“Farah, what are you doing?” Risti asked, a mischievous grin on her face.

“Huh? I’m just feeding a…wait, you’re back?” Farah rubbed her eyes. “Nice. How was your trip? Any dangers? Did Nero tell any interesting stories about his childhood that we can blackmail him for lifestones with?”

Nero eyed her. “Do you really think I’m that dumb? Of course not. Anyway, what are you doing? Feeding Moonlit babies?”

“I’m contributing to the economy here,” Farah replied. “And feeding Moonlit bab—oh.”

The toddler ambled away from her and moved on to the next stall. Farah and the stallowner exchanged looks of dismay as the queue there moved to follow the baby.

“…All these customers are really free, huh?” Risti muttered.

“Well, there’s nothing much to do in recent times. And Moonlit babies are great for one’s morale. Anyway, since you guys are back, let’s hurry home first. You three must be bushed!” Farah rubbed her shoulders, before grimacing as she straightened her back, which gave off some cracking sounds. “Am I getting old?”

“Not if you continue to take in more lifestones,” Risti replied. “Anyway, you should fill us in about the situation so far. Did anything new happen in Licencia? Did you use my Skyward Eye?”

Farah’s face darkened. “Sure did. There was an actual assassination attempt on Caroline, and Count Nightfall got us to use Skyward Eye to look for the culprit. We found her a few hours later, and the two lovebirds in the palace took flight and executed the assassin on the spot.”

“An assassination attempt on Caroline of all people?” Dia blinked. “Crap, Daybreak! Count Nightfall might think that he was the one responsible for all this! When did the assassination occur?”

“Five days ago,” Farah replied.

“Oh.” Dia relaxed. “The count should be able to tell that it was someone else, then. Still, why would anyone want to assassinate Caroline? She’s harmless.”

“A crime of passion?” Risti suggested. “I mean, there are probably a few naïve young ladies who are head over heels for the count. He is rather eligible too…”

“Maybe it’s because Caroline came from Lostfon,” Dia muttered. “Maybe an enemy of the Lostfon family?”

“Or maybe it was something the Church of the Red God did,” Nero added. “Won’t put it past them, to be honest.”

The four of them wondered about the assassination and the reasons behind it for a few minutes, and then decided to pay Caroline a visit tomorrow. There was no point in wondering this hard about things they couldn’t quite grasp anyway.

“Anything else?” Risti asked.

“Not really. Most of us are now simply spending time with the Moon babies,” Farah replied. “Not many of us have the heart to plot or scheme with the toddlers around.”

“I-I see.” Risti cleared her throat. “So it’s been peaceful save for that assassination, then. Any news from the outside?”

“There’s nothing much new. The war between the Dark and the Moons is ongoing, but it’s still a stalemate.” Farah shook her head. “The barrier’s still going strong. As for upgrades to Licencia and Moon Mansion…Schwarz has already expanded quite a few things.”

She paused. “You can ask him about it later. Anyway, how was your trip?”

“After arriving at Daybreak, we stayed there for a week and noticed a whole bunch of people disappearing. Unfortunately, a Bearer of Destiny attacked at that point, trapping us all in just as we were about to leave.” Risti paused. “We were forced to head back and offer aid to Count Daybreak. After a bunch of events, we discovered the Holy Son of the Red God there and trying to start a blood sacrifice to summon presumably the Red God or His attendants.”

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“He escaped?” Farah asked. “And what’s with this trip of yours? Why did so many things happen on that short trip to Daybreak?”

Dia rubbed her nose, having remembered that Farah’s own trip out was also fraught with all kinds of troubles. She didn’t know where she got this courage to produce such a righteous indignation

“What, we can’t kill him?” Risti replied. “You think we don’t have the strength?”

“Well, if you guys killed him, we would have seen another ominous proclamation,” Farah replied. “Everyone would be in fear once more…or at least the mana-users. The normal people are already aware of something brewing, but not everyone knows what exact issue is.”

Dia nodded. “The closer people are to a mana-user, the more aware they are of the true eye of the storm. The people in Daybreak County probably didn’t even know that there was a huge barrier locking us in Istrel Sovereignty, but everyone here…you can see the fear and doubt in their faces.”

“It can’t be helped.” Risti sighed. “It’s hard not to notice when the rich families are stocking up on food, provisions and other things.”

Farah laughed. “Besides, Schwarz is going all out to hire people to expand the underground complex beneath Moon Mansion. People are wondering why he’s beefing up security and trying to make an underground farm.”

“An underground farm?” Dia blinked. “He’s joking, right?”

“He’s not,” Farah replied. “He’s also trying to work out what are the best crops to grow in such a space. I’m not sure what got into his head, but he’s saying that the Moons and the Dark will soon blot out the sun. Something about artificial lightning and farming underground being the future of humanity.”

“That sounds ominous,” Nero muttered.

“Anyway, you guys need to tell me everything about Daybreak County later,” Farah replied. “The way you guys just summarised the whole thing isn’t particularly useful, and I’m dying to hear about this rather rich county. Maybe I can exploit it or something for my own people and things like that.”

“Exploit it?” Dia glanced at Risti and Nero, who hid their smiles. “Hmm. I think we should all go back and rest. Dreams are nice and pretty, yes.”

“…Are you implying that Daybreak is even worse off?”

“Well, the Daybreak Palace has been destroyed, for one. And there isn’t enough money to rebuild it, so the count has decided to freeload at Nightfall Palace for some time,” Dia replied. “Apparently, Count Daybreak is broke.”

“What.”

Risti laughed. “Yeah, I know. Unbelievable, but that’s how it is. The Holy Son of the Red God called upon His spirit clone and managed to hold out against lightning from the Moons themselves, before fleeing to the Schwa Dukedom. And in doing so…the Daybreak Palace was destroyed in passing and everything.”

“Ouch. Poor count.” Farah shook her head, and then stopped at the gates of Moon Mansion. “At least you guys are safe and sound, though. Welcome home, the three of you. Schwarz should be at the basement, supervising the construction efforts of an underground farm. Be careful not to step on the crops.”

The booth that governed entry and exit groaned a few times as it ferried them across the dome, and Dia once again felt a touch of relief as she entered the protection of the dome. It did, however, feel a bit fragile, after seeing the destruction of Daybreak Palace…

“Maybe we should make the dome stronger or something,” Dia suggested. “I don’t feel that safe anymore. Can we make it sturdier or something?”

“Just get washed up first and take a rest. We’ll be busy soon enough…and as for the sturdier bit, I’ll try to work something out,” Farah replied. “I’m sure I can dig up some money, but as for the actual thing, that’s still very much in the air. We’ll need to ask Schwarz about the fellows who built such a thing, and they might not be in this county anymore.”

“Alright, go for it!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Farah patted their shoulders. “Welcome back, guys. We’ll get the chef to whip out something nice. You guys go wash up and rest. I’m sure we’ll have some visitors at night or tomorrow morning; Nightfall’s going to come for some questions, after all. Might as well face him fully rested. He’ll freak out if everyone else looks like a dead man walking, after all.”

Dia yawned. “Okay. We’ll leave everything to you then.”

“Yeah, we’re counting on you.”

“Thanks.”

The three of them walked past Farah, who had an odd look on her face. Dia, who had also felt like she was dumping the remaining work on her, wanted to walk it back or something, but the three of them didn’t really do anything…

After enduring the short session of awkwardness for a while, Dia decided to just ignore her thoughts and return to her room. It was as clean as ever; for some reason, Moon Mansion never seemed to get dirty, and after plopping down her luggage, she thought about the debriefing tomorrow and felt her face tingle.

Count Nightfall definitely had more jobs for them, given that someone had actually tried to seriously assassinate his fiancée.

Sighing, she entered the bathroom and went to wash up.