Chapter 35
"Marshall, Marshall~ I’ve discovered a very serious problem!"
One week later, Cana came to Marshall wearing a miserable expression.
Only a few days earlier, she had been swaggering around the guildhall, summoning her muscle-bound Vulcans to beat Natsu senseless and enjoying her brief reign as Fairy Tail’s undisputed center of attention.
"What’s wrong, Cana?"
With his research into Summoning Magic temporarily complete, Marshall had decided to slow down and relax for a while.
Recently, he had been leisurely studying Take Over Magic.
"Marshall, I’ve discovered the greatest weakness of Summoning Card Magic!"
Cana raised her fingers and began counting with a solemn expression.
"If the contracted monster is too weak, it’s practically useless except as cannon fodder. But if I want to contract a powerful monster... I’m not strong enough to defeat it!"
"...Just tell me what you want. There’s no need to circle around it."
’I can hear you anyway.’
"Hehehe~ How about accompanying your big sister on a job? Just the two of us. Please~?"
"..."
Erza had accepted a long-distance job and left only yesterday.
Marshall had not expected Cana to be such a scheming little girl.
"All right. I’ve been fairly free lately anyway."
He did not refuse. Going out to clear his head would help him accumulate Inspiration.
He was beginning to envy Cana’s natural talent for magic power.
Perhaps because she had entered a period of rapid growth, her reserves had been rising at an astonishing rate lately.
Marshall had already decided that he would not spend another point of Inspiration until he could raise Meditation to Level Four.
"Yes! We’re going on an adventure!"
Cana took his hand and dragged him toward the guild’s request board to search for a suitable job.
"Let’s see... There are plenty of monster-hunting requests."
"Cana, all of those specifically ask us to kill the monsters rather than drive them away. That doesn’t really suit what we’re trying to do."
"Hehe... Right."
Then Marshall noticed an unusual request.
[HELP! Drive the demon out of our village!]
[Reward: 20,000 Jewels]
[Location: ...]
"A request to drive away a demon?" Marshall frowned. "And they’re only offering twenty thousand Jewels?"
"Huh? You’re right. That sounds suspicious." Cana leaned closer. "Maybe it’s an extremely weak demon. Marshall, could Summoning Cards contract a demon?"
"I don’t know. I’ve never seen one before."
Marshall studied the notice.
"If it’s a weak demon, it might not be that different from a Magical Beast. Why don’t we accept this job and find out?"
"Sure! The village isn’t very far away either. Let’s take a carriage this time instead of teleporting!"
Cana’s eyes brightened as she immediately agreed.
In truth, she only wanted to travel somewhere alone with Marshall.
The destination hardly mattered.
She tore the demon-extermination notice from the board and went to register the job with Makarov.
However, just as they were preparing to leave, a small blue-haired figure appeared in their path.
Levy puffed out her cheeks like an angry pufferfish and blocked them with a deeply dissatisfied expression.
She was too embarrassed to complain in front of Marshall, so she dragged Cana aside to whisper conspiratorially.
Marshall could still hear every word, of course.
"You two were planning to sneak off on a job without me again! That’s awful!"
"Ahaha... Well, Levy..." Cana laughed awkwardly. "I thought you were busy reading and didn’t want to disturb you. Haha..."
[Damn it! I specifically heard she was supposed to be helping at the shop today! Was my information wrong?!]
"I let it go when you secretly went to the snowy mountains last time, but this is Marshall’s very first official job! I’m coming too!"
"Fine~ We are best friends, after all."
[Levy is getting in the way! (งᵒ̌皿ᵒ̌)ง⁼³₌₃]
Once the two finished "negotiating," they returned to collect Marshall.
The three of them rented a carriage and departed for the village.
The fare alone cost one thousand Jewels.
No wonder nobody had accepted a request with such a small reward.
Once they were inside the carriage, Marshall cast Transformation Magic on himself and changed his appearance to that of a fourteen year-old boy.
His body grew taller and sturdier.
His pink hair lengthened and was tied into a high ponytail behind him, while the faint, mischievous smile he often wore remained on his lips.
He now looked like a strikingly handsome and energetic young man.
Both girls stared at him.
Levy, in particular, could not take her eyes off his older face. A blush quickly spread across her cheeks.
"M-Marshall, why did you suddenly make yourself older?"
"Hmm? We’re going out on official business. A client might not trust someone who looks too young."
Marshall adjusted his sleeves.
"Maintaining this appearance also allows me to practice Transformation Magic, so—uh..."
He trailed off after accidentally hearing their thoughts.
[Mm-hmm. As expected, my Marshall is the very best in both talent and appearance!]
[W-Why is Marshall so handsome? Is this really what he’ll look like when he grows up? He’s this good-looking, but he’s still so innocent... That’s completely unfair! How am I supposed to keep treating him like a little brother now?]
Cana’s thoughts were harmless enough.
Levy’s, however, were becoming slightly dangerous.
Were girls this young always so precocious?
Until now, although Marshall had constantly been fought over by the three girls, he understood his true position perfectly well.
He was essentially an oversized doll.
Their competition was merely an innocent childhood game over who was closest to whom.
But Levy’s feelings seemed to be shifting into something else.
’Hmm...’
There was little point overthinking it.
They were still children who did not fully understand their own emotions.
Marshall was the one with an adult mind, so he simply needed to behave responsibly and allow things to develop naturally.
"You really do learn every kind of magic quickly," Cana said. "Changing your age and body shape is already fairly advanced Transformation Magic, isn’t it?"
"It’s not that difficult."
Marshall’s Transformation Magic had reached Level Two, allowing him to change both his appearance and clothing.
At the next level, he might even be capable of transforming completely into another creature, almost like a druid.
Marshall considered Transformation Magic extremely useful.
Since practicing Flight Magic inside the carriage was impossible, maintaining this form was a convenient way to train instead.
He refused to waste any opportunity to gain experience.
"Marshall, let me hug you~"
Levy, who had originally been sitting opposite him, moved to the seat on his other side with a bright-red face.
Her thoughts had become even more alarming, and the smile on her lips looked faintly suspicious.
"Uh..."
Marshall could hardly refuse without making the situation awkward.
He allowed Levy to wrap both hands around his arm and rest her head against his shoulder.
"Hmph."
Cana watched Levy settle quietly beside him.
She was clearly displeased, but she did not complain.
Everyone liked Marshall, and this kind of thing had become normal among them.
Cana began chatting casually with him instead.
As long as Marshall was nearby, she was happy.
Only Marshall knew how much he was suffering!
The problem was Levy’s imagination.
It had caught fire and was now burning completely out of control.
[Wow... Older Marshall looks so cool! His skin is still perfect too. He never gets filthy like the other boys. Can a boy really be this flawless?]
[Forget being his big sister. That was the old me!]
[Marshall might still be little now, but once we both grow up, we’ll be childhood sweethearts! Books always say childhood sweethearts get married, so obviously I’ll marry Marshall someday...]
[There’s still Cana and Erza, but that should be fine. They’re older than us, so surely they won’t shamelessly compete with me. I’m only three years older than Marshall. We’re clearly the best match...]
[Hehe... We’ll grow up, get married, and have a wonderful family. What should we name our children? Marshall is so handsome, so they’ll definitely be clever and beautiful too...]
[Maybe we’ll live in a huge house filled with books. We can read together every day, travel all over Fiore, and have so many children that I’ll need an entire notebook just to remember all their names...]
"..."
Cold sweat ran down Marshall’s face.
He did not even dare move his arm to wipe it away.
Levy’s inner world was far too elaborate!
’No! This isn’t what a sweet book-loving girl is supposed to be like!’
What kind of bizarre romance novels had she been secretly reading?
Someone needed to supervise her reading material immediately!
...
The two-hour carriage ride felt like torture.
By the time they finally reached the village, Levy’s imagination had already planned their wedding, designed their house, and welcomed their eleventh child into the family.
"I-I need to use the bathroom!"
Marshall vanished from the carriage almost instantly.
Even after escaping beyond the range at which he could hear Levy’s thoughts, his fingers continued trembling.
He had always believed the side effect of Telepathy Magic was merely annoying rather than truly dangerous.
Now he understood how wrong he had been.
Constantly hearing other people’s thoughts was not a blessing.
Some people could completely bypass every defense and attack the mind directly.
How had Marshall known Levy for nearly two years without discovering how terrifying her imagination was?
Was it because she had never thought of him as a boy before today?
More importantly, where had someone her age even found enough strange romance novels to learn all of this?
It was horrifying!
Marshall drew a sharp breath.
Learning to control Telepathy Magic completely had just become an urgent priority!