Two Similar People

After listening to Cain's story, Erza understood what he meant by saying they were very alike.

Back then, she had indeed been overwhelmed by sorrow, confusion, and fear—just like Cain when he fled the Magic Development Bureau.

And it was not only that. Erza felt that Cain's experiences were also very similar to her own.

When she was little, she lived in a small mountain village. Though she had no parents, everyone in the village treated her well.

But the village was attacked by the Dark Magic Cult, and she was captured and forced to help build the Tower of Heaven. There, she met Jellal, Simon, Sho, and the others.

They had also planned an escape, and it had also failed.

After Jellal was captured, they rose up in resistance. Grandpa Rob died saving her, and later, she awakened her magic and defeated the members of the Dark Magic Cult.

Just when she thought she could lead everyone away from the Tower of Heaven, Jellal told her that he wanted to continue building it.

Erza did not know why Jellal had changed like that. In the end, she was the only one who left the Tower of Heaven, and soon afterward, she encountered the lost Cain.

Perhaps because their experiences were so similar, Erza told him about her past.

Erza softly recounted her past beside his ear. Cain listened quietly without interrupting her.

There was not much difference between Erza's past and what he remembered. The only difference was probably that she had met him right after leaving the Tower of Heaven, and he had brought her back to Fairy Tail.

In the original story, Jellal had been deceived by Ultear and fallen into darkness. But Ultear had already died at the Magic Development Bureau. Had someone else deceived Jellal instead?

Cain still held out a small hope that Ultear was not dead—that she had deceived Jellal and led him into darkness.

Although that was somewhat unfair to Jellal, Cain would take good care of Erza as repayment.

Remembering how Cain had sought help from the guild master, Erza could not help asking, "Cain, what do you think about telling the guild master? Will he help me?"

Cain answered without hesitation, "He definitely will. But do you know where the Tower of Heaven is?"

Cain's question left Erza stunned. Back then, she had simply drifted along with the ocean currents and had no idea where she was. Meeting Cain had already been incredibly fortunate.

Seeing Erza fall silent, Cain understood that she did not know the Tower of Heaven's location.

Come to think of it, in the original story, the Tower of Heaven should have been close to some seaside amusement park. But Cain could not remember the name of that park.

Seeing Erza looking a little dejected, Cain comforted her. "Since Jellal wants to rebuild the Tower of Heaven, Simon, Sho, and the others should still be safe for now."

"And there are so many people in the Tower of Heaven that they need a considerable amount of supplies every day. We can start there and investigate slowly. Once we confirm the Tower of Heaven's location, we'll make our move."

Cain's words gave Erza a direction. That was right. First, she would find the Tower of Heaven, then rescue her companions. And she also wanted to ask Jellal face-to-face.

Why he had done such a thing.

"All right, we're home."

Erza looked up and realized that they had somehow already returned to the villa. Cain set her down on the sofa. "I'll make something to eat. Rest for now."

Soon, Cain emerged from the kitchen carrying two bowls of noodles.

"Grrr~"

Erza touched her stomach in embarrassment. They were about to eat—could it not have held on a little longer? How embarrassing.

"Erza, come eat. Come to think of it, I'm hungry too."

"Mm-hm, then I'll dig in."

After that, the two said nothing more and focused on the noodles in their bowls. Before long, they had finished the large bowls of noodles, leaving behind not even a drop of soup.

After washing the dishes, they each returned to their rooms.

Lying in bed, Cain could not help sighing. "The magic world is really ridiculous. If Erza had been in this condition in my previous life, she definitely would have lost her right eye."

"But here, it could not only be healed, but after the surgery, Erza only needed to be weak for a while."

Erza's matter was temporarily settled. Next year would be X777, the year the protagonist Natsu would appear, so Cain needed to hurry as well.

Cain had never slackened in his training of magic power and his body, and his strength had grown quickly. In Makarov's words, it would only take a few years for Cain to surpass him.

Of course, Cain only listened to that casually and did not take it seriously.

His current strength was only about on par with Laxus. He was still far from surpassing Makarov.

Cain sighed. "The Gravity Room research needs to be moved up. Right, I can also study storage equipment during this period. It's a pity that I still lack samples for researching Dragon Slayer Magic. I can't determine the core magic array at all, so I'm still stuck in the same place. Sigh..."

He could only hope that after Natsu joined, having another research subject would allow his research into Dragon Slayer Magic to make some progress.

The next day, after waking up, Cain knocked on Erza's door. Soon, Erza appeared before him, fully dressed.

"Cain, are we going out for morning training?"

After just one night, Erza's complexion had improved greatly, causing the last trace of concern in Cain's heart to vanish without a trace.

"Yeah, I promised you. Come to think of it, your body recovered really quickly."

Erza was equally confused. "I think it's strange too. In the past, my injuries always took a long time to heal."

Cain assumed it was Porlyusica's doing and did not pay much attention to it.

In truth, Erza's quick recovery was also related to him. When Cain used Holy Light: Guard to nourish Erza's eye—

Although most of the magic power had been used to nourish her right eye, a small portion had been absorbed by her body to heal old injuries and her postoperative weakness.

Cain did not know about this.

The two stopped talking and began running laps around Magnolia.

For Erza's first morning training session, she was already drenched in sweat by the fifth lap. Her breathing was heavy, and her cheeks were as red as her fiery hair.

Seeing this, Cain said, "That's enough for today. Erza, don't sit down right away. Rest after we get home."

Erza had wanted to sit down and rest properly, but after hearing Cain's words, she forced her aching, weak legs to slowly make their way home.

After returning home, Erza could no longer hold on and threw herself onto the sofa. After resting for a while, she looked curiously at Cain, who was also covered in sweat, and asked:

"Cain, why are you also..."

Erza had originally wanted to say, "Why do you look just as miserable as me?" But she felt that would not sound very nice. For a moment, she could not think of another way to put it, so she got stuck there.

"You mean, why am I the same as you, right?"

Erza hurriedly nodded. Yes, that was exactly it.

"It's because I'm wearing this."

As he spoke, Cain took off his shirt, revealing the black vest underneath. He explained, "This is a weighted vest. Its weight can be adjusted between five and twenty kilograms. Right now, it weighs fifteen kilograms."

"And I also have weights on my wrists and ankles, one kilogram each."

Erza suddenly understood. "No wonder!"