After fobbing the old man off with some enigmatic words, the two of them returned to the main task at hand, which was introducing the extra functions that had been tacked onto the Exo-Skeleton.

Gesture-controlled flying knives.

Lots of slots for Palisades, which could be activated by simply pressing a button.

A built-in Radio artefact.

The one that nabbed Aziz’s attention the most was naturally the gesture-controlled flying knives, which was yet another new and experimental technology. They didn’t seem all that practical, but Aziz had a bunch that they would be good if push came to shove.

“That’s about it,” said Shiki. “Anything else you want to ask?”

“Nope, thanks—”

“Old man!” A voice came from outside the room, and a woman with long black hair strode in. There was something incredible about her presence, and instinctively, even before Aziz could reach into his memory and recall the name of this very familiar person, the colonel had already understood that this was a Paragon.

The old man chuckled. “Looks like ruling the East has done you good, Governess of the East.”

“Right, do you know where the Conferment Committee is? ‘Governess of the East’ makes me sound really old, so I have this odd desire to beat some odd people up.”

“Later, okay? I’m a bit busy right now.”

“You jumped ship to the Republic, and you still tell me that you’re busy?”

“The circumstances warranted it at that time,” Shiki replied. “No choice, really. And besides, Minster Pauline came down to scout me in person.”

“Really? Wow. How did she know about you?” Ying Xin asked.

Aziz cleared his throat awkwardly. It was fine if they had a conversation, but the old man still needed to deal with not just him, but the small crowd of Knights outside.

“Curses.” The old man shook his head. “I’m a bit busy now. There’s a whole troop of Knights waiting for me, so…”

“How unfortunate.” The Paragon shrugged, before turning to Aziz. “Huh. I know you. You came to the East sometime ago, right? To help us in the war against the Lifespring?”

“That’s me, yes.”

“Hoho. Where’s your boss? Wait. Ah. She’s already outside and waiting for you. Come on, follow me.”

After that conversation with herself, Paragon Ying Xin strode out of the room, leaving Aziz behind. By the time he emerged outside, his boss and the Paragon were already chatting animatedly with each other, drawing the eyes of everyone else while they were at it.

The two of them were busy catching up with each other. Aziz didn’t know how they could do that this naturally, but it was probably an aptitude that leaders had naturally. On his part, he was more than content enough to just listen in silently, and before long, the ruler of the East began to speak at length about military doctrines with Marie.

“Still, the quality of our fliers is really lacking, though.” Paragon Ying Xin let out a small sigh. “Nothing like your troops.”

“Well, we have Aziz to thank for that, really.”

The person in question, who was dazing off and thinking about dinner, jumped as Marie mentioned his name. “Did someone say my name?”

“Yeah, I did,” Marie replied. “We were talking about the disparity in standards.”

“If we control for equipment, I daresay the First Aerial’s probably Orb’s premier airborne force,” Paragon Ying Xin replied. “Do you have any particular methods of instruction? It would be nice to see how we can apply your teachings to my own soldiers.”

“Particular teachings?” Aziz tilted his head. “Well, in the formative years of the First Aerial, we did conduct in-person trainings that had stringent requirements. As such, I would say that leading by example and pursuing perfection in basics are the basic tenets of creating competency.”

“Isn’t that pretty much what every military does?” Ying Xin chuckled. “Well, maybe the trainers aren’t giving it their all. Or they bit off more than they can chew.”

“You should consider small unit tactics first,” Aziz replied. “Once that’s perfected, you can slowly increase the scale from there. I think the problem’s coming from how you’re trying to train an entire army directly, really.”

The Paragon sighed, and then changed the topic. “If I remember correctly, you guys knew Gaius too, right? The Abyss Sovereign?”

“I taught him some basic history,” Marie replied, “and then handed him off to Aziz, who was looking for motivated recruits.”

“You trained him?” Ying Xin asked. “Wow. What a monster.”

Aziz rolled his eyes. “For two days. He beat me in a fight on the second day, and then I sent him off into a top-secret initiative. I wouldn’t even call that training, really.”

“Ark City must have been shocked to hear about this, though,” Marie replied. “One of their Harvesters became the Abyss Sovereign! I bet they’re facing all kinds of pressure.”

“The North’s under some stress too, as well as the East,” said Paragon Ying Xin. “He helped us back then, and then lived in the North for some time. Now everyone’s trying to dig up his history. If his memories and personality had been sealed away, the presence of his friends might weaken the seal. If they haven’t, these people could act as hostages and as bargaining chips.”

“The latter’s quite dastardly, though.”

“It is,” said Paragon Ying Xin, “but the Western Holdings and the Southern Assembly are very pushy in this regard. Given that they have been disproportionately affected by the existence of Celestia…”

She snickered. “But well, there’s really nothing much we’ve found. The people he cares about have vanished into thin air too — hmm?”

“Something wrong?”

“Something right, rather.” The Paragon narrowed her eyes. “Come on, let’s check it out. Upper decks.”