The crowd continued to go wild as the fellow on stage — Gaius wasn’t sure what to call him right now — made more jokes and continued to unwrap the two boxes he was holding. The sheer amount of cheers and whistles he was getting, just by unwrapping a tiny bit of the box, was making Gaius feel a bit weird.

“Hmm…”

“What are you thinking about?” Isabelle asked.

“I keep getting the feeling that this event seems a bit off. Maybe it’s because an odd event like, uh, unwrapping is taking place on stage?” Gaius rubbed his nose. “I’m not quite sure how to place it.”

“Well, it’s all about exposure, really,” said Isabelle. “When I was a kid, I thought that dances looked odd on stage; they should be done in a pit. The only reason why I thought that was because my father brought us to…pits where lots of beastfolk women was dancing.”

She sighed. “Of course, when I grew older, I understood that these women were slaves and made to dance on pain of death. But the kid me back then just saw them dancing and felt that dances should only be done in pits.”

Gaius opened his mouth, and then closed it, thinking through his next words slowly. “That’s…a very unfortunate implication.”

Isabelle stifled a giggle. “I’m now remembering the times when I saw people dance on stage as a student. The Southern Assembly had lots of little fun events. Every week, there was always a fun program lined up on Wednesday. Concerts, dances, plays…things like that. But no matter what, I just found dancing on stage to be odd.”

“It’s the little things that make people different from each other, I guess.” Gaius leaned back. “Do you think the event going on there is strange?”

“Nope.”

“See?”

“Alright, he’s beginning to open the box,” said Kolya. “Finally.”

“What are you looking forward to?” Galina asked. “It’s not like opening it is going to reveal a blinding gold light, right? That’ll be an epic waste of one’s qi, and that’s saying a great deal.”

“Gold light?” Nakama asked. “Why would opening things give off gold light?”

“Well, some of the otherworlders who came from the later eras of Earth say that opening boxes gives off light,” said Kolya. “The two of us personally never got to experience the, uh, era of video games.”

“Just what year did the two of you cross over to Orb?” Gaius asked. “And to begin with, how does this otherworlder thing even work? I know that the Cardinal Champions were summoned from different times, but why is that the case?”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“You really, really need to ask the Sentinel of Space for the answer,” Kolya replied. “To answer your first question. I believe I entered Orb shortly after Hitler died.”

“After World War Two, eh?” Gaius muttered.

“How about you, Gaius?” Kolya asked, curious.

“I cannot remember all that well, but I do remember the year 2010, at least.” Gaius shook his head wryly. Of course, no one knew that he’d arrived on Orb, not as a summoning, but through transmigration of a soul. He wasn’t planning on revealing this secret at all; he didn’t know how Nakama would take it if she ever found out that the Gaius she spent her childhood with had been replaced by someone else.

The two’s eyes turned into saucers. “Do you have memories of that time? It’s a bit unbelievable to the two of us, whenever we read the memoirs of Champion Octantis and Lunaris. They seem to depict a world that’s…frankly speaking, only possible through liberal applications of qi and artificing.”

“Like the Display, right? You’ll have to see it to believe it. I remember the first smartphone, an item this small” —Gaius tried to draw a small rectangle— “that was capable of calling others and even playing games on it.”

“You really aren’t pulling my leg, are you?” Kolya asked.

“Look,” said Gaius, “you guys developed huge flying ships that work off something that’s not coal or oil. If anything, this is the more impressive feat.”

He turned to Isabelle. “Isn’t it really amazing that the North created lots of Locomotives within what, three years? So many giant floating fortresses capable of unleashing death…in contrast, this Display seems quite boring, right?”

“Hmm.” Isabelle played with her hair for a moment. “The Locomotives are indeed quite the impressive thing, but isn’t the new Ark City even better? I mean, it’s a floating city!”

Her eyes turned to Gaius. “A floating city! Like, it’s floating in mid-air and all! That’s far cooler!”

“No, my Mechams are the coolest!” Nakama abruptly cut into the conversation, pulling out a small figure. “Go!”

The figure came to life. Drawing a small metal sword, it buzzed around the room merrily, before returning to Nakama’s sight. Taking out a small Straight Shot, it aimed at Kolya, who was watching in interest, and fired a blip of qi at him.

“Whoa!”

The pellet of qi bounced off a barrier around Kolya, leaving little ripples behind. Whether that was his Engine or his own conjuration Gaius had no idea, but it was funny to see the fellow react in shock anyway. At the same time, La-Ti drew out his own little figure, which began to coordinate with Nakama’s Mecham to pelt the Pinnacle’s barrier with adorably tiny shots of qi. Gaius had the feeling that if Nexus was here, there would have been three such figures attacking the Pinnacle, but the little guy had been busying himself with something recently.

“Wait,” the Pinnacle muttered. “Nakama, did you control this…Mecham of yours?”

She nodded and took out a small wriststrap, an action La-Ti copied. “You can control it with this artefact!”

“Really?” Pinnacle Kolya scooted over to the two kids. “How does this work? Do you have the manufacturing method? Can I buy it from you?”

Gaius stared at the unbelievable dialogue going on between his sister, her apprentice and the ruler of the Mortal Light Dynasty, and then turned to Galina. “Is he…always like this?”

“Yes. Whenever he finds something fun to play with, or when he finds something instrumental to winning the upcoming war. I can’t really tell which is which sometimes, though.”

“Sounds like someone I know,” said Isabelle. “Although in this case, the conditions are probably a bit different.”

“You aren’t talking about me, are you?” Gaius asked.

“Oh, who knows?” Isabelle took out a box of grapes. “Here, have some.”

“…what’s this supposed to mean?”

She smiled. “Who knows? But — oh, he’s finally taking the Display out!”