It was late evening when they finally arrived at Licencia, and Dia’s shoulders, which had been bearing some unknown burden, finally relaxed. The rest of the afternoon trip had been as uneventful as a tree’s life. Other than another three groups of knights dashing past them while whistling lasciviously, there was nothing much of note.

Risti had fallen silent after that conversation too, which meant that Dia could only bear the silence herself. She didn’t dare to distract Risti, whose eyes weren’t just dim, they were also clouded over with the burden of thought.

Fortunately, after enduring five hours of abject silence, Dia finally found the excuse to rouse Risti from her deep reverie. After all, there was still an inspection at the gates, and inspections weren’t friendly to absent-minded fellows.

“There’s a lot of guards on duty right now,” Risti observed quietly. Her voice was somewhat hoarse, probably from disuse, but that didn’t stop her from voicing out her thoughts. “Did something happen? Or was all this in anticipation of something that might happen?”

“Somehow, I get a feeling that Claud’s behind all this,” Dia replied. “Look at the city walls. There’s a…dome.”

A hemisphere of fine wire nets was currently being raised. Long poles, each with a small nook attached at the end, had been propped up, towering into the sky. No matter how Dia looked at it, the whole structure was so evocative of Moon Mansion that Claud had to be behind it.

“Yeah, definitely Claud. Does he have a thing for domes?” Risti mused out loud. “Maybe we should get him something like it as a gift.”

“Just stick to defensive artefacts, okay?” Dia rolled her eyes. “Claud would love nothing more than these things.”

“Or lifestones.”

Dia and Risti exchanged glances. Clearly, both of them were wondering the same thing — which was more important to Claud? Lifestones or defensive artefacts?

“I’d say defensive artefacts are better,” said Dia. “Claud’s the kind that would forgo risk in favour of safety.”

“There’s an element of recklessness in him. If there are enough lifestones, he might ignore or work around the danger to grab them,” Risti replied. “That’s what I think, anyway. Don’t you sometimes get the feeling that he’s crazy for lifestones? After all, it’s said that lifestones are drying out. There’s only so many left. He must know that too.”

“But if he had to choose between dying or lifestones…”

The two ladies looked at each other, and after a while, Dia shrugged. “I get the feeling that the answer to our question is context-dependent.”

“Yeah, me too.” Risti grinned. “It’s a fun exercise, though. What do you think Schwarz would like?”

“Recipes for—"

“Recipes for—”

Dia gestured at Risti. “Looks like we both thought that he would love recipes for new drinks. Still, where did you get that from? I based my answer off the time when I used Sword Roar. Schwarz brought over some really nice alcoholic brew for me, so…”

“Farah told me about that. I still can’t believe my ears, though. The words ‘nice alcohol’ and ‘Schwarz’ shouldn’t be associated with each other. How did that happen? And then, I found out that these things was due to…lost recipes.” Risti’s eyes glittered. “Isn’t it cool? He can make good brews after all!”

“If he’s not innovating them, yes.” Dia tilted her head. “Are there any books that touch the subject of brewing?”

“Yeah, there are,” Risti replied. “He’s not the only person with a high-class hobby. But I asked him about them before, but he didn’t really like the idea. You know, the pioneer mindset.”

“Do we really need pioneers in this field?” Dia rolled her eyes. “Let’s move on to Farah, then. What would she like? Other than lifestones, naturally.”

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“Money. Or resources that we can send to her county.” Risti thought about it for a while. “That should be it, shouldn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Unfortunately, the intriguing little conversation had to end here, since it was their turn to be inspected.

“Papers, please.” The young guard on duty yawned. “Sorry, ma’ams. It’s been a long night for us.”

“No, no issue.” Dia shook her head. “It’s perfectly alright to be tired after so long. Thank you for keeping us safe.”

“Safe…” The guard yawned again. “We get paid well for this, so some people might beg to differ.”

“Really?” Risti asked. “Who might beg to differ?”

“Best I not name it, miss.” The young guard lowered his head. “Entry has been processed. As the two of you left Licencia before the Tri-factor Authentication Plan was put in play, please head over to the guard office as soon as possible to register, or else roving squads from the Moon Lords may bring you in for questioning and fines.”

“Did you just say ‘Moon Lords’?” Risti asked.

“Yes, miss. In case the two of you are unaware, the Moon Lords were promoted as the top-ranking associate organisation in Licencia. While the count is away, they will work alongside his fiancée to govern the city.”

“I see.” Dia and Risti exchanged glances. This wasn’t new information to them, but the count’s proposal had seemed somewhat fantastical back when they heard it.

“Ah. I spent too much time. Please have a safe trip home, misses.”

He waved them through.

Making a beeline for the guardhouse, the two of them got their names down registered in the Tri-factor Authentication Plan. The plan, for them, took on the form of little tokens that had the nine colours of the Coloured Gods. If asked for proof of their identities, Dia would have to produce her papers, and then punch in the correct sequence of colours to create the corresponding proof.

Incidentally, Schwarz had pulled some strings in registering her as a resident of Licencia — her identification papers, the ones that Schwarz had expertly pulled out after she settled her terms of employment at the Moon Lords, actually used her real name, Dia Lyceria de Lustre.

Unfortunately, this set a rather nasty precedent. After all, Dia still had her original, honest-to-the-Moons identification documents. However, given these precedents, if she were to pull them out now, not many people would be convinced of her actual identity.

Her spirits afflicted somewhat by the entire registration process, Dia followed Risti into the streets of Licencia. The familiar streets were darkening by the second, but the rising blue moon of wisdom wasn’t going to let that happen easily.

Dia’s melancholy weakened as Plota rose. There wasn’t much point in thinking about these useless things; her main concern was navigating the next few months as one of the Moon Lords. There were a few things she could do; for instance—

“Please, I’m begging you!”

Dia jumped, and the plans whirling in her head scattered. “What’s going on? Is some scumbag trying to force himself on a woman?”

“No,” Risti replied, gesturing at two silhouettes. “It’s Claud, and he’s doing something amusing right now.”

“Claud?” Dia rubbed her eyes and took a few steps closer. It was indeed Claud, but there was something odd in his right hand. It was an odd, stick-like gadget that ended at a set of blunt claws, and those claws were currently aimed at someone’s head. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, you two are back. Welcome home, Risti, Dia.” Claud smiled. “I’m busy testing out a countermeasure against a particularly pushy salesgirl.”

“Salesgirl? Oh. Oh!” Dia chuckled. “That’s the person who sold those useless talismans to you, right?”

“Yes, that’s me! Hi! I’m Luna, a salesperson for Extra-strong Exotics. We have—"

“Right on the money,” Claud replied, cutting off her words. “After coercing me into buying a stack of useless talismans, I had to come up with a countermeasure to deter clingy people. I was intending to making it look nicer when Luna here decided to ambush me; it was fortunate that I had my countermeasure with me when that happened?”

“Are you sure that’s a countermeasure and not an instrument of revenge?” Dia asked, casting a critical eye at the two blunt claws pinching Luna’s head. “That looks painful.”

“She came to my house. Five times, each time selling some dubious product. I’m not some naïve fool in a story; the Moons look down on those who are fooled twice.” Claud grinned. “And she even tried to ambush me on the way back.”

“But doesn’t it hurt? You should release her or something,” Risti replied.

“Whether it’s painful or not is the least of my worries. If you want me to release her, sure, but only on the condition that you stop her from getting close to me,” Claud replied. “Do you want to do that? She’s desperate to sell her over-tuned junk; if you’re willing to buy, then I’ll release her.”

Luna scrunched up her face at those words, before turning her adorably-cramped face to Dia and Risti. “Do you two want to buy my Illuminators? They can create an area as bright as the sun for one hundred hours!”

Dia froze. “Sorry, one hundred what?”

“Hours!”

“Why would I ever need that?” Dia asked.

“Exactly!” Claud chimed in. “Why would anyone need that? In the first place, how does something shine as brightly as the sun for a hundred hours?”

“Never mind,” said Risti. “I’ll buy your whole stock. How much?”

“My whole stock?” Luna froze. Her hands, which were trying to pry open the claws on her, burst into an abrupt motion. Metal shrieked as the pincers deformed, and as an anguished cry came from Claud, she closed in on Risti and held her hand. “Really?”

“Now, now. Why would I lie? I might be able to use it, after all.” Risti rubbed Luna’s head with her free hand. “Come on, let’s discuss this trade…”

Dia glanced at Claud, who was now kneeling and examining his broken invention, and felt her lower lip twitch.