The location of the banquet was apparently at where the largest sanctum of the Holy Temple used to be. The records and history of the Holy Temple were scarce, even before its abrupt destruction at the hands of the Mortal Light Dynasty, with inquisitors going after any and all authors who dared to pen anything about the Holy Temple without its permission. The only nation that still had records about the Central Circle’s history was the Mortal Light Dynasty, but for obvious reasons, most historians treated sources from it as somewhat unreliable.

Aziz looked around anyway, hoping that he would strike gold and find some ignored book half-buried in the ground. He wasn’t alone either; Marie was scouring the scenery, her eyes ablaze with flames that only appeared whenever she was looking at interesting facts.

“Give it up,” said Minister Pauline. “The North’s carted away most of the surviving documents. Pinnacle Kolya’s been lording those books over our heads; he wants an information exchange if we are to read them.”

“Then go for it,” Marie replied. “Why hoard knowledge at this juncture?”

“We are, which is why we’re reprinting those books right now,” she replied. “This scientific and historical exchange is something we decided under the table, since the East is unreliable right now, and the West is busy with something of their own.”

“I’m not sure how the latter has anything to do with the exclusion,” Marie began, “but I suppose it’s their loss.”

“We still need to be careful, though. The fanatics of the Holy Temple still roam, albeit in drastically reduced numbers,” Pauline said, walking up towards one of the many pillars that held up the ceiling. “Is this part of their new artefact? Doesn’t seem all that impressive, though.”

“Now, now. I can’t have you saying that, Minister Pauline.” A body appeared from nowhere, showing up two metres in front of her with a giant grin. “It’s a magical artefact.”

“Pinnacle Kolya. I didn’t know you had this sort of ability,” Pauline replied. “It seems that I should go hound my intelligence department or something. They receive so much pay and yet do so little work.”

“It’s not their fault.” Pinnacle Kolya flashed a brilliant grin at Aziz and Marie. “This teleporting ability has nothing to do with me whatsoever; it’s the influence of the Winding Columns. Allow me to introduce the next great invention of our R&D cycle three years ago — the Winding Columns.”

He vanished on the spot, reappearing to touch the pillar Minister Pauline was examining earlier. “These columns enable registered users to teleport anywhere within half a kilometre, in all three axes.”

“Any registered user?” Pauline asked.

“Well, it can only register ten people right now, so its use is somewhat limited, But ten masters at combat being able to move around like that is nothing short of scary, no?” Kolya patted the pillar. “Right now, though, the waiters carrying the food are the registrants. See?”

The sight of people holding on to trays appearing and disappearing had drawn their interest earlier, but since Aziz and Marie were interested in looking for books that had escaped the North’s notice, they didn’t really pay much attention to it. Engines with this Ability was extremely rare, true, but they were of little use to an organised army.

“And it’s very good for avoiding assassinations too, I’d warrant. Little wonder you dared to come out here, despite knowing that there’s a bunch of lunatics who would love nothing more than to murder you,” Minister Pauline replied.

“Can’t discount the effectiveness of religious propaganda in turning people crazy,” Kolya replied. “And that’s not even accounting for the things the Human God did to his so-called chosen.”

Aziz looked around, worried.

“You really shouldn’t say things like that out loud,” Pauline said. “Some great god might take offence to you and decide to murder you on a dark and stormy night. Or even right here, right now.”

“And risk losing the support of the most militarily-advanced nation? I don’t think so.” Kolya folded his arms, radiating an extraordinary confidence.

Someone else popped up beside him. “Besides, my Kolya’s a fair hand at a fight. Even itinerant Demigods show him some respect, let alone flowers in a green house.”

“Nice to see you too, Oracle Galina,” said the Minister of State. “I thought you weren’t here.”

“Decided to hop over to the conference to see if my darling’s cheating on me, or if he’s pestering some poor girl,” she replied. “The last time he tried doing that, someone beat him to a pulp. I’d rather not have to nurse his wounds all over again.”

“Someone beat him into a pulp?” Marie interjected. “Who could do that?”

“A child, apparently.” The Oracle covered her mouth and chuckled. “Surprising, right? I’m not sure if my lovable fool here was taken by surprise, or if he really couldn’t resist, but…”

The Pinnacle cleared his throat. “Sofia, let’s leave the gossip for later, shall we? The great gods are about to arrive. Let’s go welcome them.”

“What a spoilsport…”

Minister Pauline turned to Marie. “You two should find a nice place to sit down at. I’ll go welcome the great gods too. Make sure to leave a space for me.”

She stalked off before either one of them could say anything, and with a helpless shrug, Aziz and Marie found a seat near the exit. Picking up a glass of fruit juice, Aziz downed it with a single gulp and placed it back down on the table. A waiter appeared beside him a moment later, replacing the emptied glass with a full one.

“Wow. That’s efficient.”

“Lots of these pillars,” Marie said. “Hard not to be. More importantly, that person earlier…that’s the fabled Oracle. Apparently, she can tell the future.”

“That’s probably her reputation.” Aziz rolled his eyes. “Besides, she looks like a maiden in love right now. The rumours painted her a lot differently.”

“Maybe she’s not in work mode now.” The marshal tilted her chin.

Aziz picked up his newly refilled glass and eyed it. “Not everyone’s like you, commander. She’s a civilian; there’s no contradictory aspects of her daily life forcing her to make such a delineation.”

“Who knows?” Marie replied. “And since when did you learn the word ‘delineation’?”

“Lots of books out there. I’ve been wanting to try on a more sophisticated look too, so I wanted to start with my word choice…”