The wind in the valley always blew a little sweeter right around spring. I stood at the top of the hill behind the old stone house, my boots sinking into the damp soil. In front of me were two simple wooden markers. No grand statues, no glowing runes. Just their names.
Martha.Jason.
It was crazy how fast time moved when you weren't looking. One day I was a four-year-old kid pretending to have amnesia so I wouldn't get eaten by a dragon, and the next, I was burying the only two people who ever truly cared about me in this brutal era. They died of old age, peaceful and warm in their beds. Fifty years had passed since they took me in, and to them, it was a full lifetime. To me? It felt like a weekend.
"Man," I muttered, leaning heavily on Odin's staff. The green gem flickered, almost like it was trying to comfort me. "You guys really didn't have to go so soon."
I looked at my hands. Still smooth. Still young. The Essence of Blank meant my body was locked in its prime forever. I was a living ghost.
"You know, I didn't ask for a family when I got dumped into this world," I said to the quiet graves. My voice sounded small in the empty valley. "I just wanted to mess around with magic and survive the plot. But the love you guys gave me... honestly, it was more precious than any god-tier wish or ancient rune. You made a dumb anime fan feel like a real son."
I raised my left hand. I didn't want this place to turn into a barren plot of dirt.
Enchant: Endless Spring.
A soft white light rolled out from my boots, spreading across the grass. In seconds, the entire hilltop exploded into a massive field of blooming flowers, like peonies, lilies, and sweet-smelling roses. Then, I tapped my staff on the ground.
Solomon, lock it down. I don't want anyone touching this hill.
[Notice: Deploying Conceptual Bounded Field — Avalon's Echo. The perimeter is now completely hidden from the physical plane. No outside entity can perceive or enter this space.]
The air shimmered, and the graves vanished from sight. To anyone walking by, they won't be able to perceive this area and avoid it entirely.
I took one last look at the empty space, turned my back, and walked out of the valley. It was time to start wandering.
The next two hundred years were basically me playing a giant sandbox game because I was bored out of my mind.
When you don't age, and you can teleport anywhere in the world, time loses all meaning. I spent the first few decades just walking. I didn't want to get involved in the massive wars shaking the continent, but sometimes, I couldn't help it. I'd wander into a starving village, tap my staff, and use an Origin Rune to make their crops grow ten times faster. Or I'd find a town being harassed by bandit mages and casually use Space Magic to swap the bandits' clothes with angry beehives. I became a myth. The "White-Haired Magus of Flowers." People left out bowls of milk and bread on their porches, hoping I'd stop by and fix their problems.
But by the second century, the boredom really set in. I needed a hobby.
"Solomon," I said one night while sitting on a mountain peak in the middle of nowhere. "Let's make some dungeons."
[Query: Define parameters for 'Dungeons.']
"You know, like in video games," I grinned, tossing an apple in the air. "We find some deep caves, fill them with ridiculous traps, and hide high-tier loot at the bottom. It'll give the humans something to do besides killing each other."
So, I became a dungeon architect. I built the Labyrinth of the Iron King, filling it with moving walls, illusions that made you walk in circles, and a giant mechanical golem at the end. At the very bottom, inside a chest made of indestructible cosmic wood, I left a beautifully enchanted sword that could fire compressed wind slices. In another dungeon hidden under a desert, I left ancient tablets containing advanced knowledge on Barrier Magic and Enchantments.
I didn't think much of it, but humans are obsessed with shiny things. A century after I built them, these dungeons became legendary. People called them "The Trials of the Ancient Sage." Groups of mages formed teams just to explore them, and it completely changed how people looked at magic. It wasn't just a tool for war anymore; it was an adventure.
Eventually, the world started organizing itself. The wild, chaotic era of lone wizards faded, and the Magic Council was formed to keep the peace. Then came the Guilds, groups of mages banding together to take on jobs, hunt monsters, and, of course, explore my dungeons.
And just like that, three hundred years flashed by.
One morning, I woke up in a hammock I'd strung up between two giant trees in a forest near the southern coast. My brain felt a strange, sudden ping.
Solomon, what's the date?
[Current Year: X686. External surveillance indicates high magical activity on the nearby continent.]
I sat up so fast I almost flipped out of the hammock. "X686? Wait a minute... that's the year Fairy Tail gets formed!"
My heart started thumping. Finally. Three hundred years of waiting, and the actual story was finally beginning to take shape. I closed my eyes and activated the clairvoyance of the Eyes of Gilgamesh. My vision stretched across the ocean, scanning the landscape until it locked onto a sunlit clearing in a dense forest.
There she was. Mavis Vermillion. She had that long, wavy blonde hair and those big, innocent eyes, looking exactly like she did in Fairy Tail Zero. And she wasn't alone. Standing around her were Precht, Yuri Dreyar, and a young, lanky guy with wild green hair—Warrod Sequen. The one I have plans for.
They were all kneeling in front of a guy wearing black robes. Zeref.
The poor kid looked miserable, keeping his distance so his death curse wouldn't wipe them out. Mavis was practically begging him. "Please, mister! We need to save Magnolia! Teach us magic so we can protect our friends!"
Zeref looked torn, his hands twitching under his cloak. "I told you... I am cursed. If you get too close to me, you will die. I cannot teach you."
"We don't care about the danger!" Yuri yelled, stepping forward. "We just need the power to fight back!"
I smirked, sliding down from my tree. "Well, can't let Zeref have all the fun of being the legendary mentor. Plus, I've been waiting three centuries to see this guild start."
I gripped Odin's staff. Solomon, target coordinates. Drop me right in the middle.
[Initiating Space-Time Blink. Target locked.]
Pop.
The air didn't just shiver; it cracked like a whip. In a flash of golden light and falling pink flower petals (because I insisted on the aesthetic), I appeared right in the center of their little circle.
The sudden shockwave of Ethernano blew everyone's hair back. Anna Heartfilia's old key coordinates had nothing on my instant blink.
"Whoa!" Yuri screamed, tumbling backward into the dirt.
Precht instantly drew a small dagger, his muscles tensing up, while Mavis just blinked her massive eyes in absolute shock. Zeref's eyes went wide, his jaw dropping slightly as he recognized the obnoxious white hair and the glowing green staff.
"Merlin..." Zeref whispered, his voice cracking. "What are you doing here?"
I didn't even look at Zeref. I didn't look at Mavis or Yuri either. Instead, I spun my staff casually, let it rest against my shoulder, and pointed a single, dramatic finger straight at the face of a terrified, green-haired Warrod.
"I've decided," I said, giving him a massive, theatrical grin. "You are going to be my student."
Warrod just stood there, his mouth hanging open so wide a bug could have flown into it. He looked left, then right, then pointed a shaky finger at his own chest. "M-Me? Why me?!"
"Because you have an excellent taste in trees, kid," I laughed, walking over and slapping a heavy hand on his shoulder. "And because I'm bored, and your green hair reminds me of an old lizard friend of mine."
Yuri finally scrambled to his feet, shaking the dirt off his pants. "Hey! Who the hell are you?! You can't just drop out of the sky and start kidnapping our friends!"
"I'm Merlin, the Magus of Flowers," I said, tipping my hood back so they could see my glowing gold eyes. "And trust me, kid, getting me as a teacher is like winning the cosmic lottery. I'm way better at this than the depressed guy in the black robes over there."
Zeref let out a tired, heavy sigh, rubbing his temples. "Merlin... please don't do this. I was just trying to leave."
"Oh, come on, Zeref," I laughed, winking at him. "Don't be a spoilsport. It's been three hundred years. Let's teach these kids some real magic."
Mavis looked between Zeref and me, her brain clearly short-circuiting from the sheer amount of legendary power suddenly standing in her clearing. The dumbfounded looks on their faces were absolutely priceless. The story was finally starting, and I was going to make sure it was a wild ride.