Thief of Time

The rest of breakfast concluded over more light conversation, including some intriguing bits about how Lily and Claud had apparently attended lovely little banquets with Emperor Grandis, First Lady Cecily and Supreme Saran. It was a shame that Nero and Kemata was shacked up together in Monsville, though, since Dia really wanted to see their reactions when they learned Claud and Lily met with the rulers of their respective homelands.

It was such a shame.

Dia let out a small sigh as the servants packed up their “breakfast” and left the treasury. Her mouth was still tingling and on the verge of revolting against its master, but Dia was already intending on eating the most savoury lunch, so it was its loss if it decided to rebel now.

“So, are we going to start drawing our mana circuits now?” Schwarz asked.

“We don’t have anything else to do,” Dia replied. “Don’t be lazy. We’ll just need to do it well once, and we’ll be on our way to surpassing Nero. Wouldn’t it be nice to oppress him with the power of a septa-folder?”

“You’re evil.” Risti rolled her eyes. “Anyway, it seems that you’re a lot more carefree now. Returning home and talking about your identity did help your mental state quite a bit, eh?”

“Did it?” Dia folded her arms and thought about it for a while. “I can’t really feel it, though. I think I’m still the same…”

“Definitely different,” Schwarz replied. “You’re a lot more open now. And I get the sense that you’ve put down some worries and thoughts that were plaguing you back then.”

Dia looked at the bartender, and then remembered that Schwarz had definitely seen his own share of people with their own secrets, worries and burdens. If she really had changed, Schwarz would definitely be the first one to know.

“Okay, maybe I’ve changed. But it’s natural for me to change, I suppose.” Dia yawned. She didn’t feel up to the task of examining her own inner thoughts and whatever other random things that were going to crop up in her head, so she said, “We’ve all changed in our own little ways. For instance, Risti no longer uses all manner of skills to stare at me. She just looks at me openly sometimes now.”

“Oh, come on. It’s just me wondering why my version of you and the real you are so different,” Risti replied. “I’m also trying to get past the phase where I’m dumping unrealistic expectations onto you. It’s necessary to see your more mundane sides for that to happen.”

“Is that praise, or something else entirely?” Farah wondered out loud.

“That’s a good question,” Schwarz chimed in. “I think the person who’s changed the least has to be either Farah or Claud, though. Claud…is as cautious as ever. Or even worse now. Heh. And Farah, you’re…I mean, I suppose you dropped that arrogant attitude, so you did change.”

“That’s better.”

“Are you sure she dropped it?” Risti asked.

“Oh, you’re now taking this chance to poke fun at me, eh?” Farah clicked her teeth. “Tut tut. Anyway, it’s great that we came here in the end. Not only did we realise that the real princess has been hiding under our noses the whole time — I really want to see Claud’s face when he learns about that — we also got free lifestones. Thanks, Dia.”

“Eh, we had too much of them in the first place.”

“Is this really something a human should say?” Schwarz muttered. “Just listen to this disgustingly rich person speak. Sheesh.”

“Oh, that’s not all. Do you know—”

Before Dia could further disgust them with more opulent displays of wealth, someone came rushing into the treasury.

“Uncle?” Dia turned to look at her uncle, who was still in his trademark golden armour. “What’s wrong?”

“Your brother seems to be in the capital!” Her uncle rubbed her hands. “Come on. Let’s grab him before he disappears again!”

“Eh? Grab him?” Schwarz asked. “What, is he a criminal now?”

“No, but we’ll probably not see him for an entire decade if he vanishes again,” Uncle Rubia replied. “Hurry up! It’s a shame that the duke is out of the city today…no, knowing that punk, he definitely showed up today because the duke isn’t around.”

“Well…”

“Come on!” Uncle Rubia flexed his muscles. “Let’s nail him down before he runs away again! Don’t you want to force him into the inheritance once more? This is your chance!”

Dia’s mind finally resumed working, and she nodded. “Let’s go!”

“…That’s the motivation for nabbing him now?” Schwarz uttered, his voice full of surprise. “You are…urgh. What’s with this lady? Why is she throwing away a dukedom? It’s a dukedom!”

“Well, with the Aeon Trials creating a new world, I’m not sure if I should be focused on wasting my abilities in running a territory,” Dia replied. “For all we know, this new world won’t have the concept of nobility…”

“That’s a shitty excuse and you know it.”

“Enough about that for now,” Farah cut in. “I’m very interested in your brother, rather. Like what Schwarz said, everyone seems to have forgotten his name, and there aren’t actually any records. I’m curious.”

Dia nodded, and a hint of heaviness filled her heart. Whether or not it was really her brother she didn’t know, but if there was a trace of him in the capital, there was no time to lose. Getting up properly, she stretched a few times and said, “My brother…I’ll tell you about him once we’re all assembled. Hurry up.”

“We’re not fighting a war,” Schwarz replied. “We can look for him like this.”

Uncle Rubia nodded. “He won’t hurt you guys either. Might as well travel light.”

“Fine…”

Schwarz, Risti and Farah turned their eyes to Dia as they jogged out of the treasury, trailing behind her uncle as he led the way.

“Alright, story time,” Schwarz said. “Tell us more about your brother!”

“Like I said, I can’t remember many things,” Dia replied. “I think he’s quite weird. I can’t remember all that much, though...I only can vaguely remember him having the ability to see the future through his Future Sight skill and his paranoia.”

“Paranoia?” Schwarz asked. “Like Claud?”

“No, it’s quite different. My brother’s the paranoid-to-reckless sort. I can somewhat remember him being rather…daring. He’s paranoid, but not the way Claud was, that’s for sure.”

“So how did that paranoia manifest?” Farah asked.

“…I can’t remember,” Dia admitted. “I can only vaguely recall him doing the weirdest and most dangerous things possible. Remember that guidebook that Claud wrote? Yeah, he’s the sort that would break every single rule without even trying too hard.”

“It’ll be a riot if the two of them meet, then. What about that paranoia?”

Dia scrunched up her face and tried to recall something, before the memory of a blurred figure looking around fearfully entered her mind. “Uh…I think there were a few times when my brother would cover up his face with a veiled hat. Whenever he went out with me, he would put on that hat and look around the place.”

Risti frowned. “Now that I think about it, I think I do recall someone like that…”

“…Right, you were spying on me the whole time, weren’t you?” Dia glanced at Risti. “Do you remember anything about my brother?”

“Ahaha. No, sadly. I mean, I was looking down from the sky. And anyone who was clothed up so thickly could be your maid or your brother, so…” Risti shrugged. “Anyway, if that was your brother…I can’t really associate him with recklessness, though. No one wears this thickly and is reckless at the same time, unless he has some weird issue.”

“Won’t put it past him,” Dia replied. “Now that I think about it…my brother did pat me on the head a month before the whole Tot thing happened to me. He was apologising…I suppose he already had the plan down at that point in time.”

“Pat you on the head, huh?”

Their little party stepped out of the Lustre Palace proper, and Dia turned to her uncle. “Uncle, what next?”

“I’ve sent a bunch of soldiers to encircle the entire capital. They’ll be tracking the faint mana that was released out there and close in on it.” He paused for a moment. “For some reason, the mana trace is still there, unmoving. Is he busy?”

“Sleeping, perhaps?” Dia suggested.

“Sleeping…then this is a really weird place to be sleeping at, then.” Her uncle grinned. “My little niece, what do you say to making him sleep in his actual bedroom while you deal with whatever destiny has in store for you?”

“Love it.”

“Excellent.”

Schwarz looked at her uncle. “Commander Rubia, do you not feel disturbed at the fact that your niece is attempting to disinherit herself and throw it all to her brother, who happens to be doing the same damn thing?”

Her uncle thought for a few seconds, and then said, “Bold of you to assume that I took this position willingly. I’ll have you know that a certain sly dog cajoled me into this position and sneakily forged bonds between me and the guards, as well as the dukedom.”

“…No, seriously.” Farah rubbed her head. “What’s wrong with running a dukedom?”

Schwarz bobbed his head in agreement. “Exactly. Free resources and power…”

“Okay, and what will you do with all this power?” Dia asked.

“Huh?”

“Imagine you’re now the duke. What are you going to do with all that power?” Dia asked. “Go on.”

“Uh…” Schwarz folded his arms. “Make society better?”

“You can do that without being a duke, though?” Dia replied. “See? There’s no point in governing a territory to me…and to most other people. I mean, we’re mid-ranked folders. We can do a lot of things without being bogged down by weird stuff like nobility and all…”