Chapter 56
Marshall learned Sky Magic.
Once he understood the general principles, he tried teaching it to other people, but every attempt ended in failure.
Just as Gildarts had said, Sky Magic depended heavily on the Mage’s natural aptitude.
For an ordinary person, learning it was nearly impossible.
Marshall experienced that difficulty himself.
Even after using Inspiration to force Sky Magic to Level One, gaining further experience was painfully slow—slower even than Crush Magic.
Barring some unexpected breakthrough, he saw no realistic way to raise the skill without investing even more Inspiration.
Still, pouring a large number of points into Sky Magic would offer excellent value.
It provided direct healing and restoration, making it far more versatile and convenient than his Heal Script.
If Marshall weren’t saving Inspiration to upgrade Meditation, he might already have given in to temptation.
Speaking of hoarding...
[Inspiration: 780,321]
[Meditation LV3: 200,193/1,000,000]
With 780,000 Inspiration and another 200,000 experience already accumulated in Meditation, he was extremely close to the upgrade.
It should happen within the next two weeks.
Progress had been slower than he originally predicted, but that wasn’t a serious problem.
Marshall’s magic power had now surpassed 3,500.
Unfortunately, several months of stagnation had allowed Cana, who possessed over 4,500, to pull noticeably ahead of him.
Mira had more than 5,500, while Erza had over 6,500.
Those two were practically cheating.
The undisputed leader of Fairy Tail’s younger generation was still the seventeen-year-old Laxus.
He had passed the S-Class Mage Trial two months earlier, and his magic power had already exceeded ten thousand.
Marshall was four years younger than Cana and five years younger than Mira and Erza.
He was already much stronger than they had been at his age, yet he still found the gap frustrating.
That was why he had been pushing his Body-Conditioning Magic so hard lately.
The limits restricting his magic reserves had finally begun to loosen.
Once Meditation reached Level Four, Marshall expected his strength to experience explosive growth.
But first, he needed to stop fantasizing and deal with the problem directly in front of him.
This week, he had promised to accompany Levy to the amusement park for the tournament.
Which was, in effect, a date.
Marshall had to admire her creativity.
Who else would think of asking a little kid on a date?
This proved that reading too many books wasn’t always beneficial. Sometimes books could corrupt a person completely.
As far as Marshall was concerned, Levy possessed the most dangerously overactive romantic imagination in the entire guild.
No contest.
As a responsible adult—at least spiritually—Marshall felt obligated to correct her misguided ideas.
Still, he had already agreed to go, and he had no intention of breaking his promise.
He would attend.
But he simply wouldn’t be attending alone!
...
The day of the "date" arrived.
Levy woke at dawn and carefully made herself look as pretty as possible.
She had put enormous effort into preparing for today, studying more than a dozen romance novels and memorizing every supposedly charming gesture she could find.
Levy was determined to leave a lasting impression on Marshall—not merely as an older sister, but as someone special.
Before the other troublesome girls realized what they were missing, she intended to secure an overwhelming lead!
Levy arrived at the entrance to the Naruto amusement park.
The area was already bustling with visitors.
The park’s popularity had stimulated Magnolia’s entire economy, and more merchants had recently begun opening businesses around town.
Of course, nearly all of them chose locations in southern Magnolia, as far from Fairy Tail’s northern guildhall as possible.
No one wanted their new shop accidentally destroyed during a guild brawl.
Levy’s eyes immediately lit up.
She had already spotted the "grown-up" Marshall.
He hadn’t disappointed her.
As promised, he had transformed himself into the appearance of a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boy.
Perhaps because Marshall had been exercising so frequently lately, his transformed body looked more athletic than before.
And considerably more handsome.
"Marshall~"
Levy jogged toward him, stopped directly in front of him, and spun around.
"What do you think of my outfit today? Does it look nice?"
"It does. I like it."
Levy secretly celebrated.
She immediately wrapped both hands around Marshall’s arm and gave him a sweet smile.
"Then let’s go! Our goal is first place!"
"Wait a little longer. Someone else hasn’t arrived yet."
"?"
Levy’s heart lurched.
A terrible premonition struck her.
"What?! You invited someone else?"
"Yeah. Natsu has been demanding a competition with me for ages, so I challenged him to this tournament. He should be here soon."
"O-Oh... It’s only Natsu..."
Levy was annoyed, but she quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as it wasn’t any of those other girls, the situation could still be salvaged.
"MARSHALL! WE’RE HERE!"
The moment Levy heard Natsu’s familiar shout, she turned around.
Her vision went dark.
It was over.
They had all come!
Cana, Erza, Mira, Lisanna—even Wendy had followed them!
Her perfect date was dead before it even began.
"Well, well~ Who’s this adorable girl all dressed up so beautifully?"
Cana examined Levy from head to toe, her smile polite but her narrowed eyes anything but friendly.
"Oh my! Isn’t that our dear Levy?"
She tilted her head.
"I was wondering why you kept running away whenever you saw me lately. I thought I’d done something to upset you."
Her smile grew sharper.
"But you seem awfully happy today."
"Ahaha... Cana, I have no idea what you’re talking about~"
Levy forced an innocent expression.
"Are all of you participating in the shuriken tournament too? You already have partners, right? Surely none of you plan to steal Marshall from me?"
Her date plan had suffered a catastrophic failure, but she still had one final position to defend.
"Tch. I’m partnering with Erza," Cana said. "Mira’s with Lisanna, Gray’s with Elfman, and Natsu’s supposed to enter with Happy..."
"Scheming little thief," Mira muttered under her breath.
Then she pulled a kitten from inside her coat and placed her in Marshall’s arms.
"Marshall, you forgot Ruby at the guildhall, so I brought her for you. No need to thank me."
"Boss! Can Ruby join the tournament too, nya?"
"Unfortunately, children aren’t allowed to compete. You can watch with Wendy."
Natsu’s eyes widened in horror.
"What?! Does that mean Happy can’t enter either?! But Happy’s a little dragon, not a child! That should be allowed, right?"
"You could try convincing the staff."
In a corner where no one else was looking, Marshall gave Lisanna a thumbs-up.
Lisanna winked and returned an innocent little okay sign.
That’s right.
Marshall had asked Lisanna to invite everyone.
And she had completed her mission perfectly.
As expected of Mira’s sister, Lisanna possessed an impressive natural talent for mischief!
The entire younger generation of Fairy Tail marched into the amusement park in one enormous group.
The older guild members working there began sweating the instant they saw them.
Fortunately, anti-magic enchantments covered the park.
Otherwise, everyone would have been terrified that the children might demolish the place before lunchtime.
With no other choice, Levy suppressed her more ambitious plans and reframed the day as an ordinary group outing.
Only then did her mood begin to recover.
"This amusement park is incredible~ Marshall, you really did something amazing."
"Haha. I didn’t build it. What does it have to do with me? I only contributed the original idea."
"But that little idea changed the lives of tens of thousands of people throughout Magnolia."
Levy reached up and gently pinched the cheek of Marshall’s older-looking form.
"It seems our Marshall doesn’t understand how remarkable he really is."
Her smile softened.
"I’ve always believed that, if you truly wanted to, you could change the entire world."
"You have that kind of ability."
The sincere praise caught Marshall completely off guard.
Was this really how Levy saw him?
He had assumed she was merely a girl with an overactive romantic imagination.
The compliment made his face heat up, and he scratched his head awkwardly.
"I-I’m nowhere near that impressive. I’m just an ordinary person..."
"Mwah~"
Levy took advantage of the moment while no one was paying attention and planted a quick kiss on his cheek.
Her delighted smile was impossible to hide.
"Marshall is adorable when he gets embarrassed too!"
[Inspiration +6,666]
"!!?"
’Wh-What was that?!’
Why had his heart suddenly leaped like that?
No!
’Levy, how dare you disturb my inner peace!’
Marshall stared at the Inspiration value surging across his System panel while his heartbeat raced just as wildly.
Then he realized something terrifying.
Could it be...
Had he been using his System incorrectly all this time?
...
Note:
Cana’s Card Magic may resemble a system of contracted spirit beasts, but the contracts are formed with the cards, not with Cana personally.
The cards can be sold and used by other people.
For example, the Vulcan cards created from the first four snow monkeys were all sold, earning Cana a considerable amount of money.
Cana may be independent and adventurous, but she certainly isn’t the kind of girl who forms personal soul bonds with every random monster she meets.