“Are you hiding something from us?” Dia asked, looking at the grinning bartender as he poured out cup after cup of drinks. She had spent the rest of the day swallowing a bunch of lifestones and reading her favourite novels. One of them had been serialised to the seventh book already, which meant that she had a lot of catching up to do here.

Setting aside a book named Limina of Ruin, she cupped her chin and assessed the bartender quietly. Schwarz’s insistence on everyone staying in Moon Mansion was a bit too suspicious, especially since he had locked the place up for some inane reason. Was he intending to do something?

Whatever the case, Dia had the feeling that he was up to no good. She could tell. That huge grin on his face was the same face he made whenever he tried to tempt Nero with one drink or another for some resources or other information about the darker side of the Black Church.

“Me?” The bartender looked at her in an exaggerated fashion. “What makes you think that way? I am not doing anything. If I’m doing something behind your back, I’ll lose all my ability to make drinks forever!”

“That’s a serious vow.” Farah sauntered in, a tray of steaming noodles and broth in her hand. “Anyway, check this out, guys. Apparently, some bright genius came up with this new soup, and it’s a great broth for moonwheat noodles.”

“A soup?” Dia sniffed. “How is that made?”

“Oh, you ferment soybeans with salt, koji and barley,” Farah replied.

“Koji?” Risti poked her head into the living room. “What’s that?”

“Beats me. Anyway, doesn’t it smell nice? It has a rich flavour too, quite savoury and everything,” Farah replied. “In the past month, it’s taken the city by storm. We even have a few dedicated farms and lots of soybeans…”

“Is growing them easy?” Schwarz asked.

“Easy? I guess so. What, you interested?” Farah grinned. “To be honest, I figured that you might be interested. I haven’t forgotten about that underground complex thing you brought up some time ago, and I got some of the workers to plant soybeans today.”

“It’s going to take some time,” Schwarz muttered. “Well, it’s useful, at least. Anyway, get Nero down here. I want everyone to be in this room and nowhere else when we head over to the frontlines.”

“What’s with that smile, though?” Farah asked. “It’s really shady.”

“Right?” Dia bobbed her head. “Anyway, I’ll go and get Nero down. I can’t look at that smug grin on his face anymore.”

“That’s rude, okay?” Schwarz replied. “But go get Nero anyway.”

As Dia fled the room to escape the sight of the bartender’s smug grin, she once again found herself wondering about the bartender had in mind. What did he exactly want to do by gathering everyone here and not letting them leave Moon Mansion? It didn’t make sense, no matter how she cut it, but Schwarz definitely had some nasty plan in mind.

Snorting to herself, she went over to Nero’s room and knocked twice. “Nero! Schwarz wants everyone to come down to the living room and everything.”

There was a moment of silence, before a tired voice floated out of the room. “Can I not?”

“He also poured out a lot of drinks,” Dia replied, activating her trump card. It was super-effective; a few things fell down from Nero’s room, and the door opened a moment later. The Holy Son of the Black God popped out with a backpack in his hands, and without saying a word to Dia, instantly hurtled off to join his beloved drinks.

“Alcoholics.” Dia rolled her eyes, before closing the door to Nero’s room. Of course, she took the chance to take a peek into the Holy Son’s room, which had nothing much of note. It was quite messy, but other than that, it looked very normal and very boring.

Shrugging, Dia returned back to the living room, where Nero was swirling his glass elegantly, cutting a graceful pose that defied his messiness in getting out of the room earlier. It was a sight that made her ears twitch twice, but there was no getting out of it. Fortunately, everyone was now pulling out boards of Moon Phase in what seemed like a last-ditch attempt to seem intelligent, and Dia relaxed as she took up an overseeing position. Since there were five of them, one had to sit out, and that lucky person was her.

Picking up her fallen book, she dusted it off and popped it in her backpack. There was no point in consuming her entertainment now, since she would definitely be bored at the frontlines when there was nothing to do. The Moons were unlikely to hire any form of entertainment for bored soldiers either, and with the escalating war…

She grimaced. News about the war on the front had been sporadic, but from what Dia had heard from the bits and pieces, the whole thing was quite insane. There were lots and lots of troops involved, and tons of people died every day. Neither the great Dark nor the Moons had made a move yet, but word had it that the tremors from the frontlines had already levelled the battlefield at the Liquet Dukedom when the Moons pushed back the battlefront.

“So, are we just going to wait here until whenever?” Dia asked.

Schwarz looked up from his gameboard and nodded. “We’ll just hunker down here. I don’t want any of us to be separated from the rest when the teleportation begins.”

He looked back at his gameboard, that irritating grin still on his face, and then frowned. “Hold up, when did I move this piece?”

“Hmm?” Farah had a suitably confused look. “You moved it just now when Dia talked to you.”

“Oh crap, I didn’t mean to—”

“No take-backs,” Farah replied. “Aha! Now, be defeated!”

As their animated battle continued, Dia rolled over to Risti and Nero, who were discussing things quietly over a rapid-fire battle of Moon Phase. Their movements were fast and fluid, unlike the ponderous movements of Schwarz and Farah.

“Ah, you’re here. Good timing, really,” Nero noted. “We were talking about Limbo and everything. There’ll be lots and lots of mana-users at the frontlines, so don’t acting out if you can sense the presence of Limbo. Instead, just inform me. I’ll relay the message to my master immediately and the Moons will settle it on their own.”

“The way you put it, it sounds like the Black God is a referee or something in this great game,” Dia replied.

“He is. The White God and the Black God are overseers of the entire Godsfall for this round.” Nero held up a hand. “I don’t know why, or how, but it is what it is, so let’s not focus on the pointless things, okay?”

“Okay, got it. Just go to you if I find traces of Limbo, right?” Dia asked. “Easy. Incidentally, are there any rewards or something? I never actually asked, but this thing as a Watcher has its own rewards, right?”

“Well…there is, but it’s not convenient to explain in the current climate. At any rate, it’s more of being protected right now than actually claiming rewards too,” Nero replied. “Even in the upcoming war, the three of us cannot be made prime targets. We’ll be exempted from doing the actual heavy-lifting too.”

“Eh?”

“Why else did you think I didn’t step in when we were being conscripted?” Nero asked. “We’ll be doing the easier things, and if possible, we’ll probably not be mobilised until actual emergencies happen.”

Risti nodded. “I believe we’ll be largely doing things like saving people and bringing the injured back from the frontlines. A dedicated medic unit.”

“Wait, really?” Dia looked at them. “Are you serious?”

“Yes, of course,” Nero replied. “There’s no need to be nervous about the whole thing.”

“I-I see…”

“Good.” Nero’s hands began to move again, and before long, the two of them were moving their pieces at a rapid tempo. Were they actually good at the game? Or were they just trying to show off? Dia didn’t know, and she didn’t care either.

Now that she had nothing to do, however, the only thing that remained was to just get some rest here. Fortunately, all the chairs were comfortable, and she had no qualms sleeping on the ground either.

Dragging her backpack over, she plopped down on the ground and rested her head on her makeshift pillow. As someone who was just a tutorial away from becoming the second mid-ranked mana-user in the Seekers of Life, she really didn’t need to sleep, but Dia was feeling mentally fatigued.

A good rest would settle all her problems.

Yawning once, she turned to her side and tuned out the click-clacking of game pieces — the main culprit being Risti and Nero — and fell asleep.

If all went well, when she next woke up, it would be in a foreign land…