Chapter 208

Chapter 208: Chapter 208

Marshall and Mira understood each other extremely well.

There were certain things neither of them needed to say aloud, and before long, their relationship returned to its usual closeness.

Just as Marshall had no intention of abandoning his harem plan, Mira had no intention of giving up on stopping him from building one.

Her position was perfectly clear.

She would never give up on Marshall, much less leave him, but there was no chance in hell she was going to actively support his ridiculous dream either.

If anything, she would continue finding every opportunity she could to make things difficult for him.

However, if Marshall could still somehow make other girls unwilling to leave him despite Mira constantly interfering... then fine.

That would mean he had genuinely earned it, and Mira would stop caring.

In short, Mira belonged to the compromise faction.

Now that she had secured Marshall’s promise that he would marry her one day, she could afford to sit comfortably on the sidelines and turn a blind eye to the rest of his ambitions.

For Marshall, that was already an excellent result.

He wasn’t going to demand more.

Marshall had always possessed far more patience when it came to the girls he had grown up alongside.

That did not, however, mean he treated every woman around him with the same indulgence.

Toward certain people whose relationship with him had never exactly been equal from the beginning, Marshall was considerably more aloof.

For example... a certain high-profile fugitive from the Magic Council.

Miss Ultear.

"Marshaaall~~~~ My dear little master, I’m back!"

Four days after the Tower of Heaven incident, Ultear finished dealing with the aftermath and immediately made her way to Cake Tower.

At last, she could throw all those useless obligations behind her and return to Marshall’s side.

Unfortunately, Marshall’s welcome was nowhere near as enthusiastic as she had imagined.

"Oh."

Ultear puffed out her cheeks and circled around him.

"Marshall, your most loyal, adorable, devoted subordinate has finally come back to you! Can’t you at least welcome me properly?"

"Nope."

Marshall barely looked up.

"You’re a wanted fugitive from a dark guild. I’ll be happy as long as you don’t bring trouble to my doorstep. Go wherever you want."

"Are you still mad at me?"

Ultear suddenly looked a little guilty.

The truth was that on the night Deliora was finally dealt with, after Marshall had shared Ur’s memories with her, he had invited Ultear to remain by his side instead of returning to the dark guild.

But...

Ultear had politely refused.

Part of it was because she still hadn’t been mentally prepared to stay beside Marshall.

She hadn’t known how she was supposed to face him yet.

More importantly, she wanted to prove that she had value.

If she returned to Grimoire Heart, she could continue gathering intelligence for Marshall from within the dark guild.

She believed that would make her far more useful to him than simply staying at Cake Tower.

And so Ultear had rejected his invitation.

Marshall hadn’t said anything at the time.

He had respected her decision as usual, but Ultear could tell that he hadn’t been particularly happy about it.

"What would I be angry about?"

Marshall shrugged.

"You’re free to go wherever you want. You’ve already escaped from what was controlling you, Ultear. Just follow wherever your heart leads you."

And he meant it.

Marshall genuinely wasn’t angry.

In fact, he didn’t feel particularly strongly about where Ultear chose to go.

She might have pledged herself completely to him by now, but this troublesome woman had quite a history behind her.

Marshall simply didn’t trust her on the same level as the girls he had grown up with, so naturally he wasn’t nearly as concerned about her whereabouts.

At the end of the day, their emotional foundation was still too shallow.

Marshall’s relationship with Ultear was built more on attraction and mutual interest than deep attachment.

She felt more like a lover than someone he already thought of as a future wife.

"Hehe. Well, I picked up some extremely important information while I was back at Grimoire Heart!"

Seeing that Marshall truly wasn’t angry, Ultear immediately brightened.

In her experience, Marshall had always been rather aloof anyway.

"What information?"

"The Oración Seis are preparing something big."

Ultear’s expression sharpened.

"They’ll probably make their move sometime next month."

A cold gleam passed through her eyes.

"When that happens, Brain will almost certainly appear in person. That’ll be my chance to finally take revenge."

She looked back at Marshall.

"So... can I stay here with you until then?"

"Do whatever you want. I don’t mind."

Marshall shrugged, then looked her up and down.

"Although you do realize you’re currently a wanted criminal, right? Aren’t you going to disguise yourself at all?"

"Ah... then I’ll use Transformation Magic."

"Just don’t turn into a man."

"I wasn’t going to!"

Ultear transformed on the spot, taking on the appearance of a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl with black twin tails.

The younger look gave her an entirely different air.

Marshall stared at her.

"Trying to pass yourself off as someone younger?"

"I am not!!!"

Ultear’s face immediately flushed.

She had only wanted to look a little closer to Marshall’s age.

What was wrong with that?!

"Whatever. That’ll do."

Marshall waved dismissively.

"Starting today, you can work as my personal maid."

Ultear’s eyes lit up.

"I understand! No problem! I love maid outfits!"

Marshall summoned Virgo and pointed toward Ultear.

"Virgo, we’ve got a new maid. Take her with you and train her properly."

"Yes, Young Master."

Ultear blinked at Virgo.

"A Celestial Spirit? Marshall, you’re a Celestial Spirit Mage too?"

She had never seen him summon a Celestial Spirit before, although at this point Marshall knowing yet another form of Magic hardly surprised her.

The moment she finished speaking, Virgo lightly knocked her on the head.

"Ow!"

"You are the new maid. You must not address Master directly by name. It is disrespectful."

"Ow... F-Fine! I understand! Little Master..."

Virgo looked her over.

"Try again. You clearly look the same age as Master."

"Ugh... M-Master."

"Good. I will now teach you your daily responsibilities. Follow me."

And just like that, the new black-haired, twin-tailed maid was led away by Virgo.

That reminded Marshall of another maid.

He had almost forgotten about Lucy.

He had previously made that idiot Lucy work as his maid while assisting with experiments, only for Ultear’s message about the Tower of Heaven to interrupt everything.

No wonder Lucy had been avoiding him for the past few days.

She was trying to skip work!

Marshall decided that he would spend the next couple of days helping Erza activate her Second Origin, then hunt Lucy down and drag her back to work as his maid.

As a feudal nobleman who thoroughly enjoyed being pampered, Marshall simply did not have enough maids.

This situation was unacceptable.

Not long after Ultear left, Levy came sneaking through the door.

The moment she entered, she wasted no time on greetings.

She climbed onto Marshall’s lap, wrapped her arms around him, and gave him a quick kiss.

"Mwah~ Marshall, why haven’t you been coming to the guild lately? I missed you~"

"I’ve been busy. Between my main body and my Thought Projection, I’m barely keeping up with everything."

Marshall settled her more comfortably against him.

"Anything important happen at the guild?"

"Now that you mention it, actually, yes!"

Levy shifted her position before continuing.

"Remember Gajeel from Phantom Lord?"

"Uh... the Iron Dragon Slayer you beat?"

"Yep! Him!"

Levy immediately became animated.

"The Master actually recruited him into Fairy Tail! Jet and Droy nearly started a fight over it!"

Marshall raised an eyebrow.

"Why did he suddenly decide to join now? When we were offering the Phantom Lord members a place with us before, he didn’t come."

"I heard a Council member pulled some strings."

Levy thought for a moment.

"You know how the current Council members all resigned after the Tower of Heaven incident? Apparently one of them had some kind of connection to Gajeel and asked the Master to look after him before leaving. That’s basically how he ended up here."

"I see."

Marshall didn’t seem particularly concerned.

"Doesn’t really matter, I suppose. His personality seemed pretty awful, though. Can he actually get ten people to vote for him?"

Levy’s petite body gave an exaggerated little shiver before she snuggled deeper into Marshall’s arms.

"Exactly! Marshall, I’m telling you, that guy has such a scary look in his eyes! He even glared at me!"

She put on an exaggeratedly frightened voice.

"Maybe he’s still holding a grudge because I beat him. I’m sooo scared~"

Marshall patted her reassuringly.

"Don’t worry. If he tries to bully you, I’ll beat him up for you."

"Wah~ Marshall is the best~"

Levy immediately leaned in again.

"Come here. Mwah!"