“We’re finally back!” Dia let out a long sigh. “I’m tired. I want to wash up and then sleep. Sleep!”

“You’re the one monopolising the Purifier, though,” Risti replied. “I don’t see why you’d feel the need to wash up that often.”

“I thought Nero would be the one to say that, though,” Count Daybreak muttered, before looking Licencia. “Wow, security’s strict here. And there’s a…net? What’s with that net? Aren’t you guys afraid that birds won’t set foot in the park again? And there are a lot of Moonlit toddlers around here…”

“You sound like a barony bumpkin or something,” Dia observed, thinking about the few times when scions from a barony visited the Lustre palace for the first time. Of course, she didn’t call them that, but the many people who lived in Lustre sure didn’t hold back when it came to calling them all kinds of derisive things.

Her brother didn’t like these kinds of people either, but unlike her, he was a bit more…proactive about things. After all, he had quite a few friends amongst the counties and baronies subordinated to Lustre, so he took these insults as insults to himself.

And then…uh, there really wasn’t much of ‘and then’ afterwards. Since they had lost her brother’s favour, these fools who gave in to their desire to mock others were marginalised directly and became the subject of mockery themselves.

“It’s just that I haven’t been here for a long time,” Daybreak replied, looking around the place ruefully. “It’s changed. I can tell that Aran’s actually taking security and everything seriously now. In the past, he was quite free and easy; that’s how Licencia got its ‘City of Trades’ moniker to begin with. Now, however, there are so many inspections that it feels like a ‘City of Law’ now.”

“Well, crimes have indeed dropped to an all-time low. Come to think of it, bounty hunters and similar professions kinda stopped operating after a while too,” Risti muttered.

Which, in Dia’s opinion, was a really good thing, since it meant that no one was going to come after the obvious bait that was actually the real thing. Of course, she couldn’t quite say that out loud, since she was supposed to be playing the bait, but in turbulent times like this, no one was going to care about a vanished princess that made the headlines a year ago.

“Oh?” The count cupped his chin, which had some stubble on it. “What made this change?”

“Well, me and my companions took on the job of running the city for a bit,” Risti replied. “When Count Nightfall was called by Duke Istrel to run a war that would be aborted later. Within our companions, there was one very paranoid person. He’d only leave the house with tens of defensive artefacts and trump cards on his body, and he’s the kind of guy who would flee rather than fight. That person happily took on the role of improving security, and the first thing he did was to prevent anyone from entering the city by flying or scaling the walls. After that, he instituted more efficient checks on incoming and outgoing people, which prevented the more thorough investigations from taking too long.”

“Sounds like a talent,” Count Daybreak muttered.

“He is, but he’s quite odd. He’s focused on living forever and staying safe, heh.” Risti looked around the city. “Come on, let’s stop chatting around here and go in. Don’t you want to live in a nice place? I’m sure Nightfall has a few guestrooms you can hunker down in for the time being. And you two should catch up too.”

“Let’s go, then. I can’t wait to wet my throat with Schwarz’s drinks again.” Nero licked his lips. The poor man had finished all his drinks within the first day, citing stress and other related issues, so he had no choice but to abstain from drinking after that. He didn’t have a choice, unfortunately, but the Holy Son of the Black God was disciplined enough to not moan about not having booze.

“How did you even cope with that, man?” Count Daybreak asked.

“How? I just hypnotised myself,” Nero replied. “I’m the Holy Son of the Black God. I don’t need skills to hypnotise myself, and it’s easy to do if the soul is willing.”

“Hypnotism, huh?”

“The mind is my Lord’s domain,” Nero replied. “His faithful are trained in placating disturbed minds, at the very least. For me, the Holy Son, I am an all-rounder in many tricks of the mind.”

“Hmm…” Count Daybreak bobbed his head. “Do people say no to you often?”

The Holy Son chuckled, a sound that made Dia wonder if she had been affected by Nero’s ability to hypnotise and persuade other people in general. From the look on Risti’s face, that thought had occurred to her too, but neither of them were going to pursue the topic.

“Don’t worry,” Nero replied. “I don’t usually request things.”

Risti snorted. “Other than booze, I suppose!”

“Uhh…well, I do pay Schwarz, you know. Pure-ranked lifestones and all. I still have a whole bunch of them, and he’s the guy I’m most worried about. He doesn’t seem to have any particular talent in mana control, nor does he have the kinds of resources that you have. As for his talent in fighting…well, he ranks below me, and that’s saying something.”

He paused. “I’ve little talent in weapons, by the way.”

“Yeah, we know,” Risti replied. “The way you tried to smash the Absolute skill was a dead giveaway, to be honest. Right, Dia?”

Dia, who hadn’t really had the attention span back during their ambush on the Red God’s Bearer of Destiny, made a perfunctory grunt and nodded. “Anyway, let’s queue up here…”

“Queue up, huh?” Count Daybreak mulled over that phrase. “Haven’t done that for some time.”

“Get used to it.” Dia glanced at the small queue. As the little princess of Lustre, she never really got to queue, which meant that the first time she came into contact with the concept of lining up with a bunch of people was when she ran out to play.

Whether or not there were actually maids, butlers or mana-users clad in black following her was a good question, though. It was quite a shock to her, though, when she figured out that not everyone had the privilege of getting their turn when they wanted it.

It made her feel like a child again.

Time slipped by as she reminisced about her childhood. After a while, she had to stop recalling the pleasant times; it was their turn to be inspected. The process was quite simple, and after verifying that they were actually from the Seekers of Life — Count Nightfall had updated the dossier, clearly — they had been allowed in without much trouble.

“Clean and orderly…but parts of the main street look a bit new.” Count Daybreak narrowed his eyes. “It’s nice to run a rich city, I suppose. There are literally potholes in the roads of Daybreak…do you think I’ll be able to get a loan from Aran?”

“You can also loan money from us,” Nero replied. “I’ll lend you a bunch of pure-ranked lifestones; the interest I want is booze from your county sent here until you’re done repaying. You should know the market price of pure-ranked lifestones, right?”

“Yeah, five platinum…how many are you willing to lend me?” Count Daybreak swallowed once. “That can buy a lot of food for the people in my county, you know. And get started on repairs too!”

“I don’t really need them…we can settle the details later, I suppose.”

Dia knew that pure-ranked lifestones were really expensive, but for it to be laid out this openly made her very aware that she and everyone else from the Seekers of Life had been very extravagant recently. Of course, to bi-folders, the missions they took on and their businesses were usually very lucrative. However, since Farah and Schwarz handled the bulk of the money-making part, Dia never really got around to getting used to all that money being bandied around.

After all, it was completely different from the policy papers she had read through occasionally. The figures written on the paper were just figures; seeing a pile of gold coins or a tower of gold notes had one heck of a visual difference.

As Dia complained internally about how she never got the chance to grab some lifestones before she fled, the others headed straight to the Nightfall Palace. Dia wanted to see the look on Nightfall’s face, although whatever stupefied expression he was likely to have probably wouldn’t last all that long.

It was a shame that she couldn’t go back to sleep first, but professionals also had their own reputation to uphold too. Besides, the count would want to know about these changes immediately…

“Wait, hold up. How did Nightfall not know about your arrival? You have this information space thing, right?” Dia asked.

“Huh? Who said he didn’t know?” Count Daybreak asked. “I informed him when we left, you know.”

“Shouldn’t there be a welcome ceremony then?”

“It’s probably him expressing his displeasure…”

Dia suddenly felt the urge to go home.