Idling away on a wooden seat, Gaius tilted from side to side, humming a little song. The catchy tune had appeared in his head a few days before he left Cybral, but he couldn’t quite distinguish the words. He was quite sure that it was probably in English, from what his glucose-deprived, fatigue-ridden brain could tell him, but that was it.

A small bottle of chocolate milk lay on its side, completely emptied. Three metres in front of the bench was a human-sized patch of land damp with sweat and saliva; just twenty minutes ago, Gaius had been doing sit-ups and push-ups there, stopping only when his muscles were pulled to the limit. His muscles had returned some time ago, but that was the outcome of having eaten lots and lots of meat.

They were still very much in the state of being a paper tiger, although their mere presence was enough to make Gaius satisfied with his appearance. Lean, mean and…well, not green, his developing physique now met his own expectations of what a teenage fighter should look like.

In the past, when he was the height of a child, thinking about these aspects had been too painful, so Gaius had locked away those delusions. Now that he was — if he said so himself — reasonably good-looking, posing a few times and trying to show off his muscles came somewhat natural to him.

Even if it was a tad embarrassing to be found out.

Still, is it not a fact that my fashion choices in this second life of mine is pretty much centred around looking cool? I wonder what that says about me… Gaius continued to tilt from side to side, looking at a random class of students sparring with each other. For a moment, the sight reminded him of his time in Heritage Basestation, where he’d doubled as an assistant lecturer for Senator Alexandre.

His mood darkened at that thought. The good senator had fallen when Ark City returned to the Five Lands, along with so many other senators. Campmaster Magnus, who he had exchanged words and thoughts with a few times, had also never made it out.

Nalus, his son, was probably heartbroken at that fact.

Sighing heavily, Gaius looked around the bench he was sitting on, before retrieving a second bottle of chocolate milk. Incidentally, there were another two bottles at the foot of the bench; he had brought four bottles from the school cafeteria before exercising.

Uncapping it, Gaius raised the bottle up, toasting the air, before downing the entire bottle in a single go. The emptied bottle joined its buddy a few seconds later as Gaius let out a sad sigh. He really wanted to visit Ark City, but the first thing he needed to do was to regain his combat ability. There was no second chance for him; if he was caught off-guard again, no one else was going to make a deal with him in exchange for even greater power.

For all intents and purposes, the amount of power he had at hand would be the greatest he would ever have. Somehow, Gaius had the feeling that the greatest showdown in the war to come would not be between the Human God and the Demon God, but rather between Demon Sovereign Asteria and Abyss Sovereign Gaius.

Abyss Sovereign Gaius…mm, sounds rather cool. The boy nodded to himself, satisfied with his occupational title. Wait, that’s not the main point, although this heightened desire to seem cool looks like it’s something adolescents — adolescent males in particular — hold rather dear to their heart.

After thinking through his new desires, Gaius concluded that such a thing couldn’t be helped, and then returned to thinking about Ark City. The whole thought process had been derailed somehow, and for a moment, he wanted to laugh.

“Brother!”

Gaius’ ears twitched, and he looked at the source. A purple-haired girl ran towards him, trailed by a golden-haired and a blue-haired duo, only to stop half a metre from him. The afternoon sun, partially blocked off by clouds, made the trio seem a tiny bit illusory as they came over.

“Good choice,” Gaius said. “I’m sweaty and stinky now.”

Nakama looked at him. “Oh, you are. I mean, of course you are! How was practice today?”

“Oh, I nearly destroyed the mannequin,” Gaius replied. “It’ll be back up and running tomorrow, though. You?”

“I need one hundred gold,” Nakama replied. “I’ll have to sell some sculptures…”

“How much money do you make from your side-job? Hundred gold is a lot. And what do you need that sum for?”

Nakama looked at Isabelle, and then at Countess Reinford, who was busy eating a biscuit dipped in chocolate. Isabelle rolled her eyes, and said, “Let me explain. So, you remember what I said earlier? About not breaking the sparring partner?”

“How badly did Nakama break hers?” Gaius asked, jumping to the logical conclusion immediately.

“Her artefacts decided to break down the Knight-rank mannequin into its basic constituents.”

Gaius took a moment to parse that sentence, and his eyes turned into saucers. “You mean…”

“I’m not sure what Nakama was thinking, but from how thorough the mannequin’s deconstruction was, your sister probably wanted to learn its production method through dismantling it.”

“The spirit of wanting to learn is rather commendable,” said Gaius, rubbing her head twice. “Good job, Nakama.”

“Don’t. Encourage. Her.”

“It’s just a puppet,” Gaius replied. “How bad could it be?”

“This doting brother…” Isabelle rubbed her head. “Fine, whatever. Don’t blame me if she decides to break the Squire-ranked puppet too.”

“Haah. Fine, fine. Nakama, no more breaking school property from now on,” said Gaius. “It seems that Isabelle is still weak to second-hand embarrassment, so don’t do that from now on.”

“Hey!”

“Wait, wait, I’m still sweaty!” Gaius squirmed as two sets of knuckles pressed down on his head, but once again, he didn’t dare to defend himself. A badly-controlled movement by someone with a body strength like his could go south really fast.

When I have time, thought Gaius as he endured the punishment from Isabelle, I should go and ask Weiwu what my current strength is and how to control it. I can’t tell anymore…