Nova's Dream

A few moments after Andrew left, a notification was received on their student ID.

Leo opened up the public announcements tab, before reading out the announcement.

『...The Raidagem "Noblesse" will be fighting against another group of students for honor, and ranking points, should the opposing group win. As this is deemed a worthy battle, the upcoming class tournament will take place after it, and all Houses will be invited to witness this battle.』[Leo]

『...This is… a lot more serious than we thought, huh?』[Jack]

『...If we lose, any credibility we have as students of Genesis will go to the gutter.』[Rai]

Nova hung his head.

『...It was my fault for tripping. Sorry I got you guy-』[Nova]

『No, man. They were starting a fight regardless. They were probably looking to crush the Houseless into dust at one point or another.』[Jack]

『...But… Andrew left…』[Nova]

Rai grinded his teeth, causing the group to pay attention to him.

『...Who needs him, anyways?! What kind of "brother" is he?!』[Rai]

Rai stormed off to his room, leaving the three of them there.

『...Andrew must have a good reason… Maybe… we can give him some time.』[Leo]

Nova nodded, agreeing with the idea.

『Let's… just give him some time. I don't know why, but… I feel like everything will turn out alright.』[Nova]

…..

After they went their separate ways, they all returned to their respective dorm rooms.

The moment Nova entered his door, he slumped down onto the floor, clutching his stomach.

『Damn it…!』[Nova]

「Hey, kid, you alright?!」[Reischneid]

「...My power is being limited by the seal, I think!」[Nova]

His body writhed in pain the moment he was pushed by the Tariel girl.

He pulled his shirt up, staring at the seal on his stomach.

It dimly pulsed between dim and bright.

「It's a stockpile seal. Your mana was probably depleted during that battle with Rai. As such, your body was probably recharging the seal… 」[Reischneid]

Nova saw the seal pulsing sporadically, getting slightly brighter.

「...Which leads to your body weakening temporarily to regenerate your mana via diversion of your resources towards the seal.」[Reischneid]

「...My mana shield wouldn't even come up on time when she shoved me… It really is like I'm starting back from zero…」[Nova]

Reischneid thought on it for a moment before clicking his tongue.

「...Tch.」[Reischneid]

He sighed as if he was being inconvenienced by a big burden.

「Haaaaaaaah… I'm not sure how this will affect your training, but we need to remove that seal as soon as possible. It seems like the seal will maintain itself into your tournament and then some if we leave it. Of course, you'll gain more and more of your power back as you progressively break the seal, but…」[Reischneid]

His tone took a much darker shade.

「...The kids in that group are… monstrous.」[Reischneid]

Nova pulled himself off of the ground and stabilized himself.

「...They managed to get the approval for the fight almost instantly… are they pulling some strings…?」[Nova]

Reischneid shouted, scaring Nova.

「This isn't the Kingdom I wanted to create! No kid should have to awaken so young… that Sorabeth kid… has more mana than I do in this state…!」[Reischneid]

「What?! That's impossible! How young would they have to be when they awakened…?」[Nova]

「...I give it a couple years… at least- but it's looking to be close to a decade already. If Reagan is sitting at around 10000 units… that kid has a little less than half.」[Reischneid]

「...How much would I have in comparison..?」[Nova]

「Your growth rate is extremely fast, but… you don't even reach his feet. I was joking about your friend killing you… but if you take a bad hit from Sorabeth… you'll die, probably. With your seal, you've returned to a measly… 50 units. The weakest of their group has a couple hundred in comparison.」[Reischneid]

「...How much if I remove the seal?」[Nova]

「The seal is hiding your true potential, but before we went off, you had… almost a thousand. Which is… still unnatural. If I had to say something about it… probably whenever you absorb mana with your flames, it forcibly expands your mana capacity… but.. OH!」[Reischneid]

Nova stumbled over to his bed, sitting himself down.

「Your body is artificially being healed and grown constantly… This was another way of training this entire time!」[Reischneid]

「...Another way?」[Nova]

「...Your dad probably put the seal on you because you were absorbing all of this mana into your body and using your flames to heal your mana veins and body… When people say that you'll blow up if you eat something that contains too much mana… they mean it… for all of them except for you.」[Reischneid]

「...What?」[Nova]

「When mana overflows in someone, they have no way for the mana to escape. That's why its kept in moderation… but your senior, Mune, was raised up on slowly increasing increments of the food he eats. It's no wonder he's as strong as he is. But you… you were probably mistakenly given the same type of food as him… another person your age would have been incapacitated from their mana veins bursting… but your mana is stored in your blood.」[Reischneid]

「Uh… what does this mean…?」[Nova]

「...When you cap out your mana, through whatever means, it's like a water balloon being stretched, or… dough being stretched, actually! Once you stretch it to its limit, your flames heal your body and mana veins… like adding dough, just enough to stretch it even further. Even without that, you might just have a nosebleed and spill the excess, allowing you to push yourself and grow at a crazy rate.」[Reischneid]

「So… I can just overwhelm myself with mana and heal myself and my veins to improve my capacity…? But… it will remove the seal… right?」[Nova]

Reischneid seemed to be trailing off on a tangent of his own.

「...What a waste of a great training opportunity! But… we can still use it!」[Reischneid]

「...Huh?」[Nova]

「Before this next week… we're gonna power level up to their level! If we can break your seal, maybe you could even fight on par with Reagan… but…」[Reischneid]

「...But?」[Nova]

「You have to promise me that you'll fix this Kingdom. No child should be forced to get as strong as them… No, actually… bring peace to this world! Seeds are gifts given to people to achieve their dreams. That's always been said, right?」[Reischneid]

「...Huh? You're just dropping this on me?!」[Nova]

「...Nova. What… IS your dream?」[Reischneid]

Nova leaned onto the backboard of his bed, smiling to himself.

「...Heh. You got lucky being paired with me.」[Nova]

「Well?」[Reischneid]

「...To be a hero.」[Nova]