Inside Reno's House,
In the living room, a figure that looked like Reno sat casually on an old sofa. His back leaning, his head tilted up, staring at the house ceiling.
"That was close, yeah..." "It seems I underestimated humans too much. I didn't expect they wouldn't be as stupid as I thought all this time."
He raised his right hand, looking at his own palm.
"Especially that kid." "His questions were very sharp. He almost exposed me in front of hundreds of students. If only I didn't have a backup plan..."
"But well, in the end everything still went according to my plan. Even better than I imagined."
Reno raised his right hand higher into the air. From its center, small moving flames began to appear. The fire wasn't hot—at least not for him.
"You did your best, my Fire Golem." He said in a proud tone while looking at the fire in his hand. "You appeared at exactly the right time. Exactly as I wanted."
Flashback, Before Class Started,
That morning, before Reno entered his classroom, he had gone up to the school building's roof through the emergency stairs that were rarely used.
The roof of the five-story building was quite spacious, with a flat concrete surface and a one-meter-high iron fence around the edges to prevent students from falling.
Reno stood in the middle of the roof with his eyes closed.
Then, fire appeared from both his palms.
Slowly, the fire began to take human form.
Legs. Body. Arms. Head. A humanoid figure 180 cm tall formed, its entire body made of fire. There were no facial details—just a dark silhouette behind the blazing flames.
"Fire Golem." "You are part of me. You know everything I know. You feel everything I feel. You and I... are one mind."
The Fire Golem didn't speak—because indeed it had no mouth or vocal cords.
"Alright, I think you already know what you need to do, right?" "Stay here until I really need you to appear. Don't move, don't emit too much aura. Wait until I give the signal—through our connected thoughts."
The Fire Golem nodded.
"When I give the signal, you appear at the edge of this roof. Let them see you. Then flee toward the back of the building—but not too fast. Let that Sage almost catch you. And right when he's about to touch you..."
"Destroy yourself. Explode your body into small fire particles that immediately evaporate. Don't leave any traces."
The Fire Golem nodded again.
"Good." Reno turned his body, preparing to go down. "Without being told you already understand, right?"
The Fire Golem didn't move—just stood upright in the middle of the roof like a statue.
"Alright, that's all. I'm going to my class first."
As soon as Reno said that, from beneath his feet appeared something that looked like moving water—but it wasn't water. It was liquid fire—a form of fire manipulation.
The fire formed a circle with a diameter of about two meters beneath his feet, then began to swallow his body from below—like a hole absorbing something.
Reno let himself seemingly fall into the fire that moved like water—his body slowly sinking. Head, shoulders, chest, waist, legs—everything entered the circle of fire.
And then—
FWOOSH!
He disappeared.
The roof returned to being empty—except for the Fire Golem still standing upright in the middle.
On the second floor of the school building—precisely in a hallway that looked empty—the same circle of fire appeared on the floor.
From inside that circle, Reno emerged calmly. His body wasn't wet, there were no signs of burns, his uniform was still neat.
He looked left and right—making sure no one saw him.
That hallway was indeed completely deserted. All students had already entered their respective classes because the bell had rung several minutes ago. Only the faint sound of teachers teaching could be heard from inside the classrooms with closed doors.
"No one saw. That's good!"
He deliberately didn't appear directly on the floor where his class was located—too risky if someone saw. Better to appear on a different floor, then walk like a normal student who was late.
"Alright, let's go to my class." He began walking casually.
Back to the Present,
The small fire in Reno's hand gradually shrank, then completely disappeared.
Reno's expression changed to slightly more curious. He furrowed his brow while trying to remember something.
"By the way, that kid... what's his name, yeah?" "It seems the body I'm inhabiting doesn't know that kid. There are no memories about him in Reno's brain."
He tried to dig deeper into the memories of the body he controlled—searching for information about the student named Noah who had almost exposed his disguise earlier.
But there was nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
As if the real Reno had never met or interacted with that kid before.
"That kid has quite strong energy within him." "What the hell is this really? His spiritual energy is stable, but..." "I don't know what power he possesses!"
"Whatever. I'm still confident I'm stronger than him. After all, he's just a teenager. His combat experience must still be very minimal. I can defeat him if I'm really forced to fight!"
"My power level now isn't far from that Rank B Sage." "Actually the fire power of this kid—the real Reno—can't be said to be too strong. He's still a beginner, still at the stage of learning to control his fire. But..."
"With the energy already inside me at that time—the dark energy I brought from my original dimension—the fire from this kid's power becomes much stronger. My dark energy acts as a catalyst that strengthens any supernatural power I use."
"Because of the incident I created earlier, the students definitely can't go to school for the next few days." "They have to wait until the school is truly safe. Until those Sages finish their investigation."
"I can't wait to devour the souls of strong humans." "Especially that Kazui's soul... it must be very delicious!"
"Whatever it is, this is very boring. It seems I'll be stuck in this boring house for a few days."
◇◇◇
At Nova's House,
"I'm home!" Nova called out while opening his front door. The door wasn't locked.
The sound of television could be heard from the family room—it seemed his father and mother were watching an evening drama.
Earlier at Kazui's house, he had played PS for about an hour—something he very rarely did because usually he wasn't too interested in video games. But it turned out to be quite fun.
At first Nova didn't want to eat there because he felt uncomfortable. But Kazui said it was okay.
It turned out Kazui could cook—and quite skillfully too. The dinner he made himself—fried rice with sunny-side-up eggs and stir-fried vegetables—tasted pretty good.
"Ah, already home?" Nova's mother appeared from the family room. She stood in front of Nova while smiling warmly.
"How was your first day playing at your new friend's house? Was it fun? Is he nice? Is his house nice?"
Nova immediately felt amused seeing his mother's smile. He knew his mother was very happy because he finally had a friend who wanted to invite him to play at their house.
"I feel weird about Mother's smile." "So stop smiling as if I'm a kid who can't get friends. I look very pitiful if Mother keeps being like that."
"Hehe, whatever it is, Mother is happy you finally have a good friend." His mother laughed softly while gently patting Nova's shoulder. "It seems you already ate there, right? You'd better go shower and sleep. Sleeping too late is also not good for the body—especially since you have a school holiday tomorrow, so you can wake up more leisurely."
She stroked Nova's hair.
"Lunar already told Mother everything that happened at school. It seems you won't have school for a few days, yeah?"
"More or less like that." Nova nodded briefly. "Until the situation is truly safe, the principal said."
"Alright, then you can rest more at home." His mother smiled again. "Go up to your room. Shower and get enough sleep."
"Alright, I'll go up to my room first." Nova began stepping toward the stairs, but suddenly he stopped and looked back. "Even though Mother said I should sleep earlier, Mother and Father are still watching TV at this hour?"
His mother laughed while pulling Nova's right cheek with one hand.
"Don't compare us with you who are still young." "We're already adults, so we can sleep late. You're still a teenager, so you have to sleep early to grow up healthy."
"Ooh, it seems Mother is indeed aware that Mother is already old, yeah?"
"That's already obvious, but mother is still beautiful and healthy!"
"Yes, yes, Mother is the youngest and most beautiful." "I also don't want to disturb Mother's time with Father. Then I'm going up first!" He immediately went upstairs.
"That kid!" His mother shook her head while smiling warmly.