Seeing the two of them about to start swinging, little disciplinarian Erza quickly stepped in between them and pushed them apart.
"Say whatever you want, but no fighting."
After stopping the two, especially Gray, who looked like he had been deeply wronged, Erza cleared her throat and calmly gave an opinion that was different from Cana and Gray's.
"I actually think it is fine. In terms of strength, Kabe, you have already beaten Gray several times in our recent spars. The only thing you lack is actual job experience. How about this, let me talk to Master for you. I happen to have my eye on a certain request. This afternoon, we can go complete it together."
Watching Erza settle the matter in just a few sentences, Kabe gave her a big, sincere thumbs up.
"Erza, you are definitely going to become an excellent wife in the future."
Meeting Kabe's earnest gaze, Erza's face turned bright red in an instant.
"W-wife, wife... wife?! What are you even saying, you idiot!"
Her cheeks turned the same crimson as her hair. Flustered and angry, she swung her hand on reflex.
Kabe failed to dodge and took the slap full on. His body spun through the air in a full circle, then crashed to the ground like a rag doll.
Thud.
Seeing Kabe's tragic state, Gray gulped and quietly shuffled a step farther away from Erza.
Cana hurriedly grabbed Erza by the shoulders, trying to shake her back to her senses, then turned her head to snap at Kabe.
"Idiot, what kind of nonsense are you spouting at a lady!"
Kabe struggled up from the ground and immediately apologized.
"Sorry, I will not say something like that again."
He wiped a finger under his nose, looked at the smear of blood on his fingertip, and sighed from the bottom of his heart.
'Terrifying. I walked away from the old man without a scratch, but a shy slap from Erza actually gave me a nosebleed. So this is the power of the main cast? I am scared now.'
Thinking about it, Kabe already had a rough idea of his current strength.
He figured he was about on par with kid Goku when he first appeared in Dragon Ball. The only difference was that unlike Goku, who had been trained by his martial artist grandpa Son Gohan from childhood, Kabe knew absolutely nothing about martial arts forms or techniques.
So honestly, he was probably a little weaker than ten year old Goku.
'Twelve years old and my battle power is not even ten. Guess I really am born to be a low class warrior.'
He mocked himself in his heart, but he did not feel discouraged.
...
After Cana's repeated comfort, Erza finally calmed down.
Once they had both apologized to each other, the four of them continued along the road back to the guild.
Compared to earlier, though, the atmosphere between them was much quieter.
Every now and then, Kabe noticed that Erza was actually avoiding his gaze. This discovery made cold sweat break out all over his back.
He hurriedly swore over and over in his heart. I am absolutely not a lolicon, that was just an honest feeling in the moment!
Fortunately, their earlier promise had not been canceled by this little accident.
As soon as they returned to the guild, Erza pulled Kabe along to find Makarov, who was sitting on the bar as usual, drinking.
He raised his eyes and looked at the two little ones standing side by side in front of him, then put down his mug and asked curiously,
"So it is you two. What is it?"
"Master."
Erza greeted him properly, then stated their purpose directly.
"About the request to subjugate Grian that was delivered to the guild last night, is it still available? Kabe and I would like to take it together."
Grian...
Hearing that name, Kabe immediately remembered.
Back when he had just joined the guild, the Master and the others had warned him not to wander alone into the forest east of town. There was a type of monster there called Grian, very vicious.
He had not expected Erza to be taking on monster subjugation jobs at such a young age.
But would the Master really agree to send two kids that young out to do something that dangerous?
Makarov hesitated, just like Kabe had imagined.
Grian were intelligent monsters that could speak and had high IQs. Their individual strength was not that great and any random adult from the guild could take one down. The trouble with the job was that they were not being asked to subjugate just one of them, but ten.
And the ones wanting to take this request were Erza and Kabe, two children.
Just as Makarov was thinking it was too soon and about to refuse, Kabe suddenly stepped forward. He raised his right hand, a fist sized blue light orb forming in his palm, and looked straight at Makarov with firm eyes.
"Relax, old man. I am the one who beat Gray. I am a proper mage now. No matter what danger we run into, I guarantee I will protect Erza."
Feeling the confidence in Kabe's gaze, and sensing the faintly violent energy pulsing inside the light orb in his palm, Makarov fell silent for a long moment.
Then, against his better judgment, he nodded to Erza.
"Alright then, I will leave it to you two."
The next second, he spun his head around and snapped at Kabe, his face dark.
"Idiot brat, you only just joined and you are already trying to act cool. You just need to follow Erza's lead and not drag her down. Got that, newbie?"
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you, you biased old man."
Kabe answered perfunctorily, then hurriedly dragged Erza off to stand in front of the job board.
He scanned the board quickly, eyes moving from request to request, then suddenly lit up. He jumped and snatched a sheet off the board, waving it at the girl beside him.
"This is the one, right?"
"I... I think so."
Noticing how strange Erza sounded, Kabe gave her a puzzled look, but his attention was quickly grabbed by the big reward printed on the sheet.
"It is actually 100,000J. That is not a small amount."
In the original story, Lucy's little apartment with its own bath cost only 70,000J a month. In the hands of someone who could manage their money, 100,000J would be enough to live on for a month easily.
Hearing his exclamation, Erza finally snapped out of her daze. She shook her head hard, then explained,
"The reward is good, but these are not monsters that live in groups. At most you will run into two or three at once. On top of that, they live scattered throughout a huge forest. If you are unlucky, it is normal to spend a whole week and still not manage to defeat ten of them."
"Oh, I see. No wonder all the uncles in the guild are not interested in this job that pays well and is so close to home."