The shocking ease in which Caroline had gotten rid of poor old Tugly was an eye-opener for Claud. He had roughly guessed what had happened; Caroline had infused mana into the skill stored inside the skillstrip, to the point that the amount used was far in excess of her maximum control. After that, she unleashed a single decisive strike, ending the entire battle.

“That sounds about right,” said Lily. “I wonder what’s her Mana Control Proficiency, though.”

“Should be like mine, I guess,” Claud replied.

“…Right. I forgot, O agent of the dark night.” Lily giggled. “Intermediate, huh. How do I train it anyway? Do you mind demonstrating some of your mana control?”

“Here? Now?” Claud blinked. “At least pay attention to the time and place, really.”

He got up and extended a hand to Lily, who took it.

“What now?” Lily asked. “Should we go and say hi to Caroline and report our findings? I mean, she is here anyway. Might as well close the job or something and burn down the forest.”

“…Let’s be honest, you probably just want to try bombing the forest, right?” Claud asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

“What? No, of course not!” Lily waved her hands vehemently. “Who would do such a thing? That would be utterly horrible!”

“That grin on your face tells me otherwise, though.” Lily’s face scrunched up as Claud bopped her on the head lightly. “And I don’t think blowing the forest up now is a good idea, considering the countless eyewitness reports about the explosive ascent of the Julan main house. You might end up having to sip tea with the Emperor’s men…”

“Eek.” Lily looked down for a moment, only for her face to brighten up. “But I wasn’t planning to use bombs! I made something new not too long ago. It can set a huge area on fire upon simply tossing it!”

“…How many of those things are currently sitting in Moon Mansion?” Claud asked.

She puffed herself up. “None!”

“…They’re all here? On you?” Claud asked.

“Uh-huh.” Lily smiled. “You said not to leave any in the house, right? So I took them all with them.”

“That’s marginally better, I guess, but still…it’s dangerous.” Claud sighed. “And I’m feeling a bit scared now too, since they’re all on you, but if they don’t malfunction, that’s good enough. And I have lots of artefacts, so it’s…fine. Sort of.

He rubbed his head. “If I ever have the chance, I’m going to get you a storage artefact. If things explode, at least it won’t explode on you, me and anyone else that’s close by. While I’m at it, I’m going to buy a few more and stuff all the equipment on me…as well as my fizzy drinks inside.”

“How much space is there inside?”

“That’s a good question, really,” Claud replied, before making his way to Caroline. “But I’m positive that we can stuff a bunch of weapons inside easily. Definitely going to make travelling easier and—huh.”

“What’s wrong?” Lily asked.

“Can we place your bombs inside that magical pot of yours?” Claud asked. “You know, the one that we cooked stew together in.”

“It can only shrink itself, so that’s not really possible,” Lily replied, patting his head. “But good try, though.”

“I feel like a student getting praised by his teacher for some reason,” Claud muttered. “But well, it’s nice to get headpats. I wish I can get more once in a while. It’s usually me doing the patting, after all.”

He cricked his neck. “Yep, Caroline definitely spotted us. Come on, let’s speed up.”

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After a few minutes of walking, which somehow seemed far shorter than the time they spent fleeing away from the forest, the duo arrived at Caroline, who was picking apart Tugly with her sabre. Her face was grim and overcast, much like the sky, and it didn’t take much in the way of observation to know why.

The monster had a nasty-looking dark sheen in its innards. Red and black meshed together, giving the monster a half-decayed look. At first glance, Claud could tell that this alteration was completely unnatural; something that made him shiver.

“Claud, Lily.” Caroline continued to look down on the slain monster. “What do you make of this?”

“I think this monster is related to the recent disappearances that have plagued convoys here and there,” said Lily. “We came to this forest for the express purpose of looking for the source of those disappearances, after all.”

“Oh?”

As Lily briefly narrated the deduction that had led them here, Claud squatted to examine the dead Tugly slowly. Putting aside the odd blackness that had eaten into its flesh, blood and bones, the master thief had never seen such a monster before. If it was so huge, its approach here would have been noticed, no?

In that case, it was possible that this monster was a native of this forest and then grew up on its own, but that would not explain the corpses that were — according to Lily — buried there. Affected by the pervasive darkness and whatever other nonsense that was stuck inside the ominous mist, the monster probably changed over time and grew more aggressive.

“I see. This forest is a danger, then,” said Caroline.

Lily nodded rapidly, but before she could suggest her own method of taking the forest out, Caroline had let out a long sigh. “I am inclined to trust the instincts of our professionals. Furthermore, this forest is indeed a place for darkened monsters to hide in. Therefore, we’ll destroy it. Flatten it and replant the area with trees and crops. It’s destructive, but there’s not much of a choice here.”

“Flatten it?” Claud asked.

“Yes. By means of ritual magic,” said Caroline. “I brought a small group of mages along with me when I arrived at Licencia. They’ve been sitting around and playing cards; they’ll be happy to have something to do.”

“M-mages, huh?” Claud eyed the forest. “I’m not looking down on them, but are they really useful?”

“Well, most mana-users would think that they are fairly useless, but that’s because they don’t know what the Mana Manipulation skill actually does,” said Caroline. “It enhances their Mana Control Proficiency to Intermediate for thirty minutes and more importantly, converts their mana in their body into a more universal form of mana. With Mana Manipulation, one could transmit the mana in their body to another person easily.”

Claud blinked. “That sounds really useful.”

“It is. That’s why mages are indispensable. They can replace single-use trump cards and all-out attacks by lower-level folders, and also top-up mana reserves of other folders if need be,” said Caroline. “They’re quite the military resource, if nothing else.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that,” Lily muttered.

“Of course. Such information is generally limited. If normal organisations catch wind of such information, they could potentially upend the status quo and everything,” said Caroline.

“So why are you telling us all this?” Claud asked.

“You two are very cautious, paranoid. I don’t think you two are the type to share these things around and cause me and my darling alarm, right?” Caroline asked. “The Moon Lords aren’t that ambitious too.”

Claud didn’t quite know what to think about this candid admission, but he wasn’t going to put complete faith in it. At any rate, raising mages was clearly a no-no for them — he could at least discern this much.

“I was going to ask about Mana Manipulation,” said Claud, “but I think I’m going to drop that idea instead.”

Caroline chuckled. “I’m glad you understand. With people like you in the Moon Lords, I can foresee a long period of partnership. We don’t ask for much, and we pay quite a bit. We just expect your cooperation and acknowledgement.”

Grunting once, Claud turned to the forest. “So, ritual magic, huh.”

“The Thief of Time apparently survived ritual magic that invoked the White God’s divine power,” said Lily.

“So I’ve heard,” said Caroline. “And you can cancel the word ‘apparently’. He did survive Grand Cross, which was indeed backed by the White God. I’m not sure how, but if he shows up in Licencia…”

She paused dramatically, and the two of them leaned forward.

“I’m going to treat him to a drink and ask him how he did it,” Caroline completed, before turning around to look at the two of them. “What? Do you think I’m stupid? Tot came by and smacked Zulan Patra into the ground, and then crushed the Third Bearer of Destiny. He might be still around here. I’m not uttering anything stupid.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t ‘oh’ me, young lady.” Caroline rolled her eyes. “Well, let’s go grab the mages and have them turn this place into arable farmland. Have the two of you seen ritual magic before?”

For obvious reasons, Claud wasn’t going to show off his record of surviving ritual magic — which currently stood at seven regular instances and one instance backed by a god — so he simply shook his head.

“Excellent.” She glanced at Lily, who also shook her head. “It’ll be an eyeopener, then.”