"...Honestly."
Mirajane let out a soft sigh.
When it came to Marco, she really had no answer left.
"So what exactly are we to you?"
When it came to matters of the heart, Mirajane was clearly braver than passive, easily overwhelmed Erza.
Even though she had already accepted the answer in her own heart, she still intended to make things difficult for him on the surface.
"You are all my wings."
The line came out of Marco almost as a reflex.
He realized that today he had quoted quite a few classic lines.
Even the thought from earlier—All I want is for everyone to be happy—had come from the great predecessors who had walked this road before him.
Of course, ordinary people really should not try using lines like that.
Otherwise, they would only end up with a Makoto-style bad ending.
"If I lost even one of you, it wouldn't work. I've got no desire to be some broken-winged angel."
Marco smiled as he said it, thoroughly shameless and completely open about it.
"Th-this... th-this is..."
Erza's face turned even redder.
She wanted to ask, Does this count as a confession?
But she was so embarrassed she could not get the words out at all!
Steam practically seemed ready to rise off her head.
Confessing to two girls at once really was strange...
But if it was Marco, then somehow it did not even feel strange.
"You idiot, Erza! What are you blushing for?! Isn't this exactly when you're supposed to scold him?! You're being way too soft on him!"
Watching Erza stammer uselessly beside her, Mirajane looked utterly exasperated.
Even if they had accepted the situation in their hearts, they could not let him have his way that easily.
At the very least, they had to put some pressure on him.
They had to make this idiot understand that they were not so easy to bully.
Otherwise, who knew how many more 'wings' he would end up gathering?
"Your wings are probably more than just one pair, aren't they?"
Mirajane shot back immediately, giving him a look full of open disdain.
A bit of her old delinquent edge had returned, and she stared at him exactly the way one might stare at a shameless playboy.
Opportunities to look down on Marco were truly rare.
His being overly affectionate was one of the very few flaws he had.
Unfortunately, it just so happened to be the flaw they had run into.
And there was nothing Mirajane could do about it.
She could not let go, and she could not change him, so in the end, all she could do was accept it and blame herself for being too hopelessly attached.
"Mm. Too many would be a problem."
Marco stroked his chin with one hand, putting on a show of serious thought before giving his answer.
He never said how many there would be.
But his answer made one thing abundantly clear: there definitely would not be only one pair.
At the very least, he would never let Juvia down.
"You really are a bastard!"
Mirajane got so mad that she immediately started pounding him several times with her fists.
Even though Marco's attitude and answer were exactly what she had expected, she was still furious!
This man was just too honest about his 'affection.'
He had never once tried to hide it.
And because of that, what Mirajane felt was anger—but not betrayal, not heartbreak born of being lied to, not the pain of having been deceived.
All Marco's years of keeping his words and actions consistent were paying off here.
If he was going to be scummy, then he was going to be scummy openly and thoroughly.
If they could accept it, they accepted it. If they could not, then there was nothing to be done.
On that point, Marco felt he was at least a little better than the sort of men who relied on lies and deceit.
Of course, in matters of love, there was not much point comparing which kind was worse.
None of them were saints.
All Marco could say was that he would do everything in his power to give everyone happiness.
And he had always been working toward that.
The fact that Erza and Mirajane were so close now was due in no small part to his efforts.
Those were the firm foundations he had laid for future harem harmony.
"What are you smiling at? You look like an idiot. We never said we'd be your wings. If you want wings so badly, go find them somewhere else!"
Seeing Marco looking at them with that maddeningly indulgent smile, Mirajane only grew more annoyed. With a cold snort, she seized Erza—who was still red from head to toe—and turned to leave.
She absolutely had to drag Erza away with her.
Otherwise, that passive, hopelessly straightforward girl might actually surrender on the spot.
In a situation like this, Erza was a complete disaster of a teammate.
Mirajane felt like crying!
She could not carry her at all, and had to stay on guard in case her own side stabbed her in the back.
If Erza surrendered outright, Mirajane would be left fighting alone.
Though, to be fair, Erza would never actively surrender.
She would never openly confess to Marco first.
At most, she would only give in under his relentless advance.
But there was someone else...
Someone who just might actively choose to become one of his 'wings.'
Juvia was like a ticking time bomb.
No—more like a self-detonating truck loaded with explosives.
She would take the initiative and blow everything up herself.
Mirajane made up her mind.
She had to talk to Juvia first.
Rather than letting Juvia run straight to Marco on her own, it would be far better for her and Erza to speak to Juvia first and lay everything out.
"Even if we do become wings, we'll be the biggest pair!"
Mirajane declared fiercely as she looked at Erza.
Erza, still dazed and half-lost in the blunt honesty of Marco's words, only nodded in a slightly absentminded way.
Of course, she agreed with Mirajane too.
Marco might be affectionate, but even that had to have limits.
Not just anyone could become one of his 'wings.'
They could not be handed out so cheaply.
At the very least, there had to be a deep emotional bond like the one they shared with him. Otherwise, Erza would never be able to accept it.
The thing Erza cared about most was Fairy Tail itself.
She valued bonds, cherished the past, and carried a deep sense of responsibility—but she was not weak.
When it came to enemies, she was still the ruthless Titania.
"So... did I get through that round?"
On the top-floor balcony of Fairy Tail, Marco rubbed his nose and muttered to himself.
He let out a small sigh of relief.
Though he had always had complete confidence in his own effort, his own charm, and everything he had built up over the years, the difficulty of something like this was obvious even to him.
He could never claim absolute certainty.
When it came to love, nobody could predict anything for sure.
Sometimes a person could work endlessly and still fail.
Sometimes everything could fall into place without any effort at all.
That was exactly why people said the wise stayed away from love in the first place—because once you were in it, no one could really control what happened.
Still, from the look of things, the situation did not seem too bad.
The relationship had not been firmly defined, no—but neither Mirajane nor Erza had cut ties with him over it.
Put another way, that already meant he had succeeded by more than half.
Telling two girls, You are all my wings, and not getting immediately slap afterward—
That alone was already an answer.
Marco could not help sighing in admiration at the truth of it.
Honestly, that brief clash just now had been even more exhausting than fighting the Black Dragon.
Now that the tension had finally left him, the feeling of total exhaution hit him all at once.