Three more months passed without incident. La-Ti continued to learn more and more about Orb from Gaius, who had long given up on persuading the kid that the place he came from was one that was rough to live in. As for Geo-Gai and his commission, the city administration did send someone along to show Gaius the details of the dragon they wanted a sculpture of, and after spending hours to talk and make notes, the boy had started work two weeks ago.

Nakama would drop by once every eight hours, stay for two, and then return to Orb. It didn’t take long for Gaius to guess why; time flowed three times faster in Orb compared to Cybral, so the little girl was literally visiting Gaius every day in her dreams.

Whether this was healthy or not Gaius had no idea, but she didn’t seem to be affected whatsoever. And more importantly, the boy could finally transmit and receive messages from the outside world, which was far more important to him than anything else.

The first message he received was a barrage of care and concern disguised as a scolding aimed at his own penchant for heroism and sacrifice. Nakama had emulated Isabelle very well when she repeated the message word for word to Gaius, but he had a sneaking suspicion that her little punches weren’t something Isabelle had done.

Rays of warm sunlight were streaming all around Gaius, but the only one sweating was La-Ti, who kept shooting gazes at his master. The little apprentice had brought up this topic a few times, ever since the heat intensified, but for once, Gaius could attribute it to his lack of mental discipline and fortitude without any qualms.

Souls couldn’t sweat, unless they assumed that they could. Gaius wasn’t going to bring this up willy-nilly, however.

Whittling away at the base of his third dragon sculpture merrily, Gaius took a glance at his apprentice, who was carving a dagger. That dagger in question wasn’t for sale; it was something that Gaius had gotten La-Ti to do. The last few months had reminded him that whether or not his apprentice was tagging ago, teaching the kid some self-defence wouldn’t hurt.

The reason why he was carving a dagger only now was because La-Ti had just mastered unarmed combat. It had taken him upwards of two months, which was a pretty darn good effort on his part.

“Don’t spend too much time on it,” Gaius said. “Chances are it’ll be battered and broken after a while. Besides, you’ll eventually move on to the real deal anyway.”

“Oh, okay.”

Shaking his head, Gaius returned back to his work. There was one more month before he had to head over to City No.78112 for a long trip, and this was the last major commission he was intending to take. He had no intention of leaving behind any loose threads, since the chances of La-Ti coming along were really low. His chances of coming along would probably be when the inhabitants of the original Orb were revived and walked the Five Lands once more, a project that Gaius knew would span decades and even centuries.

It was depressing to think about it, so the boy ended his rumination.

After finishing off the tail, Gaius got up and stretched his back. He was about to drag his workaholic apprentice into the hut for some lunch when a familiar sensation washed over him.

The Chanter of Innocents had arrived.

“In time for lunch, I hope?”

“Yes,” Gaius replied. “You’ve been away for the past few months. What have you been up to?”

“Making sure people don’t do anything funny while becoming a Knight,” Weiwu’s voice echoed in his head. “You will not believe how many people try to do funny things on their first time there.”

Gaius wasn’t sure how he should respond to that, so he made do by bobbing his head twice.

La-Ti walked over at that moment. “Grandpa, can I ask you something?”

The great god turned to Gaius, an eyebrow raised, and he responded by shrugging imperceptibly. Gaius too had no idea why his apprentice would call Weiwu ‘Grandpa’, but how many kids could say that they had familial ties with a great god? Not really, that was for certain.

The Chanter of Innocents rubbed the boy’s head, a doting expression in his eyes. “Go ahead.”

“Can I go with you and Gai-Us to Orb?”

The great god froze, and turned to Gaius once again. “What exactly happened in the time I wasn’t here?”

Gaius took a deep breath, his mind running through the various answers and scenarios he’d prepared over the past few months, and then promptly discarded all of them. He didn’t like the idea of lying to someone who’d essentially enabled him to save Nakama, Isabelle and the others on the Unity, after all. Furthermore, Weiwu was a great god. Finding out the truth wasn’t going to pose a challenge to him.

The boy smiled helplessly. “My sister happened.”

“Your sister…the little one you referred to as Nakama?” Weiwu asked, visibly confused.

“The very same,” Gaius replied.

“And how is your sister able to…’happen’ here in Cybral?” Weiwu pressed on, small creases lining his aged forehead.

“That was incidentally the question I wanted to ask you,” Gaius replied. “But I suppose you might be more satisfied with seeing her in person than by asking me about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing much, really.” Gaius rubbed his nose. “Other than the fact that for the past few months, I’ve been laying out meals for three people during lunch and supper.”

He gazed up at the cloudless sky, tapping his feet slowly. Weiwu followed his gaze, while La-Ti ran into the house. The sounds of furniture moving filled the air a moment later, but Gaius didn’t pay any attention to it. La-Ti treated Nakama like an elder sister of sorts, and the feeling was mutual.

It was understandable, all things considered. Gaius knew that his role as a teacher somewhat distanced him from La-Ti, but there wasn’t any such restriction for Nakama, who had apparently wanted a younger sibling in the past few months. The two had bonded together like family the way only children could, and his little sister had asked Gaius more than once about bringing La-Ti with him.

But he just didn’t know how.

Glancing at the only source of hope he had, Gaius broke into a smile. “She’s here.”