After a good night's rest, Statiw woke up close to noon. The guild was as lively as ever.
During the two days he spent on a mission with Mirajane, Statiw had considered his own combat abilities in his free time. Since he could materialize weapons and equipment, he would have to learn how to use various weapons. When thinking about weapon usage, Erza immediately came to mind; she was the most knowledgeable person in the guild regarding this.
So, after Statiw entered the guild, he scanned the room from the entrance. When he saw Erza sitting at a table enjoying a delicious cake, he immediately walked over.
"Hey, Erza." Statiw greeted her as he approached.
"Hmm?" Hearing someone call her name, Erza's consciousness snapped out of her cake-induced trance. She turned her head and found Statiw sitting beside her.
"Is something wrong?" she asked naturally.
"I want to ask you about how to use weapons. After all, you're the best at using weapons in our guild," Statiw said, stating his purpose once she had fully come to her senses.
"No problem." Erza was delighted to see Statiw, who usually stuck close to Mirajane, suddenly come to her for advice on weapon usage. She enthusiastically declared, "Let's start now, immediately."
With that, she stood up.
"Now?" Statiw was taken aback.
"Is there a problem?" Erza looked at him with a serious expression.
"No, I mean, you should finish your cake first. What if someone eats it if you leave it here?" Statiw explained, hinting at something.
"Someone eats it? Are you referring to Mirajane?" she had a knowing look and said matter-of-factly, "It's fine. If she eats it, I'll have a good excuse to teach that navel-baring girl a lesson."
"Huh?" After hearing her words, Statiw suddenly realized that Erza's personality seemed different from what he remembered. In his memory, she was a serious and upright person. However, he now discovered that she was also 'dark' on the inside. At such a young age, she was already capable of 'fishing for law enforcement' and even enjoyed the idea of confronting Mirajane.
"Alright, let's start right away." With that, Erza didn't give him a chance to speak, directly grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and dragging him out of the guild.
"Huh? Was that Erza dragging Statiw just now? Has he finally broken free from Mirajane and fallen into the arms of another... intense person?" "Poor Statiw, he just escaped one only to immediately fall into the hands of another."
"Yeah, yeah. Now Erza has another... student in Statiw, besides Natsu and Gray."
"What do you guys think? Will Mirajane challenge Erza to a duel after she finds out?"
"I don't know if she will challenge her to a duel, but it's certain that Statiw will be miserable."
Seeing him being dragged away by Erza, the people in the guild immediately started laughing and discussing...
Meanwhile, Statiw was dragged by her to the forest near the guild, where the two began their lessons on various weapon applications. It was only then that he finally understood one problem: choosing Erza to learn weapon application was absolutely the wrong choice.
Everyone said Mirajane had a fiery temper, but in fact, Erza was also impatient. She would first explain the length, shape, and other external features of a certain weapon, then use her Requip Magic to summon the weapon and demonstrate it once, and then immediately make Statiw begin combat practice.
As someone with no foundation whatsoever, he constantly made various mistakes and errors. At these times, Erza would directly punch him on the head and yell loudly, "What are you doing? Why are you making such a mistake?"
Every time this happened, Statiw found it hard to speak. If he tried to explain, she would give him another punch and then yell at him, "Why didn't you listen to what I said just now?"
Thus, after being tormented by Erza for an entire afternoon, Statiw, trailing behind a cheerful her, wearily dragged his exhausted body back into the guild.
Sitting down opposite Cana, he looked at her, who was arranging playing cards one by one on the table, and asked curiously, "What are you doing?"
"I'm telling fortunes," Cana said, placing all the cards face down on the table in three neat rows, then turning them over one by one to examine the patterns on each card.
"Fortune-telling? Can you tell my fortune?" Statiw immediately asked, very interested.
In his world before arriving here, he wouldn't have believed in fortune-telling, but now it was different; he was in a world with magic.
"Sure, but I just learned it not long ago, so the fortune might not be accurate." Cana was very happy that he wanted her to tell his fortune. After all, he was the first person to ask her.
She gathered all the cards on the table, shuffled them thoroughly, then handed the deck to Statiw and said, "Cut the cards."
"Oh." He followed her instructions and cut about half of the cards in her hand.
Cana took the cards he cut, placed them at the bottom, then laid out three rows of cards face down on the table. "Alright, now pick one card from the first row and flip it over."
"The first row, right?" Knowing the scope of choice, Statiw casually picked a card from the first row and flipped it over. A small magic circle suddenly appeared beneath the flipped card, and the card face glowed with a golden aura. After the aura dissipated, a demon's image appeared on the card face.
"A demon. This represents bad luck or other unfavorable things." Seeing the pattern on the first card he flipped over, Cana thought for a moment and told him.
"Is that so?" Statiw thought about any recent actions he might have taken that could bring bad luck. After a while, he couldn't think of anything. He shook his head and said, "What's next?"
"Next, choose a card from the second row and flip it over," she said, pointing to the selection area.
"Alright." Statiw casually picked a card from the second row and flipped it over. After the golden aura on the card face dissipated, it revealed an image of knight training.
"What does this mean?" he looked at the card, feeling a bit puzzled.
"I'm not sure. Why don't you pick another card from the third row and open it?" Cana also felt confused by the second card. Knights represented things like integrity and justice, but combined with the demon pattern of the first card, it was unclear what it meant.
"Okay." Statiw nodded and picked a card from the third row to flip over. After the aura dissipated, it showed a tragic scene of defeat.
"This… you might encounter something bad, then fight hard against it, but ultimately fail. Perhaps that's it, I'm not very clear either." Cana looked at the three cards and tried to explain.
"Perhaps." Statiw nodded in agreement.
Normally, such a card spread could only be interpreted this way. However, what neither of them knew was that this interpretation was actually incorrect...