“All right, then. Let’s head down and take a look.”
Noah raised his right foot.
“Brace yourselves!”
“?!”
“What are you doing?!”
“Wait—”
The other three lunged toward him, but they were already too late.
Noah brought his foot down hard.
Cracks instantly spread beneath him in every direction with a series of sharp snaps.
A moment later, the entire section of floor collapsed.
“Shit! Look out!”
“You bastard, what are you doing?!”
“Why is the floor so damn fragile?!”
“Word Magic: Wings.”
The ground vanished beneath Gray, Cana, and Loke, sending all three plummeting into the darkness below.
Noah, who had naturally prepared for this in advance, sprouted magical wings and descended at a leisurely pace.
He was moving so slowly that even the cloak hanging from his shoulders barely stirred.
Noah touched down gently.
“Perfect landing.”
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Gray, Cana, and Loke hit the ground one after another.
Noah raised his index finger and wagged it at the three sprawled figures.
“This really won’t do. If you can’t react properly to unexpected situations, you’ll never pass Fairy Tail’s S-Class Promotion Trial.”
The three of them slowly climbed to their feet.
Sleeves were rolled up.
Fists were raised.
“You’ve got some nerve saying that when you’re the bastard who suddenly collapsed the floor!”
Just as Noah was about to receive a very thorough three-person lesson in friendship, he abruptly pointed behind them.
“Look! So that’s what they’re using Moon Drip on. Damn, that thing is huge—and ugly!”
Gray did not even turn around.
“Hah?! You think that’s going to work? Natsu and I have used that trick on each other a hundred times!”
Loke, however, stopped mid-swing.
He turned toward what Noah was pointing at, and his expression immediately became serious.
“That thing… is it a demon?”
Cana followed his gaze and quickly understood.
“I see. They’re using Moon Drip to melt the ice and release the demon trapped inside.”
A demon?
Ice?
Gray’s heart skipped.
He whipped around so quickly that his entire body stiffened the moment he saw what stood before him.
Buried deep within the ice was the nightmare that had haunted his memories for years.
“Deliora?!”
Gray’s face went white.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! Why the hell is Deliora here?!”
His outburst immediately drew confused looks from Cana and Loke.
Noah, meanwhile, allowed himself the faintest expression of satisfaction.
For a moment, he looked almost like Light Yagami watching yet another elaborate plan unfold exactly as intended.
Then he immediately replaced it with bewilderment.
“Deliora? What’s wrong, Gray? You know this demon?”
His entire body was tense, emotions churning too violently for him to answer.
After a long silence, he finally opened his mouth.
“Deliora is—”
“Oh! Right, right! Deliora!”
Gray’s carefully gathered emotions collapsed on the spot as Noah smacked one fist into his palm.
“I know that name! Deliora was that incredibly powerful demon that terrorized the northern continent more than ten years ago, wasn’t it?”
Gray stared at him.
“Noah, you—”
“Gildarts told me about it once,” Noah continued without missing a beat.
“Apparently, he originally intended to take care of Deliora himself, but by the time he got there, some incredibly powerful Mage had already defeated it. I never realized it had actually been sealed instead, much less that it ended up here.”
Gray’s eyes widened.
“You…”
“I also heard the Mage who sealed it was named Ur. She was an Ice-Make Mage, just like you. What a coincidence—”
Before Noah could finish, Gray seized him by the collar.
“You bastard! You already knew about this, didn’t you?! That’s why you brought me here!”
Gray suddenly remembered something else, and his grip tightened.
“Wait! You said Moon Drip can dispel any magic, right? Then who the hell is doing this?! Who would try to break Ur’s seal?! Noah, what else do you know? Tell me!”
“Hey… you’re choking me a little…”
Cana and Loke immediately moved in and grabbed Gray.
“Gray, calm down!”
“How the hell am I supposed to calm down?!”
Gray seemed incapable of hearing anything else.
“Tell me, Noah! Who’s doing this?! Tell me!”
He kept repeating the demand, too overwhelmed to listen to reason.
Noah’s eyebrow twitched.
“All right, you little…”
If words were not getting through, there was always the traditional Fairy Tail method.
His fist tightened.
Bam!
Noah punched Gray hard enough to send him flying.
“Calm the hell down before you start talking!”
Gray crashed onto the stone floor and rolled several times before finally coming to a stop.
Noah flexed his hand.
‘Ah.
Much better.’
Gray moved slightly on the ground, then went still.
Cana and Loke looked from him to Noah.
“What exactly is going on?” Cana asked.
“Why did Gray react like that?”
Perhaps the punch really had helped.
Gray remained lying on the floor, but when he spoke again, his voice was much quieter.
“Deliora… was sealed by Ur, the woman who taught me magic.”
His expression darkened.
“She sacrificed her life to do it.”
Word by word, Gray began recounting his past, explaining everything that had happened years ago to the two people who genuinely did not already know the story.
By the time he finished, Cana and Loke finally understood.
“So that’s what happened,” Cana said quietly.
“No wonder you lost it.”
Gray clenched his fist.
“Ur was… the person I respected more than anyone.”
His voice hardened.
Noah kept his expression perfectly neutral.
‘Heh.
I’ll be waiting for you to take that back.’
Cana walked over to Gray and somehow produced another bottle of alcohol, setting it beside him before turning a distinctly unfriendly gaze on Noah.
“Noah. You already knew all of this, didn’t you?”
She narrowed her eyes.
“That’s why you brought us here. No… more specifically, that’s why you brought Gray.”
“I thought it was strange from the beginning. You suddenly decided to take a job after barely doing any for years, then deliberately bent the guild rules so we could come along.”
Cana crossed her arms.
“Now it all makes sense. You planned this from the start, didn’t you?”
Noah smiled brightly and gave her a thumbs-up.
“As expected of Cana. You really are smart.”
His grin widened.
“Yep. That’s exactly right. I calculated everything!”
Gray immediately sat up in outrage.
“You’re actually admitting it that proudly?! You bastard! Why would you do something like this?!”
“What do you mean, why?” Noah asked, completely unmoved by his anger.
“You’re being ridiculous.”
He pointed at Gray.
“When someone was running around pretending to be Salamander, you all figured Natsu should be the one to deal with it himself, right?”
Gray paused.
“Well…”
“So once I realized what was happening here, I brought you along so you could deal with your own unfinished business. It’s the same principle.”
Exactly.
That was the reason.
It had absolutely nothing to do with Noah wanting to watch the drama unfold.
‘Damn, am I getting quicker at thinking on my feet?
That excuse came out perfectly.’
Gray’s anger faltered.
“I mean… you could’ve just told me from the beginning.”
Noah looked genuinely innocent.
“But I’m telling you now.”
Cana stared at him.
Gray stared at him.
Loke stared at him.
Noah frowned.
“What are those looks supposed to mean?”
Then he pointed accusingly at Gray.
“Especially you! Is that any way to treat the generous benefactor who went out of his way to bring you here?”
“If I hadn’t tricked—”
Noah coughed.
“I mean, brought you here, how long do you think it would’ve taken someone who can’t even go up to the second floor to find out about this?”
Gray fell silent.
After a few seconds, his shoulders finally relaxed.
“…You’re right.”
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“I got too worked up earlier. Sorry.”
Gray hesitated, then added more sincerely,
“And… thanks.”
End of Chapter 11