“What’s going on?” Risti looked around the small town. “This place definitely wasn’t this crowded when we left, right? Something must have happened.”

Dia frowned. She could see Moonlit soldiers standing in groups of five, scattered all around the main street and the gates. The air they emanated made Dia think that they were prepared for battle or something along these lines, and their weapons were held in such a manner that they could immediately respond with a deadly strike if something happened.

These soldiers had standing orders to kill if necessary.

“Guys,” Dia murmured, “don’t provoke these soldiers. They are not going to hold back if they turn hostile against us. They’ll almost certainly fight to the death. Be careful and don’t do anything stupid.”

“You’re quite observant,” President Cadenza observed. “As expected of the…bodyguard of Princess Dia. Not bad, not bad. These soldiers, however, are also ready to detonate themselves at any given moment. The mana swirling in them is very close to agitation. An unstable equilibrium. A single push, and boom.”

“The mana swirling inside them?” Schwarz asked, curious. “How can you see that?”

“Trade secret.” Lifestone-green accessories glittered merrily, and President Cadenza laughed. “Interestingly enough, these soldiers are…very scared too. I can tell. They are also trying to stay calm.”

“…This sounds very immoral,” Farah muttered, and the others nodded in agreement. “They’re like bombs or something. Without good craftsmanship too. And we need to walk past them? I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Just pull out some barrier artefacts,” Dia replied lazily. “Here, catch.”

After passing around a bunch of random artefacts, everyone approached the gate slowly, making sure to keep their hands where the Moonlit soldiers could see them. Fortunately, the fellow manning the gate was a guard from the Mons Barony itself, so there was no chance of the other party blowing up randomly.

“Purpose?” the guard asked.

“We’re staying here, over at our friend’s place,” Risti replied. “Lord and Lady Primus.”

“Hmm…okay, they’re in the register. Please sit down first. I’ll send a runner to confirm your entry,” the guard replied, before getting up.

He returned a few seconds later. “I know it’s a pain, but the Moons have decreed that all entry into this town is to be checked. Anyone with unknown purposes is to be detained and then interrogated.”

“It wasn’t like this just half a day ago, though. What happened?” Risti asked.

“Half a day ago?” the guard asked, looking at her for clarification.

“I went to bring my friends over,” Risti replied. “Stuff like that, that’s all.”

“I see.” The guard relaxed visibly, and Dia eyed his right hand, which had shifted under the table stealthily just moments ago. “Anyway, we guards were mobilised around four hours ago. The Moonlit camp that was near the town outskirts…”

He paused.

“What happened to it?” Dia found herself asking.

“Everyone in the camp itself vanished. No one knew why or when exactly,” the guard replied. “They just vanished into thin air. There was no trace. It was eerie. When we went inside, it was as if the Moonlit soldiers all just vanished halfway through doing their daily stuff. In the middle of cooking food, they just…vanished.”

“Vanished?”

“Yeah.” The soldier had an uneasy look on his face. “If you get a chance — well, not like there’s any more chance — go and take a look. I am certain that they were in the middle of doing their daily stuff when some insane power just wiped them from existence or something. The Moons were frightened too; their first checks had them talking about omens or something.”

“Omens, huh?” Schwarz made a noise in his throat. “Maybe it’s a portent of things to come.

Dia narrowed her eyes. Was this a coincidence? It wasn’t that long ago when she encountered the Omen as a being of chaos, of infinite change. It was even in that mission of hers.

Was that word just a coincidence? Or was the Omen actually here?

Dia thought for a moment, and then shook her head. The Omen, according to her mission, was a being whose goal was to kill all the other Bearers of Destiny. He or she was also a Bearer of Destiny too, with deep machinations that would almost certainly shock the world when revealed. Unless this place held a shocking secret — which she doubted — there was no reason for the Omen to be here.

After all, the current period was that of a ceasefire. Dia knew that none of the divinities, as well as their proxies, were allowed to fight each other. Therefore, this was the best time for the Omen to move around and lay down more plans, in preparation for the Trial of Aeons.

This place was almost certainly not a place that the Omen would set up traps in, since it was so close to the Moons.

She watched as the others asked about the incident, and then looked at the town. Maybe this was a ploy of the Omen to draw the Moons’ attention here, and then do something elsewhere. Of course, if she could think of this possibility, the Moons definitely thought of it too…which was probably why Dia couldn’t sense the tremendous presence that came with every Moon Emissary.

“Did the Moon Emissaries visit?” Dia asked.

“Only for the investigation I told you guys about earlier,” the guard replied. “In fact, the Emissary was the one who freaked out. The guy was holding some artefact, and then when it glowed grey, all the Moonlit soldiers were frightened, and then they locked down the camp. Only after the arrival of more reinforcements did they venture into the place.”

He snorted. “They were wimps. Baron Mons and half the town went to check out the place before them, and nothing happened. Anyway…”

The guard flipped through a few more papers. “Well, we just need to wait for Lord and Lady Primus’ response. Are you guys knights too? How do you know them?”

There was a moment of silence, before Farah cleared her throat, an indicator that she was taking over this conversation. “We’re all important people in a few circles. Met mostly by coincidence, though.”

“I see.” The guard looked at them, pure curiosity in his eyes. “Must be nice…”

“There’s a lot of responsibility. I won’t call it nice,” Farah replied. “Our actions dictate the next year, our decisions an entire decade. While nobles do live with luxury, they bear incredible responsibilities for their territory.”

She let out a sigh. Before she could continue, however, another guard walked up to them. “They’re cleared. Lord and Lady Primus said that they were expecting guests. They also hope that their friends can enter and leave the town without needing verification every time.”

“I suppose we can use the tokens here, right?”

“Probably…”

After handing them a bronze token each, the two guards waved them through. The Moonlit soldiers looked at them carefully as they passed through the gate proper, and the gazes continued even as they continued down the main street. It was a bit uncomfortable to be scrutinised in such detail, but again, Dia couldn’t blame them.

The Omen had visited this town and spirited an entire camp’s worth of soldiers away, after all. This being, who had an absurd goal and an equally absurd strength to back it up, had to be guarded against at all costs. Dia could even picture the person in her mind’s eye — the Omen was definitely a crazy person who had innumerable plots going on at the same time. Hunched over a table, a person wearing a hooded cloak moved Moon Phase pieces one at the time, on a table illuminated by a single candle…

It was quite eerie.

After applauding her hyperactive imagination for a few seconds, Dia looked around once more, before relaxing slightly. The Omen was a crafty person, and only foolish people came back to the scene of the crime twice. There was no chance of the Omen actually lying in wait here, in other words.

The Moons were just scared out of their wits, that was all.

Smiling faintly, she followed the others. Dia didn’t know where Claud and Lily’s love nest was, so she just needed to follow the others.

She continued to look around the town, making use of her extensive experience in Licencia to figure out what Monsville had as its specialty. Unfortunately, they had arrived at a weird time — if they came at dawn or dusk, it wouldn’t be hard to spot the main workforce. However, she could tell that the main industry here was menial in nature, given that she hadn’t spotted many men walking around the streets or manning shops.

Dia shook her head.

“Are we there yet?” Farah asked. “I thought they would be living in the city or something.”

“Nah. The two of them are living in a slightly more distant place. Nothing big, though. And it’s well within walking distance anyway,” Schwarz replied. “Anyway, it’s good that it’s not so close to the town centre anyway. I still have bad memories of marching soldiers at night…”

“Don’t remind me,” Dia replied. “And I don’t want to hear soldiers marching back and forth here either, so don’t jinx it.”

“How sensitive…”