Afterward, Makarov dragged Aito by the back of his collar to apologize to the mayor, then paid the riverbank repair costs on his behalf.
That only made Aito’s already terrible debt situation even worse.
At the tender age of six, he now owed several hundred thousand Jewels.
Truly heartbreaking.
To make matters worse, Makarov forced him to write an apology letter and a written reflection, then strictly banned him from using Crush Magic anywhere inside town.
As a result, Aito didn’t gain a single Inspiration Point all day.
A complete loss.
Strangely enough, however, his reputation among the other guild members shot through the roof.
A bunch of drunken old men started shouting things like, “I’m not alone on this path!” and “The next generation is in good hands!” Aito had absolutely no idea how to react.
Still, the incident wasn’t completely without benefits.
That one blast of Crush Magic by the river consumed roughly 100 Magic Power and gave him 2 experience points.
It also let Aito estimate his Magic Power recovery rate at around one point per minute.
Until now, he’d never had a chance to drain a large amount at once.
Telepathy Magic and short-range Requip Magic barely consumed anything.
At the same time, Crush Magic’s overwhelming power gave Aito some much-needed confidence.
He was no longer a Mage who couldn’t defend himself.
However, Aito also understood that he hadn’t truly mastered Crush Magic.
Perhaps this was one of the system’s drawbacks.
Magic forcibly raised through Inspiration Points was difficult to control, while Requip Magic, which he’d learned normally, had no such problem and worked extremely smoothly.
That discovery killed Aito’s urge to keep dumping Inspiration Points into random spells.
Most ordinary magic wasn’t that difficult to learn anyway.
He might as well take his time and learn it properly.
Besides, magic wasn’t even Aito’s most urgent problem anymore.
He needed money!
Not to repay his debt.
The guild could wait for that.
More importantly— He needed to move!
Aito couldn’t stand living in Fairy Tail’s men’s dormitory any longer.
The dorm itself wasn’t bad.
The problem was the environment.
It was packed with a bunch of lawless troublemakers who made an unbelievable amount of noise at night and fought almost every day.
And when they fought, naturally they used magic.
One night the dorm felt like it was experiencing a small earthquake, and the next it looked like a fire alarm drill.
Fine.
Aito could even tolerate that.
The guild itself was basically the same damn mess every day.
No matter how often everyone got yelled at, nobody ever changed.
Aito was already getting used to it.
The real nightmare came after bedtime.
Those sex-starved bastards would start getting horny at night, and all kinds of bizarre thoughts would pour straight into Aito’s head.
And he couldn’t block any of them.
Even worse, Aito couldn’t complain.
He would never tell anyone that his Telepathy Magic couldn’t actually be turned off.
Nobody wanted to live beside someone who could constantly listen to their private thoughts.
So Aito always pretended he had excellent control over his magic.
Given how talented he’d seemed so far, nobody had any reason to doubt him.
That meant he could only suffer in silence.
At first, Aito had even considered dorm life a kind of training.
Under enough pressure, perhaps he’d quickly figure out how to switch Telepathy Magic off.
Reality had been far less cooperative.
More than ten days had passed, and he still had no idea how to control the runaway ability.
Every night was torture, like having a dozen grown men snoring directly into his ears.
It was a living hell.
A terrible living environment ruined his mood.
A bad mood meant less happiness.
Less happiness meant fewer Inspiration Points.
And fewer Inspiration Points meant slower growth.
‘If I can’t get stronger quickly, how am I supposed to build my harem in another world?!’ This was clearly a matter of life and death!
Therefore, earning enough money to move out had become Aito’s highest priority.
“Oh?
Mini-Gildarts~ You looking for a job too?” Macao, one of Fairy Tail’s veteran members and a Fire Magic user, slung an arm around Aito as he stood before the Job Board.
“…Uncle Macao, if you call me that stupid nickname again, I’m seriously going to get mad.” “Oi, oi!
What’s with the ‘uncle’?
I’m only twenty-eight!
I’m still young!” Aito slapped away the large hand rubbing his head and sighed helplessly.
Ever since everyone learned that Aito had somehow mastered Gildarts’s Crush Magic, some troublemaker had given him the nickname “Mini-Gildarts.” Aito absolutely hated it.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t strong enough to deal with these drunken old men yet.
For now, he could only write all their names down in his mental book of grudges.
“I got fined over a hundred thousand Jewels, so I’ve been thinking about ways to make money lately.” “But after checking the jobs here, none of the ones I can take pay very much…” “Hahaha!
You don’t have to rush to repay that!” “With your potential, earning that amount later will be easy.” “I’m not actually worried about the debt…” Magic Guilds in this world were rather different from the Adventurers’ Guilds Aito remembered from fantasy stories.
Although they were supervised by a central organization, each guild basically operated independently.
Their jobs were also highly regional.
Most requests posted in Fairy Tail came from people in Magnolia itself or residents of nearby villages.
Usually, only S-Class Jobs required traveling far away.
And there were very few people in the guild qualified to accept those.
There were plenty of dangerous jobs, but also many simple ones.
Delivering letters, finding lost cats, and similar errands could easily be completed by Aito alone.
Makarov wouldn’t stop him from accepting those.
The problem was…
They barely paid anything.
Most only offered a few thousand Jewels.
Even the better ones topped out around ten thousand.
Renting a place outside the dormitory cost at least sixty or seventy thousand Jewels per month.
Buying a house was even further beyond his reach.
And even if Aito rented an ordinary apartment elsewhere, it might not solve the problem of hearing people’s thoughts at night.
He probably needed a large house with plenty of distance from his neighbors.
‘Sigh…
what a headache.’ “Little Aito~ Come on!
Big Sis is taking you out to play!” Cana suddenly skipped over and grabbed Aito’s hand, immediately trying to drag him toward the door.
‘I’m taking my little brother to meet a new friend~ Yay~’ “Huh?
Wait, Cana, mmph—” A peeled orange slice was suddenly stuffed into his mouth.
Cana giggled as she dragged him out of the guild.
This was probably another consequence of the riverbank explosion.
Cana had become even closer to Aito and now treated him completely like a real little brother.
No.
From the thoughts Aito occasionally overheard, Cana had completely convinced herself that he was another one of Gildarts’s illegitimate children.
Aito had similarly pinkish hair, used Gildarts’s signature Crush Magic at only six years old, and the shameless adults in the guild kept making ridiculous jokes about it.
As far as Cana was concerned, Aito being her half-brother was practically confirmed.
Even more troubling…
From the thoughts he occasionally overheard, Cana’s feelings toward Gildarts had started changing in subtle ways too.
Now Aito barely dared to call her “Big Sis” anymore.
He’d originally only done it to get closer to the other children.
But their closeness now seemed dangerously close to overflowing.
Too much of a good thing was still too much.
‘Sigh…
another headache.’ “Cana, where are you taking me?” “Honestly, you’re supposed to call me Big Sis!” Cana pinched Aito’s cheek and smiled.
“Big Sis is taking you to make a new friend.
She’s one of my best friends.” “Didn’t you want to learn more magic?
Then learning different forms of magical writing is essential.
This girl can definitely help you with that.” Aito’s head was currently filled with thoughts about making money, and he’d pushed magic studies lower on his priority list.
Still, Cana was doing this for him.
He couldn’t exactly refuse.
Cana led Aito through several streets before stopping in front of an old bookstore that had clearly been around for years.
Before they even entered, Cana was already calling inside enthusiastically.
“Levy~ Levy~!
I brought my adorable little brother to play with you!” …