Chapter 44
"Erza, how does that feel?"
"It hurts a little, but I can endure it. You can go faster."
"All right. Then I won’t hold back."
"Ugh—AAAAAH!"
Hearing such alarmingly questionable dialogue coming from Marshall’s room, Mira—who had only just returned from a job—could no longer restrain herself.
She slammed the door open.
"What are you two doing in here?! Huh?"
Marshall was hovering in midair, wearing a white laboratory coat so long that it nearly swallowed his entire body.
He held a notebook in one hand, while several pens floated nearby, automatically recording data.
Erza was lying on an intricately designed reclining chair in nothing but shorts and a sleeveless top.
Numerous Eastern characters had been imprinted across her body, and she was groaning in pain.
Mira recognized the experiment immediately.
It was the same one Marshall had subjected her to two days earlier!
"Mira, you’re back." Marshall glanced over casually. "We’re conducting the twenty-second human trial of the Fully Autonomous Body-Conditioning Script Enchantment System. Are you interested in joining us?"
Mira stared at him.
"???"
"I was gone for two days! How have you already conducted more than twenty tests?!"
’Damn it! How did this happen?! I was here first! I was the first person who helped Marshall with his experiments! Erza, you shameless thief!’
"..."
Marshall always struggled to keep a straight face whenever he heard Mira’s thoughts.
He turned toward her with a distinctly malicious smile.
"Would you like to participate? Running comparative tests on two subjects should accelerate my research considerably."
"I... Well... I..."
Mira instinctively shrank back.
The memories of her nightmarish experience two days earlier flooded into her mind, and some of the color drained from her face.
Erza, meanwhile, answered with unwavering determination.
"This is an extremely important experiment. If it succeeds, its significance will be enormous. We’ll be able to use every spare moment to become stronger."
She clenched one fist.
"I intend to do everything in my power to help Marshall complete his research."
Mira’s face immediately flushed with anger.
Why was someone who came later acting so superior?
Whatever happened, she refused to lose to Erza!
"I’ll join too!"
"Oh?" Marshall’s smile widened. "You aren’t frightened anymore, Mira-nee?"
"F-Frightened? Who’s frightened?!" Mira threw her head back and squeezed her eyes shut, looking as though she were marching toward her execution.
"I’ve never been afraid of anything! Use whatever methods you want!"
She pointed dramatically toward Erza.
"And give me twice as many runes as her!"
"Hehe. I’ll always remember Mira-nee’s noble contribution. Everything we do is for the advancement of magic~"
Marshall looked around the room.
"It’s too cramped in here, though. Let’s move to the other laboratory."
He slipped his hands into his pockets and used magic to lift Erza and the entire reclining chair into the air.
He then enveloped all three of them in magic power and activated an area-wide spatial transfer.
The next moment, they appeared inside another pure-white room.
A second reclining chair stood nearby.
"You can teleport people without touching them now?" Mira asked.
"It only costs slightly more magic power. It isn’t anything impressive."
Mira examined the spotless white room.
"Where are we?"
"Deep in the eastern forest, somewhere Grandma Porlyusica can’t find."
Marshall’s expression soured.
"When we went into the woods to drain vitality from the trees two days ago, she caught us and beat us up."
"So I built this laboratory far away from her. Our experiments require large amounts of vitality, and it’s much more convenient to conduct them inside a forest."
"Porlyusica?" Mira asked. "Who’s that?"
"A highly skilled pharmacist," Erza answered earnestly. "She also made my artificial eye."
"She’s Master’s old crush," Marshall added.
"Oh~ I see."
"..."
Erza’s expression became strange.
"Marshall, that was extremely disrespectful!"
"She should try acting her age, then. How could she bring herself to hit someone as adorable as me?"
"Lady Porlyusica is your teacher in pharmacology. You should show her proper respect."
"I’ve abandoned medicine to pursue literature. Script Magic is far more useful than potions. The past is the past—let us never speak of it again."
"You!" Erza stared at him accusingly. "Have you been learning bad habits from Mira?"
Mira had been listening to their argument with quiet envy.
She wished she could have been part of Marshall’s earlier life too.
Then Erza suddenly dragged her into the conversation, and Mira’s already flushed face nearly began smoking.
"Hah?! What’s that supposed to mean, you bitch? Do you want to fight?!"
"I’m merely stating the facts. Before you joined Fairy Tail, Marshall was always a well-behaved child."
Erza looked deeply disappointed.
"Now he insults his teacher behind her back! I have every reason to suspect you corrupted him."
"You—You...!"
Mira had been about to shout that Erza was an idiot.
Marshall had far more wicked ideas than she did.
If anything, he was the one corrupting everyone else!
Then another thought occurred to her.
’Wait. This idiot doesn’t know Marshall’s true personality?’
Mira nearly laughed aloud.
’Then I’ve already won by a landslide! What could she possibly use to compete with me?’
"Hmph! So what if I did?" Mira declared proudly. "Of course Marshall and I are close! Who would want to spend time with a stiff, muscle-brained gorilla like you?"
She placed one hand on her chest.
"I’m Marshall’s closest big sister!"
Erza’s eyebrows rose sharply.
"Your personality is terrible, Mira! Marshall is still a child. I expect you to stop teaching him bad habits."
Her gaze hardened.
"Otherwise, as Marshall’s most responsible sister, I’ll have no choice but to keep you away from him."
"Heh. Go ahead and try! Do you honestly think I’m afraid of you?"
"You’ll regret this, Mirajane!"
"I’m his real big sister, Erza!"
"..."
Marshall watched the two girls argue over him with great interest.
Far from panicking, he was thoroughly entertained.
As long as the flames did not spread to him, he quite enjoyed watching women fight.
Unfortunately, they still had work to do.
It was time to calm them down.
"All right, all right. Both of my big sisters should stop arguing. We still have experiments to conduct."
Marshall smiled sweetly.
"If you truly want to compete, why don’t you test your willpower instead?"
His eyes curved into cheerful crescents.
"We can see which of you lasts longer during the experiments~"
It was a spectacularly heartless suggestion.
Unfortunately, Erza and Mira could see only each other.
"Fine!"
"Who’s afraid of you?!"
Apparently, they cared even more about defeating one another than they did about Marshall.
He was delighted!
Where else could he find such energetic and enthusiastic little... volunteers?
The experiments were not truly dangerous, but they were undeniably painful.
Marshall sincerely appreciated their sacrifices.
Otherwise, he would have needed to endure all that pain himself.
Their contributions would never be forgotten!
"Then let’s begin immediately~"
...
Three months later, inside the white laboratory in the forest...
"Script Magic: Injury. Script Magic: Heal. Script Enchantment."
Marshall wrote two characters in the air, one glowing bloodred and the other a soft green.
The red character settled against Erza’s chest, while the green one sank into her back.
Together, they formed a unique, repeating magical cycle inside her body.
One slowly damaged muscle tissue throughout her body, while the other consumed stored vitality to repair that damage.
The spell rotated through predetermined muscle groups at fixed intervals, systematically damaging and rebuilding each section to produce the effects of carefully planned physical training.
Fully automatic, one-button activation, perfect for passive training.
A blessing for lazy people everywhere.
This was the ultimate magic Marshall had named: Script Enchantment: Fully Autonomous Body-Conditioning System.
"How does it feel?"
Erza rose from the reclining chair and carefully examined the changes within her body.
After a moment, she opened her eye with satisfaction.
"Very good. There’s a faint tingling sensation, but it isn’t particularly painful. The magic consumption is also low enough that it won’t interfere with everyday activity."
She smiled.
"Marshall, you succeeded."
"I’d say I’m only halfway there."
Marshall began organizing the documents.
"This spell isn’t universally applicable. To use it safely, I need detailed information about the target’s body."
"It can’t be applied casually like ordinary Enchantment Magic. At the moment, I can only design this system for the two of you."
He finished storing the files, then climbed onto the reclining chair himself.
"Come on. Help me collect my physical data."
"My body is much weaker than either of yours, so I’ll probably need to design an entirely different version."
"We’ve already succeeded twice," Erza said. "The process should become smoother from here."
Pop~
A magic circle beside them suddenly lit up.
Mira appeared above it, holding a card in one hand.
"I’m back~ I brought lunch!"
She looked toward Erza.
"Oh? Did Erza’s version succeed too?"
The card she had used was a Card Magic: One-Way Teleportation Card.
To make traveling to the laboratory deep in the forest easier, Marshall had combined Enchantment Magic, Card Magic, and Spatial Magic to create his own version of a return scroll.
Activating the card instantly transported its user to the designated location.
It was extremely convenient.
"Yes," Erza replied. "Mine is complete. Marshall is next."
"Huh? Can’t you just apply one of our spell templates to him?"
"No. Our body are far too different."
Erza looked toward Mira.
"And your version was specifically designed around your demand that the training never produce visible muscles. It has almost no value as a reference."
"What normal girl would want to build an entire body of muscles just for strength?" Mira said dismissively.
"You don’t count, you damn gorilla."
She shook her head, then suddenly remembered something amusing.
"Oh, right! Something funny happened today."
Mira grinned.
"Natsu found an enormous egg in the forest. He claims it’s a dragon egg, and Lisanna said they should try hatching it."
Marshall abruptly looked up.
"An egg?"
---------
Read 40 Chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator