It was a rare occurrence for Nero to get so excited, and be unable to resist showing off. To be fair, if he hadn't run into Vanessa at the library, he would have probably started training immediately.
After all, as a student, he did not need to report for the draft notice, even if it was level 3. Footer had even specified that he would be informed well in advance if, or rather when, he was needed. That meant for now, Nero was free to do as he pleased.
That was supposed to be convening with Gabriel and planning ahead, but pushing it ten minutes or so wouldn't really matter.
But even in his excited state, Nero could not act like a normal kid. He immediately noticed that it was very unusual for Vanessa to be alone in the library, especially when she should be in class. A part of him wondered why she was missing out, as she was not normally the type.
But his brain also analysed that it hardly mattered to him as it was unlikely she was doing something that would harm him, so he pushed all those thoughts aside and pulled up a seat right beside her.
"Fancy running into you here," he whispered.
Vanessa, who had been completely absorbed in her work, let out a little shriek as his sudden arrival startled her.
"You… what are you doing?" she questioned angrily, as her cheeks flushed out of embarrassment. She quickly looked around, and noticed that almost everyone in the library was looking towards her.
She tried to retract her head into her shirt as the embarrassment was too great. Nero couldn't help but laugh.
"What's wrong? Are you the only one who is allowed to sneak up on people?"
"I have never…" she began, then paused when she recalled that Nero had caught her sneaking more than once. She gave him an angry glare and changed the subject.
"It's rude to startle a young lady."
She puffed up her cheeks and crossed her arms, as if she was upset. The sight was quite amusing.
"Fine, fine, I apologise for alarming you, fair lady."
"Fair? Only helpless damsels are fair. I am a sunkissed warrior!"
"Oh, my bad. Sorry for scaring you, sunkissed warrior!"
Vanessa glared at him again. Why had she never realised how infuriating he was?
"What do you want Nero? I'm busy."
"I can see that," he said, looking at the notebooks in front of her. She was going over something called Imbuing, which was something he only vaguely knew about. It was basically when instead of putting a spell in a card, it was put into another object.
Imbuing was something that had been conceived as an idea to make spell casting easier, but actually doing it proved to be quite the hassle. Only a handful of successful cases existed, even till modern day, proving it to be a failure.
"Why are you studying imbuing when you can't even card craft yet?"
"This is one of the books Mr. Rodney gave me," she said with a hint of hesitation. "It's to increase my theoretical knowledge base."
Nero couldn't help but snort.
"Sounds more like he just wants to waste your time."
"That's not how it works. In theoretical fields, the greater my knowledge base the more successful I will be. Besides, this is true innovation. Not everything has to be reverse engineered from the Eldrim. Humans are more than capable of creating our own inventions."
"What else have we reverse engineered besides Eldrim cards?" Nero asked, curiously. Originally he just wanted to show off, but this was an interesting topic of conversation. Technologically speaking, Nova was heads and tails ahead of Kolar, or anyone else for that matter. Only new Velariya came close. It also made sense if their technology was reverse engineered.
After all, the Eldrim ruins that the great emperor accessed through which he learned of the cards were still present in The Scar, a region between Nova and New Velariya.
Vanessa looked hesitant, as if she was debating on what she was allowed to say or not. Nero did not try to force or persuade her. Eventually, she relented.
"You'd be surprised. Aether application is not the only field they surpassed us in. Do you know, to this day, we don't know what material their buildings are made out of? It's not a naturally occurring mineral, and it's nothing like modern cement. Despite that, their buildings are able to stand for thousands of years without falling over.
"We have what we believe are a few books back in Nova, though no one knows their language so no one can decipher them. But it's commonly believed that the idea to make books was also copied by them."
"Don't tell me we got homework from them too," Nero said with a smile, but Vanessa only glared. "It was just a joke, my bad. I've read that the concept of aether power lines and aether batteries is something we copied from them as well. Is that true?"
"Strictly speaking, no. That's probably why they're so inefficient. When studying their ruins, archeologists discovered some buildings that still had power. Their lights and machines were still operable, though we don't know why.
"It was theorised that the Eldrim probably used aether as a power source, and used wires or channels to transport it to various buildings. But we've never really found anything that resembles power cables, or any other means of transmitting energy at all. We have no idea how those buildings are powered. But that is where the concept came from."
"Seems to me like we still barely know anything about them. In that case, what have we even successfully reverse engineered?"
"You'd be surprised. Back in Nova, the most advanced medical equipment is actually all based off of Eldrim tech."
"And it works? For us?" Nero asked, genuinely taken aback. "Weren't the Eldrim another race? How does their stuff work on us?"
"Who knows? I'm sure there was even more stuff that has been reverse engineered, but that's all I know of."
Nero had some doubts about that, but he didn't bring that up. Instead, he looked back at her notes.
"So imbuing. This is something we came up with on our own?"
Vanessa let out an exhausted sigh, and leaned back in her chair.
"Strictly speaking, not really. I mean, we are just copying their card making. But as far as I can tell, or at least as far as this book says, the idea to use spells in other objects is solely our idea. They haven't done it anywhere else."
"Let me guess, the researcher who came up with this wanted to put the spells on a sword. Oh, no way, a spear would be better."
Vanessa shrugged.
"The book doesn't say. It's just detailing the various attempts, why they failed, or why the few that succeeded are theorised to work."
"Sounds interesting," Nero said dismissively. "You want to see something cool?"
Vanessa turned to him, and suddenly squinted.
"Weren't you supposed to be at your ceremony today? What are you doing back already?"
Nero grinned, and pulled up the plaque and put it on the table for her to see.
Vanessa observed the plaque and carefully lifted it, rubbing her hand over the wood as she read the words.
"As far as official commendations go, this one is not bad at all," she said with a nod.
"I can't believe they put it on a piece of wood," he said excitedly.
But instead of responding, Vanessa just looked at him oddly.
"What?" Nero asked, suddenly becoming conscious. Was it fake wood? They wouldn't do that, right?
"What do you find most impressive about this?" she asked with a sceptical look.
"Tha wood, obviously. Didn't you get that?"
Vanessa looked stunned.
"You… you got an official commendation from a sage, recognising you for your bravery, and the only thing you care about is that it's made of wood?"
"Not just any wood," he said defensively. "This has been treated to resist curses! Otherwise they wouldn't give it out."
For a moment Vanessa did not respond, and just stared at him. Then she burst into laughter.
"You astound me, Nero Grant. But it's good to know that there's a child in there after all."
All of a sudden, Nero no longer felt too excited about showing her plaque anymore. He pulled it back from her, since she clearly did not understand its value.
"There's more," he said, his tone returning to its normal, serious state. "I think you might wish you had gone back home while you still had the chance."
Vanessa raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. Nero had put away his easily excitable self, and focused on Vanessa to analyse her reaction.
"Yesterday our borders were attacked. Kolar is officially at war."
Vanessa's eyes widened, though she clearly tried to control herself. Her expression was frozen and she said nothing, but Nero just waited for her to question how serious he was. She never did.