“Haven’t stepped in here for three years, but it still looks and feels the same way as ever.” Gaius looked around at the interior of Upper Elysium’s Dai-Yukimono, and smiled. The professional yet quaint atmosphere the place boasted was exactly the way he remembered it; the waiters and waitresses were still dressed in suits and coattails, with a reserved yet welcoming smile perpetually on their faces.

“Dai-Yukimono has a training camp at their headquarters, apparently.” Isabelle rubbed her nose. “A training camp that teaches prospective employees the art of being professional servers.”

“Which would account for the longevity and strict adherence of their traditions over the years, eh?”

“Yeap.”

“Table for?” A handsome man in probably his late twenties asked.

Gaius patted Nakama’s shoulder, who stepped forward. “Five.”

“Very good, miss. Please, follow me.”

As the three followed behind the immaculately-dressed waiter, Gaius couldn’t help but note that his little sister wasn’t all that energetic when talking to a stranger. She had put on a more adult persona at that moment, and once again, Gaius was forcibly reminded that she too had experienced various things in the time that he was unconscious.

“So,” Isabelle said, “what’s the occasion? We’ve been eating tubs of ice-cream at home for the past three months. Are you up to something? Is this some great master plan of yours to abandon us while you run over to the Great Divide for the upcoming war?”

Gaius rolled his eyes. “Is that really what you think of me?”

“Then how do you want me to think of you?” Isabelle replied, a teasing smile on her face.

“That’s just unfair.” Strangling the urge to blush in its crib, Gaius steeled his face. “Just when did you learn how to make fun of me?”

She winked, and said no more.

“Right. The reason why we’re here.” Gaius glanced down at the menu provided, and then turned to look at the others. “To be frank, I’m not sure if Xanadu’s going to recover. It’s been three months, but her condition isn’t improving much. At this rate…”

He didn’t complete that particular sentence. “At any rate, if staying in bed isn’t going to help her much, I think it’ll be infinitely preferable for her to go out and do what she likes the most. When Nexus brought that up, Xanadu was apparently ecstatic, so…”

Isabelle and Nakama looked at each other, their moods clearly dampened by Gaius’ words. He didn’t want to say these things, knowing full well that everyone was averting their eyes from the situation the Phantom Blade was in, but that was simply doing Xanadu a disservice.

“If she really can’t…make it,” Gaius forced out, “at least she would have happy memories.”

“Did you really think that I didn’t consider that?” Isabelle asked.

“I know you did,” said Gaius, “and I know that the possibility of her recovering fully is no longer off the cards now. But this outing was something she also wanted. Now that she has the ability to walk, Xanadu wanted to go out of the house. She’s been in there for three years, after all.”

“If that’s the case…” She breathed out slowly, and her usual gentle smile returned. “Then let’s stuff her full of ice-cream today. The premium scoops. Huge cups. The works.”

Gaius looked at the two of them, suspicious. “Just so you know, I’m only giving her the grand treatment. Don’t expect — wait, wait, not the face! Stop! This is child abuse!”

“You’re not a child in anyone’s book, let’s face it.” Isabelle stopped for a second, before her hands resumed her light poking. “Hold him down, Nakama!”

“Got it, sis!”

Agonised cries rang out for the next few minutes as Gaius was forced to let the two of them mess with his cheeks and ears, not daring to resist whatsoever. Who knew that even the Abyss Sovereign would be helpless before two mortals? I wonder what Weiwu would say if he saw this…

His cheeks were stinging lightly from the little pokes when Xanadu entered the shop, supported by a curious La-Ti. Isabelle got up immediately, before taking over support duty from Nakama’s distracted apprentice.

“Feels great to be in this nostalgic place,” Xanadu said. Her skin was just a shade darker than snow, but other than the languid lethargy that suffused her, the Phantom Blade looked barely a day older than eighteen.

“Do you think Pinnacle Kolya would be here later?” Isabelle asked, her eyes twinkling.

“Galina is with him,” Xanadu replied, “so that’s not off the cards.”

Stretching slowly, with the pace of a person afflicted with the ills of old age, she leaned back on a chair and sighed. “Dai-Yukimono reminds me of my birthplace. It’s cold here too. A calming cold that makes one at ease.”

“Your birthplace?” Isabelle asked. “What’s it like?”

Xanadu turned to look at Gaius, who understood immediately what she meant. “A world of crystal, ice and snow. A beautiful, lifeless place. Where you were infinitely close and infinitely distant from your homeland.”

“Infinitely close and infinitely distant…” Xanadu’s eyes glazed over. “That’s a beautiful way of putting it. Of course, you of all people would understand.”

Isabelle looked at the two of them, her hands trembling slightly and her visage paler than usual. “What do you mean?”

“No rush. After all, he will tell you everything one day,” Xanadu replied, a measured cadence in her words. “Should be soon, if I’m not wrong.”

She chuckled. “Right, Gaius?”

“Have you been teaching Isabelle how to tease me?” Gaius asked. “It’s too late for Nakama and Isabelle, but I must trouble you to not teach La-Ti how to tease people, or else I really won’t have a standing in this household.”

La-Ti, who was talking to Nakama, turned to Gaius and blinked innocently.

“No, seriously. Don’t learn from her.”

“I’ll think about it!” La-Ti pasted a brilliant smile on his face, before returning to his conversation with Nakama.

The Abyss Sovereign could foresee a future in which the members of his family played games with him every day; to counter that, he had to find a time to look cool and show off…preferably during a fight or something.

Maybe I should go send a letter of challenge to the principal of the phrontistery. Nodding to himself, Gaius set in stone the fate of the rather-impressive old man, and then raised his hand to call some staff over.

“Order whatever you like,” Isabelle said to Xanadu. “Gaius is treating us all to the most premium of ice-creams.”

“Really? Well then, I won’t hold back.”

“Don’t worry, neither will we.” Isabelle laid a hand on Xanadu’s shoulder and nodded seriously.

“Does that hold true for us too?” A voice came from the entrance, and everyone turned to look over. Pinnacle Kolya, with his trademark monocle on his eye, strolled in with the Oracle at that moment, a shit-eating grin on his face.

A knife streaked over to that taunting grin, only to freeze up a hair away from his face. Gaius, who was now playing with a second knife in his left hand, stuck a tongue out at the Pinnacle and clicked his tongue. “Dream on.”

“Is that how you receive the ruler of the North?”

“Scram!”