Hilda

Hilda is strict, stubborn, blunt, and unwilling to coddle the young women living at Fairy Hills. She expects mages to take accepted jobs seriously and has little sympathy for complaints once someone has agreed to work.

That severe manner conceals genuine affection. Hilda worries when the Fairy Tail women leave on dangerous missions and watches over them with the attitude of an irritable but dependable grandmother.

Her relationship with Erza demonstrates this particularly clearly. When Erza gives up a piece of costume jewelry so younger residents can have one, Hilda privately promises that she will someday give Erza real jewelry when she grows into a beautiful woman.

Hilda is not established as a combat mage and no conventional magic or fighting technique is attributed to her.

During Lucy's visit to Fairy Hills, however, Hilda appears and disappears without explanation while guiding her toward a hidden chest. This is possible because the Hilda Lucy encounters is her lingering spirit rather than a living resident of the dormitory.

Her importance lies in her connection to Fairy Hills and the women she cared for rather than any fighting ability.

Hilda posts an unregistered request asking a female outsider to find something she has misplaced at Fairy Hills. Lucy investigates and is immediately subjected to Hilda's eccentric rules, including being forced into a cat costume while searching.

Clues eventually lead Lucy into the attic, where she discovers a hidden box of jewelry. Erza then arrives and explains Hilda's importance to the dormitory.

The matron had died six years earlier after the carriage carrying her home from Shirotsume Town fell from a cliff. The Hilda guiding Lucy is therefore her spirit, which has remained concerned about the women she once looked after.

The jewelry fulfills a promise Hilda had made to Erza years earlier, allowing her affection for the dormitory's residents to be expressed long after the original promise was made.

Erza Scarlet regarded Hilda as the grandmother she never had. Hilda's hidden jewelry is closely connected to a promise she made to Erza when she was younger.

Lucy Heartfilia answers Hilda's mysterious request and eventually discovers what the former matron wanted found.

Levy McGarden, Evergreen, Laki Olietta, and other women associated with Fairy Hills belong to the community Hilda watched over as matron.