Thief of Time

After spending fifty-two seconds watching as Caroline’s designated driver drove the little mana wagon away, everyone turned back to Count Nightfall, who was negotiating with his fiancée over the prospects of him driving the thing a few more times.

“Well, I can’t really blame him,” Dia replied. “It’s quite fun when you’re driving short distances and everything.”

“Really?” Farah asked.

“But travelling long distances…is not that nice. For one, your butt starts to hurt. Secondly, it’s not as good as mana-walking our way there. Mana-walking is faster for us now, and while it’s not as if we can’t make the mana wagon go faster, it’s less wieldy,” Dia replied. “I’d imagine that we’ll probably crash it into a tree or something after a while.”

“Mhm. I can see that,” Farah muttered. “It’s good for travelling in cities and open spaces, but it’s limited otherwise.”

“Alright, enough about the mana wagon.” Caroline lifted Nightfall by the arms, shook him twice, and then plopped him back down. “I thought we were all rushed for time or something, right? Why are we now all talking about my freaking mana wagon now? Scram!”

“Bah…”

Everyone obediently filed into the palace after grumbling about how unfair it was to not be able to drive that mana wagon, before heading into one of the nearby rooms. The servants had already prepared a small spread of little treats for them, which was promptly devoured by everyone.

“You guys didn’t have breakfast?” Nightfall asked, curious.

“Oh, you know…freebies?”

“You guys are mid-ranked folders. Is there really a need to be so calculative?” Caroline muttered. “My poor treats…”

“You guys are weird,” Nightfall concluded. “Anyway…we need to focus on the main issue at hand. What in the name of the Moons are their armies doing here? What’s about to happen?”

“Well…”

Everyone turned to Dia, who let out a sigh. She took a few seconds to compose herself, before saying, “By the end of this week, a threat that could potentially end the entire sovereignty will appear. It is a Distortion like apparently no other, and the entire city will be destroyed within a day or two.”

“Wait.” The count paused. “A city-destroying threat. You serious?”

“A sovereignty-destroying threat,” Dia corrected. “The Moons have been made aware of that, and they want to nip the problem in the bud…hopefully.”

“Welp. How many deaths can we expect?”

“The destruction of the city, probably,” Dia replied. “The attack by the Moons and all the accompanying troops will probably destroy the whole place.”

“Which is why we’re busy moving people into open fields with tents to fight, huh. It’s been quite successful, but there are still people who adamantly refuse to move and are trying to do things as per normal.” Count Nightfall kneaded his head. “Fighting an unknown Distortion in an urban setting is nothing short of suicidal, if nothing else. I don’t like it, but it’s probably the best we can ask for. The only problem lies in us having to tell the people here that.”

“Given the situation, I would have assumed that the Moons would directly kill everyone in the city,” Caroline muttered. “But it’s fortunate that they don’t seem to trust the source of their news all that much.”

“They don’t seem to trust this tip-off?” Farah asked.

“Seems like it. But they’re trusting the news just enough to send a lot of crack troops…well, the war’s over, so there’s a lot of free troops hanging around anyway,” Caroline replied. “Otherwise, they would probably have never dispatched so many troops here, although they have proven to be very, very discrete as to their purpose here. If you guys didn’t tell us…”

“No need to worry about all this for now,” Dia replied. “For now, we need to keep track of the existing Distortions.”

“Mhm. There are three. Two have hatched to produce…things. Humanoid things. They seemed to have some overall theme; one of them was walking water, and the other was a woman with eyes all over her body.” Nightfall paused. “Both of them destroyed the local area around them, before falling apart into white maggots and whatever, at which point the Moonlit troops moved in and crushed them completely.”

“…Yuck.”

“That’s one way of putting it, yes.” Nightfall made a face. “We’re all watching the last Distortion now. But the evacuation has also taken its emotional toll on the residents of Licencia. Fortunately, none of them have turned yet, but…”

“We’ve been watching everyone closely,” Caroline added. “However, it’s also counterproductive. The more we watch, the greater their stress. And the Moons are also troubled about that. We’ve been liaising with them over the issue of entertainment and other amenities.”

“What’s the result?”

“Nightly feasts every day.” She paused. “Fortunately, the tip-off was clear. If nothing happens in the next seven days, that Distortion will never happen. We won’t need to live in fear after this week.”

Dia nodded. “That’s fortunate, at least…”

She let out a breath. “I’ll also need to participate in this suppression too.”

“You?” Nightfall frowned. “Well, you are stronger than us, so…hmm. But why are you guys helping us anyway? I mean, it seems that you guys came here for the sole purpose of dealing with that Distortion.”

“And you’d be right about that,” Schwarz replied. “According to the Duke, Dia is probably the only person that can deal with the Distortion in question. The source is the same as that of the tip-offs that went to the Moons.”

“…What am I supposed to make of that?”

“That she’s been chosen or something by destiny?” Schwarz shrugged. “Believe me. We were equally surprised to learn about her and everything. However, this is probably not the time for that.”

“With a monster supposedly capable of bringing down a sovereignty? There’s never a good time, if I have to be frank.” Nightfall chuckled. “Well, we need to focus on the main goals ahead of us right now. We’re actually preparing a lot of artefacts for battle, and we even have the Moons drawing things they call sigils. Apparently, they’re pre-laid mana attacks that can be triggered as needed, or produce other effects.”

Dia recalled the circles that had take up positions in the sky, and then bobbed her head. “Anything we can do to help?”

“There’s an artefact that’s capable of gathering and storing mana. Pour mana into it, and a sigil will form,” Caroline replied. “One standard mana circuit will form a sigil.”

“One-folders…why not create a bunch of one-folders and have them fill it up too?” Dia asked.

“We’re already doing that, but progress is slow. We’ve tried to create around one hundred one-folders, but they still need to actually create their first mana circuits first…” He shook his head. “To be fair, it’s been only a week, so we really can’t ask too much of them just yet.”

“Well, at least we now know the reason why the Moons are preparing to blow up the city,” Caroline noted. “It’s great! Wow! I’m so happy!”

“There’s so much sarcasm there that the remaining treats are going to spoil,” Risti quipped. “Better finish them off first.”

“Sure. Keep mooching off your hosts.”

After throwing jokes at each other for a few more minutes, everyone got up. Caroline and Nightfall had their own things to do, while the Seekers of Life needed to usher all the staff that were living it up in Moon Mansion over to the impromptu tent city outside.

It would make for good optics if even mana-folders obeyed those instructions, so…

“Are you guys really fine with living outside, though?” Dia asked. “I mean, I don’t think anyone would object if we bunk in with the count…”

“It’s fine, really.” Farah bobbed her head at her. “Don’t go feeling guilty for this, by the way. I know that look of yours, and it’s the kind you make when you’re wondering if you’re at fault.”

“It’s a good thing that we found out about this and have some time to prepare,” Schwarz replied.

Dia made a face. “I wasn’t feeling guilty or anything, alright?”

“Sure. Very convincing.” Farah rolled her eyes. “Keep lying to yourself.”

“Tch.”

The streets of Licencia were noticeably more deserted than Dia last remembered it, but again, there was a literal festival taking place outside the city walls. It was a point that made the idea of living inside the sprawling tent city outside quite interesting, and to be honest, with enough barrier artefacts, they didn’t even need a tent.

“You’re smiling now,” Schwarz noted. “Isn’t she?”

“Yeap.”

“Definitely.”

“Come on, let me smile freely.” Dia rolled her eyes. “Why are you guys so attentive to my facial emotions?”

“Well, you are the princess. It’s natural for us to look at your emotions,” Farah replied. “As they say, servants need to read their mistress’ face…”

“But you guys aren’t my servants…anyway, I’m only smiling because the tent city outside is like a huge festival, right? There might be food we’ve never eaten before!”

“Or new drinks,” Schwarz added thoughtfully. “Now I see why you’re smiling…”

Dia didn’t know if that utterance was a good thing or not.