Chapter 63: Big News!
"You... you... what did you say?"
Erza's playful smile froze. She was completely stunned, looking at Ren in disbelief, her mind unable to process his one-word answer. The ambient noise of the train, the clacking of the wheels on the track, suddenly seemed deafening in the silence that had fallen between them.
Ren, for his part, looked perfectly calm, his expression one of complete sincerity. "I said, 'Okay.' I accept."
"He... he accepted?!" Lucy, who was pressed against the wall of the compartment with Happy, whispered, her own eyes wide with shock.
"Shhh, Lucy! This is getting good!" Happy whispered back, his whiskers twitching.
"I... I..." Erza's brain was still trying to reboot. "Ren, that was a... a joke!"
"Was it?" Ren asked, his gaze direct. "Because I'm serious. After this matter is over, we'll go back to the marriage registry, get our marriage certificate, and then I'll ask the Master to officiate. We can have a grand wedding witnessed by everyone in the Guild. I'm sure Mira would be happy to help with the arrangements."
"Marriage?!"
Lucy and Happy were startled by this. Luckily, they were prepared and quickly covered each other's mouths, their eyes wide with the sheer, unadulterated gossip they were witnessing. As for not covering their own, they were afraid they might accidentally blurt out a gasp.
Ren continued, his expression thoughtful. "After we get married, we'll have a few babies. How many? Hmm... after my last transformation, I've been thinking about what Whitebeard said. A family is the most important treasure. So, the more, the better."
"Mar... mar... marriage... babies..."
When Erza heard that Ren was really, seriously agreeing to marry her and have babies with her, her entire face—from her neck to the roots of her scarlet hair—turned a bright, furious red.
If there was one thing Erza was most secretly interested in, besides armor, it was marriage. It was her one, deeply hidden, girlish dream. She even had a carefully selected, beautiful white wedding dress in her Requip magic space, which she intended to wear on her wedding day. This wedding dress had never been seen by outsiders, except for the times when she secretly tried it on in her dorm room at Fairy Hills.
To have him bring it up so casually... it was like he had just detonated a bomb in her brain.
"I... I... I was just kidding!" Erza finally managed to stammer, waving her hands frantically in front of her. "Besides, don't... don't you like Mira?"
It was a desperate deflection, the first one she could think of.
"I do like Mira," Ren said with a warm, genuine smile. "She's my precious friend, one of my first in the guild. She's nakama."
Then, his gaze turned back to Erza, and it was filled with a different kind of warmth, one that made her heart skip a beat. "But that doesn't mean I don't like you, Erza. You're strong, you're beautiful, you're dependable... and you have a surprisingly cute side."
Ren then sighed, leaning back and pretending to be sad, the picture of a dejected suitor. "Alas! I thought my spring had finally arrived, but I didn't expect my feelings to be deceived. Here I am, offering my heart and my 100 million Jewel, only to be turned down..."
"I-I'm not... I mean..." Erza felt a pang of guilt seeing Ren look so disappointed, even though she knew, intellectually, that he must be teasing her... right?
Ren couldn't hold the expression any longer and let out a laugh. "Haha! Just kidding!"
Erza's face, which had been a mask of flustered guilt, immediately hardened. A small vein throbbed at her temple. Although she had started the joke, she was still, inexplicably, displeased to hear him say he was joking.
"However," Ren said, holding up a hand, his laughter fading. "Jokes aside."
His tone changed, losing all its playful, teasing edges. He was looking at her again, but this time his hands were clasped behind his head, his gaze relaxed but exceptionally sincere. "If I could really marry such a wonderful, strong, and beautiful woman like Erza Scarlet... I'd wake up laughing in my dreams."
His words were earnest, making one feel they came from the heart.
Erza's heart, which had just been calming down, couldn't help but race. Her face, which was returning to its normal color, slowly flushed a delicate pink. She quickly turned her head, staring out the train window at the passing scenery, a small, secret smile on her lips.
Lucy and Happy, eavesdropping not far away, looked like they had stumbled upon the biggest piece of gossip in the history of the world. They were holding back their gasps, their eyes wide.
They never expected to hear such an exciting, heart-pounding conversation.
'Oh... my... god!' Lucy thought, her writer's brain going into overdrive. 'He's so smooth! He teased her, she got flustered, she deflected, he reassured her, he pretended to be sad, then revealed it was a joke, and then... and then he hit her with that! He's a master! This is the best day of my life! This is all gold for my novel!'
Just as the two thought they might hear something even more explosive, perhaps a whispered confession from Erza...
Suddenly!
Ren's voice, calm and casual, rang out, not directed at Erza. "Hey! Have you two heard enough?!"
Lucy and Happy froze. Their blood ran cold.
Slowly, agonizingly, they peeked over the top of the seat... and found Ren's face right there, his head leaned back over the top of his own seat, smiling pleasantly at them.
"Eek!"
The two couldn't help but scream in fright, tumbling backward into their own row.
"Oh! Ren! Erza! Hi! What a coincidence!" Lucy said, popping back up, her hair a mess and her smile painfully awkward. "Are you out for work too?"
"Coincidence?" Ren said, his smile widening. "You've been sneaking around following me since the train station. That's quite a coincidence."
"We were discovered?!" Lucy and Happy's eyes widened. They had been so careful!
"You didn't really think you were hiding well, did you?" Ren said, amused. He had noticed them from the moment he entered the train station. He wasn't sure if it was due to repeatedly taking on character roles or his Sun Breathing training, but his five senses' sensitivity and his magic perception had greatly improved. The moment their (panicked) gazes fell on his back, he'd noticed them.
However, he didn't make a fuss, wanting to see what they were up to. It turned out these two were quite bold, openly approaching. He had even heard their little gasps and whispers clearly, which was why he'd decided to put on a bit of a show for them.
"Happy... you... um, you were at Fairy Tail yesterday too, right..." Erza, who had also stood up, saw the two. She had composed herself, though the flush on her cheeks hadn't completely faded. She had seen Lucy at the guild yesterday. She remembered a beautiful young girl who was a stranger.
Lucy immediately bowed and said, "I'm a newcomer, my name is Lucy! Please take care of me!"
"I'm Erza. Please take care of me," Erza replied, nodding. "So you're the girl the Guild members were talking about, the one who defeated that mercenary 'gorilla' and his entire group. You're very reliable."
Erza had also heard many people discussing Lucy, causing quite a stir.
"Oh! That was... Natsu who defeated him!" Lucy said, waving her hands. "It's a bit different from the facts... I just... I was just there..."
She had been explaining this all day yesterday. She wasn't sure why Natsu's good deed was attributed to her.
"By the way, where's Natsu?" Erza asked, looking at Happy. She wasn't familiar with Lucy, but she knew Happy and Natsu were almost inseparable.
"Oh, Natsu!"
Lucy just remembered Natsu. She quickly went over to their row and helped the green, motion-sick Natsu up.
"Haa! Haa! Ugh~!" Natsu looked miserable, his face pale.
"Hey! Don't you dare throw up on me?!" Lucy yelped, holding him away from her.
Soon, the four of them were all sitting in the same compartment, facing each other.
"So... tell me," Erza said, her arms crossed. She had reverted to her usual cool and authoritative self, as if the person who had just joked and blushed with Ren wasn't her at all. "What are you doing here?"
This sudden shift startled Lucy and the others.
"It's Natsu!" Lucy said, immediately pointing at the moaning Dragon Slayer. "Natsu was curious about what you invited Ren to do, so he dragged Happy and me along!"
"Aye! It was all Natsu!" Happy added, following the principle of 'sacrifice a friend to save yourself.' They unhesitatingly sold Natsu out.
"Ugh! Ugh ugh! Blech blech!"
Natsu immediately covered his mouth and shook his head, while glaring at Lucy and Happy. He had suggested it, but weren't they two very interested? They couldn't let him take all the blame, those two traitors!
"I see," Erza nodded, her expression unreadable.
"You... you're not angry?" Lucy asked, braced for the same lecture the rest of the guild got.
"Angry? Why should I be angry?" Erza replied. "Actually, if Ren wasn't here this time, I would have invited Natsu and Gray to come with me for this quest. But... with Ren here," she glanced at him, "I naturally don't need the two of them."
"Then why didn't you just invite Natsu and Gray?" Ren grumbled, a bit helpless. He was still thinking about his easy S-Class Quest. "Working with you is great, Erza, but the system... I mean, the reward on that other quest was really good."
"Of course, because you're more reliable!" Erza said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Don't think I'll be happy just because you say nice things," Ren sighed. "Alright, fine. Tell me, what do you need my help for?"
"That's right!" Lucy leaned in, her curiosity back in full force. "For someone as powerful as Miss Erza to need help from others, it must be a very tricky matter!"
After Erza had left yesterday, Lucy had found out from Mira that Erza was, in fact, the strongest female Mage in the Fairy Tail Guild, and was also known as the 'Fairy Queen' Titania.
She didn't know the name Erza, but she knew 'Fairy Queen'! That was a famous Mage, constantly in Weekly Sorcerer. She just never expected it to be such a beautiful—and terrifying, and flustered, and cool—woman like Erza.
"No need to be so polite," Erza said to Lucy. "Just call me Erza. It's time to get to the point." Her face grew serious, all traces of her earlier teasing gone.
"This is something I unexpectedly heard on my way back..."
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