“You’re from Ark City, part of the now-defunct Resurgence Initiative…” A man tapped the table with a blue pen, his face scrunched up. A small nametag with the word ‘Soyinka’ sat on his desk, looking very much in place. For some reason, that name looked rather familiar, but Gaius couldn’t quite place it.

Gaius nodded, and then looked around the room. The moment words like ‘Harvester’ and ‘Resurgence initiative’ escaped his lips, the man had sent everyone else out of the room. This program was clearly quite the secretive one, given how badly the clerk had reacted to those words.

Still, given that it was already defunct…

“But you aren’t intending to return, am I right?” the man asked. “Instead, you want to search for your partner’s mother, who you suspect is in Ark City.”

“Correct.”

“You…are a weird person. You did see our benefits, right? Hard to think that a kid like you would regret all these, especially since you fall into Category 1-S.” Soyinka rolled his eyes. “Well, you are free to change your mind anything.”

Gaius grunted, and the man turned his eyes to Isabelle. “So, miss, you think your mother might be in Ark City?”

“I’m quite sure,” Isabelle replied.

“You do know that she might be dead or alive, right? If you’re prepared to find out, then go ahead,” he replied. “What’s her name? I’ll do a search.”

“Emily Lorenze,” Isabelle replied. “I’m her second daughter. Incidentally, my elder sister was supposedly roaming around here too, but…”

“Emily Lorenze, eh?” The man took out a Display and began to fiddle with it. “Give me a moment, while I check it…huh?”

His expression changed, and he turned to regard Isabelle closely. His eyes darted from the Display to her face over and over, and it was in a weird voice that he said, “Can the two of you stay here for a while? I’ve…found your mother. However, I need to report this upwards.”

“Did she do something?” Isabelle asked. “I can bail her out or something! Even if she blew up a building, I can compensate for it!”

Gaius patted her shoulder. “Isabelle, calm down. You’re scaring him.”

“I’m not scared!” The man rubbed his head. “Never mind. Just calm down, miss. Your mother’s very, very fine. In fact…well, never mind. Right, have a cup of chilled jasmine tea while we wait for someone else to arrive.”

Producing a small flask, he poured out two cups of tea for Gaius and Isabelle, and then slid it to them. The brown liquid was so clear that Gaius could see the bottom of the cup, and there was a nice, minty fragrance rising from it.

Stolen story; please report.

“This smells like mint tea, though.” Gaius eyed the drink.

“It’s a mix of mint and jasmine. Very cooling.” Soyinka grinned, before pouring out a cup for himself.

After watching him down half the small cup in one shot, Gaius and Isabelle began to sip from it too. It was indeed cooling, as described, and the awesome, chilling sensation that ran down his spine was a very novel one. If Gaius had to describe it, it would be a muscle-deep chill that relaxed everything it passed through.

Someone knocked on the door behind Soyinka. “I heard that someone’s claiming to be the Memory Sifter’s daughter.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Can I enter?”

“Of course!”

While the little exchange was going on, Gaius turned to look at Isabelle. “It seems that your mother has a title too. Interesting! Well, I suppose Knights usually get a title or nickname after doing something great, but this particular title sounds impressive.”

“Y-yeah.” Isabelle had an intriguing expression. “Do you think I’ll get one though?”

“Hmm. The Lost Star’s wife?” Gaius joked.

“Hey!”

Fortunately, before her evil, evil hands could reach out for his cheek, the door behind Soyinka opened. Gaius’ eyes widened as he looked at the very familiar newcomer, and he too could see a similar strand of recognition in his eyes.

“General Degurechaff, this couple claims to be the daughter and son-in-law of Emily Lorenze,” said the clerk. “And this…Gaius also says that he’s a Harvester from the Resurgence initiative, but he does not intend on claiming his post-war benefits. General?”

Degurechaff took two steps forward. “Are you…Gaius? Our Gaius? That little boy who…”

“Yes.” Gaius nodded slowly. “It’s been some time, major. Wait, it’s general now, right?”

It was Degurechaff’s turn to nod back. “Good, good. It’s good that you’re alive and well. A good number of us had been grieving over your death, back when…when…”

He took a deep breath.

“It’s okay,” said Gaius. “Besides, didn’t you guys check up on the news after Ark City returned? I was on the headlines for quite some time, and the War Council was apparently squabbling over me too. With how popular I am…”

“Huh?” The general blinked. “When you say ‘War Council’, are you referring to the one formed by the leaders of the Five Lands?”

“Is there another War Council?” Gaius asked back.

“Wait. So that Gaius, that Lost Star fellow they’ve been throwing around…” His eyes turned into saucers. “That’s you?!”

“The one and only.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” replied the general. “The Gaius, the one who attempted to assassinate the Last Star, took part in the war in the East, killed the Human God and his familiar spirits…that Gaius is you?”

“I’ve heard that my name’s quite common,” Gaius replied. “But I don’t think there’s any child with such a name that can do any of that.”

The general breathed out slowly. “Oh, and that cloak…you had it the whole time?”

“Yes.”

His face flickered for a moment. “Well, we’ll catch up later. There’s more important business we need to attend to, and that’s about the Memory Sifter. You, miss, are you really her daughter?”

“Yes,” Isabelle replied. “I know my mother’s here, that’s why we came.”

“I would ask you to prove it, but that’s likely to be impossible here.” General Degurechaff closed an eye. “Well then, I’ll have to trouble you to follow me. We’ll find her at her lab, and then assess it from there.”

Isabelle turned to Gaius, who nodded lightly.

“I’ll be troubling you, then.” Isabelle got up, followed by Gaius a moment later. “Thank you for your help.”

“It’s nothing much, really. Come on. The others will be thrilled to see their little lecturer back...although I think we can strike ‘little’ off now.”