- Silas -
We talked about several things and it was just one surprise after another or rather one sad story after another.
Irene-san for example told us her story and wasn't that a tear jerker.
She was once a ruler of her own kingdom where humans and dragons lived together in peace. There was however a war and she with her partner, Belserion, the Sage Dragon invented the Dragon Slayer Magic which allowed humans to wield the magic of dragons to defend themselves.
To think she was the creator of the Dragon Slayer Magic… no wonder she knew so much about it.
In fact, because of this, she even had a title, 'the Mother of All Dragon Slayers'.
They won the war but at a heavy price. And on top of that, the Dragon Slayer Magic had a side effect, the same as other Slayer magics… it turned the user into a dragon. Sure this meant that they got a near infinite lifespan and great power but there were several drawbacks.
First, they lost their sense of taste and couldn't sleep either.
Second was that the dragon slayers slowly turned into dragons the more they used this magic which meant that they first turned into a half dragon half human form and since she was unfortunate in that Acnologia was the first one to turn like that, had already set a terrible example, her own people turned against her. They had lost a lot to dragons in that war and considered her, a dragonified human the same as them… a monster. The one leading them… was her husband.
They imprisoned her and to make the matters worse… she was pregnant back then but her husband completely denied accepting the child. The straw that broke the camel's back however was when he actually tried to attack her and the child in her belly to prove it wasn't his… that's when she snapped and completely became a dragon, using her increased power to kill everyone in her way.
And that's how the Mother of All Dragon Slayers became the Dragon Queen, Irene Belserion, the Scarlet Despair.
When Zeref-san found her, she had been roaming the world for hundreds of years and he helped her regain her human form.
She had however, even when she was a dragon, carried her child, using her magic to freeze her pregnancy and protect her daughter… for four hundred years… and only gave birth to her after gaining her human form but soon had to give her child up because she was actually losing her mind.
Even the thought of such a life was devastating. Fighting for hundreds of years for her child only to be forced to give her away to not hurt her. I can't even imagine what someone like that would feel.
It was only after she came to my Restaurant and could actually taste the food again that her mental state started improving again and she went back to search for her daughter again.
Since I opened this Restaurant, I have seen many things.
On one hand, there were parents like Ikki's, someone who had given up their child because they didn't have enough magic power… and on the other hand there were people like Irene-san and Naruto's parents… people who had gone beyond their limits for the sake of their child. It truly broadened our horizons.
It reminded me of my own parents… and made me think about my real parents too.
What exactly was the reason for giving me up?
I shook my head, shaking off those thoughts. It was useless to think about those things. I had a pretty good life till now and I am grateful for that.
Her story made even Tohru emotional, which was saying something.
We talked for a while after which they left. They wanted to spend some time with their families. I could understand that feeling.
After they left, someone else came to the Restaurant. Ikki arrived with carrot-top Ichigo and Tatsuki.
Orihime was already in the Restaurant these days as their exams were over and she had a holiday going on.
She was helping in the Restaurant more now.
"You are looking much better now."
"Thank you for helping me out that day." Ikki bowed and Ichigo nodded too.
"So, I take it that you guys are ready to leave to rescue that girl… Rukia was it?"
"Yes."
"Well, I would help but Kisuke made it clear that he didn't want us going out or the matter might escalate even more. But if there is anything I can do, do tell me."
"It's fine. We will bring her back." Ichigo replied.
"Good luck then." I shrugged.
We talked for a while and they were ready to leave too when I thought of something and gave them some of the Restoration Potion from Rimuru and one of the Cursed Items I had seized from Fafnir. It had an attack spell of some kind which might be of some help.
And with that they left too after bidding goodbye to us.
Tatsuki had a talk with Orihime and left too.
"Will they be alright?" Orihime asked from beside me.
"Have some faith in them. Kisuke might be crazy at normal times but he generally knows what he is doing."
"I… feel like I can't do anything to help them." She sighed.
…
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Say, would you like to learn magic?" I asked her, taking her by surprise. She looked up at me and I explained. "You know how our Restaurant gets various types of customers, both magical and non-magical?"
She nodded.
"And for that reason all our staff know some form of magic, even if just for some means of self-protection when they are outside so… if you want to, I can have someone teach you something, maybe even have you awaken a device?"
"I'll do it."
"Oh."
"I want to do it." She said, balling her fists, looking determined.
"Great. Then let's do that later after work today."
And we did just that.
I asked Rimuru to help her awaken a device which turned out to be a pair of hairpins which could turn into some kind of fairies.
An Accessory Type Device. I had seen this in only one other person, Sakura-chan and the effects of her device were just absurd. Sure enough, Orihime's device was similar too.
We tested the abilities of the Device and according to Orihime, she could heal someone with this. Was it an expression of her wish to help people that gave her a healing type Device? No one knew but her healing was quite good.
The full extent of her abilities needed to be checked later but at least she was happy for having something of her own. I let her enjoy the moment too.
I will ask August-sensei to teach her some magic tomorrow to protect herself. Her world was dangerous too, with the Hollows and Supernatural Police running around stabbing who knows whom.
- Sirzechs -
"Yes, Ajuka. Why did you call me in so urgently? And why ask for these videos?" He asked as he entered Ajuka's office. To his surprise, Falbium was already present there.
"Take a seat. This will take some time to explain so it's better if you get comfortable."
And that was the first red sign.
Either way, he took a seat and Ajuka passed them a file each.
Sirzechs opened the file and took a look, frowning as he looked more.
"Why are you investigating him? Do you think he is that Masked Ice Devil?"
"I am not sure about that yet but yes, there is a decent chance for that being true. It would match with some of the other information I have collected about him. Keep reading." Ajuka pointed.
Sirzechs turned the pages and suddenly he froze and looked at Ajuka in shock and then frowned. "Are you serious? If this is some weird idea to get back at her for painting your lab pink then I suggest looking for something else or she would freeze all your labs next time."
"It's not a joke. I even started this because Lord Sitri already knew the name of the boy even before it was announced. You all were too busy worrying to realise that something was off with him."
He looked further. "Like seriously?"
"I checked his history. His date of birth is the same. His age is the same. He was adopted by a human couple who had no connection with the supernaturals… except one… and that was a Magician… one of Lord Sitri's contract Magicians. I wouldn't say it's a hundred percent, a 99.97% chance at best, that said, I like those odds."
"She is going to be mad."
"Mad is not a good enough word." Falbium said from the side. "It's better if we find him before telling her."
"That's… going to be hard." Ajuka said, frowning.
"Why? Wasn't he a singer? It would be easy to find him then." He asked, confused.
He didn't answer and instead looked at Grayfia. "Tell me, did you find any videos of the Comiket?"
"I… no. There was a glitch in the systems and all the videos were deleted. We tried recovering it but got nothing. I did get some videos from people who had been present at the Comiket but we found nothing in them." Grayfia replied, frowning too.
"Don't bother. I had expected as much." Ajuka shook his head.
"What is going on, Ajuka? Is he… perhaps hiding?"
"I… don't know. I started my investigations from the company which had hired him and Serafall's double. They however had recruited him urgently as Sara, as we are calling her, had disappeared. He had given an address and his contact details to the company but they were his old address and the contact details weren't working. I checked the address and found that it was empty. On asking around, we found that it was under the control of some local yakuza group, until recently before they were all found dead suddenly.The cause of death was drowning. All seventeen people drowned together. It sounds like the work of a supernatural force, doesn't it?"
"Water Magic user. A Sitri."
"Hmm. On investigating further, we discovered that this entire yakuza group was hunted down by someone."
"So revenge."
"Might be. Considering that these people had driven the boy out and taken over the house as well as the Restaurant business his adopted father ran before his death. Oh yes, his parents died in an accident with that magician. It was suspicious but I haven't found any leads there yet." Ajuka informed them.
By now Sirzechs' mind was whirling with all the information they had found. "So… what's the problem?"
"The problem is… as of two days ago… every bit of information about him, every picture, every written description, every memory… every single thing… disappeared from all of Earth."
"Huh."
"It vanished. Everything just vanished. Whoever it was… was thorough. Incredibly so. So much so that I don't think I myself could do such a thing without considerable time. We might be dealing with a specialised team… or someone with extremely powerful abilities."
"Wait, then what about these pictures?" Falbium asked.
"The information disappeared only on Earth. The Underworld still has it. That's why I had asked for the videos that your sister had recorded in the Comiket." He replied as he played the video and sure enough there were still the songs sung by the boy present in the video. "So, what do we do now?" He asked.
"We have no leads on Earth at least so we follow the one lead we have now… Lord Sitri." Ajuka replied.
"And we need Serafall for that." Sirzechs winced.
"Hmm."
"By the way, what was that about him and the Mysterious Ice Devil?" Falbium asked.
"He is a Sitri. Black hair, blueish purple eyes same as that guy. The Sitri are known for their Water Magic, something he was extremely good at too, so much so that even Katerea thought he was a Sitri. His adoptive father had a Restaurant and from my investigations he had experience of working in a Restaurant and from what your sister told us, that guy was a chef. They were both in the same area and during that incident, he was dressed in something which can only be called a cosplay. Too many coincidences right there."
"Do you think that's why he…" Sirzechs asked.
"Who knows? We will have to ask Lord Sitri." Ajuka replied.
He took a deep breath and looked at Falbium. "I will bring Serafall. You guys… prepare a barrier… a very… very strong barrier."