"As expected… she's already S-Class, huh?"
Looking at the line of gold text that appeared beneath the little chibi figure on the page, Shane stayed calm. He wasn't especially surprised.
It was exactly what he had expected.
Ultear's magical talent had always been absurdly strong, whether in terms of raw magic power or theoretical mastery.
Sure, she had gotten the short end of the stick a few times against Shane, but that was only because Shane was basically cheating, so he couldn't be used as a normal benchmark.
The truth was, now that Ultear had untied the knot in her heart and was no longer lost, she had probably made explosive progress in private, both with her development of Arc of Time and with the Ice Make magic inherited from her mother.
"So what broke through? Her time magic? Or her molding magic?"
"Or… both."
Shane closed the page and looked away.
That meant the four candidates he had originally expected—Jellal, Laxus, Erza, and Ultear—had all reached the standard for "companions."
"One slot left…"
He calculated silently.
Tomorrow, he'd try and see whether Ur could qualify as a "companion."
If she could, then perfect. The trial would be complete, and he could happily collect the reward and new permissions.
If she couldn't…
A silver-haired, short-tempered little delinquent girl surfaced in his mind.
"Looks like I'd better start drafting Mira's next hell-level training plan in advance."
As Shane pushed open the door to his house, his mind was already racing, building a brand-new "devil's package" designed to squeeze every last drop of potential out of the girl—covering mana depletion, physical limits, and practical endurance in combat.
And just then—
Click.
The sound of a key turning in the lock came from the front door, followed by the faint creak of it opening.
Shane snapped out of his thoughts.
Even though Ultear had already left and wasn't here, the moment he thought of Erza stepping inside, a strange sense of guilt still rose in his chest.
Like a thief who had done something bad while the homeowner was out—only to run into the owner the moment they came back.
The door opened a crack, and that unmistakable crimson hair came into view.
"Oh, you're back."
Shane lifted a hand stiffly and greeted her as usual, trying to act natural.
But compared to Shane's awkward forced calm, Erza's reaction was even stranger—so strange it almost felt eerie.
She stood in the doorway without responding like usual, not even looking up.
Her normally spirited face was bright red, her eyes wandering everywhere except toward him.
"I… I'm going back to my room first."
Her voice was tiny and trembling with panic.
After blurting out that baffling line, she didn't even straighten her shoes. Head lowered, she swept through the living room like a red whirlwind and rushed straight into her bedroom.
Bang!
The door slammed shut.
Then came two crisp sounds—click, click—of the lock being turned.
"…"
Shane's hand froze midair.
What the hell was that?
She went out to the guild for a while and came back like this? Not only ignoring him, but locking herself inside her room? That was completely unlike Erza.
"What's wrong with you?"
Shane jumped off the sofa and knocked on the door. "Are you feeling sick?"
Inside the room, Erza had thrown herself onto the bed and buried her burning face deep in the pillow.
Her long, pale legs stuck out past the edge of the bed, kicking in restless frustration, even her toes curling with embarrassment.
Hearing the knock, her body stiffened, and her muffled voice came through the pillow.
"I-I'm fine!"
"…Fine?"
Shane swore this was the first time in all the years he'd known her that Erza had shut herself away to wrestle with something alone.
This was so out of character it felt like the sun had risen in the west.
"You can't tell me?"
He knocked again, unwilling to give up.
For a long while there was no answer, only faint rustling, like someone writhing under a blanket.
"…"
Shane stood there for a moment, then had no choice but to sit back down on the sofa.
This was the first time Erza had ever acted this strangely, and it left him deeply unsettled.
"Could it be because of what happened between me and Ultear? Did it hit her that hard?"
"…No, that doesn't seem right."
Lying back, staring at the ceiling, Shane let his thoughts run wild, but couldn't grasp the real answer.
Meanwhile, inside the bedroom, Erza had pulled the blanket over her head and wrapped herself up like a cocoon.
Only the tips of her ears were still visible outside the blanket—and they were red enough to drip blood.
Those usually unwavering eyes had gone soft and unfocused.
Her mind was like a broken gramophone, replaying Cana's words from earlier over and over.
…
"You pay attention to everything he does."
"You feel suffocated and sad when you see him with another girl."
"You want his eyes to stay on you alone. You want him to stay by your side all the time…"
In a corner of the guild, Cana had set down her drink and looked at the confused red-haired girl before her with a helpless sigh.
She had originally thought that even if Erza's nerves were as thick as sewer pipes, and even if she was painfully straightforward, she'd at least have some basic understanding of romantic feelings.
Turns out she was a completely blank sheet of paper.
Cana lifted a finger and poked Erza in the chest in exasperation.
"Listen carefully, Erza. This feeling is called—"
"Love."
"L-l-l-love?!"
The cool, sharp girl instantly started stammering, her eyes darting around in panic.
"I… love… Shane?!"
In an instant, her body temperature shot through the roof.
Not just her cheeks—her neck, collarbones, even her arms flushed with a soft, enticing pink.
For one surreal second, Cana could practically see steam rising from Erza's head.
"No! That's not—! I didn't say it was Shane! I was just… just asking casually! Don't read too much into it!"
"Come on. With a reaction that obvious, who else could it be? It's not like it's Gray, that stripping maniac, or Natsu, that fire-breathing one-cell idiot."
Cana rolled her eyes and shot back mercilessly, "Honestly, I think the chances of you being in love with the sword in your hand are a hundred times higher than you loving either of them."
Normally, if someone teased her like that, Erza would have gone into a serious lecture about how "a sword is a weapon and there is no way she could fall in love with one."
But now, none of it was reaching her. She could only sit there in a daze, face burning.
Seeing Erza so helpless and lost, Cana, despite all her exasperation, still softened enough to lower her voice and offer advice.
"You'll have to sort this out yourself…"
"But that woman, Ultear… she's only been to the guild a few times, but I can tell the atmosphere between her and Shane is weird. They definitely do not feel like ordinary friends."
"If you keep being this slow, then one day Shane gets stolen away by someone else, I won't be surprised in the slightest."
"Stolen… away…"
Erza covered her burning face, her thoughts a tangled mess.
She could hardly hear the rest of what Cana was saying anymore. The only thing echoing in her head was that word.
Love.
"I… love Shane?"
"So this feeling—wanting to keep looking at him, wanting to stay with him, feeling awful when he gets close to someone else… this is love?"
Her heart pounded like a war drum, as some emotion she had never felt before spread through her chest—sweet and sour all at once.
"I…"
A giant wave of embarrassment exploded inside her. Erza shot to her feet, unable to even look at Cana anymore, and bolted with her face lowered.
"I-I have something to do!"
She had no idea where she was going. She just needed to run from this place where her heartbeat had gone out of control.
Watching Erza practically flee through the door, Cana stood up worriedly and called after her:
"If he really gets stolen away, then don't be polite—go steal him back!"
"Steal what back?"
A voice suddenly cut in from the side.
Mira, sipping through a straw, looked at the excited Cana curiously.
"N-nothing!"
This was obviously not the kind of thing Cana was going to loudly spread around the guild, so she quickly lifted her drink to cover it up.
"Oh really?"
Mira flicked her silver ponytail and clearly didn't buy it.
"I don't need you to tell me… this is about Master, right?"
"…"
Cana instantly clamped her mouth shut and began chugging from the bottle, terrified she'd let something else slip and give Mira more clues.
But that reaction alone was enough.
Mira bared her teeth in a dazzling smile, though behind her there seemed to rise a faintly dark aura.
Before this, she had already noticed that Erza had strong feelings for Shane—feelings she herself still hadn't recognized.
"Heh… this could get interesting…"
"Big sis… what are you planning?"
Lisanna shrank back and nervously warned her.
"The look on your face right now… it's kind of like those bad people in the village who wanted to chase us out. It's scary…"
"Shut it!"
Mira's smile instantly vanished. She smacked her little sister on the head in annoyance.
"As punishment, you're cooking dinner tonight! I want extra-spicy curry chicken!"
With that, she tossed her hair and walked off humming happily, clearly already imagining Erza eating dirt.
"Ah? But that dish's such a pain to make!"
Lisanna stamped her foot miserably, regretting ever opening her mouth and provoking her sister while she was in one of her scheming moods.
~~~
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