Chapter 203

Chapter 203: Chapter 203

"So... what you’re saying is that you, Levy, and Juvia have been secretly practicing... kissing behind everyone’s backs?"

Mira tilted her head slightly and smiled sweetly.

On the surface, she looked perfectly calm.

Marshall, however, didn’t dare move a muscle.

He could already feel the dark aura rolling off her.

Mira had entered maximum-rage mode!

Marshall swallowed and cautiously nodded.

"Y-Yes..."

It wasn’t as though Marshall had deliberately intended to hide the whole thing.

He had simply planned to reveal it slowly, carefully, one step at a time, following a proper schedule.

This had absolutely nothing to do with Mira catching him by the proverbial tail.

He also knew perfectly well that something like this couldn’t stay hidden forever.

Since Mira had been in a good mood today, confessing now and hoping for leniency wasn’t necessarily a bad choice.

Again, this had absolutely nothing to do with not wanting his embarrassing little "Mommy!" video spread around the guild.

If Marshall really wanted to, deleting the recording remotely wouldn’t even be difficult.

He was practically a grandmaster in Information Magic.

He simply refused to abuse his abilities like that.

That was all.

In any case, Marshall had always known this particular blade would eventually fall. He had merely chosen today to face it.

Marshall liked Mira.

Because Mira was adorable.

Ever since childhood, Mira had always "worshiped" him to a rather extreme degree, and Marshall knew exactly why.

He had left far too strong an impression when he rescued her from that village, with the result that young Mira had refused to submit to practically anyone except him.

As the years passed, their bond only grew deeper.

That became especially obvious after Lisanna’s disappearance.

By then, Mira’s feelings for Marshall were so obvious that almost anyone could see them.

The fact that she had openly declared herself his number-one "girlfriend fan" said everything.

Mira had never truly hidden how she felt.

She had simply believed Marshall wasn’t ready yet, so she had kept her emotions restrained instead of pushing their relationship further.

Who could possibly reject a beautiful girl who admired you so deeply and constantly put your feelings first?

Especially when Mira had so many other advantages.

She could handle practically every household task, possessed extraordinary magical talent, could cook, entertain guests, and manage a home effortlessly.

She was beautiful, had an amazing figure, and her personality... well, it matched Marshall’s frighteningly well.

A wife this perfect was the kind you could search for with a lantern and still never find.

Marshall genuinely loved Mira.

Precisely because he cared so much about her, he was also afraid she would get angry.

That was part of why he had never dared openly explain what had happened with Levy and Juvia.

He felt guilty.

Marshall’s dream of building his Crystal Palace had never changed, but he wasn’t delusional enough to believe every girl he liked was somehow obligated to love him forever without conditions.

If a girl accepted him and returned his feelings, Marshall considered himself incredibly lucky.

If someone disliked him because of his shameless greed and wandering eyes, he could understand that too.

He still wasn’t changing.

Marshall had already prepared himself for the possibility that Mira might hate him after hearing the truth.

Even then, he wouldn’t give up.

He would simply become even more shameless, cling to her even harder, and keep trying until Mira finally agreed to accept him.

Marshall made no attempt to deny how greedy he was.

But he intended to follow that greed all the way through.

After all, greed was one of the reasons he had worked so hard for so many years.

Without those ambitions pushing him forward, he probably would have given up and started slacking off long ago.

So... what answer would Mira give him?

Would he be lucky?

Or—

"Those two shameless little bitch!!!"

"?"

Mira’s white hair suddenly floated upward under the force of her surging Magic Power, making her expression genuinely terrifying.

"They... they actually dared to jump the line behind my back?! I’m going to crush those two little thieves! Kill them! Throw them in the river!"

Marshall wiped away nonexistent cold sweat.

Right.

He had forgotten that he was still the younger one here.

In a situation like this, everyone’s first instinct would naturally be to blame the older girls rather than him.

Unfortunately, Marshall couldn’t simply stand there and watch his future harem burn down in front of him, so he hurriedly wrapped his arms around Mira.

"Um... Mira, don’t blame Levy and Juvia! Actually, I-I was the one who asked for it! I like kissing! So it’s my fault. Don’t blame them!"

"Marshall, you don’t need to defend them!"

Mira immediately rejected that explanation.

"You think I don’t know you? You like playing around with girls, sure, but you’ve never been the type to deliberately cross the line. Those two must have pressured you into it!"

Marshall’s face went blank.

’Oh, crap.’

How had having too good a reputation somehow become another problem?!

Was there really no saving Levy and Juvia now?!

No!!!

"But I-I like Levy and Juvia too! We’re mutually—two—no, three—ugh, whatever! The point is, it takes two people to make something like this happen, so I’m definitely responsible too! Mira, please don’t blame them. If you’re going to blame someone, blame me!"

Silence.

Mira stared at him.

Her lips were pressed so tightly together they had almost gone white. The smile had vanished completely, while her eyes had become disturbingly hollow.

"Marshall..."

Her voice was terrifyingly soft.

"You said... you like Levy and Juvia?"

Marshall froze.

"You mean... like them as girls? That kind of liking?"

Her eyes grew even emptier.

"You’ve already decided you want them to be your girlfriends?"

She took a tiny step closer.

"Then what about me?"

Her voice began trembling.

"I’ve always, always, always, always liked Marshall too. Are you going to abandon your big sister now? You don’t like me anymore? You don’t want me anymore?"

"OF COURSE I LOVE MIRA THE MOST!!!"

The darkness surrounding Mira vanished instantly.

She tilted her head.

Paused.

And seemed to reboot.

"Oh my~ Is that so~? Is that really so? So that’s how it is~"

Marshall nearly collapsed.

’Holy shit, that scared me!’

Mira had almost gone completely yandere.

Marshall’s entire back was soaked in sweat.

For a moment, he had genuinely felt as though he were standing in front of a black hole.

The gravitational pressure coming from Mira had been so terrifying that he’d nearly struggled to breathe.

’This is bad.’

Why did he have so many childhood friends with gravity-related tendencies?

Was he being surrounded by gravity girls?!

Mira successfully finished rebooting and returned to that beautifully horrifying smile.

"So... Marshall."

She leaned closer.

"You like your big sister, while also liking Levy and Juvia, those two little bitch?"

"...Yes."

At this point, Marshall could only grit his teeth and stand his ground.

He truly was walking on thin ice.

"That’s not very good, you know."

Mira lightly poked his cheek.

"How did Marshall become so greedy? Did Loki teach you bad habits? Or was it Gildarts?"

"N-No!"

Marshall immediately shook his head.

"I’m completely different from those guys! I’ll take responsibility for everyone!"

He drew a breath.

"And I’m definitely going to marry Mira-nee!"

"Eh?"

Mira froze.

"EH?!"

It took exactly one second for her to transform into a steam engine.

She covered her burning face and spun around, while the little tuft of white hair sticking up from her head practically began rotating.

"M-Marry me?! That’s way too embarrassing! M-Marshall, you can’t just casually say things like that! S-Suddenly telling me you’re going to marry me is completely unfair! When should we contact the church? If we’re getting married I’ll need a custom wedding dress and we’ll have to prepare the ceremony and do we invite everyone from the guild and Lisanna isn’t even back yet and we haven’t prepared a house and—"

"?"

Marshall could still understand the first few sentences.

After that, Mira’s words dissolved into one long stream of increasingly incomprehensible muttering.

Her eyes had practically turned into spirals.

It genuinely looked as though her brain might overheat.

Marshall scratched his head.

What the hell?

He had only thrown out one basic attack.

How had Mira ended up like this?

Could it be... that Mira, who always acted mature and composed and seemed to have everything under control, was actually ridiculously innocent when it came to romance?

In other words, the real Mira was secretly a glass cannon?

High attack but terrible defense!

Marshall wasn’t entirely sure.

So naturally, he decided to test the theory.

He stepped closer.

"Mira-nee."

"Eh? E-Eh? W-What is it?"

Marshall looked straight at her.

"I love you, my dear Mira."

Mira fainted.