Chapter 596: Tell Me, How Am I Supposed to Face Her?
"After a brief investigation, I confirmed she was indeed your mother. Once I proved that I understood the true nature of her biological condition, she finally told me why she abandoned you.
"I then demonstrated that it was scientifically possible to cure her mutation. Hearing that there was actual hope allowed her fractured, trauma-induced personality to stabilize significantly, which in turn allowed her repressed maternal love for you to resurface.
"After making a few preparations, we traveled back here together."
Noah offered Erza an encouraging, gentle smile as he concluded his brief summary.
"I see... that explains the reunion," Sorano nodded, leaning on the table. "But you still haven't actually told us what happened to her, or why she abandoned Erza."
"It's a very long, very tragic story," Noah sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he organized his thoughts. "It all started four hundred years ago..."
Noah proceeded to recount Irene's entire history to Erza and the rest of the core group.
He explained the Dragon King Festival. How Irene had invented Dragon Slayer Magic to protect her kingdom. How the magic had mutated her body. How her husband had betrayed, imprisoned, and tortured her for three years while she was pregnant with Erza.
He explained how she had fully dragonified, killed her husband, and fled into isolation for four centuries, desperately searching for a cure while using her magic to keep Erza safely suspended in her womb so her child wouldn't be born to a monster.
He detailed her encounter with Zeref, the psychological whiplash of his false cure, and her subsequent mental breakdown. He explained how her shattered mind had driven her to the horrific conclusion of trying to steal Erza's body, but how, at the absolute last second, her maternal love had overpowered her madness. She had abandoned Erza at the church in Rosemary Village specifically to protect her child from herself.
Finally, he explained how she had joined the Alvarez Empire to serve Zeref, waiting twenty-one years until Noah finally found her and offered a true cure.
Having delivered the massive, emotionally devastating exposition dump, Noah let out a long breath. He casually reached over the bar, poured himself a glass of water, and drained it in a single gulp.
The group sitting around the table—Erza, Makarov, Ultear, Sorano, and Mirajane—had fallen into complete, stunned silence. The sheer volume and magnitude of the tragedy they had just heard was difficult to process.
"I... I had no idea," Makarov murmured, the first to break the silence. His eyes were wide with profound shock.
He now completely understood why Irene had abandoned Erza, and he couldn't bring himself to judge her.
"While abandoning a child is normally unforgivable... if everything Noah just said is true..." Sorano trailed off, her expression twisting into a knot of deep conflict. "If she hadn't abandoned Erza, she probably would have eventually lost control of her madness and killed her. Ugh... this is way too complicated!"
"It really is," Mirajane nodded, her usual cheerful smile replaced by a look of deep sympathy. "She endured three years of torture and four centuries of isolation specifically to protect her child. But that exact trauma drove her insane, forcing her to almost kill the very child she was trying to protect.
"In the end, abandoning Erza was an act of tragic mercy. Knowing all of that... it makes deciding how to treat her incredibly difficult."
"I thought my childhood was complicated," Ultear sighed, looking at Erza with deep empathy. "I had no idea your life was a tragedy before you were even born."
"Neither did I," Erza whispered, her expression an unreadable mix of sorrow, confusion, and profound shock.
She had lived her entire life believing her parents had simply thrown her away because they didn't want her. To learn that her mother had endured centuries of agonizing torture just to ensure she was born human, only to abandon her out of a desperate fear of hurting her...
Erza didn't know what to feel.
She felt an overwhelming surge of gratitude that her mother had protected her. But she also felt a sharp, lingering resentment that her mother had nearly tried to kill her, and had left her to face the world alone for twenty years.
Noah stood quietly beside her, not saying a word. He knew she needed time to process.
Laxus, who had remained silent behind the bar, was also deeply shaken by the story.
He couldn't help but compare his own childhood rebellion to Erza's history. He had thrown a massive tantrum and tried to take over the guild because he felt his accomplishments were overshadowed by his grandfather's legacy. Compared to enduring four centuries of torture and madness to protect an unborn child, his teenage rebellion felt incredibly petty and pathetic. He felt a sudden, sharp pang of embarrassment regarding his past actions.
"Tell me... how am I supposed to face her?" Erza finally asked, looking up at Noah.
Her voice was incredibly quiet, trembling with raw vulnerability. Noah was the person who knew Irene best, and he was the man she loved. She desperately needed his guidance.
"Well, after hearing everything she went through, how do you view her?" Noah asked softly, kneeling down so he was at eye level with her.
"Her life has been an endless tragedy," Erza murmured, looking down at her hands. "She created magic to save her people, and they betrayed her. She was tortured by her husband. She suffered for four hundred years without a cure.
"She endured all of that pain just to protect me. But then she went mad and wanted to hurt me. But then she couldn't do it, so she threw me away.
"She protected me, she tried to hurt me, and she abandoned me."
Erza closed her eyes, a single tear slipping down her cheek.
"I am incredibly grateful that she gave birth to me and protected me for centuries. But I am also angry that she almost hurt me, and that she left me completely alone."
Erza looked back up at Noah, her eyes filled with helpless conflict. "I don't know how I feel about her. I don't know how I'm supposed to treat her."
Because Irene had never been her enemy, the situation was infinitely more complicated than it would have been if they had met on a battlefield.
"It's perfectly natural for you to have conflicting feelings, Erza. You don't need to make a decision right now. Just let nature take its course," Noah said, reaching out to gently wipe the tear from her cheek.
"She protected you for four hundred years. She also abandoned you for twenty.
"Don't worry about the fact that I brought her here. I only brought her here because I wanted to give you closure, not to force you to accept her.
"If you don't know how to treat her, then don't overthink it. Just treat her like a normal person. Spend a little time with her. If you feel comfortable, continue getting to know her. If you don't, then walk away.
"Follow your heart. Whatever decision you make, we will support you absolutely."
"Noah's right! Whatever you decide, we've got your back!" Sorano cheered, offering Erza a bright, encouraging smile.
"We will always support you, Erza," Mirajane agreed warmly.
"I'll ask my mother to go speak with her," Ultear suggested. "As a mother who also made terrible mistakes with her daughter, I'm sure Ur will have a lot to talk about with Irene."
"You don't need to worry about anything, Erza. Just follow your heart," Makarov said, his voice brimming with unconditional paternal love. "No matter what happens, Fairy Tail will always be your true home."
"I understand. Thank you, everyone," Erza smiled, her heart feeling significantly lighter. The overwhelming anxiety had faded, replaced by the comforting warmth of her found family.
"Alright, now that the emotional heavy lifting is done, I have some highly classified intelligence to share with you all regarding the Alvarez Empire, Irene, and August," Noah said, opening his Archive interface.
He projected several glowing holographic screens onto the table, displaying the strategic data he had gathered in the Western Continent.
"While I knew she had to be incredibly powerful to have survived as a Dragon for four hundred years... I had no idea she was this powerful," Sorano muttered, her eyes widening as she read Irene's profile. "One of the three strongest individuals in a massive, continental Empire... the 'Scarlet Despair.'"
Noah had compiled a comprehensive breakdown of the Alvarez Empire's sheer scale. The territorial mass and population easily rivaled the entirety of Ishgar. Fiore was merely one of several dozen nations on the Eastern Continent, and Fairy Tail was one of over five hundred guilds. Alvarez, however, was a unified, militaristic super-state built from the forceful assimilation of over seven hundred and thirty guilds. The disparity in sheer resources was astronomical.
"And August is the 'Magic King,' holding equal standing with Irene," Mirajane noted, her brow furrowing in confusion. "But... when they walked into the guild, I couldn't sense their magic at all. Are they really that strong? Did I just fail to perceive them because the gap is too massive?"
"I couldn't sense them either," Ultear agreed, her expression turning incredibly serious.
"The gap in power is massive, but it's not the reason you couldn't sense them," Noah clarified. "They both cast incredibly high-tier concealment enchantments on themselves before entering Magnolia. They deliberately hid their terrifying magical signatures so they wouldn't accidentally terrify the citizens or the guild members."
"Oh, thank goodness. I thought my sensory magic had completely degraded," Sorano sighed in relief.
The others also relaxed slightly. Knowing that August and Irene had actively suppressed their power out of consideration for the guild made them significantly more likable.
"Hold on a second," Sorano suddenly sat up straight, a look of profound realization crossing her face. "August is the First Master's son. Irene is Erza's mother. And Zeref, the Emperor of Alvarez, has a deeply complicated romantic history with the First Master.
"Does that mean the three absolute highest authorities of a hostile, continental superpower are all intimately connected to our guild?"
The group stared at Sorano. Then, they looked at the data screens.
"Now that you mention it... yeah," Ultear muttered, her eyes widening. "Is our guild seriously this well-connected? We aren't just famous in Ishgar; we literally have direct family ties to the absolute pinnacle of the Western Continent."
Erza nodded slowly, equally baffled by the sheer absurdity of the situation.
"Master, did you know about any of this?" Mirajane asked, looking at Makarov.
"No. This is the first time I'm hearing any of this," Makarov shook his head blankly. He had lived for nearly nine decades, and this was easily the most absurd sequence of events he had ever experienced.
"Honestly, our guild's history is starting to sound completely ridiculous," Sorano muttered, leaning her chin on her hands.
"We met Zeref, the legendary Black Wizard who hasn't been seen in centuries. We met Acnologia, the apocalyptic Black Dragon, and actually fought him. Now we find out that the leadership of a foreign superpower is basically our extended family. Erza's mom is a four-hundred-year-old Dragon Queen, and the First Master's son is the Magic King.
"This literally sounds like the plot of a badly written fantasy novel."
"When you list it all out like that... it really does," Ultear chuckled, shaking her head. "But I suppose it's all just a series of bizarre historical coincidences that happen to be culminating at this exact point in time."
"It still sounds like a novel..." Sorano pouted, unhappy that her dramatic theory had been shot down.
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