“Ah, home sweet home.” Claud stretched his back and peeked out from behind the tree. From what he could tell, there was nothing shady going on at Licencia’s city gates, but given the developments that had struck the Moon Lords a few days back, it was better to be safe.

“So long as we aren’t apprehended or killed on the spot when we walk through the gate,” Lily added. She was in her Princess Dia disguise, as usual, so Claud was suitably nervous of her being targeted by the Shadows of Grandis. Those guys were rather reckless, after all; he had heard all kinds of horror stories where a lookalike had been attacked and killed.

Why else would they attack a body double?

“Yeah…” Taking out a thick stack of talismans, Claud passed them over to Lily. Unlike his very rational self, Lily didn’t have much in the way of defences, so those talismans would have to do. “Here’s a stack of Protection from Arrows, and here’s one for Hardening; you’ll enjoy the effects of Projectile Protection and Iron Skin after applying thirty.”

Lily looked like a walking mess after pasting on sixty talismans — she didn’t feel like tearing sixty pieces of paper — but it was a small price to pay in exchange for protection. Staring at her own reflection in a nearby puddle, she shook her head and let out a sigh. “I look like a lunatic.”

“Well, you can remove them after we get past the city gate with no incident. After all, any law-enforcement or bounty hunter would strike at the gates,” Claud replied. The inside of a city was complex terrain; a good predator would never allow their prey to slip inside. Instead, attacking at the gates, where their prey’s attention would be drawn by necessary procedures, yielded a far better chance of success.

“The problem is getting past the city gate while looking like…this.” Lily gestured at the talismans pasted all over her arms.

“I’ll handle the talking, okay?” Claud replied. “No biggie. Let the professional smuggle the suspicious-looking girl with lots of talismans pasted on the arms through the city gate.”

“When you phrase it like that, I don’t really feel confident,” Lily muttered.

“Have I ever failed you?” Claud rolled his eyes, and then checked on his artefacts. Other than the ones that were perpetually active, the rest were primed to be activated at a moment’s notice. “Come on, let’s go. Standing around here ain’t going to get us anywhere.”

After spending another ten minutes to check that there were no ambushes or anything, the two headed towards the city gate.

“We just literally spent a few minutes checking out the area, though,” Lily muttered.

“Huh? Did you say something?” Claud, who was staring at a new flower pot placed to the side of the road that led to the city gates, looked up. “Sorry, didn’t catch that last bit.”

“Never mind.”

“Anyway, it seems that Licencia is undergoing some interesting stuff,” Claud replied. “Check this out! Lots of flower pots, and the road out of the city’s been paved. I wonder what’s going on.”

“You remember things like this?” Lily asked. “How do you even do that?”

“Well, I do use this road once in a while. It makes sense to pay attention to great scenery, right?” Claud scuttled over to a particularly vibrant flower and sniffed it. “Nice.”

“We should really be heading over to the city gates,” said Lily. “The talismans only last thirty minutes, right?”

Reluctantly, Claud tore himself away from the flower and headed over to the city gates. There was quite a group there, with ten armoured men and women standing around the gate alone. Counting the five people who were usually stationed at the top of the gate, today’s single shift would have fifteen people.

Since each day had a total of three shift groups, it could only mean that forty-five guards were mobilised today.

That was a lot of people for this one gate alone.

“Halt,” said the lead guard, a burly fellow who looked like he did push-ups whenever he was free. “Purpose?”

Claud glanced at Lily, and the two of them produced their residency cards. “We’re returning home from a long trip. I believe our exit should have been recorded some time ago.”

“Very well, sir, ma’am.”

“Wait,” said one of the guards behind him. On closer inspection, his uniform was a lot more ornate, and there were some decorations pinned on his chest. “I’m the sergeant of this guard, sir, ma’am. I’m going to ask you two some questions.”

“Go ahead,” Claud replied.

“Where did you go?”

Earlier on, Claud had made some arrangements with Lily; he would handle the speaking if the guards wanted to ask them further questions. He was a professional at telling half-truths; it would be better for him to handle the socialising bit.

“The two of us went to Julan to handle some family issues,” Claud replied.

“Family issues, eh?” The sergeant narrowed his eyes for a moment. “Okay. Louis, they’re clear. Make sure the details check out, and then they’re free to enter.”

“Yes, sergeant.”

As the burly man busied himself with checking off their names, Claud looked around the city gates, which was cleaner than he last remembered it.

“Say,” Claud began, “what happened recently? There are flowers planted beside the main road, which itself has been paved over nicely. And, well, the city gate looks a lot cleaner than I last remembered it. Is someone important coming?”

The sergeant glanced at Claud, and then thought for a few moments. “You could say that, I guess. Did you hear about the recent news? Where the count fought against a tri-folder? That battle destroyed lots of buildings.”

Claud felt his heart skip a beat. “Anyone dead?”

“Quite a few.”

To his side, Lily fidgeted uneasily. That said, the two of them had seen the news about the Moon Lords joining up with Count Nightfall, and given that the news had mentioned the others, he was sure that they were fine. However, knowing that people were dead was still…

“Alright. Thank you for letting us know.”

Everything’s fine. Everyone’s okay. Nothing much would have changed. That’s all there is to it.

Taking a deep breath, Claud glanced at the burly guard and felt some irritation at just how slowly he was checking through the records, but it would not do for him to snap at the fellow to hurry up. It wasn’t like the guard could be quicker about it anyway; the records were handwritten and many people left and entered the city every day.

Claud glanced at Lily, who was portraying a serene calmness, and felt a tad ashamed of himself. He had already heard about the battle some time ago, so to feel panicky now was just his psyche at fault. Hearing about such things through word-of-mouth clearly had a greater impact on him than reading about things like that on the news; he didn’t feel this lost when he read about the battle a few days ago.

“Sergeant,” said the burly man, cutting his thoughts off, “the two of them are clear.”

“Alright. Welcome home, the two of you,” said the sergeant, before giving a small wink. “Enjoy your night together.”

Before Lily could understand the meaning behind those words, Claud pulled her through the gates. Fortunately, the huge scale of construction going in front of their eyes was enough to make her forget about that random innuendo; Lily’s expression was solemn as she looked at the ongoing works.

“That’s a lot of construction going on,” Lily said quietly.

“Indeed.” Claud looked around. All kinds of street stalls had popped up, while workers carrying construction materials thronged the main road. From afar, the master thief could see that many buildings had been evacuated, with boundaries marking out dangerous areas.

He turned his attention to the smaller streets, and let out a small sigh of relief when he saw that they were largely unscathed. The relief only grew as they headed towards Moon Street, which was lacking the trappings of repair and reconstruction that had draped the shoulders of Licencia’s main streets. As expected, the others had gotten off without any injuries, but it was still a load off his chest anyway.

“Right, I don’t think you need those talismans anymore,” said Claud. “And it seems that no one’s really paying attention to the number of talismans on your arms too, so all’s well that ends well.”

Rolling her eyes, Lily began to peel off the talismans. The last piece came off as they drew up to Moon Mansion, which didn’t look any worse for wear.

“We’re back. Finally.” Claud stared at the dome that covered the real thing. “Can’t wait to get back into safety.”

“Soft beds, good food…we’re back!”

Walking up to the booth, which had two bored guards watching over it, the two of them took turns to enter Moon Mansion. There, in the front garden, was Countess Farah, who stared at them with an uncomprehending gaze right until they stopped in front of her.

“You two…”

“We’re back, yep.” Lily grinned.

“We’re back!”

The countess rubbed her eyes. “Quite early, I guess. But welcome home.”