According to Claud, in dangerous situations, the people who were the most casual fell into three types. The first one was people who had water in their brains — people who ignored all the potential, life-reaping dangers that lay in their surroundings. The second one was people who were utterly arrogant. Confident in their own strength, they found it a hassle to take necessary precautions and forged ahead fearlessly.

As for the third, they were a mix of both. People who were supremely arrogant in their abilities and ignored the potential dangers inherent in their surroundings.

Dia couldn’t tell what the newcomers were like, however. Furthermore, during one of Claud’s paranoia sessions, he had stressed that the second and third types had to have a measure of strength to be this nonchalant about the potential dangers in travelling. When encountering these people, assuming that they were Type-1 fools would be a grave danger; it was better to respect the enemy and assume that they were Type-2 fools instead.

The footsteps slowed down, and a familiar person entered Dia’s vision. Her heart seized up for the faintest of moments as she looked at the woman garbed in a white mourning robe. Her smooth skin, her sorrowful expression, the way she walked with such ethereality…

Dia knew this person.

The Lamenter of Sorrowful Partings. A tetra-folder, a trump card of Lustre Dukedom.

What was she doing here?

“Dia?” A gentle voice, replete with sadness, whispered through the wind. “Is that you, my niece? I heard your name, and so I came. Child, you have suffered.”

Dia gulped, her mind whirling madly. Would it be better if she dropped the lies that surrounded her identity for the briefest of moments? Farah was in a deep sleep now, and if she couldn’t trust her aunt, she couldn’t trust anyone.

More importantly…she had lived months of lies. Dia didn’t think she could bring herself to lie to her own family; she was already at a tipping point.

“Aunt Lumine,” Dia whispered.

“Ah…” The Lamenter of Sorrowful Parting stepped closer to the light. “Goodness me, child. You have travelled far from home. I understand your plight. Your secret is safe with me…although I’m not sure what’s going with you exactly.”

She glanced at Farah. “Fan of yours? Or someone you hired?”

“I wish it was the latter,” Dia replied. “Uh. Let’s see…um, I’m currently disguised as a double of myself, who is currently leaking clues that I’m not actually the real thing, but is a double.”

Aunt Lumine tilted her head, and Dia could see the gears in her brain spin. “That explains why your mana and life signature are different, at least. Still, you lead a very convoluted life right now. You are acting as a double of yourself, but you’re trying to seem like you’re not too good at it by conveniently changing the deeper identification factors.”

She paused. “Does your head not hurt at times?”

Dia yawned once. “Aunt, what are you doing out here? It’s late at night, and the only way this road leads to is Farah County. There’s nothing there, save for…save for…”

“Ruler Istrel’s visit. I wanted to…warn him about something,” Aunt Lumine replied. “Don’t worry about it. Nothing big’s going to happen, and even if it does, I’m here.”

She yawned.

“You must be tired, aunt. Do you want to rest?”

“That’s precisely why I approached the first source of light and human activity I noticed,” she replied, her voice still holding on to that sorrowful, ethereal quality. “But I suspect that we will be facing very awkward questions when your friend wakes up. We should prepare for them, at least.”

Dia nodded.

It didn’t take them too much time to come up with a proper backstory. As the double of the princess, it would be easy to say that Dia too claimed the same relations with a relative of the princess. There was nothing much to it, especially since Farah and the others had a very idealistic — that is, impossibly perfect — view of how the princess had been raised as a child.

Even if funny questions like how her upbringing was like were brought up, Dia had full confidence that her aunt would be able to handle it. From what she knew, Risti had only started her full-fledged stalker behaviour only from around six to eight years ago, which was honestly a good thing for all parties concerned.

Yawning once, Dia bade her aunt goodnight, and then laid down on the ground. Enquiring about her actual purpose here or asking about the recent ominous events that had taken place could take a hike until tomorrow morning.

“Sleep well, child.”

Her aunt’s words seemed to carry some soothing power, and Dia’s head began to swim. Darkness fell for what seemed like a few minutes, before Farah’s voice echoed in her ear.

“Eh?”

Dia rubbed her eyes. “It’s already morning? Good morning, Farah.”

“Yes, it is,” Farah replied. “Good morning — wait, that’s not what’s important! Who’s she? Is that a ghost? Or is it something from the great Dark?”

“Huh?” Dia stifled a yawn, and then looked at the small mound of white robes. “Oh. Well, that robe is actually rather special. It repels all dirt and flutters majestically even if there isn’t any wind. Handy, right?”

“Really?” Farah asked. “Wait, no, that’s not what I meant either. Like, who’s she? Why is she sleeping here? What’s she doing so close to us? When did she show up? How did the alarm artefact not trigger? Where did she come from?”

Dia ticked off her fingers for every question Farah asked, before flashing a thumbs-up at her. “Nice. You got the five ‘W’s and 1‘H’ with that single outburst; you have talent as an investigator.”

Farah cast a withering look at Dia, who coughed twice. “Anyway. Uh. Okay, so this is my aunt. She’s sleeping here because she came across us last night. She wanted to sleep near a light source. She came by shortly after you fell asleep. I don’t know how she avoided tripping the alarm artefact. She came from Lustre, presumably.”

Dia tilted her head. “Did I miss out anything?”

“N-no.” Farah slapped her cheeks lightly. “So, your aunt?”

“My aunt,” Dia replied. “My mistress too. I’ll do the formal introductions later, so just look sharp. Or don’t. She doesn’t really mind, really. Just be yourself.”

“Just be myself?” Farah asked. “Well, you do you. Pass me one of those HELPS. I want to heat it up before eating.”

“They can be eaten cold, though,” Dia replied, before rolling over to the Porta-Pyro. “And the Porta-Pyro needs to recharge. I can only use it once every twenty-four hours.”

“Bah. Cold food it is, then.”

“Since we’re not cooking, you should try out the original HELPS,” Dia replied, tossing a small packet of food at Farah. “It’s a very sweet and filling bar of food, handmade by Schwarz. Don’t eat too much of it, though. It’s very sweet.”

“You said that twice.”

Three seconds after Farah tore open the packet, the sounds of someone sniffing filled the air, and Dia turned to look at the source automatically. The Lamenter of Sorrowful Partings had woken up, stirred away by the sweet aroma of Farah’s breakfast, and before long, her wet eyes were staring at Farah.

Dia slapped her own face.

Where did the dignity of a Named, the dignity of a mighty tetra-folder, fly off to? Why was the usually solemn, sad-looking Aunt Lumine now behaving like a little child pining after food?

For a moment, Dia wondered if her twenty-six years of knowing her aunt was a lie. That impression only deepened further as she watched Farah move the little bar around, only for her aunt’s head to follow the treat around like a pet.

“Ahem.” Dia took out another bar. “Aunt, I have another bar, so please don’t do that.”

“Really? Thanks!” The sad atmosphere around her dispersed entirely as she broke into a smile, which made Dia suspect that her aunt had been replaced by someone else entirely.

Watching in silence as her fan and her aunt munched on the little bar, Dia felt a headache well up. Rubbing her head twice, she pulled out one bar from her backpack.

“Aunt, so why are you going to Farah?”

“I’m here to teach Istrel that there are people he cannot afford to offend, child.” Her aunt’s signature sad smile returned. “On behalf of your…mistress’ father. A stern warning, if you will. With turmoil on the ascendent, killing other people senselessly is something lamentable.”

“Right, I haven’t actually introduced you two,” said Dia. “Aunt, this here is Countess Farah of Farah County. Farah, this here is my aunt, the named mana-user, the Lamenter of Sorrowful Partings.”

“Pleased to meet you,” said Aunt Lumine.

“Pleased to meet you…Your Excellency, Lamenter of Sorrowful Partings?” Farah took a deep breath. “Well, I didn’t expect to meet Your Excellency in such a, uh, state.”

“Think little of it, child.” She smiled. “Come, let’s begin our trek to your home, shall we? I have heard many good things about it.”

Dia, who had intended to enjoy a sweet snack while sitting down, decided to have her breakfast while walking instead.

After all, it was her aunt who suggested it…