Weiwu, the Chanter of Innocents, walked out a moment later. A gentle breeze stirred as the vortex behind him closed, and as he looked at Gaius directly, a coercive pressure seemed to press down on his shoulders. Gaius had never felt anything like it in his previous interactions with the great god, but by the looks of it, Weiwu wasn’t exerting it consciously.

Some discomfort had probably shown on his face though, as the pressure retracted a moment later. The others around him relaxed too, but from the looks of it, none of them was going to speak, including Nakama and La-Ti. Somehow, Weiwu felt different up in Orb, and Gaius too had that impression.

With an expression that Gaius couldn’t quite read, the great god’s words echoed in Gaius’ head. “You called for my help. But her existence isn’t something I can tamper with.”

“You can’t?” Gaius asked.

Weiwu grunted, and the room shuddered. Ignoring the effects of the great god’s simple grunt had on his surroundings, Gaius pressed on.

“You know full well why I’m doing this. What price do I need to pay for you to act?”

Weiwu’s words echoed in his mind again. “It’s not about you or me. Those that my progenitors sent, functionally speaking, should not exist in the first place. This is why they vanished to begin with. The only reason why she lasted this long to begin with was because she spoke in the Conference of the Four, and was engraved into the memories of the Five Lands.”

A light bulb lit up in Gaius’ head. “If we replicate that…”

“You’ll be able to turn her false existence real. Here’s the thing, however. Even with her appearance in the Conference of the Four, Xanadu could only hang on for at most four to five years. You must think up of something far more drastic if you are to help her. And…you must be aware that doing so will anger someone.”

“More drastic? And anger someone? Who?” Gaius ran through the words that the great god had transmitted to his head directly. “Can I—”

The Chanter of Innocents had vanished before he could finish his words, and Gaius shut his mouth reluctantly. Turning to the others, he said, “I have an idea.”

“You might want to tell us what the Chanter of Innocents said first, though,” Nexus piped up from somewhere inside Xanadu’s bed.

“Right.”

It didn’t take long for Gaius to repeat the great god’s words to the others, who nodded along. Weiwu’s parting words weren’t all that hard to figure out — from what Gaius could tell, if more people were to think of Xanadu and keep her in their minds, she would be able to get better.

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Getting people to do that was a lot harder, though. And it was hard to tell whether their efforts were successful to boot. Fortunately, there was someone that would likely be happy to help them.

“Let’s go find Pinnacle Kolya,” Gaius said. “Besides, I’m awake now. He probably wants to know about that—”

“There’s no need to,” Isabelle interrupted. “Galina and Pinnacle Kolya are paying a visit this afternoon. Having the ability to see the future is really handy, isn’t it?”

“True.” Gaius rubbed his head and walked towards the entrance of Xanadu’s bedroom. “Well, since everyone’s up, I guess breakfast is in order. The rest of you stay with—”

Three people slid into his way, blocking his way out.

Isabelle grabbed his shoulders and turned him around. “You’re too weak right now. And you’re still too short to cook properly.”

“I’ve been doing it properly for a year,” Gaius replied. “I don’t see why I can’t do it here.”

“Can you even lift a pan properly?” Isabelle challenged. “I don’t think so. So stay here and let the rest of us cook up something nice. Nexus, Xanadu, make sure he stays here.”

Ushering the rest out of the bedroom and presumably into the kitchen, Isabelle closed the door as she left. Gaius glanced at the closed door, worried. La-Ti had tried his hand at cooking, true, but now that he was in a new body, would he be able to adapt to it?

The sounds of shattering ceramic answered his question a moment later.

“You shouldn’t go out, though,” said Nexus. “You’ll just make things more troublesome. Just stay here. Besides, we aren’t done with the reason why you came here to begin with, right?”

“I thought we were done, though.” Gaius rubbed his chin.

“Why did the two of you come here in the first place?” Xanadu asked. “Surely you didn’t just come to show off your new status, right?”

“Definitely not,” Gaius replied. “I was here because…”

“Because this old fool doesn’t want to act on his feelings,” Nexus completed his words. “He wanted to explain why he wasn’t keen on entering a relationship with Isabelle, and used the excuse of eternal servitude as an answer.”

Gaius took a few steps back, feeling for the doorknob. “Look, I just—”

“Instead of talking to me,” said Xanadu, “why don’t you go and talk to Isabelle? Talk it through. If you just distance yourself from her, you’re going to hurt her. Tell her everything, and come to a consensus. Any other way’s just going to hurt both of you.”

His hand lingered on the doorknob. “You sound like you know how it’s like.”

“Novels have miscommunication as their number one source of all relationship drama,” Xanadu said. “Interesting in fiction, not so much in reality. I prefer to nip such issues in the bud where necessary, especially since I now live here.”

“I-I’ll think about it.” Gaius tapped his feet lightly. “You do have a point.”

“What happened to your boldness?” Nexus asked. “You used to be a lot more straightforward in doing things. When did you become so roundabout and sensitive?”

“And that’s bad?”

“Anything’s bad if you don’t take the opinions and thoughts of other people in account. Be sensitive all you want, but you don’t live in a vacuum,” Nexus lectured. “From what I heard, you didn’t think too hard when you invited Xanadu to live here, did you?”

“Yeah, well, that was an entirely different matter.” Gaius rolled his eyes. “Alright, I’ll find some time to talk to her frankly.”

“That’s more like it.” Nexus hopped off Xanadu’s bed. “Thanks, Xanadu. This fellow here is very delicate. Can’t be helped—ahh! Release me!”

Smiling sinisterly, Gaius bobbed his head at Xanadu’s direction, and then left her room, a struggling sculpture in his left hand.