Thief of Time

“What did you guys do?”

Dia and the others, who had been standing in line, jumped as Count Nightfall rushed out the city gate, with Caroline following swiftly behind.

“Ooh, you guys came out to receive us,” Schwarz remarked. “Are you guys quite free?”

“Free my ass,” Nightfall replied. “I was working in my office with Caroline as usual when the three dukes summoned me and said that Licencia was officially in a state of lockdown. After that, the Moon Emissaries appeared and set up weird stations all across the city, and I had to get my citizens to be tested for their emotional stability. What the heck is going on?”

The line of people that were queuing up to enter the City of Trades murmured in interest, and Dia said, “I’ll explain to you in short order. Let’s find a safer place to talk first. Can you help us cut the queue?”

“…What am I, your designated queue-cutter?”

“There, there.” Caroline took his hand. “Come on. Let’s just get it done and over with.”

“Wow, you sure have gotten smooth,” Risti whispered to Dia.

“It’s all about the state of mind,” Dia replied.

“State of mind?” Risti asked.

“Heh. Just wait for a few seconds.” Dia winked at her. “Knowing my father, a certain topic will pop up in around three seconds or so. Three, two and—”

“Right, where’s the princess?” Count Nightfall asked. “Duke Lustre said something about leaving her in my care and that we will do well to make sure that she does not suffer or want for anything in her stay here.”

“See?” Dia whispered to Risti.

“Oh…it’s that state of mind.” Risti looked at her, and then grinned. She turned to Farah, nodded at her, and then turned back.

Mana flared out of their bodies, and the two of them took three steps, before turning to look at each other. Their every movement exuded formality, and metal hissed as they drew a sword and raised it to the sky.

A small clink — weak, yet clear — echoed as the two sword tips touched, and Farah drew a deep breath. By now, Dia could already guess what these two idiots were up to, and she had to force herself to not look away as Farah cleared her throat grandly.

“Presenting the heir apparent of the Lustre Dukedom!”

Count Nightfall looked around the place, and then tilted his head. “Alright, so where is the princess?”

Dia felt her face burn at the stunts that the others were pulling off, and then raised her hand. “It’s me…”

“Hey!” Risti lowered her sword. “Why are you feeling embarrassed? It’s supposed to be a point of pride for you, alright?”

“Yeah, you’re spoiling our game!” Farah added. “Come on. Act the part!”

“I can’t…”

“Oh, fine…” The two of them returned to her side, and Farah ruffled her hair. “You’re so weird at times. I mean, usually there’s this streak of pride, but where did that go to? You’re supposed to fluff up, stick out your chest and verbally abuse Nightfall!”

“Oi.”

“I’m just kidding. It’s an analogy or something,” Farah replied, bobbing at the twitching count. “Anyway, Dia here has been hiding in plain sight the whole time. She’s the real freaking princess. Yes, that look on your face is excellent. Love it.”

“It’s unbelievable, I know,” Risti added. “I mean, I definitely felt that way when the full contingent of palace guards showed up and the duke himself called our Dia his daughter. It still feels a bit little a fever dream to me.”

“Wait. Wait.” The couple exchanged glances, and Caroline said, “Your Dia is the princess?”

“Yeah,” Schwarz replied. “I mean, she tried to tell us that a few times, but by then we were assuming that she was carrying out her own job.”

“Mhm. I see.” Nightfall paused. “Also, I’m told that Countess Farah will be accompanying the princess, so…”

Farah jerked, an action that did not go unnoticed at all. A grin crept up Dia’s face as she witnessed the moment in which someone realised that their eyes had been failing them the whole time, and Nightfall took three steps back.

“…You have got to be kidding me,” Nightfall uttered. “No way. You can’t be freaking serious.”

He turned to Schwarz. “Eh. You. What secret identity do you have? Don’t even think of lying to me already, you hear?”

“You’ve been patronising my bar ever since I was a kid, though?” Schwarz glanced at the count. “Don’t be silly.”

“That’s not a reassuring answer.” He took a deep breath. “I know that Risti is the daughter of the Folders’ Association President. Dia…uh, Lady Dia turned out to be the princess, shockingly and not shockingly enough. Farah…Countess Farah wasn’t even making any attempt to hide or anything, and I’m an idiot for not even thinking that hard.”

“Put that way, the Seekers of Life seems like a gathering of important people,” Caroline replied. “Tell us the truth about your identity already…after all, we don’t know your last name, now that I think about it.”

“I’m just a freaking bartender,” Schwarz replied. “Anyway, you guys are just too paranoid…”

“Really?” Count Nightfall stared at Schwarz. “Well, whatever. Today has been…a very weird day. We don’t have a lot of time to stand around and yap about who’s who, but…”

He let out a sigh. “Lady Dia, Countess Farah, I apologise for the relative discourtesy that my domain has shown while receiving you.”

“That’s not your fault or anyone’s though,” Dia replied. “I mean, we were the ones who were hiding our identity.”

“Yeap, yeap. And we don’t want to be tied down by annoying shackles like this. You said it yourself — time is tight. And courtesies take time. We know each other well enough to skip these random things, so let’s move on to the more important parts already.”

“Very well.” Nightfall let out a sigh.

The gates opened before them, and everyone slipped into the gap. The mana wagon that Dia remembered riding was sitting there, and without much ado, Nightfall and Caroline climbed onto the wagon, before beckoning at Dia and the others.

“Hop on. We’ll take you to the palace in a jiffy…”

Dia felt her butt ache as the mana wagon sped through the city, but the most uncomfortable part about the ride was how Caroline and Nightfall were staring intently at her.

“Uh, something wrong?” Risti asked. “Why are you staring at Dia?”

“Well, now that I think about it…” Nightfall folded his hands. “It’s said that the princess of the Lustre dukedom has two very powerful skills of the Sword family, right? And if you think about it a bit harder, she’s been staying here this whole time…I’m just a bit nervous.”

“Don’t be,” Dia replied. “There’s really no reason to use them…well, I did use them a few times. Remember the Red God’s Holy Son?”

“…Oh!”

Risti bobbed her head. “Indeed, you used your skills back then…wait, how did you not think twice about her identity then?”

Count Nightfall blinked. “Huh? I mean, if the princess has two powerful skills, isn’t it natural for a self-proclaimed double to have them too? I mean, the double claimed that she was also acting as a bodyguard at the same time. It makes sense if the double-slash-bodyguard also has these terrifying skills too, right?”

“In the end, the ruse ended up fortifying itself,” Farah added. “It’s natural that we were all fooled. All that mattered was the initial lie, and the whole thing would grow and grow because we believed it.”

“Magical, isn’t it?” Risti bobbed her head. “I mean, Dia was already waving it in our faces that she was the real deal, and we all thought that she was a very good double.”

Dia didn’t know what to say to that, so she simply kept quiet and listened to the others as they said similar stuff. It was quite scary, though, when the others added their own viewpoints about how they continued to build up their belief in her lie.

By the time the mana wagon drew up to the palace gates, Dia was reasonably certain that fooling people could actually be rather easy. It was not a nice realisation, especially when she found herself looking back at random events. For instance, when she was buying a small little donut, was the baker lying when he claimed that these donuts were in short supply? Sure, there were only five of them left, but…

The more she thought about it, the more scared she became. Was she believing in some grand lie without knowing it at all?

“Alright, we’re here. Disembark from the wagon slowly,” Caroline instructed, jerking her from her thoughts. “There’s only one mana wagon, so don’t even think about damaging it, or else.”

“Got it.”

“We’ll be careful…”

“You should buy more of these.”

“Well, it’s hard to get them here nowadays.” Caroline sighed. “No, I’m not letting you park this, Aran.”

“Bummer.”

“I thought we were in a rush?” Schwarz asked. “Come on…”