"The din is insane.”

Dia patted her ears daintily, and then looked at the veritable crowd that was busy tossing Farah up and down. Risti, who was the one that had complained about the noise, was busy rifling through files with her and Schwarz. Most of the files here contained news and information about shady sightings — no pun intended, even if it was related to the great Dark — but whether they could find it or not was another question altogether.

“Still, there are quite a lot of sightings and all,” Dia commented. “And I’m not talking about the Shadowed Ones. I’m talking about the Distortions and whatever weird incidents that were popping up all over the county. Is crime at an all-time high? Or are these Distortions…maturing?”

“The weird sightings about malformed people and whatever?”

“Yeah.” Dia shook her head. “Distortions have a maturation period. I’m sure the really small ones that have popped up unnoticed have matured and are moving randomly or according to whatever weird laws they follow. Probably the cause of the surge in sightings.”

Risti made a face. “Totally making our life easier.”

“Right?” Schwarz fiddled with a bunch of bottles. “I’ve made some light refreshments. Not the kinds that would knock out the Blue Moon.”

Dia perked up. “Nice. Break time, then!”

Everyone gathered around the small table as Lloyd, Farah’s butler, strolled in the room with some pastries, despite them not calling for any.

“For your pleasure, sir and ladies.” Lloyd grinned. “I hope I can make your mouths water. Maybe you three may end up buying more pastries here?”

Dia chuckled, and then reached out for the closest, palm-sized pie on the plate. It wasn’t crumbly at all, but her fingers could tell that the pie was nice and soft to the touch. It was like a cushion that contained hot and fragrant filling, and Dia took her time to bite into the pastry.

“Chicken pie.”

“The best one in the county,” Lloyd added. “I hope you like it, Lady Dia.”

“Indeed, I do.”

The three of them savoured the pastries slowly…or so it seemed, anyway. Before Dia knew it, the moonwheat-made pastries had all vanished into their stomachs.

“Ah. Drinking after a good meal is nice.” Schwarz slid a bottle to everyone, and then said, “So, what do you guys think we should investigate?”

Dia thought about the cases she had read so far. There were two cases that jumped out at her, both of which included shadowy beings prowling around. In fact, any sightings that reported clear monsters or whatever had been ruled out by her directly; the only one she cared about was shadowy ones.

After all, they were looking for the great Dark.

“Let’s plot out the cases we have in mind on a map,” Dia began.

“Oh, you’re looking for overlapping areas of operation?” Risti asked. “That’s a good way, yeap.”

“And even if they don’t overlap, we can just investigate all of them in one sweep if they seem connected,” Schwarz noted. “Alright. Lloyd, could I trouble you to bring a map? We’ll also need your help for this.”

“Of course, Sir Schwarz.”

“Schwarz will do, really.” He paused. “Would you like a drink too? These are the ones that Farah likes. They’ll bring a smile to your face.”

“It would be unbecoming for me to refuse,” Lloyd replied. “I rarely got to try your drinks in Moon Manor, after all.”

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The butler drank away happily as the three of them stared at the map that had been laid out in front of them. The files were, thankfully, standardised in terms of sightings and descriptions, so it didn’t take them all that long to map out the areas where sightings of shadowy fellows had been spotted.

“Mhm. I can’t really see a commonality in all this,” Dia muttered.

“Don’t worry. It’s because you aren’t all that trained in this aspect,” Risti replied. “Sure, there aren’t any overlaps, but if you look at the dispersion and how these incident areas are scattered, it’s possible to find an overlap of sorts. In the worst case scenario, we can simply connect these sightings and form them into a territory of sorts…”

She drew on the map, connecting the circles and forming a cloud. “Like this.”

“Northwest of the county and the northern county gate, then,” Schwarz noted. “But what are their goals? We see lots of sightings, but there isn’t any discernible damage.”

“Missing people, maybe. There are quite a few missing people reports in the marked-out areas.” Risti flipped through the various files and reports, before extracting a nice pile from them. “All these reports happened in this location. I’m not quite sure what is going on, but there’s at least three hundred people missing here.”

“Corpses?”

“None found, for some reason. The people who went missing are mostly adult men. The elderly…none. Children aren’t affected either.” Risti folded her arms. “If the person responsible is indeed the great Dark…”

“Well, there’s a high chance. There are a few sightings that mention shadows grabbing their father or whatever while walking through that place,” Dia replied. “Hmm. We might need some bait.”

“I don’t like the way you’re looking at me, though!” Schwarz shivered.

“Adult man.” Risti pointed at Schwarz. “Perfect bait right here.”

“Well, we might not even need to lay the bait,” Dia pointed out. “After all, if we’re going to investigate, he’s going to come along. Who knows? The Dark Herald might just jump him while we’re poking around.”

“…I’m scared.”

“That’s a good thing,” Dia replied. “Fear is the—hmm? Beth, you’re supposed to be having your afternoon nap, though?”

The others turned to look at the toddler, who was walking towards Dia with her arms outstretched.

“Aww, can’t get used to the bed?” Risti asked, slipping off her seat. “Want a hug?”

Beth looked at Risti, and then walked up to Dia. “Hug!”

“Oh, come on.” Risti rolled her eyes.

“Dada, hug!”

Dia sighed, but she couldn’t bring herself to correct the kid. Squatting down once, she picked up the kid and sat down on the chair with Beth on her lap. “Happy? Come on. Don’t move around too much. We’re still doing work.”

Beth nodded, and then settled down in her hug. The others looked at Dia enviously, but there was no helping it if she was so irresistible to little widdle babies.

“Drink?”

“No. That’s not for children.” Dia glanced at Schwarz. “Could you get me some tea?”

“And tea’s for children?” Schwarz scratched his head.

“Uh, yes?” Dia tilted her head. “What’s wrong with tea for kids? I mean, it’s not a problem. I was raised that way…mhm. I should drink more tea at times, instead of plain old water.”

“Beth looks like she’s going to cry, so get her some sweet stuff instead,” Risti replied. “Do we still have some fruit juice around here?”

“I’ll got get it, Lady Risti.” Lloyd slid up to Dia, and then looked at the baby sitting on her lap. “But first, what would you like, little one? Apple juice? Orange juice? Or milk?”

Beth made a face for a few seconds, and then said, “Apple!”

“Apple juice it is, then. Are you hungry too?” the old butler asked.

Beth looked at Dia, who smiled back. “If you are, go ahead.”

“Hungry…” Her nose twitched, and she pointed at the empty plate. “Want that!”

“She’s a lot more articulate when asking for things, huh,” Schwarz noted.

“Normally, children her age are quite articulate,” Lloyd replied. “She’s…around two years old, I think. My, oh my. Milady was quite a handful at that age. She would go around looking for me for hugs, and then ask me to bake some pastries for her.”

“Ah, you’ve been doing this quite regularly, then,” the bartender replied.

“Regularly…no, not really. She grew up really fast.” The butler paused. “Had to, after all. Her parents were a real piece of work. Milady didn’t have much of a childhood.”

He shook his head. “Alright, I’ll go get little Beth her food and drinks first. Please, do continue with your work. It is very important, after all.”

Beth made a pleased little sound as the butler scuttled off, and then pointed at the table. “Sit!”

“That’s dangerous, so no.” Dia looked at the kid. “Don’t worry. You aren’t in the way. We just finished drawing; we’re just wondering how to get the target to take Schwarz in front of us.”

“Oh, come on,” Schwarz replied. “Really? I refuse to be bait!”

“Don’t worry, we’re not making you bait,” Risti replied. “It’s just that you’ll probably end up as bait once we go there to investigate, so don’t sweat it. Don’t worry. We’ll work our asses off looking for you when you inevitably vanish.”

“Screw off,” he replied. “Can we please think of another method instead? Being the victim of a sudden kidnapping really isn’t down my alley.”

“Fine, since you said please…but we’re all going to investigate anyway.”

“Ugh.”

Dia chuckled, and then looked at the map once more. Walking the ground would definitely be tiring…