Thief of Time

Unlike Licencia and Pletsville, Nachtville had been passed down from heir to heir for quite some time. Count Nightfall had wrested control over Licencia through the business side of things, while Pletsville’s original owners had been…dealt with by Duke Istrel, and then given out as a means to exile the useless Baron Aoro.

That was everything he knew, however.

Minor towns like Nachtville didn’t really stoke his interest — he rarely went to the areas that weren’t north of Licencia, since that meant they were further away from the continent centre. As a rule of thumb, the closer a territory was to Grandia, the Emperor’s place of power, the more prosperous it was.

“If you consider lots of flowers to be unexploited resources, you’ll be right,” Lily, who was discussing with him the small towns that had sprouted in the vast wilderness, replied. “Julan also makes a good tourist spot, but that’s just a trap to kidnap people.”

The two stopped right at the gate, where two unkempt guards were playing a game of cards with each other.

“Hold on a second, will ya?” said the thinner of the two. “We’re in the middle of a really good game.”

A vein in Lily’s temple throbbed, but Claud stopped her. Shaking his head lightly, he glanced at the rising blue and yellow moons, and craned his neck to observe the on-going game. The two guards were playing a game of bluff; it used a standard deck of poker cards, a popular and oft-produced relic from some ancient time.

“Why did you stop me?” Lily whispered in his ear.

Pulling her away from the two, Claud found a nice rock to sit down on. “The guards in any town seem rather useless, but they’re the first line of intelligence and defence. Pissing one off might be the difference between leaving town the next day normally, and leaving it while gagged and blindfolded.”

“We’re mana-users,” she replied.

“And, pray tell, are mana-users all-powerful and undying? Are mana-users unequivocally good people that won’t partake in shady practices?” Claud asked.

“In the past—”

“—You got lucky,” Claud interrupted her words. “You just need to be unlucky once. And that’ll be it. Safety first, Lily. Besides, they could make your entry a rather…unpleasant experience, if they really feel motivated to do it.”

“How?”

“As guards of a city, they have the authority to search anyone. It is a right bestowed upon them by Emperor Grandis themselves, in the name of law and order. Normally, they wouldn’t take their duties all that seriously, but give them a reason to, and they’ll go all out,” Claud replied.

“Even if they’re not doing their duties properly.”

“Even if,” Claud affirmed. “Alright, they’re done. Let me show you how to get entry into a foreign city easily. Follow me.”

Walking back to the two guards, Claud nodded at them with a smile. “Good evening, sir guards.”

The thinner of the two smiled back. “A good evening to you too, sir, as well as your lovely partner. What is your purpose here?”

“I apologise for distracting you from your honourable duties, but we are travellers that are seeking out board and lodging in this fine city,” Claud replied, producing a small silver coin, sliding it over with his and Lily’s identification documents. “Would you mind instructing us on the best place to stay in Nachtville?”

He returned the papers immediately, without looking at them. “Certainly. Just go to the Bronze Fork, the inn closest to the city gate. Don’t let its exterior fool you; it’s the safest place in town.”

“Thank you, sir guard.”

“No problem. Clance, open the gates. They’re fine.” Flipping the silver coin over at the other guard, he beckoned for them to follow him through the small gate built beside the main city gate.

Claud could feel a questioning gaze from Lily, but to her credit, she didn’t say anything. Following the guard through the side entrance, they went through some narrow passageways.

“You two should be careful,” said the guard. “Recently, many people have gone missing in Nachtville. Reports about missing people in other cities have increased too. We are on general alert.”

“Missing?” Claud asked.

“Yes. Citizens, visitors, all kinds of people,” said the guard, before lowering his voice. “In fact, one party from the Folders' Association even came by recently to investigate. Seems like something big is happening.”

Claud shot a few glances at Lily, who had narrowed her eyes. Both of them were clearly thinking the same thing — were those disappearances related to her family?

“Thank you, sir guard.”

“It’s my job,” he replied. “We’re here. The Bronze Fork is the safest inn in town, but even then, be careful. There’s no telling if the culprits would attack the Bronze Fork next.”

Bringing them over to the inn, he waved goodbye at Claud and Lily. Once he was gone, Claud turned to her and asked, “What do you think?”

“That’s a very huge scale, compared to when I left,” Lily replied.

“If you put it like that, either there’s another group in the game, or they somehow gained the ability to expand their operations.” Claud narrowed his eyes as he recalled the reason why Lily left Julan Barony to begin with. The Julan family was involved with systematic kidnapping of tourists and visitors, but Lily hadn’t managed to find the reason behind these deeds before she left.

She then joined Claud, under the assumption that he wanted to mete out justice…even though he only intended to empty out their treasury. However, since they had drawn a clear line, Lily’s only motive in tagging along was to support Claud’s unstated goal through intelligence.

His imagination began to drift. It was possible that the Julan family had come across some great treasure of the Third Godsfall, or decided to conduct some bloody ritual for inexplicable purposes. Either way, it was bad news for the people around these parts, if the Folders’ Association had come calling.

It would probably be a while before they homed in on Julan Barony, however. Claud wasn’t a hero in the traditional sense of the word, but if the intensity of their crimes were indeed ramping up, there had to be a lot more resources sitting around the Julan family than he’d expected.

Resources used on crime were resources wasted, but stealing money wasn’t as easy as stealing lifestones. The latter was far more compact than coins or notes, and could be consumed on the spot to boot. Depleting the Julan family of funds in a single night would be far harder.

“We need to stop them,” Lily said, her fists balled up.

“Yes,” Claud replied. “However, Julan is too far from any major territory to enforce justice over, and we don’t even know where the investigators dispatched by the Folders’ Association are.”

“But you have an idea, right?”

“I was planning on sabotaging their operations from the root by cutting their funding,” Claud replied. “They can’t hire goons to do dirty work if they don’t have money. However, if they’re able to ramp up operations like this, your family must have a lot of money in reserve.”

“You…make a point.”

Claud shook his head. “Let’s go get a room first.”

“A room?”

“Of course, if you prefer to stay the night alone, under the threat of kidnappings, we can have two rooms,” Claud replied. “Don’t worry. I’m a gentleman through and through.”

Lily eyed him, but Claud knew that his heart was pure. Sure, she looked great, but he was a person who could appreciate beauty without the influence of his lower half. Survival was paramount; satisfying anything else would take a backseat until he felt safe.

Nachtville right now, however, was anything but safe.

It didn’t take long for them to arrange their lodgings, which had drawn some appraising eyes from the receptionist working the counter. Her gaze was a bit too piercing for Claud, who scooted away once he was done with the payment.

Lily joined him a moment later, her expression clearly one of suppressed laughter.

“What’s so funny?” Claud asked.

“She was worried about me,” said Lily. “That I was being forced.”

“Oh,” Claud replied, the irritation in him draining away. “But I’m a really good-looking person. Why did she assume that…that…what am I even trying to say here?”

He shook his head. “Never mind. Let’s enter our room first.”

Dumping their bags onto the ground, Claud took off the outer layer of his clothes, before preparing his usual nightly precautions. After placing lots of tripwires, bells and nets around the doors and windows, he stretched his neck, only to notice Lily’s stare.

“What?” Claud asked.

“Is that…what you do every night?” Lily asked.

“Uh-huh. Why?”

“No, nothing.”

Claud, tired out from his trap-setting, decided to flop onto the bed after using his Refresher. After stuffing down some dry rations, he picked up the blanket and prepared to divide the bed with it. It was designed to fit a couple comfortably, but as mature adults, there were ways to share a bed without a prerequisite advancement in relationship statuses, so—

“Do I sleep on the floor?” Lily asked, interrupting his thoughts.

“Huh?” Claud rubbed his eyes. “I mean, if you want to, sure. I was thinking of using a blanket to divide the space, though.”

Her eyes went round. “Oh.”

“Alright, I’m going to sleep first.” Claud yawned, before turning over to his side. Rolling up the blanket to make a small wall, he placed the makeshift boundary into the middle of the bed. After making sure that Lily wasn’t looking at him, he took a small fluffy box from his clothes, and placed it by his side.

“Alright, this should be more comfortable,” Claud whispered. “Go and sleep.”

Crown tilted over to its side, and then snuggled up to the rolled-up blanket.

“Did you say something?” Lily, who was taking out some clothes from her bag, asked.

“Nope.” Claud yawned again, and then laid down properly on his bed. “Let’s talk tomorrow. I’m a bit too tired.”

The pillow knocked him out three seconds after his head touched it.