It didn’t take long for Gaius to return to his old routines, the ones he had settled into before leaving to help against the Lifespring’s invasion. In the morning, he would have breakfast, and then leave with Nakama to Kishi Gakuen, where his little sister had school at. He would then stay there for a few hours while mediating, stopping his practice only when Nakama’s classes were over and they were about to return home.

However, in order to mollify the little girl, Gaius was now standing outside the school premises. The little duo had reached a settlement — Nakama would keep mum about his exploits at the frontlines if her brother didn’t keep hovering around the windows. Somehow, the little girl had learnt to make use of someone’s weakness for her own advantage.

Gaius’ cheek twitched violently for the umpteenth time as that thought appeared in his mind, and the bench he was mediating on shuddered. The ground beneath cracked slightly, sending small rocks into the air.

He breathed out slowly. It can’t be helped, I guess. She’s at the rebellious age now, and having someone watching over you the entire time isn’t really something cool either. But still—!

A quiet set of footsteps interrupted his introspection. “Never did see you for a month.”

Gaius turned towards the speaker, and his heart skipped a beat. It was Paragon Sasori, but the latter obviously didn’t know that he knew that. He placed a polite smile on his face, and in a level tone, greeted the Paragon.

“Good day to you too, little one.” The Paragon’s face was tinged with amusement. Gaius could guess that Sasori found the sight of a little boy, less than half his age, trying to behave like an adult somewhat refreshing. “I keep thinking that you should be in the school studying, not sitting outside waiting for your sister to finish class.”

“I’m old enough to not need school,” replied Gaius. It was the truth — but it was also something that the Paragon had taken as a proclamation of a child trying to act like an adult. In fact, Gaius himself would had treated such a statement the same way, and the boy mocked himself silently.

The Paragon shook his head, mirth oozing out from every pore of his body. Gaius could see the man suppressing his desire to laugh, and his own desire to dig a hole and jump inside it intensified.

“Look, boy, education is important. Even if you’re the legal guardian of your sister, you shouldn’t throw away your own education to fund her schooling.” He nodded to himself. “It’s alright to scrimp a bit on food if it means that your future is guaranteed.”

The Paragon reached into his pockets and took out a small pouch. “Here, catch.”

The pouch arced through the air and landed on the boy’s hand with a merry jingle. Gaius squinted when he opened it up — the midday sun’s light had blinded him for a moment. “Thank you for your kind intentions, but money is not the problem.”

He tossed the pouch back at Paragon Sasori, and then took out a few hundred gold notes. It was a good thing that the currency of the Eastern Territories was the same as that of the other nations, but as to how that exactly worked it was anyone’s guess.

“But if money is not the problem, why aren’t you schooling?” Paragon Sasori asked, intrigued.

“I’m keeping watch over my sister to prevent anyone with funny ideas from hurting her, that’s all,” replied the boy. Thoughts flashed through his mind, and Gaius smiled as he said, “This school is one that is popular with the bigshots of Mi-Zu, so it’s possible that someone might hold them hostage by attacking this place. I’m here to prevent that from happening.”

The Paragon narrowed his eyes slightly, a gesture that perhaps him himself didn’t catch. “With just you? You’re a thirteen, fourteen-year-old boy at most. What can you do?”

Gaius wanted to correct his age, but desisted after a moment’s worth of contemplation. He drummed his fingers on the bench below him and said, “Enough to buy some time, at the very least. I will not lose my sister again.”

Paragon Sasori gave Gaius a long, hard look, before turning away. “Such vehemence. It lends strength to your declaration. I won’t interfere in this, but I still think that you should go to school.”

“I’ll think about it,” Gaius replied, a small smile on his face.

“See that you do, boy.” The Paragon looked at the four-coloured sky and shrugged. “I’ve business to do, so see you around.”

“Farewell.”

The young man walked away. His steps were ethereal, graceful, and Gaius frowned as he stared at the Paragon’s retreating back. His first interaction with the person who had driven Tsurugi — the person who had guided him to Seireiden back then, and gave Gaius and company their current lodgings — and his family out of Mi-Zu’s capital city wasn’t unpleasant at all. Far from it.

Of course, one meeting — one in which both sides were hiding a great deal of information from each other — weren’t really going to do much. It would be the height of foolishness if the boy was to base his assessment of Sasori off this single meeting, given that the latter was hiding his true identity and purpose here. The boy couldn’t figure out why Sasori had approached him, but before he could start analysing that, the school bell rang.

Gaius got up and walked to the school gate, where people in neat, unassuming uniforms of all kinds had congregated. Most of them were servants, but there were some like him, who were relatives of the students sent here. But one thing that everyone had in common was that weapons were hanging off their belts. No one made an effort to hide them, which was a new development as far as Gaius was concerned. This was a marked change from the last time he came here — he didn’t expect everyone to start showing off their weapons openly, and Gaius wondered if something had happened in the past month that he wasn’t here.

Students began to stream out. It didn’t take long before Gaius spotted Nakama, who was walking out with a small circle of friends, and the boy felt some fuzzy warmth in his heart. It was high time for Nakama to make some friends of her age, rather than being surrounded by a boy whose mental age was a few times his physical age and an older sister figure who grew up in a Southern House.

Instead of approaching the small group of students, Gaius leaned against the wall and waited for them to disperse naturally. It would not do if his presence were to cut short their conversation, which from the looks of Nakama’s face, was plenty enjoyable.

Eventually, their chaperones arrived, and the small group broke up. Gaius approached Nakama a few seconds later, a grin on his face.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go.”