The small crowd parted with slightly-reverent gazes as Gaius approached them. Evidently, his little feat of holding off a hailstorm of spears had gained the respect of the Kusanagi juniors. Smiling gently, Gaius walked over to the table, where there was an incredibly long list, filled with the names and index numbers of artefacts.

“K-99, K-99…” Gaius found the entry quickly, but before he could retrieve the file for the globe, someone had already done it for him, retreating back into the crowd before Gaius could register his or her appearance.

“Thank you,” said the boy, speaking to the crowd in general. They nodded, and then returned to their jobs as Gaius found a little space to sit down at. Flipping the file open, the boy began to read about the globe he’d selected.

“What a poetic name,” Gaius muttered. The sphere was called the Twilight Overseer, and like its name, its purpose was one of surveillance. It didn’t seem all that useful to Gaius, given that Nexus could do it far better, but since the artificial intelligence was usually left with Nakama to protect her, it was better than nothing.

He placed his palm on the violet sphere and his vision changed. Gaius was now looking down on a piece of cleared land, with a small metal tomb in the middle. The globe, it seemed, was something that could manipulate the viewport, and Gaius spent some time pinching and spreading his fingers. It was like the Map of Stars, back in the Library of Ancients, but it was able to transmit sound.

“A detection artefact, eh?” Nexus spoke in his mind. “It’ll be useful, since you always leave me with Nakama.”

“You know my priorities well, at least,” said the boy. “But it does somewhat prove that there’s some odd…form of fate, for lack of a better word, guiding us all. Or me, at least.”

He blinked twice, and his vision returned to normal.

“We’ll decide on whether you’re right after we see what Nakama and Isabelle get. After all, coincidences do occur, and people like you tend to read the most into them,” said Nexus. “But supposing you’re right: how far does this…guidance reach? Does it also include me? How about the previous masters of the Library?”

“That’s one hell of a hot potato,” Gaius replied. “Anyway, it seems that I can shrink this little bauble to make it more portable.”

He reached out and pressed down on the top, and it turned into a small watch, complete with strap. Gaius fastened it on and looked at the metal display, which had now turned into something like a radar of sorts. Yellow dots were sprinkled around a green dot, which according to the manual, indicated Gaius himself.

“Green dots, yellow dots…and enemies as red dots,” Gaius muttered. “That seems simple, all things considered, but I guess I can’t just connect it to my mind like its expanded form.”

“That’ll be on another level entirely,” said Nexus. “In fact, this collapsible state is already a technical miracle. Getting a mental connection with it in this state would need either the user or the artefact to be a god or a Zeroth Armament.”

Gaius pouted. “Well, it’s at least useful if I’m operating away from you. Where’s Isabelle?”

“Turn around.”

The Knight was staring at two rapiers. Both of them were made of some steel-like metal, but they had different filigrees on the guard. One was a lotus flower…or it looked like on to Gaius, anyway, and the other was a nine-pointed star. Qi was radiating off both rapiers, and Isabelle was clearly unsure of which one she wanted to pick.

“You could try holding them and trying them out,” said Gaius. “No harm in doing that, right?”

“It might be an unfair comparison,” said Isabelle. “Whichever weapon I choose first will have an advantage, no?”

“…I’m not sure how you arrived at that conclusion, but just spend five minutes or so comparing the two in reach and all,” said Gaius. “Maybe go read up on their effects and abilities too. There’s a catalogue, after all.”

She glanced at Gaius, and then grabbed both rapiers by the hilt together. After practicing a few stabs and pokes with the one in her right, she swapped the weapons and repeated the process, frowning. There didn’t seem to be much of a difference, but Gaius wasn’t a professional at wielding such…pointy weapons, so he decided not to comment on it.

After a while of watching her stab at the air, Gaius turned away from her and made his way towards Nakama, who was enchanted with a small, azure crystal.

Well, it wasn’t just her.

A knife, the sentient (probably) Stone that she had by her side the whole time, was flitting around the crystal, who was bobbing up and down. If Gaius had to place his finger on it… it would seem that the crystal was sentient. It was examining Nakama and Stone the same way the two were looking back at it, and some bored Kusanagis were also watching the three from afar.

“Quite an odd sight,” said Kenouji, who was holding a book in his arms. “It seems that Nakama has chosen a treasure too. What’s its index number?”

“I don’t think something that can move has a normal one,” said Gaius. “It’s not going to be on a shelf, for one. Maybe look for the special, unclassified list.”

“There’s such a list, yeah. But more importantly, I’m looking for a golden cane that’s used for close combat,” said Kenouji. “It’s one of those Zeroth Armaments, but other than this brief description, there’s nothing else in about it in the catalogue.”

“A golden cane?” Gaius repeated.

“Yeap. Have you seen one?” Kenouji replied.

Gaius considered for a moment, and then shook his head. There was a walking stick, sure, but if he wanted a close-range weapon…then that definitely wasn’t what he was looking for.

“I see. Oh well. Maybe I don’t have fate with it,” Kenouji said. “Well, we’re almost done with the packing, so we should be leaving soon.”

He looked at the pile of backpacks in the middle.

“That’s a lot of gold,” said Gaius.

“Enough to last us a decade of utter splurging, in my opinion,” said Kenouji. “But we’re going to use it to carve out our own world in the North. With enough money, anything is possible.”

Gaius shook his head. “Maybe.”