Thief of Time

“I know I said this when we left the city,” Risti began, “but are we really bringing along a kid for this investigation?”

Beth, who was sitting on Dia’s shoulders, tilted her head. “Yes?”

“…Never mind. She even answered herself this time. I give up.”

Dia glanced at Risti, who had given up the moment Beth spoke. She could empathise with Risti right now, because the kid had definitely stared at her with teary eyes and a really sad face. Dia, who had experience in taking on a kid’s sad face, wasn’t even going to bother.

After all, this didn’t really cross any lines. None of them were going to bring Beth around during their actual investigations; Farah was going to have one of them stay with Beth in her tiny palace while the others ran off to do some investigations. Besides, the kid would be happy if she got to see more of the world, so it really wasn’t a problem.

“You aren’t bringing that up just to elicit a response from the kid, right?” Dia asked, tickling the toddler.

“Oh, come on. Who’s so bored as to do that?” Risti chuckled. “I just thought of it, since we’re not too far from the county. Right, what’s Farah County like?”

Farah perked up. “The specialty of Farah County is moonwheat! Bakes the best pastries in the Lustre Dukedom! Some of the most notable products include—“

“Dia, can you tell me about Farah County? You visited it before, right?” Risti asked.

“What’s wrong with hearing from me?” Farah asked.

“Why would I ask the ruler of Farah County herself?” Risti asked. “Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t just ask someone who rules a place what he or she thinks about it, right? It doesn’t make sense. It’s like asking Schwarz what he thinks about his drinks. He’ll praise them to the five grand skies, even though nine-tenths of them just end up knocking people out on the spot. If you didn’t know any better, you’d just drink it and suffer from irrecoverable bodily damage.”

“Oi.”

Risti ignored the bartender. “Besides, asking a ruler is pointless. He or she is fundamentally divorced from the lowest rungs of society. Ask Dia what she thinks of the slums in the Lustre capital. She definitely can’t tell you a thing either.”

“Why did you take aim at me too?”

Risti chuckled. “Anyway, what do you think about Farah County?”

“Mhm. Very enthusiastic,” Dia replied.

“Wait. Enthusiastic?” Risti tilted her head. “About what? What would they be enthusiastic about? Us?”

Dia remembered the pomp and fanfare that had accompanied Farah’s triumphant return home, and then grinned. “Well, it’s not much. Also, the pastries are awesome. Anything made from moonwheat is really nice, like what Farah said. You guys should go roaming around the streets if you have time. They’re really soft and fluffy—Beth, don’t you dare drool on my hair.”

The kid on her head shook a few times.

“That’s better.” Dia tickled her sides. “Anyway, you’ll see…”

“Wait,” Schwarz replied. “Can moonwheat be used to make alcohol?”

“You’re even thinking of that now?” Farah asked. “I mean, you could give it a try. If it works, I’m happy. But what were the results of your tests with sunrice? I remember you imported a huge batch from Daybreak County.”

“Rice wine, but it ain’t any drinking alcohol,” Schwarz replied. “Good for cooking, though. The chefs at Triple-D love them.”

“Well, with any luck, maybe you can make similar innovations. But where do you get your time from? You’re usually busy reading through reports and stuff like me, right?” Farah asked.

“I’m just that good.”

“Stop boasting now, will you.” Farah let out a sigh. “Anyway, it’s going to be a pain. Lloyd is definitely going to press me about a husband and an heir or heiress. Ugh. Do I really need to get married and everything? Marriage is the graveyard of life!”

“Really?” Dia asked, thinking about the idiot couples she’d seen so far. “They seem really quite happy to me, though?”

“Only because they’re lucky. I’ll need to get a husband for a heir. It’s a loveless marriage or something.” Farah made a face. “Well, I’ll just put it off and ignore their words. Or…”

Her words faltered. “Mhm. Well, we do have a child here.”

“Where—” Dia paused, and then glared at Farah. “You are not taking Beth from me. No way.”

“Are you intending to groom her into the next successor of the Lustre Dukedom?” Farah asked. “Or rather, do you have that authority?”

“Tch.”

“I do, however, have the liberty to appoint anyone I damn well feel like,” Farah replied. “And that’ll give Beth some legal status of sorts too. I mean, it’s odd if she doesn’t have some nice title, right? I’m a countess, you’re the Lustre princess, Risti’s a hotshot’s kid, Schwarz is Schwarz…”

“You’re not mentioning Claud, though!”

“Uh, he’s the husband of the final survivor of a baron family,” Farah finagled. “Yeap. Therefore, it only makes sense to have Beth to take on some cool position too, right? Otherwise, she might feel left out.”

Beth rubbed Dia’s scalp with her tiny hands, but she didn’t say anything. Considering that the kid was quite capable of understanding most conversations, it was quite weird, but…

“Not handing the kid over to your family registry.”

“What are you, her mum?”

“Dada!” Beth patted her head. “Dada!”

Dia took a long, deep breath. “Her father, apparently. I have no idea how that is possible, so someone else can go enlighten me at this point.”

“You’re not kidding…” Farah shook her head. “Damn it. Now I need to look for an heir or something.”

“Don’t be silly.” Dia looked up. “I don’t think the Emperor is going to accept an adopted kid as your heir or something. Old man’s a stick in the mud sometimes. Anyway…we’re almost there. I suppose we should prepare for a bit or something.”

“Prepare?” Schwarz tilted his head. “Prepare what?”

“Well, you don’t want to be deafened or anything, so we should let Farah go home first. Maybe…around two hundred metres or so away? We should keep the distance, unless you enjoy being the centre of attention.”

“Oh.” Farah looked at her. “You’re talking about that, huh. I thought you forgot.”

“I was nearly deafened when the entire damn county ran out to welcome you home,” Dia replied. “Totally don’t need a repeat of that, you see? You can go on ahead first and reunite with your people. We’ll watch from afar with gentle, doting smiles and everything.”

“This maternal feeling I’m getting from you is disturbing…”

“Dada!” Beth clutched Dia’s head closely. “Dada, Dadia!”

“What’s up with the kid?” Farah asked. “Why is she responding to that random comment?”

Dia really wanted to explain how Beth apparently saw her as a father figure rather than a mother figure, but on second thought, it felt like an absolute chore. Instead, she simply shrugged and waved her onwards, before glancing at the others.

“What do you guys think?”

“Me?” Risti asked. “Well, if Farah is this well-received, we should not interrupt their reunion. It’s best if she walks on ahead and draws away all the attention from us, even if it’s temporary. Besides, we’ll be able to enter her palace quicker that way. I don’t really see a problem.”

“Yes, indeed.” Schwarz froze. “And I’m suddenly very aware of the fact that there might be some people in the county that may view me as a potential romantic partner for Farah, even though we don’t have that kinda feeling for each other. It might be dangerous for me to appear in the public eye in such a fashion.”

“True…it’s definitely dangerous,” Dia muttered. “I can imagine some broken-hearted, misguided fellow attempting to hack you down with an axe or something.”

“My people aren’t like that!”

“Really. Well, if so, I apologise.” Dia paused. “But there are a lot of fanatics out there that would go to any lengths.”

Risti made a little sound in her throat. “I do remember thinking about scoping out anyone who seemed like a potential romantic partner for Princess Dia back then, just to see if they were actually decent people. I’m sure others will do that to you too.”

“You remembered what?” Dia asked.

“Nothing much of importance now,” Risti replied. “Anyway, we’re close! Mana-walking as mid-ranked folders really is a good thing. We’re moving so fast. I bet we can cross the whole sovereignty in around a week or something now. Even Caroline’s mana wagon is slow compared to us.”

“That’s true…hey, don’t change the topic!”

“Putting that aside, we should get ready our equipment too,” Risti continued. “The Dark Heralds are said to be operating out of and around Farah County. We need to be careful about running into them unprepared. Farah, we’ll need your cooperation for this one once we begin the investigation in earnest. Also, we’ll need to ask Emperor Grandis about this…”

As Risti rattled on and on, Dia decided to give that disturbing topic a rest. It wasn’t as if Risti was doing it now, after all…