Ultear's question came completely out of nowhere.
Shane frowned and carefully thought back over how he'd been feeling these past few days.
Other than being a little busy because of the exam preparations, he'd been eating well, sleeping well, and hadn't even had half a nightmare. Mentally, he couldn't have been healthier.
"No."
Seeing how worried she looked, Shane started getting concerned instead. He reached out and touched her forehead.
"Why are you suddenly asking this? Has something happened to you?"
"…"
Ultear pressed her lips together. She could feel the warmth of his hand on her forehead, but said nothing.
The truth was, ever since her time at the Council-affiliated magic academy, she'd occasionally experienced this sudden feeling of panic and weightlessness for no reason at all.
At first, she had assumed it was just weakness—just the loneliness of not seeing Shane for so long, taking the form of longing.
So whenever she had even a little free time, she rushed to Magnolia without stopping.
But now, even with Shane right in front of her, even though the ache of missing him had eased…
that strange unease, the feeling of standing on the edge of a cliff, hadn't disappeared at all.
If anything, it had become sharper and stronger with time.
It felt as though something terrible was closing in through the darkness, about to swallow her whole and erase her completely.
"Could it be… that I've been cursed somehow? Or hit with some kind of mental magic without realizing it?"
Ultear was secretly alarmed.
But until she understood what was really going on, she didn't want Shane worrying uselessly alongside her.
"Maybe…"
She turned her head away, avoiding his searching gaze, and said flatly,
"It's nothing. Maybe I just haven't been resting well lately and I'm imagining things."
"Imagining things?"
Shane's brows drew together even more.
He knew Ultear too well. She was a woman with an extreme need for control and an intensely rational mind. She was never the type to ask questions without reason or become paranoid over some passing emotion.
"Are you really alright?"
Just as Shane stared at that unreadable face, full of suspicion—
Rustle…
The treetops above them, which had been still until now, suddenly swayed.
A strange gust of wind came out of nowhere overhead, carrying with it a few damp leaves still clinging to bits of snow, spinning them lazily through the air.
Then—
an unfamiliar young man's voice, one that somehow carried a strange gentleness, drifted into their ears with the wind.
"It's not your imagination."
"Who's there?"
Both of them tensed instantly and looked up.
Almost reflexively, Shane reached out and pulled Ultear behind him.
There was no one around, and he couldn't sense the slightest hint of hostility, but a mysterious voice like this naturally called for caution.
The voice in the wind did not answer the question.
Instead, the drifting leaves turned elegantly in midair and, impossibly, came together in a shape that resembled an invitation, pointing toward the outskirts of town.
"Sorry. It's inconvenient for me to talk in my current state."
The voice was warm and refined, with no trace of malice—if anything, it sounded apologetic.
"Would you come over here, so we can talk a little?"
"…"
Shane and Ultear exchanged a glance.
Whoever this was, he clearly knew something. And from the certainty in his voice, it was obvious he knew exactly what was happening to Ultear.
"Fine."
Thinking of how strange and unsettling Ultear's condition had seemed just now, Shane agreed before she could speak.
"Where are you?"
"Follow the wind…"
The leaves scattered again, drifting slowly toward the outskirts.
"I'll be waiting there."
It had to be said, whoever was controlling the wind was almost irritatingly polite. There wasn't a single fault to pick in the way he spoke.
"Is he a friend of the Master's?" Shane wondered inwardly.
But the voice sounded too young. There was none of the aged weariness one would expect from an old man.
And besides, Shane had an extremely hard time imagining the Master having a friend that polite.
"Let's go."
Now that the decision had been made, Shane didn't waste time.
"Lancer."
At a thought, azure dragon magic exploded behind him and formed a broad pair of dragon wings.
He wrapped an arm around Ultear's slim waist, lifted her into his arms, and with one beat of those wings, rose into the air following the breeze.
"You're not a Dragon Slayer mage… and yet you carry such pure dragon aura inside you."
"You really are… very special."
The moment they rose into the sky, that wind began circling around Shane, the leaves spinning beside him.
There was only pure curiosity in the voice now, as though someone far away were studying him with great interest.
As petty revenge for not answering his earlier question, Shane ignored the comment completely.
Instead, he kept glaring down at the girl in his arms as though saying:
"You'd better tell me everything before this gets worse!"
"…"
Ultear turned her head aside and looked at the snow-covered rooftops racing below them, biting her lip and stubbornly saying nothing.
It wasn't just Shane—she didn't even understand what was happening to her. How was she supposed to explain something she couldn't grasp herself?
Her refusal to cooperate only made Shane even more annoyed.
He really wanted to just drop her from the sky, but she was holding on too tightly, hanging off him so completely that even if he tried, he couldn't shake her loose.
The wind roared past their ears. The girl in his arms remained silent and stubborn. In the end, Shane gave a helpless shake of his head and gave up struggling.
And so the two of them, each full of their own thoughts, followed the wind west.
Little by little, the breeze led them beyond Magnolia's boundaries.
The landscape became increasingly remote and barren, until at last they landed on a dead, secluded hill.
It was far from any habitation. Snow and wind raged around them, and there wasn't even the sound of a bird or insect anywhere nearby.
Whoosh—
The guiding wind slowly faded there, and the leaves fell to the ground.
Shane looked up.
At the very top of the hill, someone was already standing there, waiting.
Hearing them land, the figure slowly turned around.
It was a black-haired young man who didn't look particularly old.
He wore a black robe that seemed slightly old-fashioned even for this era, with a long strip of white cloth loosely tied around him as decoration. There was something strangely scholarly about him, and…
something deeply lonely as well.
His expression had been somewhat gloomy at first, but the instant he saw the two of them, that gloom melted away like snow, and a soft, sincere smile appeared.
"I'm sorry."
The boy inclined his head slightly and said apologetically,
"Because of my personal circumstances… I can't get too close to any city where people are gathered."
"But no matter what, I wanted to meet you both and confirm a few things… so I had no choice but to invite you here so abruptly."
He was the kind of person who, at first glance, was almost impossible to dislike.
Like a warm spring breeze—just hearing him speak, one could feel the pure kindness in his voice.
"So…"
Ultear slipped from Shane's arms and adjusted the hair the wind had disheveled.
That strange sense of panic inside her had climbed all the way to its peak now that she was near this person—but oddly enough, she felt no danger at all.
She took a tentative step forward, wanting to get to the truth.
"You specifically brought us here… what exactly is it you want?"
But the moment she took half a step—
a hand suddenly shot out from beside her and grabbed her wrist.
"Shane?"
Ultear turned her head in confusion.
Only to see that Shane's face had gone pale, his pupils constricted, as if he were facing some overwhelming threat.
"Don't go near him!"
Shane yanked Ultear back behind him and stared fixedly at the black-haired boy ahead, who still wore that harmless little smile.
"This guy…"
"is Zeref!!"
~~~
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