Chapter 258
Every time Marshall listened to Lucy’s inner monologue, he had to resist the urge to laugh.
She really was an endless source of entertainment!
Did she seriously have no awareness that she was basically benefiting from connections at this point?
Still, Lucy’s current role was technically his "mom," so Marshall decided not to make fun of her.
A good son shouldn’t laugh at his mother, after all.
For now, the match deserved his attention.
This time, the randomly selected battlefield was High Mountain.
The two teams began atop the peaks of separate stone mountains, and anyone who fell all the way to the foot of the mountain would be eliminated. It was an excellent map for long-range, artillery-style Mages.
Naturally, it was also perfect for aerial combat.
The moment the match began, Marshall flew directly into the sky.
Erza immediately Requipped into a winged suit of armor and rose to meet him.
The two stopped opposite each other in midair and exchanged smiles.
"Marshall, it’s been a long time since we trained together properly, hasn’t it?" Erza rested a hand on her sword.
"Your marksmanship probably can’t keep up with my swordsmanship anymore."
"That’s true~ I haven’t spent much time practicing with guns lately." Marshall gave an unconcerned shrug.
"But you already know that shooting isn’t the only thing I’m good at."
His Marksmanship was still stuck at LV3, with practically no progress at all.
Marshall spent most of his free time buried in magical research, so naturally he hadn’t had much opportunity to continue polishing his gun skills.
Erza’s expression became more serious.
"This time, I want you to use your real strength. I want to know just how much distance is left between us now."
"What distance?" Marshall smiled. "Erza-nee has always been more impressive than me."
Ever since the Tower of Heaven incident, when Marshall helped Erza open her Second Origin, her Magic Power had been rising almost continuously.
During the past month alone, she had finally broken through the 100,000 mark and entered the general range associated with the Ten Wizard Saints.
Marshall’s own reserves, despite receiving another boost from his body’s continued growth, had yet to reach 140,000.
In raw numbers, he only held an advantage of roughly twenty or thirty thousand.
That wasn’t an overwhelming gap.
If Erza suddenly experienced one of those explosive surges she was prone to in the middle of battle, temporarily surpassing Marshall in Magic Power wouldn’t be particularly surprising.
When two Mages possessed comparable reserves, the deciding factor became their Magic.
If sheer numbers couldn’t create an insurmountable advantage, then the question became whether one side’s abilities and mechanics could compensate for the difference.
And when it came to competing over sheer variety and unusual magical effects, Marshall—who had long since lost count of exactly how many kinds of Magic he knew—was probably the last person anyone wanted to challenge.
"Right is right and wrong is wrong, Marshall. You don’t need to say things like that just to make me feel better." Erza looked directly at him. "I know perfectly well that your strength surpassed mine a long time ago. That’s why this is such a good opportunity. I want to experience for myself what a true genius is really capable of."
"When I said you were impressive, I wasn’t talking about combat strength."
Marshall’s smile softened.
"Erza-nee, you know something? I’ve always admired you. You’re the most determined person I’ve ever met. You’ve spent year after year walking your own path without ever giving up, no matter what happened."
His voice remained light, but there was no teasing in it.
"That isn’t something just anyone can do."
Marshall smiled warmly at her.
"You’ve been my role model ever since I was little, Erza-nee. You always have been."
He paused before adding naturally,
"That’s why I’ve always liked you so much."
Erza’s cheeks reddened slightly.
Still, she had already secretly kissed Marshall before.
A confession on this level was no longer enough to leave her so embarrassed that she might faint!
Instead, Erza accepted the affection openly and smiled.
"Is that so? Then I’m honored."
"And that’s exactly why I won’t refuse your request." Marshall’s expression sharpened slightly. "I’ll use my real strength, so be careful, Erza-nee."
Erza gave her sword a crisp flourish, looking more invigorated by the second.
"Good! Then come on."
Her smile carried the excitement of a warrior finally getting what she wanted.
"Let’s have a real fight!"
...
Fairy Tail had spent quite a long time preparing the first World’s Number One Magic Tournament, and Marshall had personally reviewed practically every stage of the project.
The scale of the tournament, expected tourist traffic, broadcast revenue, long-term profitability—he had analyzed and predicted almost every major factor in advance.
Yet for all the things Marshall had remembered to consider, there was one thing he had almost completely overlooked.
Himself.
Laxus, Erza, and Mira were all what people commonly called celebrity Mages.
Newspapers and magazines interviewed them regularly, and in a world where Mages occupied a major place in popular culture, they were genuine public figures.
Calling them household names wouldn’t have been much of an exaggeration.
A large portion of the tourists who had traveled to Magnolia for the tournament had specifically come hoping to see people like them.
Marshall was different.
Because of the mindset carried over from his previous life, as well as his naturally cautious personality, he had never enjoyed putting himself in the public spotlight.
He was the kind of person who would happily grind away in the starter area until he was hopelessly overleveled before even considering venturing outside.
As a result, Marshall had always remained surprisingly low-profile and mysterious to the wider world.
For many spectators in the stadium, practically everything they knew about him could be summarized in a single sentence:
Fairy Tail’s youngest S-Class Mage.
Plenty of people didn’t even recognize him on sight.
Marshall hadn’t personally fought in the previous round either, which meant that for a large portion of the audience, this was the first time they were seeing him do anything at all.
It would be Marshall’s first real opportunity to show the world his strength... and, unintentionally, his looks as well.
The moment he flew onto the battlefield, discussions immediately broke out in the stands.
"Oh, so that’s the captain of the Marshall Team? Marshall, right? I heard he’s Fairy Tail’s youngest S-Class Mage, but he looks like a little kid."
"The Fairy Queen should be able to handle him pretty easily, shouldn’t she? He’s still so young. I don’t see much suspense in this match."
"Wait... look properly. That’s a boy, isn’t it?! I thought the Marshall Team was five beautiful girls! Damn it, I got tricked!"
And then there were reactions of a rather different sort.
"He’s such a pretty boy! That’s ridiculous! How have I never seen him in Sorcerer Weekly before? Oh no... I think I’m falling in love."
"After this tournament, the rankings for most popular Mages are going to get completely shaken up. Fairy Tail seriously has treasures everywhere!"
"I hereby announce that I’m leaving the Blue Pegasus fan club and joining the far greater organization known as the Marshall Fan Club!"
"AAAAAH! He’s such a cute little angel! Forget being a Mage—big sis will take care of you!"
Marshall had always underestimated how much attention his appearance could attract.
With looks like his, even simply appearing in public was enough to draw eyes.
Unfortunately, that same youthful appearance also made many spectators underestimate his actual strength.
And so Marshall’s public "debut" began.
...
Erza had never once underestimated Marshall.
The moment the battle truly started, she opened with eight razor-sharp flying slashes, spreading them across different angles to seal off every route he could use to evade.
Marshall didn’t move.
The sword waves passed directly through his body as though cutting through an empty illusion, leaving him completely unharmed.
Erza’s gaze sharpened.
Marshall smiled and explained without any hesitation.
"Intangibility Magic: Kamui. I leave an illusory image at my original position while shifting my real body into another space. It’s a higher-level application of Spatial Magic."
Erza continued moving her sword, but gave him a pointed look.
"You shouldn’t tell me that. If an enemy knew how that spell worked beforehand, they’d be extremely wary of it."
"But Erza-nee isn’t my enemy."
Her wings beat once, sending her rapidly closer.
The ranged slashes had already proven useless.
They simply passed through Marshall without ever touching his real body.
A spell like that was infuriatingly troublesome.
If she wanted a chance to counter it, she would have to wait for the instant Marshall launched an attack and became tangible again.
Which meant she needed to force him into close combat.
Erza accelerated and slashed toward him, giving Marshall an irritated glare as she closed the distance.
"Anyway, from now on, stop talking."
Her blade swept forward.
"Let’s fight seriously!"