It took all of his self-control to not launch a retort at the fellow who said that, which was probably a testament to just how disciplined his mind and mouth was. There was an old saying that loose throats sink boats, and the master thief knew that he was just a hair’s breadth away from revealing his so-called secret identity.

Forcing himself to maintain a regular breathing pattern, Claud glanced at Lily. “It’ll be a really fine surprise if we met Tot here.”

His chilly words made Lily chuckle. As expected, she had already established expectations for how he would react when an alleged monster of the Third Godsfall came along, and Claud was thankful that he was actually a darn good actor. Making sure to keep his face dark, he motioned at an empty table, a silent question of whether she wanted to eat or not.

She nodded, and at that, the two headed over to the second counter, which was handling food-based requests.

“Garlic bread and mushroom soup,” said Claud.

“I’ll have breaded chicken chunks,” said Lily. “Do you mind if I dip some of them into your soup?”

“Sure, go wild.”

Five minutes later, the two collected their food and found an empty table. Unfortunately, Claud couldn’t quite pinpoint the fellow who had spoken earlier, which meant that he could only rely on random bits and pieces of conversation.

“You’re really worried, aren’t you?” Lily asked.

“Was it that obvious?” Claud asked.

“Well, you really didn’t look good when you heard about Tot’s presence here,” said Lily. “I suppose you’re scared, but…”

His mind churning, Claud raised his volume just high enough that others would hear, while not being suspicious at the same time. “Master Thief Tot is probably an old powerhouse from the Third Godsfall. Only idiots wouldn’t be scared.”

“True,” Lily replied. “Still, what would such a being want with a mana herb?”

Someone stood up at those words, heading towards their table. Claud repressed the urge to grab Lily and run, and looked at the newcomer instead. It was one of the mercenaries. Tall, burly and considerably well-equipped, he looked like a good fight. He didn’t seem like a mana-user, but that didn’t affect the master thief’s judgement to not get into a conflict with him.

After all, Claud didn’t seem like a mana-user either.

“Yes?” Claud asked.

“You, woman. You talked about a mana herb, right? Why do you say that?” the newcomer asked.

“Is that how you demand things from people?” Lily asked.

The man paused, and then shook his head. “My apologies. The recent events have left me on-edge.”

His buddies, who had joined up a moment later, chimed in and said the same thing. Upon seeing how this little group was acting all nice and polite, Claud nodded slightly, and Lily eased up.

“Well, if you buy us a drink,” said Claud, gesturing at the open seats of his table, “I don’t see why I can’t share with you guys what we saw.”

“Ah. Someone like us. Well met, friend.” The burly man sat down on an open seat without much preamble, and then produced a bottle and some cups. “You have a cup of your own?”

Claud produced two metal cups and slid it forward. Within moments, the cups were all filled to the brim with a bubbly beverage, and the burly mercenary passed them out once more. However, before Claud and Lily could reach for their own, he had downed his own cup with a single gulp, and the master thief nodded approvingly.

It was a display of goodwill.

Claud could feel Lily’s eyes on him as he removed a ring from his left hand, before taking a gulp from his own cup in return, an action that elicited smiles from the other mercenaries.

Just as how the man had displayed his goodwill, Claud had demonstrated his trust by removing his Ring of Poison Resistance. Of course, he still had his Pendant of Poison Nullification, but that was something these men didn’t need to know about.

The others chuckled along, and from the corner of his eye, Claud could see Lily drink from her own cup.

“Excellent alcohol,” said Lily. “When was it brewed?”

“5701,” the man replied.

“Three hundred and twenty years…” Lily nodded, impressed.

“I can’t imagine someone actually let such good brew stay untouched for three hundred years, though,” said Claud. “I, for one, would have started chugging away if it met my standards.”

The others laughed.

“Now that we’ve shared your brew,” said Claud, “we’re friends. Let us introduce ourselves. I’m Claud.”

“And I’m Lily. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Same here, same here.” The burly man chuckled. “I’m Leon.”

To his right was a man with an eye-patch. “Name’s Gard.”

“And I’m Dee,” said the woman on Leon’s left.

After a round of handshakes, Claud picked up his cup and took another sip from it. “We were travelling from Julan when we were forced to stop our journey. A few hundred metres away from us was a three-headed snake, and since it was night, we didn’t want to bash through an area few people went into.”

“So we got ourselves comfortable on a tree,” said Lily. “While we were waiting out the night, someone — a mana-user with multiple folds — came along and taunted the snake. As it turned out, the monster was watching over a mana herb, which the mana-user took from the monster’s very eyes.”

“A mana herb…well, the chances of us getting it very low,” said Leon. “Friends, thank you very much for telling us these things.”

“Anytime,” said Lily. “Participating in a quarrel like this one is near-fatal; good people like you don’t deserve to die like that.”

The others laughed heartily, before Dee lowered her voice and leaned forward.

“Something wrong, Dee?” Claud asked.

“To be honest, I was paying attention to you two when you two talked about Tot,” said Dee. “We’re people who, like so many other moths, are drawn to the flame of fame and riches. We arrived here a few days ago, intent on heading to Licencia, but since that three-headed snake screwed our schedule up…”

“I see.” Claud took a deep breath. “Well, since we’re friends, telling you about what we know about Tot is no issue. To be honest, the two of us aren’t even going to pursue the Thief of Time; it’s too dangerous.”

Lily nodded rapidly. “We’ve been gathering intelligence about him in the City of Trades.”

“I guessed as much,” said Leon. “But what’s this about an old powerhouse from the Third Godsfall?”

“It’s an inference we made,” said Lily. “Apparently, the Thief of Time survived ritual magic backed by the White God’s power with absurd ease.”

Dee whistled at those words, while Gard fidgeted with his eyepatch.

“Hot damn,” Leon murmured. “That’s insane.”

Gard nodded. “Tell me about it. What should we do?”

“We rethink our strategy,” said Leon. “But our trip isn’t complete. Count Nightfall has been opening up recruitment for skilled fighters; apparently, the top three teams will be given substantial wealth in his personal guards.”

“Why would the count do that?” Claud asked, interested.

“Beats me, but word is that they’re preparing for war. Duke Istrel apparently intends to start a massive war with the other two dukedoms, so…”

Leon trailed off, leaving much to the imagination. Claud could make a few good guesses at why Count Nightfall would do such a thing, but until he got concrete information, they would remain as guesses.

“Do be careful then, friends.” Claud narrowed his eyes slightly. “I believe you know how Duke Istrel operates, in his dukedom and in the territories that belong to his children. A count is nothing in the consideration of a ruler.”

“We know, but that’s what we do, right?”

Claud paused, and then nodded. “Stay safe. May the Moons shine on you, even in the darkest night.”

“The same to you, friend.”

The three of them got up. Watching idly as they mingled into their own group, Claud and Lily exchanged sad smiles, before turning to look at their food. From the looks of it, the three of them weren’t going to be dissuaded by his warning, but there was really nothing Lily and Claud could do about that.

Dipping a slice of garlic bread into his soup, the master thief nibbled the garlic bread. He could hear the three of them telling their companions what they had learnt earlier, and Claud heaved a small sigh of relief. The more people believed in the falsehood that was Tot’s strength, the better it was for him. After all, sometimes, it wasn’t the bigshots that did someone in — history, time and time, had shown that a little piece, at the right time and the right place, was often the key variable in deciding outcomes of massive events.

Like Master Thief Tot, an alleged monster of the Third Godsfall.

The more Claud could clear out the board, the greater the space he had to hide.