Chapter 206

Chapter 206: Chapter 206

After Erza went upstairs to find Mira, Marshall used Form Magic to shrink himself down to roughly the size of a flea and secretly hid inside Erza’s armor.

He had a bad feeling about this, so he planned to eavesdrop on their conversation just in case the two of them started fighting and accidentally demolished Cake Tower in the process.

Unfortunately, events soon took a direction Marshall hadn’t expected at all.

The conversation between Mira and Erza became so ridiculous that he started wondering whether one of the three people present was still asleep.

"Do you even hear what you’re saying?!" Mira demanded.

Her white hair was practically flying around from sheer rage, as though she were one second away from entering Satan Soul.

Erza looked genuinely confused.

"I don’t see what the problem is. Look, you like Marshall, right?"

"Yes."

"And I like Marshall too."

"Half the guild likes Marshall!"

"But Marshall likes us too."

"?!"

Mira’s eyes widened dramatically.

Erza seemed to have casually said something rather extraordinary without even realizing it.

"If Marshall is willing to get eng-eng-engaged to you, then I don’t think he’d reject me either..."

Erza’s face grew progressively redder as she continued.

"Because Marshall likes us the most. You know that too, don’t you? He’s been greedy ever since he was little. Once he decides he likes something, he grabs onto it and refuses to let go."

She hesitated, then forced herself onward.

"If Marshall really decides he wants someone as his wife... then that person probably isn’t getting away from him anyway. N-Not that I’m planning to run away."

Erza nervously tucked a strand of scarlet hair behind her ear, revealing that even the tips of her ears had gone bright red.

"Since we already know how we feel about each other, I think becoming one family together would be fine. I-I’ve actually thought about this pretty seriously!"

Then, apparently realizing how much she had just admitted, Erza became even more flustered.

"O-Of course, I’m nowhere near ready for actual marriage yet! I’m only telling you this because we’re close, so y-you absolutely cannot tell Marshall what I said..."

"W-Who said we’re close?!" Mira snapped. "I hate you the most!"

"Eh?! Really?! S-Sorry..."

"You! You idiot!"

Mira was becoming increasingly agitated.

She couldn’t sit still and began pacing around the room.

’Damn Erza! What’s with that expression, like she’s the only one who truly understands Marshall?!’

There was absolutely no way Mira was going to lose to this hopelessly dense woman in a battle over love too!

Then Mira suddenly remembered something.

"Erza, did you know Marshall has secretly been playing kissing games with Levy and Juvia?"

Erza’s face immediately turned red again.

"What?! K-Kissing games?! How could the three of them do something like that?! That’s far too improper!"

Mira stared at her.

"Okay... and?"

Erza blinked.

"Aren’t you angry?"

"Well... three people doing that behind everyone’s backs really isn’t very good."

Erza frowned seriously.

"But I think a stern lecture should be enough. They haven’t actually caused trouble for anyone else."

"???"

Mira stared at her as if she had just encountered an entirely new species.

"You’re not jealous?!"

"A-A little."

Erza awkwardly looked away.

"But everyone is family anyway. Something like this was probably going to happen sooner or later."

Mira slowly rolled her eyes.

"Erza... are you sure you understand what the word family means?"

Then a very bad realization struck her.

Erza genuinely didn’t seem to care how many girlfriends Marshall had!

No.

Absolutely not.

If Marshall ever found out how Erza viewed relationships, wouldn’t he end up liking her even more?!

The moment Mira imagined a future where Erza became Marshall’s favorite "first wife" and spent the rest of eternity sitting comfortably above her, her entire future seemed to turn pitch-black.

No way!

She absolutely could not allow something like that!

More importantly, she couldn’t let someone as dangerously permissive as Erza ruin the entire market!

"Erza, your way of thinking is extremely dangerous! It’s wrong! How can a boy keep changing his affections and liking girl after girl? If you keep indulging Marshall like this, you’re going to spoil him rotten!"

Erza hesitated.

"But... Loki has lots of girlfriends too."

"That is not helping your case!"

Erza continued anyway.

"If everyone involved agrees to it, outsiders don’t really have the right to criticize them, do they? As long as we can all live happily together, I don’t see the problem."

Then she added, quite reasonably in her own mind,

"And Marshall is much better than Loki anyway. At least Marshall doesn’t run around flirting with every woman he meets..."

Mira finally understood.

There was something wrong with Erza’s brain.

More accurately, nobody had ever properly discussed romance with her before, so Erza had apparently constructed her entire understanding of love according to her own logic.

She didn’t possess anything resembling a normal view of relationships.

If Mira allowed this to continue, Erza would keep spoiling Marshall until the brat ended up with hundreds of girlfriends!

No!

She had to correct Erza’s warped ideas!

It took Mira approximately 0.1 seconds to convince herself that this was now her sacred responsibility.

She grabbed Erza by the hand, pulled her over to Marshall’s bed, and sat down beside her with the solemn expression of someone preparing to impart the wisdom of the ages.

"Erza, love is pure and sacred! It’s the mutual attraction between two sincere hearts! There should never be deception or betrayal between people who truly love each other!"

"Eh? I-Is that how it works?"

"Of course! That’s why we absolutely cannot let Marshall keep wandering farther down the wrong path. As his older sisters, it’s our responsibility to teach him how to properly handle his feelings..."

"Y-You’re right..."

And so the two girls sat together on Marshall’s bed, whispering back and forth while Mira began enthusiastically filling Erza’s head with her "correct philosophy of love," determined to reverse Little Erza’s "mistaken worldview."

What neither of them knew was that Marshall could hear every single word.

And they certainly didn’t know that his heart was currently shattering into pieces.

Pain.

Pure, soul-crushing pain!

The thought that Erza—the most promising candidate to become the first cornerstone of Marshall’s perfect Harem plan—was slipping through his fingers right before his eyes hurt so badly he could barely breathe!

Marshall ground his teeth.

’Damn it!’

’Mira, you evil woman! How dare you ruin something this good?!’

The longer he listened, the more familiar Mira’s argument began to sound.

Then it hit him.

Wasn’t this almost exactly what Erza from several years in the future, after traveling back through time, had once told him?!

So this was where it came from?!

’It was you, Mira! You’re the one who corrupted my perfectly good Erza!’

When Marshall first heard Erza explaining her position, he had almost laughed out loud from sheer happiness.

He had never expected her to be such a thoroughly old-fashioned traditionalist.

She barely got jealous at all and apparently had no problem whatsoever with Marshall having plenty of "good friends."

With someone as influential as Erza joining his side, wouldn’t his perfect Crystal Palace practically be within reach?

Then Mira had charged in halfway through and immediately begun stuffing Erza’s head full of the "wrong ideas"!

The worst part was that Erza seemed to believe her!

’Uwaaaaaah!’

Marshall wanted to cry.

If he had known this would happen, he never would have told Erza where Mira was.

He had personally picked up a rock and dropped it on his own foot.

Now it was already too late to stop Mira.

Erza looked as though she had completely accepted Mira’s theory of romance and was moments away from officially joining the Anti-Crystal-Palace Alliance.

Marshall’s natural ally had been personally pushed into the enemy camp by Marshall himself!

The regret was unbearable.

So this was what his ominous feeling had been warning him about.

It wasn’t that Mira and Erza were going to start fighting.

No.

Mira had stolen his Erza away from him!!!

’Ugh... If I’d known Erza was secretly this innocent, I never would’ve let her anywhere near that evil Mira!’

Unfortunately, the Erza who had traveled back through time several years earlier had seemed far too mature and composed, so Marshall had never even considered this possibility.

It was also why he had been too nervous to tell present-day Erza about Levy and Juvia.

And now... it was far too late for regrets.

Marshall suddenly had another thought.

Could this also count as a kind of time loop?

---------

Read 40 Chapters ahead and support me on patreon.

patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator