Resonance

Nova held onto Freyana's hand as she was cooking in the kitchen, leaning on a table.

「...My mana… should I stockpile it using Perpetuity? I can seal my own mana into my skin for easy reabsorption later like that guy did.」[Nova]

「If you do that, your body will be pretty reliant on food and Freyana's mana for a while, but it should actually make your mana much stronger after the fact.」[Reischneid]

Nova wasn't expecting his idea to pass by Reischneid's watchful eyes.

「Huh? Why?」[Nova]

「If your girlie is giving you mana, her mana's rich properties will be more properly emulated by your body, along with… well, you might reach something special with her, in a much shorter time than expected.」[Reischneid]

「Something… special?」[Nova]

「There is a state of being called "Resonance", where you can practically read someone's mind. Let me tell you this one story- it was so crazy!」[Reischneid]

「...Wait, before you tell the story, I've been meaning to do this for a while, but.. Can we tell Freyana about you?」[Nova]

「...I guess? I'll just introduce myself to her in her mind.」[Reischneid]

He suddenly went quiet as Freyana jolted, causing some of the pots and pans nearby to make loud noises.

She had a shocked expression on her face before she started to giggle to herself and stare at Nova.

「...What are you saying?」[Nova]

Reischneid sighed before his voice spoke out normally.

『Well, cats' out of the bag. I'm talking out loud from now on.』[Reischneid]

『...Geez… yeah, Freyana, this is my great great great… so on, ghost grandpa- or my Guardian, I guess.』[Nova]

『A Guardian? I never thought that you would have one!』[Freyana]

She giggled to herself.

『Hehe… I hadn't heard about your family members before!』[Freyana]

『And now I get to tell you two lovebirds a story about "Resonance", isn't that great?』[Reischneid]

『Resonance? What is that?』[Freyana]

『It's a state of- eh, whatever. It'll be revealed in the story.』[Reischneid]

He coughed a few times.

『One time, while I was travelling I met these two people. They were pretty cute for a couple, actually… but their PDA was… excessive.』[Reischneid]

『Uh…』[Nova]

He was considering whether or not to let go of Freyana's hand, but decided it was fine to remain like that since it was… "just for mana".

『It was a super flamboyant guy wearing bright red. He was really good at using lightning magic, and he was with this… plain girl? She wasn't actually quite that plain, but rather was the young miss of one of the biggest families back in the day. I guess she would be the lady-to-be of the Houses back then.』[Reischneid]

『Sounds like a contrast…』[Nova]

『It kind of was! I was there for when they got together, actually! I met the poor guy at a bar when he was moping about how hard it was to adventure. It was right when I left and began my journey… he was one of the first people to stand with me and fight against monsters.』[Reischneid]

『Wait- I'm actually more interested in this one-』[Nova]

『Nope! I want to hear the story with the couple!』[Freyana]

Freyana giggled and Nova just shrugged and went quiet as Reischneid laughed.

『Haha! Well, gotta make what makes the lady happy, right?』[Reischneid]

『...Yup, go ahead.』[Nova]

『So, the guy- his name was Sorrel. He and I were just starting off adventuring and we had to fight this huuuuge chunaru. Like the one your buddy Marn has!』[Reischneid]

Freyana looked over at Nova, with a confused look.

『...Looks like a squirrel.』[Nova]

Freyana looked extremely confused as Reischneid carried on.

『...And after we beat it, we decided that it was time to go to another town! That was where he met her- Rylana! They had a pretty rocky start, with him being a surprisingly easily depressed guy and her being waaaaay too domineering in comparison to her appearance.』[Reischneid]

『Huh…?』[Nova]

『Shh! The details are irrelevant.』[Reischneid]

『Uh…』[Nova]

『Well, she bullied him for a bit, but was the main person who gave us our first mission that town. She wanted to come along to watch us find a missing item, but guess what?! The item was in a cave full of monsters!』[Reischneid]

Freyana bounced about excitedly, grabbing onto her uniform's collar with her free hand.

『Oh! So did he protect her?! What happened?!』[Freyana]

Reischneid's expression slowly turned into an awkward one.

『Ahahah…She protected him…』[Reischneid]

Freyana leaned into Nova and rubbed on his chin with her hair.

『...That's extra cute!』[Freyana]

『...Yeah, her family just happened to be early practitioners of marksmanship and talisman magic, but maybe because Sorrel was a masochi- I mean, brave, she unfortunately- fell in love with him.』[Reischneid]

Nova grimaced as Reischneid added his own bit of humor into the story.

『...Wait, please retell that part properly.』[Nova]

Reischneid sighed and rolled his eyes in response.

『A huge monster appeared from the cave and speared the idiot, who shoved her out of the way.』[Reischneid]

『...That's even more romantic!』[Freyana]

『...Weren't they strangers up to that point?』[Nova]

『Yeah. That's why he's an idiot.』[Reischneid]

Reischneid sighed.

『Well, after their own shenanigans for a couple of years, their mana melded together and began to "Resonate". If you guys are constantly exchanging mana, you might hit that point even sooner, but…』[Reischneid]

He raised his hand up and drew a brightly glowing circle that expanded into two red and blue colored circles within another white circle.

『These two colored circles are their respective mana pools. Once their mana learned each other's presence, the presence of their mana would greatly increase each other's strength. In fact, their abilities were quite insane!』[Reischneid]

He spun his finger around in the air until the two circles merged together to form a purple single color that pulsed.

『His mana was attuned to lightning, and her mana was attuned to ice, so it was pretty amazing! One time, they destroyed most of an imp army with this one attack- it sent a wave of ice crystals before lightning arced between them all and exploded, freezing everything! It was so beautiful… and so freaking cold!』[Reischneid]

He shivered, causing the three of them to break into laughter.

Reischneid continued telling the story into the night, causing them to slowly lose track of time.