Over the next few days, Blanc, who had just finished a job, entered another stretch of downtime.
He spent every day at the guild, leafing through magic books and studying Card Magic with Cana. Life was pleasantly comfortable. Still, even peaceful days were never short of little bursts of excitement.
With his pride wounded, Gray challenged Erza every day to save face, only for her to beat him senseless in an instant, without exception.
Watching from the sidelines, Blanc couldn't help marveling. Gray certainly lived up to his future reputation as a troublemaker on par with Natsu. His refusal to give up, charging back into battle after every defeat, was genuinely admirable.
Still, having accepted the task of looking after Erza, Blanc kept trying to think of something he could do. Picking a fight with her like Gray was clearly out of the question, but if he simply tried talking to her, Erza wouldn't acknowledge him at all.
After mulling it over, Blanc suddenly remembered that Erza in the original story seemed to have an extraordinary fixation on sweets. In that case, perhaps cake could be his way in.
So, every morning before coming to the guild, Blanc made a point of buying several fancy cakes. Once he arrived, he would set one in front of Erza, smile, and say, "It's really good. Give it a try," before quietly leaving.
He took the remaining cakes to share with Cana and the others. Treating everyone kept his gesture from seeming too out of place.
For the first few days, Erza remained unmoved by the cake in front of her. She never touched it, even by the time she left the guild.
That left Blanc feeling rather helpless. In the end, he could only finish the leftover cake himself-fortunately, he loved sweets too, so it wasn't much of a hardship.
But considering Erza's personality, Blanc figured she might simply not have tasted sweets yet. Once her love of them awakened, she would naturally fall for them. With that thought in mind, he refused to give up and continued setting a fresh cake before her every day.
That day, Blanc pulled out a chair and sat across from Cana, ready to begin their daily Card Magic practice.
Looking at the sliced cake on the table, Cana rubbed her temples and sighed helplessly.
"Is this plan of yours really going to work? At this rate, we'll both get fat before Erza even settles into the guild!"
"Haha, we're still growing. What's wrong with eating a little more?" Blanc chuckled, then considered it for a moment. "But cake every day really does get old. Let's stick with it for a few more days. If nothing changes, I'll try a different food."
A trace of worry flickered in Cana's eyes.
"Well, I know you want Erza to feel at home in the guild, but it seems like all your efforts have been pointless. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like she's been getting more withdrawn lately, and spending less and less time here."
Blanc's expression stiffened.
"Uh, don't make it sound like it's my fault. If Erza doesn't want to stay at the guild, it's probably because of Gray. Ever since she beat him that day, he's been challenging her daily. Even getting battered black and blue doesn't stop him. She's probably sick of him."
As he spoke, a familiar commotion rose nearby. Gray had once again stormed up to Erza.
"Erza, I challenge you!"
Before long, the guild doors swung open, and Erza walked out with a cold expression, leaving a battered and bruised Gray standing there indignantly. "Damn it!"
Everyone around them was used to it by now and burst out laughing. This had become their regular after-meal entertainment lately.
Covered in bruises, Gray sat at an empty table in the middle of the guild, gritting his teeth in frustration. Being effortlessly defeated over and over by Erza, whom he couldn't stand, had left his pride in tatters.
And of course, Wakaba and Macao chose that moment to come over and add fuel to the fire.
"Erza beat you up again, Gray?" Macao teased with a wicked grin.
With a cigarette dangling from his mouth and his trademark obnoxious grin on his face, Wakaba immediately chimed in.
"You really don't know when to quit. Say, don't tell me you've got a crush on her?"
"Shut up!" Gray raged helplessly at their teasing.
But the two shameless older men ignored his protest outright and kept ribbing him as though he weren't there.
"That girl must be pretty impressive to beat Gray up this badly."
"So this is Lady Erza, the one who's going to shoulder Fairy Tail's future?"
At that, Gray's pent-up anger finally exploded. He shoved his chair aside, sprang to his feet, and roared at them.
"I'll die before I ever accept her as one of my comrades!"
"I'm going to beat her!"
With those two declarations, Gray ran out of the guild without looking back, apparently off to challenge Erza again.
Watching him leave, Blanc frowned slightly, unease stirring inside him. At this rate, won't those two stubborn idiots end up genuinely hating each other? Can this really get Erza to open up?
Putting himself in her shoes, even he, knowing Gray wasn't bad at heart, would struggle to endure that kind of daily harassment. How much worse must it be for Erza, who knew nothing about any of them yet and had her guard firmly up?
"I'm a little worried. I'll go find Gray and try to stop him. We can't let him actually get into a fight with Erza out there and end up beaten half to death in the outskirts."
"Pfft." Cana couldn't help laughing. "Good point. I'll come with you."
With that, they picked up the cake that had gone untouched that day and left the guild side by side.
Evening fell, and the sun sank in the west. In the distance, the sunset broke the river's surface into tiny strips of gold leaf. The evening breeze swept over the long embankment, carrying a cool hint of moisture.
Gray wandered aimlessly along the embankment. Although he had charged out, fired up to fight Erza again, once outside, he realized he had no idea where she might have gone.
As a result, he had spent most of the day roaming around. After several circuits, the anger bottled up inside him gradually dissipated into an indescribable irritation.
He viciously kicked a pebble by his feet and muttered that he was an idiot, but still didn't head back.
Just then, however, a casual glance suddenly caught a scarlet figure by the water.
Erza was sitting alone on the bank below the embankment, her small body slightly hunched. Silhouetted against the light, she looked especially lonely.
Excitement surged through Gray, and the corners of his mouth lifted.
"Finally found you, Erza!"
Shouting, he charged down the embankment toward her.
"Erza, let's settle this! I'm definitely going to beat you today!"
Hearing the commotion behind her, Erza abruptly turned. In that instant, her face still held the sadness and vulnerability she hadn't had time to hide.
Her one intact eye glistened, hot tears streaming uncontrollably down her cheek.
Right then, she was nothing like the cold-faced girl who kept everyone at a distance in the guild. She looked like nothing more than a heartbroken little girl, lonelier than anyone.
Gray stopped dead, stunned into stillness by the sight before him. His fists slowly unclenched, his taunts caught in his throat, and an unfamiliar rush of panic and helplessness shot from his chest straight to his head.
"Oh, it's you..."
Only then did Erza seem to recognize who had come. A trace of resignation crossed her eye, and she calmly stood, raising a hand to wipe away her tears. Her movements were quick, as though she wanted to erase her earlier weakness along with them.
"Honestly, you never learn."
Erza restored her cold expression and stared at Gray.
"Fine. Come at me!"
Gray's mind overloaded, and his face flushed bright red. He stared blankly at Erza and opened his mouth, but couldn't get a single word out.
Looking at the dazed Gray, Erza frowned in confusion and asked,
"What's wrong? Are you surrendering?"
Gray finally snapped out of his daze. His cheeks were still burning, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from her reddened eye. Words he didn't even know the source of slipped out before he could stop them.
"Tell me... why are you always alone?!"
Erza froze, apparently not expecting that question. After a moment of silence, she lowered her head and spoke softly.
"I like being alone."
As she said it, a deep, unshakable sadness crept across her face again.
"Being with other people... makes me feel uneasy instead."
Gray gritted his teeth as emotion surged violently in his chest. At that moment, he finally understood. This terrifying girl who could send him flying with a single punch was actually just like him deep down, hiding an untouchable, hellish past.
Gray cut straight through her facade and loudly argued back.
"If you really like being alone, why are you hiding away crying all by yourself?!"
Erza stared at Gray, stunned as though struck by lightning.
Face red, Gray silently walked over and sat beside Erza without hesitation, expressing his intention through his actions-precisely because they were hurting inside, they needed to stay close to their comrades all the more. Having once lost everything, he understood that better than anyone.
At that moment, in the boy's heart, the scarlet-haired girl before him was no longer an opponent he needed to defeat, but a comrade he needed to understand and protect.
Erza turned to look at Gray beside her. In the evening breeze, a gentle crack silently opened in the inner world she had wrapped in sturdy armor.
For the first time in front of a comrade, the faintest hint of a smile curved her lips.
"You're not going to fight me today?"
"Mind your own business!" Gray turned his head away, his tone still prickly, though his ears had gone completely red.
When Blanc and Cana arrived, they happened to catch Gray charging down the embankment. Cana was about to call out to stop him, but Blanc raised a hand and held her shoulder-he had noticed the tears in Erza's eye and knew this fight wasn't going to happen.
So the two quietly watched from a short distance away, unable to keep smiles off their faces by the end.
Blanc couldn't help recalling Gray's fierce declaration that morning. Apparently, no one could escape eating their own words.
With that odd thought in mind, Blanc said to Cana, "Come on. Let's join them."
Blanc led Cana down the embankment, their footsteps rustling through the grass.
At the sound of footsteps, Gray shot up as though he'd been electrocuted, his face flushing as he shouted, "Y-you were following me?!"
"Following you, my ass." Cana rolled her eyes irritably. "You ran out of the guild like a lunatic. We came to stop you from getting beaten into the ground out here."
Blanc sat down beside the pair, patted the grass next to him, and tipped his chin toward Cana, who was still standing. After a moment's hesitation, she sat down casually too.
The four sat in a row on the bank, facing the shimmering river. The evening breeze passed over it, making the scattered gold across its surface dance and shine.
Erza turned her head to look at the three beside her. She said nothing, but didn't pull away in rejection as she usually did. Her tense body relaxed little by little, and her lone eye held a softness it never had before.
Cana took the cake from Blanc, cut off a slice, and held it out to Erza.
"Here... for you." She glanced at Erza and murmured, "It's really good."
Erza looked at the delicate strawberry cake, her pale fingers twitching slightly. Under the gazes of the other three, she finally reached out slowly and accepted it.
Then she gave them a tiny, barely perceptible nod.
"Thank you."
She opened her small mouth and tentatively took a little bite. A second later, Blanc clearly saw her lone eye light up, as though stars were sparkling inside it.
Then the girl began eating faster and faster, practically sweeping the rest of the cake into her mouth. At the end, she even licked the cream from her fingertips, still wanting more.
Seeing that, Blanc finally felt completely reassured.
The sunset stretched the four children's shadows long, long across the ground. Sitting side by side by the river, their silhouettes painted a warm, harmonious picture against the setting sun.