A symphony of delightful meeps roused Claud from his rest, and his eyes opened slowly. “Cut it out, you punks.”

“Meep!” Throne rolled off his head and started to do laps around him, which prompted Claud to capture the little silvery sphere and place it back on his head.

“Don’t meep all around me,” Claud replied, before looking at Lily, who was still very fast asleep on his lap. Thankfully, she was breathing and everything, which alleviated the sudden fear that had popped up in his heart.

Claud yawned once, before poking the two little fellows who had probably made a fine nest out of his hair. “What’s wrong, the two of you? Meeping merrily this early in the morning doesn’t make sense at all.”

Crown hopped off his head and landed onto his shoulder, before doing little twirls around its edge. “Meep…meep!”

“Very useful.” Claud patted the little guy, and then cupped it in his hand. “You gotta put more emotion into that if you want me to meeping understanding what you just said.”

“Meep…”

“Alright, we’re not getting anywhere.” Claud placed the little fellow down on his bed, before placing a hand on Lily’s forehead. She definitely wasn’t having a fever, her breathing was nice and normal, and—

“I’m up, I’m up…” Lily paused. “Uh, it’s early in the morning, so getting hanky-panky with me isn’t really a good idea.”

“I’m just worried,” Claud replied. “Throne and Crown woke me up by meeping a storm all around my head, so I thought you might be sick or something. You’re fine, though, so I’m not sure what they’re actually up to.”

Lily raised a hand, and Throne immediately rolled off Claud’s head and bounced onto her palm. Crown tried to bounce over too, but there was no way the little box could climb onto Lily like that.

“Maybe they just miss me or something,” Lily suggested.

“Maybe.” Claud couldn’t help but think about the Frozen Emperor once more. In the Frozen Coffin, on the throne he slumbered on, was Lily…and these little guys’ bodies. He didn’t want to know what that entailed, but he hadn’t forgotten a certain passive skill of his.

His hands moved on its own a moment later, and he hugged Lily, Throne and Crown. Claud only realised his actions moments after he happened, but the only thing Lily did was to look at him sadly.

“You…remembered something,” Lily whispered. “From that Second Tutorial.”

Claud looked at her, and then grimaced. “Was it really that obvious?”

“You have that pained look in your eyes whenever you think about that future,” Lily replied. “Don’t worry, okay? Lesser Half said it himself. Since you saw that future, it would not happen. It could not happen.”

“That’s a lot of certainty there,” Claud replied quietly. “But there was one thing I never told him, though.”

“One thing?”

Claud nodded. “The Frozen Emperor did not succeed in ranking up that particular skill, unlike me. I don’t know what it means, but something tells me that this fact is very important. That iteration of me failed where I succeeded. Or did he choose to fail, having seen the results of his success in his own Second Tutorial? I don’t know.”

“…It’s just a dream, right?”

Claud grimaced. “I hope it is, but Lesser Half said that the Second Tutorial is generated based on a possible future. And more important, I still have not understood what I was truly meant to do in the Second Tutorial. I don’t know what it wants to teach me, unlike the original Tutorial.”

He glanced at Lily. “Be careful when you advance.”

“I don’t think I’ll be doing that until we return from Celestia,” Lily replied. “And probably not before the Trial of Aeons.”

“…Try to succeed before the Trial of Aeons descend, at least.” Claud shook his head, and then ran his hands through her hair slowly, making sure that he wasn’t going to tug at it by accident. Her violet hair smoothened after a few rounds, and he hugged her again.

“You’re quite the clingy one, aren’t you?” Lily’s voice, however, was tinged with a touch of amusement.

“Bite me.”

Lily obliged by nibbling his arm.

“Not literally, okay?” Claud rolled his eyes. Tickling her sides with his free arm, Claud eventually liberated himself from her teeth, and then got Lily to wash up. Before long, the sounds of water splashing filled the room, which made a nice sound for Claud to tidy up the bed to. Settling the two little objects onto the table, Claud patted the bed and flopped onto it.

Some part of his mind was screaming that doing so would actually set back all his hard work, but he silenced that part easily. After all, he had more important things to consider, up to and including their second visit to Celestia and continuing his progression of his fifth mana circuit.

“I’m done!” Lily bounced out of the bathroom. “Your turn!”

“Huh. That bath definitely raised your spirits,” Claud noted.

“Well, you know…anyway, are we really going to head to Celestia today?” Lily asked. “I know I said it, but maybe we should…uh, delay our departure until we become stronger.”

Claud pondered on her suggestion. The idea of going to Celestia for a second time had been brought up by the both of them at some indeterminate point in time, but the risks that the mysterious shattered universe held were quite substantial. However, that was the only place where Claud could tell Lily more secrets without getting her annihilated by whatever restraints the Coloured Gods had placed upon the world.

Lily didn’t say much, but Claud was increasingly aware that he was doing her a grave disservice by not telling her the little things that he was hiding from the world. To be honest, he should have told her everything the first time, but it slipped his mind then.

He wasn’t going to let that happen for a second time.

“Well, I always did want to hammer out the things I can’t say,” Claud replied. “And I figured that there might be a few more Thrones rolling around the place too, so…well, the more sentient objects we have, the better, right?”

The little fellows on the table meeped happily, conveying their agreement.

“It’s hard to say no to that in particular,” Lily muttered.

“Meep!”

Claud and Lily rolled their eyes at each other, and then grinned.

“Well,” began Claud, “I can definitely see a case for not going today. Right now, the both of us have our judgements clouded from your successful advancement. Maybe we can go tomorrow instead, and then spend today bugging the count or something. Or talk to the people in town. It’ll be good to have a grasp on those little things, even if they don’t quite seem to matter at first glance.”

“Point. Then…breakfast?”

“Let me wash up first,” Claud replied, before rolling off the bed. It took him around ten minutes to rinse himself off, before he walked out with a towel on his head.

“I’ve always liked draping a towel on my back,” Claud muttered, before striking a few poses. “How do I look?”

“The towel has to be flapping dramatically,” Lily pointed out. “Yes, that looks substantially better. Let me give it a try too!”

Claud found himself smiling as he fooled around with Lily. It was days like this, when there was nothing at stake and lots to celebrate, that he looked forward to. How many days like this were left for them? He didn’t know, but he could sense that there wasn’t much time left before everything turned into a mess.

He wasn’t clear about the years after the Trial of Aeons, but from the sounds of it, the true Fourth Godsfall would begin from there on. What exactly did the Trial of Aeons entail?

If only he had the answer, but he needed to know the right people.

“Claud?” Lily poked his cheek. “Stop thinking about serious things when we’re having fun. You deserve to relax too.”

“Well, knowledge about a possible future isn’t really helping my case, though.” Claud sighed. “Like it or not, those things just pop into my head randomly. I can’t just ignore all that, especially when it concerns your wellbeing.”

Lily fidgeted. “I am not sure how to describe this current mix of guilt and joy inside me right now.”

“There’s no need to.” Claud stretched, before undoing the towel from his neck. He had tied it quite strongly, so there were now some red marks on his skin. “Anyway, I suppose we should indeed just roll around for today, and maybe prepare for the trip tomorrow. I’ll take this chance to increase the completion rate of my fifth mana circuit too. Shouldn’t take that long.”

“Do you have enough lifespan to complete your fifth mana circuit?” Lily asked.

“Not for now. Safely, anyway.” Claud paused. “And there isn’t anyone who could…uh, donate to me some lifestones now. I would love to do some time-sensitive high efficiency trade runs, but life is getting tougher every day. I’m still waiting for my Pure-Life Gems to gather more lifeforce too, so it’s best to use them as late as possible.”

“Let’s hope the situation changes for the better, then,” Lily replied.

Claud didn’t quite know what she was referring to, but either outcome was fine with him.