Thief of Time

“Truly, we are standing on the shoulders of giants,” said Claud, as he and Lily followed a path through the wilderness. The path in question was five metres wide, flanked by dense trees and vegetation and there was nothing but hardened soil beneath their boots.

“We’re just standing on the path carved out by a raging monster, though,” Lily replied.

“It’s a turn of phrase,” Claud replied. “But you cannot deny that this straight road to Licencia is definitely going to improve the movement of people and goods between Schwa and Istrel. I give it three weeks before some bright fellow turns this fake road into a real one.”

For the past few days, Claud and Lily had been following the three-headed snake’s trail as it chased after the thief that had stolen its mana herb, which was a term that referred to any and all plants that had benefited from the Moons’ benefaction. The monster had bashed through the undergrowth and other obstacles in its anger, clearing the path for any intrepid travellers who were on the same road.

As a small trade-off, this meant that both of them hadn’t stopped at a town so far, since both of them were more interested in treading the really beaten path. At the same time, Lily had taught Claud how to mana-walk, which was simply running with the use of mana.

Claud didn’t quite understand why the process of doing so wasn’t called mana-running, but Lily had given no explanation when he brought up that fact. From the looks of it, the name was just kept for logistical reasons, but still…

“Three weeks?” Lily tutted. “You really are optimistic. Do not underestimate the inefficiency of local governments.”

“I was thinking about private entrepreneurs, though…”

“And why would they invest in public infrastructure?”

“They don’t?” Claud tilted his head. “I remember reading things like how some enterprising businessman would build a road and charge anyone using it.”

“Things like that don’t happen often, despite what your novels say.”

“Bah.”

Picking up a stray apple, Claud sniffed at it. For obvious reasons, however, he wasn’t planning on biting down, but having something like an apple to clutch at while walking was something like a crutch of his.

“What’s with that apple?” Lily asked.

“I like holding something in my hand when I walk,” Claud replied. “You know, as a kid, you’d clutch your mum’s hands and follow her as she walks around the market, right?”

“I cannot say I have that experience, but it does sound nice.”

Mouth, meet foot. Claud had forgotten that Lily didn’t grow up in what one might call a normal family, but again, not many people had the luxury of even spending a childhood with loving parents. Such an experience, in a sense, was both a blessing and a curse.

The former was obvious. The latter, however, was the inevitable sorrow of a final parting. Only with possession could one feel loss.

Before Claud could delve deeper into that mental rabbit hole, he stopped himself and turned to Lily. “Sorry.”

“It’s not any fault of yours,” said Lily. “But if you’re really apologetic, you can try testing out this confectionary of mine. I made it last night, when some owls woke me up.”

“Confectionary?” Claud blinked twice. “Like a sweet?”

“You could say that,” said Lily. “Here, catch!”

Claud caught a small package, wrapped with brightly coloured paper. “Is it dangerous?”

“It might not taste nice, but that’ll be it. Remember to give me feedback when you’re done,” Lily replied. Her expectant eyes made it hard for Claud to turn her down, so he reluctantly unwrapped the tiny little parcel with his free hand.

A small, green cube entered his eyes. It didn’t look particularly dangerous. Besides, there was no reason for Lily to harm him, so…

Taking a deep breath, he popped the cube into his mouth. A tangy sweetness assailed his tongue, but before he could savour its texture or anything else, the cube melted into a sweet liquid, which he swallowed by accident.

“So?” Lily asked. “How was it?”

“I didn’t even get a chance to taste it at all,” Claud replied, a small frown on his face. “It melted in my mouth within seconds.”

“Again?” She sighed. “Back to the drawing board.”

“Well, you could just eat it yourself without giving it to me, though,” said Claud. “I think it’s nice and sweet, from the few seconds it lasted in my mouth. That said, what’s the point of letting me try it?”

“My tongue is less sensitive to sweet foods,” Lily replied. “What I consider sweet might make you gag or throw up, and I can’t have my prospective customers sick.”

“Before you consider sick or not, do consider whether those sweets would spoil your customers’ teeth.” Claud used his tongue to scrub his inwards, inwardly thankful that he had a flexible tongue. The sweet had melted into a liquid that was somewhat sticky, and the inwards of his mouth was getting a bit uncomfortable.

“Any other feedback?”

“The aftertaste is icky. The liquid sticks to my teeth, and I don’t like how it feels,” Claud made an odd face.

“Anything else? Any more?”

“Well…”

The two continued to talk as they followed the makeshift path. They had spent the morning mana-walking, so there wasn’t much they could do to speed up their travels in the afternoon. Nonetheless, they still made good time, and by the time the sky turned orange, they had arrived at Nachtville, the first stop of their initial journey.

The small town, however, was clearly on alert, and Claud saw the reason why immediately. The three-headed snake had clearly passed by the area, making a detour to avoid the city during the chase. On one hand, Claud was relieved to see no one hurt, but on the other hand, this showed that the three-headed snake had not been entirely enraged.

“Should we take a look?” Claud asked.

“Well, I do want to wash up.”

“Remember to take a cleanliness-related artefact next time,” Claud replied. “You keep staring at me whenever I use my Refresher.”

“Noted.”

The two walked towards Nachtville’s city gates, where a rather modest contingent of guards were standing at attention. Unlike the last time they dropped by, the guards today were clearly high-strung and worried; they were looking around every so often.

“Visitors?! Come, hurry!” One of them, a burly, weather-worn man, ushered Claud and Lily over the moment he saw them. “We don’t know if that snake will return, so don’t dally outside! Some of the townsfolk were killed when they were foraging!”

That was enough of a motivation for Claud to hurry into the city. Unfortunately, this also meant that they couldn’t really gather much in the way of information from the guards, who were likely to be the most well-informed of the situation.

“Let’s head to an inn,” said Claud, whose eyes had swept past an absurdly crammed tavern. He wasn’t going to step into anywhere that was too crowded, especially with a monster on the loose, since a panicked stampede would probably occur if the snake decided to pay a return visit.

Based on his luck recently, the latter was probably going to occur if he even stuck his nose inside.

“We’re staying here for now?” Lily asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Claud replied. “Besides, we’re ahead of schedule anyway. Knowing the bartender, he should have heard about the explosion at Julan now. He would probably assume that the first thing I would do is to carry you on my shoulder and flee the city, and then abort the time-sensitive high efficacy fetterless trading run.”

“You could have dropped that last bit, and I would still understand,” said Lily.

Ignoring that last bit, Claud approached a scared old lady for directions. The master thief didn’t want to visit the Bronze Fork, given the events that had transpired when they stayed there for a night.

“Didn’t think you would actually take the time to comfort her, though.”

“Anyone would if they saw how shaken she was,” Claud replied. “Still, it is rare to see tri-fold monsters running around to begin with, so…”

Cursing the fellow who stole the snake’s mana herb, the two of them stopped outside the inn, which was rather full. The people inside were armed and ready, but by the looks of it, they were probably mercenaries who had dropped by the city for some reason.

The officious air around them hinted that they weren’t here to sightsee, and judging from how they seemed to be victims of the sudden rampage of the three-headed snake, Claud could only think of one incident that needed their presence.

Making sure to keep his gaze straight, he marched right into the inn the old lady had recommended.

“Do you want to share a room?” Claud asked. “It’ll be safer that way.”

“And cheaper,” Lily added.

“Then we are in accord.”

After booking a room for two days, Claud looked around the inn, whose first floor followed the standard practice of doubling as an eatery.

“Hey, did you hear?” said someone. “Apparently, they say that Tot’s behind this monster rampage!”

Claud’s jaw fell open.