Karna knew he had to think of a plan soon, but as he was thinking, he heard footsteps rapidly approaching. He still hadn't eaten the special pills made by Mystogan, so he hadn't recovered his magic. Even then, his senses had been honed enough for him to easily hear sounds from farther away.
He gently put Cana's head down so as not to wake her up, but that failed as she woke immediately.
"I can hear a few people coming." Cana nodded as she sat up straight while Karna stood and moved toward the door.
But it was immediately pushed open from the outside by someone who couldn't wait to see him.
As Karna looked at Ultear, who had pushed open the door, the first emotion in his mind was shock, as he could see that Ultear had gone through a lot in the past few days.
Just like Cana, she too had signs all over her body that indicated she had neither eaten nor slept in the past few days. But the scariest part was the cracks on many parts of her body. Those cracks had a dull blue glow that projected an aura of ice around her.
For a moment, Karna saw images of the alternate timeline where Ultear's soul had destroyed itself to give a fighting chance to defeat the god of time. Though the cracks on Ultear now were only enough to be counted on one hand, it was still extremely shocking to see them.
"Ultear, what the—" Karna couldn't even finish his words as Ultear suddenly ran into him and hugged him tightly. She started sobbing while blurting out a few words in between.
"You're alive… thank God… thank God you're alive," she kept saying while hugging him tightly.
For a moment, Karna was speechless again. He looked at the others by the door. Ur had a defeated expression on her face but smiled nonetheless. Gray had an awkward expression while trying his best to look elsewhere. Meredy was giving off a wave of killing intent that would make a person think Karna was the one who had burned down her village along with all her family and friends.
Karna was extremely dense when it came to matters like this. As soon as his relationship was confirmed with Cana at a young age, he had tunnel vision and had no idea how others felt about him when it came to romance. But even then, at that moment, he realized Ultear's feelings completely.
'Oh.' That was the only word that came to Karna's mind for the next few minutes. By that time, Ultear had fallen asleep while hugging his chest. Karna slowly turned his head to find Cana standing up. Seeing that the situation was about to change in an entirely different manner, Gray immediately ran out the door. Ur picked up Meredy against her wishes, locked the door behind her, and ran right after Gray.
For a moment, there was complete silence in the room other than the deep breaths taken by Ultear as she slept. Karna tried to gently pry her off but was unsuccessful. He didn't want to use too much force, as the glow from her body had vanished but the cracks remained. He had no idea about the condition of her physical body, so he carefully sat down on the floor. He then turned toward Cana.
"So, do you finally realize her feelings, or do I have to explain it to you like a child?" Cana spoke first, but her voice didn't indicate that she was angry in any way.
"You knew about this?" Karna asked, realizing this wasn't something that had happened recently.
"I'm pretty sure the intelligence agencies of even the smallest dark guilds know about it. The only one who was oblivious was you, Karna. The fact that even an idiot like Natsu knew about it makes it all the more shocking that you never realized it," Cana replied, a small note of annoyance in her voice at the end. "She was just like me—fell in love with the idiot who saved her from losing her family forever."
Karna felt like asking why no one had ever told him about it but stopped himself. He knew that if it was that obvious to everyone, some might have thought he was purposefully ignoring her out of kindness, not wanting to reject her.
"Did I look like a jerk to the others?" Karna asked.
"The people who mattered knew you were too oblivious to notice. Plus, ever since we started dating, you've had complete tunnel vision when it comes to people who have feelings for you. You have no idea how many hearts you've broken just by being nice to girls outside the guild," Cana said, which brought a slight embarrassment to Karna.
He remembered how he had called a lot of protagonists dense in his past life when he watched anime or read books. But realizing that he had ended up on the same list made him feel a bit embarrassed about himself now.
"Wait a minute," Karna said as a realization struck him. "You said I broke the hearts of many outside the guild. What about the girls inside it? What's their situation?" Karna asked.
Cana just stood there silently without answering. Karna realized it the next moment.
'Did I just ask her to tell me which girls in the guild have a crush on me?'
"You know what? I think it's better I don't know the answer to that question," Karna said immediately.
Seeing this, Cana sighed in frustration. She knew this day was coming, and after seeing the way Ultear had almost destroyed herself a few days ago when they thought Karna had died, Cana knew there was no stopping this.
"It's time to have another talk, I guess," Cana said.
A/N: By the way, the harem/no-harem decision was made by voting in Chapter 100.