It was another regular day at Fairy Tail, Julius was not out on a quest and was instead at the guild… well not the guild but at the training grounds.

Before, the grounds was the training area of Julius and Gildarts. Whenever the two trained the guild members who had nothing to do would watch the spectacle with great fanfare. Now- well the same thing is happening right now.

Only this time Julius was the teacher and the student was Gildarts daughter.

Like her father, Cana had great potential and Julius was shocked when Cana successfully casted both star and moon magic. Although she gave up heavenly body magic as according to her it was, “a weaker version” of her own magic.

Julius did not deny or affirm her words though as he personally saw the potential of the star and moon magic that Cana wielded.

Due to her acceptance of her weakness and willingness to face Gildarts, she did not delve into fortune telling and card magic. Instead she focused on getting stronger and with guidance she now became a talent maybe even greater than or equal to Erza and Mira…

Such thoughts were swimming in the boys mind as he fought Cana. The little girl on the other hand noticed that Julius was not completely focused on their battle, this caused her to get a bit annoyed as she casted a magic that Julius banned-

She stopped her steps and stabilized her body, extending her palm towards Julius she quickly chanted. Her movements were smooth, agile and most importantly- quick-

“Stardust Blast Rain!”

Hearing Cana’s chant Julius snapped as he realized what kind of spell the little girl cast.

“Are you trying to kill me?!”

Julius screamed as he watched a huge magic circle appear below Cana, the power emanating from it made her skirt flutter. Fortunately she was wearing spats underneath which made sure that any sneaky lolicon could not get lucky today.

Unfortunately Julius was distracted ever so slightly by the sight of the fluttering skirt and the thought of possible lolicons that he was unable to put up defenses.

In the end Julius found himself surrounded by hundreds, maybe thousands of golden-white firefly-like lights. They looked very pretty and in fact they were enchanting to look at, especially at night. But Julius knew the danger these lights had, without second thought Julius drew out his chain which wrapped around his body.

It only took a split second and all the small lights shot towards Julius, a transparent geometric barrier surrounded Julius but the power of the spell really caused an uproar.

Every single light exploded with the enough force to knock out a normal mage, the amount of magic power needed to cast the spell should be near impossible for Cana to have but that was the trick of Star and Moon magic.

It had a long cast time shortened by the wizards mastery, but the long cast time was due to the method of spell casting. Unlike other spells that used raw magic power as energy to create magical phenomena, Star and Moon magic used the wizards magic power to manipulate the star and moon energy from the environmental ethernano.

But as powerful as this magic may sound, its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness.

The bombardment lasted for quite some time and soon all the lights disappeared, but just as it did the barrier that was being hit suddenly dissipated into a cloud of mist.

“That is-”

“Illusion! Cana-chan watch out!”

Hearing the audience’s words Cana quickly tried to move but when she did she realized that her feet were frozen.

Then before she could even make another move she felt a hand wrap around her shoulders as a soft voice whispered in her ears.

“Your spells are getting stronger by the day Cana~ But, now you need to get used to fighting smart~ You did not even realize that you were targeting a mist illusion”

Julius appeared behind Cana wrapping his arms around her shoulders. He did not cast magic to hurt her only to immobilize her. He then physically hugged her from behind instead of hitting her with physical or magical attacks.

After all, a gentleman would never attack a vulnerable lady. Though his action were quickly attacked by a series of teasing.

“Oh~ Lover Boy!”

“Cana-chan don’t fall for him! He’s only after your body!”

“What the hell are you teaching a kid?!”

“Hahahaha!”

Julius ignored the teasing as he canceled his magic that bound Cana’s feet. The little girl also ignored the teasing as she turned to look at Julius with a pout.

“Hmph!”

She did not say anything and simply turned her head in annoyance, her face still pouting in anger.

Seeing her act like this Julius sighed as he said-

“Come on Cana, I just-”

“You said no illusions!”

Julius was explaining himself when Cana suddenly went off on him. The boy simply accepted all her words as he did go against the rules. Initially they were sparring with Julius limited to only elemental magic.

But not only did he use his magic tool, he even used illusion magic, Cana was mad because she could have won that match. Yes, she was given an advantage but Julius was really an exception in terms of magical ability. 

Though Cana herself was no slouch either, at first Julius thought that he would spend time being a great teacher but who would have guessed that Cana had talent in a field of magic even he was not good at.

Julius had studied Star and Moon magic, heck he even learned Fairy Glitter but-

I guess talent does play a part.

He lamented endlessly, he was skilled in heavenly body magic. Heck, his Heavenly body magic could contend with Cana’s own Star and Moon Magic. But if Julius tried to use Cana’s spells, his casting was slower and less powerful which would make him lose.

Now as he thought about things he could only imagine what kind of power Cana’s Fairy Glitter would have in the future. Recalling the Stardust spells used by Cana a shiver ran down the boy’s back as he couldn’t help but imagine the power of such a spell in the girl's hands.

Well I guess I made a pretty BIG change in the timeline… now- how strong will Cana get in the future? Will she be on the level of Erza and Mira or will she surpass them? I guess only time will tell

With a satisfied smile on his face Julius continuously apologized to Cana as they walked back to the guild. The other guild members also followed as they began to talk about how Cana and Julius were bound to become S-class in the future. 

“Laxus, Julius and Cana… then adding Gildarts to the fray… in the future we’re going to have 4 S-class mages! Our guilds are gonna be the strongest!”

Someone exclaimed behind the two kids but they both ignored such remarks. For a while now the idea of Julius and Cana becoming S-class mages has been the talk of the guild.

Not to mention, Laxus who was already nearing that level, in a few years he was bound to take the S-class wizard exam and succeed.

But, what Julius did not consider was that Laxus, upon learning about the talents of his new relative, began to train even more seriously.

The angsty teen would take high difficulty jobs continuously as he spent most of his time outside the guild. Makarov was watching over his grandson and knew the thoughts in his mind.

At times Laxus would teach Julius only for him to be beaten by the kid in theoretical knowledge. Laxus knew where he was good and bad at, as such when he lost to Julius in the theoretical department he focused on training the boy the same way as Gildarts.

Although, since Laxus rarely had time to relax, he obviously had few opportunities to actually teach Julius.

Julius also did not notice the growing care that Laxus gave him, his talent was not a source of jealousy for Laxus as he instead took pride in his “little brother”.

Though it was quite a bothersome topic, the choice of Laxus to treat Julius as his little brother that is. 

After all, it was Makarov who adopted Julius, which technically means that Julius is more like a young uncle to Laxus than a “younger brother”.

But the two did not mind, Julius did not care about titles and Laxus also did not care who adopted Julius. All Laxus cared about was that Julius was now a Dreyar and one that was younger than him.

Such were the topics that the guild members gossiped and talked about as they headed for the guild but as they entered the door they heard the angry and lost words of a boy.

“What?! Ul cannot be returned to normal?!”

“sigh…Ul- she’s a famous ice mage, alas, her talents were superb… to think she would fall too soon”

“Ul she! She did not lose!”

Upon entering the guild hall Julius and the rest of the guild members witnessed a small black haired boy getting mad at Makarov. He screamed the name Ul repeatedly as he got made but- despite his show of anger, everyone could see the sorrow and despair in his expression.

Julius quickly tied two and two together and understood that the kid in front of him was Gray Fullbuster. One of the characters who experienced the most heartbreaking events throughout the story of Fairy Tail.

He lost the master, the child, his father- twice and almost lost the love of his life… Gray… sorry bro but I’m not gay. Though I will try to help you out-

With a resolute look in his eyes, Julius walked towards the depressed Gray Fullbuster as he, without any hesitation, punched the kid in the head.

“WHAT WAS THAT FOR YOU PUNK?!”

Gray quickly recovered and reacted as he turned towards Julius ready to fight but the boy simply gave Gray a disdainful look as he said.

“Tsk! You’re just a crybaby after all! You cry after a loss but don’t try to get stronger? Whoever Ul is, she’s probably regretting raising you right now!”

Hearing Julius’ words, Gray snapped as he did not even try to reason with the kid and directly gave him a punch.

“PUNK!”

Receiving the punch Julius was not thrown back and his face was simply turned to the side. Gray punched him with all his strength but it ended with nothing more than an attack that was almost just a slap.

Julius turned his head as he snickered.

“That’s all?!”

Gray almost snapped back to calm when he found Julius not reacting to his punch but the boy’s words caused his blood to rush to his head.

Seeing Gray go mad Julius smiled as he raised his fist to fight back this time as he said-

“Now that’s more like it!”

The two boys then went on to exchange blow after blow after blow. Julius did not use his battle instincts or much of his strength for that matter. If he was serious in this fight he would have pummeled Gray to the ground in seconds but he was not offending Gray to take a shot at him.

What Julius wanted was to make Gray calm his head and at the same time build a bond with the boy.

“IS THAT ALL YOU CAN DO?”

“YOU PUNCH LIKE A GIRL!”

“THE OLD LADY ACROSS THE STREET PUNCH BETTER THAN YOU!”

Used to being pummeled by Gildarts and sparring with adults, Julius’ body and abilities were trained to their peak. Although he was still seven years old he was already a pretty skilled combatant with a pretty powerful body.

His experience and training made it so that he could accept Gray’s full power punches while replying with his own weaker hits.

The two boys continued to fight for a few minutes until Gray lost strength, the boy fell on his knees and began to cry.

Gray Fullbuster, he was now on his knees crying. His wails were loud enough to resound throughout the guild but no one spoke against his noise.

Julius and Cana stood on the side silently waiting for Gray to calm down.

After who knows how long Gray finally calmed down. He silently stood up, walked towards Julius as he said in a low, almost inaudible voice-

“Thanks”

When he finished his words he slowly turned around and left the guild hall. When Gray was gone Makarov came to Julius as he asked.

“Why did you do that?”

To the guild masters question Julius gave an answer filled with mixed emotions as he replied.

“I wanted to stop the idiot from crying over things that were already done. From what I saw he was probably blaming himself for losing the person called, “Ul”. He seems to have talent and I could feel that he has a spirit that would go well with Fairy Tail… well I just wanted to help him come to his senses that’s all”

Hearing Julius’ answer, Makarov pondered silently for a moment before turning around and walking away. But as he was walking he spoke to Julius in a loud voice that resounded throughout the guild.

“Well if the kid comes back and joins the guild, he’s gonna be your responsiblity”

Makarov’s words snapped Julius back to reality as he looked towards the old man wanting to say something but he was already long gone.

Tsk- he got me good…

Julius lamented as he sat back down with an obvious look of annoyance on his face. 

Seeing this interaction, Cana who remained a simple observer since the start chuckled watching Julius get fooled by the guild master.