The feeling of absolute wrongness only grew as he ate the shaved ice with Lily. Fortunately, the combination of ice and chocolate was too much for his blunted senses to ignore, allowing him to at least savour the dessert they had paid for, but his actions had not gone unnoticed.

“What did you sense?” Lily asked.

Claud got up. “Something bad. Like...I’m not sure, but it’s as if something just changed in the world, and I don’t even know what.”

“Something changed?” Lily asked.

Claud didn’t know how to describe it to her accurately, so he started looking around for analogies that would help to convey the odd emotion in his mind. “It’s like…walking a path you know very well, only to realise that everything’s changed, and you didn’t know when.”

He made a noise in his throat. “No, that’s not it either. Like…something that has always been there just vanishing one day, I suppose. It didn’t seem important, and you didn’t pay much attention to it, but when it vanished, you felt it.”

“And it’s that feeling?” Lily asked.

“Exactly. Like something…vanished. Or changed. I’m not too sure what exactly happened, and I’m not sure what changed or something, but…” Claud shivered. “I don’t like it.”

“What should we do, then?” Lily asked.

Claud opened his mouth, and then closed. “I’m not sure either.”

“We’ve been having a lot of that recently,” Lily noted. “It’s hard to know what to do when there’s nothing explicit for us to respond to.”

Claud nodded, inwardly glad that Lily didn’t doubt him. She hadn’t doubted him or anything before either, so this sentiment came as quite the surprise in and of itself.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just mocking myself for thinking something stupid,” Claud replied. “Anyway…we’re in Moon territory. This should be the safest place, so there shouldn’t be anything wrong going on here.”

“At the same time, you can’t go back to your old trade…I was watching you while you were talking to the Blue Moon, and I couldn’t help but notice that you were looking around the area with…restless fingers.” Lily stuck a tongue out. “Quite bold, eh?”

“Wasn’t me,” Claud replied defensively. “I wasn’t aware about my fingers moving on their own. It’s called an occupation hazard, okay?”

“Oh, like me just mixing up some explosives on instinct?”

“You’re just trying to make me equate these two things, aren’t you?” Claud replied. “Just find a nice, open space and make some of your explosives. Don’t go doing in a room. Isn’t it dangerous? Imagine if there’s lots of smoke or something. You’ll just end up breathing all that smog and choking yourself, and that’s really bad for obvious reasons.”

“But making it outdoors is also problematic. What if lightning falls onto your mix?”

“In bright daylight?” Claud asked. “Come on. If it’s about to rain, don’t go making explosives either!”

He frowned. “Has it been raining recently?”

“No, why?”

Claud thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. “No, nothing. It just seemed like rain has been a lot less frequent in the past year or so. Normally it rains once every three days, but it’s been one dry spate for the past few months.”

“Now that you mention it…” Lily frowned. “Yeah. My gloomy rainy days have really vanished.”

“I mean, it’s not that much of an issue, since there’s always a steady supply of water from artefacts and everything, but it…” Claud shook his head. “Huh. I’m rambling.”

He looked to the north again. Something huge definitely had happened there, and the first thing he immediately thought of was the Moonlit expedition that had headed to drive away the forces of the great Dark. It also didn’t help that he had spotted one or two Moonlit soldiers passing by him in a frantic hurry, but even those were in a minority.

Most of the Moonlit soldiers were still behaving normally.

“Maybe that feeling is indeed related to the expedition,” Claud muttered, watching a Moonlit soldier run past the two of them. “It seems like some of them heard something or are aware of something.”

“Like people with extra channels of information?” Lily asked, following his gaze. “So…a military disaster, then. But here’s a question. Why are you suddenly aware of that, then?”

“Maybe I was always able to sense such things?” Claud suggested. “I mean, there hasn’t been a war in my life until now.”

“True…” Lily tilted her head. “But it should show as a skill or something, right? What does your status look like right now?”

“The same as always,” Claud replied. “Nothing new.”

Lily tilted her head. “I guess it’s a bit mystifying, then. But maybe everyone has a hidden talent or something, right? I’m quite sure Schwarz doesn’t have a skill for making drinks, but he’s a genius at making drinks.”

“Albeit a bit crazy about what he puts in, yes,” Claud agreed. “He’s not the kind of guy who would use a skill on making drinks, though. That’s just his hobby.”

“That he does professionally for a living…but that’s my point, right? Maybe people have something else that’s not on the status.”

Claud nodded. “That’s definitely true. I mean, there are many things that aren’t written on the status. But…now that you mention it, I think sensing a whole bunch of people die is what I’d call a skill worthy of being mentioned on the status, right?”

“In the first place, does the status reflect our skills? Or does it give us our skills?”

The two of them exchanged glances, and then shook their heads as one. There was no point thinking about things that they couldn’t answer, but Claud was certain that a lot of lives had been lost in that singular instant earlier on. The reactions of a few Moonlit soldiers simply added to this possibility; they were flustered and…

“They’re beginning to organise a defence,” Lily whispered.

Claud stopped as they left the small food street. Small contingents of differently coloured soldiers were assembling, and some soldiers that were coloured in white — the colour of the sole Moon that now illuminated the night — had assumed command.

Before their eyes, the contingents of Moonlit soldiers broke up into small teams and scurried away, and Claud’s frown deepened. From the looks of it, the camp was preparing for an assault, but…

“What are we supposed to do?” Lily whispered.

Claud grimaced, and then remembered the small card that Lesser Half had given them. “It’s a bit dangerous, but I suppose we don’t have much of a choice here. We’ll leave the camp first, and then ask about his intentions, before making our next move. We’ll need to identify our priorities, though, but the others are bound by a contract.”

“So they can’t just leave…”

“Yes.” Claud nodded. “And I think it’ll be better for us to leave before the storm strikes. The Blue Moon may be suspicious of us. It’ll be better if Plota has some peace of mind by not needing to worry about suspicious fellows who happened to be high-ranking folders who aren’t bound by a conscription contract.”

Lily looked at him once, and then held his hand. Squeezing it a few times to indicate that she understood who those words were meant more, she said, “We’ll have to say our goodbyes earlier, then. We don’t want to endanger the others, after all. No need to put them under suspicion.”

Claud nodded. “It’s a shame we won’t get to enjoy this place much, but we’ll need to act with them in mind.”

Lily let out a sigh. “Let’s go back and tell the others first. They’ll understand.”

The two of them redirected their feet back to their temporary lodgings. Along the way, Claud couldn’t help but wonder if the Blue Moon had heard their conversation. Would Plota read too much into it? Or would the Blue Moon buy their words at face value? Either way, however, the only actual way to do things was to leave the Moons’ direct sphere of influence and then make contact with Lesser Half afterwards.

After that…well, asking him to avoid a particular bunch of folders probably wouldn’t be too large of a request.

Right?

The question continued to echo in his head as a bunch of Moonlit soldiers carrying wood charged past him, their footsteps echoing in tandem. The camp had been caught in the throes of anxiety and frantic movement. Risti and Dia, who were probably roaming the camp, must have noticed the abnormalities present too.

“They should be back too, I suppose?” Claud wondered out loud.

“This is too obvious for them not to return on the spot, yes,” Lily added. “But we can’t do much here. That conversation with Plota was quite…illuminating, after all.”

“The absence of an offer to join them was quite telling, yes.” Claud let out a sigh. “Come on, let’s hurry and get back. We should leave soon.”

Grunting once, Lily followed after him hurriedly.