The uproar surrounding Himeko’s blunder hadn’t died away when Gaius was called away. It seemed that the young woman was very famous even before the Lifespring’s attack. From what he knew, she had visited every single zaibatsu in Mi-Zu, challenged their Knights by blocking their front door, and walked away after leaving a huge dent in their door or an innocent wall.

Her legend didn’t stop at challenging the Knights of Mi-Zu as well; after that, she had gone over to Feng-Lang to challenge the State Organised Enterprises there, beating up the Knights under their employment. What made her so famous wasn’t just the act of challenging the other Knights, but also the fact that she had won every challenge, and more importantly…her way of challenging the others was very unique.

“A penny for your thoughts, Gaius?” Paragon Ying Xin, who was steering him towards a pavilion like a mother chick would do to its child, asked. It felt nice to have someone doting on him, despite his mental age, so Gaius hadn’t complained much.

“Just thinking about Knight Himeko.”

“Oh, she’s real famous,” said the Paragon. “She kicked down my SOE’s door, took out a banner and then started eating lunch in front of it. When the Knights on duty responded, she would take out a steel bō as tall as her, and then start beating up her chosen target with it.”

“I expected a more refined weapon from a Knight, though,” said Gaius.

“Do you have a misconception about weapons? Any weapon works if you’re trained with it. I could say the same about you using knives and daggers — Knights don’t usually use them,” said Paragon Ying Xin. “But more amusingly, after she was done beating the others up, she would offer whatever food and drink she had in her lunch basket to them. Hence her title, the Lunch Lunatic.”

“Who even gives these titles anyway?”

“There’s a Conferment Committee for that,” said Paragon Ying Xin. “It’s a rather scattered one, with its members all around the Five Lands. They tend to give flattering names, but she’s an odd case.”

“Go on, I’m listening.”

“You curious child…” She giggled. “The Conferment Committee makes it a policy to give flattering names to anyone of note, so that no one comes looking for them for revenge. But in her case…”

Gaius thought for a moment, and then it hit him. “But why isn’t that the case for Himeko?”

“Exactly. Some say that she has relatives in that committee, so it’s an inside joke of sorts. Other rumours like she beat up the child of something high up in that group too, but who knows the truth?” She shrugged. Pushing Gaius into the pavilion, the Paragon lifted Gaius by the arms and placed him firmly onto a chair.

“Okay, down to business. What did you encounter during your mission?”

“A few roving patrols and two guard posts made entirely of water,” Gaius replied.

“Guard posts?” The Paragon frowned. “Describe how they look like.”

“Floating towers made of solid water,” the boy replied. “There’s around forty to fifty guards them, all of them Squires or below.”

“Floating towers?” Paragon Ying Xin shook her head. “The others reported a bunch of forts on the sea, but I suppose it’s a new model or something. Anything else you think is important?”

“They’re capable of using ranged attacks,” Gaius replied. “These guard posts seem to be attempts by the Lifespring to research the use of ranged attacks, although I put an end to that.”

“A doctrinal shift, it seems. Is Conrah feeling the pressure from us?” The Paragon frowned. “It seems that we might need to push the attack forward, if the Lifespring is experimenting with the use of ranged weapons and developing techniques for them. This is our sole advantage over our enemies so far, after all. What do you think?”

“You should ask the experts about this, but I think pushing Spring Fury forward might be a good idea in that case,” Gaius replied. “If Conrah changes his force makeup to match the defenders’, the ground troops will be in for a tough time.”

“Yes.” Worry flitted across the Paragon’s eyes. “It seems that the others weren’t paying attention to the types of attacks the enemies were using, however. Or they didn’t give them a chance to attack in the first place. Either way, I’ll need to call them back and confirm the new changes.”

She sighed. “Come on, let’s hear what the others have to say.”

The two of them got up and got out of the pavilion. Once again, Paragon Ying Xin had placed her hands on his shoulders, steering him back towards the others. Gaius tried to struggle, but she seemed particularly insistent about how she was walking back to the others.

Resigned to his fate, Gaius allowed himself to be pushed back to the landing zone, where the other Paragons were done with their briefing. A few eyes fell on his little frame, but for the most part, the other Knights were too engaged and busy with their own conversations to pay attention to him.

After a few solid pats on his shoulders, the Paragon bounced over to her peers, and started chatting with them. Gaius looked at her happy-go-lucky stance, shook his head, and then moved over to where the other Knights were.

“I’m telling you, there’s this one kid that was with us earlier,” said Jang-Woo. “We were chatting to him too! How can you say that his entire existence is just a lie the Plenum made up?”

“Pssh,” said another man, whose back was turned to Gaius. “If there’s such an odd kid, I’ll duel him. Like the one you claimed that happened a few days ago. That Railgun guy doesn’t exist. I’m telling you, it’s a huge lie meant to make us charge into the front willingly. They had to justify abandoning Eo-Seu somehow, right? That’s how they did it. They made up a fake tale of a kid buying us time to explain why they gave away Eo-Seu.”

Gaius blinked. His lips twitched slightly as the man’s words entered his ears, and for a moment, he felt like he’d just walked into a den of loonies.

“Finally, you guys are convinced.” said the man. “You guys should just shut up and listen to me. The Plenum’s trying to fool us all. They’re going to send us into the front with one-use artefacts that create those explosions you see every day! Be grateful that I’m still trying to save you fools.”

“No,” said Himeko. “It’s just that…the kid is behind you. And he doesn’t look happy.”