The Unity’s voyage was peaceful, with nothing like random bandit attacks or monster encounters happening…or if things like these did occur, Gaius hadn’t noticed. Nexus, who had woken up long ago, had embarked on a silent examination of the Unity’s internal structures, making the occasional mental sigh as it came across some presumably intriguing part of its construction.

Lightning and Stone, meanwhile, were cuddling up to Nakama as she whiled most of the days away by sleeping. Gaius had kept a close watch on her — he knew that she had been afflicted by nightmares when she was sleeping, and the boy was beginning to wonder if some malignant being was trying to screw with her. But watching her for a few days, Gaius was gradually beginning to relax.

Indeed, it would seem that so long as someone was by her side, she wouldn’t be beset by bad dreams while sleeping. But that still didn’t change the fact that for the week-long voyage of the Unity, Nakama had spent most of it sleeping. This development had worried Gaius somewhat, but it was possible that this was her first good nap in a long time.

“Maybe we should get her looked at,” Isabelle said. Gaius turned to regard her worried eyes, and then grimaced. She wasn’t wrong, but the boy had the feeling that this was a job for perhaps a Paragon or a Demigod, rather than anything else.

“You’re probably right, but who should I look for?” Gaius shook his head. Getting the Oracle or the Pinnacle to look at her was somewhat impossible, given their exalted status. However, right now, they were aboard the Unity, so...

“Hmm. Maybe I could ask them now, since they’re having fun on the ship.”

Isabelle put down the book she was reading. “Let’s go, then.”

She tweaked Nakama’s nose twice. “Wake up, little princess.”

Nakama woke up after a little bout of nose-tweaking and cheek-poking, her little bleary eyes staring up at Gaius and Isabelle. She muttered some unintelligible words, rubbed her eyes, and then blinked twice at the sight of Isabelle looming over her…and Gaius trying his best to emulate Isabelle.

After some water, Nakama asked, “Are we there already?”

“No,” Gaius replied. “But you know those nightmares you had recently? We just thought of someone who could help.”

Nakama blinked her eyes rapidly, and then slid off her seat. Lightning and Stone, who were resting on her shoulders, took to the skies immediately.

“Calm down, the two of you,” Gaius said. In his mind, he could also feel Nexus speak — but since it wasn’t directed at him, he couldn’t quite hear the words. Either way, the two intelligent artefacts calmed down immediately, although the lights that Lightning was giving off had attracted the attention of some bored students.

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Ignoring the curious looks sent his way, Gaius led the two to find the Pinnacle, which wasn’t all that hard, since the man was still standing at the original place a few days ago.

Gaius still hadn’t figured out what he was up to, since there were far better positions to adopt during mediation. His bodyguards, however, had already changed a few times throughout the flight. It was evident that their boss was better at guarding than these men, at least.

Pinnacle Kolya murmured some words as they drew close, and the men-in-black around him withdrew once more.

“Pinnacle Kolya,” Gaius said, “you’ve been standing there for six days on end. What are you doing?”

“Trying to emulate and empathise with an NPC,” he replied. “Non-player character.”

His eyes were on Isabelle, but his clarification probably didn’t help. Isabelle didn’t know what a video game was in the first place, so the concept of an NPC wasn’t going to do anything for her.

“En Pea Sea?” She tilted her head. “What’s that?”

Gaius could see the Pinnacle drawing on his brainpower reserves, and then cut in before he could answer by saying, “Keep it to ten words or less.”

“Ten words?! Uh…people who stand at one spot to say one line,” Kolya replied.

“On the dot,” Gaius replied, applauding gently.

“What a weird person,” Nakama commented, her eyes bright and clear. “Why would they do that?”

“Lots of reasons,” the Pinnacle replied. “Ahem. I presume you need something from me?”

“And the Oracle, if possible,” Gaius said. “It’s about my little sister.”

He patted Nakama on her head, and then said, “She’s been having nightmares for some time. And they only seem to occur when she’s sleeping alone. This is somewhat uncanny, so I thought getting an expert like you or Oracle Galina would be better than me.”

“Nightmares?” Pinnacle Kolya asked, clearly interested. He glanced around at the area, where lots of students were sneaking looks at Gaius, and then rolled his eyes. “Alright. Let’s go to the officers’ bunk first. Sofia has been reading there for the past few days.”

Under the curious eyes of everyone else, the group of four departed the room. Mrs. Clara, who was chewing on a sandwich, raised an eyebrow as they passed her, but the teacher didn’t do anything else.

“I must say, though, you were right to come to me,” Pinnacle Kolya said. “I can sense the remnants of foreign qi around her. I thought it was just a coincidence the past few times, but your sister’s been around you for the past five days on end.”

“Remnants?” Gaius thought back to the seal that the people at Heritage Basestation had undone. “Right, her bloodline or something was sealed a few years back. It was eventually undone.”

“Not fully undone, I’m afraid,” Pinnacle Kolya replied. “This seal you speak of should have a self-regenerating component in its power source. It was broken, true, but it’s begun to regenerate.”

“And that’s relevant to her nightmares how?” Gaius asked.

“Her beast trait’s scope is being limited. I think I know what type of beast trait she has, if she’s getting nightmares as a result of her trait being limited,” Kolya replied. “Hmm. The Oracle loves mysteries like this, so it’ll be better we get her expert opinion.”

Turning another corner, he walked up to a nice-looking set of doors and knocked.

“Darling, is that you?”

“Yep,” Kolya replied. “Gaius needs your help.”

“Gaius? Give me a moment, let me pull on some stuff.”

The Pinnacle turned to Gaius. “She’s probably taking a bath or something. Let’s wait for her.”

The door opened ten minutes later.