It was already the latter half of the night, and all the participants had drifted into slumber, conserving their strength for tomorrow's competition.
Team B was no exception.
Their room remained at the lowest position tonight.
Rhode and Laxus were relatively quiet.
Jubia clung to a Gray pillow she had handcrafted like an octopus, drooling while muttering some lovesick words.
Gajeel occasionally snored, sometimes grinding his teeth, producing a sound akin to metal scraping.
Wendy, accustomed to such an environment, held the Warm lent to her by Rhode, occasionally murmuring Carla's name with a sweet smile.
Warm, carefree and unconcerned about who held it, slept soundly.
The street outside had quieted down, with light footfalls that went unnoticed.
However, Rhode and Laxus opened their eyes one after the other and sat up.
They exchanged a glance in the darkness and quietly got out of bed, walking toward the window.
——Besides the sound, what caught their attention most was the sudden approach of magic power.
Rhode opened the window and nimbly leaped out.
Laxus, on the other hand, stood quietly, arms crossed, leaning against the wall by the window.
At this moment, Gajeel also opened his eyes, merely tilting his head to glance at the window position, lying still.
"It's you guys, caught someone?" Rhode recognized Ultear and Cobra Eric, with a cloaked figure between them.
"We caught them, but it's quite special," Ultear said. "I thought it necessary to bring them for you to see."
As she spoke, she looked at the cloaked figure.
The figure removed their hood themselves, looking at Rhode in confusion.
"Lucy?" Rhode naturally recognized the familiar face at once.
He was somewhat startled to feel the magic power lingering on the other, indeed Zeref's aura.
"What's going on?"
Did Lucy sneak out in the middle of the night to impersonate Zeref? Or was Zeref bored and decided to impersonate Lucy for fun?
"The situation is..."
"Hold on a moment." Rhode raised his hand and wrote purple spells in the void, lightly tapping to encompass the group.
He deliberately wrapped a small area by the window within it.
Seemingly similar to the magic Hades used... Ultear did not dwell on these, continuing:
"She claims to be Future Lucy, who crossed the Eclipse Gate to warn us."
Inside the room, Gajeel suddenly noticed the silence. After some hesitation, he quietly got up, standing barefoot by the window in the same pose as Laxus on the other side.
Laxus glanced at him, feeling oddly amused.
At this moment, they heard Ultear outside the window continue, "But the 'future' she speaks of is not the same as these days, and the past she mentions also differs from what we experienced.
"We've mostly confirmed she's telling the truth, so we suspect whether she's memory-impaired or someone in disguise."
Rhode glanced at Eric, recalling that the Council's information mentioned his 'mind reading' ability, making him trustworthy in detecting lies.
As for whether this Lucy was an imposter...
Rhode said, "I have a way to distinguish truth from falsehood, but what is the Eclipse Gate?"
Future Lucy, still unclear about this person's identity, replied, seeing Ultear's attitude towards him:
"It's a type of black magic. One can return to the past by passing through the gate, but I don't know much about the specifics.
"I've heard that the Fiore Kingdom took about 7 years to gather magic power and prepare this magic, seemingly to return to the past to eliminate Zeref."
"?" Return to the past to eliminate Zeref? Rhode would be the first to oppose such an act.
Without Zeref, the First Generation guildmaster's group might not have triumphed over the Cyan Skull, and Fairy Tail might not exist.
Without Fairy Tail, many legislative measures in the Magic Realm might be delayed, and the Fiore Kingdom's trade war of the past without the strategist's command...
Although outsiders are unaware of Fairy Tail's history, aren't they afraid of altering history and erasing their country?
Moreover, there's the concept of the time paradox.
Ultear was similarly moved, as she once considered reversing time to the past...
If this Lucy truly returned from the future, if such magic truly exists... can history be changed?
Such thoughts had just sprouted when she quickly dismissed them.
The aura on that Lucy already indicated that black magic was from Zeref, and such magic could likely only bring tragedy.
She could not, could not repeat the same mistakes.
Rhode suddenly thought of something and said, "In Celestial Spirit Magic, there's a legend that collecting 12 Zodiac Spirit keys can open the Gate to Change the World. Does it refer to Eclipse?"
Future Lucy was slightly taken aback: "The Gate to Change the World... Yukino seemed to mention it, so it should be this!"
Yukino mentioned it? Yet Lucy seemed unaware of this legend... Rhode speculated that perhaps knowing the magic's impact was too great, her mother Reela deliberately concealed it.
Hmm... speaking of which, Princess Jade mentioned consulting Lucy's mother on magic in her childhood, and the Heartfilia family always had ties with the Royal Family...
Could it be that Eclipse was taught to the Royal Family many years ago when Lucy's mother was still alive?
In Rhode's mind, questions and speculations emerged one after another; he temporarily restrained his thoughts, realizing the foundation of everything rested on whether the Lucy before them truly was Lucy.
He shook his head: "Let's first confirm her identity before discussing further."
Ultear asked, "Where to?"
"Honey Bone Inn."
Future Lucy found the name familiar, asking in confusion, "The place Team A is staying? To meet 'me'?"
No need for Rhode to explain.
He called inside the window, "I'll be out for a while. Protect Wendy and Jubia, and contact me using the usual method if needed."
Laxus acknowledged, holding back Gajeel's impulse to follow.
Wendy and Jubia? Future Lucy felt a strong urge to go in and take a look, but considering her current lack of trust, she resisted.
The four of them walked discreetly on the streets. Future Lucy found the unfamiliar street scene peculiar: "Is this really the Royal Capital? It feels different from what I remember."
"Because magical technology has developed a lot in recent years..." Ultear initially intended to respond earnestly, but her tone shifted as she irritably said, "Or perhaps someone altered the history you remembered."
She found herself shamefully swayed.
Thinking of her original intention in founding Sin of the Witch, she bit her lip—she could not bear more sins.