A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

"Put the books back in their proper places one by one, according to their numbers, or else... you know the consequences, right?"

Feeling the terrifying magical power emanating from Kira, Natsu and Happy instinctively clung to each other, cold sweat pouring down their backs, trembling uncontrollably. "Yes...we understand..."

Half a day later...

"Hey? Happy, come and take a look at this!"

Happy's small body leaned closer, his eyes filled with curiosity: "What is that?"

“This!” Natsu held up a book from the pile of books, his face full of surprise.

This is a book with a black cover. It looks a bit worn, and the surface is covered with dust. It's hard to tell how many years it has been there.

Harpy glanced at it and asked, puzzled, "Is there anything strange about this book?"

“Look closely here!” Natsu pointed to the book cover. “Doesn’t it look familiar?”

Harpy followed the directions and saw a scarlet magic circle drawn with unknown runes. It was eerie and complex, with layers upon layers. Around the magic circle were symbols of death such as skulls and scythes, making the entire cover look even more sinister and terrifying.

"Natsu, what's wrong with that?"

"I can't quite explain it, but this magic circle feels very familiar, and there's a strange magical power emanating from it!"

"Familiar? Have you seen me somewhere before?"

"I don't know! It sounds familiar, but I have absolutely no recollection of it!"

"Now that you mention it, it feels so familiar! And it's so clear, like it's etched into my mind; I could even draw it with my eyes closed! It's strange, even though it's the first time I've ever seen it..."

As the conversation gradually hushed up, the surrounding environment began to darken, become gloomy, and eerie.

After a long silence, Natsu suddenly spoke up: "Hey, Happy!"

"What's wrong, Natsu?"

Natsu's voice began to grow horrified: "Upon closer inspection, this magic circle..."

Habby's face began to sweat: "This magic circle...?"

"Could it be that..."

Harpy swallowed hard: "This is...?"

"Are you calling me?"

A chilling voice suddenly exploded in my ear, followed by a faceless face!

"Ahhhh!!!"

"He's appeared!! No-Face!!!"

The sudden, terrifying scene made Natsu and Happy completely lose their temper!

Boom!Boom!

"I told you to tidy up the bookshelves, what are you doing?"

Kira removed his mask and used two punches to wake the man and the cat from their fright.

Happy's face was covered in tears and snot: "Waaaaah... Kira, you bastard! You scared the cat to death!!"

"Alright, alright..." Kira stroked Happy's fur with a satisfied smile and asked, "What happened to you two?"

One minute later...

Kira gently stroked the book Natsu handed him, recalling as he spoke, "I remember this book. I bought it at a trade fair when I went to Crocus, the royal capital, for a party two years ago. At the time, I just thought the magic on it was very strange and thought I would bring it back to study it, but then I got busy and forgot about it."

Under the watchful eyes of Natsu and Happy, Kira slowly opened the spellbook in his hand.

The book has only thirty-odd pages, but each page is as thick as a fingernail. Strange, dark green characters are densely written on the yellowed parchment, and the strokes reveal a sinister and eerie dark magic.

Natsu asked in confusion, "Kira, what does it say on this?"

"I don't know! It's a script I've never seen before! I just thought it was too troublesome, so I put it aside."

Happy stared with wide, terrified eyes: "This doesn't look like something you can just leave aside!!"

"What can we do? I don't recognize these words... Wait!"

Kira's voice made Natsu and Happy's hearts skip a beat: "What's wrong?"

Look here!

The man and the cat followed Kira's finger and looked there, where there was also a line of strange, dark green text.

"What... happened here?"

"It says here, 'The gears of fate will be set in motion at dusk.'"

"Huh?! Didn't you say you didn't recognize this script?"

"I really don't recognize it! But for some reason, I can understand this sentence! How strange!" Kira frowned, pondered for a while, and then said, "Hmm... maybe it's one of those magical characters that only people with certain conditions can understand!"

Natsu's interest was immediately piqued: "Eh?! There's such magic? That's interesting!"

Kira waved his hand dismissively: "Oh? It's rare that you're interested. In that case, this book is yours."

"really?"

“Of course!” Kira nodded, then suddenly seemed to remember something and suggested, “Oh, right! You can try showing it to other people; maybe they can see something too!”

Natsu and Happy exchanged a glance: "That makes sense! As expected of Kira!"

"If you discover the secret of this book in the end, be sure to tell me!"

"No problem! Let's go, Happy!"

"Eek!"

After Natsu and Happy left in a hurry, hushed conversations suddenly came from Hope's Hut, followed by a sinister and maniacal laugh.

"He believed it! He really believed it! This method is brilliant! Hahaha!!!"

Meanwhile, Natsu and Happy were on their way to find Lucy when they ran into Erza and Gray.

"If Kira can read the text, then Erza should be able to too, right?"

"You can try asking!"

After some discussion, the man and the cat stepped forward and called out to the two, explaining the situation.

"A strange book?"

With suspicion in their hearts, the two took the magic book and examined it for a long time...

"This pattern is really strange. It's the first time I've seen it, but it feels like I've seen it many times before!"

Erza flipped through the book several times, then hesitated before saying, "Hmm... I don't recognize this script either, but there is one sentence in it that I can understand!"

Natsu and Happy were both excited: "Are you serious?! What is it?!"

Erza pointed to one of the lines of text: "It says here, 'Those who know the truth will be cursed!'"

"Huh?! A curse... Will we be cursed?!" Natsu and Happy were both stunned by Erza's words.

However, unlike the two who seemed to lack common sense, Erza was more composed, and thus simply said in a flat tone, "Who knows! But it seems Kira's guess was right; this place has indeed been enchanted with that kind of magic where 'different people can see different characters'!"

As she spoke, Erza handed the spellbook to Gray, saying, "It must have some kind of magic added to it, right? It's quite interesting!"

Gray took the book, glanced at it, and exclaimed in equal amazement, "This is amazing! I can actually understand this language?! It says here, 'The blizzard will gradually devour the imprisoned beast!'"

Happy was sweating profusely: "Natsu... I think we shouldn't continue investigating..."

Hearing his partner's advice, Natsu was both anxious and angry: "Damn it! Even Gray can understand a sentence, why can't I?!"

Erza was also quite surprised by Natsu's situation: "This is really strange!"

Gray scoffed, "Maybe it's because Natsu is an idiot that he can't understand it?"

"Huh?!" Natsu's anger increased by 1 point...

Sensing the tense atmosphere, Happy quickly tried to calm things down: "Hey... calm down, Natsu..."

But it's too late.

"In that case, no matter how many people I need, I'm determined to translate this book!" Natsu's body was wreathed in flames, his face showing even greater excitement. "I'm fired up!"

"Huh??!!"

Before parting, Erza reminded her, "I've never seen this kind of writing before. You could ask Levy!"

A single sentence jolted them awake, and Natsu and Happy suddenly realized, "Oh, right!"

Chapter 283 The Cursed Spellbook (2)

In the afternoon, Natsu and Happy were running around trying to find the "magic book they couldn't understand"...

library.

"Huh? Strange characters?!"

As if the scene were being reenacted, after listening to Natsu's story, Levy enthusiastically began to decipher the spellbook, but after working for more than half an hour and searching through all the books, she still couldn't find similar text.

"[Those whose shadows are stepped on will be pierced by a sword], that's all I saw."

Jet and Dorell, who were standing nearby, also came over and told what they had seen: [The person whose color was guessed will be punished with an axe] and [The person seen moving will be struck by ten thousand heavy hammers].

"What is this? Is it some kind of children's game of house?"

Just as Natsu and Happy were about to leave in disappointment, Levy suddenly said, "Perhaps Freed could understand special scripts?"

So the man and the cat returned to the guild and found their other companions. Without exception, no one could understand the writing, but each of them could understand a single sentence.

"Souls that cannot truly die will find refuge here."

"The chains bound them, causing them to perish together."

"The boundary between life and death will be broken."

"Misfortune can only be transferred, not eliminated."

"【The second stage of terror will begin after it gets wet】"

"Retribution will haunt you for life and bear the fruit of sin."