Sundown Residence was quiet, the silence only broken by a soft swishing of pages turning, as well as that of frustrated grunts that occurred once in a while.

A boy was lounging on a sofa, an incredibly thick book on his lap. Multiple bookmarks had been stabbed into its first half, each of them a reminder that Gaius had not mastered the content on that particular page thus far. Floating beside him was a plate of green, seedless grapes, which the boy popped into his mouth every so often.

On the table nearby, a wooden sculpture was sitting silently. Its eyes were fixated on a silver knife moving up and down strenuously. That knife in question was laid out horizontally, and a brick was laid out on its back. Once in a while, the silver knife would quiver and attempt to take a break from what looked like repetitions of push-ups, only to resume when Nexus looked upwards at it. Beside it was an unmoving dagger — the silver knife’s big brother, whose edge glinted with a promise of death.

A teenage girl was supervising her little charge on the other side of the table, which was filled with a stack of homework and assessment books. Nakama, who was made to stay at home to prevent Constellation Scorpio from harming her, had a gift of sorts from Kishi Gakuen — preparations for an exam.

Naturally, her excuse letter was that she had fallen sick for the time being, instead of the horrifying truth that the entire school could be killed with a simple gesture from Scorpio. Nonetheless, the little girl didn’t like the fact that she had to stay at home, but with the capabilities of her guardians, she didn’t really have a choice.

More than a week had passed like this. In that period of time, none of them had stepped out of the house much, only to go out for essential supplies and news. But no matter who went out, there was always someone left behind to watch over Nakama.

Gaius yawned as he finished another chapter of the Definitive Guide to Formations, Thirty-third Edition. His eyes bleary, he reached out for the plate floating beside him, only to realise that the last grape had been swallowed by him hours ago. The qi supporting the plate dispersed, and the boy caught the falling plate before it could smash onto the sofa cushions below.

“Alright,” said Gaius, “it’s my turn to go out. Anything you two…three want?”

“Get some ice-cream,” said Isabelle. “From the shop Tsurugi brought you to.”

“From Dai-Yukimono? That’s rather expensive, though.”

“You’re one of the richest individuals in the Five Lands, Gaius,” replied Isabelle, her eyes still focused on Nakama’s homework. “Get a few tubs. Nakama goes through them faster than you going through your grapes.”

“Alright. Nakama, anything for you?”

“Ice-cream!”

“How did I guess.” Gaius rolled his eyes and turned to Nexus. “The same for you too?”

“You know it.”

Gaius shook his head and pulled his cloak on, which was hanging near the door. It was the cloak he’d obtained from Heritage Basestation long ago, and to be frank, the fact that it had somehow maintained its form after the events at the Eo-Seu warfront was nothing short of impressive. But it was beginning to fall apart, and sooner of later, the boy would have to source out more cloaks with as many pockets and holders as the one he wore.

The late afternoon sun was uncomfortably warm, a problem he immediately rectified by adjusting the temperature around him. Other pedestrians, however, didn’t have the luxury of the Stellar Core’s abilities, and as he strode around freely in his thick coat, the boy could sense glances directed his way.

Gaius first went to the Adventurers’ Guild. There was only two days before Constellation Scorpio and the Plenum carried out their transaction, and the boy wanted to see if there were any news about or related to this meeting. Given that the Constellation had done something to a school where many big names in Mi-Zu sent their children too, Gaius had a feeling that such a trade could not remain under wraps for long at all.

There weren’t many people in the Adventurers’ Guild at this time of the day. There were very few requests that would be posted at this time, and most adventurers were out doing whatever quest they’d chosen in the morning. Since most non-monster related quests were often short-term employment contracts that last eight or so hours, the Guild was only crowded in the morning and after evening.

Slipping through the door, Gaius headed straight towards the board where all kinds of news were posted. Most of them were rather dull, dealing mostly with the dying-down famine that had struck the region some months ago, as well as general road works and advertisements.

“A diplomatic party just departed towards the Lifespring’s territory,” Gaius muttered. Other news related to the four elemental gods were posted, but there was noticeably little information related to the war in the Western Holdings, where the God of Earth, Rahwei, had descended. Sticking this anomaly into the back of his head, the boy continued to scan the pillar.

There were other interesting bits, like the discovery of a beastfolk race in the South, as well as the dissemination of anti-divine weapons by the North. The North’s Mortal Light Dynasty had an entire section dedicated to it in the newspaper, up to and including the forced peace it imposed on the Goddess of Wind, Thasvia.

But despite all the interesting pieces of news, there was nothing about the impending talks between Scorpio and the Plenum of the Eastern Territories. After spending a few minutes at the news section, Gaius wandered off to the quest board, where all sorts of jobs, from the downright wacky to the utterly mundane ones, were posted on.

There was a great deal of bodyguard jobs, which wasn’t all that surprising, given that the Phantom Blade was still out and roving around. The corpses of over four hundred adventurers probably just increased the stakes.

Gaius narrowed his eyes as a tri-coloured entry entered his eyes. The description was brief: it was looking for security personnel to guard Tekkadan Central Pagoda this coming Friday, in anticipation of a high-stakes meeting. The boy had long heard of the Tekkadan zaibatsu, but he had little contact with them thus far.

But it seemed that this corporation was far more intimate with the Plenum than he thought. Gaius had paid some attention to the inner workings of Seireiden, but the sheer scale of Tekkadan wasn’t doing anything to convince him that they weren’t linked to the Plenum. At all.

He had a hunch that the meeting was going to be…more lively than usual.