Dia was dreaming about a bowl of savoury soup when the table itself seemed to lose a pair of legs, and her soup, along with the rest of her body, smacked into the ground below.

Her eyes flew open a moment later, and Dia looked around the fallen bowl of soup for a moment, before rubbing her eyes and remembering that she had taken the chance to fall asleep on her backpack. It was a bit disappointing that the bowl of soup had vanished, but there was no two ways around it.

“Still…” Dia sat up properly and squinted at the windows of Moon Mansion’s living room. For some reason, she had the feeling that it was already the next day — that she’d slept past one sunset and sunrise — which meant that they should have been at the frontlines by now, right?

She rubbed her eyes again to confirm that they were indeed still in Moon Mansion — she, alongside the others, who had all fallen asleep at one point or another. To their credit, though, she couldn’t see any mess made by someone sleeping on game pieces.

“Better wake them up, at least.” Dia got up from her sleeping position, stretched a few times — which created some ominous creaks — and then moved to wash up. After a few minutes of rudimentary self-care, she returned to the room and began to wake people up one by one.

“Dad?” Risti mumbled. “Not now, I’m winning…”

Dia had a feeling that she’d come across something like this before, so she simply responded to this feeling by shaking Risti until the latter made a few ‘awawa’ sounds. Clapping her cheeks a few times, she moved on to Farah, who was making a weird grin and talking about how she was going to be rich.

Naturally, Dia popped that dream by tickling her until she woke up, popping her dream without any mercy. The next two were the men, but Dia didn’t want to be called ‘Dad’ by Schwarz, so she got Risti, who was already awake and rubbing her eyes, to wake the bartender up instead.

As for Nero…well, Schwarz would do.

It took around five minutes for the others to fully wake up, and another minute for them to realise that a full day had passed.

“So…what’s going on?” Risti wondered. “Aren’t we supposed to be at, you know, the frontlines by now?”

She stifled a yawn. “Damn. Maybe we shouldn’t have sent the stuff back after all. I’m hungry.”

“Deal with it,” Farah replied. “Did the Moons fail to bring us over or what? Now that I think about it, I was braving it with Schwarz last night, just sitting there and waiting for the teleportation to fire up while we were sitting in Moon Mansion...and of course, he had that shit-eating grin on his face.”

Everyone turned to look at the bartender, who sniggered. “Well, I can’t say I didn’t expect this. I mean, this happened before, did it not? There’s a reason why I told everyone to stay in Moon Mansion.”

“Happened before?” Risti asked.

“Heh. Heh." Schwarz got up from his chair, pulled out a bottle and uncapped it, before holding it to Nero’s nose. The Holy Son immediately moved forward unconsciously, following the drink with his nose alone, before leaning too far forward and smacking into the ground.

As the Holy Son made a groan, Schwarz said, “Did you two forget what happened when you tried to return here with Boundary Crossing?”

Farah froze. “It failed, and there was a bunch of alarms…”

“Exactly. Claud said it himself. He installed some artefacts that solidified space, preventing people from teleporting in and out, whether it is of their own free will or otherwise,” Schwarz replied. “I was trying to see if we could delay our departure to the frontlines like this, which was why I told everyone not to leave the mansion last night. And guess what? It really worked!”

He cackled.

“Okay, but why would you do such a thing?” Farah asked.

The grin on Schwarz’s face faded away. “I received some information from my contacts not too long ago. The Moons are planning a grand offensive on the Dark. It was quite the open secret to anyone already at the frontlines, and to top it off, the Moons were gathering more and more mana-users for that one push.”

“A grand offensive? When?” As those words left her, Dia had a feeling that she knew the answer. “Sunrise, today?”

“Bingo.”

Schwarz gestured out of the window. “They should be leaving in the next few min—”

His words cut off as a vast, vast sea of power seemed to surge from the north, a concentration of power that Dia had only felt in such an intensity only once before, when the Thief of Time annihilated the Moon Emissary and the Fourteenth Bearer of Destiny.

“That’s…”

“They are mobilising. The Moons’ mustering of troops have come to an end.” Schwarz made a face. “Come on, prepare to leave any time. Remember not to give the game away. We are to look mystified…Nero, do you hear me? You’ve been dozing on and off for the past few minutes.”

“M’ fine,” Nero mumbled. “Pick-me-up, please.”

“This early in the morning?” Schwarz answered, an aghast look on his face as he shoved the bottle of bait into Nero’s hands. The Holy Son opened it and took a swig from the contents immediately, and Dia couldn’t help but think that his alcoholism had been steadily worsening as Nero spent more time here.

Schwarz had even tried to moderate Nero’s alcohol intake too, but even that had failed.

It was probably all that stress from handling a bunch of responsibilities. Risti wasn’t looking any better either, but at least she didn’t need to be a freaking Holy Daughter or something.

“Thanks.” Nero got up, slapped his face twice and returned to his usual professional self. “That really hit the spot.”

“It’s astounding how you don’t get drunk, but are addicted to drinking.” Schwarz shook his head. “If only my patrons were like you. The bar would be a lot quieter in the case…but anyway, you know the plan, right?”

“Act dumb, I know.” Nero stretched. “I’m going to cook some eggs. Anyone wants other food?”

“I want some sausages and bread too,” Risti chimed in. “Come on, let’s go prepare breakfast. We’ll leave the Lunar Lord to Farah if she shows up while we’re making the food.”

“Me?” Farah asked.

“Or Nero, but Nero wants to cook eggs.”

“Is that really what you should be focusing on right now?” Farah muttered, before shrugging. “But sure, I’ll do it.”

The tremendous presence that was still erupting from the north of Licencia began to wane a few minutes later, and Schwarz said, “Any Lunar Lord that is tasked to pick up stragglers should be arrived soon. I give the newcomer around ten to fifteen minutes. Probably won’t be happy too…Farah, you’ll need to act a bit.”

“Pfft. Like I need you to teach this countess that.” Farah was already on her way out, her backpack and Risti’s in her hands. “Come on, give me a hand already. We’ll move them all here, outside the house, and then act really annoyed at how we stayed up all night waiting and waiting for absolutely nothing to happen.”

A few question marks popped up on Dia’s head. For some reason, it felt like the countess was attempting to blame the Moons or something, and as she continued to hear Farah’s justification, it rapidly became clear to Dia that the countess was actually intending to blame the Moons or something.

Was that wise?

However, her high spirits told Dia that Farah wasn’t going to take no for an answer…and it seemed like her words would work anyway. Dia looked at her for a little while longer, and then focused on the real issue.

First, the Moons’ main force had been gathered, and then left to engage the great Dark in a grand battle. Judging by the sheer number of mana-users and other mighty beings that had been gathered, Dia could tell that the Moons were intending on drastically reshaping the battlefield.

In that sense, Schwarz’s little ploy had saved them from the fate of being cannon fodder. Secondly, however, was how the Moons would treat them from now on. Dia was reasonably sure that their conscription was timed so that they would have to join in the grand offensive, but...

Now that the offensive had started, what roles did the Moons intend for them to play, if at all?

She looked back at the others, who were either cooking or thinking about ways to foist all the blame to the Moons, and felt a small frown twist her face.

“Well, whatever,” Dia muttered. “Whatever comes, will come. It’s not like thinking about it can do anything anyway.”

She looked up at the dome that covered their little mansion, and hoped that the arriving Lunar Lord wouldn’t do anything to it.

Whether it was an extravagant wish, however, remained to be seen.

[End of Book 9: Moons Muster]