Thief of Time

“We’re finally here.” Plucking out some leaves from his hair, Claud looked around, stifled a yawn, and then rubbed his back and legs.

“Technically, we’re only at the territory called the Julan Barony,” Lily replied. “The capital itself is still an hour or so away.”

“Oh.” Claud looked down on the ground and frowned. “I still can’t really understand how these territory things work.”

“Don’t think too hard about it. The city’s what matters.”

Lily’s carefree attitude was slightly worrying, but it also served to put him at ease.

“So, what plans have you come up with?” Claud asked.

Lily raised an eyebrow. “What, you want to help?”

“You’ve been asking how I intend to turn your family into paupers, so me asking a question in return only seems fair. Besides, if my plan were to clash with yours, it might have some rather unpleasant outcomes. I would avoid that where possible,” Claud replied.

“Huh. You can adjust your plan to avoid overlaps with mine, eh?” Lily rubbed her chin.

Claud bobbed his head. It wasn’t all that hard, given that he was going to plunder their vault, loot it of anything valuable, and then burn up whatever remained. It was a rather simple operation, all things considered. He just needed to find their vault, and then work out a way inside. According to their discussion some time back, the treasury was, as usual, located far from the Julan main house, and in Lily's words, the Julan treasury was a sight to behold.

“You can think of it that way,” Claud replied.

“Okay, then.” Lily rubbed her nose. “It’s not much of a plan, actually. I intend to blow up my family’s home.”

“What do you mean, blow up?”

“Boom,” Lily replied. “You know, explosions?”

“Okay, but how and where do you intend to get some explosives from?” Claud eyed the innocent-looking Lily. “What, are you going to make them from scratch?”

“How did you know?” Lily asked.

“Wait, really?” Claud looked around him, and then lowered his volume. “How do you make such things?”

“Didn’t I tell you that most of my skills were geared towards making things?” Lily replied. “General items like weapons, armour, food and bombs, remember?"

Claud processed her words, and then spent another two minutes to re-process them.

“Claud?”

“Wait.” The master thief looked up at the rising moons. “Did you just say that explosives — bombs — fall under the category of general items?”

“Yes. What’s wrong with that?” Lily asked. “They’re used for construction, demolition and mining. I don’t see why they don’t fall under the category of general items.”

For a moment, Claud wanted to shake the person who taught her this faulty logic, and see if there was any water in his or her brain. How on Grandis did bombs count as general items? And who taught her to think this way? Or was it self-taught?

Forcibly clearing his throat, he asked, “What kinds of bombs are we looking at?”

“That’s a secret,” Lily replied. “They’re also my backup weapons, in case I ever get surrounded. If push comes to shove, I’ll just take everything out and blow them away.”

“You have explosives on you?!”

“What’s wrong with that?” Lily replied, her hands on her hips. “You also have all sorts of knives on your body, right? If you can have knives tucked all around you, I don’t see why I can’t have bombs all around my clothes.”

“…Point.” Claud looked away. “But if you’re not careful, you’re going to blow me up too, right?”

“Don’t worry,” Lily replied. “The last time a bomb went off on accident was a year ago.”

“That’s okay?” Claud forced down a gulp and took a few steps away from her.

“Well, that someone was a bad guy,” Lily replied. “Tried to attack me on a dark night by surprise, and I dropped a small bomb by accident. It rolled over to him, and he stomped on it for some reason. As a result, it exploded, taking his lower body with him.”

Claud winced. “I’m never going to step on anything that falls out of your clothes. But you do sleep in them or something, right? How do they not blow up? If you fall down and land on your face, what happens?”

“The newer ones have no such issue,” Lily replied. “Now you have to twist a small pin and pull them out. This way, you won’t run into issues that normally happen if you have a force-based bomb. In summary, it’s safer.”

“I-if you say so.” Claud assessed her nonchalant expression and took a deep breath. “Well, since we’re on this topic, could you spare me some of your bombs? I think I could use a few of them too.”

“You’re conducting economic warfare. I don’t see why you need bombs.”

“Pretty please?” Claud blinked twice, and tried to look cute. It was a tough task, considering that he knew himself to be on the cool and handsome side, but the master thief knew that he too could make googly eyes.

Lily breathed out. “Fine. Here, have five of them. To use, twist, tug and toss. Got it?”

Claud took out a small ball. It looked like one of his delayed arsonists, just that it was ten times more elegant. The ball was smooth to the touch, with a small heart sticking out of it. The heart was presumably the pin Lily had mentioned earlier, the device preventing it from blowing up prematurely.

“Thanks, Lily.” Attaching the bag to his belt, he looked around his body for a moment, before settling on some of his delayed arsonists. “In return, take this.”

“What’s that?” Lily asked.

“They’re called delayed arsonists,” Claud replied. “Remove the cap and press the red button in the middle, before placing it down somewhere. Five minutes later, you’ll get a good blaze going.”

“Ohhh.” Lily swivelled over to look at Claud. “Are you…a kindred spirit of mine? An associate in annihilation?”

“What’s with that shady title?” He rolled his eyes. “No! Look, when it comes to preserving my life, I have to be prepared for anything! For instance, if I’m escaping into the forest, tossing a delayed arsonist into a random direction is bound to take some heat off me when it ignites. If I want to make a distraction, it’s also very useful!”

“Oh. How dull.” Lily tossed a grey ball up and down.

“Well, do your explosives react to flame? If so, just place a whole bunch of them at one place, and then—”

“I obviously have my own bombs to do that,” Lily replied. “I suppose I’ll just keep it. It’ll be a problem if I hurt your feelings, right?”

Claud felt his eyelid twitch twice, and eventually decided not to pursue the matter. In silence, they trudged on westwards, under the backdrop of the rising Moons. As they continued on, he could see more and more people. These people were lifestone prospectors, hoping that they would chance upon a stray lifestone at dusk or dawn.

The creation of lifestones were quite random. Other than lifestone mines, which were aggregations of mana that had mutated just enough to become lifeforce, it was possible to find lifestones just sitting around in the middle of a field. Granted, they were largely low-rank lifestones, but for normal people, a single low-rank lifestone was enough to live in an ordinary inn with food for a year or two.

All things considered, lifestone prospecting was a lucrative enough profession that there were enough people who had started a small business by making use of capital obtained from a low-ranked lifestone or two.

“Is this a common sight in Julan?” Claud asked.

“It was when I left,” Lily replied.

“Doesn’t bode well for your territory, then,” Claud replied.

Lily nodded heavily. “I know.”

The number of lifestone prospectors in a territory was usually inversely proportionate to the territory’s economic ability. Ad-hoc prospectors were typically driven by economic woes, which meant that they were a good marker of how well a territory’s economy was functioning.

Claud, who had fallen on hard times years ago, could attest to that fact.

“We’re close to Julan itself,” Lily murmured, referring to the territory’s capital. “Do you want to split up before we enter?”

“No need. You’re a local here. I’ll need your guidance if we want to settle this fast,” Claud replied. “You do want to return to Licencia as soon as possible, right?”

She nodded.

“We’ll try to settle this as quickly as possible, then. Give me a list of the wealthiest members of your family after we find a room,” said Claud. “I’ll go do something about these people.”

“Do what?”

“I’ll tell you after we’re done,” Claud replied. “Pinky promise!”

“What are you, a child?” Lily shook her head, but they made the promise anyway.

“Anyway, we’re drawing close to the city gates. Let me show you the third persona one can adopt when entering,” said Claud. “We’ve done inferiors and equals already. Now we’re left with superiors.”

“I think I know what you’re about to do,” said Lily. “Act like Farah, right?”

“Oh.” Claud wilted. “I suppose you of all people would know how to act this way.”

“You’re talking to a bona fide noble,” Lily replied. “Let me show you the fruits of a noble’s upbringing.”