As Claud fiddled with his near-empty plate, Lily looked the count in the eye and said, “What ails you, Count Lostfon?”
“Many things, I guess. However, given the nature of the troubles heaped onto my plate right now, there’s only a few things that you two can help me in,” said the count. “I’ll naturally recompense you two handsomely, and—”
“Before we make any rash promises here and there, I think it would be prudent for us to know what problem you’re exactly facing. It would be a problem if we agreed and the deed you asked us to do is beyond our ability,” Claud replied. “What’s going on?”
The count’s eyes flickered once, and he leaned on the back of his chair. “Now, how should I start? Hmm. Okay. Not too long ago, on a day as dismal as this one, the Dark Herald visited me at my palace and asked for a cup of tea.”
“Wait, the Dark Herald grabbed a cup of tea at your place?” Lily asked, intrigued. “Are you two friends?”
“Considering how neither of us made the other’s life hard, you can say that, I guess,” Count Lostfon replied. “After I reassured him that I had nothing to do with the total destruction of their pioneer forces, who were actually coming forward to present their initial terms of negotiation, the Dark Herald dropped his anger.”
Claud felt his heart lurch at that nonchalant revelation, but he didn’t let it show on his face. Remorse and a desire to survive didn’t necessarily contradict each other, and to smooth over the light jolt in his heartbeat, Claud asked, “So you two have been talking to each other for some time, then?”
“Yes, you can say that. In the end, the Shadow Soldiers are just like normal soldiers, told to obey the instructions of their superiors. All of them have their own lives and free will, or so I’m told.” Lostfon smiled. “They’re not all that different from us.”
Those words were clearly intended to reassure Claud and Lily that the Dark wasn’t so bad as the rumours made it out to be, but to him, the only thing these words did was to make him feel even more worse somehow. Once again, Claud fought to control his expressions and emotions, and he forced out a smile.
“That’s reassuring,” Claud said. “How about food?”
“They also eat too,” said Count Lostfon. “Like I said, they’re not that different from you and me. Sure, they don’t speak with words, but that doesn’t mean that they’re incapable of communication or have a lacking culture. Rather, they communicate through thoughts alone; thinking thoughts backed with one’s will and emotions are more than enough to talk to them.”
He paused for a moment. “Regretfully, we can’t do the same thing, and not many people of the Dark are capable of speaking to us, since they lack the correct organs. It’s understandable why people get spooked this easily.”
“I see,” said Lily. “So, what did the Dark Herald ask of you?”
Count Lostfon grimaced. “Apparently, there’s some low-key resistance in the county territory. Not within the city itself, but reports of people trying to hamper operations out in the territory. The Shadowed Ones have their hands tied in this matter; they can’t act against us humans.”
“Shadowed Ones?” Claud asked.
“The general term referring to the people of the great Dark,” Lostfon replied. “Anyway, both the Dark Herald and I made a contract, and that contract is preventing them from doing anything substantial to the people who have been harassing the armies of the great Dark. The Dark Herald tells me that his boss, whoever that being is, is starting to regret entering such an agreement.”
“How strictly bound are they by it?” Lily asked.
“They’ll need to return the Terra Jewel and depart the city if they intend on being able to harm our people,” said Lostfon. “And once they return a second time, I don’t think we’ll be able to enjoy such a privileged position.”
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Claud fell silent for a moment. “Give us a day. We’ll give you an answer to your request after that.”
“A day?”
“Yes.” Claud glanced at Lily, who nodded her head slightly. She had probably guessed why he’d made such a request, instead of outright accepting the count’s plea for help. “We want to investigate these claims first, and then make our own call afterwards. We cannot afford to harm the wrong people, and you probably know that there are quite a few people from this city that are living in the wild right now.”
“The wild? Really?”
“Maybe you should pay attention to the gates or something,” Claud suggested. “Besides, can’t the Shadowed Ones capture those troublemakers and then see if they’re from this region? They might not be natives of Lostfon, right?”
“Possible, yes,” said Count Lostfon. “But the Dark Herald didn’t provide me with many details either. Would you like to meet him and talk about it? It’ll be better than me giving you an extra day, after all.”
Claud fell silent. He could vaguely tell that the count was trying to get the requestor in person to handle the details. Maybe Count Lostfon wanted to remove himself from this matter at hand. Other possibilities included having a scapegoat unconnected to him if things went south— since all he’d done was to act as a contact bridging two people — as well as an attempt to absolve himself of any responsibility due to errors in the provided information.
Whatever the reason, it was clear that they wouldn’t continue on in this matter if the two of them chose not to meet the Dark Herald.
“I’ll let you guys think about it for a while,” said Count Lostfon. “I’m going to chat with some old people."
Was that also a threat? Claud looked at the count as he ambled back to the counter, and then pondered on the entire situation in silence. There were too many things he had to look out for, but he knew that he wasn’t in quite the best state of mind either.
“Lily,” Claud called out. Before he could continue with his request, however, Lily had held up a hand, a small smile on her face.
“You take a rest. I’ll make the decision for the two of us, okay? Don’t worry about it.” Her eyes twinkled as she spoke. “Give me a minute or two first, though. I want to run through the entire thing.”
Claud nodded and busied himself with eating the rest of his food in silence. Cutting small pieces of chicken and dipping them in the black pepper sauce, Claud tried his best to think, but the off-handed method in which Count Lostfon revealed the details and circumstances of the people that Claud had killed wasn’t helping him much.
If the choice had been left to him, Claud knew that he would have agreed. He owed the Dark…or rather, the family of the Shadowed Ones that he’d killed, too much. He would probably disregard the risk or try to nullify it with a wasteful expenditure of trump cards.
Therefore, Lily was the best person to make the call and in deciding how they would proceed.
After around three minutes, Lily looked up and said, “I think we should take Count Lostfon up on his offer.”
Claud took a deep breath. “Why?”
“Because the count made a good point…but we can consider it from a different angle. The great Dark and its children are ancient entities. How could they tolerate being tripped over by mortals like you and me?” Lily made a sad smile. “The greater the person, the greater they react to actual insults. If push came to shove, the scenario Count Lostfon envisioned would almost certainly come to pass. We’ll be in trouble then.”
“Okay. We’ll do it your way.” Claud closed his eyes for a moment. “You’ll handle this operation; I’ll be your faithful supporter to the end.”
“That last bit sounds very ominous, do you know that?” Lily rapped his head lightly. “Well, let’s call the count back and tell him to set up a meet—”
Count Lostfon turned his head to their table. “I heard you two. A meeting, then. Any special requests?”
“Bring out your best chef for us,” Lily replied. “We expect a full course meal complete with delicacies and fine drinks. That’s par for the course, right? And we’ll also need to talk about renumeration in detail, so maybe you can prepare a few legal specialists.”
“Is the latter really necessary?” Count Lostfon let out a visible sigh. “Fine, fine. I’ll go through a formal contract with you two. Sheesh. How does a formal lunch tomorrow sound like?”
“We’ll go with that, then,” Lily replied.
Since the two of them didn’t really have much to actually do, any time was fine with them, but Claud could vaguely recall that intruding on a noble’s dinnertime was a bad idea. Lily had probably gone with Lostfon’s proposal of lunch due to that fact…either that, or she preferred the dinner special here over the lunch special.
After confirming their little appointment, Count Lostfon made his excuses and left, his gait a tiny bit lighter than when he first entered.
Lily looked at Claud a few seconds later. “Let’s go to bed a bit earlier, alright?”
“I’m done with my food anyway,” Claud replied, reaching out to pat her head. “Thanks for everything.”
Poking her cheeks lightly, the two of them returned their plates and went upstairs.