Solaris

Time turned back to before Mo Bai entered the Infirmary.

"So, Lynae, is this person an outsider like Mo Bai was?"

N.A.N.A. looked at Rover kindly.

Though she was a robot, her creator had clearly given her plenty of emotional programming, making her seem especially approachable.

"No, Rover is a student about to enroll. She just hasn't received her Tacet Disc yet. Oh, Ms. N.A.N.A., could you give her a checkup too?"

Lynae introduced Rover to N.A.N.A.

But when she turned, she noticed Rover seemed lost in thought.

"Rover?"

"Hm? Sorry, I was thinking about something."

Only after Lynae gently called to her did Rover come back to herself.

She had been thinking about the Cursed Energy Mo Bai had displayed on their way here.

It had a rather unusual frequency, and it intrigued her.

More importantly, he had lied earlier.

Having lost her own memories, she could tell Mo Bai had not acted like someone with amnesia at all.

That did not mean she was hostile to him. He had lied, but the look in his eyes reminded her of herself when she had first awakened in this world.

Lost.

So after N.A.N.A. examined her, Rover went into the Infirmary alone. That was how she came to answer the question for Mo Bai.

"Oh? Is that so?"

Doctor Lu showed no surprise at Rover's answer. He slowly rose and walked toward her.

"But all that can wait. Right now, both you and Mo Bai are injured patients. While you're here, you only need to focus on recovering."

Doctor Lu gave Rover a slight smile as he spoke.

Mo Bai thought he truly lived up to being a Doctor. Everything about his manner put people at ease.

After speaking, Doctor Lu glanced at Mo Bai again.

For an instant, Mo Bai felt he was no longer the gentle Doctor he had seemed a moment ago.

Thankfully, the feeling lasted only a moment, like a trick of the mind.

"All right, Rover, there's nothing seriously wrong with you either." After looking her over, Doctor Lu checked the report again.

"A Threnodian of the Black Shores, huh? With your recommendation, and given that you drove off the Voidworm, Mo Bai should have no trouble entering the academy with you."

Doctor Lu ended on that encouraging note.

"Now, neither of you has any serious health problems. What comes next is just me, Lu Hess, doing a little nagging."

The man named Lu Hess set down the report and smiled warmly.

"Unless there are special circumstances or you have protection, don't go picking fights with things like Voidworms. Plenty of students have been injured trying to collect data on them."

As he spoke, Lu Hess glanced at the other students in the Infirmary.

Some of those he looked at turned away guiltily.

After all, no ordinary person would be proud to serve as a cautionary tale.

"If you feel unwell later, or if anything is troubling you, you can come find me here. I'm always around. Oh, right."

Lu Hess reached into the pouch at his waist and felt around before taking out two things.

Candy.

"Consider these a welcome gift. Just a little something from me." Smiling, he offered the candy to Rover and Mo Bai.

"Mm."

"Thank you."

Neither refused his kindness. They ate the candy then and there.

It was sweet, just the thing for patients who had been through a rough time.

Lu Hess said nothing more. When N.A.N.A. informed him that another patient had arrived, he turned to leave.

Tap.

But at the last moment, he stopped and said softly:

"Welcome back."

Tap, tap.

Mo Bai noticed Rover's pupils contract at Doctor Lu's words.

Did they know each other?

At least Mo Bai was certain the Doctor's parting words had not been meant for him.

He did not ask, though. Instead, he went with Rover to find Lynae, who was sitting in the waiting area.

"How was it?! Are you both okay?!"

The moment Lynae saw Mo Bai and Rover emerge, she sprang from her chair, her voice full of concern.

They both smiled. Mo Bai waved his now-healed arm at her.

"Phew, that's good. Oh, right, Mo Bai, you're not a student here. What are you planning to do next...?"

"It's fine. I've already recommended Mo Bai for admission."

As Lynae worried about Mo Bai's future, Rover explained it to her.

Mo Bai also noticed that as Rover spoke, she picked up the high-tech-looking gourd fastened behind her waist.

"I see. Then I don't need to worry. Hehe, now I'll have two new friends at the Academy~" Lynae breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

The three left the Infirmary together, then followed Lynae to the teachers' office to complete the enrollment process.

According to her, they would not officially become students of Star Torch Academy until they had something called a Tacet Disc.

A Tacet Disc served as a sort of student ID.

Perhaps because she had made two new friends, Lynae skipped along in front, humming a tune.

But Rover, walking behind her, noticed something.

Mo Bai looked troubled.

"Something on your mind?"

At her question, Mo Bai almost instinctively said he was fine, but he knew he could not keep everything bottled up.

Now that he was in this world, he needed someone to help him understand it.

"Yeah. There's a lot I don't know about this world. I've lost my memory, after all."

So Mo Bai brought out his earlier excuse again.

Rover did not call him out. Instead, she began explaining the world of Solaris to him.

From her explanation, Mo Bai learned that everything in this world was made up of frequencies, and that the way things moved and changed came down to the patterns and vibrations of those frequencies.

In this world's terms, his shadow technique worked by altering the frequency of a shadow's vibrations and changing its properties.

Throughout her explanation, Rover watched Mo Bai's expression.

In the end, she concluded that he truly knew nothing about this world, just as she had when she first arrived.

"I've been listening for a while now. Mo Bai, you're not an alien, are you?" Lynae suddenly turned around and struck an exaggerated pose.

At her question, the corner of Mo Bai's eye twitched.

While Rover had been explaining things, he had learned that this world also had people like him who could use "superpowers."

They were called Resonators.

By resonating with the frequency of a particular object or living being, or even a spoken legend, they gained the ability to adjust the world's frequencies, producing strange effects such as fire, freezing, and healing.

But there was one obvious physical difference between Resonators and ordinary people.

It was a tattoo-like mark on their skin called a Resonance Mark.

Mo Bai's mind raced as he tried to come up with a convincing explanation for his companions.