Chapter Text
Like any other normal person being handed a seriously expensive item belonging to an ever beloved healer, Ren seeks him out to give back the forgotten necklace.
Well, that's the plan. The thing is, Cale is really hard to get a hold of. Not because he's avoiding Ren or anything (not… to his knowledge, at least), but because that guy is just genuinely very, very busy. Either about schoolwork, or noble work, or even troubling situations. It also didn't help that people flock around him like he's going to keel over and die if they don't, and Ren massively prefers meeting Cale one-on-one instead of being crowded.
The point is, Ren still has Cale's necklace a week later.
It took him five days to stalk find Cale alone, which failed horribly, and two days to figure out another way. Which brings him to this awkward (at least to him) situation.
"This is Cale-nim's missing necklace." The sword master in front him did not regard him suspiciously, but it wasn't a question, it was a sentence. A sentence that felt like bricks weighing down Ren as he heard it.
"Yes." Obviously, it is. Hunter-grade items rarely came out similar, and the higher grade it is the more unique they look. Cale's necklace isn't too high grade (or a grade that fits his caliber, anyways. To Ren this is as valuable as tons of gold bars) so it's rather simple, but it's a rather iconic family heirloom of his that everyone recognizes with a single look.
Still, the sword master took the necklace from his hands to inspect it and—there it is, the name etched on the back of the base that held the ruby, a simple Henituse in cursive.
The black haired averts his gaze from the necklace to him, "Cale-nim did not say it was missing, even though he went to multiple gates without it the past week."
Ren felt a slight headache at that.
"Is that so?" He ends up saying, "Do give it back to him, I can't manage to find time to do it myself."
The sword master nods simply, pocketing it and giving a last polite nod at him before walking away.
Supposedly, his personal mission is done.
Supposedly.
Which is why he's gaping in extreme confusion when Cale Henituse himself is blocking the door in the empty class Ren was quietly cleaning up worksheets filled with necessary data a few days after.
Cale doesn't look much different, other than the fact that he's wearing his student uniform instead of the practice one. The way he wears his uniform properly is one detail Ren caught now that Cale's not surrounded by people. His tie is under his vest and his blazer is buttoned up. Probably the work of his personal butler, that one who likes cats, if Ren remembers correctly.
Either way, it still doesn't explain his presence here.
It's late, about six. Ren should've been on his part-time job usually, but his extracurricular club had their once in a blue moon meetings so Ren took a day off. It ended about half an hour ago and since he's the leader of the club (not sure how that happened) he ended up being there later than his members and was finishing up all the data collected when the door was opened and a certain young master walked in.
"You returned it."
Now, Ren might not be the smartest student in the whole academy, but certainly he's not the dumbest either. It's just his brain doesn't work very well late in the afternoon after blankly watching his club members argue halfheartedly with one another and settle with no solution afterwards, so he ended up raising an eyebrow.
"Returned…?"
Cale's face didn't twitch, but Ren felt like he's being given a rather exasperated look in response. "The necklace."
"The necklace." Ren repeats, mind flashing back on the cool touch of iron chains and the red ruby on the center of it, not at all heavy on his palm despite the weight of its value, "Yes. It's yours."
Cale leans his back against the door, arms crossed as he watches Ren resume his cleaning rather awkwardly.
Then, he continues, "I don't need it anymore."
Ren notes this down, perhaps he got a better grade item, which honestly should've happened already. He nods, "That's great news." If his healing is so great even with a sub-par item, it's even greater now, yes?
A shallow hum of agreement, like Cale didn't quite care, "One of my father's businesses had acquired a holy item for healing, which is given to me as a gift." A gift, for a holy-grade item. It can buy Ren a mansion or three, which is not lost on him that it's given as a gift.
Clearly, Cale didn't find it as ludicrous as he does, "It has a yellow mana stone on it, which looks like moonstones from afar."
Ren's not the most knowledgeable about gems, certainly, but he does know what moonstones look like.
"It reminds me of your halo." Cale says simply, "I saw it on a reflection of myself when we passed by a lake that time."
Ah, the halo. He must be talking about the halo that manifested when Ren used his most powerful support ability.
It… certainly has the same shade as moonstones…?
"Either way, I don't need this anymore."
Ren doesn't really deal with surprises in his life, but he's been feeling rather baffled these past few days, and certainly today too.
Cale walked up to him, palm holding a familiar necklace with its ruby facing upwards. Ren could see his own reflection on it when Cale brings it closer to him.
"It has protection capabilities." The young master offers simply, "I noticed you have none."
Ren blinked, "Supports are usually placed on the back, young master Cale."
Cale shrugs, "You never know."
Which… sounds horrifying, honestly. Has Cale been ambushed from the back before? Wouldn't that mean he needs it even more?
At his rather concerned stare, Cale sighs, taking one of Ren's hands placed on top of the stack of paper and opening it with his own before placing his necklace there, "Just take it."
A short silence where neither of them spoke. Out of absurdity for Ren, out of something else for the young master.
Ren is… very confused. "Is this not from your mother?"
"Mhm." Cale didn't let go, turning the ruby's position to trace his own family name on its back with his finger, "I'm sure she won't mind."
That's nice. Ren does mind the fact that he's being given a necklace that has ties with the Henituse family though, not that Cale is wording that as an option. If he ever sells it, it would rack money far beyond the item's actual worth itself. If, because he's pretty sure it's kind of rude to do that, and he's really not interested in finding out if Cale would be offended by it or not.
"Sure." He says slowly, "Okay."
The young master's lips twitched into what counts as a smile for someone like him, nodding at him one last time before finally leaving the classroom.
Well.
That was something.
With no other option than to keep it, Ren… has no other choice but to wear it, duh. That's what Cale asked of him, right? No sane person can refuse Cale Henituse. As much as he's weird, he is also a noble and is famous for a reason, so Ren thought it won't be of harm to do as he says.
Ren didn't wear the necklace so obviously, preferring to hide it under his shirt most of the time instead of gripping it with his palm despite the known fact that it's better to put hunter items near your pulse point for easy mana access.
It's pretty clear why.
First, it's a hunter item. Stuff that—while to nobles might seem cheap or just decently priced or maybe even pretty pricey too—is not at all affordable for someone like Ren, who's an orphan working part-time jobs after school with not even a proper surname. It's bound to raise eyebrows and he really didn't feel like dealing with people who thought he might've stolen it.
Second, it's not just any item, it's Cale's family heirloom. This, he must stress, is Cale's family heirloom. What the fuck. This thing? Everyone ties it to the Henituse. It's something the late Henituse countess used at her peak as a healer, which is then passed down to her only son, then becoming an iconic part of his healing. How would everyone react if it's given to Ren? Ren who's not even a Henituse or a healer?!
So… yeah. It's really obvious why.
Besides, it can protect him just fine as long as it can use up his mana—i.e, pressed against his skin. Cale didn't say anything about how much mana has to be available, just that as long as it's present, it works. And anyway, that's the main reason why Cale gave it to him, right? So putting it under his shirt is rather favorable. Hidden and useful.
Except Ren found a new thing.
It regenerates mana in very small amounts.
Not much, not enough to be noticeable by most people, but Ren is rather sensitive to mana which is why he noticed it in the first place.
Hmm, okay, so not as low grade as he thought, maybe medium grade item? He never really imagined the price of this little thing before, mostly because it's never in the market since, um. Forever. He's sure people won't be able to guess its price either. It must be high, though.
How did he notice such a thing?
"Huh." He says one day, laying on the ground of the training hall on a quiet weekend. Nobody really likes working overtime, except Ren doesn't have the time to train other than weekends so here he is anyway.
To his surprise, he has not passed out yet.
He can feel his mana in critical levels, which is quite embarrassing for him to be so reckless, but he thought he found a combination to do both his ultimate move and skill to another teammate, forcing his abilities to two targets, only to find that—well, it worked, but maybe he doesn't have enough mana. He's always painfully average, that includes his mana capacity.
He should've passed out, that's the thing.
But he hasn't.
He could feel why. Near his collarbone, his new hidden necklace is rather warm, a sign it's working so hard to keep him awake.
"Mana regeneration…?" He guesses, feeling his eyes get heavier as the seconds pass. Not much regeneration happening then, despite the little thing working overtime. But enough that it kept him awake for a few more seconds than he should.
'What a nice little thing.' Was his last thought before he succumbed to sleep. If reckless training these past few years taught him anything about overusing his mana, is that he should've passed out for approximately four hours.
Good thing he doesn't really have anything to do during weekends then.
He woke up an hour later.
As nerds do, or whatever it is Ren counted as, he immediately ran back to his dorm to note this down and figure out why.
Here are some things about mana regenerative items:
They are rather rare.
It's hard to find items in general, and harder to find something as precious as mana regeneration. A lot of items have a niche thing it helps with, like boosts sword masters, or increases damage for a number of elements to a mage, or supports healing. Mana regeneration is something everyone can use, so it lands itself in the 'quite pricey' category for items. Surely not an item just anyone can buy without batting an eye, unless you're a Henituse perhaps.
Where do they get the mana from?
The most expensive of the bunch, the premium ones, regenerate mana by itself. How? By absorbing the natural mana in this world over time. When it's full, the mana inside of the item will automatically be used up by whoever's skin is touched by the item and if said user's mana is depleted. How convenient. Too convenient, even. Ren doesn't want to check the price of such things, really.
The less premium ones though, recharges itself by taking mana of the user. Most of the time it's only useful when someone has too much mana, where they keep on regenerating mana themselves even if their mana reserves are full, in which case, the item will take that extra mana for itself for future usage.
This necklace… is not the former.
The thought came to him late at night when he had his eyes closed in an attempt to sleep. It fails, obviously, since his eyes widened in surprise at the hypothesis and he can't help but walk to his desk and blindly search the given item in the dark.
He's sensitive to mana, he is, he knows this, he can check if it's true by himself. At this rate, he won't be able to sleep if curiosity is eating up his thoughts like this. Just a small check, really.
Ren felt faint.
He's right.
The reason why the necklace feels a bit different than usual jewelry…
It's full of Cale's own mana.
"…" This is all Cale's fault. Including the fact that he lost the few minutes of sleep he could've gotten tonight if he wasn't curious.