Irene folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Go ahead."
Raizel looked into Irene's eyes and asked, "I wonder, during these past twenty years, was there ever a moment—just one moment—when you thought of Erza?"
In an instant, that familiar silence once again returned to the reception room.
Irene's lips slowly pressed together.
But before Irene could answer, Raizel calmly observed her reaction and spoke again.
"It seems you have not decided on an answer yet. You can think about it carefully, in that case, we'll take our leave first. At this time tomorrow, we'll come bother you again."
After saying that, Raizel no longer paid attention to Irene's reaction.
He opened the door and left side by side with Selene under Heine and Juliet's sideways glances.
Heine and Juliet also left the reception room, leaving Irene alone, sitting on the sofa as though slightly dazed.
After a long while, her gaze finally returned.
She looked at the cup of black tea placed before her, long since cooled, yet untouched.
Then she closed her eyes and leaned back against the sofa, as if she had already calmed herself.
However, less than a second later, she sat upright again, clenched both hands, pressed her lips together, and muttered through gritted teeth in a voice no one else could possibly hear,
"He was absolutely taking revenge for Erza! He got his revenge before he even left the room!"
She reached out, picked up the already cold cup of black tea, and took a small sip.
As she drank, the edge of the cup was quietly bitten between her teeth.
She still could not taste anything.
But her state of mind was already different.
Before, perhaps she would have grown irritated.
Now, she seemed somewhat calm.
As for whether she had ever thought of Erza, the answer was already obvious.
She could even say something like she had no interest in acting out a touching mother-daughter drama.
To claim she had never thought about Erza at all?
That was the child she had nourished with Magic Power for three years in prison, and protected for four hundred years after becoming a dragon.
Lying to others was one thing.
But she should not lie to herself.
...
"She is very similar to Erza. Interesting."
After leaving the lord's manor, Selene looked back and suddenly spoke.
Then Selene felt that her words were not quite right, so she added,
"I do not mean their appearances. That part is too obvious."
Before Raizel could answer, Selene praised Irene again.
"As expected of the Mother of Dragon Slayers."
Raizel helplessly spread his hands.
"You already said everything. What am I supposed to say?"
"You do not need to say anything. You only need to act."
After saying that, Selene walked away without looking back.
'So throwing out the bomb at the very end is the most effective method. I learned something new...'
Selene had caught Irene's final expression.
Even after receiving Law Dragon Slayer Magic, Irene had remained unusually calm and composed.
Yet at the last moment, her expression had cracked.
'This man really does have a sharp tongue.'
Selene silently added another label to Raizel.
"Between you and Irene, who is stronger?"
Raizel suddenly asked Selene with some curiosity.
Selene stopped walking.
She lightly supported her chin with her folding fan and thought for a moment before answering,
"To decide victory or defeat, we would have to transform into dragons. But I don't want to fight. You can consider us equal."
The two of them were actually around the same age.
Selene might be slightly older, but not by much.
One was the creator of High Enchantment Magic and a Sage Dragon Slayer.
The other was the Moon Dragon God.
It was truly not that easy to determine who was stronger.
If they really had to decide the winner, it would basically come down to life and death.
Raizel raised an eyebrow and teased her, "I thought you would say you were stronger."
Selene answered very calmly, "If I were someone who cared about proving my superiority, why would I want to become human?"
"However, you did remind me of one thing."
"She is very strong."
Although her plan to eliminate the Five Dragon Gods was something she paused from time to time, Selene's thinking was that if she could draw one more person to her side, then she should.
Before this, she had not known Irene was still alive.
Now that she knew, how could she possibly let Irene slip away?
The Mother of Dragon Slayers.
High Enchantment Magic.
And in Selene's view, the upper limit of Irene's self-created High Enchantment Magic might be even higher.
At present, the only people Selene could call proper combat forces were Raizel, Irene, and herself.
Her unit of measurement for combat power was a little too high.
...
That night, beneath the dark sky, scattered lights still glowed all across Akilos City.
The brilliant streets shone like interwoven tracks, dazzling under the illumination yet clearly separated from one another.
The streetlamps below were still bright, their light spilling across the ground.
Looking toward the river in the distance, where ships sailed quietly, Erza narrowed her eyes as the gentle wind brushed through her scarlet hair.
Her heart was not calm.
There were many reasons.
Perhaps it was because she would meet Irene tomorrow.
Perhaps it was because Selene had told her that Raizel had gone after Irene verbally to vent Erza's anger.
Perhaps it was because Selene had told her that Irene did, in fact, care about her.
Erza did not hate Irene.
She simply did not know how to face her.
Today, Selene had basically explained the entire conversation between the three of them clearly, including Irene's line about having no interest in acting out some touching mother-daughter drama.
No one came to disturb Erza in this extremely rare state of cold loneliness.
The reason was simple.
Without experiencing the same thing, it was difficult to say anything comforting.
There was even a high chance that whatever they said would have the opposite effect.
In that case, it was better not to say anything at all.
Time would give the answer, and Ultear and the others believed that Erza would walk out of it on her own.
Kagura was also an orphan, but she had not been abandoned.
Lucy's family had once been happy and harmonious.
Wendy had no memories of her parents from childhood. In her memories, there had only been Grandeeney.
To Wendy, Grandeeney was her mother.
....
Under that same night sky, Irene stood with her antler-shaped staff in hand, also gazing into the distance.
Her mood was likewise unsettled.
No matter how calm and composed she was, she was still a person in the end.
The side effects of Dragon Power that had tormented her for years were about to be solved.
Logically speaking, she should have been happy.
Yet now, beneath that happiness, she felt somewhat lost.
Perhaps it was because of Selene, that strange, neither-this-nor-that dragon.
That's right.
The label Irene had given Selene was "neither this nor that."
Because even dragons close to humans, such as Belserion and Igneel, would never say something like "I want to become human."
Or perhaps it was because of Raizel's final question, which made her think of Erza as a child, and the faint ripple that had stirred in her heart when August had mentioned Erza again.
Or perhaps it was because she had once again touched the memory of abandoning Erza twenty years ago.
That was a memory she had always buried deep in her heart, unwilling to recall.
But even after twenty years, that memory remained so clear.
Now, looking back at who she had been back then, Irene seemed to feel something different.
Perhaps the reason she had failed back then...
Was it truly because of the limitations of Enchantment Magic?
The thoughts she had felt at the time filled her mind.
Two different emotions battled inside her, making her expression twist faintly with pain.
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