Claud and Lily were cutting up slabs of grilled chicken gracefully when the first guards of Baronet Mons popped up in the tavern, fatigued and starving. The first thing that told of their arrival was a hushed silence, spreading out from the entrance of the tavern and sweeping through everyone assembled, before two armoured men slogged over to the counter.

“Something cold, Mister Candle,” the first guard muttered.

“Something hot to eat too,” the second guard added. “It’s been a tough morning.”

“Would you like a treat?” someone asked. “You do good work for us, sirs!”

“Yeah, we should treat them and the other guards to some drinks!” someone else shouted, a cry that was soon taken up by everyone else.

“Only for the drinks, then,” the first guard replied. “Don’t worry. It’s…probably none of our business. Don’t think too hard. Anyway, I suppose we should tell everyone the good news first. Those that signed up with the Moons left five days ago, so they weren’t affected by this freak incident.”

A collective sigh ran through the tavern, and Claud exchanged a glance with Lily. Leaning over, he whispered, “It seems that Baronet Mons has been paying very close attention to the Moons, if nothing else.”

Lily nodded. “Do you think he found something else too?”

“Definitely.” Claud looked at his well-cut grilled chicken, pierced a piece of meat and dipped it in some mushroom sauce. “An event of this scale is tremendous. There has to be proof or something. And the Moons were definitely aware of this too. They may have sent their Emissaries over already.”

“Doesn’t mean that they can find proof, though…”

Claud eyed the two guards. “We’ll find out soon.”

On cue, someone asked, “Sir guards, what happened there exactly? What did you guys find?”

“We dug up the entire place,” the first guard replied. “Oh, thanks, Mister Candle. Anyway, we…couldn’t find much. We preserved the crime scene, checked everything we could, and then a Moon Emissary showed up. The big guy was holding on to some artefact, and paced around the place.”

He paused to take a sip of his drink, before letting out a heavy sigh. “After that, he discovered something weird. The artefact beeped a few times near the entrance, and he began to glow really brightly.”

Claud pricked his ears.

“What happened afterwards?”

“The Moon Emissary was shocked. Said something about an omen, and then shot to the skies. Moon soldiers surrounded the camp afterwards, and then Baronet Mons had to talk about the investigation. We dug some trenches around the camp and then had to step away.”

The second guard shook his head. “Apparently, some Omen guy had finally shown traces here, and the Moons were after that fellow. It seems like this Omen was the one who killed all the Moons’ men there.”

Claud blinked three times in a row, and then turned to look at Lily, who had an open mouth. Considering that the two of them had been hugging each other to sleep last night, there was no way he could have shown up, killed all the Moonlit soldiers, and then fled.

She leaned closer. “So…what’s going on?”

Claud looked at the two fatigued soldiers. Their tiredness was real, and he could even spot some bleeding hands from all that digging.

“Maybe an imposter,” Claud muttered.

“Possible, but why here?” Lily whispered back. “This is way too much of a coincidence.”

“So…all the Moonlit soldiers are dead?” someone asked. “Or are we just assuming that they’re dead?”

“They were transported somewhere,” the second soldier replied, before taking another gulp from his cup. The way he relished his drink made Claud a bit thirsty, along with a few other people, and the middle-aged owner enjoyed a small upsurge in business as a few people queued up.

“We don’t know where, though,” said the first soldier. “But you lot all know about the legendary Bearers of Destiny, right?”

“Hard not to, with them on the news every day,” someone muttered darkly. “What, one of them’s behind this?”

“There’s this Omen fellow. He or she is a Bearer of Destiny. It’s possible that his legendary skill whisked all the Moon soldiers away, you know?” the soldier replied. “Maybe he could even do it to a town or something. Now that’s scary. But the Moons are going to be investigating this really fiercely.”

Claud didn’t like the sound of that, but this was quite possibly a plan by the Moons to weed people out. Anyone who ran may very well be investigated on the spot, and those that stayed behind would be investigated too. Would he stand up to the investigation?

It was hard to tell. For one, he didn’t know how Omen hid his Absolute skills; if anyone who could see skills just saw two blank spaces there, it would be a dead giveaway that something was wrong. Secondly, if the divinities focused their full might on checking him out, they would have a lot of ways to do so. For instance, if they could pry into history…

Either way, however, this sounded like bad news.

Cursing the idiot who framed him in his heart, Claud held Lily’s hand and intertwined his fingers in hers. This didn’t have much significance, other than telling her that he was currently suffering from tons of emotional damage and needed healing.

“There, there…”

The two guards continued to talk about the Moons as Claud’s mind spun into overdrive. His little safe house didn’t seem all that safe now, especially since what seemed like an investigation was well underway. The most straightforward method was to simply get the Moons out of Monsville — which they were already intending to do in the first place — but it was possible that this plan had to be brought forward.

Lily, however, would need some time to fabricate a knight summons, so it was down to a game of luck at this point of time. Furthermore, even if they did have such a thing, there was a high chance that this would be seen as just another way to get out.

Not acting was probably the best move here.

He took a deep breath. For most of his life, Claud had been proactively moving against threats. Rarely did he need to stay his hand and stay put, but his reason told him that this was indeed the best choice of action.

Lily looked at him, and then pulled him closer. “You’re shivering.”

“It’s…fear.” Claud took a deep breath. “That’s all.”

The little fellows in his pocket were also nudging him gently, aware of his own mental distress, and Claud shook his head. While Claud liked to pretend that he was a stoic little block of tranquillity, Lily and he himself knew that he was just a coward who didn’t like weird changes like this.

He took a deep breath, controlled his fear and turned back to his food. Right now, all his attention could only be directed to the idea of acting. He had to act and to lie, since his life literally depended on it.

Lily looked at him once, and then copied his actions. The two of them nibbled on steadily, occasionally feeding each other.

Mostly, it was Lily doing the feeding, though…

After a while, Claud exhaled deliberately. “Thanks, Lily. I’m feeling…better now.”

“No trouble!” Lily placed a hand on his cheek. “That’s what I’m here for, right? And you’ll do the same for me if I’m ever disturbed like this. It’s nothing you need to thank me for, really.”

“I don’t want to take you for granted,” Claud replied. “And it seems that I’ve become more needy in the past few months…it’s a bit pathetic, now that I think about it.”

“Really?” Lily asked. “I don’t think so, though. You feel more…human this way. I know, because I’ve seen all sides of you, but the others…they kinda see you as a role model, you know.”

“A role model?” Claud coughed. “What?”

“Don’t ‘what’ me,” Lily replied. “You’re the role model for surviving and living for as long as possible. In times like this, it’s a very good model.”

“Pfft.” Claud, despite himself, found himself smiling. “But that’s not true. It’s just a front.”

“Yeah. And that’s my point, right?” Lily smiled sadly. “You don’t need to…bottle everything up, you know. There’s me. Don’t let your own fears bottle up until it cracks even your mask. It’s painful to me too.”

Claud rubbed his eyes, and his breathing grew laboured. “I—sorry. It’s just…that…the Second Tutorial. I don’t want to lose you or anyone. The me there was too weak. I can’t be like that.”

“I know.” Lily held his hand. “I know.”

After a while, the two of them got up and left in silence. With the Moons pressing down on them and an investigation looming on the horizon, neither of them were in the mood to stay outside their home.

Someone was stirring up trouble, and neither of them wanted to be outside when the storm hit.