After washing up the dishes, Gaius watched the two kids continue their game of make-believe for a minute or two, and then headed out into the courtyard. He knew he had a lot of things he wanted to ask, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to verbalise them yet. For now, they would stay unasked, until he felt himself capable of doing it. It just wasn’t the right time.

Pulling out his usual chair, Gaius chose a block of wood and started whittling. Small scraps of wood dropped onto the table, as numerous as the damp spots on it, and more than once, Gaius had to pause his work to wipe his eyes.

He didn’t expect that he would miss Nakama this much, as well as Isabelle. Somehow, in his few months here, he had missed them so much that he had shut off most of these feelings, leaving a void he never noticed behind. Would it be the same when he finally replaced the Chanter of Innocents to live a life that looked towards eternity? When the people he knew passed away into sleep forever? What would he be, after a few centuries?

The knife in his hand stopped moving. Gaius looked down at the block of wood in his hand, which had taken the shape of a person. He had been intending to sculpture Nakama today, given that this was their first reunion in half a year —or a year and half for her — but his intentions shifted subtly. Picking up a chisel, he remodelled the base template of the sculpture and turned it into that of a man.

His carving knife began to move once more after that, carving intricate details onto the man’s face. Aged lines around the forehead and face. Eyes that seemed to look beyond the physical. A lean muscular physique that defied age. A patched coat. Trousers that had dark stains on the knees that couldn’t be washed off. And a hollow expression that hinted at the owner’s sorrow.

Gaius stared at the completed work, and the words Geo-Gai had spoken, some time ago, once again reverberated in his ears. No one ever truly forgets things. Memories are irreplaceable. If you cannot recall them now, it’s because you’re not in the right state for it.

The boy looked at the statue of his past self, and then set it down with a heavy heart. This was the him back then, when he first embarked on his own, long journey of building an orphanage. When he saw for himself the destruction he wrought with his own hands back then.

It was just a person.

A usual routine assassination.

But who would have known that an entire town’s worth of innocent folk would go with it? The chaos that followed?

Gaius clenched his fist and stopped thinking about those memories. In Cybral, the mind was far stronger than anything else. Thoughts, emotions and intent was a key factor to gaining superhuman abilities, although the boy guessed that only a few such people would know of such things.

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That, however, probably wouldn’t be applicable to him, but Gaius had a feeling that if he were to relive his memories right now, in his current state, it was possible that untoward things would happen to Cybral at large.

Crystals of ice fell onto the table a moment later, which was probably an indicator that his suspicions were right. Patting himself on the back mentally, Gaius examined the sculpture of himself, and then placed it on the table. Unlike the other sculptures he’d placed around his courtyard, this particular one didn’t seem to have any ambient effects on emotions.

It was a normal sculpture, like the ones he’d put on sale.

Placing down the sculpture, he returned back to the hut, where Nakama was busily acting the part of the older sibling by telling La-Ti all about Gaius. The person in question was originally content to hear her tell stories, but the first few words he’d heard was enough to make him blink twice.

“And then, and then, he cut one huge chunk of ground and set it adrift! He then got some people to live on it, creating a new country!”

Gaius blinked a few more times, and then poked his head into the hut. “Nakama, that’s the legend about Xie Baole, not me. Dude’s super old, maybe he’s dead. I’m really, really young, so don’t get your history mixed up.”

The little girl tilted her head. “But did you not do that?”

“You must have mixed my deeds up with the other nations,” Gaius replied. “And besides, everything I did cannot be attributed to me. Lots of people played their own part too.”

She rubbed her nose, jumping on to Gaius again. “Gaius is the best!”

The boy didn’t know how to respond to that, so he made do by patting her head. “There, there. You should be going back soon, though. One day here is three days outside. The others might be worried.”

Nakama pouted, but she wasn’t that resistant to the idea anymore. “I can still come back, right?”

“Always. Once my body is better, I’ll be back in no time.”

Someone tugged the corner of his shirt moments after he said that. It was La-Ti, who was staring at him. “Teacher, you’re really going to leave one day?”

“La-Ti…I don’t belong here,” Gaius replied. “I told you before, didn’t I? That’s why I’m teaching you all these things. Everything here that belongs to me will be yours in the future too.”

“I don’t need any of that,” said the little apprentice.

“I know.” Gaius closed his eyes. “But I don’t know how to bring you out, if you really want to go with me. Nakama must have told you about my origins, and if you go with me, your destination will be a different world. One that’s harder to live in. You’ll have a lot to learn. Frankly, Cybral is a utopia, a paradise, compared to what the world outside is like. It’s very possible that you’ll regret it.”

La-Ti opened his mouth, but Gaius raised his hand. “I’ll try to find a way, but you should really think about whether you want to follow me if there is indeed such a method. I’ll tell you about my world, but I really think that you shouldn’t follow me.”

“Alright, time for you to return, Nakama.” Gaius patted her head. “Remember to tell the others that I’m alright, and that I would wake up once I’m all healed up.”

She nodded her head.

“I really can come back, right?”

Gaius pondered for a moment. He didn’t know if she was randomly teleported and just so happened to be nearby, or if she appeared here in accordance to her desire.

Taking out the sculpture he carved earlier, he passed it to her. “This might help.”

As for why he did that, Gaius wasn’t too sure. It was just his instincts, but his instincts were almost never wrong.

“I’ll be back!”

Gaius smiled. “I know you will. Now, remember to tell them I said hi.”

She stamped her foot twice, vanishing a moment later.