Thief of Time

Claud rubbed his nose as the other bigshots wondered how he didn’t spot a sheltered princess escaping captivity without any preparation.

To be fair, the fact that he hadn’t realised anything wrong with Dia wasn’t all that weird. For some reason, the two of them interacted the least after the Moon Lords were formed. It was mostly coincidence — Claud would leave to do something, and when he was on the way back, Dia would have headed out. Her job scope lay in training people, while his and Lily’s were all about ensuring security and heading out to the city gates.

He and Lily were like the Moons to Dia’s sun; they rarely appeared in the same sky together. Furthermore, after the two of them took down the Emissary back then, they had fled the sovereignty entirely, cutting off most interactions directly.

It was natural that he wouldn’t have discovered anything odd with her cover story. Rather, it felt like she had practiced well for it; Claud hadn’t noticed anything odd. In fact, that cover story of hers was a very good explanation for her clearly half-assed behaviour, and everyone had brought into it hook, line and sinker.

Indeed, Claud could remember a few instances in which he rationalised away her behaviour, and judging from the wintry look on Lily’s face, she definitely remembered a few things too.

“You two look like there’s lemons in your mouths,” Neo Cadenza noted. “What’s wrong?”

“Just thinking about how Dia managed to fool us,” Claud replied blandly. “Nothing much, really.”

Lily nodded once, and in a deadpan voice that mimicked Claud’s own, said, “We’re contemplating on the prospect of getting our eyes and brain checked. How we fell for that is probably very disturbing.”

Claud grunted.

Emperor Grandis coughed. “Intriguing. How did this princess behave while she was with you?”

“Like a fake commoner,” Claud replied, thinking about the various weird stands and views that she had. However, since she had introduced herself as the double of the real thing, Claud had conveniently attributed these views to that of her upbringing — after all, doubles had to pass for the real deal, so they had to learn and live the same way as the original.

This had turned out to be the stumbling stone for everyone in the Seekers of Life.

Lily bobbed her head. “It’s hard to believe that the real Dia was living with us the whole time. To be honest, she didn’t act like the princess either, so…well, whatever.”

The president of the Folders’ Association chortled, before saying, “Anyway, you two are the ones that solved that super-large Distortion, right? How do you feel about it?”

“Never doing it again,” Claud replied. “I’m in a bad state, and I just wanna rest. If my little friend wasn’t trapped inside, I wouldn’t have even made a move at all.”

“There’s no way we’re doing that without an absolute imperative,” Lily added.

“Bummer.”

“Are you sure you two do not want to go around undoing Distortions?” First Lady Cecily asked. “We will pay you handsomely for every Distortion that occurs.”

“We’re not really the materialistic kind, though,” Claud replied. “None of us need any lifespan for a long time, and like I said, I’m not in a good state now.”

“How unfortunate.” First Lady Cecily folded her arms. “When you recover, do consider helping us with these Distortions. I believe you have never ridden my personal transport before. It will bring you there and back in a matter of two days.”

Lily glanced at him, interest in her eyes. Claud tried to figure out what the appeal of a flying boat was, since he could do the same, but far faster…

“Don’t try to scam people with that boat of yours,” Supreme Saran interjected. “It’s cold out there, and there’s not a lot of space.”

“Your armour was the problem back then, not my flying ship,” First Lady replied, her voice reminding Claud of a thawing river. “Don’t blame me for the icicles that formed on your armour.”

“Get some heating on that damn thing already.”

Claud and Lily took this chance to nibble on some of the pre-banquet appetisers as the two began to quarrel, and Emperor Grandis eventually joined in. As the banquet moved onto the main dishes, Claud glanced at Neo, who was busy cutting a slab of chicken into tens of small cubes, which were then used to build some weird palace.

“That’s awesome.” Lily gazed at the small palace. “Okay, I’m going to give it a try! I bet I can do it better than you, old man!”

“Why are you competing with me?” Neo Cadenza asked. “Anyway, I’m a professional at this. You can’t beat me.”

Claud continued to slice his little piece of chicken into small strips as the two began their random competition. Of course, Claud knew that Lily had simply started this as a way to avoid being drawn into further uncomfortable conversations regarding the Seekers of Life and the two of them handling Distortions, for which Claud was very thankful.

As he shook his head, the quarrelling duo snorted at each other and turned away.

“Now, now.” Emperor Grandis raised a hand. “We need to deal with the Thief of Time first.”

His ears twitched as Emperor Grandis abruptly brought up the topic of the Fourth Bearer of Destiny, but that was the only reaction he had. As for Lily, she seemed to have anticipated such a topic, so she merely continued to make a palace out of meat cubes without any response whatsoever.

An absurd thought floated into his mind.

Is it possible that she chose to do something that requires this much concentration on purpose?

Claud narrowed his eyes slightly as Lily continued to perfect her art. After all, he hadn’t missed the moment in which the three of them swept their gazes nonchalantly across Claud and Lily, when Emperor Grandis abruptly talked about the Thief of Time. In fact, the fact that Lily hadn’t fumbled anything despite having such a topic brought up in earshot was proof enough that she wasn’t linked to the Fourth.

He was certain that this sudden shift in topic was meant to catch the two of them off-guard, but with his attention devoted to Lily’s craft, Claud really couldn’t care. It also helped that he was in a perpetual state of lethargy, which dampened his ability to react in a timely fashion and made him more ponderous.

At any rate, this was a demonstration of the three bigshots’ suspicions about him and Lily, and he couldn’t blame them. After all, they were mana-users that remained low-profile despite wielding so much power, which arguably met the Thief of Time’s profile and actions.

Their sudden appearance, especially since they were in Lostfon and after the Thief of Time monopolised the vast rewards of the Cosmic Egg, was too suspicious. It was natural that they would want to test the two of them, but Claud was always ready, and Lily…seemed to have pre-empted such a situation by providing an environment in which she could be tested at her most genuine level.

Just how much did Lily anticipate?

After making a note to praise her for an entire night, Claud continued to admire her handiwork. The palace that she had created was by no means inferior to Neo’s, and the elder Cadenza was beginning to expose a hint of disbelief on his face.

“Have you been practicing this somehow?” Neo Cadenza asked.

“No, why?”

“…Urgh.”

Fortunately for Neo Cadenza, Lily completed her little work of art, before tugging at Claud’s sleeve. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Claud looked at the small model of Moon Mansion, and then smiled. “Yes. It is. Still, now that you piled it up like this, eating the whole thing isn’t going to be easy…”

“I can just topple it, though? Or use mana like this…”

As Lily played with her food, Claud returned his attention to the three sovereigns, who were discussing the Thief of Time in hushed voices. Why they had to hold such a meeting here was beyond Claud’s comprehension, but maybe there were other circumstances…

He didn’t quite care about what they were saying, though. The checks could ramp up and the searches could grow more frequent, but all that had nothing to do with them. After this banquet, the two of them would huddle up in the little shop and sell skillstrips for fun, while Lily prepared for her Third Tutorial.

That was all they were planning to do.

Whatever bait these three fellows were planning to throw out, Claud wasn’t going to have any of it.

“Right,” said Neo, “you two wrote me a letter or something, right? I actually penned a reply. I’ll send it along after the banquet.”

Claud nodded. “Of course. We were busy with that Distortion, after all.”

“Good work for that one, you two.” The Association President smiled. “You saved a lot of people that day…even if you two were just lucky.”

“I’d chalk that down to strength, though,” Claud replied.

Lily bobbed her head. “They’re non-folders, after all.”

“…Maybe.”