“We haven’t voted yet, but I know that this is probably a suggestion that will almost certainly get Claud to smack your head.” Farah looked at Dia and rolled her eyes. “That’s almost certainly stupid. Why would you throw yourself into battle over and over again? That’s pointless.”

“Especially since we have enough resources,” Risti replied, leaning back on her chair. She and Dia had breakfast a lot earlier than usual, but that didn’t stop Risti from eating her share for the actual deal later. Dia had no intention to criticise her either; she too had scoffed down a second helping.

It was a shame that all that nutrition went to her muscles, though.

“Enough to get us all to complete our fourth mana circuit?” Dia questioned.

“No,” Farah admitted. “But going into the battlefield to grab some prana jade isn’t exactly the best idea either.”

“They’re renewable sources that can turn into pure-ranked lifestones,” Dia replied. “And I think we’ll be safer overall if everyone’s a tetra-folder. At the end of the day, we’ll need to take risks one way or another.”

“And Farah, I won’t be this sure about that either.” Schwarz walked up with a platter of drinks. “A fruity drink, anyone? It’s an early drink, so I’ve made it a tiny bit bracing.”

“What did you brew up?” Nero asked, taking a seat with a head of wet hair. “Also, I heard something about heading to the battlefront.”

“Lemonade. Anyway, Dia here had the bright idea of heading over to the battlefront to pick up some prana jade and to earn some resources from the Moons,” Schwarz replied.

“Bright idea?” Farah repeated. “Wait, are you actually approving of this?”

“Claud, while cautious, won’t smack Dia’s head for that suggestion,” Schwarz replied. “That’s rude, to begin with. Since they’re not that close. Anyway, he’s not the kind that will just hide passively. There’s actually quite the high chance that he’s at the frontlines, racking up free lifestones from doing sneaky work.”

“Eh?” Risti looked at Schwarz. “Really? Why didn’t you mention that?”

“If he really wanted you guys to know, he’d have told you,” Schwarz replied. “And besides, I only made a guess recently. Our intelligence has covered the entire sovereignty save for the battlefield at the borders. I would not put it past him to wander there with Lily at some point in time and think that it was a good time to make a killing.”

“I-is that so…” Farah looked at him. “You sound really confident.”

“He won’t lie over and let some threat sweep him over, that’s for sure. He is a coward, but if need be, he will act proactively to preserve his life and that of others.” Schwarz picked up a cup and took a sip from it. “Don’t think he’s just a regular coward. He’s a proactive one, heh.”

“I think that’s a description he’d like, yes,” Farah muttered. “So, what do you guys think? I know it’s really early, but this is really important for our future direction. Not only can we replenish our depleted stocks, we can also find Claud…well, assuming he’s there.”

“He might be outside the sovereignty too, if he’s using that route,” Schwarz warned. “Don’t get your hopes up.”

“Outside the sovereignty?” Dia repeated. “Why?”

“Well, there are good…business opportunities. Untapped markets and everything.” Schwarz coughed. “Anyway, don’t think about it too much.

The few of them talked about it for a little while longer, before Schwarz wrapped the table. “There’s me, Farah, Risti, you and Nero. Five of us. No annoying tiebreakers. So, what do you guys think? We’ll raise it to a vote. Those who want to head over to the battlefront, raise your hand.”

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Dia raised her hand, along with Schwarz.

“Ah.” Schwarz looked at the three others. “Well, I’ll just do this anyway. Those who explicitly don’t want to head to the battlefront, raise you hands.”

Farah and Risti raised theirs.

Everyone turned to Nero, who was staring at his cup of lemonade, and Schwarz let out a sigh. “Yeah, I figured. This guy doesn’t really care. Nero’s quite comfortable as it is…but can you actually choose a side?”

Nero looked at him. “People need to think, alright? I’m trying to think of what’s the best course of action here. It’s not easy. And to be honest, I think this is too early. Rather than having everyone decide on an opinion less than an hour after hearing about it. Shouldn’t we take some time to think through it? Lay out the facts, do some basic rationalisation…”

“…Maybe it’s the morning.” Dia sipped from her cup. “And we’re all stressed, but you do make a good point.”

Everyone grunted.

“We’ll reconvene on this tomorrow, then. I do agree that we’ve probably feeling a bit too pressured from this, and we definitely need to give this some thought.” Schwarz jiggled his shoulders. “In that case, let’s finish up here and return to work. It’s a bit troublesome…”

“Troublesome?” Dia asked. “What’s troublesome?”

“Oh, Count Nightfall just asked for you, Nero and Risti again. Something about needing help for disappearances throughout the city. You guys are getting very good at investigating these things, apparently.”

“Or maybe because we have more combat power or something,” Nero replied. “You guys are deskbound and can’t really wield a weapon well. It’s a bit painful…anyway, we should go to the palace. Sounds serious.”

Risti nudged Dia under the table, and she got the message. From the sounds of it, Count Nightfall was probably suspecting something along the lines of Limbo for these recent disappearances, but that felt a bit improbable. After all, mana-users were still quite rare. It didn’t make sense that there would actually be an incident or something.

She ruminated on a bit as the others shared more information. Other than the Moons’ forces, which were on the backfoot despite no changes in personnel deployment so far, there were a few other interesting pieces of news. For instance, the Moons had started a recruitment drive for people to sign up with their forces. It was probably why Schwarz was quite keen on heading over and doing a few missions here and there, since these rewards were minimally pure-ranked lifestones.

Minimally, yes. Apparently, there were even more items like artefacts and skillsticks with long-lost skills on them, all of which sounded quite useful to Dia.

Other interesting things included the appearance of a new Named tetra-folder, who had taken down a rogue folder three days ago in the Julan Barony, which was still under the administration of the Grandis Empire official sent there. A bit further away, in the Schwa Dukedom, the last lifestone mine there are dried out, sending prices spiralling upwards…

Everyone paused at that last bit of news.

“Maybe we should give that proposal a bit more thought,” Risti muttered. “Prices are shooting up, after all.”

“I wonder who the main buyers are.” Schwarz bobbed his head. “Nobles? Is Count Nightfall part of the reason? Or are we talking about individual folders rushing to grab as many as they could right now?”

“It’s hard to tell,” Farah replied. “From what I know, it’s literally chaos out there in Schwa Dukedom. The last lifestone was extracted without any fanfare, and business went on as usual for around three days until the miners realised that they had, collectively speaking, never extracted any new lifestones at all in that period.”

“Three days?” Schwarz blinked. “Now hold up there. How did they not notice for three days?”

“Beats me,” Farah replied, but that announcement instantly sent prices soaring. "In fact, Farah County is beginning to welcome prospectors hoping to find lifestones, after centuries of being marked as a low-prospect area.”

“How does that work?” Dia asked.

“Since Farah County was a low-prospect area, it means that no one has bothered prospecting it seriously, or that mines there are very small,” Farah replied. “What this means to an increasingly starved sovereignty, however, is that my territory hasn’t been exploited yet. They’re pushing for licences and everything, those mining conglomerates.”

“And what’s your response?” Schwarz asked.

“We’re putting them on hold and training up our military,” Farah replied. “They can wait for a while first. The price will only go up, never down. And even if it does go down, I don’t lose anything much. In the first place, I don’t really like the idea of people ordering my people around to mine. And I don’t want them to bring in too many labourers either. The economy of Farah is stable, and I prefer stability over growth made from the sacrifices of my people.”

“Sounds like you’ve heard about the dark side of lifestone mining,” Schwarz observed. “What do you have in mind, then?”

“I’ll think about it, but I’ll probably leave it as something unimportant for now. A few mining companies can close down and I won’t even bat an eye.” Farah chuckled. “Any other interesting things?”

“Oh, there’s been a spate of murders in a certain county…”

“More murders?”