The boy walked back to the inn, instead of teleporting back to the marker he’d placed there. These markers had to be replaced after they were used, but replacing them wasn’t really troublesome in the first place. No, the reason why Gaius was walking back into the inn was to prevent any more comments about not seeing him.

He strolled into the first floor, nodded at the receptionist, and then rolled up to his room as fast as possible without being overly rude. After making sure that his door was closed, Gaius took out the two Engines he’d brought earlier and laid them out on his bed.

“A query, Master Gaius.”

“Go on.”

“Why did you get the Engine with the Background Music ability? I don’t think it does anything to help you at all,” said Nexus.

“It’s a man’s romance,” replied Gaius. “Even a Constellation agrees with me.”

“My master sure is an odd one,” said the artificial intelligence. “Go on. What’s so special about having background music for men then? You’re an assassin. Why would you want to blare music when you’re supposed to be killing others who don’t know about your presence?”

“Erk.”

“Slipped your mind, didn’t it? Or were you intending to engage others in fair, one-on-one duels?” The wooden sculpture climbed out from Gaius’ shirt and hopped onto the bed. “You’re a teacher of assassins! And an assassin yourself!”

“I’m sure there’s probably another way to use this ability,” Gaius said sheepishly. “And well, if there isn’t, I can at least play some music in my head now.”

“Ugh.” Nexus shook its tiny wooden head. “I give up. Do what you like. At least the second Engine you brought actually is useful for you. For now, don’t wear them. We’ll be doing the integration back in Heritage, where I can finetune your gains.”

“What I’m hearing from you is that there’s a possibility that the integration didn’t go that well, then,” said Gaius. “Should I be worried?”

“Not a possibility, Master Gaius. A certainty,” replied Nexus. “Melting two swords together and pouring the result into a mould doesn’t mean that you’ve created a new, better sword. You’ll still need to refine it.”

“I’ll be in your capable hands, then,” said Gaius, who proceeded to lay on more flattery. After a few minutes of chatter, Nexus finally directed Gaius to sit on his bed to channel the General Formula he obtained from Heritage Basestation. The boy hadn’t done this for five days or so, since the artificial intelligence had told him to refrain from cultivating after he obtained the Astral Wind.

The night slipped by rapidly, and before the boy knew it, the sun’s rays were creeping up the walls of the Merry Cats.

Gaius stretched as he got up. The feeling of being refreshed, which had been absent in the cultivation sessions after Gaius stepped foot int Orb, had returned. Perhaps it was the fact that he was returning to Heritage and back to Nakama, but this session wasn’t plagued sudden bouts of emotional shifts.

“Did you know that this would happen?” The boy couldn’t help but ask.

“Know what?” The sculpture murmured back, sounding somewhat punch-drunk. “Oh, that. Yes. Yes, of course.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Gaius glanced at the sculpture, before stuffing it into his clothes. The little guy, who was barely bigger than his palm, scuffled around to make itself comfortable, and the boy waited for Nexus to stop moving before he left the room.

With the room’s key in hand, he walked slowly towards the receptionist’s counter.

“Milord! You’re leaving?” May asked, her eyes somewhat downcast.

Gaius nodded, and slid the key over. After exchanging a couple of niceties, he left the Merry Cats. Elinaris was a nice place, but Gaius was clear that if he wasn’t looking it at from a position of privilege, he wouldn’t like the place as much as he did right now. How Flynn’s uprising would affect this city he had no idea, but things were going to change, probably by the time he came back to Elinaris.

The boy didn’t indulge in his feelings of nostalgia. Instead of crossing through Lower Elinaris, Gaius headed for the town gate reserved for the denizens of Upper Elinaris, where the guards were far less interested in the people leaving compared to those entering.

Without much of an ado, Gaius left Elinaris, and headed towards the town of Desin to use the passageway to the Intersection there. On the way there, he finally got around to mixing the use of Blink and Flight together. It was a bumpy ride, and Gaius had just mustered the basics by the time he arrived at the ruined town of Desin.

Or the formerly ruined town, at any rate.

“When did this happen?” Gaius asked. The town had been transformed into a fortified stronghold of sorts, and hundreds of men were drilling together in formation in the parade square close to the town’s gate.

“I wasn’t paying attention,” Nexus admitted. “Even though I have the Map of Stars, it’s impossible for me to survey the entire world at once. It’s like staring at ants. Unless thousands of ants are doing something, like dying en masse, I normally don't notice.”

“True. Even on Earth, we hadn’t gotten that far yet,” Gaius replied. “It’s understandable.”

Gaius descended from above to land outside the gate of the newly erected fortress, eliciting cries of surprise from the squad of guards posted there. A bit further away was a pile of dead bodies, around forty-strong, thrown into a pit. The bodies were naked — presumably whatever armour or weapons that were salvageable had been stripped from them.

The squad stared at Gaius nervously as a runner zipped off into the fortified town. Under their watchful and fearful eyes, Gaius sat down on the ground directly, staring at the squad with interest. Most of them, despite their nervousness, were evidently veteran troops of sorts.

After a few minutes, a familiar face ran out.

“Tetsu.” Gaius nodded in greeting. “I see that this week has been great for you.”

“All due to your grace, milord.” He led the small boy through the crowd of curious guards, and began to explain the events of the past week or so. The small group, after receiving the bag of gemstones from Gaius, had decided to sell some for gold at Elinaris. On the way, however, they had come across a merchant caravan under attack, and naturally intervened, only to realise that the attackers were also people from Desin.

Such an occurrence wasn’t impossible. And indeed, after the attack came to an abrupt end, the merchant was “persuaded” to buy some of their gems in exchange for edibles and material. It was that or be robbed, but the would-be bandits weren’t all that keen on killing and taking either. After that, the initial attackers brought their dependents over, and began to re-establish the town of Desin. Everything had gone well for the town, until delegates from House Varita paid a visit.

Gaius’s original plan had slightly swerved off course at this point, but it was still alright. However, said plan went up in flames as the newcomers, unaware of Tetsu’s and Gaius’ original arrangements, murdered delegates sent by House Varita out of anger after a heated exchange at the town’s gate. One of their guards had managed to flee, resulting in even greater efforts towards fortifying the town with small scale formations and gathering manpower by absorbing other refugee groups. Of course, not all of them were willing to subordinate themselves, and some of them were even beset by greed…

At any rate, it was a surprising rate of growth, but Gaius couldn’t really feel surprised whenever he reminded itself that this was Orb and not Earth, where mystical means of doing things were possible. After a small impromptu tour of the re-established Desin, Gaius entered the Intersection once more, where a similarly fortified stronghold was on the other side.

“Well, if it’s anything to you, Tetsu, House Varita will not be paying any attention to you within the next few days. Make the most of this time period to grow.” Gaius smiled mysteriously, and took to the skies.

He hadn’t seen Nakama for a week, after all.