A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

Finance and economics, military management, cultural dissemination, magical development... she has many choices.

But King Thomas did all of this very well!

After a long period of observation, Princess Emerald discovered that her father was far more capable than herself in every aspect. He handled the affairs of the kingdom almost flawlessly, and even if there were any, these flaws had been disappearing one by one in recent years. By the time he abdicated, they would probably all be gone.

Princess Emerald knew that her father was paving the way for her, hoping that she would have an easier time managing the kingdom in the future.

But... this is not what she wanted!

Princess Emerald was an ambitious woman who wanted to prove herself, but King Thomas had done everything he could, leaving her with only a smooth road ahead.

"Then I'll become useless?"

"I am the princess of this kingdom, the future queen, and I absolutely cannot be a useless coward who only knows how to lie down!"

"If I can't make this country better, why should I be in this position?"

Since political matters are not an option, we can only try to address the issue from the magical world!

Princess Emerald quickly identified her target.

Chapter 620 Emerald Princess: Destroy Zeref, and I will be a hero!

Princess Emerald was also a mage herself. Although she was not very strong, she knew some magic, which was the only thing she felt she was better at than her father.

So she gradually turned her attention to the dark guilds within the kingdom: "If I wipe out all the dark guilds, or even just take down their leaders, wouldn't that be a great achievement?"

The Dark Guild is the biggest cancer in the magical world of the Kingdom of Fiore. Among them, the most powerful guild, 'Heart of the Demon,' has been entrenched in the kingdom for half a century and is the best stepping stone for her to prove her abilities.

Everything is just waiting for her to come of age!

Coincidentally, in the year Princess Emerald turned eighteen, namely X784, the 'Balam Alliance' was established, and a seemingly unique opportunity came her way.

Unfortunately, the 'Baram Alliance' was gone after only one year; opportunities are indeed fleeting.

First, the newly established dark guild 'Oración Seis' was wiped out by the Allied Forces. Then, the largest dark guild 'Heart of the Devil' and another mysterious dark guild 'Tarfreuts' disappeared in the war with 'Fairy Tail'. She didn't have time to participate in any of these events.

I've missed my best opportunity!

Princess Emerald also set her sights on Acnologia.

Acnologia is the world-destroying dragon recorded in the Book of Revelation. If it can be defeated, the title of "Emerald Princess" will become legendary, recorded in history, and her name will be passed down for eternity.

Acnologia is a rare sight, and when it finally appears, it is defeated by Fairy Tail—and this defeat comes along with news of the destruction of Tartaros and Heart of Tartaros—after which it disappears without a trace.

I've lost my chance again!

If both of these plans were merely her own wishful thinking, plans that failed before they even began, and therefore could not be considered failures, falling within an acceptable range, then the last one completely irritated the princess's heart.

In early X785, she represented the Fiore royal family on a diplomatic mission to a neighboring country to establish relations, but was attacked by resistance forces and nearly lost her life. Had she not brought two of the Ten Wizard Saints (Jura and Kira) with her, she might have become a beastman under the resistance forces of the neighboring country, a hostage threatening the Kingdom of Fiore.

In Princess Emerald's eyes, this was an indelible stain on the man who would one day inherit the throne.

Every time she thinks about it, she feels so ashamed that she wants to disappear. In the middle of the night, she tosses and turns, unable to fall asleep, or suffers from nightmares caused by evil spirits.

Endless shame, inferiority, regret, anger, and resentment nourished the 'dark flower' deep within her heart, as terrifying as the whispers of a demon. These emotions gradually eroded the princess's soul, leading her into the abyss of darkness.

Although she still appears glamorous, gentle, approachable, and well-behaved, her heart begins to become ugly, twisted, dull, arrogant, proud, and impatient.

She fell into depravity, but... not completely!

Although an accident occurred during her mission to a neighboring country, which prevented the mission from being completed perfectly, her performance throughout the entire mission was flawless!

She's just losing her composure and intelligence because she's so eager to prove herself; she's become impatient and foolish, not a complete villain!

Princess Emerald, taking advantage of the fact that she saved his life, recruited Jellal and his group under the pretext of "cancelling their sins," making them part of the royal special magic guild "Witch's Sin," and at the same time made a three-year agreement.

Besides trying to salvage her image, there was another reason for this move: after seeing their strength, she felt that the knights and guards maintained by the royal family were too weak!

If she wants to prove herself as a qualified queen, a powerful private magic squad is essential! As for whether this squad belongs to the royal family or to her, it doesn't matter to Princess Emerald!

That's why he set his sights on Jellal, a young, powerful mage with a weakness, who wasn't inherently evil, and whom he had met several times.

As Princess Emerald had predicted, during the year of X785, 'The Sin of the Witch' did indeed accomplish a great deal of work for her—all legitimate work, of course—which earned her a highly regarded reputation among the people.

But she wasn't satisfied with that!

Until one day, by chance, she discovered that her father, King Thomas, was preparing a shocking plan called: Project Eclipse!

Princess Emerald still remembers seeing a huge iron gate deep inside the palace when she was very young.

The iron gate has a unique design and its material is unknown. The most special thing about it is that it has twelve keyholes, and anyone who gets close to it will have their magic power disrupted.

She immediately went to her father, King Thomas, and asked him about the purpose of the iron gate, but Thomas only replied that "it is something our ancestors instructed us to preserve, called the Gate of Eclipse."

Until July 7th, X777, a beautiful woman with long, flowing blonde hair, elegant manners, and gentle demeanor came to their door.

Princess Emerald overheard King Thomas's conversation with the woman and learned that her name was Leila, a descendant of the Hatfilia family, and that her purpose was to open the Gate of Eclipse according to her ancestors' instructions. King Thomas agreed.

That night, a lunar eclipse occurred, five shooting stars streaked across the night sky, and five large holes appeared in the palace ceiling. A woman who looked seven parts like Leila walked out of the holes.

After that, Princess Emerald continued to eavesdrop and learned that the other party came from four hundred years ago and came to this era in order to defeat Acnologia. After that, she knew nothing more.

But since then, King Thomas and Princess Emerald have learned one thing: the Eclipse Gate passed down in their family has the power to travel through time!

Princess Emerald had long forgotten about the matter, but the plan she accidentally discovered in King Thomas's study brought back her childhood memories.

Through King Thomas's manuscript, she learned that this was a plan to travel through time and rewrite history!

The main mission of the Eclipse Project is to go back in time and kill Zeref, the most evil dark mage in the world, before he grows up!

After reviewing the entire plan, Emerald E. Fiore suddenly realized that this was the best opportunity to prove herself.

Throughout history, perhaps no one has ever been more courageous, insightful, bold, or determined than his father!

Zeref, the Dark Mage, is a genius who became world-renowned four hundred years ago and whose talent is unparalleled. He is a peak that no one in the entire magical world can surpass.

He created thousands of dark magics and demons throughout his life, and to this day, in this world and in this kingdom, there are still believers of his.

After a long period of intelligence gathering, consulting ancient texts, and reading folk tales, Princess Emerald learned a great deal about Zeref's deeds:

He created the demon lair of the most mysterious dark guild in the Kingdom of Fiore, 'Gate of the Underworld';

He was once the follower of the largest dark guild in the Kingdom of Fiore, 'Heart of the Devil';

The Tower of Paradise, which he once built in the Kingdom of Fiore, is the resurrection magic 'R System' he left behind;

Acnologia, known throughout the world as the 'Black Dragon of Annihilation,' is his creation; Deliora, the demon who attacked a village, and Lalabai, the demon who attacked the council meeting, are also demons he created.

……

Whether big or small, more or less, real or fake, all the people, things, and events related to Zeref have been collected by the Fiore royal family.

The more Princess Emerald learned about this, the more alarmed and agitated she became.

I was horrified because Zeref truly lived up to his reputation as the most terrifying dark mage in history, with such a wide-ranging and profound influence.

The excitement stems from the fact that the Fiore royal family can use the solar eclipse to accomplish the feat of killing Zeref!

Once Zeref dies, the 'Tartars', the 'Devil's Heart', Acnologia, and the R-System will all cease to exist!

If she were to accomplish this, she would become the greatest person in the world!

Because she destroyed Zeref!!!

Perhaps by then, the people of this world will have completely forgotten everything about Zeref, and the world will not be the way it is now. It will still retain the age of dragons, without the Kingdom of Fiore, and perhaps even without him...

But none of that matters!

It's all worth it if it's to eliminate Zeref!

Although no historical records document everything the Fiore royal family did for the world, and no one knows that there once existed a princess who sacrificed her life to eliminate evil dark mages and bring happiness to the world, but...

Who says only those who stand in the light are heroes?

It wouldn't be so bad to be an unknown heroine who doesn't exist in history!

Moreover, she proved her abilities!

Even though her magic is mediocre and she is physically weak, she has a brain, courage, and the determination to fight against darkness at all costs. It is no exaggeration to say that she is comparable to the gods in her mortal form!

From that day on, Princess Emerald became completely absorbed in the Fiore royal family's eclipse plan!

Chapter 621 We still don't know the name of the stone statue we saw that day.

The night was cool and still, and dark clouds obscured the moon, making the entire Kurokas region much darker than usual.

Suddenly, several figures darted out of the inn and moved westward toward Crocus under the moonlight, soon reaching the foot of the mountain.

To the west of Crocus lies the mountain in the original work where the Grand Magic Games were held. It is over a thousand feet high and is connected to the royal capital by a suspension bridge at its waist. The distance between the two places is about one-fifth of the diameter of the royal capital.

The most striking feature on the mountain is the four enormous rock sculptures atop the summit.

Using these four statues as the four corners, the Fiore royal family built a huge square arena on the mountain peak, which was about one-third the size of the royal palace, Marculias, and the audience seats alone were enough to accommodate tens of thousands of spectators.

"Wow, it's huge!!"

"Wow, it's so high!!"

Under the moonlight, Natsu and the others looked up at the towering, majestic mountain peaks, each one astonished.

Where is this place?

"Legend has it that this is a gladiatorial arena built by the Fiore royal family based on an ancient battlefield. Countless corpses of those who died on the battlefield are buried beneath it, and even now, spirits still haunt this place!"

"A ghost?!" Lucy's face turned pale with fright upon hearing this.

Erza looked at Lucy, puzzled. "What are you afraid of? It's just a ghost, hasn't you seen one before?"

"Please!! No normal person has ever seen something like that before?!"

"But Magnolia has many ghosts."

"That's right... There are mages in the guild who can control ghosts and talk to them."

Natsu and Happy were equally fearless and discussed the topic with great enthusiasm.

"Huh?! Really?!" Lucy was utterly shocked. "What kind of place did I live in before?!"

"I remember Biguslo's dolls were like this, right? And Kiko, her magic is about controlling ghosts..."