102 Namesake of the Flowering Sun

Nova's consciousness was dragged out of the world and his knees slightly buckled when he returned to the real world.

『Woah….』[Nova]

Hanzo held him up by the arm to ensure he didn't trip.

『You alright there? It's a weird transition back to reality.』[Hanzo]

Nova nodded.

『Alright, that's good. Keep the pin and use it to train whenever you want. If you go to the club page, you can add the other first years as contacts.』[Hanzo]

Nova inspected the pin with a black and white sword emblem on it.

『...How the heck do I use it?』[Nova]

Hanzo let go of Nova and drew a circle in the air.

『Imagine the pin attaching to the flow of your mana veins and feeding mana back into it.』[Hanzo]

Nova understood the general concept, so he didn't try it.

『Okay, got it. Is there any particular time for club meetings?』[Nova]

Hanzo shook his head.

『Meet up and fight whenever. In fact, anyone that applied got one of those pins. It's just that all of those people were strong enough to catch the eye of the official club, so you all got tested.』[Hanzo]

Nova raised an eyebrow at this.

『Really? What was the condition to fail?』[Nova]

Hanzo shrugged.

『Die? I guess?』[Hanzo]

『...How do you even die in there?』[Nova]

『It makes you blow up into a bunch of mana particles and evaporate out of the pin. Pretty fun stuff!』[Hanzo]

Hanzo began to laugh loudly, much to Nova's horror.

「...Did his brain melt when he cut off his hand?」[Nova]

....

Nova sighed and headed back to his dorm.

At this point in time, it was already dark out.

Although the pins changed their perception of time, it wasn't particularly a high level magical artifact, so time still passed while they were in there.

「...Too much happened today. I still have 2 days left until the weekend too...」[Nova]

He was exhausted by all of the events that happened and was ready to call it a night.

Right as he pulled at the doorknob, a voice called for him.

『Hey. Nova.』

When Nova turned up to see the voice, he was frightened half to death.

『...Mune?!』[Nova]

Mune raised his hand casually in greeting.

『Hey. It's time for Raidagems. Let's go.』[Mune]

Nova stared longingly at the door for a moment before a strong force began to drag him by the collar.

『Hrng?!』[Nova]

『...On a deadline. We gotta get to the Raidagem room in 30 minutes. We can talk on the way there.』[Mune]

Nova struggled a bit and continued to get dragged by Mune.

『Hmm? Is something the matter?』[Mune]

『I can just teleport us there! No need to drag me!』[Nova]

Mune's eyes lit up a bit.

『Teleportation? That's convenient.』[Mune]

Nova felt a chill run down his spine when he heard that.

Mune lifted Nova up and placed him down on his feet.

『Okay. Go ahead.』[Mune]

Nova concentrated on the location a few miles away.

『Area.』[Nova]

A hole appeared on the floor in front of them.

『Oooh. Nice and simple.』[Mune]

He looked at the portal on the floor and examined it.

『Black all the way through. Doesn't seem to be a spacial attribute. Looks to be a cause and effect type of seed ability. Effectively reduces mana consumption rate by a large amount too.』[Mune]

Nova was taken aback by his examination of Nova's Area.

『...You sound like you're in the advancement society...』[Nova]

Mune lifted an eyebrow when Nova said that.

『Hmm? I am. I just don't show up to the social events or pictures.』[Mune]

Nova was even more surprised, but Mune didn't give him much time to be surprised.

He grabbed Nova and jumped into the hole, quickly hitting the ground.

『Nice. Causal attributes are always so smooth.』[Mune]

Nova was dropped lightly on his feet again.

『...So, what now?』[Nova]

Mune was already walking to the board with requests on it.

『Hmm… With the time you saved, we can do at least an extra request. How convenient.』[Mune]

『It's just one extra request, right? What could the significance be?』[Nova]

Mune looked Nova in the eye, losing any informality.

『...Do you know the meaning of the name of Flowering Sun?』[Mune]

Nova shook his head.

『It refers to the flag of our Kingdom, the Craysol kingdom.』[Mune]

Nova was shocked to hear the Kingdom be referred to as that.

Even when he was in middle school, he was taught to call it just "The Kingdom".

『Is that the name of the Kingdom?』[Nova]

Nova remembered the flag, a orange sun surrounded by sharp petals of gold and red, but hadn't heard of the name of the Kingdom before.

Mune realized that he let the name Craysol slip, then covered his mouth for a moment.

『Yeah, it's an old name. It comes up in archives, but calling it the Kingdom is the same. Everyone knows what you're talking about.』[Mune]

Nova was more curious about why he named the Raidagem team Flowering Sun now.

『...So, why did you name the Raidagem team "Flowering Sun"?』[Nova]

Mune made a strange half-smirk before pulling a mission off of the board.

『Each of these missions are commissioned by citizens or nobles that require our help with a growing problem or issue. Some are safe, some aren't. But no matter what, we risk our lives in the dark night to clear them.』[Mune]

It suddenly clicked for Nova, causing him to suddenly look at Mune with wide eyes.

『...We fight and suffer at night...』[Nova]

Mune had a smile and nodded at Nova.

『...So that the sun may flower.』[Mune]