Chapter 61
Marshall felt his scalp prickle.
What was happening?
The first time he finally worked up the courage to approach a woman, and he had already suffered a crushing defeat?
More importantly, his real body was still sitting near the counter.
How had she recognized this Thought Projection as Marshall at a glance?
"Hello. May I ask who you are?"
"Ahahaha! I-I’m here for sightseeing!"
The blonde woman spoke so quickly that the words nearly tangled together.
"Yes, that’s right! I’m a tourist! I came to visit Fairy Tail!"
What a painfully unconvincing excuse.
She tried to hide one hand behind her back, but Marshall had already spotted the guild emblem on it.
’She’s a member of Fairy Tail?’
’Why have I never seen her before?’
’And she clearly knows me...’
[What do I do?! Erza told me not to reveal my identity, but Marshall started flirting with me the instant I walked through the door! What am I supposed to do now?!]
"And what should I call you, beautiful lady?"
"Huh? Oh! I-I’m Lu-Lu-Luffy!"
This woman knew Erza too?
Far too suspicious!
There was a traitor among them!
Abort the mission!
"I see. Miss Luffy."
Marshall gave her a polite smile.
"My apologies for disturbing you earlier. I just remembered that I have something important to take care of."
"Since you’d like to tour the guild, she can accompany you."
Marshall reached into seemingly empty space, pulled out a small Ruby from who knew where, and placed her in the suspicious bunny girl’s arms.
His Thought Projection then returned to its original location and vanished without hesitation.
"Huh? It’s Ruby-chan!"
"Hello, Bunny, nya! Do you know Ruby, nya?"
"I’m not a bunny! You silly cat!"
Meanwhile, Marshall’s real body quietly hid himself and began observing from a distance.
His disastrous attempt at flirting had left him too embarrassed to show his face.
Perhaps he should never randomly approach women again.
A person’s first failure could leave a lifelong psychological scar. He might need the rest of his life to recover!
’Damn you, blonde Luffy. I’ll remember this humiliation!’
Marshall focused his Telepathy Magic and began carefully listening to the suspicious woman’s thoughts.
Unfortunately, her mind was filled with bizarre exclamations.
[Oh! A young Laxus!]
[Wow! A young Macao!]
[Even Elfman is so young!]
She recognized every member of the guild and thought that all of them looked younger than expected.
Could she have traveled here from the future?
[What do I do? Where are Natsu and Gray?! Those two idiots! Why did they disappear at a time like this?]
[If we can’t find them before Erza finishes deciphering that magic book, she’s going to beat me up too!]
Natsu and Gray?
They had just gone outside to challenge Erza.
And since when could Erza decipher complicated magical books? She was terrible at that kind of work.
The more Marshall heard, the more suspicious the blonde woman became.
Wait.
If she really had traveled back from the future, did that mean Erza had come with her?
Marshall had left a spatial mark on Erza.
He closed his eyes and sensed the coordinates he had established.
Sure enough...
There were two Erzas!
Whoosh!
Marshall vanished.
The next moment, he appeared directly above the second Erza’s coordinates.
What he saw below made him freeze.
A fully grown Erza dressed in a white catgirl outfit was lying inside a tent, desperately flipping through a magical book.
The cat tail behind her swayed from side to side as she read.
Marshall quietly drew in a breath.
’So this is what Erza looks like five years from now?’
She had grown incredibly beautiful and carried a mature elegance that the younger Erza didn’t yet possess!
Her figure had also developed impressively.
But why was she wearing a catgirl outfit?
Had Erza decided that she wanted to become a cat?
"Ah! This is hopeless! I can’t understand any of it!"
[What am I supposed to do? Do I have to find Marshall and Levy from this era? But what about the time paradox?]
[If I can’t decipher this book, we’ll never get home!]
The older Erza threw her head back with a frustrated groan and officially surrendered.
Marshall had known from the beginning that books weren’t her specialty.
So they really had traveled back from the future?
And the magical book in Erza’s hands was responsible?
The book’s value instantly became immeasurable in Marshall’s eyes.
It was a magical text capable of crossing time!
His Time Magic LV1 had remained largely untouched because he had no practical applications or reference material to study.
Knowledge related to Time Magic was so rare that he didn’t even know where to begin looking.
But if this book truly contained temporal magic...
Marshall teleported again and appeared directly behind the older Erza.
"Erza, I never knew you enjoyed dressing as a catgirl~"
He tilted his head and admired the outfit.
"It’s very cute, though. It suits you."
"Eeeeeek!"
Erza’s entire body jolted.
Even her cat tail shot straight upward like the fur of a startled kitten.
"M-Marshall?! How did you—how are you here?!"
"I left a mark on you, remember?"
Marshall smiled.
"When I noticed that there were suddenly two coordinates belonging to Erza, I came to investigate."
"I never expected to find something this interesting."
His eyes gleamed.
"So, Erza, how old are you right now?"
"Ahaha... As expected of Marshall..."
[It’s over! Marshall found me!]
[He really was cuter when he was little. He didn’t have nearly as many wicked ideas when he’s adult...]
[Wait. Could this actually be an opportunity? Since he has already found me, letting it go to waste would be foolish.]
[I have to use this chance to correct Marshall’s dangerous way of thinking once and for all!]
Erza’s thoughts came so quickly that they nearly overlapped.
She flashed in front of Marshall and shoved the magical book into his hands.
"Marshall! You’re right. I came here from five years in the future."
"We used this magical book, Remembrance of Time, which we found in the guild library."
"You need to decipher it immediately! Otherwise, none of us can return home!"
"Huh? O-Okay. Let me see..."
Marshall tried to steady the book in his arms.
"Could you stop shaking me first?"
"And why are you wearing a catgirl outfit? Are you sure you don’t want to change?"
"I was afraid someone would recognize me if I wore my armor!"
Erza released his shoulders.
"It doesn’t matter anymore now that you’ve found me."
"As for this outfit, the temporal disturbance is preventing me from properly accessing my personal storage. These were the only two sets of clothing I could retrieve."
"I see. That’s easy to solve."
Marshall examined her outfit again.
"I can ask Virgo to bring you something from the Celestial Spirit World. No one would recognize those clothes."
The moment Marshall accepted the magical book, a strange hunger rose inside him.
His mouth almost watered.
"Marshall?" Erza asked. "What’s wrong?"
"N-Nothing."
He stared at the book.
"It just... suddenly smells delicious."
"I’ll summon Virgo and have her bring you some clothes first."
Marshall forced down the inexplicable hunger and summoned Virgo while preparing to study the temporal magic book.
Before he could begin, however, Erza suddenly seized both of his shoulders and stared into his eyes with a grave expression.
"Marshall, before that, there’s something I need to make absolutely clear!"
"Wh-What?"
For some reason, Marshall immediately felt guilty.
"Marshall, I know that around this time, you began developing some dangerous ideas."
"You wanted to explore more emotional possibilities, but you need to understand that what you were considering was wrong!"
’It’s over!’
’How did she discover my Chance Encounter Plan before I even put it into action?!’
"Love is pure and sacred!"
Erza declared passionately.
"It is the mutual attraction of two sincere hearts! There should never be deception or betrayal!"
’Wait.’
’Did my future self really become that awful?’
Even in Marshall’s original plan, he hadn’t intended to deceive anyone’s feelings.
"In any case, you must promise me that you’ll be extremely cautious whenever emotions are involved!"
"You must never treat another person’s feelings as a game. Understood?"
"Yes!"
"Louder! I can’t hear you!"
"I understand!"
Marshall sighed.
He hadn’t expected his ’Chance Encounter Plan’ to die before it had even officially begun.
Well, there was nothing he could do.
He had already decided never to approach random women again after today’s humiliation, so abandoning the plan wasn’t much of a loss.
"Excellent! That’s the spirit!"
Erza beamed and patted his head.
"That’s my good little brother!"
[Perfect! Now Marshall shouldn’t end up dating several girls at the same time. You did it, Erza!]
’Hm?’
Marshall froze.
’Wait a minute.’
Something didn’t sound right.
Had they not been discussing the same issue?
Perhaps they should start the conversation over from the beginning.
Marshall definitely hadn’t agreed to that part!
As for dating several women at once...
’Future me, you magnificent bastard.’
’You actually did it!’
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It won’t take long since at Chapter 100 its already in X783