Cain turned his head and found himself looking at a young girl with vivid, scarlet hair.
A thick white bandage was wrapped securely over her right eye, and her upper body was clad in a set of battered, rusty armor.
Through the gaps in the metal plate, he could see that the clothes underneath were heavily stained and filthy.
Is this Erza?
Cain thought, not entirely certain.
But her appearance and attire matched the descriptions of Erza Scarlet right after her traumatizing escape from the Tower of Heaven.
Currently, the girl was staring down at him with wide, shocked eyes.
Recalling her exclamation just a second ago, it seemed she had genuinely mistaken him for a mermaid—or more specifically, a merman.
Wait, he thought dryly, if you see a person randomly pop out of the ocean, is ‘merman’ really supposed to be your very first guess?
“Um…
I’m not a mermaid.
I’m a human.” “A human?” Erza stared down at Cain in the water, a look of profound disappointment crossing her face.
He’s so pretty, but he’s not a merman?
Aw…
Seeing her crestfallen expression, Cain couldn’t help but complain internally.
Is the fact that I’m not a mythological creature really that disappointing to you, girl?!
Cain scanned his surroundings and realized that, due to the violent underwater currents, he had passively drifted a considerable distance away from the uninhabited island.
He swam over to the side of her rowboat and looked up.
“Hello.
Do you mind giving me a lift back to the coast?” Erza, still slightly dazed by the sudden encounter, answered subconsciously, “Oh…
sure.” By the time she fully snapped out of it, Cain had already scrambled aboard the tiny wooden craft.
His clothes were completely soaked and clinging uncomfortably to his skin, so he unceremoniously pulled off his shirt and began wringing it out.
Erza watched him, noticing that Cain’s physique was fundamentally different from the people she had grown up with inside the Tower of Heaven.
Cain’s skin was fair, but it wasn’t the sickly, translucent pallor shared by the slaves in the tower who were locked away from the sun for years.
His skin resembled a piece of flawless white jade, radiating a warm, healthy glow.
He didn’t possess a heavily muscled build, but his physique was exceptionally toned and perfectly proportioned.
At first glance, his frame seemed similar to her companions from the tower, but anyone with functioning eyes could tell that his body radiated vibrant health and athletic beauty.
Being stared at so intensely by Erza, Cain felt a sudden wave of awkwardness.
“Um…
is there something on my face?” Startled by his voice, Erza snapped back to reality.
Realizing she had been unblinkingly ogling a boy she just met, a massive blush erupted across her face.
Shoom!
Her face and ears turned bright crimson in an instant, and she began to stammer frantically, “A-Ah!
N-No…
it’s nothing!
Hahaha…
hahahaha!” Wow.
Getting to see the future Titania blush like a normal girl is a pretty rare sight, Cain thought with a small smile.
Looking at her anxious demeanor, he felt she looked remarkably similar to how he had felt on the night he escaped the Bureau of Magical Development.
Her eyes were completely filled with a suffocating mixture of disorientation, panic, terror, and crippling worry.
So, he softened his tone and spoke as gently as possible.
“My name is Cain St.
Syrus.
I’m a wizard from the Fairy Tail guild.
I traveled out here to complete a harvesting request, but I think I drifted a bit too far and got a little lost.” Cain’s voice seemed to possess a naturally soothing, almost magical quality, causing Erza’s frantic racing heart to gradually steady.
Only now did his words register in her brain.
He’s a wizard from Fairy Tail?!
She quickly looked down at his right arm and spotted a beautiful, golden crest.
It was the exact same insignia that Grandpa Rob had proudly worn.
“My name is Erza Scarlet,” she whispered, her voice trembling slightly.
“Do you…
do you know Grandpa Rob?” It really is Erza, Cain thought, letting out a silent sigh of relief now that her identity was officially confirmed.
“Grandpa Rob?
Yeah, I’ve heard stories about him from the guild veterans.
He was an esteemed senior of Fairy Tail.
But by the time I joined, he had already left the guild.” Confirming that Cain belonged to the exact same guild Grandpa Rob had constantly described as a warm, loving home filled her heart with a sudden surge of pure joy.
An intense impulse welled up within her; she wanted to beg this boy to come back with her to rescue Jellal, Millianna, Sho, and the others from the Tower of Heaven.
But the terrifying memory of Jellal’s final warning flashed through her mind: If you ever reveal the coordinates of this tower to anyone, I will slaughter your friends immediately.
The memories rushed back in a violent wave—Grandpa Rob disintegrating into dust to shield her from a magical blast, Jellal’s sudden, demonic personality shift, and her friends remaining trapped in that endless, living hell.
The light faded completely from Erza’s remaining left eye, and her posture went entirely slack, looking like a hollow, walking corpse.
Suddenly, a warm, golden radiance enveloped her.
While it wasn’t enough to instantly wash away her profound trauma, the gentle energy forced the suffocating darkness in her chest to recede, allowing her to draw a clear breath.
Erza slowly lifted her head.
Cain had gently placed his palm over her hair, and a beautifully intricate magic circle was hovering just above his hand.
The warm, comforting light she felt was radiating directly from that array.
“You…” “I don’t know what kind of nightmare you’ve just been through,” Cain said softly, meeting her gaze.
“But since you know Grandpa Rob, that makes you family.
I noticed you were carrying a lot of physical injuries, so I’m using my magic to treat them.” Cain obviously knew every single detail of what she had endured, but he couldn’t speak a word of it.
Seeing her in such absolute agony, he could only use his abilities to offer whatever comfort he could.
“Family…?” Erza repeated the word softly.
For some inexplicable reason, the icy void in her heart began to thaw.
During the treatment, Cain discovered that Erza’s body was riddled with deep, neglected internal injuries, and prolonged malnutrition had left her baseline physical vitality dangerously depleted.
But the most severe wound was her blinded right eye.
Treating that level of ocular trauma was far beyond his current medical capability.
He would need to take her back to Magnolia and get Granny Porlyusica to operate on it.
“Um, Cain…” Erza bit her lip tentatively.
“Could you…
could you take me to Fairy Tail with you?” Ever since escaping the tower, her sole desire had been to see the guild Grandpa Rob had spoken of with such absolute love.
Encountering Cain out here felt like destiny itself was guiding her path.
“Of course I can.
But first, I need to officially turn in this request to the client.” “The request?” “Yep.” Cain then briefly explained the details of his harvesting mission and pulled the preservation vial from his pouch, showing the Marine Pearls to Erza.
Staring at the pure white, perfectly spherical pearls shimmering with a faint, iridescent glow in Cain’s palm, Erza praised them from the bottom of her heart.
“They’re beautiful…” “Do you like them, Erza?
Here, this one’s yours.” Without waiting for her to refuse, Cain plucked one of the largest pearls from the container and firmly pressed it into her hand.
“A-Ah!
Wait…
but isn’t this part of your official submission for the client?
Is it really okay for you to just…
just give it to me?” Staring at the precious gem sitting in her palm, Erza panicked slightly, not knowing what to do.
Cain chuckled, gesturing to the rest of the pearls in his container.
“Don’t worry about it.
The request only requires ten pearls.
I harvested a few extras just in case.” “Th-Thank you…” Erza thanked him with deep, heartfelt gravity.
She tightly wrapped her fingers around the pearl, clutching it against her chest as if terrified it might vanish if she let go.
Upon returning to the Bogoya Coast, Cain didn’t immediately run over to Baron Ross’s manor to turn in the quest.
Instead, he took Erza straight to a high-end boutique, bought her a beautiful new set of clothes, paid for a private bath at a local inn so she could wash off the grime, and then dragged her to a top-tier restaurant for a massive feast.
At first, Erza had felt incredibly self-conscious and awkward.
But the beautiful new dress hugging her frame and the mouth-watering, savory aroma of the hot food completely broke through her defenses.
Watching Erza begin to frantically wolf down the dishes in front of her, Cain spoke in a warm, comforting voice, “Eat as much as you want.
There’s plenty more where that came from.” Swallowing a large piece of roasted fish, Erza suddenly froze, realization hitting her.
Oh no!
Im acting completely unrefined!
Cain is definitely going to think I’m a disgusting beast and hate me!
However, when she carefully, nervously peeked up across the table, she found that Cain was currently matching her pace, aggressively stuffing his own face with a giant chicken leg, his cheeks completely puffed out.
Noticing Erza had stopped eating, Cain looked up, concerned.
“Erza?
Why’d you stop?
Did you get a fishbone stuck in your throat?” Erza shook her head quickly, signaling she was fine.
She lowered her gaze and went back to tackling the food, a warm, fuzzy feeling spreading through her chest.
It felt so incredibly wonderful to have someone care about her like this.
“Hey, Erza, don’t just eat the meat.
You need to eat your vegetables too.” “Okay…”