“So many lifestones.” Claud eyed the nice pile of glittering green on the black tablecloth, and then chuckled at the brilliant contrast. Baron Inanis’ nice pile of lifestones, which numbered over five hundred at first glance, was proof of just how much he had extorted the local mines. More importantly, the number of high and pure-ranked lifestones were not that different from the number of middle and lower-ranked ones, which meant that the baron and his cronies hadn’t been picky with their choices…which left quite a few implications here and there.
Lily gulped. “That’s a lot of money here.”
“Right? The local price for even a low-ranked lifestone is even higher than Licencia too, at sixty gold, and it gets pricier from there on,” Claud replied. “But don’t worry about money. I snatched quite a bit of notes too.”
“We’re set for life…is what I want to say, but you’re going to force those lifestones down my throat, right?” Lily asked.
“The others will glare at me if you’re still a one-folder when all this blows over. And it’s going to put you at risk too. Knowing Schwarz, he’s definitely pushing for everyone to become a bi-folder or even a tri-folder. He’ll laugh at me all day long if I can’t raise you, a single person, to that level.”
Lily looked at him, and then tossed a high-ranked lifestone into her mouth. “Thanks, Claud.”
Claud smiled back. “Take what you need. Might as well take in your quota of mid-ranked lifestones too. Use it to the point of saturation.”
“Don’t you need them too?” Lily asked.
“I can process the low-ranked ones,” Claud replied.
Crown popped out of his clothes at those words, before turning the pile of low-ranked lifestones into green light that surged into Claud’s body. With the demonstration done, the small box hopped back into his coat, and Claud shrugged. “See? He’s so adorable.”
Lily picked up another lifestone and sighed. “You…really are lucky, aren’t you?”
The smile on her face vanished. “Claud. You need to be careful, though. It’s too…easy. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that there was some peculiar force guiding you, leading you to a certain destination. I don’t know if that’s really the case, nor do I know what’s the best response to offer, but…don’t get cocky, okay?”
Her serious words made Claud nod once. Instead of replying with a standard snarky response, Claud reached and held her hand. “I won’t.”
“You should also give this more thought too,” Lily pushed on. “I…don’t quite believe in coincidences. And you said it yourself, right?”
“Said what myself?” Claud asked.
“When you were telling me about how you met Crown,” said Lily. “The details of your presence in the duke’s treasury…you told me that the details were a bit blurry.”
“Yeah, due to my adrenaline. My first time in a duke’s treasury, you know,” Claud replied. “Why do you bring that up?”
Lily looked at him, and then eventually shook her head. “Maybe I’m just paranoid. It’s late at night, my Claud just busted into a house for me, and there’s a pile of green life in front of me.”
“You make that last bit sound off,” Claud replied. “It’s just a bunch of gems, alright? And you need to be stronger too. Come on, open your mouth.”
“I-I’ll do it myself,” Lily replied, before picking up a lifestone, Unlike Claud’s favourite way, which was popping them a few at a time, Lily’s method was more refined, more elegant, and Claud pondered on her style of consuming lifestones. Was it something her upbringing taught her? Or was it societal expectations for women rearing its head here?
Claud didn’t know, but after making a mental note to tell Lily to eat those gemstones however she liked, the master thief gazed at Lily as she stuffed one lifestone after another down her throat. The look on her face made him smile, and before he knew it, a wave of drowsiness had washed over him.
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Lily shifted closer to him, and without a word, pulled him in such a way that Claud was partially leaning on her shoulders. Patting his head, she held one of his hands, and then resumed the boring task of eating one lifestone at a time.
He tried to speak, but the drowsiness was too strong. As her body lit up with green light once more, the warmth enveloped his mind, and Claud felt asleep.
The darkness behind his eyelids seemed to last for only a few minutes, before the chirping of birds entered his ears. Claud’s eyelids opened slowly, and his memory of a dark living room, lit up by green light, was replaced by a living room illuminated by the rising sun.
Dawn had come.
A nice warmth slept away on his lap, and Claud smiled as he looked down. Lily had finished swallowing every last lifestone, as evidenced by the cleared table. Her long violet hair, which was sprawled messily, was too enticing for Claud not to play with, and he spent the next hour or so toying with it, while thinking of Lily’s words last night.
She had a point there. For some reason, Claud couldn’t quite remember the details of his heist in the duke’s treasury. He could recall a few things, but they were more of…facts, than things he actually remembered occurring. His mind told him that the person named ‘Claud’ had broken into the duke’s treasury, and then picked up a small box. Unfortunately, a trap activated, a trap that somehow removed all active skills, and while Claud managed to activate Presence Nullification a second time…
“Urgh.” Claud shook his head. Things didn’t quite match up. His memory of his escape and before the escape had too many oddities, now that he thought about it. Why on Grandis did he use Absolute One a day ago? Who was he trying to show off too? That didn’t make sense. His mind told him that he was trying to win a bet or something, but Claud knew that he would never use Absolute One on a whim. It was his trump card, something that he definitely never let anyone know about, so why would he do such a thing?
Second, he could vaguely recall that he used Presence Nullification when it first wore off. In that case, why did it wear off during his escape? He hadn’t done anything that would make it stop working back then, right?
The master thief let out a sigh. He had, for some reason, chosen to ignore all these red flags back then. If Lily hadn’t brought it to the forefront of his mind…
“Mind, huh.”
Lily stirred in her sleep, letting out a sad noise, and Claud patted her head gently. She shifted once more, and then made a small smile. His hand patted her head on a regular rhythm, a method that Claud hoped would drive away whatever malignant nightmare that had affected her just now.
After making sure that she was nice and happy again, Claud looked up at the ceiling. He was reasonably certain now. Something had happened during the heist. Or even before it. Something that didn’t just change his personality and character somewhat, but also obscured the details of doing so. In addition, that person or whatever had made it such that the events of that night would not pop up in Claud’s consciousness as much as possible.
“Thanks, Lily.” Claud squished her cheek gently. “What would I do without you?”
“Thank you too, Claud. I love you,” Lily mumbled, before burying her face into his stomach.
Massaging his chest, he looked down on his sleeptalking lover, before sighing. Lily didn’t like to say those words out loud, as a rule of thumb, but clearly, she had no qualms vocalising her ardent passion while asleep.
This odd contrast had its own charm, though, and Claud leaned back. For now, however, he had no idea what that person’s aim was or anything related to that…person at all.
Heck, it might not even be a person.
Either way, Claud now knew that he had been manipulated that night. How far did the manipulation carry on? So many events had fallen into place to make a scenario in which growing stronger for Claud was far easier, compared to just about anyone else.
Whatever the reason, little old Crown was his Divine Life Companion, and no one was going to change that fact. In fact, if this person’s machinations were the reason behind why he made such a friend, Claud had half the mind to thank that person.
Assuming, of course, that Lily’s suspicions were right and that there was actually something or someone directing his every movement so far. The possibility of everything being just pure coincidence also existed too, and unfortunately for Claud, this felt like one of those situations where things could just line up nicely. Without more details, Claud had a feeling that this could very well remain an unsolved mystery, which meant that there was no more point thinking about it. Therefore, Claud devoted the rest of his attention to patting Lily’s head gently, which seemed to make her relax.
The sunlight was halfway through its conquest of his room when Lily finally stirred awake.
“You’re up, my sleeping beauty.” Claud rubbed her head. “Good morning. I hope you had a good rest.”
“I had a good dream, I think.” Lily smiled. “One in which my mum patted my head while I slept.”
Making a mental note to do that every day, Claud held her hand. “Good job last night. I’m sorry to make you work that late, though. And…well, we need to go to the library today. Shall we wash up?”
“Okay!” Lily smiled. “Let’s go, then!”
Guiding her by the hand, the two of them returned to their bedroom, and the sounds of running water soon filled the room.