Nexus woke up at noon, when the three of them were having lunch. Gaius had taken the sculpture with him as they left the residence, which had effectively suppressed Nexus’ first words when it regained consciousness. It wasn’t the first time it had fainted (which, when Gaius thought about it, seemed unbelievable in its own right), but it seemed like a rare event of sorts that just got a lot more common when it started hanging out with Gaius.

Nexus was now dressed in something that looked like a kimono, which Nakama had sewed for the little thing after someone who was wearing it walked past the house. Gaius didn’t know whether it was happy about that, but since they were out in the public now, Nexus couldn’t really raise any opinion.

“Hey.”

Gaius ignored the voice in his head, eating in sync with the others and taking part in their conversation. It was the first time the little fella had done that since he woke up, but the boy wasn’t going to hear anything that might snub Nakama’s hard work.

“You can definitely hear me, Master Gaius,” said the voice. “If you don’t respond, I’ll do something you won’t like.”

“What?” Gaius growled back mentally. “I’m busy eating!”

“Tell Nakama to make me more kimonos. I like them very much,” Nexus said in his mind. “It’s comfortable and stylish.”

“…Okay.”

Lunch concluded without much incident after that, and they were soon at the registration counter at Kishi Gakuen. The whole place reminded the boy of a kindergarten, and children were popping their heads out curiously as Isabelle talked to the clerk there.

Gaius could hear some conversation about how they should welcome two new friends, and stifled a laugh. There was only going to be one of them, and that person was Nakama. What would the others think if they found out a half-Knight had enrolled in the school too? If someone posed this question to him in the future, Gaius didn’t want to reply, “It was my youthful indiscretions…”

Speaking of indiscretions… Gaius slipped a name card over to Isabelle, the one he’d obtained from the Knight who’d introduced the place to him last night. Isabelle glanced at it curiously, but passed it over to the clerk anyway.

“Paragon!” Nexus’ voice sounded in his mind, cutting off the explanation the boy wanted to give Isabelle. “On your guard!”

Gaius froze up, and then forced himself to continue acting naturally as a young man walked in. There was nothing about the newcomer that hinted at his status as a Paragon, but Gaius trusted the artificial intelligence. The Paragon looked at the counter, and without making a single sound, walked over to the visitors’ log book. His kimono-like attire danced as he picked up a pen and wrote into the book, before leaving as silently as he came.

The clerk nodded a farewell as he left, and then finished up the last of the registration process. Gaius looked around furtively, and other than the bunch of children and teenagers peeping through a door, no one else was paying attention to him and Nakama. He took a few steps forward, and glanced at the log book.

“Sasori…” Gaius looked at the logbook and felt a chill run down his spine. If he’d seen this name, without Nexus telling him that a Paragon had arrived, the boy would not have connected the word to the Paragon Sasori that had forced Tsurugi and his family out of Seireiden.

Gaius had a bad feeling about enrolling Nakama into Kishi Gakuen now, but Isabelle had already registered the little girl into the class. Fortunately, as the three didn’t know if they would return after a while, Nakama was only enrolled for a single term and nothing else.

Still, the boy couldn’t help but feel some worry. People did things for a reason — especially a Paragon, who definitely had a lot of important things on his plate.

Why would someone like him come down to this little school, sign his name on the logbook, and then leave without even playing with some children? Gaius glanced at the visitors’ log again, and frowned.

The three of them took a small tour around the school, but the boy was too distracted to pay attention to its interior. All he could remember was a sea of little faces that Isabelle bent over to squeeze repeatedly, as well as an impromptu introduction by Nakama.

They left an hour later. The trip back to Sundown Residence was fraught with silence, and when the manor’s door finally closed behind them, Isabelle finally spoke.

“You seem distracted, Gaius.”

Nakama nodded, her little head bobbing up and down quickly. “Did I make you angry?”

Gaius forced a smile and patted Nakama’s head. “No, you didn’t. Don’t worry about it.”

He took off his shoes and placed them by the side of the small hallway, besides that of Nakama’s and Isabelle’s. “A Paragon appeared just now, when we were registering my sister into Kishi Gakuen. He came, signed the visitors’ logbook, and left.”

“That’s…”

“Odd, isn’t it?” Gaius completed Isabelle’s sentence. “Call me crazy, but since the parents of Kishi’s students are usually Knights or beyond, I got the feeling that the Paragon was trying to make a statement by leaving his name in the logbook.”

“That’s a farfetched theory,” replied Isabelle. “Why would a Paragon do that in the first place?”

Nakama rubbed her nose. Gaius wasn’t too sure if the little girl understood his words, but she probably wouldn’t repeat them out loud anyway. Poking Nakama’s cheek, he said, “Well, that was what I thought, until I saw that the Paragon had written the name ‘Sasori’.”

Isabelle breathed in sharply. “The Paragon who had appeared recently, whose influence ballooned in a short time…”

“I’m cynical, maybe, but maybe this Sasori is trying to blackmail important people by hinting at his ability to crush their children without blinking an eye,” Gaius said quietly. “It’s one major weak point of these people. A Paragon’s single blow might be able to level the entire school and everyone inside — there’s not going to be any time to call for help if that happens.”

“Can a Paragon be even this despicable?” Isabelle asked.

“‘Can’?” Gaius repeated. “What do you mean?”

“What do you mean when you say that?” Isabelle asked. “Unless…you don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?”

“I didn’t tell him,” said Nexus. The little artificial intelligence climbed out from Gaius’ clothes. “He hadn’t reached that level yet, after all. I suppose you can tell him now…”