"Do I really need to explain it? We're helping them train."
"The hell kind of training is this?! What normal person trains people like this?!"
Looking at Selene's completely justified expression, Kabe pointed furiously at the light whip in her hand.
"This only looks scary. If you don't believe me, try it yourself."
As she spoke, Selene casually raised the whip, clearly preparing to give Kabe a taste of it.
"Don't move! Put that thing down!"
Kabe hurriedly stopped her dangerous idea. He was not some kind of pervert with those sorts of hobbies.
At that moment, Irene also walked over after putting away her whip.
"Relax. I'm simply making them do the same kind of training you do."
"And compared to your training intensity, they're already on the easiest difficulty setting possible."
"The same as Kabe's? He gets his stamina drained too?"
Cana suspiciously lifted her head from the ground.
It was not that she doubted it, but after being tortured like this for only half an hour, the girls already felt half-dead.
Meanwhile, Kabe still looked completely fine and even had enough energy left to take a shower.
"Kabe's training is far harsher than yours."
"Not only is his stamina completely drained, but he also trains while enduring five times the normal gravity."
"What you girls consider unbearable suffering is simply his daily routine."
As Irene calmly explained things, the way the girls looked at Kabe instantly changed.
Kabe proudly puffed out his chest and declared:
"Now you understand the kind of hell your man lives through every single day."
"So stop complaining. The truly painful part hasn't even started yet."
The tiny bit of admiration that had just appeared in the girls' eyes immediately transformed into complete despair after hearing his final sentence.
Kabe grinned mischievously as he admired their blank, suffering expressions before patting his now-empty stomach.
"Alright, enough about that. We still don't have lunch settled. Anyone want to volunteer?"
As he spoke, his gaze swept across all the girls present.
Selene naturally did not even need to be considered. She belonged to the type that waited for food to be delivered directly to her mouth.
When Irene noticed his gaze landing on her, she merely maintained her calm expression.
"Yeah… figured."
Kabe shifted his eyes away from the two dragons and looked toward Mira and Erza, the usual people responsible for cooking.
Then he fell silent.
The state of the two girls could only be described as tragic.
One was lying flat on the ground staring blankly into the blue sky.
The other was still kneeling there, struggling just to stand up.
Clearly, neither had recovered from the physical and psychological devastation of the training session.
Looking at this scene, Kabe felt a headache coming on.
In the end, Irene voluntarily stepped forward to handle the cooking situation, sending a message to Heine and Juliet at the shop.
At the same time, she also contacted Brandish, who was currently lazing around at home, telling her to get out of bed and come over for lunch.
But before eating, they first had to move the five completely immobilized girls off the training ground.
"Seriously, you girls are unbelievable. I just took a shower."
Despite grumbling, Kabe still bent down and carried the nearest Juvia and Ultear under each arm.
Irene, who had originally planned to use magic, quietly lowered her staff after seeing that and walked over to help Erza up instead.
"Ugh… they stink. Don't even think about making me carry any of you."
Covering her nose with utter disgust, Selene looked at Mira and Cana, who both turned toward her hopefully.
Then she casually opened a portal leading directly to the bathhouse and kicked both girls through it one after another.
Mira & Cana: "…"
…
And so, the following ten days passed in pure hell.
As for Selene, one of the "instructors," she perfectly demonstrated what it meant to have a three-minute attention span.
She enjoyed herself for two days.
By the third day, she had already started getting bored.
By the fourth day, she disappeared back to Elentear Village entirely and was nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps because they refused to suffer alone, Mira and Ultear displayed truly malicious behavior.
The moment Brandish came over one day to freeload a meal, they forcefully detained her and dragged her into the training regime alongside them.
Kabe never interfered with the girls' training.
From beginning to end, he simply followed his own rhythm, steadily adapting himself to the increasingly familiar five-times gravity.
…
In the blink of an eye, time arrived at January 14th, the eve of the Grand Magic Games.
Yet strangely enough, Fairy Tail's members still had not departed.
Instead, Makarov ordered everyone to remain inside the guild.
Naturally, countless people kept asking why they were not heading to the capital yet.
But every time, Makarov only gave vague answers like:
"You'll understand when the time comes."
Kabe guessed this was probably part of the tournament itself.
As for what kind of spectacle King Toma was preparing, even he could not figure it out.
Still, no matter what tricks the king had planned, Kabe was confident he could handle them.
That night, after dinner, everyone washed up and returned to their rooms to rest.
Kabe originally planned to invite Irene and Selene over for the night and finally experience a true "two dragons fighting over a pearl."
Unfortunately, right after dinner, Irene left together with Selene, instantly ruining all of his plans.