Claud glanced at the bubbling pot of soup that he had prepared with Lily for everyone’s breakfast, and then turned to check on the fluffy, hot bread that was floating above a fire.
“Just toasted enough to be crispy, but not burned.” Claud looked at the texture of the bread and nodded to himself, pleased with his handiwork. “Lily, are you done with setting up?”
“Three seconds…and done!” Plates landed in neat, uniform positions on the long table that Claud and the others used for dinner yesterday, and he smiled. Lily’s control over her mana had been improving quickly ever since Claud suggested that she use mana in her daily life more often. The fact that it worked was a good ego boost to Claud, who was beginning to think that he was some genius coach or something.
“Well done.” Claud sat down on a chair.
“We’ll need to wait for them now, though.” Lily yawned. “I thought they would wake up earlier, but all of them seem very comfortable in this makeshift house of theirs.”
Claud thought about it for a moment. “Well, they did sleep in such accommodations for a month or two, so they must have gotten used to it. In fact, last night must have reactivated those experiences and everything.”
“Probably.” Lily shrugged. “But that just leaves us waiting around here, though. They’ll take some time to wash and everything too. It’ll be mid-morning when they’re done.”
“…Let’s just have breakfast first, and then we’ll go and sneak out to listen in on what’s going on outside,” Claud replied. “You know, with that.”
“That, eh?” Lily’s eyes glittered. “Alright! We’ll just need to leave them a note or something. Let’s hurry and finish our breakfast first, then.”
She seemed to be in high spirits at the thought of leaving behind the others, and Claud chuckled. “Excited, eh?”
“The more time I spend with you alone, the better.” Lily’s smile faded slightly. “On a side note, that letter is complete. We can drop it in our own box if you really want to.”
“The summons, huh. Do you think it’s a good idea to head over to neutral territory now?” Claud asked. “Don’t think about me. Just assess it rationally. I’m afraid I’m not the most rational right now, after the Salvation—”
Claud checked his Looped Encryptor. “After the Salvation Star business.”
Lily looked at him, and then at the breakfast. “Give me some time to think about it.”
“Sure.” Claud smiled. “Sorry to bother you like this, though. I feel bad asking you to do things that I should be doing. I feel a bit embarrassed.”
“Don’t be!” Lily patted his head. “Like I said, you should really rely on me more. You have this nasty habit of taking everything onto yourself, and it’s very distressing for me. We’re supposed to be doing this together, right?”
She scooped out two bowls of soup and slid one over to Claud. “And if you get injured, I’ll also be upset. You’re worried about me, but I’m also worried about you, okay?”
“I know, I know.” Claud smiled and started sipping his soup.
The two of them lapsed into a companionable silence, occasionally broken by Lily attempting to feed him or vice-versa. Mostly, it was the things that they already did alone in the first place, but Claud had the feeling that these actions had the benefit of chasing away the others, who were all single and alone. Of course, it was not his or Lily’s fault that they were alone; they just hadn’t found someone yet.
“Right, I was thinking about it for some time, but what do you think President Cadenza had in mind when he asked us about Nero?” Claud asked, a hint of mischief in his words. “To me, it felt like he was asking about a prospective son-in-law or something along these lines. Like asking Risti’s friends about this potential boyfriend of hers.”
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Lily looked at him. “I was thinking something similar too. I mean, it felt odd that someone who didn’t know Nero would ask the two of us about his character. You could see him making his own judgement about the Holy Son.”
“I wonder if being the Holy Son of the Black God is a plus or minus point, though…”
Making an adorable sound in her throat, Lily said, “I think it’s a plus point. The Black God and the White God are not part of the Last Godsfall, right? This means that their people are unlikely to be swept up in whatever madness that is fast approaching.”
“Madness. Yes, I suppose that’s the best way to describe it.” Claud shook his head and finished off his soup. “Let’s just leave a message that we’ve gone out to check on the case that happened yesterday and make a break for it. Do you have the letter with you?”
Lily nodded. “Ready for a show.”
“Excellent.” Claud mopped up the dregs in his bowl with some bread and patted his hands clean. “Let’s wash up and leave.”
After rinsing his mouth and washing his hands, Claud penned a small message describing their absence and pulled Lily away from his little house before they could wake up and intrude into his little world. While he didn’t mind giving them refuge from what seemed like actual torture in the form of soldiers that marched ceaselessly all day long, Claud very much minded the fact that he was going to be spending less time just hugging Lily or something similar.
It wasn’t his fault if he wanted to abscond with Lily once more.
After putting some distance between them and the house, Claud touched his trousers and pulled the three little shapes out, before producing a small skillstrip.
“Alright,” Claud began, “as promised, I’ll let you guys ride on our shoulders. But don’t you dare meep too loudly. Got it?”
“Meep.”
The three tiny shapes bounced up and down happily, in contrast to their muted reply, and Claud nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Alright, sit tight, then. Lily, if you’d do the honours…”
“Alright, my turn!” Lily took the skillstrip, pulled him close, and then tore it into two. Presence Nullification took effect a heartbeat later, although the effects weren’t visible…well, it was never meant to be visible in the first place. Nonetheless, however, Claud felt a bit more at ease now, since no one could find them, and he spent the next five minutes just sticking to Lily a bit closer than usual.
The three little fellows, who were long used to his actions, simply hopped onto his head and made a nest there.
“Happy now?” Lily asked, poking his cheek. “Let’s go put that letter back first.”
Claud took a deep breath. “Once we put that into the box, we’ll be committed to heading over to the Lacuna Dukedom.”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about me,” Lily replied. “You said it yourself, after all. The Moons will soon be investigating this place, and they apparently managed to detect the…O-thing.”
“That’s what made me worried, to be honest,” Claud replied. “Did they detect my presence, back when we visited the place? Or was there somehow another O-thing who spirited away all the Moonlit soldiers? Either way, however, it seems that they can detect the power of the Omen. So…”
“There’s no need to explain to the person who’s running away with you again,” Lily replied with a sunny smile. “It’s not the first time we’re doing this, after all! To be honest, it kinda feels like a repeat of what happened last time, but you aren’t going to be killing another Bearer of Destiny, right?”
“Probably not,” Claud replied. “Hopefully. But no matter how you look at this incident, it sure does feel like a Bearer of Destiny did it.”
The two exchanged nervous laughs for a few seconds, before Claud tugged at her hands. “Come on, let’s go insert a letter first.”
Hand in hand, the two of them slid the faked letter of summons into the small letterbox hanging behind the gate, and then walked away. Claud felt something roll away from his heart at the same time, and he couldn’t help but feel relaxed at the fact that he had made a choice.
It was that simple, really.
“I feel better now,” Claud muttered.
“The arrow’s loosed. The arm that was once pulling it can now take a break,” Lily replied. “It’s quite the good analogy for your current state, isn’t it? We’re now loosed arrows, hurtling towards our next destination.”
“Sounds fun, doesn’t it?” Claud smiled. He looked up at the skies. “It’ll won’t be long now. The Trial of Aeons…what exactly are those trials? Will I get to complete the other quests? Will Dia show up randomly to stop me from killing all the other Bearers of Destiny?”
“Are you going to kill all the Bearers of Destiny?” Lily asked.
Habitually checking the Looped Encryptor, Claud shook his head. “Of course not.”
“Then Dia can’t stop you from doing what you never intended to do in the first place,” Lily replied. “Unless, of course, they decide to attack you for some reason…anyway, Dia was acting so weird last night.”
“I mean, I threw out the O-word like it was going out of style,” Claud replied. “And we already guessed that the Salvation Star was her. She really needs to work on her acting, though. It was so obvious…”
“Right?” Lily giggled. “Come on, let’s go spy on some more people now.”