A Father’s Duty - Volume 1 Chapter 120 Past

Zeref appeared in a forest. He could feel the breeze of the air. He didn’t feel like it was an illusion either. He had lived for so long that he basically knew what was different between reality and illusion.

He started walking around with no set direction. He felt free, as if nothing’s restricting him. Suddenly, he heard footsteps.

He saw four figures running away from a magical beast and they are heading his way. Suddenly, the one running at the front saw Zeref and pulled his hands to run away. Zeref was stunned as he looked at the girl holding his hand and his emotions were being stirred.

“Come with us, the magical beast is dangerous! Run with all your might!” The girl said. She was running barefooted but she was the fastest of the four. Zeref wanted to pull away so that he would not kill the girl but his heart didn’t want to.

After running for about an hour or so, the magical beast finally stopped following them and Zeref breathed out a sigh of relief. Although he could use magic to kill the magical beast, he would hit everyone and they would be killed by his magic.

“Finally *huff* we finally escaped! *huff*” The girl in white said. Zeref looked at her with complicated gaze.

“Hey, Mavis, you told us that the trap would work! How did the magical beast escape?!” A man with a blonde hair said.

“Teehee~, miscalculation, Yuri. I thought it would be caught in the trap and be locked in place then we could use Warrod’s magic to lock it further then use Precht and your magic to defeat the magical beast.” Mavis said and explained the strategy to the team.

Zeref now knew what is happening, he knows that, soon, he would be teaching this four about magic.

He was reliving his memories. He was reliving his past.

The time sped up and finally, it was the time of separation. Zeref really thought at that time that Mavis really devised a way to remove their curse and finally die, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. In the end, only Mavis died while he is still alive. His emotions were stirred but he tried his best to not get overly emotional, but he still admitted to himself that Mavis was the only woman that made a mark on his heart. He knew that Noctis’ food brought him here to experience the feeling of reliving his memories once again.

When he opened his eyes one more, he was now in the same familiar tavern with a man smirking in front of him. He found Noctis irritating but he knew he could not do anything to him.

“Did the onion cutting ninja get you?” Noctis asked as he teased Zeref.

Zeref wiped his eyes in annoyance as he continued to enjoy the meal that was brought into him. When he was finished, he looked at the irritating Noctis and spoke.

“That was a good meal. I’ll think about your proposal.” Zeref said as he placed his payment in front of Noctis.

“Haha, be careful, the onion cutting ninja is everywhere.” Noctis laughed while Zeref felt frustrated seeing Noctis’ smug face. He wanted to punch his face personally but he couldn’t do so. He was simply outclassed in everything, every preemptive move he makes, Noctis would react. Be it holding his knife, straightening his fingers, Noctis would always react if he did something.

“But his food is indeed delicious.” Zeref claimed after leaving the door and looking through the starry sky.

“Now, the starry sky that we always watch, doesn’t hurt me that much now….” Zeref muttered as he remembered the nights where they would lie down and watch the beautiful scenery painted by nature in the sky. Zeref continued walking and occasionally, he would look up and enjoy the scenery that he used to despise since her death.

“Why…? was what he said earlier true? Onion cutting ninja, what the heck was that? Eh? Is it raining?” Zeref muttered as tears slowly poured out from his eye.

“How long has it been since my tears came out?” Zeref said as he wiped it down once more. He then chuckled about how foolish he looked right now. After calming himself down, he continued walking to the direction of Alvares.

.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, in the tavern, Noctis was cleaning up when two arms hugged him from behind.

“How was it my love? What did the two of you spoke about?” Irene said as she leaned on Noctis’ back.

“I didn’t know that your King was that emotional.” Noctis chuckled as he could tell how much he improved in his cooking and that was just the surface of it.

“Hm? What do you mean?” Irene asked but Noctis only smiled.

“We talked about forging an alliance but he said he’ll think about it.” Noctis said as he avoided Irene’s question.

“I see, then let me help you.” Irene said as she helped Noctis in cleaning the dishes.

After cleaning up, he carried Irene in his back and went up to their room. He noticed that Irene was worried about him and his meeting with Zeref but Noctis assured her that all is good and he is sure that he will hear an answer not too long from now.

While they were in bed, Irene slept while hugging Noctis while Noctis thinking deeply. He is wondering how would he be able to kill Gods and immortals. He only know how to kill with a sword and didn’t know how to kill such entities. He needs to kill that God before he proceed to form his plan and killing that God is crucial in his plan to return in time and come back to present.

Noctis thought about it for a while, hundreds of plans were forming in his mind as he thought inside and outside the box for a solution.

‘Looks like I’ll have to wait for the system’s upgrade before doing anything. Maybe it’ll provide me with what I need.’ Noctis thought as he looked at Irene sleeping peacefully beside him.

Noctis then thought about the tower of heaven and he thought of building a new house for Ram, Rem, and those that he would hire in the future. Boar’s hat is too small to fit large amounts of people. Thinking for a while, Noctis have fallen asleep under the arms of the peaceful night.