It had been a few days since Dia and Risti took out the murderer, but they weren’t allowed to leave Nachtville yet. The same went for the Dusk Daggers, who were more peeved at the fact that they were stuck in a small town than the fact that they were stuck at all.

Dia sat up on her bed as the first rays of sunlight began to inch in. She had gotten used to this house — which, incidentally, had been given to them as a small reward. The city guards had forced it onto the two of them, and since it was a nice foothold for the Moon Lords to expand from, Dia had seen no issue in accepting the gift.

This house was also partially an apology to them, for making them stay in Nachtville. Dia and Risti had only stayed at the city guard’s requests, specifically that of Lucia’s, in order to give another firsthand recount to the investigators on their way here. For some reason, the odd passive skill on the murderer’s status, ‘Thrall of ThBoD:A???’ had spooked the people from the Folders’ Association.

They weren’t really obligated to stay behind, though. However, since the real mastermind was out there, Dia couldn’t help but feel worried. The mastermind had targeted someone from Nachtville; it was very possible that the next target could be someone from Licencia instead.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned. Recently, Dia hadn’t been able to get anything resembling good sleep at all. Her dreams were full of flying spears and impaled people in a grey town that resembled Licencia. Sometimes, she would spot someone who she knew or found familiar in them, but whenever she tried to confirm their identity, the dream would end.

Either way, it was clear that her fight with the murderer had left an indelible mark on her psyche. Was it the spear? Or were the inhuman eyes that belonged to its wielder?

She didn’t know. Nor did she dare to find out.

Her nightgown was drenched with cold sweat, so Dia had to change her clothes. After hanging up her wet sleepwear, she trudged out of her bedroom and headed over to the table in the middle, where a small teapot was emitting steam.

Risti had, as usual, woken up early. With the threat of falling spears over, there was nothing stopping her from engaging in her second-most favourite pastime — bird-watching. As for Risti’s favourite pastime…well, that sure didn’t need any introduction. Unfortunately — or fortunately, depending on who one asked — the subject of her favourite pastime had vanished from the public eye for quite some time.

Pouring out a cup of tea for herself, she downed the contents and wandered off in such of Risti. Her target hadn’t left the house; for some reason, she was currently lying prone in the unkempt lawn outside.

“What are you doing?” Dia asked, curious. Risti usually used her telescope to observe birds and other wildlife, but she wasn’t using it right now. Furthermore, they were in a town, and there was a fence blocking the view outside. Why would she be lying on the ground, prone?

“I’m looking at the insects here,” Risti replied.

“Insects.”

“Yes. Insects.” She looked up. “Why? Do you think them as unworthy of notice? You should pay more attention to them, though. Insects can tell you about the kind of life people live in the vicinity.”

“We can get such information from these things?” Dia asked, curious.

“Oh, you don’t believe me?” Risti chuckled. “How about this. Go to the kitchen and grab a small chunk of meat, some bread, a tea leaf and come back here. Make sure that these items don’t touch each other.”

Since Dia had nothing to do, she decided to play along. She soon returned to Risti, the items in hand. “What next?”

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“See this ant nest? Just place these three offerings separately. Make sure that they’re equidistant, okay?”

“Equi—what?”

“Equally far from the ant hole,” Risti clarified. “Hurry up. Those little fellows will sniff out the treats in your hand if you dally. Unless you enjoy the sensation of ants crawling on you, do as I say now.”

Her skin prickling, Dia did as she was told. “Okay, done.”

“I’ll explain to you, then. A way to tell the average prosperity of households within five hundred metres is to use ants, who are ubiquitous. As ants prefer going for more familiar foods, one can tell the staple diet of households in the local area by seeing what these little critters go for first,” said Risti. “Ah, here they are!”

Before Dia’s eyes, a small line of ants popped up from the soil, like a little army. Without any hesitation, they made a beeline for the piece of bread. Within thirty seconds, the piece of bread had been covered by ants, who were now tugging and breaking off tiny pieces to bring back to their nest.

Dia watched on, enthralled. She had never seen such adorable little things before — in the past, she had found it natural to ignore insects and the little creepy-crawlies that were everywhere. She didn’t fear them — a mana-user scared of things like cockroaches would be pathetic — but she hadn’t paid any attention to them either.

They avoided her, and she was fine with that.

Before her eyes, however, little ants were working together in concert to dismantle the piece of bread. None of them were slacking off or trying to steal a bite on the side — they were whole-heartedly devoted to dismantling the small piece of food.

“Wow.”

“What’s wrong?” Risti asked. “Why would you be amazed?”

“Why wouldn’t I be amazed? They’re just ants, but they’re capable of working together without any hints of selfishness,” Dia replied. “It’s an amazing work ethic. If everyone was like them, the world would be both peaceful and prosperous. We can all learn something from these guys.”

“There’s a lot I want to comment on about that,” Risti replied, “but I think it’s good that Princess Dia’s bodyguard is this innocent.”

Dia eyed Risti. “What do you mean by that?”

“Comparing ants to us humans would be an unfair practice — it’s more accurate to compare an entire ant nest to the human body,” Risti answered. “But that’s not really important now. The whole point of this experiment was to demonstrate that ants in the vicinity are used to eating bread over other sorts of food. As you can tell, the people here tend to eat bread most of the time.”

“Which means that they aren’t all that well off, right?” Dia glanced at the tea leaf. “But what’s with the tea leaf? I don’t think ants would eat that normally to begin with.”

“Oh, that’s our control specimen.”

“And pray tell, what is a ‘control specimen’?” Dia asked.

“Something one must have when conducting experiments. It’s profound stuff; most people aren’t interested in it,” Risti replied.

“H-huh…” Dia rubbed her nose. “Well, if you say so, then. Still, ants can be this useful, huh.”

“Well, they are rather cute to boot, so…” Risti pointed at a stray ant, who had broken off from the main body. “Look! It’s examining the meat now. See how its feelers twitch!”

Dia’s eyes swivelled over to the ant in question immediately, who was as curious as a newborn baby. “Oh, wow…”

The two only stopped their experiment when the sun’s rays were burning down on their backs directly. Dia, however, had gotten up with a new appreciation of these little critters, although she couldn’t help but watch her step from now on.

It would be sad if she stepped on one by accident.

Risti laughed at that sight. “Dia, you’re too cautious. Ants…you may admire them, or find them cute. But don’t let them dictate your steps or your heart. They are not like humans; it would be more accurate to regard an ant nest as a single entity instead.”

Dia blinked. Risti’s attitude was rather contradictory. She liked ants, but she wasn’t going to go out of her way to avoid hurting them. No matter how Dia sliced it, she couldn’t quite understand how Risti could have such an odd mindset.

“Isn’t that an odd mindset to hold?” Dia asked.

“It does seem like it,” Risti replied. “But it’s a necessary contradiction. If you don’t learn to live with such a contradiction, you’ll have to change your life and your mindset. You’re exhibiting the latter already, right? Being so mindful of your steps?”

“You’re right, but being mindful of my steps isn’t really—”

“You’re trying to draw as much attention to you as possible…probably, anyway. Your job is to remain free and unharmed,” said Risti. “If you hesitated to run in a certain manner because of some ants…

Risti had a point here. Dia had only one life. If those contradictions were to trip her up…

She didn’t quite like the idea of killing ants by accident, though.

“Well, maybe I can just improve my footwork and spatial awareness,” Dia muttered.

“For ants.” Risti rubbed her forehead. “Well, it does sound like a good plan, anyway. You’ve reached a limit in improving your skill with a sword, right? Might as well train your footwork or something.”

“That sounds like a good idea, if nothing else.” Working herself up, Dia led the way into the house. “Let me draw up a regimen...”