Read my new story :
American Fast & Furious NSFW
America's #1 Scumbag NSFW
The small interlude of encountering Ivan was like a pebble thrown into a lake; the ripples quickly dissipated during the journey.
At dusk, the train finally arrived at the seaside town adjacent to the offshore waters of Caelum.
As soon as they got off the train, Gray couldn't help stretching his stiff limbs vigorously, his neck making a faint click.
Sitting opposite Shane for most of the day, his nerves were tense, and he didn't dare make any large movements.
By the time he finished moving his sore joints, he found that Shane and Erza had already walked more than ten meters away. Their steps were synchronized, seeming quite familiar with the road ahead.
"Hey! Wait for me!" He quickly jogged to catch up, asking impatiently, "What do we do next? Go straight to find Ultear?"
Shane, who had slept for half the day, had recovered quite a bit of energy by now. "Well, anyway, let's rent a boat first, shall we?"
"A boat?" Gray was stunned for a moment, but his brain turned immediately. "The place where Ultear is—requires crossing the sea?"
"Yeah, that's right." Shane nodded.
Although Gray usually looked a bit unreliable, when encountering serious matters, his brain became particularly flexible.
The three searched along the pier and finally walked into a boat rental shop that looked fairly legitimate. Considering that the voyage would take at least half a day, meaning a whole day for a round trip, an ordinary small fishing boat definitely wouldn't do.
Shane's gaze swept over the boats in the berths and pointed to a small-to-medium-sized sailboat with a canopy. "That one, what's the price for renting it for a day?"
The shop owner was a dark-skinned middle-aged man. He sized them up and quoted a price: "For that one, it'll be 26,000 Jewels."
"So expensive." Shane clicked his tongue. This was almost equivalent to half the bounty of a bandit leader.
Moreover, the money left over from buying the house had been completely exhausted after purchasing forging materials, daily food expenses, and the train tickets just now.
So, he turned his gaze to Erza beside him.
He remembered Erza had been doing commissions all last month; she should have some money left.
However, sensing his gaze, Erza turned her head away somewhat unnaturally. "Mine is all spent too—"
Although that suit of armor was a gift, her savings were basically cleared out after buying the dual swords and some clothes.
Great, both were people with no concept of financial planning.
Shane couldn't help wondering, would they have to rely on blacksmithing and performing arts to maintain their livelihood in the future?
Erza, seeing Shane fall silent, thought he didn't believe her and immediately activated her Requip Magic.
With a flash of light, a weird mascot suit with a dolphin hanging at the waist appeared on her, followed immediately by another change into a set of brown performance clothes resembling a tree stump.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Shane hurriedly raised his hand to stop her. He felt the gazes of other boat rental customers around them had focused on them in unison.
Gray also face-palmed and roasted, "Erza, don't appear in public wearing such strange clothes; it will cause a disturbance!"
But as soon as his voice fell, the shop owner next to him approached Gray cautiously and whispered, "Um, young man—could you please put your clothes on first? Like this—other customers are completely afraid to come near; it affects the shop's business!"
Gray looked down, only then realizing with a start that he was topless again at some point, his face turning red instantly. "When?!"
Shane silently distanced himself two steps away, roasting mercilessly, "Idiot, it was already like this when getting off the train."
The shop owner rubbed his hands, piling a commercial smile on his face, his gaze circling the three strange young people. "May I ask you three, are you still renting the boat? If not, look—"
Erza nodded in deep agreement. "Encountering strange people is also troublesome for the shop owner, Gray."
Gray simply wanted to cry but had no tears. "Shane is one thing, but Erza, can you change out of that tree stump performance suit before saying this?!"
Anyway, Shane and Erza couldn't be counted on.
Thus, the two's gazes silently concentrated on Gray, the only one who might have some savings.
Stare—
Gray pointed at himself, somewhat stunned. "? Me?"
Shane had ample reasons. "Aren't you the one wanting to find Ultear? Besides, you still owe me seven days of meal money; paying this small amount should be fine, right?"
He remembered that Gray had taken on commissions desperately a while ago to strive for the S-Class assessment qualification.
Thinking of this, he suddenly asked, "So you appearing here now means you weren't selected? Even after working so hard?"
Gray didn't want to pay attention to this guy with a vicious tongue. Holding back a breath, he walked silently to the counter and took out his wallet.
The boat was launched smoothly, and the three sailed toward the vast sea in the twilight.
It wasn't until the seaside town shrank into a blurry small dot in their vision that Gray recovered slightly from the blow of his financial deficit and couldn't help asking again, "Where exactly are we going now?"
"To the place where we came from." This time it was Erza who answered. She weighed her words, cutting out some details, and simply explained the matter of the Tower of Heaven to Gray.
"You guys—actually escaped from that kind of place?" Gray listened, his face full of disbelief. If it was just Shane escaping alone, he could understand.
But a few children leading a group of slaves to defeat a stone tower controlled by a Black Magic cult head-on? This was really somewhat beyond his imagination.
"Shouldn't you be concerned that Ultear is mixing with those people?" Shane interrupted his amazement. "Forget about our business for now; better think about how you're going to face her. Let me say this first: I won't hold back just because she's your master's daughter."
Saying this, Shane raised his hand and gently wiped over his eyes. Two clusters of crimson flames ignited in his pupils with a whoosh, and the surrounding air seemed to distort slightly with it.
"These eyes of mine can see all sins and karma clearly. You'd better pray your acquaintance hasn't committed any unforgivable mistakes yet."
Shane's warning was unusually direct, leaving no room for negotiation.
Gray was first startled by the suddenly lit-up Eyes of Karma, then fell silent, looking at the dark blue seawater outside the gunwale, his mood complicated.
The night deepened, shrouding the sea and sky like a huge black velvet cloth. Without a nautical chart, Shane could only rely on the vague directions in his memory to control the boat.
Fortunately, after the upgrade from the Class Card, his brain's memory was as precise as an engraving.
Waves slapped gently against the hull, making a rhythmic splashing sound.
Drifting until late at night, the bright moon hung high.
Shane, standing at the bow, suddenly spoke: "We're here."
Gray and Erza immediately looked in the direction of his voice. At the edge of the heavy night ahead, dots of artificial lights lit up faintly, outlining a blurry silhouette of an island on the pitch-black sea surface.
The small boat slid silently into the shallow shoal. Shane was the first to jump down.
He looked back, putting a finger to his lips.
"Move lightly. From now on, try not to make any sound."