“Why is the world so cruel...” Zane groaned as his whole body felt like it was on fire. “I thought any damage suffered inside a magic domain disappears once it’s gone.”
“That’s right, but what you’re feeling isn’t physical,” Cassandra pointed out as she placed down a glass of water on his bedside table. “That’s called phantom mana residue.”
“Huh?” Zane looked at Cassandra in confusion.
“It’s a common side effect when using a magic domain to train,” Cassandra explained as she took a seat on his bed. “All your physical injuries and strain are gone, but the strain on your core remained, so any part of your body that was exposed to it still hurts.”
“I used dragon energy though...”
“It still flowed through your core,” Cassandra stated. “You don’t need to worry. It’ll go away naturally.”
“Sure...” Zane groaned.
Cassandra patted him on the shoulder before leaving his room.
It had been two days since the tournament ended, and he had been unconscious during those two days. When he woke up, Melissa explained to him what happened after the tournament.
The award ceremony was cancelled since there was no guarantee that he’ll wake up anytime soon. And since he didn’t have any actual injuries, he was handed over to Cassandra and Melissa.
As for the reward of the tournament, neither Melissa nor Cassandra could decide on his behalf since neither of them is his legal guardian. The Karama family would contact him to ask about his decision. Until then, Zane needed to stay in bed.
Averin even gave him away to train without leaving his bed. Using his mana, he would constantly strain his body to strengthen it while healing it at the same time. Obviously, he needed to keep it a secret from Melissa since he was supposed to be recovering.
Glancing to the side, he could see Ravelous meditating. Despite lacking complete sentience, the summoned creature acted independently when not following an order from Zane.
Melissa had told Zane that during the whole time he was unconscious, Ravelous stood guard without even being summoned. Additionally, Ravelous passively gathered mana and any excess mana he gathered were transferred to Zane.
“I really made an overpowered ability,” Zane muttered.
“With equally absurd conditions,” Averin commented. “Not even a dragon would come up with such an ability.”
“Are you saying I’m better than a dragon?”
“You’re crazier than one.”
Zane rolled his eyes at Averin. His whole body was in pain after what Averin ordered him to do, but in exchange, Zane’s control over his transformation had improved. Within seconds, both his arms transformed and reverted without any delay.
“I can’t wait to test this,” Zane muttered.
Since he needed to stay in bed, he would wait a while before being able to test his improved abilities.
With that in mind, he might as well decide on what he wanted for the future. The reward to join the Karama family was tempting, but he didn’t want to join a family allied with the Albertian faction.
“If I’m going to join an organization, I need to gather more information.”
For now, the thing on Zane’s mind was convincing Melissa to be his legal guardian. Even if she worked for the Albertian faction, she was the closest thing he had to a parent.
He just wondered how he would start.
------
Cassandra was giddy.
After she announced that she was leaving the Nero family, chaos erupted. When elders of the family tried to oppose her and demanded an explanation for her actions, the reason she gave them were there lack of support and constant antagonizing. With proof she showed them, they had no ground to prevent her from leaving the family.
The press had a field day. News spread like wildfire, reaching all over the world within hours. With one of the top ten mages leaving the Nero family, they lost a lot of sponsors and connections that only approached them to get close to Cassandra.
Additionally, now that they lost the strongest mage in their family, they would be a hot target for other powerful families and organizations.
“I should have done this sooner,” Cassandra said with a smirk as she read the articles about her separation from the Nero family.
“I didn’t expect you to go through with it,” Melissa commented.
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“It had to be done,” Cassandra placed down her tablet. “Besides, I already made plans for us to move to my house in sector 115, mother.”
Melissa raised an eyebrow. “Mother?”
Melissa is 30 years old.
Cassandra is 25 years old.
“... I’m sure Zane considers you as his mother.”
That seemed to divert Melissa’s attention. “I don’t know about that. It’s hard to tell when it came to Zane.”
“Teenagers are like that. I had to deal with a bunch of them. The ones from the main family are the worst.”
“What do you plan on doing now?” Melissa asked. “I’m asking that question way to often recently...” she muttered.
“I’ll deal with a few loose ends, then live peacefully in sector 115,” Cassandra answered.
“You don’t want to start an organization of your own?”
Cassandra shook her head. “I don’t need to. Pretty sure with how many wives Zane will get, a new mage family would be created.”
Melissa’s eyes widened. “I forgot about that! Has there been announcement on his marital minimum?”
Cassandra shook her head. “They’re probably still discussing it since this is the first time they’ve seen someone like Zane. There’s also the issue with his past.”
“You think they’ll restrict him instead?” Melissa asked in concern.
“And risk angering a divine being that already got involved in the past? I don’t think so,” Cassandra replied. “They’ll probably set it at five and monitor him.”
“Five...” Melissa stared blankly.
-------
“They actually made a move huh,” Livia muttered as she tossed a severed hand across the room.
She stood over a dozen bodies, all of them belonging to an organization called “Blood swords”. They were well-known criminal organization that’s being hunted down by the mage association.
“If it weren’t for you bastards, I would have met my brother by now,” Livia grumbled as she crushed a head under her foot.
Nevertheless, Livia knew that she needed to deal with this before approaching her brother. Getting him further involved could make things worse for him, so Livia decided to delay their reunion and do some clean up first.
“Wait for me, brother.”
-------
“I can’t take it anymore...” Zane groaned before puking into a bucket.
Melissa rubbed his back. “I didn’t expect you to have motion sickness,” Melissa commented.
They were currently in a small aircraft owned by Cassandra, heading towards her home in sector 115. During the flight, Zane had gotten dizzy and started vomiting.
“It’s because of his senses,” Cassandra pointed out. “Since his mana control enhances the growth of his physical body, his senses get stronger too.”
“I don’t like this...” Zane groaned while his head was still in the bucket.
“I’d say you’ll get used to it, but that entirely depends on the person,” Cassandra replied before turning to her tablet.
“You’ll be alright,” Melissa assured before she took out her phone to look something up.
For the past couple of days, numerous articles about Zane and Cassandra had been flooding the internet. It didn’t come as a surprise to Melissa considering how things went down.
Cassandra’s situation was obvious. One of the top ten mages suddenly leaving the Nero family was a big deal. Zane’s case just revolved around him being recognized as a rising star.
Melissa was at least thankful that there wasn’t a lot of information about Zane floating around. But there wasn’t much information to go around in the first place, so it wasn’t something big to worry about.
At this point, Melissa was just happy that Zane could have as normal as a life that he could manage.
“We’re here!” Cassandra announced.
Melissa saw a mansion with a forest behind it.
“Welcome to our new home.”
The size of the mansion was even bigger than the refugee base they lived in. Melissa had expected a large house, but not to the point they could get lost.
“I will be transferring this under your name,” Cassandra told Zane.
“Huh?” Zane tried to his best to look shocked while his head was still in a bucket.
“Consider it my dowry,” Cassandra smirked.
------
Zane blocked a hit from Ravelous and countered with a right cross, but the summoned creature caught Zane’s fist and threw him across the field. Zane dug his claws into the ground to catch himself before launching himself back to Ravelous.
The summoned creature charged. Zane and Ravelous began trading blows after colliding with each other. Every blow that hit its mark created a small shockwave upon impact, but neither side was pushed back.
“Zane’s gotten stronger,” Melissa commented as they watched from the sidelines.
“I bet the Karama family is scratching their heads right now after missing out on such a talent,” Cassandra added.
Three days had passed since they arrived at their new home. Those three days were spent getting used to the huge mansion in order to not get lost repeatedly.
Watching Zane unleash powerful blows without enhancing his body with mana got Cassandra interested. “Maybe I need to convince him to teach me that portion of his mana control...”
The rarest ability of a mana control method is physically enhancing the body directly, not just giving it a temporary boost with magic. Even the few methods that managed to do it only had a minor effect, but judging by his brute strength, Zane’s mana control clearly had substantial effects.
“I guess even the top ten mages having something to learn,” Melissa commented as Zane flew over them and crashed into the bushes.
“The only way to get stronger is to keep being a student,” Cassandra replied as she helped Zane out of the bushes.
Zane dusted himself before dismissing Ravelous. Instead of being unsummoned, Ravelous began meditating. “If you want to learn the physical base enhancer, I don’t mind. But how do I teach it?” Zane asked.
Cassandra chuckled. “I’ll teach you how later. I’m in no rush to learn it,” Cassandra replied. “We have something else to do first,” Cassandra smirked.
Zane raised an eyebrow. “What?”
Cassandra showed him a piece of paper.
A marriage contract.
“Damn...”
------
Never in his life did Zane expect to get lost in his own home. It was both embarrassing and exciting. Not a lot of people could claim that their home was big enough to get lost in.
“Got lost, sir?”
Zane turned around to find a maid. “Uhm... yes?”
“I am Meridith, the head maid. May I ask where you wish to go?” Meridith asked.
As Zane was about to answer, Averin spoke up.
“There’s a dragon den nearby.”