Three months had passed without much incident for Gaius, which was around nine or so months in Orb. He could feel the link between his body and his soul growing stronger, which was unequivocally good news for him.

Basking in the comfortable sunlight, he whittled away at a small block of wood, having finished the commissions others had brought him. For him, sculpting was both an occupation and a hobby, which made him worried for a few moments about his work-life balance.

Of course, whenever he looked at his hardworking little apprentice, Gaius’ doubts were dispelled. The kid had already taken a shine to sculpting even before entering his apprenticeship, and now, he was outputting works that could rival that of Gaius’ own.

Which just went to show how important talent was, but it was a good thing for him. Gaius was just a passerby in his life. He would eventually return, after all.

“Teacher, some tea?” La-Ti asked, his hands clutching a little cup.

“Yes, please.” Gaius nodded. Other than teaching him how to sculpt, Gaius had paid special attention into guiding him the basics of interaction. He’d asked the Chanter of Innocents about La-Ti’s condition, and although he was unlikely to have a whole soul anytime soon, social niceties and general behaviour was still something that could be taught and internalised over a long period of time.

A soul’s capacity of knowledge was rarely fully used. Usually, most information was dispersed through the soul. For souls that weren’t whole, their inability to function in certain areas was due to the pertinent information lost, and nothing else. That was just it. Any issues, with gentle guidance and appropriate training, could be solved given enough time.

It helped that the kid saw him as a role model to be emulated at all costs. Even without his intended guidance, La-Ti was learning from Gaius’ daily behaviour at a frightening rate. It wouldn’t be long before a young kid with the temperament and discipline of an adult showed up in Orb, and to be honest, Gaius was somewhat intrigued.

Sipping from the cup of tea slowly, his eyes wandered around the courtyard, which was now large enough to hold over ten life-sized sculptures and yet have enough space to swing a cat around. Half of them were carved into the shape of fierce warriors wielding claymores, each of them radiating violence and bloodthirst. The other half were statues of Weiwu sipping tea on the ground, cross-legged.

The statues of Weiwu were placed in the closer side of the courtyard, while that of the mad warriors were placed on the far side. And at the very entrance was one little statue of La-Ti sleeping happily.

There was a reason to this placement. Gaius had discovered something really interesting about Cybral that perhaps even the Chanter of Innocents didn’t pick up. Anyone here, including Gaius himself, was incredibly susceptible to emotions emanated by others…and the ‘others’ category also included the intent one had while creating works of art.

By standing near the warrior sculptures, one would feel irrationally angry, and by standing near the statues of Weiwu, one would feel utterly tranquil. And when one walked past the little statue of the sleeping La-Ti, those emotions would be immediately replaced by an incredible drowsiness.

It was fun to see the rapid changes in emotion every customer had when they paid a visit to Gaius. More importantly, however, they served as a good tool for training the mind. The boy knew that his final job was to oversee the Crying Abyss and prevent spectres from escaping into Orb, but he had a feeling that he wasn’t entirely invulnerable to their insanity inducing presence.

And the only way he could protect himself was through exposure to it.

The tranquillity he was resisting, however, fled entirely as a group of well-dressed men stormed into the courtyard. Their eyes flickered for a moment as they brushed past the warrior statues.

“Hey, you.”

The man at the very front, someone Gaius immediately dubbed Sunglasses, jabbed a finger forward. “I heard you have something you shouldn’t have. Hand it over.”

“Did you make a mistake?” Gaius asked, blinking his eyes twice.

Doubt flickered through Sunglasses’ eyes, but the mafioso-wannabe snorted a moment later. “You’ve taken something we’ve been eyeing. Took us a month to find it. Don’t try to fool us.”

“What something?” Gaius replied. “At least tell me what it is.”

“A wooden cube,” he replied. “Someone gave it to you. If you don’t hand it over, you’ll end up like him.”

Gaius kept his face straight, but he really wanted to laugh. He didn’t expect a bunch of burly men to come up to his doorstep, but he had prepared a whole bunch of countermeasures just in case something really did happen.

“Which wooden cube?” Gaius asked.

“What do you mean, which?”

The boy blinked twice innocently again, and after spending a second to relish Sunglasses’ blank face, he clapped his hands twice and said, “La-Ti, can you grab the box with polka dots? The one full of cubes?”

His apprentice ran out a moment later, a box the height of his torso in his hands. Gaius had been tossing any leftover wood into different boxes, and this was the one for wooden cubes. Gesturing for La-Ti to enter the house, Gaius pushed the box full of wooden cubes over.

“I also have wooden rectangles, wooden cylinders, so if you need any of them, do tell me,” Gaius replied, making sure to keep his face as neutral as possible. “Anyway, if you’re looking for that cube, it’s in there somewhere. That’s where all my cube-shaped wooden leftovers go.”

“Are you making fun of me?” Sunglasses snapped. “Why do you have so many wooden cubes?”

“I’m a sculptor?” Gaius replied. “Or did you somehow not notice?”

His face changed colours a few times as he picked up the box. “Let’s go.”

“Wait,” said Gaius.

“What? Did you remember which cube it was?”

“No, but this whole box of materials costs four energy salts,” Gaius replied.

Sunglasses trembled on the spot, and then tossed a bag over to Gaius. Keeping a wide berth from the statues around the courtyard, Sunglasses led his posse out, his movement stilted and unnatural.

La-Ti popped his head out of the house. “What’s going on?”

“Something funny.” Gaius got up. “I’ll be going out for a moment.”

Leaving his befuddled apprentice to watch the house, the boy began to follow the group earlier, intent on finding out what the little cube was for.

After all…even Weiwu didn’t notice anything odd.