After joining Isabelle and Nakama in finishing a small banquet meant for at least twenty people, the three left, escorted by the familiar-looking men in black. Lord Weiss, who had left earlier to accompany the countess out, returned to join the fun,but he was looking somewhat traumatised for some reason.

He didn’t say anything about it, nor did Gaius ask why. The oppressive atmosphere that demanded silence from everyone had made itself known at full force when the boy returned to the streets of Twilight Elysium.

The three, and Xanadu, who had joined in the food wars as a competitor, left the place quietly. The border that divided Upper Elysium from Twilight Elysium had never seemed that inviting before, and Gaius found himself subconsciously speeding up as he approached the boundary.

“Phew.” Gaius breathed out when they finally got out of Twilight Elysium. “This feels so much better.”

He stretched and hopped on the spot, drawing a few scandalised glances from the others queuing to enter Twilight Elysium, but Gaius wasn’t going to give a damn.

“Let’s go, then.” Gaius tilted his head.

“You go ahead first. I need to get something. And for Nakama too.” Isabelle looked at the only centralised shopping district in Upper Elysium. “Toiletries and things for girls.”

Gaius considered her words for a moment. “Buy whatever you need. Maybe some extra too. Do you have enough gold?”

“Silver’s enough,” Isabelle replied. “We’ll make a move first, then.”

The two left in the direction of the shopping district.

“Nakama’s at the age now, I guess. Fortunately, Isabelle was there as a sister figure, or else she might not even tell me.” Gaius heaved a sigh of relief. Gender blindness — or the general tendency of one gender to be blind to the biological and sociological issues the others had — were a thing he took note of on Earth, when he was acting as an orphanage of sorts.

His sudden arrival into this new world had thrown most of his common sense out of whack, however.

“You really don’t act your age, do you?” Xanadu shook her head. “The guys I’ve met don’t even know about it, and yet here you are.”

“Maybe you should teach them some things,” Gaius replied. “Make Orb a slightly better place.”

“I’ll think about it.” She raised her hand and vanished with a spatial ripple. Gaius could do that too, but he didn’t particularly want to go back either. For some reason, he had a feeling that he’d forgotten something.

“I wanted to do something in Twilight Elysium, but what was it?” He wondered out loud. His back-and-forth pacing were beginning to draw some curious eyes, but the people manning the entrance paid no attention to their concerns. Most likely, they had seen him escorted by the men-in-black, so…

“I don’t know,” someone said in his head, “maybe go look through a freaking vault?”

“Ah.” Gaius slapped his forehead. “I forgot. Wait, if you remembered, then why did you not tell me that earlier?”

“My instincts told me that speaking to you like that, in that room, was not a really good idea,” said Nexus. “And my instincts are rarely wrong.”

“Not a good idea?” Gaius repeated. “We’re talking about the Mortal Light Dynasty, its very core. And you’re telling me it’s not a good idea?”

“The feeling of a god’s presence was there, though faint. I’m not sure which great god it was, or if it was the gods that supported Xanadu’s endeavours. But I just knew that showing myself there, under the eye and scrutiny of such powers, could be a problem.”

Gaius mulled over Nexus’ words. “Does that mean that she’s really supported by the original gods of Orb? In the first place, do they really exist?”

“That’s really possible,” Nexus replied. “The creation lore of Orb spoke of it as a cold, dead world of gemstones, but it was entirely possible that Tiadall and Pabar had destroyed whatever civilisation it used to have during their fight. This is not something we can verify easily, but if Xanadu was truly telling the truth…”

“It would be a sight to behold, at the very least. The Demon Sovereign Asteria…” Gaius winced. “From the sounds of it, the fellow sounds like someone whose mind was twisted and crushed by the Demon God.”

“Though, with all the Constellations dead, we just need to make sure that the Human God doesn’t summon another batch of ‘heroes’,” said Nexus. Gaius could almost picture the sculpture making some inverted commas with its wooden hands, and the boy smiled.

“Still, wouldn’t it be better if she had said all this earlier?” Gaius touched his chin.

“Maybe there was something along the lines of ‘if you speak it, it comes true’. Who knows?” Nexus hummed. “But the powers supporting her probably censored anything she might have said. That’s the most likely reason for it. As to why these powers did that, we’ll probably never know.”

“Yeah…” Gaius began to walk away from the gate. His eyes drifted over to the shopping district, where Isabelle and Nakama had went to, and wondered if he should get any treats for them. It would be a quick trip, with the Blink ability, and it would be a nice surprise.

“Anything you want in particular?” Gaius asked. “Ice-cream, those garlic breads you’ve taken a liking to recently…”

“Let’s get everything you can carry, then,” said Nexus. “Maybe some chocolate too. These things can double my thought processes.”

“We’ll add that on the list, then. How about Lightning and Stone? Have they shown any preference for food?”

“None, although Stone wanted a whetstone to sharpen its blade. Apparently, it’s gotten dull from cutting vegetables recently. Lightning wants something it can attack without any repercussion,” Nexus replied. “I suppose you’ll have to make some artefacts for Lightning.”

“No big deal. Some modified Palisades will do, I guess.” Gaius rubbed his neck. “I wanted to make some self-warming cushions too. One for everyone, to alleviate moments of pain and loneliness. I’ll add good quality wood to my shopping list.”

He thought for a few more moments, and couldn’t come up with anything else. “Let’s get shopping, then. Nexus, make sure I don’t take longer than ten minutes.”

“Yes, Master Gaius.”

Slipping into an unobtrusive spot, Gaius called upon his Blink ability and vanished from the gates of Twilight Elysium.