[Book 7: Limina of Ruin]

Gaius opened one eye as a young man walked into the cabin, his tray laden with food. In front of him was Tsurugi Kenouji…no, Kusanagi Kenouji. The ferry they were in, laden with his fleeing family, had taken in the news about Paragon Saito’s death rather calmly.

It would seem that the Paragon’s failing health was not a secret amongst the elders of the now-renamed Kusanagi family. But that didn’t stop them from valiant attempts at suppressing their grief — as the boy had predicted, the Paragon was a loving and doting elder to his family.

He sighed. If only I could have retrieved his body for them, but…there wasn’t even a body left behind.

The Kusanagi family had a week-long vigil onboard the ferry. The usual rites and rituals were unable to be carried out on a ship, but as Gaius had observed more than a few times, notions of the afterlife weren’t really a thing in Orb. Rather, their vigil consisted of a sharing session about the Paragon’s life, which, as expected, was a rather...interesting one.

But the general theme, it seemed, was to celebrate the individual’s life. The longer they lived, the more accomplishments they usually left behind. Death was nothing to be feared in Orb, it was the people you left behind that most people cared for.

And of course, whatever debts you left behind.

“Lunchtime?” Gaius asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it lunch.” The young man grimaced as he took off the cloth. It was porridge with some preserved meat — the Kusanagi family had fled with food that could last for quite some time. The problem wasn’t that the food was bad, but rather the fact that breakfast, lunch and dinner were essentially the same thing.

And supper too, whenever Nakama got hungry.

“I’ve had worse,” the boy replied, before turning towards the interior of the cabin. “Isabelle, Nakama, lunch’s here!”

“Coming!”

Isabelle walked out from their little room, Nakama in her arms, and then nodded as she caught sight of Kenouji. “Thank you, Kenouji.”

“It should be us thanking you,” he replied. It was the same usual spiel — the young man was terribly apologetic that Gaius and company, who was capable of reaching the North through a few days of high-speed flight, now had to keep them company on a ferry trip a few months long.

To make matters worse, Gaius’ presence had proven to be more necessary than expected. The seas between the Northern Continent and the Eastern Territories were full of monsters. More than once, Gaius had to deal with some foes on his own, although that usually meant that the food for that day was…different.

“So,” said Gaius, “what did you family make of that?”

“The vision of the God of Water’s death?” Kenouji tilted his head. “Satisfying, all things considered. True, his passing will definitely have effects on the world, but we aren’t so open-hearted as to mourn the killer of our family patriarch. Conrah should be thankful that we aren’t spitting on his grave.”

“If only he could have died a bit later, though.” Gaius looked out of the window. The voyage had been smooth, originally, but for the last one and half month, currents and riptides had made their trip into something like a minor torture. The calm waters, now unrestrained by the God of Water’s presence, were beginning to behave like the oceans back on Earth, following the laws of physics.

Rain became more common too. Nexus, who had returned to its sculpture a few days after Conrah’s passing, had informed him in passing that marshlands were beginning to drain away into lower ground. Storms and showers were now a rather frequent sight.

“Or if the waters didn’t go berserk after his passing,” Kenouji supplied. “I still feel like heaving.”

“Get used to it,” said Gaius. “It’s a learning process. Or you can hone your body.”

“I’m not sure how to become a Knight,” said the young man. “The elders don’t want me to advance for some reason, despite me being the family head.”

“The advancement to a Knight includes a qualitative change in the mental state,” Isabelle replied. “It involves the creation of vows and limitations on behaviour. It is far better to advance when you are familiar with the North’s culture, where you can phrase your vows with nuances and riders.”

“Riders?” Gaius asked.

“Additional provisions or amendments,” said Isabelle. “The Southern Assembly likes to use those when deciding on edicts and policies.”

“If what you’re saying is correct,” said Kenouji, “doesn’t that mean that I have to wait quite a few years before I can actually do anything? That’s…”

“Better that than to have a weakness sniffed out. The Five Lands are rather antagonistic to each other for a reason, after all,” Isabelle replied. “Your elders will probably spend a small fortune at the Information Brokers to work out how best to phrase your vows.”

“Which is why we’re going to the Patriarch’s vault,” Kenouji mused. “He seems to have everything thought out.”

“Paragons tend to live for a long time,” said Gaius. “Planning for years or decades in advance don’t seem to be that hard when you factor that in.”

“Still, I never heard of this vault before,” said Kenouji. He held up the plaques in his hand. “Without these two things showing us the direction, no one’s probably going to find it in the next millennia either.”

“I wonder if it’s just going to be like the vault in Sundown,” Gaius mused out loud. “How much gold did we leave behind, Isabelle?”

“I managed to exchange ninety-two thousand and five hundred gold into notes,” Isabelle replied. “There’s still around sixty thousand left behind, though.”

“Thank you for your hard work,” said Gaius.

“Think little of it,” she replied. “Although, I must question the appropriateness of bringing up this topic in front of Kusanagi here.”

“The house belongs to him,” Kenougi replied. “And that naturally means the items inside too. Not that there was much to begin with…”

He shook his head and got up. “I’ll be off then. Dinner’s going to be more…porridge and preserved meat.”

Gaius and Isabelle glanced at each other, before shrugging.

“Food’s food, right?” said Isabelle.

“This is better than what we used to have anyway,” Nakama chimed in. “Let’s eat!”

Gaius grinned at the sight of his high-spirited little sister, and started digging in.