Chapter 226

Chapter 226: Chapter 226

The Tower of Heaven became an immediate hit.

At this rate, it was almost guaranteed to become another popular Magnolia attraction, and keeping it open long-term would probably bring in a considerable amount of money.

The Harvest Festival lasted for two days, and during that time Marshall invited several of his favorite big sisters to tackle the Tower of Heaven with him.

He had a great time.

In every sense of the phrase.

The only real disappointment was that he still failed to trick Mira into giving him a kiss.

That fake "bad woman" was not only surprisingly easy to embarrass, but also painfully dishonest with herself.

Whenever a romantic situation became too difficult for her to handle, she fled like a startled rabbit.

She was obviously doing it on purpose just to stop Marshall from getting what he wanted.

It made his teeth itch.

Still...that side of Mira was adorable too.

As for Erza, she seemed to have simply given up on thinking too deeply about the whole situation.

She decided to follow her feelings, listen to her heart, and let things develop naturally.

In simpler terms: she stopped worrying about it.

Erza didn’t want to leave Marshall, and she genuinely didn’t mind his relationships with the other girls.

As long as everyone involved sincerely cared about one another, she couldn’t see much of a problem.

Her tolerance toward someone she considered her partner was frankly absurd.

Marshall had a feeling that no matter what terrible thing he did in the future, Erza would somehow find it in herself to forgive him.

Once she accepted someone into her heart, she became hopelessly biased in their favor.

That was simply the kind of wonderful woman Erza was.

So afterward, Erza continued promising Mira that she would help "correct" Marshall’s ideas...

while also secretly kissing Marshall whenever nobody else was around.

Apparently, Erza had learned some bad habits from him too.

After the Harvest Festival, Marshall’s life finally returned to normal.

Well.

Not exactly normal.

There were fewer bizarre emergencies, but his life could no longer return to the leisurely pace he had once enjoyed.

The pressure hanging over his head had made him noticeably more restless, and there still wasn’t any particularly good solution to the problem.

Marshall was already doing everything he could to accumulate Inspiration Points.

In the past, his time had been divided roughly seventy-thirty between research and spending time with girls.

Now?

Even his experiments usually had girls hanging around nearby.

Lucy and Wendy had practically become permanent residents of Cake Tower lately, though neither situation had developed quite the way Marshall originally expected.

Lucy was there because she intended to honor her one-month promise to play the role of his "pet."

Wendy, meanwhile, kept showing up because she wanted Marshall to help with her own development.

Marshall genuinely didn’t know what to do with that little girl.

Whenever someone else came looking for him, Lucy normally found somewhere to hide.

By now, she knew Cake Tower’s layout even better than her own home.

Unfortunately, Wendy had been visiting far too frequently lately.

Sooner or later, Lucy was bound to get caught.

The first time Wendy stumbled across Lucy wearing a cat-themed costume, she was so shocked that her eyes practically turned into dragon pupils.

"Uwaaah! D-Don’t look at me, Wendy! Th-There’s an explanation for this!"

Lucy wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and disappear.

Instead, Wendy softly tried to comfort her.

"I-It’s okay. Everyone has their own hobbies. I understand."

Lucy froze.

"I-I actually have something else to do, so I won’t bother you anymore, Lucy-nee! I’ll keep it a secret! Bye!"

Wendy immediately fled before Lucy could explain herself.

Lucy remained where she was, one hand still reaching after her, completely petrified.

At this point, she was starting to feel as though there was nowhere left for her on this planet.

Ascension to the Celestial Spirit World was beginning to look increasingly attractive.

Wendy ran all the way to Marshall, shut the door behind herself, and leaned toward him mysteriously.

"Marshall-nii, why was Lucy-nee dressed like that inside your house?"

Marshall gave her a smug look.

"Hmph. Adult business. Kids don’t need to ask."

"?"

Wendy stared at him.

"Marshall-nii, you’re only one year older than me! Why would you say something so mean?"

Marshall set down the experimental instrument in his hand and sighed.

"You’ve been coming to my house every single day lately. Don’t you need to take care of Sloth?"

"Eh? Carla has been helping look after Sloth."

Wendy tilted her head.

"Does Marshall-nii don’t want me here?"

"I never said that..."

Marshall rubbed his forehead.

"It’s just... sigh."

He had already become painfully aware of Wendy’s determination to speed up her physical development.

The brat deliberately appeared in front of him every day simply to remind him not to forget the "growth experiment" she had requested.

After finishing his research into Origin-Opening Magic, Marshall had started studying how to construct spell domains inside the Origin space.

He believed that line of research would provide a much more direct improvement to his own combat power.

Unfortunately, only his true body could conduct those experiments.

Thought Projections didn’t possess Origin spaces of their own, so Marshall assigned one of them to continue researching Simon’s comatose condition instead.

Still, Wendy’s request was difficult to ignore.

Marshall spoiled his little sister far too much.

So eventually, he had no choice but to temporarily set aside his current experiment and advance his research into Life Magic.

To be fair, studying Life Magic was important anyway.

It was an exceptionally profound branch of Magic that reached all the way down to genetic mechanisms.

Wendy’s request involved controlled physical development, while Marshall’s plans for the future evolution of his Apostles would eventually require knowledge in that same general field.

The real reason Marshall had been somewhat reluctant to let Wendy keep coming over was...

he was afraid he was going to get struck by divine lightning.

"Wendy."

Marshall gave her a serious look.

"You remember the rules, right?"

"Mhm!"

Wendy nodded eagerly.

"I promise I won’t tell anyone! I’ll keep everything secret!"

"Sigh... all right. Let’s start."

Wendy immediately became nervous.

"M-Marshall-nii, turn around first..."

"..."

...

One week later.

Wendy examined the gradual signs of progress and immediately brightened.

"Marshall-nii, you’re amazing! I knew it! Marshall-nii really can do anything!"

Marshall stood nearby wearing a fully enclosed suit of armor that looked suspiciously like Iron Man.

His mechanically filtered voice contained absolutely no emotion.

"This Magic... carries unknown risks."

"There may be consequences I cannot currently predict."

He paused.

"To be honest, I’m starting to regret this."

Marshall turned toward her.

"We’re stopping here, Wendy. I’m suspending this experiment for now."

"Eh~?"

Wendy was disappointed for only a moment before smiling again.

"Okay! I’m already really happy with the results so far. Thank you, Marshall-nii!"

Wendy was delighted.

At this rate, she finally wouldn’t have to worry about ending up exactly like Levy when she grew older!

The changes were still modest, but things were clearly moving in the direction she wanted.

She was definitely going to keep growing!

Then Wendy looked curiously at Marshall’s armor.

"Marshall-nii, why are you wearing that suit?"

Marshall’s metallic voice answered without hesitation.

"Because I currently possess no emotions."

"Also, my conscience is bothering me."

"So I am administering electrotherapy to myself."

Wendy giggled.

"I’m not blaming you, Marshall-nii. It’s fine."

Then she smiled mischievously.

"If you still feel guilty... then maybe when I grow up, I can become your bride too. How about that?"

"..."

The armored Marshall silently turned his back on her.

His voice became even colder.

"We’ll discuss that when you’re actually grown up."

"Your request has already been fulfilled, so go home."

"Okay~ Then I’m leaving!"

Wendy waved cheerfully.

"Bye-bye, Marshall-nii~"

"..."

Only after Wendy had completely left did Marshall remove the armor.

Beneath the helmet... his face was already covered in tears!

Over the past week, he had endured indescribable psychological pressure through sheer force of will.

Thankfully, it was finally over.

And Marshall hadn’t lied to Wendy.

He had spent Inspiration Points to improve Life Magic to LV2, only to discover that the knowledge he obtained still left him understanding the results far better than the underlying principles.

This branch of Magic operated on an exceptionally high level.

Marshall no longer dared to blindly spend Inspiration Points upgrading it.

He was afraid he might acquire another ability whose effects he could use but whose mechanisms he neither understood nor properly controlled.

Because of that, he couldn’t guarantee that his method of using Life Magic to adjust physical development was truly safe.

The apparent result looked successful.

But Marshall had always maintained a healthy respect for knowledge he didn’t properly understand.

So he decided to temporarily seal away this still-unfamiliar branch of Magic.

For now, he would turn his attention back toward other research.