Honeymoons and personal quests, when mixed together, apparently had a high chance to create a long, convoluted journey. Of course, since Gaius only had a sample size of one, it was entirely possible that reality was way off the mark from his observations, but his instincts were telling him that he was indeed correct.

“Xanadu, take care of the two kids for me, okay?” Gaius asked.

“Sure. Besides, Nakama and La-Ti are very good kids,” Xanadu replied. “They already have a plan for the next month; they showed me this morning.”

“A plan?” Gaius asked, intrigued. “What kind of plan is it?”

“The kind where they have the things for the next few weeks planned out,” Xanadu replied. “Like a Ferris ride, or a visit to the local theme park, a tour of the food stalls there…”

“But they’re all centred around the theme park,” Isabelle pointed out.

“Kids.” Xanadu shrugged. “Besides, I’m also interested in checking the place out. I haven’t had the time to play around ever since my condition started to worsen. Besides, you two are going to have a short tour of the Five Lands while hunting down the Human God’s familiar spirits, right? A honeymoon, no?”

“I wouldn’t go so far to call it ‘hunting down’,” Gaius replied. “After all, Weiwu did say that I could suppress their madness, and then get them to help out at World’s End.”

“Right, he did visit last night,” Xanadu murmured.

“How did you know that?” Isabelle asked. “It was a rather secret visit, and he only dropped by for a minute or so.”

“I could vaguely sense someone similar appear for a few minutes,” Xanadu replied. “Anyway, if the foremost expert on the Crying Abyss says that, then I suppose you’re on the right track. But you’ll still need to fight, right? Make sure to keep Isabelle safe.”

“Her safety is my number one priority,” Gaius replied, a solemn note in his words. “The condition for her accompanying me is to not enter any battles we come across…”

Isabelle pinched his waist.

“You made a promise,” Gaius replied.

“I know.” Isabelle sniffed. “I just felt like pinching your waist…it’s not like you’re actually feeling any pain from it, right? Just let me vent like this. It’ll make me happier.”

“Fine, go ahead. But don’t think you can skip out on combat training with me either,” Gaius added. “We haven’t had a proper fight at all, now that I think about it. It should be a rather fruitful session, as far as training goes.”

“Training?!” Xanadu shook her head, and then looked at Isabelle, who promptly shook her head back. “Are you a demon? It’s your freaking honeymoon, and you’re going to train with her?”

“One hour every day,” Gaius replied. “It’s not a lot.”

“Oh.” Xanadu pondered on that. “Well, given the upcoming war…I suppose that’s rather reasonable after all.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Gaius could see Isabelle wilt at those words. For the past three years, she had been immersing himself in artefacts and in taking care of his broken body, so training for a fight was something that hadn’t registered in her consciousness the whole time. In fact, the rapier she’d chosen from Solaris’ tomb had lain unused for a long time, which was why it was now buckled on her belt firmly.

After exchanging a few more words, Gaius found Nakama and La-Ti, exhorted them to be nice, and left with Isabelle after rubbing their heads for around a minute or so.

“Alright, we’ll be going now,” said Gaius. “Nakama, remember to take care of your apprentice. And study well at school!”

Nakama nodded twice, and then thumped her chest. “Leave it to me! I’ll make sure he’s always fed!”

“Alright. We’ll be leaving, then. Thanks, Xanadu. La-Ti, listen to Nakama and Xanadu, okay?

After exchanging another round of farewells, Gaius and Isabelle took to the skies, each of them carrying a backpack, and headed to the east. It was a privilege that few people had, but his attempts to register him and his family for a flight permit in Upper Elysium had been recently approved. The fact that he had been suckered into a battle with the Human God probably had a huge part to play in it, but that was none of his business.

“Nexus,” Gaius called out. “Has the target moved from their current location yet?”

A small head popped out. “Nope. Still, this is a rather nostalgic scene. I haven’t flown with you for more than three years.”

“It does feel like we’ve settled down in the North, right?” Isabelle asked.

“If only these peaceful days would last forever,” said Gaius, glancing at Isabelle a moment later. She had, at the same moment, said the exact same words as he did, with the same tone to boot. Nexus turned his little head to Isabelle and then back to Gaius, before nodding.

“You two are really in sync.”

“We just want to live a peaceful life with no regrets,” Gaius replied. “It’s a rather humble dream, right? That’s why we both resonate with each other…probably. I’m not an expert in how this works.”

“I’d be worried if you were,” Isabelle replied.

“Yeah, he’ll probably be cheated or something,” Nexus added. “This guy isn’t much of a charmer, compared to someone like Kolya. It took him such a long time to come to terms with his feelings.

“Hey! I’ll have you know that even if I’m a novice at this relationship thing, my brain is still functioning very well,” Gaius replied. “Don’t just write me off like this.”

“Really?” Nexus asked. “If it wasn’t for the counsel by me and Xanadu, you’ll probably be making this trip alone. And in the end, Nakama and Isabelle didn’t listen to you, so I don’t really see where your confidence is coming from.”

Isabelle giggled. “Two points for family, zero points for Gaius.”

“Yeah, yeah. You win.” Gaius grabbed her hand and held it. It was a new sensation, given that they hadn’t done anything like that while flying before. “I never win against family. There’s always a counter against my arguments.”

“Because they were logical ones,” Nexus replied. “After a while, you realise that logical arguments don’t work against the emotions of other people. Anyway, it’s great that you two are going to spend an eternity or something together, but what about me? Are you going to…leave me behind?”

“Well, I was going to assume that you could leave one of your sculptures with us or something,” said Gaius, “but I wanted to see if you had other plans first, plans that you didn’t bring up. After all, you might want your freedom or something, after spending three years with an unconscious master.”

“No. I want to go with you two. Or at least, continue to have you as my master.”

Gaius furrowed his brows at Nexus’ immediate reply. “Are you sure? I think I’ve said this before, but it is probably a one-way trip.”

“Not for me, maybe.” Nexus jiggled in his shirt. “As long as you remain my master, I’ll keep thinking of ways to connect you to the Orb outside. This I swear.”

“Nexus…” Gaius took a deep breath. “Thank you.”