Gaius stared at the gameboard, dumbfounded. His jaw flapped uselessly in the non-existent wind as the totality of his defeat struck him, and for a moment, the Abyss Sovereign felt like he was in a dream of sorts.

“I…lost?”

To be fair, he was only using the mental capacity and acuity of an adult, but being crushed this systematically by the two kids was nothing short of mortifying, especially since it was clear that he was a side dish for both Nakama and La-Ti, who regarded the other as the true enemy.

“There, there.” Isabelle held his hand. “It is completely natural. Most games end up being a showdown between Nakama and La-Ti; Xanadu and I cannot keep up now with their crazy way of playing Risk.”

“And that’s supposed to comfort me?” Gaius sighed.

The little soldiers that were marching around the Map Room aimlessly happened to pass by him at that moment, and at those words of his, they saluted once, before continuing on with their march. A simple knife floated above this particular contingent leisurely, in a pose that felt as if he was lying down in mid-air. Trailing behind Nakama’s sentient knife, Stone, was an equally-sentient crystal that had been named Lightning.

“Maybe,” Isabelle replied. “What’s wrong, Gaius? Why are you looking at these two artefacts?”

“I’m just wondering how they’re able to think,” Gaius replied. “Let me check them out for a moment.”

With a simple thought, the world around him changed into that of grey mist. Like the ether orbs, Lightning, Stone and every one of those little soldiers had the same energy-gathering structure in them, although there was a distinct quality that made them somewhat different from the usual ones he saw in Knights and other semi-divinities. The inverse, asymptote-like structure was whole and complete, but more crucially, Gaius could sense a small blob of will at the centre of the whirlpool-like structure.

“A soul, huh…” Gaius regarded the little blob of extra-dense grey mist thoughtfully.

“A soul? What about it?” Isabelle asked.

“It seems that the reason why these artefacts are sentient is because there’s something like a soul at the very centre of the energy-gathering structure I told you about,” Gaius replied. “You know, the structure that every Knight and above has. Remember?”

Isabelle thought for a moment. “Right. I’d nearly forgotten, what with the Great War and your festival of creation. Little things like these don’t really register in my mind anymore, since I’m perpetually worried about whether something bad is going to happen to you or something.”

Her small, warm hands reached out to hold Gaius’ own hands. “I keep getting nightmares. I’m afraid that you’ll vanish into parts unknown, divorced from me and the others forever.”

“Don’t be silly,” Gaius replied subconsciously. “I’ll never do that. Even if I do, I’ll make sure to bring you along, and you’ll be stuck with me until the end of time. You will probably regret coming along after a century or so.”

“Now you’re being silly,” Isabelle replied.

Leaning on each other, the two watched as Nakama and La-Ti held back nothing in their little fake war. Time seemed to stretch endlessly for the next few minutes, and Gaius found himself relaxing.

The fact that he was stressed was rather odd. After all, whether or not his festival of creation came to his desired end or not, most of his goals had been met. His choice had also brought about some unexpected benefits. For instance, at the conclusion of his plan, Knights and above would all lose their Fiefs or Domains, since these things were linked to the Crying Abyss. Likewise, for a similar reason, no new Knights and semi-divinities will exist too.

No matter how Gaius had already won. Therefore, there was no reason why he should feel stressed.

He knew that, and yet…

Gaius trembled as he rested his head on Isabelle’s shoulder, pulling her into an embrace. Was he the one trembling? Or was Isabelle the one who was shaking madly?

He didn’t know. Nor did he need to know. The him right now was Gaius, a normal person. Not the Abyss Sovereign, who saw for himself a world that only he was equipped to save.

Right now, he was just a regular young man, who bore only little wishes and small dreams.

Just like the people he hoped to save.

By now, the others had noticed the abnormality in his emotions and thoughts, but they were all kind enough to not point it out. Isabelle, on her part, simply accepted his embrace in silence and reciprocated in kind.

The regular clack-clack of pieces continued to fill the room. After a few more minutes, Gaius regained control over himself. The fact that he had allowed his fatigue and weakness to take hold of him…a far younger him would have thought of it as shameful, but the him now didn’t see it that way.

“Thanks, Isabelle.” Gaius broke the embrace, before reaching out to tweak her nose. “For indulging me and my weakness. I hope I didn’t shatter your image of me.”

“Don’t be silly. I already knew what you were like to begin with. More importantly, that’s what lovers do,” Isabelle replied. “You protected my small dreams and hopes back then. It’s only fitting that I do the same to your grand aspirations, right? Even if the only thing I can do is to give you a hug now and then.”

Gaius smiled. “Thank you.”

“Now, stop being so formal, will you?” Isabelle laughed. “Let’s prepare for the next round…want to work together?”

“Before I got utterly beaten up by them, I would have said no,” Gaius replied. “But now? Let’s just gang up or something. Maybe we might be able to win.”

“Our chances of winning are indeed higher if we work together,” Isabelle replied, “but if we make it too obvious, they’ll focus on us first, so we must act in moderation…”

“Got it,” Gaius replied. “Next round, then. We’ll have to be very sneaky about ganging up on them, right?”

“Shh!”