The Monarch and the Celestial Princess

Lucy Heartfilia thought it would be just another solo mission.

She was wrong.

When a mission goes horribly wrong and Lucy finds herself facing an enemy far beyond her strength, she is saved by a mysterious man named **Kael Draven**-a powerful stranger who commands an army hidden within the shadows.

Their first meeting should have been their last.

Instead, fate continues bringing them together.

Mission after mission, conversations beside quiet campfires turn into friendship, trust, and eventually something neither of them expected. Before they part, Kael secretly places one of his Shadow Soldiers within Lucy's shadow with a simple command:

**Protect her.**

But Lucy keeps Kael's existence hidden from Fairy Tail.

To Natsu, Erza, Gray, and the others, Lucy's mysterious disappearances are nothing more than ordinary missions.

Until the Alvarez Empire invades Fiore.

Fairy Tail stands surrounded, wounded and exhausted, facing an army they may no longer have the strength to defeat.

And then...

Something moves inside Lucy Heartfilia's shadow.

For the first time, Fairy Tail is about to discover the secret Lucy has been keeping.

Because the girl who commands the stars has never truly been walking alone.

**Wherever Lucy's shadow goes... the Shadow Monarch is never far behind.**