No one knew what a Nova was until 200 years ago. Everyone was aware that some people could grow their powers somehow, but no one truly know anything about it.

Given that the number of people capable of doing so was so extremely low, no one truly had any idea of exactly what was going on.

That was until one person gave an explanation for everything.

It wasn’t known where the word came from, but he called these people Nova. He also explained how Nova were people that collected the souls of the dead to empower themselves.

Images of Novas played on the screen, along with a small animation of how a Nova got stronger.

"There is a video available of what was leaked to the world. Would you like to view it?" the room spoke to Stanley.

Stanley wasn’t quite aware of what a video was, but since it was asking him to see something, he accepted. "Okay," he said.

The images of Novas dissipated and what replaced was a moving image of two men sitting on opposite sides of a table, with one leaning on the table, and the other leaning back on his chair.

Stanley couldn’t see them at all, but he could tell for some reason that the one that seemed more relaxed was a young person.

"Nova?" the older man asked.

"People with... who can grow by feeding... souls of the dead," the younger person answered.

The video footage was choppy, with major parts missing. Stanley realized that too, but it sounded coherent enough that he got some parts of the context.

Novas were people who fed on the souls of the dead. That much was understandable.

The next set of words was about to be spoken when the video stopped moving with all sounds pausing along with it too. At the next moment, he saw another video, one of Sheila, standing weak with the central tower of the AAA in the background.

"Stanley, open the door," she spoke through the video. It was then that Stanley realized that she was standing outside of his room and quickly went and opened the door.

Sheila limped inside, holding onto him for support before slowly walking to the bed to sit. "You got registered, I hear," she said. "Good."

"I did," Stanley said, looking at her closely. When he saw that her right arm was back, he couldn’t help but be surprised.

"Your arm!" he shouted. "It’s really back."

"Heh," Sheila smiled a little. "I told you, remember? We have someone who can heal us easily. As long as we can make it back alive, Amy will fix us right up."

"Amy... huh?" Stanley sat next to her.

"Did you bring me here to save me?" he asked.

Sheila turned to look at him and sighed. "If I’m being honest, no," she said. "My primary reason for bringing you back here was for my own goal."

Stanley’s face fell a little.

"You saw it, didn’t you? How I hesitated to kill the Mayor when I had the chance. I was stupidly hoping to bring him back here and gain some Repentance points," he said. "When I learned that you were a Nova, I realized that you were far more than what he could’ve ever gotten me."

"Is that primarily why you brought me here?" he asked.

"Yes, but there was also the reason that Raven was looking for you. Had I left you behind, you would’ve been killed. I did it to save you too," she said. "Also, I saw that you were a good guy. If I had wanted, I could’ve asked Gray to kill you, but I didn’t. That’s because even though we’ve only spent a single day together, I understand that you aren’t the sort of person who would kill someone else without reason." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"That much I understood about all the Defenders in that town," she said. "Even the worst ones wanted to protect people."

Stanley remained quiet for a bit. "Thank you," he said in the end. "For saving me."

Sheila smiled a little. "No need for that. You are my Repentance point after all."

"How much did I get you?" Stanley couldn’t help but ask.

"That will depend on my report tomorrow, and after testing you to see how big of a threat you would’ve been had you been left unchecked," Sheila said. "I’m sure though, you will give me more than 50%."

"I don’t really understand what 50% means. Is that good?" he asked.

"For a scout like me? Very good," Sheila said. "I’ve been a scout for over 6 years now. Granted I was stuck in the town for over half a year, but I still only managed to reach no more than 23%."

"Depending on how much I get from you, I won’t have much remaining before I fully work out my crime and can become free again," she said.

"What crime was that?" Stanley asked.

Sheila’s face turned serious for a second as she shook her head. "It’s not something I want to talk about right now," she said. "I’ll let you know later if I’m comfortable with it."

Stanley didn’t say anything.

"Are you comfortable here? The room might take some getting used to," she said.

"Oh yeah, I’m quite comfortable. The bed is so soft that I feel like I might fall asleep at any moment," he said. "I’ve been trying to learn a bit about the world for now. Once I’m done learning, I’ll go to sleep."

"Oh," Sheila turned and saw the big projection of the video that was paused. "You are watching this clip huh?"

"The room showed me that when I asked for information on Nova," he said.

"Huh, did you ask for the restricted version?" Sheila asked.

"The... what?" Stanley asked.

"There are two versions of this video. One is the one that was leaked to the outside world. It has a lot of cuts and is almost impossible to watch. But the actual full interview is restricted and is much better," she said.

"Room, play the restricted Dorbas Nova naming interview video. Security clearance level 3. Authorization SH-02482"