EP.15 Two Dragon Hearts
Yuno focused on the searing mana he felt inside his body.
The energy grew ever hotter, swelling like a blazing fireball.
'Ugh... It feels like my body is going to burst... I can't bear this...'
As the dragon heart dissolved within him, releasing its burning mana energy, Yuno could no longer endure and tried to open his mouth to expel the energy. But the voice of Count Lichtenauer from behind snapped him back to his senses.
"Your Highness! Absolutely do not open your mouth. What you're feeling now is mana. You must keep that mana inside your body, so focus all your attention."
Count Lichtenauer carefully guided the energy within Yuno's body, searching for a vessel to contain it, turning his upper body this way and that.
'Hmm... I need to find the location of His Highness's mana hole as soon as possible... It's not the heart... not the abdomen... then where...?'
The location of the mana hole, where people stored mana, varied from person to person, but for most it was near the heart, as it was for Count Lichtenauer himself.
But since Yuno's mana hole wasn't near his heart, the count tried the abdomen, another common location, but no matter how he guided the mana, he couldn't sense a place where it was being stored.
"Ummm... Hngh!! Nngh...."
As Count Lichtenauer moved the dragon heart's mana around, searching for the mana hole, but failed to find it even in the abdomen, a faint moan escaped Yuno's lips.
With Yuno sweating profusely and writhing in pain, Count Lichtenauer decided to step back and removed his hand from Yuno's back.
'Damn... The mana from the dragon heart His Highness took...'
The mass of mana the count had been guiding scattered throughout Yuno's body as soon as he removed his hand. The pain that had tormented Yuno also faded, and his eyes opened naturally.
"Huff~ huff... Commander? What happened?"
"Hmm... Your Highness, you have no mana hole in either the heart or abdomen. Just in case, I tried guiding mana to both sides of your chest and your neck, but there was no sign of mana being stored, so I stepped back. Right now, the mana from the dragon heart has dispersed throughout your body."
After catching his breath, Count Lichtenauer put his hand on Yuno's back again and focused. Although the dragon heart's mana had settled, he tried hard to at least find the location of Yuno's mana hole, but in the end, he couldn't find one anywhere in Yuno's upper body.
"Your Highness... I'm sorry. I could not find your mana hole."
"Then what does that mean for me?"
"Regrettably... there are indeed bodies without a mana hole... It seems Your Highness will not be able to use mana."
Yuno looked at Count Lichtenauer with a deeply disappointed expression. Even at the age of twelve, Yuno's body had endured intense training and was stronger than even the palace royal guards.
He had been certain that if he could use mana, his powerful body would combine with it to create explosive strength and even greater power. The count's words that he would not be able to use mana only made his disappointment greater.
"...I'm sorry, Your Highness... I'll try to find a solution somehow."
"Haha, it's alright, Commander. If I don't have a mana hole, what's the point of a solution? Thank you sincerely for spending your time on me so late tonight."
Yuno calmly thanked Count Lichtenauer and asked to be left alone for a while.
Seeing Yuno like this, the count felt even more regret.
"Sigh~ To control his emotions so well even in such a bad situation... To have such a remarkable body and mind, yet not have a mana hole... It's such a shame... I was sure His Highness would become a far greater warrior than I..."
Muttering to himself, the count left Yuno's room. As soon as he stepped outside, he saw Empress Yuria approaching and quickly bowed.
"It's fine, Count. Please rise. Yuno how is Yuno?"
Raising the bowing count, Empress Yuria hurriedly asked after her son.
Seeing her, Count Lichtenauer hated that he had to deliver bad news, but he couldn't lie and so reported the results in detail.
"...I am sorry, Your Majesty. It is all my fault."
"No, Count. If anything, it's a relief that Yuno won't be able to go to dangerous places. But... I can only imagine how much disappointment my child must feel, having trained so hard, waiting for today..."
Yuria knew how obsessed Yuno was with training, so she felt bitter.
"Still, His Highness didn't seem too upset. In truth, people without a mana hole are not that rare, and with his body, he could easily defeat most lower-ranked noble knights with just a little sword training."
'But... Yuno worked so hard... There's no way he's not upset...'
Count Lichtenauer bowed and left. Empress Yuria, looking pained, opened the door and was pierced by the sound of sobbing from inside.
'Ah... my son... he must have been so looking forward to today... I'm sorry, my son... It's my fault for giving birth to you without a mana hole... I'm sorry, Yuno... I'm truly sorry.'
Yuria dismissed her maids and entered Yuno's room alone.
Yuno, who had been lying in bed crying for a long time, had fallen asleep. Yuria wiped his tear-stained face with a handkerchief and poured out a tonic she had brought.
"This is a tonic I brought in case you overdid it trying to control your mana today... It probably won't help you, but maybe it will at least soothe your tired body..."
The tonic Yuria brought was meant to restore energy to a weary body, and she wanted to help her exhausted son even a little, so she tried to feed it to the sleeping Yuno.
At that moment, she noticed a box on the table. She set down the bowl and went over; inside, she found a letter from the crown prince congratulating Yuno on his birthday, and a bottle.
The bottle was labeled "Silver Dragon Heart Diluted Solution," so Yuria mixed it with the tonic she had brought and fed it to Yuno.
Yuria had no knowledge of medicine, but since the crown prince, who cherished Yuno, had given the gift, she did not doubt it would be good for him and poured the entire mixture into Yuno's mouth without hesitation.
"Son... drink this and feel a little better. It may not help much, but... it's filled with your mother's care and the crown prince's sincerity, so it should help you regain your strength."
Perhaps because the imperial apothecaries' tonic was effective, Yuno's breathing soon became calm, and Yuria, feeling a little relieved, tucked him into bed and returned to the empress's palace.
Then, after a while, something strange began to happen inside Yuno's body.
One half of Yuno's body became burning hot, sweating profusely, while the other half froze solid and his skin turned pale.
Awakened by the extreme pain, Yuno could do nothing but endure.
'Ugh... It's so hot... and so cold... The left side is burning, but the right side feels like it's freezing to death...'
The mana absorbed from the dragon heart he took earlier and the mana from the dragon heart solution he drank later clashed inside his body, fighting for dominance.
The two manas took turns seizing control of Yuno's body, battling back and forth, and with each shift, Yuno experienced alternating agony burning and freezing.
'Ugh... So this is how I die... Damn that god!! What? The greatest human body? What use is a body that can't even use mana... Ugh... It's not fair. Is this life going to end like this too...?'
Finally, Yuno felt the two manas collide violently inside him, and as he thought he was dying, he lost consciousness.
At that moment, the energy from the tonic Yuria had given him moved, slipping between the two great masses of mana. The hot and cold manas, trying to consume the new tonic energy, began to mix, and through the tonic's influence, the now-massive mana wandered through Yuno's body until it found a mana hole where the tonic's energy had flowed out and settled there stably.
Thus, thanks to Empress Yuria's devotion, Yuno's mana cultivation ended in a miraculous success.