Gray took a step forward, about to pull Erza, wanting her to get off Ultear first.
"Erza, you first—"
Before he could finish, Shane raised his hand to block him.
"Wait until I finish asking questions; you guys will have plenty of time to chat later."
Ultear turned her head away, her long hair covering half of her face. "I have nothing to say to him."
"Does that mean you have something to talk about with us?" Shane took over the conversation.
Ultear raised her eyes, her gaze sweeping over the three of them, finally fixing on Shane's face. She exhaled softly, her tone carrying a resigned calm. "I still have things I must complete; I can't die here. You went to such great lengths to find me. If I don't cooperate, will you let me go easily?"
"You are indeed smart," Shane said, his gaze sweeping seemingly inadvertently over Gray on the side.
Gray immediately became unhappy. "You praise her if you want; why look at me?"
Shane pretended not to hear, locking his gaze back on Ultear, getting straight to the point. "Tell me where Brain is."
"Don't know." Ultear answered crisp and clear, not even her eyelashes trembling.
Shane's hand raised silently, flames faintly gathering in his palm.
"I really don't know!" Ultear felt the scorching heat coming from her hair tips and added immediately.
Then what use are you? Shane looked at her with disdain, thinking, Spent so much effort, don't tell me it's a wasted trip.
Seeing Shane's face changing and knowing this guy would really take action, Ultear bit her lower lip and finally spoke proactively, "Why are you looking for Brain?"
"Brain is the controller behind the Tower of Heaven," Erza took the conversation, her voice unusually calm, instead revealing a strong determination. "We want to find him and kill him."
"Heh, for revenge," Ultear curled her lip.
"Not entirely," Shane interrupted her. "We don't want Brain to continue plundering children for human experiments."
Mentioning "human experiments," the sneer on Ultear's face froze for an instant, her fingers curling unconsciously. "What do human experiments have to do with you? Why say these high-sounding reasons?"
"Simply find it disagreeable; is that not okay?" Shane hated arguing about grand principles with others the most, manifesting the black blade directly.
The black blade was like a mirror, reflecting the girl's fair swan neck.
However, this time Ultear didn't show fear. Instead, she raised her chin, unusually calm. "If it's because of this, you don't need to find him."
"Why?"
"Brain's experiment is already completed." Her tone was certain. "The evidence is that he took several children from the Tower of Heaven."
"Children? What kind of children?" Shane narrowed his eyes and pressed.
"I'm not clear about the specific situation. But Brain's purpose was indeed to screen children with certain qualities.
Now that his goal is achieved, not only will he not continue the experiments, but he won't show his face for a long time, let alone continue plundering slaves to build some Tower of Heaven."
Shane recalled that Brain indeed handed over all authority of the Tower of Heaven to Jellal, believing half of it, and continued to press, "What about you? What is your purpose? I heard you and Brain don't get along; why did you go to bewitch Jellal back then?"
At this point, how could Ultear not understand that Jellal was cooperating with Shane to act back then?
She ground her teeth secretly, cursing the two for being cunning in her heart, but could only say indifferently on the surface, "I can only say my actions have nothing to do with Brain."
Such an answer obviously couldn't satisfy Shane. "You said just now you have things you must do?" He stepped forward menacingly.
"Wait—" Seeing the tension, Gray couldn't help wanting to step forward to ease it.
"It's not your turn to speak yet!" Ultear and Shane turned their heads to stop him almost simultaneously.
Gray opened his mouth, speechless for a moment.
He could understand Shane's attitude, even say he was used to it. But he clearly wanted to speak for Ultear; why was he scolded by her too?
Ultear glanced at Gray with disgust. Every time she saw that face, she remembered the scene she saw when escaping from the Bureau of Magical Development.
She suppressed the irritability in her heart and turned to look at Shane. "I need time to consider."
"Simple." Shane nodded and snapped his fingers decisively. "Erza, pack her up and take her away."
He manifested three long whips and threw them to Erza to use as ropes.
Erza had absolutely no good feelings for this person who led the supervision of the Tower of Heaven last time and immediately tied Ultear up securely and neatly.
Looking at the tightly bound Ultear, thinking he might have a chance to ask about Ur on the way, Gray remained silent and didn't object.
Shane decided to tie her up and bring her back to the guild first. He felt Ultear knew a lot of intelligence worth digging into deeply.
He first wrote a letter, then went to the blacksmith shop to ask Knoll to run to the Tower of Heaven to deliver it to Jellal for him.
Knoll didn't know about the changes in the Tower of Heaven yet. Receiving this request, cold sweat broke out on him. It took a long time before he took the envelope as if facing death.
His attitude made even the thick-skinned Shane a bit embarrassed, so he had to explain that the current Tower of Heaven was fully controlled by Jellal and was temporarily safe.
Knoll was half-believing at first, but thinking that since Shane said it, he immediately believed it.
This scene made Gray stare at Shane for a long time.
After Knoll left, he leaned over and whispered, "What magic potion did you feed him? Tricking him round and round. I feel like even if you ask him to jump into a fire pit, he would jump after hesitating a bit."
Although Shane also felt Gray's roast was correct, he still wanted to retort, "Can't it be that people genuinely respect me? Do I look like someone unworthy of respect?"
Gray sized him up for two seconds. When his gaze swept over Shane's unextinguished Eyes of Karma, he wisely didn't continue the conversation.
It was Erza on the side who asked somewhat curiously, "What was written in the letter?"
"I told Jellal about the situation with Brain. Regarding the Tower of Heaven, until Brain shows up again, it's considered temporarily over."
When Shane said this, his tone was subtle, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the sword hilt.
Clearly prepared fully and ready for a big fight, only to find the main culprit absent and the problem inexplicably solved.
This feeling of punching cotton with full force was really hard to describe.
Chatting in low voices, the group walked into the station with the flow of people.
Gray walked silently to the ticket window—now he was the only one in the squad who could fish out whole money.
Of course, although Ultear's situation was special, since they found the person, he paid this expense willingly. Unlike unwillingly before.
When boarding the train, a small episode occurred.
The conductor looked exceptionally troubled at the bound Ultear. Fortunately, the three showed their guild emblems, indicating they were executing a commission, before barely being allowed to pass.
It was just that for a long time in the future, a legend circulated in this station that "Fairy Tail arrests people and interrogates them at the station."
The train chugged along.
After hesitating again and again, Gray still leaned close to the bound Ultear and asked in a low voice, "You—are Ur's daughter, right?"
Ultear glanced at him coldly, a mocking arc at the corner of her mouth. "Looking at this face of mine exactly the same as that woman, if I say no, would you believe it?"
"Then why would you—" Gray weighed his words, his fingers unconsciously gripping the armrest tightly.
However, Ultear had already turned her head away, completely ignoring him, leaving him only a cold side profile.
Shane observed quietly from the side and found her attitude toward Gray exceptionally bad; mhm, same toward himself.
Could it be she hates men?