Living Together

"Mmm~"

Still half-asleep, Cain knew he should get up, but the warm sleeping bag seemed to possess some special magic that made him reluctant to leave.

Hugging the soft body in his arms tighter, he rubbed his cheek against a fluffy, soft tuft. Ah, now he wanted to get up even less.

In his arms? A soft fluffy tuft?

Suddenly coming to his senses, Cain hurriedly opened his eyes and saw that Erza, who should have been sleeping on the other side, had somehow crawled into his arms.

Her whole body was curled up into a small, adorable ball, and one of his hands rested on her waist.

Cain instinctively checked both his and Erza's clothes. Seeing that they were the same as before they had gone to sleep, he let out a sigh of relief.

Then he realized that he and Erza were only eleven-year-old children. What could possibly happen between two kids? Honestly, he really was a filthy adult.

Just as Cain was reflecting on himself, Erza slowly opened her sleepy left eye. Looking at Cain's face so close to hers, she said in a soft, drowsy voice, "Morning, Cain."

"Morning, Erza."

At that moment, Cain felt that Erza was truly adorable. She was completely different from the valiant and dashing woman she would become.

Seeing that Erza did not seem to care at all about having slept in his arms, Cain was a little surprised. Then he remembered that, in the original story, Erza did not seem particularly concerned about matters between men and women.

Cain made up his mind to make Erza pay more attention to such things in the future. Otherwise, a girl could easily suffer outside.

After climbing out of their sleeping bags, the two had a simple breakfast and headed for the station.

There were no twists or accidents on the way back, and the two soon returned to Magnolia.

After returning to Magnolia, they headed straight for Porlyusica's home and handed over the Rain Dew Crystals they had collected.

Porlyusica looked at the Rain Dew Crystals in the bottle and nodded. "Mm, this is enough. I'll start making the recovery medicine today. Come back tomorrow."

After saying that, she looked at them expressionlessly, clearly indicating that they should leave if there was nothing else.

Cain understood what Porlyusica meant and said, "Sorry to trouble you, Granny."

Then he took Erza's hand and left the treehouse.

On the way back, Cain thought for a moment before saying to Erza, "Erza, you should stay with me for the time being."

Erza looked at Cain in confusion. "Hm? Stay with you, Cain?"

"Yes." Cain nodded and explained, "Don't I need to use magic to nourish your body while you recover? It'll be more convenient if we live together."

"Besides, you still have some hidden injuries inside you that need to be dealt with. If we keep delaying, they might flare up someday."

Only then did Erza understand. She then asked somewhat awkwardly, "Can girls go to the boys' dormitory?"

"Huh? Boys' dormitory?"

Cain looked at Erza in confusion, not understanding why she had suddenly brought up the boys' dormitory.

Erza gave Cain a strange look. Could girls just casually enter the boys' dormitory? After all, Granny Hilda would stop any male from entering.

Cain quickly understood and said with a smile, "Not the boys' dormitory. My home. Well, I'll take you to see it."

Not knowing how else to explain it, Cain brought Erza to the door of his home.

Looking at the spacious villa before her, Erza asked in shock, "Th-This is... Cain's... home?"

After inserting the key and opening the door, Cain said to Erza, "Yeah. Come in and have a seat."

Erza blankly followed Cain into the villa. It took her quite a while after sitting on the sofa to recover, and then she asked with one eye sparkling, "Cain, did you buy this with request rewards? So the guild's request rewards are this high."

Cain took a strawberry cake from the refrigerator and handed it to Erza. He himself did not particularly like sweets.

However, Cana, Gray, Laxus, and the others occasionally came over as guests, so he kept some prepared in advance.

Cain sat opposite Erza and explained, "The money for this villa didn't come from request rewards. I earned it through other means."

He then briefly explained how he had made Scar-Removal Ointment, partnered with the Noblewoman shop, and obtained shares.

Although an S-Class Request could reward a Mage with over a million, the expenses during the process were also extremely high.

Normally, completing an S-Class Request took anywhere from half a year to a year. Just gathering intelligence, food, lodging, medicine, and supplies during that time cost a considerable amount.

Not to mention purchasing magic items, Magic Crystals, and so on. Half of the rewards they earned would go right back into expenses.

That was under the condition that they completed the request. If they failed, they would suffer a complete loss.

Although ordinary requests were not as difficult and did not take as long, their rewards were not high either, usually ranging from a few hundred to several hundred thousand.

After all, requests such as working as a waiter and those involving cross-region escort, subjugation, or extermination could not possibly offer the same rewards.

The guild's method for determining whether a request was S-Class was simple: requests paying less than a million were ordinary requests, while those paying more than a million but less than ten million were S-Class Requests.

Only then did Erza understand why Cain had said when they first met that he had money and she did not need to worry about the expenses.

Having understood, Erza began focusing wholeheartedly on the strawberry cake in front of her.

The moment Cain had taken it out, Erza's gaze had been unconsciously drawn to it. If she had not been so shocked by Cain, she definitely would have tasted it immediately.

She used her fork to cut off a corner of the strawberry cake and slowly brought it to her mouth.

"Mm~ Delicious."

The light cream wrapped around the fluffy, soft cake, melting together in her mouth. The sweet and sour flavor of the strawberries instantly elevated the taste even further.

When Erza came back to her senses, she discovered that the strawberry cake on her plate had somehow disappeared.

In Cain's eyes, Erza had instantly turned chibi, sparkling brightly all over.

Seeing that Erza still wanted more, Cain smiled and said, "There's more in the refrigerator, but don't eat too much. It's bad for your teeth."

"Really?" The moment Erza heard there was more in the refrigerator, she immediately perked up.

But when she heard Cain say she could not eat too much, she struggled for a moment before pleading, "Can I have one more piece?"

"Mm-hm."

"Oh, great!"

Seeing how happy Erza was, Cain remembered that the Erza in the original story seemed to love sweets. It looked like he would need to keep more in the refrigerator in the future.

After finishing another piece of strawberry cake, Erza stood up in satisfaction and said she would go back to move her things.

Erza moved quickly. By the afternoon, she had already packed everything up. Mainly because she did not have much to begin with, only a few sets of clothes.

Cana and Gray came along with Erza as well.

Cain looked at the two of them curiously. "Why are you here?"

Gray grinned shamelessly. "Hehe, haven't seen you in a while. We missed you."

Cana nodded beside him with an expression that said, Exactly.

Cain immediately understood why they had come.

They clearly wanted something delicious. Ever since he had shown off his cooking in front of them, the two would come over every few days to mooch off him.