"Boring."
On the other side of the lacrima, Ultear spat out the two words coldly.
Then—right in front of Shane's stunned eyes—her mouth twitched awkwardly, the corners of her lips dragging sideways into a smile that looked painfully forced.
Her cheeks were stiff. Her eyes were flat, emotionless.
For someone with her breathtaking looks to smile this badly… was, in its own way, a rare talent.
"…You're actually doing it?" Shane froze.
He'd only meant to tease her. He genuinely hadn't expected Ultear—all thorns and distance—to respond with something that could only be described as obedient.
"You wouldn't contact me if it wasn't important."
In the projection, Ultear immediately dropped the disastrous fake smile.
She fought to keep her composure, but in the faint glow of the crystal, Shane could still catch the tiny tremor in her gaze.
Those beautiful eyes were locked on him, and deep inside her pupils, the suppressed yearning churned like a sleeping volcano about to erupt.
Not long ago, Shane had promised to help her "fulfill her wish."
This sudden call made it impossible for her not to connect the dots.
The moment that possibility entered her mind, she couldn't keep her emotions steady anymore.
Even with Shane's mediocre emotional intelligence, her forced calm—paired with the hope overflowing beneath it—was impossible to miss.
Good thing… I really do have good news.
Staring into those eyes, Shane felt a sudden sting of certainty: letting her down would be cruel.
He took a slow breath, sat up straight on the couch, and his expression sharpened.
No more games.
He laid out everything about Memories of Time—its location, its appearance, how it worked, the time-travel trigger, and the harsh six-hour limit—clearly, step by step, with no omissions.
When he finished—
The lacrima went dead silent.
Half a minute passed without a sound.
"Wait for me."
Only those two words broke the stillness. Ultear's eyes were resolute, her hand already lifting to cut the call—like she wanted to tear space open and sprint across half the kingdom to Magnolia right now.
"Hold it," Shane stopped her. "There are things you need to prep on your side."
Ultear's fingers froze midair. She looked back at the projection, breathing a little too fast.
"What else do I need?"
Seeing her mother again was the obsession she'd carried for a lifetime. She couldn't tolerate even the tiniest risk.
Shane slowed his speech. "I told you: the book needs a strong, vivid memory as an anchor."
He paused, his tone turning pointed.
"If I remember right… you weren't there when your mother, Ur, died. Were you?"
"…!"
Ultear's body went rigid.
"The book only lasts six hours," Shane said quietly, but each word hit like a hammer. "Are you really going to fight your way back just to see her for a few minutes—say two sentences—and leave?"
It detonated in Ultear's mind like thunder.
Like someone had placed an impossibly precious treasure in her hands—something she'd never dared to want—her chest rose and fell hard.
"You mean…"
"If we're going back," Shane said, eyes glittering with that dangerous, troublemaking excitement, "then we might as well go all the way."
"Change the ending."
On the other side, Ultear bit down on her lip so hard she tasted iron before she could force her voice out.
"If we need an anchor tied to Ur's death… Gray has it."
"And what else?" Shane pressed, coaxing.
"If we're really doing this…" Ultear's mind snapped open like a lock turning. Even with her voice rough, her logic sharpened with every sentence. "We need a way to hide her—how she gets from the past to the present."
"And we have to minimize the causal impact on the present as much as possible."
"Yeah," Shane nodded. "That makes sense."
"And one more thing." Ultear drew a breath, forcing herself into calm analysis. "Since future Lucy used that book to travel back, to keep the loop intact we need to 'copy' or 'imprint' and preserve the book's magical properties—so the future timeline doesn't split."
Shane lifted his brows. "I thought you'd just rush in and ignore the details."
Ultear stared at him.
Shane spread his hands. "You know I'm clueless about this kind of magic. Precision work like that… has to be you."
The image went quiet again.
Ultear lowered her head, her black bangs hiding her eyes.
All this time, she'd thought Shane's "help" meant nothing more than giving her one chance to meet Ur again.
She hadn't expected he meant saving her.
"I'll prepare."
When she looked up again, the cool mask was back—but the stubborn redness at the corners of her eyes gave her away.
"I'll come as soon as I can… as fast as possible."
And at the end, her beautiful, fragile face cracked open in a way Shane had never seen—something like vulnerability, something like pleading.
"Shane… please. Until I arrive—don't leave Magnolia."
"Don't worry."
Shane's teasing vanished. He answered with a promise.
"I'll get Gray on board. And as for the demon who killed your mother… leave it to me."
…
The call ended. The light went out.
Shane sank back into the couch, rolling the lacrima between his fingers, and sighed in mock regret.
"Damn. I should've recorded that—she was this close to crying."
Come to think of it… "Ultear." In common speech, "tear" meant tears.
Ur's tears.
A name heavy with love and suffering.
Shane smiled faintly. "Still—when she really cries for real… I can't miss it. I'll bring an image-recording lacrima next time."
He pocketed the crystal, stretched his stiff shoulders, and let out a slow breath.
What Ultear needed to prepare was complicated. Even if she pushed herself to the limit, it would take at least half a month.
In that gap, aside from pulling Gray into the plan, he had one last thing to do.
Shane stood, deliberately quiet, and pushed open Erza's bedroom door.
It was silent inside—only her steady breathing.
The red-haired girl was asleep in deep exhaustion, her injuries still healing.
Her scarlet hair spilled across the pillow, and the sharpness she usually carried had softened into something almost unreal.
Shane pulled up a chair and sat at the bedside.
He stared at her defenseless sleeping face, while his mind sank down into the depths of his awareness.
The "sea" of consciousness began to churn faster.
He was going to use this waiting time to fill Lancer's vision progress bar completely.
That demon-ravaged, snow-buried land with no human footsteps…
Was the perfect stage to unleash a vision.
~~~
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