Nico wavered for a second. His eyes softened as he signed, looking at the ground. "No, you aren't." He softly claimed.
He stood up and rubbed his forehead.
"I assume you're looking for your birth certificate for confirmation of whether you're adopted or not, right?" Nico asked Salvador, who was fidgeting his hands.
He nodded, he was too scared to speak. 'I'm like 70 fucking years old! Why am I like this?'
Ever since he came to this new world, emotions he hasn't felt in decades started appearing.
Such as this.
He was nervous in the face of someone who was only a third of his age.
Nico walked over to the couch, gesturing for Salvador to sit next to him. "I have a question before I answer, Salvador."
As Salvador stepped to him, Nico released a tendril of fiery mana to the fireplace's wood, lighting it up to brighten the room.
'He's a dual affinity and I just realized? God, I need to stop being stuck up in my room all day.'
Unfortunately, with his slight obsession with reading the books of this newfound world, he rarely goes outside of the house, let alone his room.
Salvador sat down next to the shirtless Nico.
He couldn't help but peer over at his chiseled abs. He didn't really pay any attention to it, but Nico was well-built overall.
He had broad shoulders and long shiny hair that barely touched his shoulders.
Similar to his father and brother, all three of them had excellent facial features and wonderful eyes.
"Why do you think you're adopted?"
Salvador froze, his mind seemed to stop functioning as he thought about what led him to his ridiculous thoughts.
He opened his mouth to speak, yet as if a lump was caught in his throat, he couldn't.
Each attempt to answer Nico's question ended in failure. Each time, he ridiculed himself.
'I really thought they weren't my parents 'cause I didn't have brown fucking hair and I looked like Lance Leonard? I'm not the son of some goddamn warlord!'
He inwardly shamed himself for such stupid thoughts. "I thought it because... I looked like Lance Leonard."
"Oh." Nico covered his mouth, but that couldn't stop Salvador from seeing the corner of his lips turn upwards.
"I know it's stupid okay!" Salvador yelled.
Nico exploded into a fit of laughter, clutching his stomach as tears came out.
He was chuckling and pointed to Salvador, "Y-You really think you're the son of Lance Leonard?" He asked before continuing to laugh.
Salvador turned beet red from embarrassment. "I know you guys may look alike, but please! You would've awakened already!" Nico kept laughing, but Salvador paused for a second.
"Awaken?"
Nico stopped laughing and turned to Salvador.
"Ah, I guess you wouldn't know, it's not really talked about in the books you read all night." He said with a smirk.
"Y-you know?"
Nico shook his head and stood up.
"I can hear you talking and flipping the pages from my room, Salvador. Mana is really useful, y'know?" He cheekily remarked as he tapped his ears.
Walking to the kitchen, Nico grabbed a glass of water and poured himself a cup, chugging it all down within a couple of seconds.
"As the name describes, awakening marks the beginning of your journey as a mage or knight.
When your mana core awakens, it enables the use of mana in the sense of spells and sends it into the real world. Like uhh... Mana skin for example. Before your body awakens, it resides within your body and your body only.
Although you can't use mana, that doesn't mean you can't sense it. I'm sure you felt it on the day the Mana Beast attacked."
This all quickly changes Salvador's thoughts about himself and his so-called 'low' aptitude for magic.
Rather than him just being horrid in magic, it's rather he hasn't awakened his mana core yet.
"Unfortunately, awakening your mana core takes a lot of time cultivating and dumping mana into it. I awakened mine when I was around... Eight? I'm not sure. It's recommended to start the process of awakening it at six due to the fact it takes years to awaken. But around the age of ten is preferred, as it doesn't halt any progress and that's when the body is normally sturdy enough to withstand its power."
All of this information was quickly soaked in by Salvador.
"Is premature breakthrough the same as awakening your mana core early?" He asked. He wasn't sure if there was a difference, although he'd like to be aware of these types of things.
Nico insinuatingly chuckled and shook his head.
"I guess. It won't injure or cripple you like such, but it'll still hurt like a bitch if you do."
***
Back when Nico was barely eight, minutes before his awakening.
Yves and Eleanor sat on a wooden log across from Nico, watching him intently as he sat cross-legged in stillness.
A translucent barrier of mana in the shape of a water droplet acted as an aura around Nico, shaking and sporadically expanding before returning to its original shape.
"Keep the mana flow steady, Nico," Yves instructed, a small sphere of mana enveloping his eyes.
Doing this allowed him to see a more detailed and intricate view of Nico's insides.
Both Eleanor and Yves could see a large thread of mana from all of his limbs pouring into a dim sphere which gradually brightened as more mana was pumped in.
At random times, Nico's mana core would flash before returning to its original state.
"CRRRCK!"
A large fissure erupted from the bottom of his sphere. His nose scrunched and he grimaced in pain.
"Just push through it, Nico," Yves said.
As his mana core absorbed more mana, it grew brighter and more cracks began appearing from the bottom, traveling all the way to the top.
"It's starting."
Yves and Eleanor jogged a few dozen feet back, leaving the boy to himself.
"I-It hurts!" The boy screamed, barely managing to keep his mind conscious.
"We know Nico! But you must push through it so you won't have to deal with this later!" Eleanor cried, her voice full of anxiety.
Yves wrapped his arm around her shoulder, bringing her into his chest.
They both understood extremely well how painful awakening was and it was disheartening that their son began putting mana into his core without realizing the consequences.
The aura around him began growing and it wildly waved in the air, akin to a fire.
It grew from only a head above the boy to nearly double his size, the glow from it shone so bright that it grabbed the attention of their neighbors.
A gigantic man with chestnut hair came behind the couple, watching their son.
"H-He's awakening this early?" He said in astonishment, rather sorry that a boy would be going through so much pain during an awakening.
Before either of the parents could reply, a sudden ripple of mana shot out, clashing with the three adults.
Luckily, they were all foreseeing such a powerful wave of mana and set up barriers in front of them, mana shielding their skin to serve as additional protection in case the barriers somehow failed.
Unfortunately for the trees surrounding the boy, the bark was ripped off and the trees snapped as they toppled onto each other, doing a lumber's day of work within a few seconds.
All the trees in a 50-meter radius were destroyed, broken in half, or severely damaged to the point they might as well be deemed broken.
"NICO!" Eleanor shouted as she dashed to the boy.
Nico was unmoving, his face sapped of all color as his breaths were shallow and ragged.
She lifted his limp body by his head and Yves joined her on the other side of Nico.
His eyes fluttered, his mouth ajar.
"Nico, baby, answer!" Eleanor cried out, immensely worried for her son.
He managed to open his eyes.
His surroundings were a blur, everything seemed to be multiplied as he saw two of his mother and father.
Reality seemed to churn and distort, his world non-stop contorting and revolving.
"Is it... done?" He weakly asked, his eyes shutting again under the extreme tiredness the awakening induced.
"Yes, yes it is," Eleanor said, putting her son's face in her chest as she let a small tear out.
***
"It was horrible. Don't be a dumbass like me and start injecting mana into your core at five. I was practically forced to complete it or it would've been worse."
Salvador could see his brows furrow as he thought back to the time he awakened. His whole body was rigid and painful every day for a week. He could barely move afterward.
"I know you might be thrilled and tempted, but trust me. Awakening when you're ten would be way better."
Salvador nodded. "Does awakening earlier display any talent?"
Nico sighed.
"Yes, but whatever you are thinking don't."
Nico had a sudden tone change, "I don't want you going through what I did."
He nervously nodded as Nico went back to his room. Before he entered his room he left some reassuring words to distraught Salvador.
"The night you were born, the hospital was filled with soldiers, so they didn't have space for the mother to give birth to you.
So, they just had you without the hospital's support. That's why you don't have a certificate, Salvador. So please, don't worry." He gave Salvador one last smile before entering his room.
He jumped on his bed, on track to go back to sleep.
'What made him catch on? What child even comes to the conclusion that they're adopted... I just hope they tell him soon enough rather than keeping it a secret.'
Nico sighed for what seemed like the third time within the past ten minutes and closed his eyes, going back to sleep.
Salvador sat in silence before standing up and stretching with a big yawn following after. "I guess some sleep would be nice." He thought out loud, heading to his room.
He threw the book on the floor, tucking himself before quickly dozing off to sleep.