Chapter 115
X784.
At the beginning of the year, Marshall had a strange feeling that something extraordinary was going to happen.
Sure enough, only a few days into the new year, he received a major piece of news.
Siegrain, his former classmate at the Magic Academy and the eternal second-place finisher, had been appointed as the youngest member of the Ten Wizard Saints.
Together with another familiar face, Ultear Milkovich, he had also become a member of the Magic Council.
This was the first time Marshall had heard any news about his "old classmates" since cutting ties with the Magic Academy.
The report left him staring blankly at the newspaper.
Siegrain?
That guy?
A Wizard Saint?
Marshall had already known that both of them intended to join the Magic Council, so becoming councilors wasn’t particularly shocking.
A council seat didn’t necessarily require overwhelming combat ability.
But one of the Ten Wizard Saints?
On what basis?
That bastard must have used connections!
There was no other explanation for that!
When Marshall graduated from the Magic Academy, his magic power had been approaching thirty thousand units.
Siegrain’s reserves had been roughly comparable to his own at the time.
How had the guy reached the level of a Wizard Saint in less than two years?
Could it be...
’Did he have some kind of cheat too?’
Marshall felt slightly unwilling to accept it.
He could guess that Siegrain had probably awakened his Second Origin, which would explain the sudden leap in power.
Even so, Marshall’s own magic power had only recently passed eighty thousand and still hadn’t quite reached the threshold of the Ten Wizard Saints.
Seeing one of his classmates earn the title first left a sour taste in his mouth.
Wait.
Siegrain was around twenty this year, wasn’t he?
He was six years older than Marshall.
That made everything fine.
Marshall was only fourteen—a young prodigy whose first cry would soon startle the world.
There was absolutely no reason to compare himself to an elderly twenty-year-old!
Marshall still remembered Siegrain as a quiet, earnest student at the academy.
The young man had been energetic, diligent, and fond of challenging Marshall to sparring matches because there were so few students capable of giving him a proper fight.
Anyone with ambition and talent would naturally seek stronger opponents.
Marshall was exactly the same.
It was difficult to imagine that, only a few years later, this seemingly honest student would become the breathtaking young man who captured the hearts of countless girls across an entire generation.
Marshall remained full of confidence in his own future.
Perhaps he was simply biased against Ultear, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that neither of those two had joined the Magic Council with entirely innocent intentions.
Ultear was a deeply troubled woman with plenty of darkness in her heart.
Who knew what she might be plotting?
Then again...
What did any of that have to do with him?
The Magic Council’s problems were its own.
No matter how much trouble erupted within it, Fairy Tail wouldn’t be dragged down easily.
Fairy Tail was now one of the most influential Mage guilds in all of Ishgar.
Makarov’s friends could be found throughout Fiore’s political and magical circles, the guild’s products sold across the continent, and its reputation had reached unprecedented heights.
Even if Fairy Tail offended the Magic Council occasionally, the Council could no longer shake it with a few warnings.
In fact, the number of official complaints arriving at the guild had noticeably decreased.
That was the confidence granted by having a member of the Ten Wizard Saints at the helm.
In this world, the strongest fist still carried the greatest authority.
No matter how dissatisfied the Magic Council became, it wouldn’t casually provoke a guild once dismissed as a group of violent troublemakers but now increasingly regarded as an ambitious power that had to be handled carefully.
So whatever Siegrain intended to do, Marshall couldn’t be bothered to interfere unless the man directly threatened Fairy Tail.
Besides, Siegrain was Mystogan’s counterpart in Earth Land.
Mystogan was a decent person, so surely his counterpart couldn’t be that terrible.
Probably.
Just as Marshall lowered the newspaper, Erza entered the guildhall with a short-haired girl beside her.
"Marshall, register this newcomer for me. She’ll be joining as a reserve member."
The green-haired girl wore an outfit resembling a western gunslinger and carried a small mouse in her arms.
She looked rather wild, but for some reason, she appeared extremely nervous.
"H-Hello. I’m Bisca Moulin."
She fidgeted under Marshall’s gaze.
"I come from the western continent, and I specialize in firearm-based magic..."
Another western-style gunner?
She would probably have plenty to discuss with Alzack and she seemed like a fairly innocent girl.
Then Marshall took a closer look at her face and suddenly remembered who she was.
Erza casually explained, "Her family suffered a disaster, and she eventually fell in with a group of bandits. I happened to encounter them and brought her back with me."
She sighed.
"Being a good person truly is difficult."
"..."
"She has nowhere else to go, no legal identity, and no way to find proper work."
"Fairy Tail is probably the only place willing to accept her."
"I see."
Marshall produced an identification card bearing Bisca’s portrait and Fairy Tail’s emblem.
"Then there’s no helping it."
"Here. This proves that you’re one of Fairy Tail’s reserve members."
"Work hard and try to become a full member soon."
"Th-Thank you!"
Bisca accepted the card with both hands, deeply moved.
She had originally come to join Fairy Tail because she admired Erza, but now she felt she might truly have made the right decision.
"Marshall, would you like to train togeth—"
Erza stopped halfway through her sentence.
Her gaze had fallen on the newspaper lying on the table.
The face printed across its front page was one she could never forget.
Her entire body stiffened.
With trembling fingers, Erza picked up the newspaper.
That man...
He had become one of the Ten Wizard Saints?
"That’s impossible."
Her voice was cold and unsteady.
Marshall immediately noticed the drastic change in her expression.
"Erza, what are you hiding from?"
"I’m sorry, Marshall."
Erza placed the newspaper down.
"I need to deal with a personal matter."
"This has nothing to do with the guild, so please don’t stop me."
Marshall had long suspected that Erza shared some history with the man known as Siegrain, but he hadn’t expected her reaction to be this intense.
It seemed he had misunderstood the relationship.
This "Siegrain" wasn’t merely an old acquaintance of hers.
Marshall knew that Erza had escaped from a cult that practiced dark magic and had suffered through an unimaginably painful childhood.
From the fragmented thoughts he had occasionally overheard, Marshall had guessed that Jellal had once been one of her companions.
At some point, however, their paths had diverged.
Erza joined Fairy Tail, while Jellal changed his name, entered the Magic Academy as Siegrain, and later joined the Magic Council.
Marshall had never wanted to tear open Erza’s old wounds, so he had deliberately avoided mentioning the matter in front of her.
But judging by her reaction now, there was far more to that history than he had realized.
"You intend to go to the Magic Council and confront Siegrain?"
Erza drew a slow breath.
"Marshall, this is my personal affair."
"I don’t want Fairy Tail becoming involved."
"Could you please stay out of it?"
"...Of course."
Marshall’s eyes shifted thoughtfully.
"But my teleportation can take you directly to Era and the Magic Council headquarters."
"Would you like a ride?"