Chapter 23: Pride of Persia
"I asked Levi how he managed to get to 7, but unfortunately, he’s completely clueless," Leo said, leaning toward Raiden as they sat in the living room. "He doesn’t even know what the 7th mana realm involves."
Raiden smirked, intrigued by the annoyance in Leo’s voice. "How did he get to 7 then?"
He shrugged. "Who knows? He said he kept training until he finally went up in ranks."
Raiden stayed quiet, sensing Leo had more to say.
"I get how it happened, though," he continued, gesturing to the book in his hand. "The 8th mana realm is about mana gathering; absorbing, refining, expanding the mana pool... he probably stumbled into it without realizing."
He leaned in, his expression shifting. "I think King Hannes planted these books there on purpose. They’re not available anywhere in the kingdom, not even the universities."
Raiden also leaned backward. From the moment he was told about every book in there containing magic information, the same thing had crossed his mind, but he wasn’t expecting there to be none anywhere in the kingdom. He smirked though—this was a perfect opportunity to actually build a good relationship with his apprentice, Leo.
"What do you mean?"
He glanced toward Raiden, meeting his confused expression. "Don’t tell me you don’t know about your own history."
Leo raised an eyebrow, his expression unreadable. "You know, understanding mana realms and magic itself was banned centuries ago."
"I don’t know..." he said, adjusting himself on the sofa. "I only did numericals with you. I don’t know anything about history or magic."