Gio spent a bit longer filling the Old Lady in on the Blue Steel Squadron’s current plans before they moved on from the topic.
He wanted to get the serious matters out of the way before anything else. It showed the Old Lady how much Gio cared about the people on that squad, and it was good that he had so more positive older role models in his life.
However, currently, the Old Lady’s desire to see how Gio had grown was much stronger than her desire to investigate or contact Raymond’s team.
Gio happily obliged her curiosity. He not only spent more ti explaining how he was trained, but he also showed her directly.
The Do was equipped with any facility one could need in experintation. That included a room that could test the strength of impacts and energy.
He didn’t hold back. This was a good chance for him to get an objective understanding of his strength when it wasn’t influenced by external circumstances. For him, it was a matter of seeing where he stood.
But for the Old Lady, it was much more than that. She operated the room’s machines and started a target practice routine. A number of circular white targets popped out of the walls and floor at random locations and at random tis.
Gio’s only job was to hit everything he could.
His eyes dialed in and he went to work. He concentrated and removed his awareness from anything that didn’t matter.
Otherwise, he would’ve had no choice but to chuckle at the flabbergasted expression on the Old Lady’s face.
The way Gio wielded a sword like he had been trained for years...did he learn how to do that in only a year?
His movents were incredibly fluid. Every target that appeared seed to sohow be within the trajectory of his blade even if it seed impossible for him to reach.
She upped the difficulty, making the targets appear more sporadically. However, Gio only needed to use his Sequence abilities to make up for the gap.
The ability of position control he trained with Raymond was revealed to the world. He grabbed several rocks from his toolbelt and threw them into the air. They swerved like guided missiles as they reached their targets and penetrated them.
He kept a good pace and responded well to the targets for a long ti before the difficulty rose beyond his level. When the simulation finally ended, the Old Lady got up with the sa shocked expression on her face.
"Gio, are you actually a legendary talent?"
She walked over to him and grabbed his shoulders, looking over his body as if to glimpse sothing from it.
"You still look ordinary, though? How did you improve so much in a year?"
Gio made a wry expression.
’She’s not wrong. I was never talented.’
He didn’t get to where he was through talent. Hell, he never even had the talent to be a Sequencer in the first place.
What made him look like a talent now was a hundred years of erased work. Its only vestiges in this tiline were safely hidden within the [mory Book].
"I just worked hard and it ended up like this. Is it impressive?"
He spoke naively, but he couldn’t hide the smile on his face.
"You brat!"
The Old Lady grinned and rustled his hair.
"I guess I have to start taking you seriously, huh? We need to get you into a good academy if you’re going to keep doing this."
"Ah..."
Gio opened his mouth to speak, but no words ca out.
It was true that he needed to find an academy now. Actually, there was a very specific academy he needed to find in order to prepare for a plot that would unfurl in the future.
He knew that the Old Lady could connect him to that academy. He also had Raymond’s connection to get him there.
’But neither of those are necessary...’
He didn’t know how to tell her, but the topic had to be broached at so point.
’It’s almost ti for to leave. Or, well, if I’m right about how the reborn tiline works, it’s almost ti for to leave.’
He already had his doubts. For him to return to Gastle on this very day, April 14th in the year 3006, a few months before his fifteenth birthday...
’Today was the day it happened last ti as well. The difference is that back then, I was practically enslaved in Farrhen on the other side of Haven.’
He shook his head.
’For now, I should act as if it won’t happen and enjoy my ti here.’
With that thought, he turned off his brain. He spoke to the Old Lady for a long ti about his own experiences, his favorite monts, and what had happened in Gastle while he was gone.
The Old Lady told him about Ricky’s progress in the past year, a topic that caught him by surprise.
Apparently, she learned about him through Seb and took an interest in the first person Gio ever called a friend. After watching him for so ti, she ca to respect his character.
He wasn’t a very smart boy, but he was more earnest than anyone else and was honestly trying to earn a living for himself. She respected his determination and spirit, so she gave him a chance.
According to her, Ricky had been working under Seb for a little over half a year. He’d been learning how to properly make use of his big physique and expand his skillset.
"That kid is a lot more talented than I expected. He’s no good on the battlefield, but if you put him in charge of construction, I don’t think there’s anyone better. His architectural talent and artistic eye are surprisingly adept. On top of that, he has an ability to command the common people. It’s a good skill set for soone who wants to start an industrial business."
The Old Lady was full of praise, and Gio was more than happy to hear it.
’Ricky has that kind of talent? I knew he was good at rallying people, but I only planned to help him beco a guard sowhere. If it’s like this...’
"Perfect."
He nodded in satisfaction.
"I’ll have to go talk to him soon. That guy is stuck in his side-character ntality. Telling him to his face that he has the skills to be a leader is important."
The Old Lady nodded warmly, happy enough to see Gio caring about soone else.
She watched him think over his plans for the future with a motherly look in her eyes. If only she knew what he was thinking of...
Well, perhaps it was better to keep her thinking he was still innocent.
"Aunt..."
He suddenly said, looking at her.
"What is it?" She asked curiously. He usually wasn’t one to address her directly.
"If there was a possibility..."
He hesitated for a mont.
How was he supposed to bring it up?
He furrowed his brows and steeled his heart to say the words hidden within, but before he could, a loud alert played from the Old Lady’s holowatch.
"Hang on, Gio," she said with serious eyes, looking at the notification.
She wouldn’t receive an alert like this for sothing unimportant. She checked what she was being called for and imdiately frowned.
"Let’s save this for later," she said.
Gio’s heart sank.
He had a feeling he knew what she’d been called for.
"I have to return to Gastle right now."
As the Old Lady rushed out of the Do, Gio followed close behind.
If he was right, when they returned...
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