There were few people on the streets of Magnolia that afternoon.
Erza walked down the street in her armor, occasionally receiving nods of greeting from the residents. Since the Phantom Lord incident had passed, the pity and fear in their eyes when they looked at Fairy Tail members had disappeared.
She politely nodded back to each of them, but she could not get Laxus's expression from earlier out of her mind.
That look of superiority, of treating his comrades as worthless, filled her with a profound sense of estrangement and disconnect.
She still clearly remembered when she had first joined the guild. Back then, Laxus had liked to act tough and talk big, but at heart, he had been a cheerful older-brother figure.
He would get a smack on the head and a scolding from the Guild Master for causing trouble, and when everyone descended into a brawl, he would stand off to the side, secretly snickering.
But at some point, his smiles had grown fewer and fewer, and his words had become increasingly harsh.
"...You weren't like this before."
Erza murmured to herself.
Was it the blow of Ivan being expelled from the guild? She could not make sense of it. She only felt that the Laxus of today seemed like a completely different person.
A different person...
At that thought, Erza's steps briefly faltered.
In her memories, there had been someone else who had changed overnight into a person she no longer recognized.
A boy who had once given her hope, then mercilessly plunged her into despair.
In that tower filled with blood and tears, when everyone had been on the verge of giving up, he had smiled and told them that one day, they would all leave together and see what true freedom was like outside.
He