“The inquisitors of the White Church?” Schwarz asked.

“Yes,” Claud replied. “They’re going to be the ones investigating the murder. Captain Blake suspects that this very ritual-like murder is for the sake of acquiring a taboo skill.”

Dia winced at those words. Taboo skills were essentially skills that, if found to be in one’s status, were grounds for imprisonment and death. Most of these skills shared a bunch of commonalities that made them so deadly and repugnant enough to be banned in the civilised world today.

There were a bunch of rules.

First, skills that completely negated one’s free will without a set endpoint. Skills like Enticement or Area Compulsion had a set endpoint, and they didn’t completely negate one’s free will, which meant that they were still relatively safe. However, something like Mental Domination, Mind Crush, Enthrallment and that Absolute Domination didn’t have a set endpoint, negated one’s free will, or both.

Second, skills that were explicitly fatal without a wind-up. Things like Gaze of Death, Fatal End and Damning Gesture relied on one’s eyesight, an ill-meaning thought or a single action to kill their target immediately. These skills were taboos to an extreme, purely because anyone could be killed with a thought. The acquisition methods of these skills, thankfully, were lost to time.

Finally, skills that interfered with cause and effect. Dia, however, had no idea what kind of skills could interfere with causality; even dukes wouldn’t know about the specific details of such skills.

“Taboo skills, huh.” Risti, who had finished writing her letter, drummed her fingers on the garden table. “What kind of taboo skill would require one to kill someone in such a horrific manner?”

“Moons take me if I know too,” Farah replied. “But we are at least reasonably sure that someone was making enhanced Experiential Potions with Zulan Patra’s brain. But until we know what taboo skill the murderer was after, we should not poke our nose in this affair.”

“Agreed,” said Claud. “If we are to stand a chance, we need to at least know what kind of skill the murderer was after. If we can’t find a way to nullify or counter it, we’ll just be sending the murderer more warm bodies.”

“Seconded, motion passed.” The bartender clicked his teeth. “Still, there’s no need to lock everyone inside Moon Mansion, Claud. The murderer should be long gone by now, so telling everyone here to stay at home and lock their doors is pointless.”

“How did you—”

“Come on, buddy. Your first reaction to any form of danger is to simply hide at home and wait out the disaster,” Schwarz replied. “Your second reaction would be to think up ways to get rid of the danger, since you can’t be at ease while it’s at large.”

Dia chuckled. From the look on Claud’s face, it was clear that the bartender had read him like a book, which was just a testament to how well the two knew each other.

“Was I that obvious?”

“Yes,” Schwarz replied. “Wait, let me guess your third reaction. How much money do you want from me?”

“Money?” Lily asked.

“Yes, Lily.” Schwarz turned to her, a grin on his face. “He’s already thinking to renovate the defences of Moon Mansion. For one, we revealed our trump cards — ballistae capable of piercing through a tri-folder’s mana barrier at full force. Secondly, since we don’t know how Zulan Patra was killed, he’s assuming the worst, naturally. Right, Claud?”

“…So can we get better defences?”

“Not unless you can get me a permit to obtain, transport and install weapons that can kill tetra-folders,” Schwarz replied. “There’s a limit to what I can obtain, buddy. And a single one’s going to set us in the red for the next five years.”

Stolen story; please report.

“What?” Claud tilted his head. “Why? The ballistae didn’t cost this much!”

“No duke in their right mind would want to sell weapons that can kill them,” Schwarz. “Even if they’re old and unlikely to ever use their mana circuits ever again.”

“But by that logic, no counts would allow…hmm.”

“Well, it’s different. Tetra-folders and tri-folders are very different from each other, apparently,” Schwarz replied. “Remember that tutorial everyone has to go through when they become a folder? Yeah, there’s apparently a second tutorial of sorts when one tries to become a tetra-folder.”

“A second tutorial?” Claud asked.

“Or so the legend goes.”

Dia thought for a moment. She did recall hearing something along these lines long ago, but becoming a tetra-folder was something two centuries or so later, if she went by her original schedule. Therefore, other than just having a very barebones understanding of the second tutorial’s existence, she knew nothing else.

“It’s not actually a second tutorial,” said Risti. “It’s a test. A tribulation that has existed since the dawn of time, whenever anyone tries to surmount their position in the hierarchy of life.”

Everyone turned to look at her.

“A test?” Lily asked.

“Yes. The contents of the test vary from folder to folder, but it’s one of the reasons why there are very few tetra-folders, as compared to tri-folders,” Risti replied. “That’s why I found the death of Zulan Patra very surprising. Tetra-folders and beyond occupy the top ten percent of strength, so…”

“The more you speak,” said Claud, “the more worried I am. I didn’t know tetra-folders were this awesome, though. Do they gain any new things?”

“I could ask my father about them, if you want me to,” Risti replied. “Do the three of you have any requests?”

Farah nodded. “I do. There are some things I would like to know. For instance, the average strength of…”

Dia felt a bit useless at this sight. Unlike Farah, who was already the governor of her county, she didn’t have the kind of information she had. Risti, on the other hand, had no restraints in asking for help or information from her father or her family, which made her the real treasure trove. With their natural gifts for administration and information-gathering respectively, Dia herself couldn’t help but feel very useless.

There was little to be said about Schwarz, who was the guy in-charge of the networking, while Claud’s paranoia over remaining safe made him the best person when it came to handling emergencies. Dia hadn’t forgotten how he had managed to direct an entire play without being in Moon Mansion, and from how the bartender trusted his words, it was clear that he had proven experience in handling emergencies.

It was the same back at home. Her brother always did a better job in just about anything related to the dukedom. He was also multi-talented to boot; the only thing Dia was better at was swinging her sword and beating people in tournaments.

Her mood sank slightly. Combat was something anyone could pick up after a while; she didn’t really bring any real value to the table.

Dia stole a surreptitious glance at Lily. On her ranking of who was the most useless, Lily would rank second from the bottom, while Dia herself would rank at the very last. That said, Lily had to be feeling pressured too — but how did she deal with the pressure?

Lily, who was watching everyone else, stifled a yawn, before approaching Claud and Risti in their discussion. She didn’t say anything, however. For some reason, being able to listen in to their conversation was apparently enough to put her at ease.

The sight somewhat reminded Dia of her own childhood, when her brother stuck close to her in school back then and listened into conversations she had with the other noble scions.

“One gold for your thoughts,” a voice came from behind her.

“Schwarz?” Dia turned to look behind her. They had all been sitting around the same table, but at some point in time, the bartender had slipped out of his seat without anyone knowing.

“Yes, it’s your local friendly counsellor,” Schwarz replied. “You look troubled. Anything wrong?”

Dia pondered for a moment, and then decided to be candid. “I find myself rather…useless in the Moon Lords. I don’t really have a useful specialisation or anything like that.”

“Well, you are our best hired muscle,” Schwarz replied. “I think that’s quite irreplaceable.”

“A vanilla nearly bested me in a close fight,” Dia replied. “It’s hard to claim that I’m useful when something like that nearly happened, no?”

“You were up against someone who theoretically imbibed Zulan Patra’s prowess at a spear,” Schwarz replied. “I think the fact that you won is actually more commendable than anything else. Claud and I keep emphasising on this — mana-users are just humans with the ability to make blue light. They can still be killed, no matter what.”

Dia heaved a sigh. “Yes, I know. But the mind and the heart are different, aren’t they?”

“…Want some apple juice? It’s the usual drink when it comes to me counselling others properly.”

“Alright.”

“Let’s go inside, then. Did you see the new bar counter I made in the living room? There’s actually drinks there…”