12.

Alvarez empire

A woman could be seen training soldiers in the military. She had a beautiful scarlet hair that was flying alongside the wind as she stood valiantly making sure that the soldiers did their best even in training.

2 woman arrived in front of Irene and told her that her presence is needed alongside the other spriggans. The two are Juliet Sun and Heine Lunasea. They are swords enchanted by Irene to accompany her in her loneliness. The swords were enchanted to be a human being, gave them a lifelike appearance as well as personality settings to go along with their magic.

Juliet's magic is Mucus magic while Heine's is Black band and lightning magic. The two are referred as the white and black angel of the Irene squad. It is also said that when the two fought alongside each other, opponents would have a hard time defeating them.

"Master, your presence is needed in the meeting room." Heine said

"That's right!~ Also can you continue yur story about the valiant man you spoke about?" Juliet said which earned her a stern reply from Heine.

"What are you doing, Juliet?! Why are you bothering the mistress?" Heine said but Irene waved her off.

They walked back inside after she waved the soldiers to wrap up their training.

While on their way to the meeting room, she had been telling them about the love of her life. The stupid man who sacrificed his own magic circuits just to save a dragon like her. She stopped being a human even after she transformed back into one but with Noct's persuasion, she stopped bothering whether she is a dragon or a human.

In the original, she hated being a dragon and tried different ways to turn herself back into a human. She enchanted her dragon scales to turn back into a human skin, but that didn't satisfy her. She wants to be a complete human. Then she had a crazy notion, what if she enchanted herself to her child? Wouldn't that mean she would be reborn as a complete human, without a dragon blood that she hated.

But in this timeline, she have met Noctis, who sacrificed his magic circuits who healed her and made her scales retract back and only the scales in parts no one could see were the one remaining. Even after being weakened greatly, he still helped Irene as he covered her with a cloth and carried her in his back and went back to their inn.

Also in this timeline, her crazy mind had been healed by Noct's forbidden spell so she won't have a notion to transfer herself to Erza's body, though in the original, she used it as an excuse to keep herself from being completely insane. Instead of fighting Erza, she opted for a suicide.

Now she got curious about the man. As to why the man had the gall to sacrifice his future for an opponent that almost took his life.

And this is a trap. A woman's curiosity, paired with the man's stupidity... is a trap, a big trap. Noctis nursed her back into full health without resting himself. That shows the endurance of his body even after being weakened, he can still do menial jobs such as taking care of her.

They spoke with each other while she is recuperating, and the time had come for her to leave, she told her if he needed help, to seek her out as she owe him more than once. Though when she was about to leave his house, she felt heart-wrenching pain and couldn't help but look back towards the man who helped her in her dire needs.

When she looked back, she heard a thud as she saw Noctis lying on the ground, having a hard time breathing. That's when it hit her. Emotions flooded herself as she ran back to help him and had him lie down on the same bed she used when she is recuperating.

She felt like she is an idiot. There is no way for a man to carry on for a few days of being weakened and still tended to her without resting himself. When she regained her full powers back, it is easier for her to heal him... the only problem was his magic circuits is wrecked. She can't enchant Noctis to heal jim because it would only harm him more than heal him. Having no other choice, it was her turn to nurse him back to full health.

Remembering those days, she can't help but feel longing for Noctis. When she became a spriggan under Zeref's army, she used her power to search for Noctis and her daughter, Erza, but all efforts are in vain. She received a report that the surrounding villages near the place where they first lived together were burned down to the ground and said that adults are killed while childrens were taken as slaves.

This made her angry and worried at the same time. She didn't know what happened to her husband and daughter, but she believes. Believes in fate that they will meet again.

What she didn't know is that, they would meet again sooner than she expected. And when I said sooner, it is unexpectedly soon.

She entered the meeting room and let Juliet and Heine manage the squad in her absence. In the meeting room, Zeref spoke about this year's goal as he offered some suggestions. After speaking, he asked others if they have any other suggestions to which Irene raised her hand.

"Why don't we offer lower taxes for those who chose us to be the priority? This would help us gain provisions for our army and would encourage other peasants to sell their crops to us, which in turn we can control the prices of the commodity by raising the price of the crops a little bit to earn money in maintaining the army." She finished saying her piece as the other spriggans kept on debating as they said it was indeed good.

Seeing the reactions of the spriggans Zeref nodded his head and praised Irene.

"I don't deserve such praise your majes...ty" She stopped before she completed her sentence.

As a dragon, her sense of smell transcends the range of human senses. And what she smelled... a smell she knows far too well. Even though there are other things clogging her sense of smell, she could still remember the fragrance of the man as it intoxicated her.

When the meeting was adjourned, Irene was the first one to rush out of the room. As she kept muttering a name called Noctis.

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In the earthland map, there are no indications as to where Alakitasia is, only mentioning that it is in the western continent that I have no effing clue where, that's why I filled a continent northwest of Fiore, with wasteland of death as the buffer zone so that I have an idea as to where Alvarez empire resides.