Deep in the night… (Tl: I was looking for some fun)
Since they arrived at their destination when the night has already fallen, the team decided to rest for the night before completing the mission tomorrow after discussing the matter over with the administrator. The lake will have to wait until tomorrow to be infused with magic power and be activated.
Laxus didn’t have anything to say about this, he ditched the two kids and went to rest in the arranged inn, Erza also silently disappeared on her own without leaving a clue of where she is going.
The team that looked like they did not got along separated for the time being, Noah more or less guessed that it would turn out like this, and he doesn’t mind it. He placed his luggage in his room before taking out the magic training balls, he then walked out the inn.
This city is a stranger to him.
If it were another 11 year old kid they would probably not dare to run around. He’s the same, to prevent accidents from happening even if he wanted to train his magic control he would dare not venture far from the inn, he chose a small river that’s visible from the inn entrance and walked over.
What he didn’t expect to see is that by the riverside there’s already someone who was already here before him.
“He—-Ya—-!”
Wearing a simple one piece with a cold armor on her, she had a medical eyepatch on one of her eye. Her red hair that’s still visible made her stand out as she stood by the riverside with an arming sword that almost matches her her size. She swung the sword in an austere manner.
“Erza?”
He was surprised by Erza’s presence, but he soon returned to his senses and silently walked over to her and then maintain a bit of distance from her.
“Hmm?”
Still swining her sword she saw his arrival and flinched when she saw him throw the marbles up.
Before she could recover, a tremendous magic power surged from him, the air around him stirred as if they were moved by an invisible current, it carried a bit of luminescence as they went towards the marble in the air.
In an instant, a lot of marbles were instantly engulfed by the magic power coming off of him, they floated by his side, however they were some that fell on the ground and there were some that were deflected.
She didn’t know what he’s trying to do but she’s shocked and awed by the sheer amount of magic power coming off of him that’s stronger than her by lord knows how many times.
At this moment, she remembered what Makarov had said of him.
“Can’t use magic but possess a monstrous amount that surprises even master…”
Erza frowned as the image of Noah leaving a cake for her and then walking away without saying anything slowly floated up to her consciousness.
Under the mysterious guidance of gods and demons (Tl: idiom for curious stuff/ out of ordinary things/ super odd), she stored away her arming sword and walked subconsciously over to him.
Still hard at work training his magic control, he suddenly heard a voice rang out from behind him.
“With such an amount of magic power, why didn’t you learn magic?”
The magic streaming out from him stopped and slowly returned to his body, the balls around him fell as well making a rain of thud sfx.
He turned back to see Erza keeping her lifeless eye on him while grabbing a sword. He merely shook his head before responding to her.
“Precisely because I have such an amount I am not allowed by Gramps to touch magic!”
“Forbidden by guildmaster?”
She blanched at this news.
“Why’s that?”
“I can’t fully control my magic power yet!”
“Gramps said that if I were to use magic in a state where I can’t manipulate my own power the magic power would rampage and so too would my magic. At that point I would bring disaster upon those close to me.”
She understood Makarov’s intention when she heard his explanation.
Indeed, if he were to learn magic now then the power would be something that can’t be rivaled with by just your run off the mill magician.
Under that situation, if the magic were to lose control then it would surely bring about a calamity.
She’s oblivious to the fact that even if he didn’t use magic, just by pure magic power alone he could do something like that.
It’s just that with Makarov’s ability he could stop his magic power incontinence at anytime with spare capacity but once he can use magic then not even Makarov could say with confidence that he could keep the situation udner control.
This is why Makarov sternly asked Noah to hold back on touching magic until he could rein in his magic power, thus Noah trained magic control for a full year without coming near any magic.
And this one year allowed him to just barely qualify as having sufficient control over his magic power.
It’s easy to deduct from these facts alone that his magic power is pretty damn huge.
“But…”
Still raising her eyebrow at him she continued.
“Your brother didn’t seem to agree with your sentiment though?”
“His situation is a little bit special…”
He bitterly laughed as he elaborated.
“Because of a few things he’s now blindly pursuing strength, it irks him to no ends when I abandon the strength that I could easily obtain anytime.”
“How about you?”
Erza focused her gaze on him.
“Do you not desire strength?”
“Me?”
He beamed at her scurinizing gaze.
“If it’s power to hurt others, I wouldn’t want it!”
This struck something inside of her as her emotionless eyes wavered.
“Gramps said it, magic is a manifestation of the heart’s strength and int urn the strength of one’s soul, one could guess from the magic of one person his heart and soul’s nature!”
“So, his wish is for us to use this strength to protect those close to us, and hopes that we would strive our best to this end!”
Done preaching he reached out his hand and under her gaze, touched her cold cheeks and caressed the eye under the medical eyepatch on her exquisite face.
“You too…”
“Even if you have one eye hidden away, don’t let that part of your heart be hidden away, even if you are left with only one eye, please use them…”
“To see those by your side….”
The sweet words and warm hand touching her made her permafrost heart throb, when she recovered her senses the person is gone and along with him the warm hand that was on her cheek.
On the ground however is a strawberry cake, its sweet scent floated into her nostrils and stumped her for half a day. (Tl: where the hell did this come from?!)
And the night went on…
….
The next morning, he got up very early and changed into his outfit before walking out his room towards the ground floor.
The layout of the ground floor is much like that of a bar, full of wooden tables, each table had bottles of alcohol on them, some of them got up early as well while some of them didn’t even sleep throughout the night, what’s similar is that they were happily drinking away making the whole place really lively.
On one of the wooden table is Laxus who propped his feet up on the table while listening to the music on his magic device. When he saw Noah coming down he curled his lips before standing up and repeating the same thing he said yesterday as he walked out.
“Let’s finish this boorish job as soon as possible!”
Coincidentally, Erza walked down from upstairs as well, completely unlike her she actually nodded to Noah when she saw him, it counts as a greeting.
Noah smiled at this slight change in attitude before walking out the inn.
Tl: I don’t remember being such a smooth player at 11, still busy with sports back then, e-sports.