Reagan stood waiting for the two of them, along with an unfamiliar face.
Standing next to Reagan was a girl with brown hair and black eyes who leaned closer to the shorter side, who wore an "X" shaped eyepatch.
『Leysha? Why are you awake?』[Cynthia]
Reagan looked at Nova before pointing at the girl.
『...This is Leysha. She's my sister's apprentice.』[Reagan]
『I got woken up by all the loud noise and came to check it out. Didn't expect to see uncle Reagan though.』[Leysha]
She stared over at Nova.
『Ah. You're around my age, right?』[Leysha]
『Uh.. 17.』[Nova]
『Nice. Then… I want you to come to me if you have any materials that seem weird.』[Leysha]
『Hey, Leysha! Isn't that a bit rude? You don't even know his name!』[Cynthia]
『..Oh. Right. What's your name, dude?』[Leysha]
He had trouble keeping up with her pace, but he tried his best.
『It's Nova. Nice to meet you.』[Nova]
『Great. Anyways, please let me know, Nova.』[Leysha]
She turned back and went into the room with the kitchen.
『Alright. Good night, everyone...』[Leysha]
She disappeared into the deeper parts of the building.
『...Geez. That kid.』[Cynthia]
Reagan shrugged and motioned to walk off with Nova.
『Thanks, Cynthia. Sorry for bothering your sleep.』[Reagan]
She suddenly became serious.
『Ah, no! Thank you for coming to visit, brother!』[Cynthia]
She bowed as they left.
Nova turned back to look at her before they left, and she had an ecstatic smile on her face.
「...Yikes, a bro-con?」[Nova]
The door shut behind him, and he continued walking with Reagan through the still dark Essence City.
『...So, how did you do? Get a good score?』[Reagan]
『I got a B-, with permission to use it in areas with risky targets.』[Nova]
『Oho. Good job. As expected of my class representative.』[Reagan]
『How can I get back there if I need to renew my license or anything?』[Nova]
『We'll pass by Raina's beast enclosure soon, so you can just use that as a landmark.』[Reagan]
True to his word, they passed by his wife's place of work.
They continued to walk back to the main plaza's teleportation circle, where Reagan teleported Nova back to the school.
….
『Alright, Nova. I'll give you some more training tomorrow, then the rest of the week is yours. You were a bit past my expectations.』[Reagan]
『...Hmm… Okay. Thanks, Reagan!』[Nova]
Reagan warped off elsewhere, leaving Nova standing at the front of the school alone.
『...It's only 7… I could go for a nap, right?!』[Nova]
He slowly walked into the school.
「Why don't you just heal your exhaustion? Isn't that what you normally do?」[Reischneid]
「I'm scared I might burn off some of the mana in my dad's seal. Also… give me a break! I deserve some normal sleep during my vacations, alright?!」[Nova]
「...Fine. Go sleep.」[Reischneid]
Nova continued walking when he noticed a familiar face walking down the hall.
『...Rai?』[Nova]
Rai noticed Nova and started sprinting over.
About 20 meters away, he saw a red light coming from Rai's arm.
『...What is he doing?』[Nova]
『Vermillion Raze!』[Rai]
He threw his fist out, causing a large red dragon to rush straight at Nova.
『Rai?!』[Nova]
It got closer and closer to Nova.
Nova threw up his hand in response.
『Stellaris!』[Nova]
The translucent orb appeared in front of Nova's hand, capturing the giant dragon.
The dragon entered the orb before it quickly lost its big size, leaving a small floating Zhulong after a few seconds.
Seeing that there wasn't a problem, Nova dispelled the Stellaris, absorbing the mana into his own body.
「-Hey!」[Reischneid]
「What?」[Nova]
「...No, nothing.」[Reischneid]
The red mana trailed up in Nova's arm, pulsing.
『Yo!』[Rai]
Rai came jogging up.
『What was that, man?』[Nova]
Rai had a silly smirk on his face.
『I've learned a couple of new tricks! Glad to see that you did too!』[Rai]
『...That could have hurt me, dude!』[Nova]
Rai laughed without a care.
『You've got that teleportation trick, don'tcha?』[Rai]
Zhulong floated around Nova, as if examining him.
『...Glad to see you two have been doing well. Haven't seen you guys this week.』[Nova]
『We went to go visit dad. I've sent you a few texts, haven't you seen?』[Rai]
Nova shook his head before putting some mana into his earpiece and scrolling through his texts.
『...Oh, nice! What is that thing in your ear?』[Rai]
『My new phone. I got it as a present.』[Nova]
Rai came closer to Nova.
『...Lemme take a look.』[Rai]
Nova took it off and tossed it to him, and saw the formerly transparent crystal was now glowing blue.
『...Huh. Must be based on mana color.』[Nova]
Rai looked at it, and put the earpiece in his ear.
『WOAH!』[Rai]
He started clawing at the air in front of him.
『It says access denied! What the heck is this, can you see this too?!』[Rai]
Nova shook his head.
『It's some illusion magic. I'm still trying to figure it out too.』[Nova]
Rai took it off and tossed it back to Nova.
『Nah, that's way too freaky. I'm sticking to the screen.』[Rai]
Nova just shrugged and put it back on.
Zhulong returned to Rai's tattoo, slinking through the air.
After he entered the tattoo, Rai had an excited look on his face.
『...Hey, Nova. Do you wanna fight?』[Rai]
Nova got caught off guard by Rai's preposition.
『Wha..?』[Nova]
『...We have a couple days until the break ends. We haven't sparred in a long time.』[Rai]
Nova took Rai's suggestion into consideration for a bit, but he saw how serious Rai was now.
Rai stared at Nova expectantly, with a half-smile on his face.
『...Let's do it, bro.』[Nova]
He took his student ID out.
『Area.』[Nova]
A portal opened up that led the two of them to the training grounds Nova was at this morning.
Nova pressed a couple of buttons on his student ID before a voice rang out.
『1 versus 1 duel initializing between Rai and Nova. Do you accept?』
Rai stretched for a bit before giving a thumbs up.
『I'm ready to go!』[Rai]
Nova matched Rai's energy and moved back a bit.
『I'm good to go, too!』[Nova]
『Mana shield deployed. Duel beginning in...』
『3...』
Nova didn't form a weapon, instead taking a stance.
『2...』
Rai did the same thing, assuming a stance that Nova didn't recognize.
『1...』
『BEGIN!』
The two of them sprinted at each other, fists drawn.