As they drew closer and closer to the western continent, Erza stood on the deck with both hands gripping the railing.
Her fingers tightened faintly around it.
The wind tousled her scarlet hair, but she only stood there quietly, gazing toward the distant horizon.
She did not look angry.
Nor did she look sad.
Rather, she looked... afraid.
"To be honest, I'm not very confident this time."
Raizel's voice sounded beside her ear, interrupting Erza's thoughts.
She bit her lower lip and turned to look at him, her expression complicated as her brows furrowed slightly.
"Even if she refuses to acknowledge me... I still hope she can live a little better."
In other words, solving Irene's side effects mattered even more than whether mother and daughter recognized one another.
"No. Both are important. I'll do my best."
Raizel was not lying to Erza.
He really was not very confident.
Did Irene have motherly love for Erza? The answer was yes.
But not much.
Although Irene had abandoned Erza in Rosemary Village to prevent herself from acting on her own sinful thoughts, the fact remained that she had ignored Erza for twenty years.
Especially after August had already mentioned meeting Erza, and Irene still remained unmoved.
That alone showed from the side that Irene did not value Erza very highly, nor did she place much importance on that mother-daughter bond.
Turning from human into dragon, enduring three years of torture, suffering her kingdom's betrayal, wandering for four hundred years, then losing her sense of taste and the ability to sleep...
All of that had long since made Irene's heart extremely indifferent.
But that did not mean there was no way to solve the problem.
Every one of those events could ultimately be summed up into two things—
dragonification and its side effects.
Or, in one sentence—she had lost the right to live as a human.
Betrayal, torture, and all the rest of it...
After Dragnof fell, and after Irene crushed that nameless coward of a political husband underfoot, any hatred from those days had long since become insignificant to her.
She would not truly hate an ant.
Raizel had no way to reverse her from dragon back into human.
But he did have a way to solve the side effects.
And now, Raizel had gained a little more confidence.
That confidence came from Selene—a dragon who wanted to become human.
Selene was an excellent example.
As long as one's mindset changed, whether the body was dragon or human could always be overlooked.
In Raizel's eyes, Selene already seemed more like a person now.
Irene could do the same.
The premise, of course, was that Irene had to be willing to listen.
...
Between the continents of Ishgar and Alakitasia were more than ten islands.
These islands belonged neither to Ishgar nor to Alakitasia.
They often served as relay points for communication between the two continents, functioning as a kind of neutral middle ground.
Thanks to frequent trade and tourism between the two continents, civilians had settled on these islands as well.
Among them was an island called Galakle Island, located somewhat closer to Alakitasia.
The airship carrying Raizel's group had already descended onto the sea and was now approaching Galakle Island's shore.
With a wave of her hand, Ultear stored the airship inside her magic space.
The army stationed on Galakle Island noticed that scene.
Raizel had no particular intention of hiding his tracks during this operation.
His approach was simple: walk in openly!
After all, their destination was not the capital.
August, Larcade, Invel, and the others were all in the capital.
Even if they learned about it, it would not be a major problem. August would absolutely stop them from taking reckless action.
Emperor Spriggan—Zeref—usually did not handle affairs.
Irene did not often stay in the capital either.
As long as August remained there, he was the absolute authority.
Even Larcade Dragneel, who often called himself the crown prince, would have to lower his proud head before August.
And besides, that crown prince would never be promoted to a real one anyway.
More importantly, it was difficult for Raizel, Ultear, and the others to hide their movements.
There was Selene, a noble and alluring beauty with an air of elegant luxury.
There was Ultear, intellectual and graceful in a white shirt.
There was Mira, gentle and virtuous in a pink dress, smiling with narrowed eyes.
There was Erza, heroic and valiant in armor and a blue pleated skirt.
There was Kagura, an icy beauty with one sword and one katana at her waist, wearing a face that said no strangers were allowed near.
There was Lucy, a lively and cheerful beauty with a big bre... whip hanging at her waist.
There was Wendy, a healing-type loli in a small suit and pleated skirt.
And there was also a little white cat wearing a skirt.
As for the person surrounded by all these girls—
Raizel stood in the middle, wearing a blue suit with a pink shirt underneath.
Over the pink shirt was a waistcoat in the same color family as the suit jacket. He had a matching blue tie, secured with a collar pin to keep the collar sharp and upright.
On the left lapel of his jacket was a black rose enamel brooch.
His medium-short brown hair had been combed back into a neat four-six parting.
His blue eyes were paired, rather showily, with gold-rimmed glasses that served no practical purpose whatsoever and existed purely as decoration.
The usual Raizel would naturally never dress this formally.
It was only because he was meeting Irene today that he had put this much effort into his appearance.
He had not even dressed this formally at King Toma's banquet.
Back then, he had merely put on a casual black suit and had not even bothered with a tie.
"So beautiful!"
"They're all goddesses!"
"How does he have every damn type?!"
"That guy deserves to die!"
"Damn it, why isn't the one walking in the middle me?!"
A group of people gnashed their teeth, staring at Raizel with eyes full of burning jealousy, as if they wanted nothing more than to kill him and take his place.
If looks could kill, Raizel would have died countless times over.
Unfortunately, looks could not kill.
At least, these people's looks could not.
Selene, Ultear, and the others had long since gotten used to this kind of gaze.
As long as no one came up to cause trouble, they treated it as if they had seen and heard nothing.
Raizel's skin, meanwhile, was thicker than a city wall!
His expression did not change at all as he continued walking through the streets.
The group had come to Galakle Island for no other reason than to restock supplies and eat something.
As a famous sightseeing destination, Galakle Island had a dessert that had once been featured in a gourmet magazine.
The group tasted all kinds of food along the entire food street.
Finally, they reached the main event—a dessert shop.
This place sold only one dessert.
The former number one dessert in the gourmet magazine rankings—Starlight.
The owner was a bald middle-aged man wearing square orange-lensed glasses.
He had a scruffy beard, a floral shirt, swim trunks, and flip-flops.
Honestly, calling it a shop was not quite accurate.
Strictly speaking, it was only a food cart.
Yet there were so many customers that it had a long line stretching out in front of it.
"This..."
Raizel was already starting to think about giving up.
He was not someone who liked lining up.
Even when he went to get a haircut, if he saw that he had to wait in line, he would turn around and leave.
"It's Starlight! The line just proves it's delicious!"
Erza insisted on dragging him into the line.
The sorrowful look she had worn on the ship had vanished completely. Her whole body seemed excited now, her eyes shining brightly.
"Lining up... Humans... I want to try too!"
Selene raised an eyebrow and chose to join in.
"Then we'll find somewhere to sit first."
Three people lining up was already enough.
Ultear pointed toward an open-air café on the side of the street, signaling that the rest of them would wait there.