Thief of Time

Three days had passed since the Shadows had attacked Dia. Nothing much of note had happened in these days, other than the fact that she had started reading the news.

Usually, town criers would head to the town square in the morning and evening to yell out news. From what she learned from Schwarz, it was possible for them to visit places where people gather, like Triple-D, and disseminate news there, if they were paid for it.

There, however, was a more…sophisticated option. And by sophisticated, Dia actually meant posh; it was something people of power and wealth usually did.

Newspapers.

One day, some bright person said, “Instead of having people gather news and then tell us about it, why don’t we pay people to collate information and events and write them down? We’ll call it a newspaper.”

“So that’s how newspapers were created?” one of Moon Mansion’s staff, Lichl, asked, her tiny hands clutching today’s news.

“Yes, that is the correct answer,” Dia replied. “For common folk, they do cost quite a bit, but everyone will get to read the news from now on, so long as they’re part of Moon Mansion. Moon Lord Risti” —she struggled to not laugh at that title— “has kindly offered to pay for the expenses.”

The little child nodded twice eagerly, clutching the newspaper closely. “Sis Dia, how can I thank her?”

With one hand supporting her chin and the other rubbing Lichl’s head, Dia mulled for a few seconds or so. “Aha.”

“Ooh, you have an idea?”

“Naturally. Who do you think I am? Of course, I’ll have an answer, hohoho. Run along to the kitchen and ask for something nice and cold. I hear that the master’s intercepted Claud’s supply of, uh, fizzy drinks. Get her one of these things.” Doubling down on the head rubs, Dia said, “Run along now.”

“Okay! Thank you, Sis Dia!”

Lichl scuttled off, leaving behind today’s newspaper. Dia took a look at it, but before she could do anything beyond a cursory scan, Farah walked up to her.

“Anything interesting?”

“Well,” Dia glanced at the newspaper, “apparently Zulan Patra fell out with Count Nightfall today.”

“Hmm, as expe— wait, what?” Farah reached out and pried the newspaper from her grip.

“Hey!”

“I’m the professional at state affairs, not you,” said Farah. “Besides, you haven’t handed your analysis on Licencia’s economy to me yet. If you can’t do something this simple, ‘specially after I saved you the trouble of gathering data yourself, there’s no point in reading the latest news for you. You’ll just waste others’ time.”

“Did you miss the part where I told you that I spent most of my childhood in waving weapons around?” Dia replied.

“That’s no excuse. You’re supposed to stand in for Princess Dia, the wisest administrator in Lustre. If you can’t even do something as easy as this—”

“But—!” Dia paused. She didn’t quite know how to rebut her. Originally, she had wanted to say that the real Dia — that is, herself — never did much in the way of state affairs to begin with. However, by saying ‘the real Princess Dia’, she was directly admitting that she was just a stand-in, something she wanted to avoid where possible.

On the other side, if she began by saying ‘I’, Countess Farah would not get her intended meaning.

After struggling for a moment, Dia compromised by saying, “I, the real Dia, have never studied the ways of state administration, since the original heir to Lustre was my brother, not me. And by the time I was made heiress, I was already an adult who spent most of her life swinging swords.”

Farah glanced at her, an odd light of approval in her eyes. Lips twitching, she said, “Even if I take your word for that — and I don’t — the fact remains that our Princess Dia is a genius at governance. You, as her double, must live up to that expectation to protect her.”

By the Moons.

Suppressing the curses that followed that thought, Dia took a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll…get it done. Soon.”

“See to it. Now, let me finish reading this, and then we’ll return to our usual schedule,” said Farah.

“We’ve been sparring for three days straight,” Dia replied. “Is your body fine?”

“Naturally. What do you think I am? A todd— ow!”

Dia, who had poked her biceps lightly, raised an eyebrow, and then moved in for the kill. Within moments, she had poked just about every single significant muscle group on Farah’s body, and the result was a quivering mess sliding out from the chair and onto the ground.

“‘Fine’, eh?” Dia picked up the newspaper. “Just because you’re using mana to move normally doesn’t mean that you’re fine, get it?”

“R-return me my newspaper!”

Dia poked her in the sides, and Farah quivered.

“Stop! We’re in the garden!”

Ignoring her protests, Dia continued to poke her muscles, until Farah’s robes were all dishevelled. The panting countess tried to roll away from her, but there was no way for her to escape.

After administrating a few more bouts of gentle torture, Dia lugged her back to her seat.

“That’s what you get for acting tough,” Dia muttered. “There, feeling better? Your muscles should be loosened up by now.”

Farah whimpered, which gave rise to a refreshing feeling in Dia’s heart. After making a mental note about her fellow Moon Lord’s weakness, she scanned through the newspaper.

Baron Aoro killed by team of mana-users; Folders’ Association claims responsibility. Promoted article: new beverage taking Licencia by storm! Count Nightfall hiring folders, warns against armed groups in the city. Mysterious explosion remains mysterious; corpses of men in black spotted — some say they’re the Shadows of Grandis.

She blinked as she flipped to the second page. “Tot’s presence abruptly increases, reports dedicated trackers.”

“Huh?” Farah looked up. “What, Tot’s regaining strength?”

“Seems like it,” Dia frowned. “Apparently, for the past few days, Tot’s aura has enveloped the entire Licencia. Preliminary reports from famous trackers are saying that Tot is finally using the divine treasure he stole from Duke Istrel to regain his strength.”

She scanned through the rest of the article, which was mostly speculation about Tot’s true identity. To her disappointment, however, there was nothing about Emperor Grandis’ acknowledgement of Tot’s true power, which would wipe off the crimes she had been framed for.

Probably.

After the huge battle three days ago, it was entirely possible that the rosy scenario she had been hoping for would not materialise. Granted, there wasn’t anything official or whatnot, but her final strike had probably killed off some of these Shadows. If Emperor Grandis happened to learn about that…

Disabusing herself of that notion with a shake of her head, she flipped through the rest of the newspaper. The Shadows of Grandis were a huge organisation, from what she knew about it. Other than things the Emperor himself was personally paying attention to, it was unlikely that he would care about the deaths of some low-level peons.

It was callous, true, but such was the realities of running a huge organisation. People died every day in the line of work. For now, the Moon Lords was small enough that deaths would affect everything, but once Schwarz’s plans were underway…

“Divine treasure, eh?” Farah mused out loud, breaking her train of thoughts. “I wonder what kind of treasure was exactly stolen from Duke Istrel.”

“The new Ruler Umbra.” Dia shook her head. “There’s probably going to be a huge mess in the next few months, once the funeral rites are underway. Power shuffles and all. I foresee smaller wars being fought, under the supervision of Emperor Grandis, as Istrel tries to install his children into the various counties.”

“Yes.”

“Nervous?” Dia asked.

“You won’t believe me even if I said no, right?” Farah shook her head. “Oh, wow. This really works. Anyway, I am nervous. Worried. My county’s an easy target, on paper. Of the weaker nobles, my territory looks like a particularly juicy one.”

“And the truth?”

“Well, there’s a military willing to fight to the death,” Farah replied. “But there’s still going to be widespread death. Events that will bring great suffering to my people and my trading partners.”

“But you have us.”

“As part of our contract…but I must wonder how much four one-folders can bring to the table,” said Farah. “And besides, Licencia is most likely going to be involved in this war too. The Moon Lords will be implicated in this redistribution of power.”

Dia didn’t quite like that term. It was too…innocent, too unassuming, to refer to the upcoming turmoil. In fact, now that she thought about it, the death of a duke had led to a Period of Warring Fiefs. But now, with the death of a ruler…

“An Era of Warring Lands?” Dia murmured.

“What’s that about?”

“Just thinking about history,” Dia replied. “Remember that bit about Duke Tsuku? And the Period of Warring Fiefs that followed his death? Whatever comes next is going to be a huge show. Duke Lustre and Schwa are going to fight it out with Istrel’s successor.”

“It’s going to be a huge mess, that’s for sure.” Farah shook her head and began to tidy up her clothes. “How unfortunate.”

“Unfortunate indeed.”

Letting out a few more sighs, Dia tucked the newspaper into its new home — above a stack of its kin — and headed over to find Risti, to conduct her daily training.

They would deal with things one step at a time.