14. Independence

2 months after Deliora's death, Alex finally tells everyone his intention to leave on a journey. He can't learn magic from Ur because he unsurprisingly has no talent for Ice Magic.

There aren't many books to study about magic too in the town, so he can't learn anything anymore if he stays there.

He has learned how to read and write the language used in Ishgar. He also has learned many common things and even uncommon things related to Mages, so he is sure he will be fine.

But Ultear is opposed to his plan to leave for a journey. Ur, Gray, and Lyon don't have any problem though because they know there's nothing Alex can learn anymore here, so gaining real world experience is what he needs the most now.

It's really hard to convince Ultear who says she wants to follow him if he leaves. So in the end, he agrees to stay for 3 more months to spend time with her before leaving.

"She is really attached to you."

Ur smiles seeing Ultear sleep while hugging Alex after he agrees to stay for 3 more months.

"Well, I was her only friend when we were in that place and I even sent her home then we live together for a few months. She must have thought of me as her older brother."

"Ara, seems like Ultear will need to work hard in the future."

"Hmm? Isn't that obvious? The world is dangerous, so she needs to keep working hard and get stronger."

"... Sigh, I hope you will learn a lot of things in your journey."

"That's the purpose of my journey though?"

Ur doesn't know how to respond to that, so she just giggles while thinking that he is indeed still too young to understand this issue.

Then in the next 3 months, Alex spends more time with Ultear. More like she doesn't leave him alone even when they bathe.

Luckily, Alex's mentality is still that of a child even though he has memories of his past life. Those memories are just like dreams for him, after all, so they don't really affect his mentality.

Well, even if that's not the case, he can only see Ultear as a kid being attached to her older brother so there's nothing happening between them.

Even if Ur gets naked in front of him, Alex won't show any reaction like if he is an adult male. Instead, he will frown seeing how she is showing a bad example to the kids.

A cool looking sword will make him more excited than any sexy woman's naked body. After all, he is just a boy who still doesn't have any interest in the opposite sex and still wants to play like a boy he is.

Anyway, for the next 3 months, he underwent more intense training from Ur. While Ur can't teach him magic, she can teach him real combat skills through battles.

She is indeed one of the candidates for the 10 Wizard Saints. Alex just can't hope to defeat her in their daily battle even after going all out.

Through their battles, Alex can familiarize himself more with Shukaku's and Matatabi's abilities. He also starts developing his own battle style that can utilize the different abilities of his Tailed Beasts.

Ur doesn't just teach him how to fight, but also how to survive in wilderness. Mages often needs to stay in the wild for days when doing jobs, so survival abilities are important.

It will be especially important for Alex who plans to go on a solo journey. He will need to camp and hunt for food in the wild every once in a while, so he needs to learn this kind of thing seriously.

3 months later, the time for Alex to depart has finally come. He has packed a lot of things for his journey. Well, Ultear packed a lot of things for him until he carried a backpack bigger than an adult now.

"Isn't this too much to carry?"

"No! You need to have at least this much. All of these are important things to have for a long journey."

"But don't you think there are too many clothes?"

"You need at least that many to stay clean. I actually wanted to pack more, but mom said it would be too many. So you need to keep washing your clothes every day to stay clean! Hygiene is important to prevent you from getting sick!"

Ultear keeps telling Alex a lot of things as if she is a mom sending her son to a school trip for the first time. She only stops when Ur tells her that it's enough.

"Then, see you in the future, everyone. I will visit every once in a while."

"Alex! Next time I will win."

"I will defeat him first."

Gray and Lyon are bickering as they send Alex off.

"Take care of yourself, Alex."

"Call us using that crystal ball every day!"

"Every day is a bit.... Well, I'll contact you often."

Alex finally leaves after bidding his farewell to everyone. He descends the snowy mountain and goes to a nearby town as his first destination.

"Gray and Lyon plan to be independent soon too. They would've done it already if everything happened exactly as the story. But things have changed, so now they will stay with Ur longer before going their own ways. I wonder if Gray will still go to Fairy Tail and Lyon will go to Blue Pegasus. Oh, wait! Lyon didn't join Blue Pegasus until that fight with Gray, right? Well, I'll just see how it goes. I'm also curious about what will Ultear do."

Rather than them, Alex should be more concerned about himself. He still hasn't had any clear destination and plan except for hunting strong magical creatures to unseal the Tailed Beasts.

This is year X774 and almost X775, so it will be a little more than 2 years before the Dragon Slayers come through the Eclipse Gate.

Alex has noted everything he could remember from the story although he couldn't remember everything.

"Eclipse Gate, huh? It was opened by Lucy's mother, right? But there was a big problem that would endanger her life or something if I'm not wrong."

Too bad, Alex can't remember that problem.

"Why are you thinking hard about it? Do you want to get involved in that scenario, Alex-san?"

Matatabi asks him with her usual polite tone as he tries to remember what happened during the opening of Eclipse Gate at year X777 while he camps in the forest.

"I don't know. It's just that I know a lot of things that will happen in the future based on the story. But it makes me think if I really need to be involved with those events. Getting involved with Ultear and co was inevitable because of the circumstances, but now I can make choices."

"Are you worried about changing the future?" Matatabi seems to know Alex's worry.

"Yeah, if I keep changing the characters' pasts, then the future will change too. But then my knowledge of the future will disappear."

Butterfly effects, changes in the future events. Alex is worried if he changes things now, then the future he knows will disappear and he won't know anything that will happen.

He won't mind if the changes are good, but if the changes are bad, then the world might perish. After all, the changes he makes will also affect Zeref and Acnologia.

Those changes might make Acnologia or Zeref succeed in their plan instead, that's what Alex is worried about if he makes changes.

"Heh, you are still a kid, after all, even with that knowledge." Shukaku looks at Alex while smirking smugly with a mocking gaze.

"I am a kid." Alex doesn't understand Shukaku's mocking gaze and just answers honestly, making Shukaku drop a sweat.

"That's not what I mean... Well, whatever. Anyway, you are thinking of something useless, kid. Just your existence alone has changed this world's fates. You also have changed the story's important events, right? So why afraid of making more chances? It's not like everything will go as it is in the story even if you do nothing."

"Shukaku is right. The future is something we never know. What you know might change even without you doing anything, so why not use that knowledge of the future as your guide? However, you shouldn't rely on them too much because things can be different from what you know."

"You have already got inside the water, so why not dive deeper? Use what you know to your advantage until you can use them again. Most importantly, just do whatever you want. You just need to get stronger and you won't be afraid of anything that might happen in the future."

"Remember, Alex-san. You have us. We don't know how strong we are compared to Dragons because we never even see them, but we believe that you can get stronger than them with us here."

Alex's eyes widened as he realizes that he is thinking of something useless.

"Right. If I'm worried about the future problems, then I just need to be strong enough to destroy those problems. Then, let's just do whatever I want to do."

His journey finally truly starts with a strong conviction.

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Ch. 64: Take Over Siblings