“I don’t recall having this skill,” Claud muttered. “Maybe something changed? I saw a star in my throne…maybe you were the one who contracted it initially. Maybe the future changed because I knew about it or something, but this is quite the weird and small change. Huh.”

Lily nodded. “You did say something along these lines. However, it will not do to get careless. After all, these things might just be small changes that won’t affect the overall progression of things.”

“Good point.” Claud looked at his status once more, and then at the three little shapes that were frolicking around happily. “Still, it really feels like we’re a caretaker of funny little lifeforms.”

He held up his arm. “Come here, guys!”

The three shapes meeped happily and charged at him, before changing course and nestling in his hair instead.

Claud blinked twice, speechless, and then immediately figured out that the little star had been taught by its two seniors about the best sleeping spot for them.

“Does my hair look like a nest?” Claud muttered.

“It didn’t earlier, but it sure does look like one now,” Lily replied brightly.

“Just because my hair is short…” Claud reached out for the three little shapes and popped them on his hand. “Can you three not rush things? I haven’t even decided on a name for the youngest one yet!”

“Meep?” Crown started to spin on its edge, and Throne immediately bounced up to eye-level, orbiting his head immediately. Only the little star remained on his hand docilely, and Claud couldn’t help but think that this was the most obedient little fellow of the three.

“Yeah, meep.” Claud rolled his eyes. “Lily, stop your Artificial Life from orbiting my head. I’m getting dizzy.”

At his words, Throne immediately started to whirl around Lily’s head instead. Rolling her eyes, Lily captured the little silvery ball and set it down on the barrier-slash-bed. “Just stay here for a while, okay? You’re so hyperactive.”

“Right? Feels like a family of three children, sheesh.” Claud shook his head. “Alright, so you’re left…Lily, any ideas of what we should call this guy?”

“We have Crown, Throne…let’s call this little fellow Sceptre! The one that Emperor Grandis has. It’s a grand name, after all.” Lily chuckled. “Now we just need a mantle or something. Do you think we’ll find any more Artificial Lives?”

Claud looked at Sceptre. “What do you think of the name?”

The star pondered for a moment, and then hopped twice on his palm, disrupting Crown’s spinning at the same time. Clearly, the star was impressed by Lily’s naming sense, although Claud was sure that she was inspired by the overall theme.

Right?

“So,” said Claud, “Are there any more of you guys out there?”

“Meep?” The star jiggled.

“Huh. You’re not sure…” Claud nodded. “Well, we’ll try to find more buddies for you guys if we come across them. Anyway, I suppose it’s time to do introductions, so the three of you should gather around and formally introduce yourselves!”

Lily looked at him. “Just to check, but did you once work at a school for children? You sure seem very practiced at this! You remind me of my teachers when I was younger!”

“Do I?” Claud smiled. “Well, let’s just say that before I got involved with Tot and everything, I did at one point think of becoming a schoolteacher…well, that was before my life came apart.”

Lily looked at him, and then shifted closer. “Tell me more?”

Claud looked at her concerned face, and then smiled. “Sure.”

After his mother passed away, he couldn’t quite continue his education, and schools — private and public ones — wouldn’t accept anyone who hadn’t completed ten years of formal education.

It was an unfortunate turn of events, but thanks to his education, which had helped him in the area of being more cautious and paranoid by making him constantly question everything, all turned out fairly well in the end. He eventually made a living by stealing from the rich, and donated some of his spoils to organisations who looked after orphans.

One Thief of Time was enough.

After he was done recounting his story, Lily patted his shoulder. “Hearing your story makes me feel quite inferior now.”

“It’s not fair to say things like that. Most nobles don’t really think about the commonfolk, not because they are heartless, but they really don’t…perceive them.” Claud paused. “Most of them, anyway. And besides, you had your own goal and agenda. Unlike me, you didn’t have time to walk by the road and admire the flowers; you had a destination. I only had a multitude of paths, with no end in sight.”

Lily chuckled. “How philosophical.”

“You can keep complimenting me…anyway, we should investigate the story of these two fellows.” Claud looked at the three meeping shapes, who had huddled together in the little bed-box that the two of them had made for Crown and Throne. From the looks of it, they were now giving a part of their territory to the newcomer, which warmed the cockles of Claud’s heart.

“So adorable.” Claud let out a sigh. “It’s like watching two older siblings fawning over the youngest one.”

Lily nodded her head rapidly. “Well, while they’re having fun amongst themselves, let’s go look at their origins. You brought a bunch of books and items back, right? We should go through them.”

Nodding, Claud turned to the barrier that served as their table. A lot of weird items were piled up together. Some of them seemed like complete items, while others seemed like parts, but no matter which category they fell into, one could not deny their workmanship.

He picked up a book and blinked at its title. “Sentience Attachment Theory. Sounds like one of those really complicated books.”

“Mine’s worse,” Lily replied. “It’s called Existence Manipulation, and the first page is full of symbols and words I cannot understand. I recognise them as words, but I don’t know their meaning.”

Claud passed her his book and took the one in her hands. “Existence, as defined by an object of mass…something-something. What’s this symbol supposed to mean? Why’s there a random X there?”

He looked at Lily, who shook her head too. “I’ve no idea. And this thing is worse. It’s some philosophical book that makes use of terms I’ve never heard off before. Subject-Object Relational Theory — nice, but what is it about?”

After spending another few minutes to complain to each other — and enjoying the process at the same time — Claud and Lily picked up more books. Virtually all of them, however, were largely decipherable to only people who were in these circles to begin with, and there wasn’t any dummy’s guide to understanding these books in the ones he’d brought back.

“This one has no title,” Lily pointed out. “Shouldn’t be a textbook…yeap. It’s a personal log? Oh, it’s a record of letters.”

“Letters?” Claud craned his neck. “Hmm. Seems like the author is very devoted to the other party, though. Normally, one does not write a letter on a book. Whoever Diary is, that person is probably quite the lucky one.”

“Should we do that too? Write letters to each other?”

“We’re stuck together all day. I don’t think we’ll need to write letters…but I think we could try to write records about what happened every day.” Claud bobbed his head. “Assuming we don’t get lazy about it. I hear writers — professional ones that churn out books — do get tired easily.”

“We could try that, I suppose? Still, putting things in writing is quite dangerous,” Lily noted. “Imagine if an imaginary enemy got their hands on these things. Wouldn’t we be in deep trouble?”

“Good point. I was thinking of that, actually. Maybe we just write the little things, or we use a code for ourselves.”

The two of them discussed the issue at length for a little while more, and then turned back to the record of those letters.

“Hmm. The author of these letters is quite unrestrained, huh.” Claud folded his arms. “I, for one, wouldn’t even use such crude language in writing to someone close to me.”

“Maybe it’s a cultural thing,” Lily suggested. “Still, it feels like the author is really lackadaisical about all sorts of things, though. Is this the trajectory of language development in a universe far more advanced than ours?”

“Probably.” Claud flipped to the next page. “Bingo. ‘Today, by order of the Ruler of Beyond, I have embarked on the integration of mechanical, organic and energy life. These categories of life are full-fledged and self-sustaining, but to create a nascent lifeform on such an artificial level is banned by the four Transcendent Civilisations. Discovery is no different from execution, but this is the unexplored path to Boundlessness. The ban persists for a reason.’”

Claud looked at the little fellows frolicking around. He didn’t know what Boundlessness was, but it definitely sounded really important…but the fact that these little fellows were the apparent key to it made him raise an eyebrow.

“Sounds impressive.”

“Right? I still don’t quite believe that the two of them is the key to this Boundlessness, whatever it is.” Claud paused. “And there’s still one more question, isn’t there?”

“Yeah.” Lily looked at the little box. “What exactly is Crown?”