“Everyone here?” Kenouji asked. Gaius and Isabelle were standing behind him, with a sleepy Nakama perched on the latter’s back.

“Boss, Todou’s having the runs,” said a teenage girl, her spectacles reflecting the light of the midday sun.

“Son of a…never mind.” The young family head tapped his feet. “What happened to him, Miku? Didn’t I pass down the message to not to eat strange things?”

“He drank some dodgy drink, boss,” the girl replied. “When I told him not to, he said that you didn’t have instructions regarding drinks, so…”

Kenouji raised his hand, and then let it fall a second later. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Miku shrugged. “I told him so.”

“Urgh. Fine. Anyone else with the runs?” Kenouji asked. “Or whatever ailments you lot caught during your first hour in the North?”

“I saw a nice girl, boss, and I’m in love.”

“I saw a stud, boss, and I really want to pursue him.”

Gaius stifled a giggle as the Kusanagi family head trembled with sheer rage. A moment later, he pointed at the pier and shouted, “Anyone else? Anyone? If there is, just stand there until we come back!”

No one moved.

“No one?” Kenouji exhaled. “Alright, we’re going. Everyone, follow me. We’ll be getting some funds to start our new home here. Don’t do anything stupid on the way, got it?”

“Yes, boss!”

Kenouji pushed off the ground, followed by the others a moment later. Gaius and Isabelle exchanged nods, and then took to the skies, trailing behind the stragglers in case they decided to do something dumb. Kenouji had briefed Gaius and Isabelle on what to expect from the youngsters, and he’d placed particular stress on not letting some idiots stray off course. Some of them, particularly from the branch families, were bent on opposing him…to the point that they would take up opposing stances for the heck of it.

Of course, Gaius wasn’t going to buy into his story wholesale, but as the person he was supporting, the boy saw no reason to not abide by his wishes, so long as they were within reason. After all, he was told to herd them back, not kill them if they didn’t toe the line.

But it seemed that just having two Knights station themselves at the rear was good enough. Perhaps there were other factors in play, like the fact that everyone was headed to some mysterious place to bring money back — only fools would reject such gifts.

The six-hour flight went by smoothly. Most of it had been spent on flying in a gradual curve, as Kenouji continued to narrow down the direction of the vault. There wasn’t much to see — trees to the left, to the right, to the front…if not for the fact that Thasvia’s Divine Kingdom was shining in the sky, Gaius would have gotten lost after a while.

“This seems to be it,” said Kenouji, slowing down into a halt. The others, who had blank stares on their face, began to stir.

“How…normal.”

“I expected something grander, too.”

Sentences like these filled the air, and Gaius could see why. There weren’t any towering monuments or even signs of human habitation, just an ocean of trees all around them. For a secret stash, this didn’t seem too…imposing. Gaius looked at Isabelle, who was holding on to a sleeping Nakama, and shrugged.

“Gaius,” Kenouji shouted from the front. “Can you level the spot directly below us?”

The boy nodded silently and took the Moonshot out with his right hand. His left hand turned into a blur, drawing five sigils that aligned themselves with the Moonshot’s barrel. Against a motionless, close range target, Gaius didn’t even see the need to unfold the Moonshot, and after making sure that his aim was true, the boy pulled the trigger.

A small globe of light, around a hundred metres in diameter bloomed beneath them, sending a strong updraft of wind that buffeted Gaius and company for a few seconds. The light vanished shortly afterwards, leaving behind an expanse of scorched, treeless land…and a metal tombstone two metres high. The disturbance had awakened Nakama, and she looked around blearily as the group began to descend.

Once everyone landed on the ground, Kenouji strode forward and knelt down. There were inscriptions written on the tombstone, written in what looked like Japanese characters.

“Miku,” Kenouji called out, “can you translate?”

The bespectacled girl that had pointed out the absentees earlier took a few steps forward. “Here lies the…I’m not sure what this word is, but the next one seems to mean Champion.”

She cleared her throat. “I’ll omit the words I don’t know. Here lies the Champion of the Sun, Kusanagi Yuki…”

Miku’s voice began to falter, as she looked at Kenouji and the others, realisation dawning in her eyes. “K-kusanagi…I…”

“Like I suspected.” Kenouji breathed out heavily. “I had my suspicions when the late Patriarch told us to use a new surname, but…”

“Gaius,” Isabelle whispered, “does that mean…?”

“Yes,” the boy whispered back. “The Tsurugi family has the bloodline of Champion Solaris, Kusanagi Yuki. I should have made this connection back then, but...”

Gaius trembled. Was this just a simple coincidence? Or was there something greater? His student, the Monarch of Shadows, had planned the next few years for him, enabling him to inherit the Library of Ancients, but this was an entirely different scale altogether.

Kenouji restrained his trembling hands, before taking out two plaques. There were two dents on the tombstone, and the ground began to rumble as he placed the plaques there. Moments later, the tombstone split apart. The space between the two halves began to ripple, darkening rapidly to form an opaque passageway.

“Spatial manipulation,” Gaius murmured. In his vision, they were standing in a pillar of darkness — this space had been locked down, save for the single thread that led into the middle of the black, viscous rectangle.

Kenouji swallowed, his gulp uncomfortably loud in the hollow silence. “Let’s go. And see what’s been left for us.”

Darkness washed over everyone as they stepped into the black void, trepidation on their face. Gaius could feel his heart tremble, and even Nexus, who had been feigning sleep the whole time, was quivering. He patted his shirt twice, and then led Isabelle and Nakama inside.