Chapter 186

Chapter 186: Chapter 186

The chain reaction Levy had triggered was eventually brought under control by Marshall.

The secret was simple: keep everything quiet.

These days, whenever Marshall was "sneaking a bite," he became extraordinarily cautious.

First, he swept the surroundings with Magic Detection, then followed up with a Telepathy scan to make absolutely certain nobody was around to catch them.

Although... sometimes it was hard to tell whether Marshall was the one sneaking a bite, or whether he was the one being secretly eaten.

Whenever Levy suddenly felt like kissing him, she would throw him a flirtatious look, casually announce that she was going to the bathroom, and leave.

Marshall would then have to teleport after her, only to be thoroughly kissed before he was allowed to go.

Juvia had her own methods.

Sometimes Marshall would walk past an empty room, only for water tentacles belonging to the long-waiting Juvia to suddenly shoot out from inside, seize him, and drag him into the damp little hideout beyond.

No matter how Marshall looked at it, he was clearly the one getting the worse end of the deal.

He liked kissing too, of course.

The problem was that neither Levy nor Juvia was particularly well-behaved.

They were always deliberately provoking him and stirring up his competitive instincts, while Marshall himself had already decided that he couldn’t actively go any further.

The resulting frustration was becoming unbearable.

More importantly, Marshall still had rather thin skin when it came to asking Levy for help with embarrassing personal problems.

Once or twice was fine, but if they kept fooling around like this, he had an uneasy feeling that sooner or later he was going to lose something important.

Marshall finally decided he couldn’t keep degenerating like this.

So he reduced how often he went to the guild and once again threw himself into magical research.

There was never any shortage of experiments waiting for him.

For example, his research into the demons of Galuna Island had been sitting untouched for a long time.

Originally, Marshall had planned to build some kind of magical microscope to examine them more closely, but after learning Life Magic, he had gained a new method of analyzing the fundamental factors of living organisms from a broader perspective.

Magic always managed to surprise him in one way or another.

Sure enough, life was about more than kisses and girls.

There was also Magic and the distant horizon.

Starting today—abstinence!

...

Lucy arrived at Cake Tower feeling rather nervous.

Recently, she had often found herself worrying about something that had happened earlier.

After joining Marshall’s fan-group chat, she had gained access to quite a few pieces of insider information that ordinary guild members didn’t know.

For example, although Marshall usually appeared friendly and easygoing, he was actually rather aloof in private.

He deliberately kept his distance from girls he wasn’t close to and strongly disliked physical intimacy that crossed his personal boundaries.

Apparently, one girl who had recently joined the guild had once been unable to resist temptation and taken the opportunity to pinch Marshall’s cheek.

Marshall then ignored her for more than a month.

The girl had regretted it so deeply that she eventually confessed the incident in the group chat and warned everyone else to learn from her mistake.

The moment Lucy heard that story, she knew she was in trouble.

On the night they saved Loki, she had become so angry that she had grabbed Marshall’s face and kneaded his cheeks mercilessly.

Marshall hadn’t seemed bothered at the time... but what if he held grudges?

Lucy had always been terrible at judging exactly where she stood in her relationships with other people.

She considered herself and Marshall nothing more than ordinary friends who had only known each other for a short time.

Sure, she occasionally entertained a few rosy fantasies.

But after all the disappointments she had suffered growing up, Lucy had long since learned not to take those fantasies seriously.

She was now beginning to suspect that Marshall’s promise to help her become stronger might merely have been an excuse.

After all, the price was that she had to cooperate with his experiments.

No matter how she thought about it, that sounded suspicious.

Ever since Marshall had "set her up" during the Loki incident, Lucy had become convinced that the brat was full of bad ideas.

The stories circulating around the guild had been right.

Some rotten little kids really did enjoy bullying people for fun.

Unfortunately, Lucy had already agreed.

And as a Celestial Spirit Mage who took agreements extremely seriously, she still arrived at Cake Tower exactly as promised.

By now, Lucy was already fairly familiar with the building, so she found Marshall’s laboratory without much difficulty.

When she entered, she saw Marshall conducting an experiment with... Lust?

Lucy blinked at the miniature Levy.

Come to think of it, why exactly was little Levy called Lust?

Were Marshall’s Apostles really named according to anything sensible?

"Lucy, you’re here."

Marshall looked up.

Then he frowned.

"Huh? Why aren’t you wearing the maid outfit?"

Lucy immediately bristled.

"I never agreed to become your maid! I only agreed to cooperate with your experiments!"

"All right."

Marshall turned toward Lust.

"Then put on the laboratory assistant uniform instead. Lust, go get her one."

Lucy relaxed slightly.

That sounded much more reasonable.

Lust soon returned with the clothes.

Lucy took one look at them and froze.

"Isn’t this still a maid outfit?!"

"It’s an assistant uniform."

"You! You’re messing with me again!"

"You don’t actually have to perform maid duties."

Marshall looked completely innocent.

"So does it really matter what clothes you wear?"

Lucy thought about it.

Apparently... not really.

Still clearly unhappy about it, she reluctantly took the clothes, changed, and returned to the laboratory.

"But this is still weird!"

Lucy tugged at the outfit.

"Why do I have to wear a maid outfit to participate in an experiment?"

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"And more importantly, Marshall, can you really help me become stronger?"

"See? You’re getting impatient again."

Marshall casually handed her a cup.

"Go get me some water first."

"Oh."

Lucy obediently went to fill it.

Only after she returned with the water did she suddenly stop.

Wait.

Wasn’t she acting exactly like a little maid now?!

Lucy stared resentfully at Marshall.

Marshall completely ignored her glare and comfortably enjoyed his young-master lifestyle.

After spending so much time around girls who looked as though they wanted to "devour him alive," changing the pace once in a while was refreshing.

Someone like Lucy—an amusing idiot who was fun to tease—was perfect.

Sure enough, compared with being bullied himself, Marshall still preferred bullying other people.

"I really was telling you the truth, though."

Lucy immediately looked over.

"Lucy, what do you think is the most important quality for a Celestial Spirit Mage?"

The foolish Lucy’s attention was diverted instantly.

"Obviously the bond between a Mage and their Celestial Spirits!"

She answered without hesitation.

"For a Celestial Spirit Mage, maintaining a good relationship with your Spirits is the most important thing!"

"Completely wrong."

"Eh?"

"For a Celestial Spirit Mage, there is only one thing that matters most."

Marshall raised one finger.

"Magic Power."

Lucy blinked.

"If your reserves are insufficient, there’s no way for you to bring out the true strength of your Celestial Spirits. Even if you summoned every Spirit you currently possess at once, you still wouldn’t be able to defeat Virgo when she’s using the deeper level of her power as a Celestial Spirit."

Marshall glanced at her.

"With the amount of Magic Power you have now, you would need to increase it by at least eightfold before you could bring out much more of your Spirits’ actual strength."

He folded his arms.

"So your most urgent priority right now is finding a way to increase your Magic Power."

Lucy’s excitement immediately disappeared.

"...Then how is that any different from saying nothing?"

She looked thoroughly disappointed.

"Of course I know Magic Power is important! But meditation is exhausting!"

Lucy sighed.

"I understand the principle, but that doesn’t make the method useful!"

"Who said you had to rely on meditation?"

Lucy looked up.

"I have another way to help you increase your Magic Power."

"Eh?!"

Her eyes widened.

"Really? What way?"

"Second Origin."

Lucy stared blankly at him.

"Every Mage possesses a second place inside their body capable of storing Magic Power. Once that second reservoir is successfully opened, the Mage enters a period of explosive magical growth, and their future rate of increasing Magic Power also rises considerably."

The more Marshall explained, the brighter Lucy’s eyes became.

Without even realizing what she was doing, she quietly moved behind him and began massaging his shoulders and pounding his back.

"So~"

Her voice became extremely sweet.

"Marshall can help me open that Second Origin?"

"No."

Lucy’s ingratiating smile froze on her face.

She nearly punched him.

"THEN WHY DID YOU TELL ME ABOUT IT?!"

"But if you’re willing to cooperate with my experiments..."

Marshall smiled.

"I might be able to make you the first pioneer to successfully open Second Origin through external intervention."

Lucy stopped.

Marshall looked at her.

"Well?"

His smile widened.

"Interested?"

"..."

Lucy had learned enough by now not to immediately agree.

"So... what’s the price?"

Marshall finally revealed his true intentions.

"Simple."

He pointed at her maid outfit.

"During the experiment, you have to be my little maid~"

Lucy’s expression changed several times.

She struggled with herself for quite a while before finally managing to convince herself.

If this was what it took to become stronger... then surely such a tiny price wasn’t completely unacceptable?

"Deal!"

"Hehe."

Marshall smiled happily.

"Smart choice."

Just as Marshall was celebrating the fact that this arrangement meant he could continue teasing Lucy in the future, his terminal suddenly received a message.

It was from Ultear.

[Master~ The "Tower" is almost complete.]

[That person is about to begin his operation.]