In the blink of an eye, the year was drawing to a close, and today heavy snow fell.
“Aibo’s place… has changed quite a bit, huh.”
Gray arrived at the entrance to “Little Garden,” scratched his head, and let out an astonished exclamation.
His last visit had been over a month ago.
The little house that had been so unremarkable then had now turned into a giant “cake.”
If not for the fact that the top layer of the “cake” still somewhat resembled the little house from before, Gray would have suspected he had come to the wrong place.
Aibo’s home had gained another floor.
Each successive floor was smaller than the one below, and with the outer walls covered in heavy snow, from a distance it looked like a giant cake set down on the ground.
“This private residence… it’s almost half as big as the guild now. Is he really not going to get complaints?”
Gray sighed.
Just as he stepped into the yard, a line of text appeared in the air:
[Only those bearing the Fairy Tail emblem may enter and exit without triggering the alarm.]
“What? What’s this? Has Aibo learned some new magic again?”
“This is a spell formula, a type of letter magic, though a much more complicated one. I’ve been practicing it lately.”
“Aibo? When did you get here?!”
Gray was startled by Aibo, who had suddenly appeared beside him.
Ever since this guy had become proficient with Teleportation Magic, he had grown more and more elusive.
“I noticed the moment you came in, Gray. What brings you to my place?”
“Ah, because the guild’s annual S-Class Mage Promotion Trial has started, and all the adults have gone off somewhere. The guild’s too quiet, and I had nowhere to go, so I came here to hang out.”
“Oh, right. I’d forgotten all about that if you hadn’t mentioned it. It doesn’t have much to do with us anyway. Come inside first.”
“You finally decided to put a door on the first floor… Whoa! Is your house really this warm?”
The moment Gray stepped inside, he took off his outerwear.
Just as he was about to remove his undershirt too, he suddenly froze in place:
“E-Erza!!? Why are you at Aibo’s house too!?”
On the first floor of Aibo’s home, half the area had been made into an indoor training ground.
Inside, Erza, wearing training clothes, was practicing swordsmanship against a dummy.
“Yo, Gray. Welcome.”
Erza stopped practicing and walked over to answer him:
“As for why I’m at Aibo’s house, naturally, it’s because I live here in the first place.”
Erza looked at Gray in confusion, as if to say, “Is there a problem with that?” She did not understand what was so strange about it.
“Erza spends all the money she earns from jobs on weapons and equipment, so she’s having trouble paying rent. On top of that, the girls’ dormitory can’t hold all her things either, so she decided to live here until she’s saved up enough money.”
Aibo shrugged and explained for her:
Gray twitched the corner of his mouth, thinking only that Erza was becoming more and more monstrous.
He had no hope of ever catching up to her.
“…You’ve completed almost as many jobs as I have these past few months. Erza, stop trying so hard and leave the rest of us a way to live.”
“No matter what I do, I give it my all! Gray, with that laziness of yours, you’ll never catch up to me.”
Erza picked up a towel and wiped away her sweat, then invited Aibo to bathe with her:
“I’m tired. I’m going to soak in the bath. Aibo, want to join me?”
“Er! Za! How many times have I told you! Girls can’t invite boys to bathe together! That’s extremely improper! If you keep this up, I’m throwing you out!”
Looking at Aibo, whose little face was bright red as he scolded her, a satisfied smile appeared on Erza’s face.
Ever since she had discovered that this little brother, who was precocious in every respect, could also become “not calm enough” about certain things, she had loved teasing him about it.
After all, an “angry” Aibo was a very rare sight.
“What a shame~ Your big sister has always wanted to help scrub Aibo down.”
“I-I never thought you were this kind of person, Erza! Shameful!”
Gray was startled too.
Red-faced, he stood with Aibo in united indignation, the two of them taking turns fiercely condemning Erza:
“Shameless!”
“You have no shame!”
“No morals!”
“Gorilla woman!”
Erza was completely unfazed.
With a smug smile, she took the stairs up to the second floor.
Only after Erza had gone far away did Gray, still red-faced, throw an arm around Aibo’s shoulder and whisper:
“That Erza really did drag you into bathing with her… huh?”
“Don’t even mention it. That idiot didn’t have any common sense about this at all before! I even had to teach her about feminine modesty, and now she clearly understands everything, yet she still loves teasing me all the time and doesn’t treat me like a boy at all. Sigh, my heart is so tired.”
Although Aibo liked cuddling up to pretty girls, he still had his limits.
He could not bring himself to deceive an innocent girl.
Of course, more importantly, he was only seven years old—too young to do anything.
Other than making himself angry, there was no benefit whatsoever.
“Cough, cough. Man, you’ve got it rough too.”
Gray sympathetically patted Aibo’s shoulder.
Living with that super-strong gorilla of a woman, Erza, was miserable enough, and on top of that he had to be teased in all kinds of ways.
His little bro had really endured too much.
“Let’s take the lift. The first and second floors are Erza’s territory now. We’ll go straight to the third floor.”
When they reached the third floor and stepped out of the lift, Gray immediately saw Cana sprawled on the sofa like a maggot, and snarked:
“Can I just say I’m not even a little surprised to see you here? Cana, don’t tell me you moved here to live too, just like Erza?”
Cana waved her hand and answered weakly:
“Don’t talk to me about that wicked woman Erza. I’ve already cut ties with her!”
“Huh? That serious? It can’t be that bad, right?”
“Because Cana lost the duel again. This is the twenty-ninth time, right? After every duel, they cut ties for a few days. I’m used to it by now.”
Gray could not hold it in and burst out laughing:
“Pfft! Why did you go and challenge Erza too? You two have dueled way more times than I have.”
“What do you know!? This is a duel with a big sister’s honor at stake! Only the strong deserve little brothers! Hmph, just you wait. I’ll defeat Erza sooner or later and drive her out of this house!”
“…If you really want to move in, I won’t refuse.”
“No! I’m going to drive Erza out! Waaah, I was clearly here first. I’m the one who’s Aibo’s big sister. That hateful female bandit! If I’d known, I never should have let Aibo go comfort her! I’m so stupid! Really, waaah, I’m so stupid!”
Watching Cana throw a tantrum and roll around on the sofa with no dignity left at all, Gray really could not keep a straight face:
“What’s… wrong with her?”
Aibo sighed:
“She drank the fake booze.”
“Huh?”
“A drink I whipped up while practicing potion brewing. I thought it was pure juice. I didn’t expect it to have the side effect of drunkenness. But it tastes pretty good. Want some?”
“No, no, no, forget it, forget it. But Aibo, when did you start learning potion-making?”
“I’ve been learning on and off for a few months. Unfortunately, I’ve only scratched the surface. This stuff is much harder to learn than magic.”
“I actually think you’re learning too many different things. How can one person have that much energy? Can you really keep up with all of it?”
“It’s fine. Actually, I give up on many types of magic as soon as I’ve begun learning them. I just look like I know a bit more.”
“So modest~ Aibo is a true genius, unlike ordinary people like us~”
Only then did Gray notice there was someone else sitting at the other end of the room reading.
“Levy, you’re here too? No, wait, do all of you treat Aibo’s place like your own home?”
“Hehe, after all, this is a secret base~ I only come here once in a while. Today I’m serving as the official witness for their duel.”
Gray understood, then shot Cana a look of disdain:
“Erza keeps training even after a fight, and you, after losing, are here drinking. No wonder you can’t win.”
“What did you say!? Damn you, Gray! I can’t beat Erza, but I can still take you! Drop dead!”
“Come on, you think I’m afraid of you!”
“Wait!? If you two are going to fight, get outside and do it! Honestly! Teleport!”
Today, “Little Garden” was lively as ever.