4 Sarena

They walked through a regular looking office hallway, until Oswald opened up a door and they arrived at a room that looked like the forest they were just in.

『It's illusion magic, don't think too hard about it, Nova.』[Oswald]

『Ah. Okay.』[Nova]

『Now, normally you'd have a status plate for us to check your statistics, but that's only after you join Genesis Academy. So here, take this.』[Oswald]

He held something that looked like a glass orb for Nova to take.

Nova grabbed it and moved it around to inspect it.

『Should I just channel my mana into it, or..?』[Nova]

『Yes. You're picking up fast! Very good.』[Oswald]

Oswald had a very proud look on his face.

「I.. uh. Haven't even got to the training yet...」[Nova]

He went ahead and channeled his mana into the orb, and managed to make it glow blue.

『Wait. What?』[Oswald]

Oswald looked very confused, and a little distraught.

『Give me a moment, I need to make a call.』[Oswald]

He walked about 10 meters away while talking to someone.

As he was talking, a woman appeared behind Nova.

She had long black hair that hung all the way down to her waist, and she wore a matching black dress that revealed a bit of her body.

『Can I see that orb of yours, young man?』[???]

『Huh? Uh-』[Nova]

Before he could respond, she grabbed it out of his hand, and began to examine it.

『A-ha. A chanter.』[???]

『A.. what?』[Nova]

『A chanter. Someone who casts insanely strong spells using insanely tedious chants. 』[???]

『I see.. Oops, I should introduce myself, I'm Nova. Can I have your name?』[Nova]

She looked at him, a little taken aback, before regaining her previous composure.

『My name is Sarena Night, Lady of House Night. Pleased to meet your acquaintance young man.』[Sarena]

『Ah! What are you doing here?!』[Oswald]

Oswald shouted and ran over while pointing at her. She scoffed at him.

『I'm the one who's been assigned to teach him chanting, didn't you know?』[Sarena]

『I'm assigned to teach him! What do you mean you're assigned to teach him?!』[Oswald]

『I'm sure you know of the great "Diviner", right?』[Sarena]

Oswald seemed to be starting to break out in a cold sweat..

『No.. way.. Her?』[Oswald]

Oswald seemed conflicted.

『Yes. But don't start crying now, crybaby Os. You'll still be handling the basics.』[Sarena]

Oswald broke into yet another fit of yelling.

『Who's crying?!』[Oswald]

Nova looked at them with an excited look.

「I've always wanted to use magic.. Let's do this!」[Nova]

『Teachers! Can we begin?』[Nova]

「Teacher? I.. quite like the sound of that!」[Sarena]

「Teacher! Yes… I musn't let my student down, after all!」[Oswald]

---

『Let's start off with how to train your mana capacity.』[Oswald]

Oswald sat down with his legs in a criss cross, and Nova did as well.

『You will circulate your mana through your mana veins until you feel it moving faster.』[Oswald]

Mana began to burst out from Oswald's pores and fill the area around them.

「Mana veins? I think that's the path of the burning from before..」[Nova]

『Os, you idiot. Isn't he from the school for citizens? How would he-』[Sarena]

Before she could finish, the area around Nova also burst into a dense cloud of mana, except it wasn't anywhere near as big as Oswald's.

「No way. That's impossible. Someone who wasn't educated in mana veins before their awakening can't sense their mana veins on the first try. Even if he knew what it was- it wouldn't make any sense!」[Sarena]

After a short moment, Nova's face changed, and he lost his balance.

「What was that?! It felt like tar was moving through my veins!」[Nova]

『Oi, Os. He just circulated his mana on his first try. 』[Sarena]

He broke out of his concentration and almost fell over like Nova.

『He.. what?!』[Oswald]

『Ah… I just lost the feeling..』[Nova]

Oswald slammed his fist on the ground.

「Damn it… I should've recorded!」[Oswald]

『We'll move onto the next thing. Now, we'll focus on improving the quality of your mana. Now try to concentrate your mana in one place. Different places work for different people, with different results. For you… let's try where your heart is.』[Sarena]

Oswald looked shocked.

『Hold on! Sarena!』[Oswald]

Nova went ahead and did it.

「It's like.. Trying to grab something really fast! Each time I get it there, it speeds off on its own! What if.. 」 [Nova]

Nova tried to reverse the flow of his mana, in an attempt to control the placement of his mana.

For a moment, it stopped- before something strange happened.

A tiny bit of the mana merged together and spiraled around his heart.

「Agh! What is.. going on?!」[Nova]

Blood suddenly spurt out of his nose.

. 『NOVA!』[Oswald]

Sarena looked at Nova with an entertained look.

「Will you really make it through this? You really are entertaining, young man.」[Sarena]

Oswald closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them again- with a purple light in his eyes.

『His mana seems to be merging together. The overall quality is increasing, but this is a high level technique that requires advanced training… or.. 』[Oswald]

Oswald blinked, and the light in his eye disappeared.

『Mana heart.』[Oswald]

「But.. Mana Heart is…! 」[Oswald]

『Nova. Completely discard Oswald's previous instructions to you. From now on, the way you'll train will be through this method.』[Sarena]

Oswald looked at her, in complete disbelief of what she said.

『Are you insane? Did you not just see that? If he does what you say, he'll die of blood loss!』[Oswald]

『Then all he will have to do is moderate it! He'll be fine. Look at how dense his mana is already!』[Sarena]

Upon observing Nova's mana, it could be discerned that it was a little thicker than before, and it even moved a great deal faster.

If it was previously at the speed of a snail, it was currently going at the speed of a tiny stream of water.

The density changed from air to something similar to mist.

Nova looked up at Oswald.

『Teacher. I can do it. Believe in me, I won't let you down.』[Nova]

Oswald stared pensively at Nova. Before long, he sighed and looked Nova back in the eyes.

『...Don't overdo it.』[Oswald]

Nova nodded and smiled.

『I won't! Thank you, teacher!』[Nova]

『Alright, keep training until you get the hang of it. The rest of today will be spent improving your control of your mana, so that you can avoid such accidents in the future.』[Oswald]

『Alright. Thank you, teacher.』[Nova]

He sat back down and began to concentrate again.

『You don't think he'll get the hang of it by today, right?』[Oswald]

『After that stunt I pulled? Thanks to that, he'd be lucky if he could even SURVIVE today. 』[Sarena]

Sarena pulled on a smug grin, but that caused Oswald to have an irritated look on his face.

『You're right. Damn you.』[Oswald]

Sarena laughed, intensifying Oswald's bulging veins.

「Thanks to that, I'm going to have to keep an eye on Nova. And an even closer eye on Sarena.」

『What seed does he have anyway?』[Sarena]

Oswald fixed his glasses, and glared at her.

『Are you sure you were assigned to him? You should already know that he's a universal healing type.』[Oswald]

『I was just given a comm- WAIT! What healing type?』[Sarena]

Sarena had a wide-open mouth.

『A… universal healer? Not… physical?』[Sarena]

『Yeah. A universal healer. And you almost killed him.』[Oswald]

Sarena placed her hands around her neck, with a terrified expression.

『I… could've died for that. Looks like I own the young man an apology.』[Sarena]

『Hah! If you owed him just an apology, that'd be funny. You owe him better training.』[Oswald]

She thought about it for a second, then thought about it some more.

『No way! Risks are meant to be had during training! My student has to be the best in whatever they do!』[Sarena]

『It's his first day. A strong person starts off with a strong foundation.』 [Oswald]

『His first day?! You're joking. 』[Sarena]

Sarena looked at Oswald like his brain was malfunctioning, which caused him to bust a vein.

『He awakened yesterday, Sarena.』[Oswald]

『But you must've been training him beforehand, right? Like teaching him about techniques to influence his training speed?』[Sarena]

『No. I MET Nova yesterday. I was his proctor. He was a civilian just until today, right up until the Royal Family declared he wasn't.』[Oswald]

『So you're saying that he's being recruited thanks to the law of Noblesse Oblige, and that he's just naturally training his mana like this?』[Sarena]

『No, of course not. You're the one who caused this. What made you think he had a mana heart in the first place?』[Oswald]

『Nothing, I just want to see what she meant by a heart of gold.』[Sarena]

『Damn that woman. Curse you too. Don't rob me of such a bright young child.』[Oswald]

『Hahaha! Looks like he means a lot to you.』[Sarena]

Oswald's expression became downcast.

『He's the only child who has ever treated me like a normal adult. Normally they look at you and when they hear you're a part of House Soryl, they become fearful and distance themselves.』[Oswald]

Sarena cast him a sympathetic look.

『Looks like being from a major house has its downsides too, huh?』[Sarena]

『So if you understand, please treat him well! He's your student too. You should cherish the next generation and raise them with care.』[Oswald]

『But.. When will they get stronger if I do that?』[Sarena]

『When they're good and rea-』[Oswald]

BOOM. An explosion occurred as they were in the middle of their conversation.

They both look toward Nova, who was clutching his arm which was riddled with scratches.

『Uh.. Sorry.. My mana started speeding up too fast and it ended up exploding.』[Nova]

Oswald took a look at Nova's arm and fainted into Sarena's arms.

『He-Hey! Get a hold of yourself! And you! Nova! Restrain yourself! You're going to hurt your foundations rushing like that!』[Sarena]

Nova began to talk as he healed himself with a small blue fire on his arm.

『Huh? But I can just heal myself. After all, "risks are meant to be had during training" right? Hahaha…?』[Nova]

Sarena did not have an amused look on her face when Nova repeated her line.

『If you don't train safely, I'm not going to train you at all. Screw whatever I just said. If you kill yourself, I'll drag your ass all the way back from hell.』[Sarena]

Nova was visibly shaking and repeatedly nodded his head out of fear.

「She's… scary! Really scary!」[Nova]

Her expression returned to normal.

『Good! Now let's finish establishing the basics today, alright young man?』[Sarena]

『...Yes, teacher.』[Nova]