As Robinlu's voice echoed, the entire plaza fell into an eerie silence, even the crackling of the campfire sounded oddly jarring.
"Another...world?"
Elusa was the first to react, her gaze flickering between Mistgeng and Robinlu.
Robinlu walked slowly to the center of the plaza, looked up at the bright moon that had replaced twilight, and asked, "Have you ever heard of parallel worlds?"
"Other worlds that are similar yet different—that's what parallel worlds are," Hop gave a vague explanation.
Robinlu nodded. "Two parallel worlds are like two lines that never intersect; in theory they never meet, but under certain circumstances they can be temporarily linked."
"Magic!"
Hop immediately understood—among the many types of magic, there must be one that can bridge two worlds. "So Mistgeng comes from a parallel world? He's the Jeral of that world?!"
Hop's voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly.
Sensing the mixture of astonishment and scrutiny in the crowd, Mistgeng's expression remained unusually calm, yet carried a weariness born of long‑standing burdens.
"You're right, Hop."
Mistgeng was silent for a moment, then finally spoke up.
"I come from a world similar to this yet completely different—Edras. I am the prince of the human kingdom there, and also... the Jeral of that world."
"Prince?!"
"The Jeral of another world?!"
"..."
Exclamations rose in waves.
Natz's eyes widened; the shocking news had been coming fast these past two days, and his mind seemed unable to process so much information at once.
Gray's glass slipped from his hand, spilling wine all over the floor.
Lucy covered her mouth, glanced at Mistgeng, then stole a look at Elusa, but Elusa showed no emotion beyond her initial surprise.
Elusa doesn't like substitute literature.
Although he is the Jeral from another world, here he is the trustworthy companion Mistgeng, and the Jeral of this world is an entirely different person.
Mistgeng continued to explain to the crowd.
This world is called Aslant, and his homeland Edras is its parallel counterpart; both worlds possess magic.
But unlike the former, Mistgeng's world is in the waning age, where magical energy is on the brink of depletion.
In Edras, humans have no innate magic; they rely on magical implements, and Mistgeng's five wands are the finest such artifacts from that world.
In that world, magical power came from the earth, but over the past few centuries the earth's output has dwindled, and by this era it has ceased entirely.
Magic is on the verge of exhaustion.
To secure sufficient magic for Edras, the king of the human realm launched a bold scheme,
using the hyperspace magic 'Anima' to siphon magic from the abundant parallel world Aslant and transfer it to Edras.
But this super‑magic has a major flaw.
'Anima' can only lock onto sites of great magical concentration; that means any place that gathers a lot of magic—people, buildings, even natural terrain—will be drawn away by the spell.
This would cause massive devastation to Aslant.
As the prince of the human realm, Mistgeng did not endorse the plan; to stop his father's reckless scheme, he used 'Anima' to travel to Aslant.
Seven years ago, shortly after arriving in this world, Mistgeng rescued a five‑year‑old girl named Wendy, revealed his true name to her, and lived with the little girl for a while.
Later, because Mistgeng needed to continue searching for a counter‑spell to 'Anima', he could no longer care for Wendy—after all, seven years earlier he himself had still been a child.
By chance, Mistgeng met Robinlu, whose intuition told him the solitary elder could be trusted, so he entrusted Wendy to Robinlu.
Two years later, Mistgeng found someone who knew how to stop 'Anima'; that person was also a traveler from the parallel world of Edras.
Later, the now‑homeless Mistgeng, introduced by that person, joined Fairy Tail.
And the introducer's name was... Polusika.
"What?! It's actually that stern‑looking old lady!"
Natz shouted in surprise, Gray and Havy wore expressions of disbelief, even Elusa mirrored the same look; only Lucy, who had never seen Polusika, looked puzzled.
Hop secretly let out a sigh of relief.
Turns out he was a visitor from a parallel world; he almost thought his true identity had been uncovered.
That said, Mistgeng's experience truly qualifies as legendary—at such a young age, he actively worked to stop a magic‑siphoning plan that could spark conflict between the two worlds.
No wonder he's been out there; he likely sensed 'Anima' being activated and went ahead to prepare a countermeasure.
Mistgeng gave a wry smile; he'd tried hard to conceal his identity, yet Robinlu had seen through him from the start... Robinlu chuckled, "Don't be fooled by my laid‑back appearance; I've heard a thing or two about the existence of Edras."
The crowd's surprise quickly turned into curiosity.
Parallel worlds usually have counterparts—just like Mistgeng and Jeral—so everyone now wants to know what the "them" from Mistgeng's world look like.
Mistgeng was silent for a moment, then gave in to the group's enthusiasm: "I've been away from my homeland for seven years, so I don't know many people there, but I have indeed encountered two familiar counterparts from another world here."
"The first is our guild master, Makalov; his counterpart in Edras is my father, King Faust of the humans."
Whoa, that's an explosive piece of news!
Hop's eyes widened; does that mean Mistgeng is that Lacus's non‑blood‑related uncle?
What a crazy double revelation!
While Natz, Lucy and the others were stunned, Elusa clearly made the connection too; just the thought of Lacus calling Mistgeng 'uncle' almost made her laugh out loud.
"Mistgeng, you said you've met two familiar counterparts in our world; who's the other one?"
"It's Mr. One‑Night."
"In our world he's a transcendent known as 'Two‑Night', who shares his face and that distinctive aura."
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