After placing their backpacks in the same room, Claud pulled out the little room that he’d made for the little fellows and set it on the unused bed. “Think it’s a good time to introduce those little guys now?”

“Yeah, but you’ll have to tell them about their origins. Is it safe?” Lily asked. “I mean, that happened not too long ago…”

“Don’t worry about it. After all, we went to the Celestia Ruins quite some time ago, long before the Moons descended,” Claud replied, making sure to omit the second time they went. “And Count Lostfon already knew that we went there anyway. It won’t be a problem.”

“Meep?”

Crown rolled out of the little front door, looked around blearily, and then brightened up at the sight of Claud. Nuzzling his fingers, the little fellow meeped happily and bounced twice.

“Yeah, wake up the others.” Lily tickled Crown’s sides. “We’re going to do some introductions!”

Claud picked up the little house, before ushering Crown back inside. “Sit tight. We’re going to introduce you lot to the others now, so play nice, alright?”

Chuckling, the two of them went out with the little house in tow. It was something he could carry around easily, and it could fit into his backpack with space to spare.

Schwarz glanced at them as they returned to the living room. “What’s that?”

“Wait, don’t ask him that!” Farah clapped her hands. “Isn’t it obvious? Lily’s expecting! That’s why they have a little toy for their kid!”

“Expecting?” Dia fell out of the chair she was sitting on.

“No, dumbasses.” Claud rolled his eyes. “We’re just going to introduce you guys to some new members of the family, that’s all.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?” Schwarz muttered. “Why are you scolding us?”

“Because you guys got it all wrong,” Claud replied, before setting the little house on the table. “Come on out, guys.”

Before anyone else could make a sound, an orchestra of meeps rang out, and three little shapes rolled out of the small house. Two of them took to the skies immediately, before landing on Claud and Lily.

“Yeap, these guys.” Claud gestured at the little jumping box on the table, as well as the sphere and star that had landed on Lily’s shoulder and his own respectively. “Everyone, meet Crown, Throne and Sceptre.”

A metal fork fell from Nero’s hands, and the Holy Son scooted over. He was rapidly joined by the others, who crowded around the two of them, prompting Claud to scoop up Crown before the others could do something odd.

“Calm down, guys. Don’t be too startled.” Claud popped Crown back onto the table, and the two other shapes joined the little fellow a moment later. It was their turn to look at the Seekers of Life, and Schwarz sucked in a breath as the three of them floated — or in Crown’s case, rolled — over to him.

After a small pause, Crown bopped Schwarz’s finger hesitantly, and then made a meep. The others immediately started to examine the bartender closely, and then frolicked around merrily for a few seconds, before inspecting the others.

“D’aww, they’re so cute!” Risti opened her palm, and Crown bounced over happily. “C’mere, you! Let me give you a tickle…”

Before long, the others were playing around with the three sentient shapes, and Claud heaved a small sigh of relief. Of course, he hadn’t expected any issues to begin with, but those three little guys were pretty much secrets they had been holding on to themselves for some time.

“Nothing bad, I suppose.” Claud breathed out slowly, before turning to Schwarz. “Heh. They’re cute, aren’t they?”

Schwarz glanced at Lily, who was eyeing him, and then nodded. “There’s no need to pressure me…they’re positively adorable.”

“Meep!” Crown hopped onto Claud’s shoulder and nestled into his neck. “Meep…”

“Yeah, yeah.” Claud patted the little fellow. “Sorry. Crown doesn’t like too much socialising.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“You can understand that…uh, Crown?” Schwarz asked, curious. “But they’ve been meeping all this time.”

“Hmm. Well, even meeps can carry information,” Claud replied, before tapping the small room. “Wait till you hear them discuss things with more meeps.”

“Discuss things?” Risti asked.

“Yeap.” Claud looked around the room. “Come on, guys, don’t fly around the room or something.”

“Meep…”

After a while, the three little fellows were back on the table again. Lily waved at them and said, “Anyway, we picked them up when we went to the Celestia Ruins. The circumstances in which we found them were odd, though.”

“The Celestia Ruins?” Nero asked, his eyes blazing with interest. “What was it like there?”

Claud paused. “It’s…you know what? I’ll pass you guys the information we gathered later. We didn’t exactly prepare for an explanation, and a badly delivered one can lead to more harm than good. Besides, we wanted you guys to know each other, although I’ll still carry them with me as a rule of thumb.”

“Meep!”

Lily laughed. “Alright, alright. Go back into the house or something.”

The three little shapes began to discuss amongst themselves a moment later with small meeps, and Claud turned back to the others. “Now that the introduction’s over, we actually wanted to ask about our next steps. You guys were…uh, conscripted, but we aren’t.”

The others straightened up. After exchanging a few gazes, Nero said, “Well, it’ll be fine if you guys don’t want to join up, but you’ll be missing out on the rewards. But is there a particular reason why you don’t want to sign up?”

Claud paused, and then looked at Lily, who grimaced back. “Well…what do you know of the Moonlit and the Shadowed Ones?”

“What do we know?” Nero repeated the question. “What do you mean by that?”

“That is, do you know that they are not beings created for the sake of war?” Claud asked. “That they are actually living people with their own families and friends? That they have thoughts?”

Everyone else froze.

“They’re…alive?” Schwarz squeezed out. “As in, they’re all alive? Even the soldiers? Not just the little toddlers or something?”

“All of them are alive,” Claud replied. “They’re not mindless beings who exist for the sake of war and death.”

The bartender took a deep breath, and then shook his head. “We didn’t. Fortunately, we haven’t gotten into any conflict or whatnot yet. But…is this the reason why you’re reluctant to join up with us?”

Claud looked at Schwarz. “You know what I’m like.”

“I’m with him,” Lily added. “And…well, this is not really a battle that would concern us. It’s the Moons versus the Dark. Neither Claud and I have the…will to end the lives of other people for our own material benefit.”

“Yes.” Claud took a deep breath. “That’s why we don’t want to join up with the others. It is…not nice. To fight for the sake of rewards, when your life isn’t threatened...how is that different from being a hired killer?”

“Unfortunate.” Schwarz shook his head. “But I understand.”

“Unfortunate?” Claud asked. “That we’re not joining?”

“No. That we can’t leave easily.” Schwarz turned to the others. “Do I speak for everyone in this regard?”

“None of us are…murderers,” Dia replied, and Claud had to fight the urge to flinch. As the others murmured assenting words in accord, Claud couldn’t help but find his entire spiel hypocritical. He had been happily tossing gigantic lances of death at solid blocks of Moonlit and Shadowed Ones right until he learned about the truth, so who was he to speak?

Lily patted his shoulder gently, and Claud slapped himself mentally. This wasn’t the time to be berating himself.

“Unfortunately, we knew this a bit too late,” Nero replied. “Nonetheless, this does…help me to understand why you two aren’t willing to join us. Okay. That’s fine, I suppose.”

“Yeah. I suppose so.” Claud frowned. “It’s…a bit childish, isn’t it? We don’t want to kill...”

“At least you stand by your own principles,” Schwarz replied. “Anyway, this won’t be an issue. Do whatever you like…and besides, it’s never safe to have all the eggs in one basket. You should make use of your freedom to prepare some backups for us. Some escape routes.”

“You’re talking to me,” Claud replied. “Anyway, we actually bought a house in Monsville. I’m thinking of turning that into a small fortress that has a means of escape.”

“Underground?” Schwarz asked.

“Something like that.” Claud pondered for a moment. “What made you think of that, though?”

“Oh, we have an underground city of sorts in Licencia now, see?” Schwarz replied. “It’s for extended living, capable of growing some hardy crops and everything. Soybeans and other similar things.”

“Soybeans…” Claud frowned. This wasn’t the first time he heard of that crop in recent times. Back then, during the Second Tutorial, the rich soup that he had been drinking was made of fermented soybeans, and—

“Something wrong?” Dia asked. “You look a bit disturbed.”

“Me?” Claud laughed hollowly. “No, I’m fine. It’s just that I didn’t expect to hear something about soybeans, that’s all. I hear that they make a good soup for very cold days, that’s all.”

“Cold days?”

“Don’t mind me.” Claud forced a smile. “Right, can we stay here? Or are we expected to leave after a while?”

“That…is a good question.” Farah looked at each other. “But it should be fine, right? After all, there weren’t many restrictions. And besides, the Moons should have no interest in two random people who just happen to drop in on their friends. If anything, they should be happier. I mean, I know I’ll be happy if a bunch of people were to decide to live in Farah County for a while.”

“Especially if they were mana-users, right?” Schwarz asked.

“Yeah.” Farah grinned. “Especially if they were mana-users. I’ll just close a bunch of eyes and everything. Heck, I’ll accidentally build a house and give it to them, see? It isn’t that hard. Trust me, you won’t have any problem.”

“Hmm…”

“Well, you might need to speak to the Moons first, though,” Farah replied.

“The Moons?”

“Yeap. You know, for an interview or something. Maybe, anyway. Dia, for instance, did speak to the Blue Moon directly, so…”