"But boys are absolutely forbidden from entering the girls' dorm, aren't they?"
Standing outside the front gate, Shane planted his feet like they had grown roots and refused to take another step.
"Don't tell me the guild changed even that most basic rule while I was asleep and turned it into mixed housing?"
"What kind of wishful thinking is that? Of course not. Granny Hilda is stricter than anyone in the guild when it comes to dorm rules."
Mira turned back lightly.
Shane's eyes widened. "Then why did you bring me here?!"
"But you're an exception." Leaning forward slightly, the girl narrowed her long eyes and smiled like a fox that had just stolen cream. "If it's you, Granny Hilda will definitely let you in."
"Seriously…?" Shane swallowed hard, suddenly feeling uneasy for no clear reason.
He knew full well how fearsome Granny Hilda's reputation was.
This was the same terrifying woman who would crack Master Makarov over the head with a broom until he was covered in bumps if he so much as dared come over and peek around.
"Relax. Come with me."
Mira didn't give him any room to retreat. She grabbed his hesitant wrist and flat-out dragged him into the courtyard.
"Granny, I'm here~ Come out for a second!" Mira called brightly toward the building.
"Oh, it's Mira. What is it this time? You here to visit someone again?"
Accompanied by the sound of footsteps, an elderly woman in a plain red dress, with graying hair but a remarkably vigorous bearing, slowly stepped out with her hands on her hips.
But the instant her sharp, if slightly cloudy, eyes swept past Mira and landed on Shane behind her—
the kindly look from a second ago vanished as if a demon had possessed her.
"A boy?" Granny Hilda's voice shot up an octave. "Who gave you the nerve to stroll right into the girls' dorm like you own the place?"
Before the last word had even fallen, the old woman moved with agility completely at odds with her age, snatched up the broom by the doorway, and brought it crashing down toward Shane's head.
"I knew this was exactly what would happen!!!" Shane wailed inwardly in despair.
He stumbled backward in a panic, barely dodging the afterimage of the broom, then shot a vicious glare at Mira, who was standing off to the side with a hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.
"I didn't lie to you," Mira said sweetly, retreating another step and shamelessly settling into the role of spectator.
The courtyard immediately descended into chaos.
Only after Shane had been chased around the flowerbeds a full three times, and Granny Hilda finally stopped with both hands braced on the broom and breath coming hard, did Mira slowly stroll forward and hook an arm through the old woman's.
"Alright, Granny, calm down and look at his face properly."
Still smiling, Mira pointed at Shane, who looked utterly exhausted.
"This is Erza-chan's person, you know."
"Hm?" Hilda's white brows arched, and she stopped in suspicion.
Leaning on the broom handle, she squinted and stepped closer, sweeping Shane from head to toe like a searchlight.
"Hm… now that I look closely, he does seem a bit familiar. You're Erza-chan's… that boyfriend who mysteriously vanished for years?"
Being inspected like that, Shane instinctively stepped back half a pace, while a weird sense of confusion rose in him.
What was this?
Before he went to sleep, Erza herself had been too embarrassed to even mention their relationship. So how had it ended up spread around everywhere now?
Confused or not, this was hardly the moment to deny it.
"Assuming Erza's taste hasn't taken any strange turns over the past few years…" Shane coughed lightly. "Then yes, that'd be me."
"Too slick for your own good… hmph."
Hilda snorted, apparently finally matching the face in front of her to the troublesome brat once known as "Azurefall."
With visible impatience, she waved a hand and lowered the broom.
"Fine. For Erza-chan's sake, I'll make an exception and let you in today. But keep your eyes where they belong, and don't go wandering around!"
"Don't worry, Granny, I'll keep a close watch on him!" Mira immediately promised.
Hilda let out another heavy snort, then turned and went back inside without another word.
The moment he stepped over the threshold, the view opened up.
The inside of the girls' dorm was decorated in warm, cozy tones, delicate and inviting. Wooden ornaments of all kinds adorned both sides of the hallway, and in the air drifted the faint, elegant mingling of different perfumes.
Walking over the carpeted wooden floor, Shane still felt like none of this was real.
He couldn't help reaching out and tugging on Mira's sleeve.
"What exactly is going on? Why did that iron-blooded demon granny let me through the second you mentioned Erza's name?"
"Because while you were taking your big nap underground, you missed a lot."
Mira slowed her pace and turned her head slightly to explain in a lower voice.
"A few winters ago, Granny Hilda went to Shirotsume Town to buy supplies. On the way back, she got caught in an extremely rare blizzard on the mountain road. The carriage lost control and almost slid right off a cliff."
"Erza just happened to be passing by after finishing a job. She dragged the whole carriage back up from the edge by hand, in the middle of a snowstorm, and saved Granny's life."
I see.
Shane immediately understood. No wonder Erza's name carried so much weight here.
A life-saving favor was definitely enough to make an old-fashioned woman like Hilda break the rules once.
"But…" Shane frowned and kept pressing, "how did she even find out about my relationship with Erza?"
Too much had happened in those four years that he knew nothing about.
"Oh? You really want to know?"
Mira stopped walking and gave him a deeply suggestive, teasing smile.
"Uh-huh." Shane nodded repeatedly.
Looking at the curiosity shining in his eyes, Mira wore the expression of a hunter watching prey finally step into the trap.
She clasped both hands behind her back, leaned close to Shane's ear, and deliberately stretched out every word.
"Well… it's not just your relationship with Erza…"
"Everyone in the guild now knows all about your relationship with Ultear too~"
"???"
The expression on Shane's face froze instantly into something like plaster.
He stared fixedly at the smiling white-haired girl in front of him, his brain's CPU crashing on the spot.
Ultear? Relationship? Everyone knows?
What the hell was she saying? Was she even speaking the same language?
No, apparently not—Shane's thoughts spun wildly, collapsing into complete mush.
Watching him stand there like he'd been struck by lightning, Mira narrowed her eyes in total satisfaction.
She leaned in and thumped his stiff shoulder hard.
"Heh. My intuition really was right! Even back at the guild, I always felt like the atmosphere between you and that black-haired woman was suspiciously sticky. There was definitely something going on!"
Mira declared it all with enormous pride.
"H-Hold on! Is now really the time to be bragging about how accurate your intuition is?!"
Shane finally snapped out of it, only to feel his scalp go numb. "How did you all even find out?"
"Ultear came to the guild herself and said it to Erza in front of absolutely everyone."
Mira grabbed Shane excitedly, fully in storyteller mode now.
"Just last year! Those two stood off against each other right in the middle of the guild hall!"
"Everybody in the guild was there!"
"You cannot imagine how dramatic it was… Macao and Wakaba were absolutely heartbroken!"