That question was a good one, but to be honest, Claud had never attached any expectations of duty to the little fellows. He didn’t pick them up and bring them around because they were the key to some great power or whatever schtick they were made for.

He only brought them around because they were also alive and needed a caretaker…and also because they were adorable and just what his monotonous life needed.

“Meep?” Crown asked, expressing some curiosity.

“Hmm? I don’t really care what you are, though, despite my curiosity. You three are Crown, Throne and Sceptre, and that’s all that matters,” Claud replied.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about your destiny or whatever. Just have fun and hang around together,” Lily added. “Go on! You three should talk more. And if you find more of your kind, you three better be good older siblings!”

The little shapes meeped happily, and then bounced around the little box, nuzzling up to each other like children. Claud smiled at that sight, and then let out a huge yawn. “I’m tired. Fortunately, there’s only one objective left.”

Lily nodded with a similarly huge yawn. “We’re leaving after grabbing that thing. And when we reach the inn, I’m going to—”

“—wash up, bury my face in an actual bed—”

“—and hug you to sleep.” Lily paused. “It seems like nothing can beat a real bed, huh?”

“Rather, nothing can beat civilisation. It’s dangerous in a city, but it can’t be as dangerous as living here…” Claud let out another yawn. “Alright, I’m going to bring back some potatoes from the nearby farm. You take a rest or something while I handle the food.”

“You did that yesterday, though,” Lily pointed out.

“Do we really need to keep track of things like this?” Claud grinned. “I don’t want to tire you out, see? And besides, it’s not an issue. Go and relax for a while. I’ll go bring back some food.”

Jiggling his shoulders, Claud got up. If he had a choice, he would have used the Second Shadow instead, but the resulting shadow had a fraction of his true strength. By the time he got to the farm, plucked out a bunch of vegetables and came back, a few hours would have passed.

It was far easier and quicker for him to just manawalk the way there, and to begin with, there were no recorded dangers along the path either. It was just a long, never-ending road that lasted for around ten kilometres there and back.

A short distance for the real him, but a few hours to the shadow.

After poking the three little fellows on their heads, he left the barrier-base and broke into a fast jog, enhanced by mana. Every step he brought him a great distance onwards, and after around fifteen minutes, he had arrived at the field of potatoes.

“Still feels as out of place as the first time I saw it,” Claud muttered. The field of green and brown stuck out like a sore thumb in a town made of metal. To make matters worse, he could even see a few automatons roving around the field — they did that all day — tending to the farm for some weird, inexplicable reason.

This was the main danger in the farm. As long as one showed the potatoes respect, they would not be in any harm whatsoever, but if one were to act destructively…well, there were a few ways of dying, and Celestia had dozens of weird methods of killing people.

He stopped at the fence and planned his route. As a rule of thumb, picking from the outer layers of the field was far safer than venturing inside, since there were records of people being attacked after they stepped on a potato by accident. Therefore, after a few untimely injuries and deaths, people had learned to just pick potatoes that were lying around the outer parts of the field.

Claud wasn’t going to go against the wisdom that had been brought with blood. In fact, he wasn’t even going to step foot in the field.

Mana wriggled out of his hands, forming over twenty strands that stabbed into the soil. Within seconds, he had retrieved a bunch of potatoes, which the strands of mana deposited into a small bag he’d brought along. There were a few other types of vegetables grown here, and after repeating the same actions a few times, the bag he’d brought had been filled.

Nodding once to the hardworking automatons, Claud turned around and began to manawalk back. He slowed down this time, however, and took the chance to take in the odd, mysterious sights that was this city. Other than the main plaza, this city had lots of tall buildings, each of them potentially a repository of important artefacts and information. Unfortunately, these buildings were quite dangerous too, and to make matters worse, there were very few records about the buildings here and the traps they concealed.

The plaza and the Secretary-General’s office were widely documented, since they were eye-catching places that were often the first targets to explore. However, as one moved away from the plaza, information related to the innumerable buildings around it fell precipitously. In fact, the only reason why someone managed to find this potato field was because someone with a food-searching skill had gone out of their way to look for food.

Something about understanding the diet in Celestia. It was quite the obsession, if nothing else, considering how someone followed their skill ten kilometres to arrive at a bloody potato field.

Every building he passed by sent a sense of faint danger down his spine, and Claud forced himself to focus on the road again as he mana-walked back. To be honest, if this place wasn’t stuffed with danger, he would have properly gotten everyone to just live here permanently.

Letting out a sigh, he returned to the plaza.

“Hey!” Norn, who was returning to the plaza with her party members in tow, raised a hand. “Dinner?”

“Yeap.” Claud looked at the Seekers of Truth. “Anything good?”

“Nothing much, but we did find a bunch of random items. I’m going to have to identify them later,” Norm replied.

Her stomach growled at that moment, and the veteran mercenary rubbed her tummy, before glaring at her teammates, who looked away. “Talk to you later. I’m starving!”

Claud looked at the little party. There was probably a story or two in the whole thing — maybe everyone forgot to bring provisions or something — and he chuckled.

“Hey, catch!” Picking out three potatoes, Claud tossed them at Norn, who caught them without even turning around.

“Thanks, Claud! Much appreciated!”

Waving goodbye to her, Claud returned to his base, where Lily was already preparing some stew with their dwindling supply of meat. The only thing that this place lacked was a never-ending source of meat, so they had to make do with their stores instead. Without any wild animals to hunt, Claud and Lily could only ration out their good stuff and make savoury vegetable stews in return. Potatoes were great staple foods, but the rest of the vegetables had a slightly bitter quality, which could only be remedied through some spices.

“I’m not even going to ask what you brought back.” Lily shot him a grin. “Anyway, I’m making meat floss stew today. Cut that up really finely and boiled the product.”

Claud looked at the boiling stew, before removing the vegetables from the bag. Raising his hands, he drove his mana to the limit and produced more wriggling strands of mana, which stilled and hardened as he focused his will on them. Blue light flashed, and the vegetables came apart into tiny, well-sliced pieces.

“Show-off.”

“You can try it, though,” Claud replied. “It won’t be as good as mine yet, but you’ll improve over time.”

“You practiced like this?” Lily asked, suspicious. “I’ve never seen you do something like that before, though.”

“I’ve never practiced like that before,” Claud clarified.

“Okay, so I’m not practicing that either.” Lily bobbed her head. “I’m just following your footsteps, see? There has to be a reason why your Mana Control Proficiency is this high?”

“Maybe it’s because I have Absolute One?” Claud suggested.

Lily twitched.

“I also have a mana-related skill or two,” Claud added. “You’ll need to pick them up somehow.”

Lily sent a withering look at Claud, and then turned to the vegetables. “You’re making it sound far easier than it has any right to be, okay?”

“I’m sorry I’m not a good reference.” Claud pondered. “But I think controlling small strands of mana perfectly is a good starting point. And besides, you really do need to train your mana control, or at least your fine mana control. It’ll help you draw your next circuit better.”

Lily made a sad noise.

“I’ll accompany you, okay?” Claud asked. “We’re not sleeping tonight!”

“No can do. It’s dangerous.” Lily paused. “We’ll practice until we’re tired. And there’s no night and day here anyway.”

Claud paused for a moment. “True…”