The moment Kabe saw how stirred Irene had become, he knew the matter was probably settled.
Before she could speak, he took the initiative and said first,
"Since I have provided you with such useful information, Lady Irene, should you not also show a little sincerity?"
"What do you want? Gold, status, power?
For the sake of the news you have brought me, no matter what it is, I can satisfy you."
In an excellent mood, Irene made her promise without hesitation.
As long as what he said later proved true, then with her current position and authority, granting him some reward would be nothing more than a trivial matter.
But Kabe merely smiled and shook his head at the conditions she offered. Then, under the astonished gazes of Irene and Brandish, he raised his hand and pointed directly at the two of them.
"I do not care about anything else. I want the two of you."
Irene lowered her eyes and glanced at her still tall, voluptuous figure, then lifted a hand to touch her face, which remained full of youthful radiance.
When she looked up again, there was suddenly a trace of pride in her expression.
'So after all these years, my charm has not faded in the slightest. I can still easily captivate young men of this age.'
Though she had no real intention of finding herself a partner, there was no woman who disliked seeing a man become enchanted by her beauty.
With that thought, Irene looked at the vigorous young man before her and gave a light laugh, then shook her head with visible regret.
"Although you are strong and handsome, I am sorry, but that is the one kind of request I must refuse."
In her arms, Brandish, still in her little rabbit form, also angrily perked up her ears and let out a string of indignant squeaks at Kabe, expressing her complete unwillingness.
Seeing that the two of them had clearly misunderstood something, Kabe fell silent for a moment before refining his meaning.
"What I mean is, I want you to leave Alvarez and return to Ishgar with me.
I believe you have already guessed it. Joining the Empire was only a pretext for sneaking into the capital.
My true purpose was to investigate the exact identities of the Empire's upper ranks.
But rather than painstakingly gather information bit by bit, it is much simpler to just take two high-ranking figures of the Empire back to Ishgar directly."
The smile on Irene's beautiful face immediately stiffened, and Brandish gradually stopped making noise as well.
Looking at the now silent woman and rabbit, Kabe kindly spoke again to keep the atmosphere from freezing over.
"Well? Are you willing to leave with me?
Irene, you were originally from Ishgar anyway. The only reason you chose to follow Zeref was because you believed he could help cure your Dragonization.
Now that you have a better lead, there is no need for you to stay in this country any longer.
And Brandish, the same goes for you. Your mother died in Ishgar. Do you not want to go back and see the place where she once lived?"
As those words fell, Irene's reaction was calm enough, but the white rabbit in her arms suddenly began struggling violently.
"Interesting. You even know something about Brandish's past. It seems the secrets you carry are even greater than I imagined."
As she spoke, Irene bent down and placed Brandish on the sofa beside her.
At the same time, she casually snapped her fingers. In the next second, the transformation magic was undone. A burst of white light flashed, and Brandish returned to her original form.
Before she could even feel happy about becoming human again, Brandish urgently demanded,
"You know how my mother died? She was killed by Layla Heartfilia, was that it?!"
Although Brandish had grown up in Alvarez, her mother, Grammi, had been from Ishgar.
In the past, she had also been one of Lucy's mother Layla's servants, and had been entrusted with the Gold Celestial Spirit Key of Aquarius.
One day during Brandish's childhood, Grammi suddenly received a letter from the eastern continent.
She hurriedly packed her things and told Brandish to stay home obediently and wait for her return, then left for Ishgar.
But once she left, Grammi never came back.
The young Brandish had always remembered that it was Layla who had called her mother away.
And so, the seed of suspicion had been planted in her heart against Layla Heartfilia.
But the truth was this.
At the time, Layla urgently needed to gather all twelve Zodiac keys in order to open the Eclipse Gate.
However, because Grammi was far away on the western continent and communication was difficult, Layla was unable to obtain the Aquarius key on the very day the Eclipse Gate had to be opened.
In the end, she had no choice but to use her own life force in its place and force the gate open.
Because of that, Layla's already frail body developed severe magic deficiency, and her condition worsened even further.
When Grammi finally arrived long after the fact, she was overcome with guilt.
But Layla's other servant, Zoldeo, placed all the blame on Grammi instead.
His heart twisted by hatred, he murdered Grammi while she was saying farewell to Layla and preparing to return to the western continent.
Afterward, that servant named Zoldeo even used forbidden magic to seize the body of Capricorn, one of the Zodiac Spirits.
In the end, he became one of the three great powers of the dark guild world, one of the Seven Kin of Purgatory under Grimoire Heart.
Kabe concealed the matter of the Eclipse Gate itself, but briefly explained the overall truth to Brandish.
After learning the real cause of her mother's death, Brandish was overwhelmed by fury, shock, and grief all at once.
"Take me back. I will kill that bastard with my own hands and avenge my mother!"