvarn allowed himself a small smile before speaking again.

"Now answer me honestly, Human. Are you the same man who endured my dragon aura without taking a single step backward? Isvarn said

"Are you the same fool who looked directly into a dragon’s eyes and declared that he loved my granddaughter?" He step forward

"Are you the same stubborn human who said he would stand beside the Dragon Queen no matter how impossible that dream seemed?" His smile gradually disappeared, replaced by the dignity of a master addressing his disciple.

"Or... are you going to let a few failures convince you that your resolve was never real? Tell me, Human. Will you continue walking toward your dream... or will you accept your weakness and let your story end here?"

Yuuta Eye widen with motivation only to realised he was huamn with limit, he lowered his head, his fingers tightening into a fist as he stared at the grass beneath him.

After remaining silent for several moments, he finally spoke in a quiet voice.

"I didn’t give up," he said.

"It’s just..." He hesitated, searching for the right words before letting out a bitter laugh.

"I started wondering whether any human could ever achieve what I’m trying to achieve. Maybe I’m chasing something that’s simply impossible for someone like me."

Isvarn remained silent for a moment before slowly lifting his gaze toward the blue sky above. His ancient eyes seemed to be looking far beyond the clouds, as though recalling countless centuries of history.

"Do you want to hear the truth?" he asked calmly.

Yuuta blinked in confusion. "The truth?"

"The harsh truth," Isvarn replied.

"The truth about the limits of human power."

The moment those words left the old dragon’s mouth, hope quietly bloomed inside Yuuta’s heart. Perhaps Isvarn was about to tell him about a legendary human.

A forgotten hero who had once stood beside dragons. Maybe somewhere in history there had been someone who proved it was possible.

If such a person existed, then perhaps Yuuta could follow the same path and one day stand beside Erza without shame.

Instead, Isvarn’s next words crushed that hope.

"The truth," the old dragon said without emotion, "is that throughout millions of years of history, not a single human has ever reached the level of a dragon. Not one has been able to stand as an equal. Most could not even stand within a dragon’s shadow."

Yuuta froze.

His heart sank.

The tiny hope that had begun to grow inside him shattered almost instantly. If not even one human across millions of years had managed such a feat, then what chance did he possibly have? He lowered his head again, unable to hide the disappointment spreading across his face.

"Then..." Yuuta murmured quietly, "what’s the point of all this training?" His voice carried no anger, only genuine confusion.

"If humans have always had that limit... then no matter how hard I try, won’t I eventually reach it too?" Deep down, Yuuta had always accepted that he was human.

He believed humans were born with limits that simply could not be surpassed.

Isvarn watched Yuuta carefully. If Yuuta had not shown his true potential, he would have never accepted him as a disciple.

Erza had already placed limits on him giving false aura theory and notes, and also society had buried him beneath its limit, but Isvarn saw something no one else did.

He had always been the kind of master who could turn a lump of coal into a flawless diamond.

A faint smile appeared on the old man’s weathered face. He had already decided how he would motivate Yuuta—through words and lessons he would never forget for the rest of his life.

"That," the old dragon said, "is exactly what I believed long ago."

Yuuta slowly looked back up.

"Many historians and legends said that looking into a god’s eye was impossible. That the divine aura and authority would crush anyone who dared to try. No one had ever done it. No one could ever do it."

Isvarn paused before a small smile crossed his face.

"Then your wife..."

Isvarn caught himself and gave a light cough.

"I mean... Erza."

Yuuta’s expression softened.

"She is the only person who proved them wrong," Isvarn said, his voice filled with a quiet pride. "She was the first to tell us that she could write her own fate. That she would not be bound by the limitations others placed on her."

Yuuta’s eyes widened, understanding beginning to dawn.

Isvarn leaned closer, his voice dropping to a near whisper. "It is true that no human has ever stood beside a dragon. But who decided that? Who put that limitation in place? Just because you cannot see anyone in history who has done it, that does not mean you cannot be the first."

Yuuta stared at him, his heart pounding, his mind racing.

"The path has not been carved yet," Isvarn said. "But that does not mean it does not exist. It just means you have to carve it yourself."

Yuuta finally understood. The hope that had died in his chest flickered back to life—not the fragile hope of a child dreaming of the impossible, but the steady, burning hope of a man who had just realized that he had the power to change his fate.

He was not bound by the limitations of the past. He was not doomed to repeat the failures of those who came before him.

He could be the first.

He could carve his own path.

Yuuta slowly lifted his head.

The uncertainty that had clouded his eyes moments ago had completely disappeared. In its place burned a quiet determination that refused to fade. His gaze was sharper than before, steadier than before.

"I understand," he said.

As those words left his mouth, Isvarn noticed something subtle.

Deep within Yuuta’s eyes, a tiny flame flickered.

It was not aura.

Not yet.

It was simply the fire of resolve.

Small enough that any ordinary person would have overlooked it, yet to someone who had lived for centuries, it was impossible to miss.

A faint smile slowly spread across the old dragon’s weathered face.

"There you are..." he thought to himself. "The unknown monster is finally beginning to awaken."

Yuuta bent down and reached toward the notebook lying on the grass.

It was Erza’s notebook.

The notebook he had treasured ever since she entrusted it to him.

The notebook he had read countless times, believing every word inside it would one day help him stand beside her.

Isvarn had left it there after carefully analyzing every page.

Yuuta picked it up with both hands.

His heart felt lighter than it had only moments ago.

"This time..." he thought, tightening his grip around the notebook. "I’ll read it again. I’ll study every page until I understand it."

Isvarn’s words continued echoing inside his heart.

He had nearly allowed a few failures to destroy his resolve.

Never again.

No matter how many times he failed...

He would keep trying.

He slowly reached toward the first page.

Before his fingers could even touch it...

A thin layer of frost suddenly spread across the notebook.

Yuuta froze.

His smile disappeared.

The frost continued expanding at an unbelievable speed, covering every page, every corner, every inch of the notebook until it had become nothing more than a block of crystal-clear ice.

Yuuta stared blankly.

"W-What...?"

Before he could react...

Crack...

The frozen notebook shattered.

Millions of tiny crystal fragments exploded into the air like glittering snow before dissolving into nothingness.

Within seconds...

Nothing remained.

Yuuta stood motionless.

His hand remained suspended where the notebook had once been.

His mind struggled to understand what had just happened.

Slowly...

Very slowly...

He turned toward Isvarn.

The old dragon stood exactly where he had been moments earlier.

His arms were folded across his chest.

His expression remained perfectly calm.

Yuuta looked at him in disbelief.

His voice trembled.

"...Why?"

His breathing became heavier.

"Why did you destroy it?"

Isvarn met his gaze without the slightest hesitation.

"Because," he answered calmly, "that notebook was flawed."

Yuuta’s pupils contracted.

"Flawed?"

"Yes."

The old dragon nodded once.

"Everything written inside it is technically correct. However, Erza deliberately wrote those explanations in the most complicated way possible. She intentionally made the final step far more difficult than it ever needed to be."

Yuuta eye widen he said looking at Isvarn

"What you mean Grandpa..?."

Isvarn said "The principles themselves were correct, but the path she left behind was intentionally complicated."

Yuuta’s heartbeat skipped.

"...Deliberately?"

The old dragon nodded once more.

"She made sure your journey would become harder than it needed to be."

Yuuta stood there speechless.

Isvarn continued before the young man could ask another question.

"I have no intention of teaching you using another person’s method."

His voice carried the dignity of an ancient master.

"I will teach you through my own understanding."

"My own experience."

"My own path."

"And I will personally guide you toward the strength you seek."

Ordinarily, any student would have celebrated hearing such words.

A legendary dragon had just promised to become his personal teacher.

Yet Yuuta felt no excitement.

Only confusion.

His thoughts had become trapped on a single sentence.

Erza deliberately made it difficult...

The words echoed endlessly inside his mind.

He could not understand.

Why?

Why would Erza intentionally make his training harder?

Erza had believed in him.

She had encouraged him to become stronger.

She had been the first person to tell him he could change.

Then...

Why had she made the journey harder?

The question echoed inside his heart long after the notebook had turned to dust.

To be continued...