"Where are Mira and the others? Still not awake yet?"
The moment that was brought up, Erza immediately thought of the absurd chaos she herself had started last night.
Her gaze awkwardly dropped for a moment before she answered,
"Mira and Laki were called away by Lisanna to go do a job.
On the way here, Cana ran into Ultear and Meredy, so she went off to play with them."
"Ehh~~ You girls really are full of energy. To still have the strength to go work and run around having fun..."
Kabe deliberately dragged out the last words, the deep resentment in his tone making Erza's face flush red at once.
Bisca blinked her big eyes, failing to catch the hidden meaning behind their exchange.
But now that Erza, the official girlfriend, had arrived, she felt too embarrassed to keep sticking close, so she started preparing to get up and leave.
"Don't rush. Sit back down first."
Erza stopped her, then waved toward Sorano, who had been secretly peeking at them from the corner.
"Sorano, come here for a moment."
"Ah, me?"
Sorano pointed at herself. Only after Erza nodded did she rise, still not quite understanding, and come sit down beside her.
"Sorano, I've already seen enough of your strength during this mission.
So I want to entrust Bisca to you and ask you to take her along on a few jobs."
"Hah? Why me?"
Sorano looked completely unwilling.
She had been planning to rest for a couple of days and then go solo a few high-paying jobs to earn herself some private spending money.
"Don't reject it so quickly. I'm thinking of you too.
By now, the Oración Seis should already know about your 'betrayal.'
If you keep going out alone, it's still too dangerous.
So I want to find you a partner, someone who can look after you if danger comes."
"A partner? Bisca?"
Sorano's eyes swept over Bisca in appraisal.
She had been there that day too, after all.
With this girl's strength, if something truly dangerous happened, it was still unclear who would be protecting whom.
Bisca clearly saw the disdain in Sorano's eyes and immediately protested in annoyance,
"Don't underestimate me. I'm highly skilled with nearly every kind of firearm. As long as the enemy is within six hundred meters, I'm unbeatable!"
"Tch. Dead voice-actress."
"You!!!"
Bisca wanted to explode, but because Kabe was right there, she forcibly swallowed it down.
Seeing the furious look in her eyes, the kind that clearly wanted to kill her but could not do anything about it, Sorano provocatively lifted her chin.
Kabe, leaning to one side with his chin resting on his hand, let his gaze move back and forth between the two girls.
After thinking it over, he finally spoke.
"Bisca uses guns. Sorano is a Celestial Spirit Mage. The two of you are both the sort of fragile mages who fold the moment someone gets in close."
Sorano frowned and was just about to argue that with Gemini, she could handle any kind of enemy, when Kabe cut her off before she could say a word.
"Don't argue. No matter how strong Gemini is, you only have one of it. If more than two members of the Oración Seis come after you at once, do you really think you can handle all of them?"
Sorano opened her mouth, very much wanting to nod.
But reality told her that if that really happened, she would probably just end up flat on the ground.
Seeing that, Kabe did not waste any more time and directly made the arrangement.
"In that case, just team up with Cana.
She's always wandering around on her own, and I'm not comfortable with that either. The two of you happen to be lacking a close-range fighter.
Cana, with her Crush Magic, is just about the perfect fit."