WVKWnovel Chapter 599 599
Chapter 599 599
Marco turned his head and looked at the two girls beside him—the two who had grown up with him, fought shoulder to shoulder with him, and claimed places in his life no one else could ever replace.
Under the moonlight, concern rested softly on Mirajane's gentle face, while beneath Erza's steadfast gaze lay a tenderness she rarely showed.
In the depths of their eyes, Marco could see it clearly: the same emotion, so full it was almost overflowing, and the same uncertainty about the future...
And Marco knew that uncertainty was because of him.
No one understood his own nature better than he did.
He was greedy—greedy enough that he did not want to give up anyone, greedy enough that he did not want to lose anyone.
By all rights, as a good young man raised under the red flag, he should never have harbored such extravagant desires.
But when someone had possessed the Saint System since childhood and had known from the start that one day he would stand unrivaled in the world, it was hard to keep the same mindset he might once have had.
Power, status, wealth—of course those things changed a person.
And when that power had already gone completely beyond common sense, many things that once seemed like impossible luxuries no longer felt impossible at all.
The compromises he might once have made with reality were no longer necessary.
Without the system, without becoming a Saint, a person had to learn to accept life's regrets.
But if he had the system, became a Saint, and still had to accept life's regrets, then what had all his sweat been for?
Especially in a world like this, where becoming a Saint practically meant standing invincible beneath the heavens, the fact that Marco had managed not to become the sort of person who simply took whatever he wanted was already proof of the strength of his convictions.
Put someone with weaker principles in his place, and they would have lost themselves long ago.
When the strongest person in the world acted wild, it could hardly even be called arrogance.
If you were in his shoes, you would probably be even worse.
Marco was only a little greedy when it came to love.
That was hardly a real problem.
'All I want is to give every girl who loves me a home. All I want is for everyone to be happy.'
After making that excuse for himself in his heart, Marco smiled.
It was the same smile as always—gentle, embracing, the kind that seemed capable of dispersing any darkness and putting people at ease.
In the atmosphere of a night like this, Marco slowly reached out his hands.
For the first time, he took Mirajane's and Erza's hands at the same time of his own accord.
Both girls stiffened slightly.
"I know... I made you worry this time."
Marco's voice was soft when he spoke, yet unusually clear, carrying that same calm, reassuring strength that could settle people's hearts.
It slipped past the faint noise rising from the guild below and reached Mirajane and Erza without obstruction.
"I'm sorry. It's not that I wanted to carry everything by myself. It's just that I had to do it, because I want to protect everything I have. I want to protect the guild, protect Gramps, protect everyone... protect you."
He paused there for a moment.
His gaze passed over the two faces before him—both beautiful, both utterly different in temperament.
This time, he chose honesty. He laid everything bare.
He had never once considered letting go of either of them.
If a man lacked the ability, the time, or genuine feelings, then trying to juggle love like this would be nothing but irresponsibility. It would only hurt everyone involved.
But if Marco searched his own heart, he could say without hesitation that his feelings for Mirajane and Erza were real.
There was not the slightest falsehood in what he felt for them, not the slightest trace of deception.
He had never played one game to a girl's face and another behind her back.
He had always been completely open about who he was.
As for energy, Marco had that in absurd abundance.
He had spent years being Fairy Tail's little sun, its warm and irresistible center, always brightening the people around him.
He understood every member of the guild, noticed every detail, remembered everything that mattered.
That was only possible because his energy and memory far exceeded what ordinary people could manage.
And once he awakened the Seventh Sense and the Eighth Sense, he would be able to go without sleep entirely unless he was engaged in a truly intense battle.
As for ability...
Needless to say, strength enough to stand unmatched in the world spoke for itself.
Wealth and status would be even easier to obtain.
If he truly wanted to, becoming the ruler of the entire world and turning it into his private domain would not be especially difficult.
Dealing with the Black Dragon was only a matter of time.
If an ordinary man talked about having multiple wives, it naturally sounded excessive.
But if Marco were to ascend the throne as the King of the World and start reviving old-fashioned imperial customs, would it not sound a lot more 'reasonable' all of a sudden?
Not that he had any real interest in doing that.
Just because he could did not mean he would.
Just as he still chose to preserve order rather than simply indulge every desire, that too was a choice—his own restraint placed upon himself.
If Marco, still only at the Sixth Sense, ever lost his mind and gave in to destruction, the devastation he could cause would not be much less than the Black Dragon's.
He, too, possessed the power to bring civilization to ruin!
"To protect every person who matters to me—that's the path I chose."
Marco tightened his hold on Mirajane's and Erza's hands for a moment, then gently let them go.
His tone became lazier then, touched with a hint of teasing.
"As for everything else... we can let it come naturally. Just like everyone in the guild—no matter how much we run around outside, no matter how busy or exhausted we get, in the end we always come back together to drink, laugh, argue, and make noise."
As he spoke, he turned and leaned back against the railing, now facing them directly.
The smile on his face seemed especially bright and reassuring beneath the moonlight.
Good looks really were unfair.
With a face like his, almost anything he did seemed to radiate charm.
He could probably look at a dog and make it feel cherished!
"..."
Mirajane fell silent.
By all rights, she should not have accepted a move as outrageous as this.
And yet she had not pulled her hand away.
Erza's reaction was even worse.
She had gone completely red, like a shrimp tossed into boiling water.
Sometimes Mirajane genuinely wondered whether Erza even understood what love was.
Maybe Erza simply wanted everyone to stay together forever.
Maybe she simply did not want to lose anyone—not Marco, not Mirajane, not the guild.
That was probably why Erza was more tolerant of Marco's behavior, and why she was able to accept the current state of things more quickly.
The way Erza viewed love had always been somewhat unusual.
That might have had something to do with what she went through in the Tower of Heaven.
Or perhaps it went back even earlier than that.
Most of the guild only knew about Erza's suffering in the Tower of Heaven now, but Mirajane had already learned more.
Even before that place, Erza's life had never been a happy one.
She had been an orphan—an orphan abandoned by her parents.
Because of that, Mirajane could completely understand Erza's personality, her way of thinking, and the deep dependence she had developed toward Marco.
Even setting aside everything that had happened before Mirajane knew her, the Tower of Heaven alone had always been the deepest knot in Erza's heart.
And Marco had personally helped untie it.
That alone was enough to secure an irreplaceable place for him within her heart.
And what had come before was no less important.
That withdrawn, isolated Erza had only managed to truly become part of Fairy Tail because of Marco's help.
As someone who had gone through something similar herself, Mirajane understood Erza far too well.
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