Chapter 180 (2/2)

『Hmm… I used up every last bit I got today.』he answered, his mouth covered in sugar.

「So you can only use it once a day.」

『I can use it more than once if I got more mana.』

「Lavia, have you tried giving him all you've got?」

「I haven't. Should I try it?」

「Yeah, go ahead. Of course, you don't have to give every last drop you have. Just give him enough.」

「Okay. Are you okay with that, Drake?」

『Sure.』

Lavia placed her hands on Drake and closed her eyes. The drakon simply munched on his food without a care in the world. Hikaru crossed his arms, while Paula watched them with great interest.

「Here goes.」

Her hair seemed to stand on end. Then, the mana oozing from her body ballooned. This is just like what happened when I first met her, Hikaru thought. In the cell underneath the Morgstad residence, Lavia showed him her absurd amount of mana, how she was not normal. He could feel the immense power even from outside the cell, but watching it upfront was a whole different matter.

The tefilled cup clattered on the table. Windows cracked.

『Huh?! 』Drake's eyes widened.『Wait! Hold it! That's too much!』

「What?」

Hearing Drake's protests, Lavia's mana quickly shrank.

『Incredible! I didn't know you had that much! I thought humans only had a tiny bit of mana, so I'd been holding back. Maybe I should've absorbed more?』

「Th-Th-That was amazing, Lavichan! I thought you had incredible mana capacity since you could use powerful spells, but I didn't expect this much.」

Even Paula was surprised. Lavia had 11 points on Mana. The average Mage wouldn't be able to hold a candle to her. Among the people Hikaru had met, Lavia's mana capacity was off the charts, save for one person. Selica had a ridiculous 19 points on hers, but that was only because she consciously tried to level up. As such, she was an exception. Her fellow party member Sophie only had 7 points on Mana.

Showered by compliments, Lavia stared at her hands. Hikaru felt worried. He thought Lavia would recall the times when people treated her as a terrifying tool.

「Hikaru.」Lavia called his name.

「What is it?」

「It's strange… I never thought there would come a day when I'd feel happy about people complimenting my power.」

Hikaru didn't need to worry, after all.

「I'm proud of your power too.」Hikaru said.

「Thank you. I'm glad you feel that away.」A smile blossomed across her face.

『If I can have this much mana, I might be able to do a lot more.』Drake said.

Exhausted from opening the Drakon Pa.s.sage, Drake retired early. Surprisingly, he left more than half of the deep-fried bread untouched.

After that, Hikaru went around Nordenstadt to see the sights. They had plenty of time to reach Agiapole. The Pope and Conia were surprised that Hikaru arrived in seven days. What they didn't know was he had to visit the royal capital for the first day and they actually arrived two days earlier. So in reality, the trip only took four days.

「We're not entering Agiapole yet?」Paula asked.

They were staying in an inn town just outside of Agiapole to kill time. Hikaru took a sip of his tea as he flipped through the book that he borrowed from Lavia.

「Yeah. They'll be too cautious of us if we arrived too early.」

「But seven days is still not normal, right?」

「But it's possible, is what they would think. They would a.s.sume I was an extremely skilled adventurer, or someone with a means to travel fast, like say, I tamed a swift monster and used it to travel instead of a horse.

「I-I'm sorry, Hikaru-sama. I don't follow at all. If you didn't want to draw attention, you could show up after exactly ten days.」

「I'm trying to see how the Pope would react. He's testing the princess. His methods don't sit right with me. I have a right to test him as well.」

「Test the Pope?」

Hikaru flashed a meaningful grin.「A pacifist would probe for information without laying a hand on me. A go-getter would try to recruit me to their side. And a cool-headed tactician would try to kill me right away.」

After taking another sip of tea, Hikaru place the cup on the table and turned his eyes back on the book.

「This should be fun.」he said.

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