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[ alright there are many ways story could go from the previous chapter, but i wanted to try something from usual sarcastic merlin , and try something new , so do leave comment of what you liked and what you did not . ]
Irene stood completely frozen, her fingers digging so hard into the wood of her staff that the lacquered surface began to splinter. Her chest remained locked mid-rise, her dark eyes wide as the name left my mouth.
Then, she laughed.
It was a cold, sharp sound that didn't have a single ounce of humor in it. She slowly uncurled her white-knuckled fingers, resting her staff against the side of the velvet couch as she forced her regal, untouchable general's poker face back into place.
"Erza?" Irene scoffed, turning her back to me as she walked toward the grand marble balcony, her long black-and-fur robes trailing behind her voluptuous hips. "And why should I care about a fragile little burden like that? That girl brought me nothing but centuries of agonizing pain. She was a tool, Merlin. A worthless vessel I built to try and dump this disgusting dragon curse into. Nothing more."
I didn't move an inch from the center of her rug. I just let out a quiet, dry chuckle, shaking my head.
"You're a terrible actress, Irene," I said flatly. "Seriously. Trying to lie straight to my face after four hundred years? It's just insulting. Your grip was so tight you practically put a permanent dent in your own weapon."
Irene didn't answer. She just stood by the balcony rail, her dangerous hourglass figure silhouetted against the bright southern sunlight, her massive scarlet braids shifting slightly against her back.
I lazily walked over to her velvet couch, plopped myself right down onto the soft cushions, and rested Odin's staff against her expensive gold-trimmed table.
"Let's drop the fake act," I said, leaning my head back. "How about you tell me why you actually joined hands with Zeref? As far as I know, the guy is a genius, but he doesn't have the mechanics or the knowledge required to reverse your dragonification curse."
Irene whipped around, her dark eyes suddenly flaring with a violent, burning rage that turned the air in the palace freezing cold.
"Zeref doesn't..." Irene hissed, taking a sharp step forward, her full, generous cleavage shifting heavily under the low-cut black fabric as her voice began to drip with raw, long-hidden resentment. "...but you do!"
She slammed her hand down against the marble pillar next to her.
"With that ridiculous primordial rune magic of yours!" she yelled, her tone sharp enough to cut glass. "You could have unraveled this curse and healed me anytime you wanted over the last three centuries! Anytime, Merlin! But you didn't! You just watched me rot, and you still have the nerve to call yourself my friend?!"
The echo of her shout bounced off the crystal chandeliers, leaving a heavy, suffocating silence in the room.
I stopped grinning. I dropped my head forward, staring down at my boots as I let out a long, genuine sigh.
"Irene... I can't," I said softly, my voice completely devoid of its usual smugness. "Technically, yes, the formulas exist in my repertoire. But if I try to force a magical extraction on your body right now, the cosmic alignment isn't right. The timing—"
"The right time?!" Irene violently cut me off, her composure completely shattering as she stormed over to the couch, glaring down at me. "Is my agony just a game to you? A joke to keep you amused while you skip across the centuries?!"
She stopped. Her whole body began to tremble under her black robes, her full chest heaving as her voice suddenly broke, the terrifying Alvarez general vanishing into a completely hollowed-out mother.
"I can't even..." Irene whispered, her eyes dropping to her own trembling fingers as tears of raw bitterness gathered in the corners of her eyes. "I can't even be with my own daughter, Merlin. I'm stuck as a monster in the dark. While she..."
The sentence cut off in the middle, choking out into nothing.
The silence between us was heavy. Uncomfortable. It tasted like old ash.
I slowly stood up from the couch, grabbing my staff and adjusting the sleeves of my white robes. I looked at her tattered, trembling posture, keeping my expression entirely calm and steady.
"You don't need to worry about the future, old friend," I said quietly, stepping back into the center of the floor. "When the true moment arrives, the magic will line up, and everything will be set right. I promise."
I flicked my wrist, and a sudden, massive eruption of pink flower petals began to violently swirl around my boots, blurring the marble walls of the palace into a pink haze. But right before the spatial warp completely pulled me out of the empire, a faint, desperate whisper cut through the rushing wind.
"Take care of my daughter, Merlin."
In the next millisecond, the freezing marble walls vanished, replaced by the warm, noisy, and stale-ale smell of the Magnolia guildhall.
The afternoon sun was streaming through the tavern windows, and the place was a total madhouse. Chairs were rattling, local mages were screaming over poker games, and old Master Makarov was at the far end of the counter, still nursing his hangover with a dark mug of cider.
I deactivated my perception filter right by the center tables and strolled over.
Sitting side-by-side at a small wooden booth near the bar were Erza and Gray. Both of them looked like they had just been dragged through a gravel pit backwards. Their little ten-year-old bodies were completely dead tired, their shoulders slumping over the table as they lazily took tiny, exhausted sips from two tall glasses of orange juice.
Erza's posture was slightly looser today, her rusted iron chest-plate resting unevenly against the bench, her red hair tied back into a clumsy, loose ponytail. She looked completely drained from spending the morning forcing her Ethernano into her own muscles for that Body Enchantment practice.
But it was Gray who caught my eye.
I stopped dead in my tracks right at the edge of their booth, stared at the kid's face, and instantly burst out into a loud, completely obnoxious laugh, slamming my hand hard against my knee as I pointed a finger right at his nose.
"Pfft—hahaha! Oh my god, Gray! What happened to your face?!" I shouted, laughing so hard a few mages at the next table turned around to look.
Gray's face instantly flushed bright red. Stamped directly across his left cheek—in perfect, vivid detail—was a dark red, dusty print of Erza's heavy iron metal boot. It looked like a giant, violent blush mark shaped exactly like a piece of armor. The kid had clearly tried to test her new internal speed boost during their morning spar, and he had paid for it by taking a full greave straight to the jaw.
"Shut up, Merlin!" Gray screamed, blushing furiously as he slammed his orange juice glass onto the wood, making the liquid splash over the rim. "It was a fluke! I slipped on a puddle of water! She didn't even hit me that hard!"
Erza didn't say a single word. She didn't even look up from her drink. She just leaned her chin on her hand, took another slow, calm sip of her orange juice through the straw, and acted completely, entirely innocent—though the tiny, smug smirk on her lips told me the body enchantment lesson had worked perfectly.
I shoved my hand behind my head, still chuckling as I leaned against their table. "Sure you did, underwear boy. Keep telling yourself that while you're wearing her footwear on your chin."
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[ If you want to read an extra chapter ahead, go check out the p@treon
Search for foresight_geek or https://[email protected]/c/foresight_geek,
you can buy a membership for the entire month just for -- 1 $ ]