Chapter 16
"Pop~!"
The next day, right around lunchtime, an as-adorable-as-ever Marshall suddenly appeared inside the Fairy Tail guildhall.
"Hey, Marshall! Your Teleportation Magic is getting smoother."
Marshall raised a hand and blocked Mest as the buzz-cut Mage leaned down with his mouth wide open, apparently intending to take a bite out of him.
"Mest, could you please fix that awful habit? Stop trying to eat children!"
"Hahaha! I bite adults too!"
"Airo, one steak meal, please—what the hell?! Gray, what happened to you?"
Marshall had barely taken his seat when he noticed the black-haired boy beside him, whose face had swollen until he looked like a pig.
The sight nearly made him jump out of his chair.
"Hahaha! Marshall, you have to hear this!" Cana hurried over at the first opportunity, already laughing so hard she had to clutch her stomach. "Gray tried to bully that new girl this morning, and she beat the hell out of him!"
"Yu’r lyin’!" Gray’s swollen lips mangled the words. "Look at my face! Who was bullying who?!"
"You were! You walked over and kicked her chair!"
"She was ignoring everyone! Damn it, just wait—I’m getting revenge!"
Marshall scanned the guildhall and eventually found Erza sitting alone in a distant corner.
She had changed into clean, pretty clothes, but for some reason, she was still wearing yesterday’s armor over them. The combination looked more than a little strange.
"She’s built a castle around herself and locked everyone out," Cana said, rubbing Marshall’s hair as she leaned closer and lowered her voice.
"Every time we try talking to her, she ignores us."
She smiled hopefully.
"Why don’t you go cheer her up?"
"Me?"
"You can talk directly into her mind. She won’t respond to the rest of us, so you’re our only hope~"
"...All right. I’ll give it a try."
Marshall scratched his head.
It sounded troublesome, but he was always willing to help a pretty girl.
The word pretty was important!
Even with one eye hidden beneath an eyepatch, Erza was clearly going to grow into a beautiful woman someday.
Marshall might be young now, but he was not lacking in ambition. Watching ’talented’ people grow was one of life’s great pleasures, after all!
Besides, Makarov had specifically asked him to help her settle in.
’Then I suppose it’s up to me to help her become part of the guild.’
He opened a telepathic connection.
[Hello, Erza~]
[It’s you. I remember your name... Marshall?]
[That’s right! Why are you sitting alone in the corner? Do you dislike everyone in the guild?]
[No! Fairy Tail seems like a good place. I don’t hate anyone here...]
[Then come sit with us!]
[...No, thank you. I prefer being alone. Being around other people makes me feel uneasy.]
[The Tower... Grandpa Rob... Sho... Simon... Jellal...]
A person’s mind could roughly be divided into three layers.
At the surface were conscious thoughts.
Beneath that lay the preconscious mind, where deeper thoughts and memories shifted beyond immediate awareness.
At the very bottom was the subconscious, the core that even the person themselves might not fully understand.
Ordinary telepathic conversations took place within the shallowest layer, but Marshall’s Telepathy Magic was already Level Four.
He could hear all three.
Normally, the different layers of a person’s mind aligned with one another.
Only someone in severe emotional turmoil would think one thing at the surface while feeling something entirely different underneath.
Erza was in exactly that state.
Her deeper thoughts were tangled in a frantic mess, but within the darkest part of her subconscious...
She was crying.
And she was begging for help.
[That doesn’t sound entirely honest~ Still, I’ll respect your decision. Why don’t we keep talking like this instead? We’re members of the same guild now, which makes us companions. Could I be your friend?]
[No... I... Fine... Yes. We can be... friends.]
[You sound nervous, Erza. I’m only a little kid, yet I still make you uncomfortable? You’re surprisingly timid. Well, we can stop here for now. I’ll talk to you again later~]
[I’m not! I’m not timid!]
Erza shot to her feet and spun around to stare directly at Marshall.
Marshall met her gaze from across the guildhall, gave her a mischievous wink, then lowered his head and went back to devouring his lunch.
A faint blush appeared on Erza’s cheeks. When Marshall continued eating and ignored her, she puffed them out slightly before sitting down again.
[I’m not a coward!]
[And I wasn’t lying!]
[Are you still there?!]
’...’
Marshall cheerfully listened without answering and concentrated on his meal.
[It looks like he’s really gone... What an incredible spell. The outside world really does have all kinds of magic.]
[That boy seems kind... and he’s very nice... but he isn’t cute at all! Talking directly into someone’s mind is practically cheating...]
[Grandpa Rob was right. Everyone in this guild is gentle. The Guild Master is kind, just like Grandpa Rob was. The adults notice that I need space and don’t try to pressure me, and even the children are willing to reach out to me...]
[Except for that naked little pervert!]
"Pfft—cough! Cough, cough!"
"Marshall, slow down!" Cana hurriedly patted his back and held a glass of juice to his lips. "Honestly, here. Drink this."
Erza looked over and saw Cana helping Marshall as he coughed.
Suddenly, every hair on her back stood on end.
The more she thought about it, the worse the situation seemed.
[You heard that, didn’t you?! You heard everything I was thinking!]
[I didn’t hear anything.]
[Whew... Thank goodness. You scared me—]
"Eek?!"
Erza jolted upright so quickly that she nearly fell off her chair. Her face burned as she glared at Marshall.
[Y-You’re not allowed to eavesdrop on my thoughts!]
[All right, Erza. I’ll leave now.]
[...You’re still there, aren’t you?! I know you are! I won’t fall for that again!]
’...’
[Damn it! Then I’ll leave!]
With her face bright red, Erza threw open the guild doors and ran outside.
The moment she crossed the threshold, an explosion of laughter erupted behind her.
Erza froze.
She spun around and yanked the doors open again, only to find everyone eating, drinking, and chatting as though the laughter had been nothing more than her imagination.
Macao happened to be sitting beside the entrance. He raised his mug and looked at her curiously.
"What’s wrong, kid? Forget something?"
"N-No. Sorry for disturbing you."
Erza took a deep breath, shut the doors, and walked away.
Several steps later, another roar of laughter burst from inside.
Her face turned redder than any insult could have managed.
[Hehehe~ You guessed correctly, Erza. Everyone in the guild heard our conversation. Sorry, I forgot to mention that I opened a local group channel.]
[AAAAAAAH! MARSHALL, YOU IDIOT!!!]
Erza no longer had the mental capacity to return and punish him.
Her mind completely overloaded by humiliation, she broke into a desperate sprint and vanished down the street.
...
Back inside Fairy Tail, everyone was loudly laughing at Gray’s swollen face.
"That naked little pervert! You’re disgracing Fairy Tail! Hahahahaha!"
"Bwahahaha! Does anyone understand how hard it was not to laugh? That girl is adorable!"
"Haha, she really does seem like a good kid. She’s just awkward around people." Macao’s laughter softened.
"She must have been through something terrible. It’ll probably take her a while to recover."
"Still, Marshall’s Telepathy Magic is ridiculous! He can separate people into different communication channels? Isn’t that something only a master of Telepathy should be able to do?"
"That’s talent for you. There’s no use being jealous. Master said Erza awakened her magic naturally too, so she might be another little monster like our Marshall."
"A little monster is still better than a little pervert."
"Hahahahahaha!"
"Enough! You’ve been laughing at me this entire time!" Gray shouted through his swollen lips.
"Damn you, Erza! I’m definitely beating you next time!"
[Inspiration +233!]
Marshall could barely keep the grin off his face.
Before contacting Erza, he had secretly connected everyone in the guild to a telepathic group channel.
He told them that he planned to speak with her and would broadcast their conversation to the entire guild.
Erza would not be able to hear anyone else in the channel, but everyone would hear her responses.
All they had to do was pretend they knew nothing and avoid exposing the trick.
Level Four Telepathy Magic offered far more than an enormous range.
Every piece of information passing through a connection created by Marshall remained under his control.
He alone decided who could hear what.
Even if Erza accidentally revealed a secret the rest of the guild should not know, Marshall could blur or block that part of the conversation before anyone heard it.
This was not a function he had only just discovered, but it was the first time he had ever used it like this.
Judging by the results, it had worked perfectly.
More importantly, it had broken the ice.
Everyone in Fairy Tail now understood that Erza was an honest and unexpectedly adorable girl.
They would surely be more patient with her from now on.
Erza had also thoroughly embarrassed herself in front of the entire guild. Once someone survived that kind of humiliation, future awkwardness tended to feel much less frightening.
She should find it easier to lower her guard and become part of the Fairy Tail family.
No one had been harmed except Gray.
A perfect outcome!
The only question was whether Erza would come back to settle the score with him.
And now, it was time to display his true skill!
...
Erza ran all the way to the river before sitting beside a small pond and waiting for her burning face to cool down.
Then the little demon’s voice echoed inside her head again.
[Hehehehe... Erza~ Running is useless. No matter where you go, I’ll always be right beside you~]
"EEEEEEK!!!"