A small building with the symbol of the guild on it. A desk and shelves of books behind. Sai just found weird that Katheryne wasn't there. 'Oh well, this is real life, after all. She couldn't be working 24/7…'
Thinking this made him wonder about Katheryne being the same person through all of the nations of Tevyat.
"That must have a plausible explanation, I'm sure of it." Sai accidentally said that out loud.
Thankfully, no one seemed to hear it.
The pair made their way through the city, and Sai even recognized the famous restaurant: Good Hunter.
"That's cool…" Sai thought it looked bigger in real life as well. Though… it was closed at the moment.
They reached the second pair of walls some 10 minutes later, and contrary to what he thought, it wasn't guarded.
'Oh, the stairs!'
The well known staircase that led to the upper parts of the city actually led into the inner district. It was a long climb that took several minutes.
Once he reached the top, many other buildings could be seen around. And he made note that they also looked more expensive than the ones downstairs. 'A difference in social classes… something that was completely inexistent in the game.'
But what stroke him the most was the humongous statue of Barbatos in the middle of a beautiful plaza. The statue was bigger than the game version, although not by too much. Maybe five meters more? He wasn't sure.
"Wow…" Sai thought he couldn't be more surprised, and yet here he was.
And that's because he hasn't seen Inazuma, Snezhnaya or Sumeru yet. He was still beginning on his way to being flabbergasted.
Though, most of his feeling of awe came from the divine influence of the statue, not from the statue itself. But that's not something he knows, at least for the moment.
Lisa made a turn to the left without even taking a little rest. She seemed untiring and unstopping. Sai gave it his best to look away and follow her.
After some more walking, they finally got to the headquarters of the knights. It looked quite imposing, less friendly compared to the game. And as expected, it was also much bigger.
Perhaps this was the only way to fit the 10 divisions of the Knights of Favonius in a single building. It extended practically all the way to the city walls.
Two guards could be seen taking duty at the doorstep. They were clearly well-trained knights themselves. Not that the other guards were not knights, but these two looked much stronger.
Sai almost instinctively nodded towards them as they made way for Lisa, and he noticed they didn't take another glance at either of them as they entered.
Lisa's heels clacked in the floor as she turned into the first door to the right, also guarded, to Sai's surprise. He expected the library to be much further back. A welcome surprise to him.
Before she entered, Lisa turned around and told Sai:
"Stay in the library. I'll be back after some moments to prepare your chambers." Her tone made him sure that she was not merely asking.
And so, she left deeper into the building, probably going to find Jean immediately, leaving Sai at the entrance of the library.
The guard looked at him apathetically, then clicked his tongue. Sai frowned from his mannerisms but entered the room without delay.
The library was the same size as in the game, he thought. That made it easier to locate himself. Well, that didn't mean it was small. It was quite big.
But before looking for a chair to rest, he had to be sure of something.
Sai went up to a shelf and grabbed a random book. He tried to read it, but it was in a completely foreign writing.
"Tsk. As I expected, I can't read… Maybe the spoken language is also different and there's some magic at work to translate it? I need to ponder over that…" Regardless, now wasn't the time for that, since he was exhausted.
Sai thought that he could have a small revenge if he sat in her chair and put his feet over her desk, but soon gave up the thought. 'She might really kill me if I do that…'
He simply sat on her chair as he tried his best to relax. Too much had happened on such a small span, he had much to digest. Though not in the literal sense.
'Grumble~' His belly was making rumbling sounds.
"Ah.. I'm hungry. And sleepy…" He led his hand over to his mouth to yawn when he noticed:
"I haven't checked my appearance since I've been summoned, have I?"
He didn't feel any different so he had just shrugged it off, but it was possible that he looked different on the outside.
He staggered across the library to find a mirror, and lo and behold, he didn't find any.
'Guess I'll just have to ask someone for one.' He thought as he checked his lower package.
'Hmm. Nothing wrong for now.'
Surprisingly, though, the library wasn't empty. An old man had a lit lamp while reading a book on one of the tables in the lower floor. He didn't even seem to notice Sai going around.
After he failed to find the mirror, Sai snooped on the old man curiously.
"Yo… what are you reading over there, old man?"
For some reason, Sai thought the old man looked harmless. A pushover, even.
The old man faintly answered without much thought:
"Just 'A Study on The Photoelemental Effect: Volume III'. " Something about that name sounded familiar to Sai.
"What is that? A magic book?" Sai asked when he saw the weird shapes on the page.
"Yes." The old man nodded.
Sai stared for a while longer, when suddenly the old man sprung from his chair so quickly that he fell on the ground.
"Y-you! Who are you?! How did you crept behind me so quietly?!" The old man looked like a frightened cat.
"Pffft." Sai laughed at the scene. "What do you mean with crept? I clearly just walked up to you…"
The old man put on a sour look when he realized there was no threat.
"Horseshit! Think you can fool me cuz I'm old, huh? I'll teach you a lesson you punk, how dare you scare me like that? Now, help me get up so this honorable self can spank you—"
At that moment, the door of the library opened. Many footsteps could be heard, shouts were made, and a somewhat familiar voice greeted his ears.
"He's not here. Search everywhere! We can't let him escape—"
And at that moment, Kaeya saw Sai staring up at him with a creased brow.
"…"
"…"