193 Reagan

The door in Nova's room slowly creaked open.

『...Hello?』[Nova]

The person that appeared through the cracks of the door was Reagan.

He had a bitter expression as he came in, closing the door immediately after.

『...Hey.』[Reagan]

He walked over to a chair and brought it over to Nova's bedside himself.

Nova stared at Reagan, but Reagan failed to return his gaze, instead opting to look down at the floor.

『...Yudola was not retrieved. Her status is unknown...』[Reagan]

Nova already knew this, but he blankly stared at the door instead.

『...It's alright.』[Nova]

Reagan continued to speak, as if he was reading from some script.

『...But, the people helping her have been captured. It is thanks to you, Mune, and Zousa. They will be interrogated-』[Reagan]

『That's good.』[Nova]

Reagan paused for a moment, as if not knowing how to respond to Nova.

『...』[Reagan]

Nova couldn't stop thinking about what Mune had told him about Reagan.

「...Reagan… Is he… feeling responsible for putting his students in danger?」[Nova]

Nova looked over to him, but Reagan kept his head down low, as if he was bowing to Nova.

『...No casualties. A few of the members of our team had received some injuries, but are receiving treatment.』[Reagan]

The more he spoke, the more Nova felt like he was telling himself this instead of telling Nova.

『...How about the town? Is everything alright with the town?』[Nova]

『...Using restorative magic circles engraved in several hidden locations, Regalius city is slowly rebuilding itself using the structure last recorded by the city. The only things that cannot be recovered are magical artifacts, but not many have been recorded in the destroyed area. The Kingdom is also using this as a chance to renovate the area. Refugees are being kept in Essence City for now.』[Reagan]

Nova nodded toward Reagan.

『...That's great.』[Nova]

Reagan paused for a moment before lifting his head up a bit, still avoiding eye contact with Nova.

『...I am very sorry, Nova.』[Reagan]

Nova had expected something like this to happen, but he found himself frowning anyways.

『...What for?』[Nova]

『...I… put you in danger. I should have never allowed Edwin to persuade me to let you come along.』[Reagan]

Nova stared at the top of Reagan's head, who was still unwilling to face Nova's eyes.

Nova thought quietly for a moment before coming up with an idea.

『...Blessed Flame Rebirth.』[Nova]

A small flame erupted forth on top of Nova's palm, causing Reagan to look up at it.

『...You know, a couple of months ago, I would dream day after day of casting magic like this.』[Nova]

Nova brought the flame closer to his face, casting a faint blue on him and his eyes.

『...Actually, I've been very sheltered. I've always referred to Regalius city as just… the city. You calling the city by its name is the first I've heard it's name in a long time... I suppose that's something I got from the folks back home...』[Nova]

He waved his finger around, allowing the flame to fly around in the air.

『But you took me and our class to Essence City. You let us see the world, bits at a time. Like that uh.. Fu-... something forest… to uh...』[Nova]

『Furescha forest. And that is all.』[Reagan]

Reagan looked close to himself again, staring right at Nova.

『Ah… right. Well, maybe if you weren't researching all the time, we could go on more field trips..』[Nova]

『I'll be taking you on more field trips when you are ready. I'd like to develop all of you by having you fight against fellow students before you move onto more monsters. Raidagems are also a safe way of gaining experience.』[Reagan]

Nova broke into a smile out of excitement before suddenly growing desolate.

『Right… oh cra...p...』[Nova]

Reagan seemed to suddenly focus on Nova with an unwavering stare.

『...What?』[Reagan]

『...I forgot… I'm still behind on student battles… I haven't queued up for matches lately...』[Nova]

Reagan suddenly seemed to have a heated aura around him.

『...The rest of Drasil week. Training against people… Me. Daily. A couple hours. Give me your phone.』[Reagan]

Nova got caught up in his flow and reached into his pockets for his phone before realizing he left it in his room before he left.

『E-eh..? I think.. It's on the table.』[Nova]

Reagan walked over to the table before picking up the phone as if it was a piece of garbage.

『...Wow. This is… incredibly outdated.』[Reagan]

He took the phone case off before taking something out of it.

『Hey… wait…!』[Nova]

Reagan put the phone down before pulling something out of his pocket that resembled an earpiece.

『You should throw that piece of garbage away.』[Reagan]

Reagan slipped the thing from Nova's phone into the earpiece before throwing the earpiece to Nova.

Nova tried to catch it...

『Eh-eh-eh..?!』[Nova]

『OW!』[Nova]

....but it ended up hitting him square on the forehead.

Nova picked it up, examining the earpiece.

It looked like a hook with a small transparent crystal that was supposed to enter his ear.

『It's a latest model phone artifact, with visual illusionary effects, mana recharging, and several abilities that will ensure that it is both comfortable and battle ready. It's also military approved.』[Reagan]

Nova blanked out a bit listening to that, but he knew it was something good.

『...Give me that stupid bracelet I gave you.』[Reagan]

He put his hand out, expecting Nova to hand it over right away.

Nova pulled his sleeve up to look at it, but didn't make any move to take it off.

『...But… I liked seeing my mana stats...』[Nova]

Nova looked up from the bracelet to see a vein on Reagan's head bulging.

Reagan raised a hand before flexing it, causing visible lines of mana to strip the bracelet off of Nova's arm.

『Wa-wa-wait…!』[Nova]

『Guh… That 'phone' can also tell you the state of your mana, in a much better interface than that bracelet, too.』[Reagan]

『Wha..What?! What kind of phone is this?!』[Nova]

He immediately shoved the earpiece into his ear and jerked his head towards Reagan.

『...It's not working!』[Nova]

『Pour some mana into it. Idiot.』[Reagan]

『Ah.』[Nova]

Nova extended his mana circulation outside his body a bit, including the earpiece in it as well.

After a couple seconds, the crystal slowly turned blue before a weird digital interface appeared right in his face.

『Woah?!』[Nova]

Out popped "User Interface", "First time set-up", and "User Bound".

『It's a military grade artifact. You should be able to figure it out, you're young.』[Reagan]

He began to exit Nova's room slowly.

『...Tomorrow at 6 a.m. I'll come to take you back to Genesis Academy for training. You seemed relatively unharmed, so you should be able to go around, now that the threat has been dispelled.』[Reagan]

Nova was distracted by the words appearing on his face, but he still managed to respond.

『Uh… yeah!』[Nova]

Reagan left, leaving Nova stumbling around with his new device.