By breakfast, Isabelle’s mood had improved greatly, although Gaius had a feeling that his sore cheeks were probably a key reason behind her rapid recovery. There were probably other structural factors at play as well, but he needed to justify to his cheeks why he needed to sacrifice them, so…

“You two seem far closer now, if that’s even possible.” Isabelle’s grandmother squinted at them. “Gaius, did you lay your grubby little hands on my granddaughter while she was in grief? Make her squirm around and all that?”

Everyone sitting around the dining table choked, spat out their food, or did something similar. In fact, Lili had covered Jusis’ ears, prompting the little fellow to nibble on his mother a moment later.

“Grandmother!” Isabelle flushed, and then turned away. “He didn’t do that!”

“There are other ways to close the distance without doing…you know, that.” Gaius, whose face was burning.

“Hmm. Well, as long as your libido doesn’t take advantage of her personal weakness, I’m fine with that.”

Gaius opened his mouth, which proceeded to make some really weird shapes, and then slammed it shut. The plates and bowls laden with breakfast, which was some porridge with strips of roasted meat, seemed to grow mouths leered at him, and the Lost Star lost his appetite.

Without thinking through his next actions, Gaius scooped up some porridge with his left hand and brought it to Isabelle. “Say aah.”

Once again, everyone around the table choked, but his eyes were focused only on Isabelle, whose attention span had also narrowed to him. It was his magnetic eyes, but the fact that his right hand was blocking off most of her vision probably played quite the role too.

Clearly overwhelmed by his sudden approach, Isabelle compiled and opened her mouth. With such a precedent set, Gaius rapidly emptied his bowl, making sure to maintain eye contact with Isabelle the whole time. The magical moment ended when Gaius withdrew his gaze, having fed the contents of his bowl to Isabelle. His face was burning, but that was in no way comparable to her complexion when he withdrew his right hand, which had reddened over three seconds.”

“Wow. That’s…”

“Flirting on a level that usually doesn’t happen in front of family, yes.”

Gaius rubbed the bridge of his nose, pleased with himself. “Was it good, Isabelle?”

“Please don’t do that in front of other people again,” she replied in a small voice.

“But was it good?”

She nodded.

“Excellent. Would you like another — no, not my cheeks!” Gaius scrambled out of his chair, but before he could make a break for it, a warm hand had grabbed him by the neck.

The next few minutes that followed weren’t something that he could describe adequately, but his cheeks were on a new level of numbness after Isabelle was done. All around the table, he could feel rather…intriguing stares directed at him, but after having his face tenderised by strategic pulling and rubbing, Gaius had forgotten what embarrassment felt like.

Thankfully, the others saw it fit to finish their breakfast with all due haste, before leaving the house as a group. Most of the Lorenzes were employed at the Republic’s administration, which, given their track record as former administrators of Lumari, was a good use of talent. In fact, if Gaius didn’t remember it wrongly, he was the one who suggested for the Lorenzes to head over to offer the Republic a helping hand.

The house was a lot quieter once the others left, leaving behind Jusis, who was babbling excitedly to his grandmother, Isabelle and Gaius himself. The little toddler continued to talk away; Jusis had a nice dream last night.

“How unrestrained,” Gaius commented.

“Mm.”

He stole a glance at Isabelle’s grandmother, and then pulled Isabelle by her hand, into a hallway. Gaius was still worried that Isabelle was just putting up a strong front; she was the type that wouldn’t show weakness up until her breaking point. However, just because she wasn’t at the breaking point didn’t mean she was okay.

“We’re going to ask about…mother soon,” said Gaius, his hands wrapped around her. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Isabelle replied. “But…thank you.”

After flirting for a few minutes, they returned to Jusis and Madam Amelie. The former was now snoozing happily on a cushion, while the latter was sipping at a cup of tea.

“Done with the hugging? How far did you go?” Isabelle’s grandmother asked. “Remember that the guestroom is probably a better place for actions beyond a certain degree, though.”

Gaius wanted to hide his face, a sentiment clearly shared by Isabelle, and the two exchanged embarrassed glances. Why did Madam Amelie’s thoughts go in that direction? Gaius knew what propriety and decorum was, so why did she not seem to recognise that fact?

It was a mystery that he didn’t want an answer to, when he thought about it.

Isabelle cleared her throat, and Gaius couldn’t help but note that she was made of sterner stuff than him. “Grandmother, can you tell us everything you know about my mother? Everything you found?”

Madam Amelie’s smiley, wrinkled face tightened up. “You’ve decided to look for her first, then.”

“Yes,” Gaius replied. “And…I believe I can speed up the process by a great deal. I am the famous Lost Star, after all. If all else fails, I’ll just get the Pinnacle to interview me with Isabelle at my side.”

“The Pinnacle? Pinnacle Kolya?” The old lady chuckled. “You are on speaking terms with him, then.”

“Beating terms,” Gaius corrected.

“Beating?”

“Don’t mind Gaius,” Isabelle hastily cut in. “They’re just very…close friends.”

Gaius really wanted to dispute that, since a pervert and a handsome, self-principled man had no issues having such a close association, but Isabelle wasn’t going to let him express that while letting his cheeks and ears get away scot-free.

“Very well.” Isabelle’s grandmother got up from her seat. “Come, follow me.”

Gaius and Isabelle followed their grandmother as she hobbled past closed doors, before stopping at the room at the very end of the hallway. Incidentally, that hallway was where Gaius had spent some couple moments with Isabelle just a few minutes ago. Unfortunately, that random realisation didn’t go unnoticed by Isabelle, who had moved to rub his cheek.

It was a way of showing both affection and embarrassment, although his face would really beg to differ.

“This is my study,” said Madam Amelie. “Mind the dust.”

Qi wrapped around Gaius and Isabelle as a cloud of dust billowed in the wake of the door’s movement. His fingers fluttered, and the roving dust soon compressed into a tiny ball, which Gaius wrapped up with even more layers of energy.

“You’re…really not bad, aren’t you?”

“Thank you for your praise, grandmother.” Gaius inclined his head.

Isabelle’s smile just widened.

“Mm. You are going to fight in the grand war. I am at least happy to see that you really do have some skill. But I digress.” More dust flew as Isabelle’s grandmother took down a stack of documents and files, which she levitated to the table in the room’s centre a moment later.

“All these are papers that document the assassins sent by the Southern Assembly, and later, the Holy Temple,” said Isabelle’s grandmother. “From what the Information Brokers know, Emily has been the sole target of both sides for the duration of the Second Extermination. I know not how they found out about her origins, but she is, admirably enough, a lot harder for the Brokers to track, compared to the assassins sent after her.”

Isabelle looked through the documents, which were naming cities that Gaius never knew existed. To be fair, he didn’t really know much about the Five Lands in general, other than the cities he’d inhabited over his short life here, but it did show a certain…laziness in his mindset.

After spending a second to debate with himself about this newly-discovered lethargy, Gaius promptly decided that studying about minor cities would lower his time spent with Isabelle and found it fine to carry on as he was.

“These are all beastfolk cities that have been destroyed in the Second Extermination,” Isabelle muttered.

“Yes. There’s a pattern to it too. Shortly after an assassination failed, the city would come under attack,” said her grandmother. “Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe it isn’t. But from how the attacks led all the way into even Ark City…”

“You’re telling me that she’s in Ark City now?” Isabelle asked, a hint of disbelief in her words.

“Yes.” The old lady steepled her hands. “It was the stronghold of beastfolk back then, after all. In fact, Emily was probably escaping to Ark City itself, since it was one of the few beastfolk cities that didn’t mind accepting humans.”

Isabelle turned to look at Gaius, who was already busy thinking about his life back in Ark City. To be fair, it was rather short, and to make matters worse, the city was a mysterious one. He did, however, remember Degurechaff, who was a human through and through. From the recent reports, Degurechaff was also now a general to boot, which showed how accepting the city was of humans, so he couldn’t rule out that possibility.

At all.

“That’s actually quite possible,” said Gaius. “Should we make Ark City our next stop instead? We can check the Great Divide out later.”

The city itself had been destroyed, with a new one taking its place. Reportedly, the new Ark City was a floating city, which had intrigued Gaius and Isabelle whenever they saw or read about it on the news. They were going to stop past it after visiting the Great Divide, but with Isabelle’s family at stake, Gaius wanted to amend his plans.

“It won’t be easy,” said Isabelle’s grandmother. “Ark City has been screening its visitors. Without a proper cause—”

“I’ll handle that,” said Gaius. “There are still some people there who should remember me.”

“You?” The old lady leaned forward. “Usually, the old people are the ones who have connections that transcend borders.”

“I was from Ark City,” Gaius clarified. “Trained that for a moment, helped out with some riff-raff here and there. Things like that.”

“Hmm. Is that so?” She looked through a few more papers, before passing them over to Isabelle. “These are some people you can try to contact in Ark City, if your husband turns out to be bragging after all.”

Gaius maintained his sunny smile, but he couldn’t help but feel crestfallen at how his grandmother-in-law had dismissed his connections, and he pulled close to Isabelle in an attempt to comfort his broken heart. Fortunately, Isabelle had moved to rub his hair, which did wonders to comfort his soul, but…

“There, there. I believe you, okay?” Isabelle flicked his forehead lightly.

“Stop spoiling him,” said Madam Amelie. “Just because he’s the man you chose doesn’t mean that you have to mollycoddle him every time he’s down.”

“Grandmother, I remember father telling me that you always cheered grandfather up whenever he felt sad, though.” Isabelle hid a smile with her left hand. “It’s…a bit odd to hear you say this.”

Her grandmother’s face darkened. “Isa?”

“Yes, grandmother?”

“My husband is different. You cannot use my example to rebut me.”

Isabelle blinked twice, and then looked at Gaius, who was equally speechless. After a minute or so of silence, he said, “Well, we’ll head out to Ark City next week then. We’ll enjoy our honeymoon here first, and look out for the latest intelligence while we’re at it.”

“Very well. I will contact the Information Brokers on my side once more,” Isabelle’s grandmother replied. “Besides, now that Ark City’s back, we can investigate your mother’ whereabouts once more.”

Isabelle nodded along with Gaius.

“You two can run along. Right, Gaius. Make sure not to overdo it. If Isabelle has trouble walking when she meets her mother, you won’t enjoy what comes next.”

“Grandmother!”

Madam Amelie chuckled. “I know what it’s like to be young and sprightly, so don’t let me keep you two. Besides, I think Jusis just soiled his diapers, so don’t hang around.”

Embarrassed, Gaius and Isabelle returned to the guestroom just as the toddler began to cry, where they stayed for the whole day.