Chapter 22 Guiding Erza
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Translator: JayM
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Guiding Erza
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The morning sunlight sprinkled on Evan's face.
Making him slowly open his eyes...
Originally, Evan felt that his chest was feeling a bit stuffy and thought that it was a small animal like a kitten that had climbed in through the window and squeezed into his warm bed. It wasn't until he opened his eyes and saw the long scarlet hair beside him that he realized it was Erza...
He could see her resting her head gently on his chest, her small mouth open, and there seemed to be a trace of crystal-clear drool at the corner of her mouth.
Evan looked at Erza, who was fast asleep and sleeping soundly, and felt somewhat helpless.
She probably went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and groggily returned to the wrong room...
Thinking this, he gently pulled his body out from the embrace of the little girl, who was like a small kitten. Then, he took off his pajamas, changed his clothes, and prepared to leave...
When Evan went downstairs…
He saw Ilya, Eden, and Ian cleaning the house...
"Good morning, Young Master Evan!"
Upon seeing their Young Master walking down from upstairs, the three of them immediately greeted him respectfully.
"Good morning~"
Evan smiled faintly at the three in response, and then he walked into the living room.
Inside the living room, Irene was crossing a pair of beautiful legs, drinking black tea while flipping through the newspaper in her hands. There were also a few fashion magazines and gossip newspapers of the magic world by her side.
"Evan, how did you sleep yesterday?"
After seeing the boy, Irene put down the newspaper and black tea in her hands and smiled faintly at Evan.
"I slept alright. I don't really have trouble sleeping in a new bed."
Evan answered Irene.
"Is that so? Erza hasn't been sleeping too well these past few days. That girl still seems a bit unaccustomed here. For the past few nights, she’s been pestering me to tell her stories..."
As Irene spoke, her expression revealed a bit of helplessness.
"Erza’s still young. After some time, when she gets older, she’ll be fine."
Evan scratched his hair. Actually, thinking about it now, Erza couldn't be considered young anymore. She was already ten years old. In the original work, the ten-year-old Erza had already matured a lot. Was it because of his existence that her growth had been slowed down?
Evan began to doubt himself. He was pondering whether he should reduce his spoiling of Erza and figure out a way to make her become independent and let her grow up completely...
"Big Brother Evan?!
Where did you go?"
Just as he was pondering whether he was overly doting on Erza, the little girl in question, who had opened her eyes and found that her big brother that had been beside her had disappeared, came downstairs. She looked left and right while continuously calling out Evan's name.
"Miss Erza...
Young Master Evan’s currently inside the living room..."
Ilya, who was holding a broom and cleaning the room, hurriedly walked over and pointed the way for Erza after hearing her words.
"Big Brother Evan’s inside the room..."
Hearing this, Erza walked over with her small legs and entered the living room.
"Erza?"
Hearing her voice, Evan turned around, and then he saw a little girl with messy long scarlet hair and red, teary eyes throwing herself at him.
"Big Brother Evan, I thought that you left again..."
Erza rushed into Evan's embrace, her tears continuously falling down.
The strong Erza also had a soft side, and Evan was precisely that trace of softness in her heart.
"Except for meal times, Erza has been waiting outside the guild for your return these past few days~"
At this time, Irene seemed to think of something and spoke to Evan.
"Uh...
Going out on a quest without telling you two was my fault. I’ll stay and accompany you these next few days, Erza. So don't cry now..."
After hearing Irene's words, Evan first apologized, then he rubbed Erza's small head and comforted her softly.
"Mm..."
The little girl stopped crying. She nodded gently, indicating that she understood.
"Let's eat first!
After finishing breakfast, I have some things to give you!
Some quests are truly too dangerous, so it's not convenient for me to take you along. However, as long as Erza also grows up, you can go take quests together with me."
Evan gently stroked Erza's head. He truly didn’t feel at ease taking Erza along with him to complete quests. In order to become stronger, the quests he would take in the future would all be S-Class, SS-Class, or even ultra-dangerous quests like 10-Year quests.
Facing SS-Class or 10-Year level quests, Evan believed that he couldn’t even guarantee retreating completely unscathed if he was by himself, let alone taking the currently still very weak Erza along with him!
In the original work, the tragedy ultimately caused by Mirajane taking the immature Lisanna and Elfman to do an S-Class quest was a warning to him. As such, Evan wouldn’t be arrogant enough to take other people along with him to complete such highly dangerous quests.
"Mm! I’ll become strong enough to take quests together with Big Brother Evan!"
Erza clenched her fists. She knew clearly in her heart that Evan was doing all of this for her own good.
"Right, what does Irene plan to do next?"
After comforting his little sister, Evan suddenly thought of something, looked at Irene behind him, and asked.
Honestly speaking, with her strength, even unifying the Ishgar Continent was possible. Even if all of the current Ten Wizard Saints were added together, upon encountering Irene, they would only be instantly killed by her.
"Me? I plan to continue my bakery business here. As for guild quests, I don't really want to do that kind of thing~"
Irene gently sipped her black tea. She was long past the age of having her blood boil with passion, and she didn't plan to get involved with children playing house.
"Opening a bakery, huh!
That’s indeed not a bad idea...
Because the bread Irene makes is truly very delicious..."
Evan nodded. Having grown up eating the bread Irene made since he was little, he had the most right to speak about the taste of her bread. Irene's bread was just like her strength— number one on the continent!
As soon as her bread came out, probably all of the bakeries in the entire town would go out of business, right?!
However, they probably wouldn't. After all, Irene's bread was always sold in limited quantities...
"As long as you like it."
After hearing Evan's words, Irene revealed a kind smile. The reason she tirelessly researched bread, and even personally planted the raw materials to control the high and strict standards of her bread, was precisely because her little boy loved eating the bread she made very much.
The entire bakery was opened solely for Evan and Erza, just the two of them.
The three of them quickly finished breakfast...
Next, Evan took Erza, left the house, and arrived at the back mountain of Fairy Tail.
Under Evan's hard work, this place had recovered by quite a bit. At the very least, it didn't look so messy anymore...
"For you!"
After the two arrived at the back mountain, Evan handed a wooden sword to Erza.
"This is?!"
The latter held the wooden sword in her hand, stunned.
"Erza, next, I’m going to teach you swordsmanship!"
Evan looked at the little girl and spoke softly.
He planned to teach all of the swordsmanship he had learned through allocating points to Erza.
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T/N - Finally, he’s going to train Erza. Honestly, I don’t know why he delayed for this long. Maybe he wanted her to have a happy childhood first? Unlike in the original story, where she was an orphan and got enslaved to build the Tower of Heaven. In that case, then I totally agree with him!