After paying ten silver coins, Gaius left Dai-Yukimono, with a few tubs of ice-cream in tow. The fact that he’d just encountered the Phantom Blade, Xanadu, had been a rather…unpleasant surprise, to put it mildly. Fortunately, the surprise meeting was without much incident, and Gaius had managed to point her into Scorpio’s direction at the end of it. The more attack dogs that were around the Constellation, the better it was if their little transaction didn’t go well.

He wanted to fly back, but there was a conspicuous absence of alleyways that he could turn invisible in, near Dai-Yukimono. The ice-cream parlour was located in a more prestigious side of the city, which meant that any potential areas for seedy behaviour had been long removed. The Climate Control ability, though useful for keeping Gaius comfortable, did little to slow the tubs of ice-cream from melting, since its purpose was to keep the user at a comfortable temperature.

He jogged back slowly, careful to keep his hoard close to his chest, and only heaved a sigh of relief when he finally reached Sundown Residence. Isabelle was watering the plants with the caretaker he’d seen some time ago, and the boy nodded to the two as he stepped across the open door.

After placing the bag of sweet goodness onto the unoccupied side of the dining table, Gaius stretched his arms, which had grown cramped from all that carrying. It didn’t matter how strong he was physically — hugging a bunch of items close was going to result in a bunch of painful muscles after a while, since there was no reason to actually be in that position most of the time.

Nakama hadn’t noticed his return. She was too engrossed with the workbook in front of her, and instead of disturbing his concentration by announcing his return, Gaius went out to the garden.

The caretaker had vanished, leaving Isabelle, who was wiping sweat off her face, alone in the garden.

“The ice-cream’s inside,” Gaius said.

“Any news?” Isabelle asked in return.

“A small lead. A quest for Knights…or B-rank adventurers and above to act as security guards for Tekkadan Central Pagoda has been posted, in light of a high stakes meeting this Friday,” said Gaius. “I think that’s where the Plenum will have a discussion with Scorpio.”

“Did you find any others?”

“No,” Gaius replied. “Although I did run across the Phantom Blade at the ice-cream parlour.”

“That’s nic—what?” Isabelle did a double take, sending some of the water in her watering can onto the ground. “Who did you run across?”

“The Phantom Blade,” Gaius replied. “She’s a teenager, like you. I don’t see why she can’t have some ice-cream.”

“You didn’t bring her back, did you?”

“No,” Gaius replied. “Just who do you think I am?”

Isabelle stared at Gaius, and then turned her gaze onto herself, before clearing her throat pointedly. “Someone who takes a prisoner of war and turns her into a follower.”

Gaius rolled his eyes. “You know as well as I do that there were an entire chain of circumstances that led you to where you were. It’s not my fault if I thought that you were some VIP with lots of valuable information at that time, right? And by the time you came to, most of your companions had died. It was really confusing at that time. Can’t blame me if we forgot about you…”

“Yes, yes, I’m aware.” She reached out and patted Gaius’ head, a gesture that he somehow found both comfortable and aggravating at the same time. “We’re all just toys of fate. What we’ve fought for, the time my family spent…our ideals had been destroyed. And then…you came.”

“Yes. I did.” Gaius sighed. The time Isabelle spent with Nakama probably reminded her of her own childhood. It was inevitable that she would think about the past after a while. “But what are you trying to get at?”

“Never mind. Just don’t go bringing back random people and then help them in times of need all the time,” Isabelle said. “Our food budget isn’t that high, after all. And I don’t think there are anymore spare rooms in Sundown.”

“They aren’t?”

“After you occupied the last one with a formation enclosing a spooky arm,” Isabelle replied.

“Oh, right. But it’s just a ball of gold light now,” Gaius corrected her. “I should probably work harder on finishing that book, so I can handle that ball of danger.”

“…Yes, you should do that.” She waved the watering can around. “I’m going to finish watering the plants first. There’s no need to wait for me.”

“Says the ice-cream,” Gaius replied. “Better get inside and have your share before the resident glutton finishes it all. I’m quite sure you know better than me regarding Nakama’s appetite and eating speed by now.”

The teenage girl pondered on his words for a moment, before thrusting the watering can into Gaius’ hands. “There’s a small rice paddy that’s still not watered yet, at that corner. Help me deal with it, thank you very much.”

With that, she ran into the house, leaving Gaius alone. Raising the watering can, the boy shook his head, and walked over to the corner that Isabelle had indicated. Like she said, there was a small field of rice. The ground was somewhat flooded with water, with a thin layer of water around five centimetres deep already on top.

“What’s the point of using this small can to water the fields?” Gaius muttered. Instead of using the watering can in its intended method, the boy removed the lid and dumped the contents onto the field itself, sending some water splashing onto his clothes. He placed the now-empty watering can onto a small wooden table full of gardening implements, and stepped into the house, closing the door onto the falling night.

Today had been a rather…odd day. The two girls were busy eating ice-cream, with the smaller of the two working on yet another workbook. Nexus was apparently asleep for some reason — but the knife he was watching still continued to bob up and down, bearing a brick on its back.

As much as he wanted to rest, however, Gaius had something to do. It was evident that he wasn’t going to finish the Definitive Guide to Formations within the next two days.

He reached out to the clearly asleep Nexus and grabbed it. The little knife in front of Gaius, Stone, quivered as Gaius abducted its supervisor.

“No,” said Gaius, “you should continue training to protect your mistress. Don’t slack off because no one is watching.”

The knife wobbled from side to side.

“Yes,” said Gaius. “I won’t know. Nexus won’t know. But you will.”

He grinned, and with a stirring sculpture in his hand, Gaius walked towards the room where Scorpio’s arm had been stored.