“We made rather good time, I think.” Claud stretched his back and looked at the gates of Vacuos County as the moons rose in earnest. “I feel a lot safer now.”

“Do you now?” Lily asked, her words inquiring. “I mean, it sure looked like there was someone copying your handiwork just half a day ago, you know.”

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” Claud replied, before pulling out the Looped Encryptor. Twisting it once such that it was misaligned, he slipped it back into his pocket, before letting out a sigh. “I know it’s a bit pointless, since the Moons are probably staring at the area around the base camp, but just to be safe…”

“Yeah, I don’t think they’ll be paying attention to us, after what seemed like the greatest bombs ever blew up at their place,” Lily replied. “Still, did we really need to mana-walk the whole way? It would have been better if we just flew, right? My muscles are a bit sore…”

“We need to show them that we can’t move fast,” Claud replied.

“That was before the explosion happened,” Lily replied. “And you insisted on mana-walking even after that…”

“We had to, though.” Claud rubbed his legs. “I’m also a bit sore, but at least the Moons won’t be sending people after us for some time.”

The two exchanged glances, and then Claud rubbed his nose. Some bright-eyed fellow had attacked the Moons’ basecamp, according to his RECON artefact, which helped them come to that conclusion by some geographical working. Weirdly enough, the lance that had smashed against the Moons’ barrier was something very similar to this. It was a shame that Claud was simply too far to sense the mana that had made it up, or else he would have a new entry in his little list of people to stay the heck away from.

“My legs...”

“Sorry.” Claud looked at her. “How about I give you a piggyback ride?”

Lily brightened up immediately. “Okay! Let’s go!”

“You seem oddly happy about this.” Claud removed his backpack, and a small weight hopped onto his back. “Does it not bother you that people are watching?”

“They’re just tomatoes and cabbages,” Lily replied.

“…Okay, that’s one way of putting it.”

Given his strength, Lily felt more like a light backpack. In fact, it really didn’t feel that much different from the small backpack in his hand, which contained the three little fellows’ home. However, it did feel a bit odd to hold on to a backpack like this, so he simply handed it to Lily, who…put it on her head for some reason.

He thought for a moment, and then chuckled. “You’re trying to cheer me up, right? Don’t worry, I’m not particularly affected by anything right now. Like I said, the sincerest form of flattery is imitation. I’m fine.”

Claud lowered his voice. “Besides, it’s a damn good alibi that I’m not Tot, see?”

“Hmm. Well, I can definitely see that, yes.” Lily made a noise in her throat. “But…it’s drawing more hatred to the personage called Tot, though. And it…never mind.”

“Which is why that person’s timing was exquisite for us. We left Monsville openly, didn’t hide ourselves and made our way towards the Lacuna Dukedom. Under the watchful eye of the Moons, who had definitely suspected us, we did absolutely nothing suspicious and obeyed our summons, and disaster struck their base camp.” Claud shrugged, and Lily made a little whoop. “Quite an excellent alibi, yes?”

He fell silent as he joined the line of people that was heading into town, before squatting slightly to let Lily off.

“There’s a lot of people, despite it being midnight already,” Lily observed. “I wonder if the attack this afternoon was related. But is it even possible to see that attack from Vacuos?”

“We just need to eavesdrop here and there, and we’ll find out soon,” Claud replied, his voice quiet. “See? My ears are already twitching!”

“How are you even doing that?” Lily asked.

“It’s called fine control, heh.” Claud continued to focus on any stray sentences or words he could hear, but before long, his face creased into a frown. For some reason, just about everyone was speaking so quietly that even the enhanced senses of a penta-folder didn’t get him anything.

Or were they?

“Hmm.” Claud thought about his Mana Locus skill. It was the advanced evolved form of the original Mana Organ, which he had inadvertently picked up when he first became a mana-folder and was exposed to innumerable stimuli. While he didn’t know how others dealt with it, Claud had managed to turn his backbone or some part there into dealing with external stimuli and filtering out important parts for him.

Naturally, this also included really quiet words that his enhanced senses picked up. However, if he could control this process…

“Claud?” Lily squished his face. “What are you doing? Is it something dangerous?”

“I’m just trying to manipulate my skill,” Claud replied, before rubbing his nose out of sheer guilt. “But it is a bit…dangerous. I suppose. It might overload my cognitive ability for a while, and I might end up in quite a bit of pain.”

As a rule of thumb, the human body could never remember the exact sensation of pain. No matter how many times one tried to engrave a certain time of agony into their bones, they would never fully remember the sensation, nor could they get used to it.

Claud was naturally a bit leery about actually trying to adjust his skill. Not only was this his first time doing so, but he was also going to do it based off his intuition alone.

Now that he thought about it, Claud couldn’t help but think that he was a bit crazy for doing it in such a place. Lily, who was watching his expression closely, patted his head with a maternal air for some reason, and then squished his cheeks.

“It’s dangerous to do whatever you were intending on doing outside,” Lily noted, a smug look on her face. “And you must have thought of that just now, right? I can see it!”

Claud tried to whistle and look innocent, but the first part was something he never really did master. After a minute of being scorched by Lily’s burning gaze, Claud turned around and gave in, saying, “Yeah. I also thought I was crazy too, for attempting to do that. On hindsight, I better do this when most of my senses are sealed.”

“Then it’ll have to be in some specially set up place,” Lily replied. “But what skill are you even trying to manipulate?”

Claud happily explained his Mana Locus skill to Lily, who looked like she had been enlightened too. Of course, most of the credit could be attributed to little old Crown, who was napping away in his backpack, so he really had no business feeling smug…

He still acted a bit smug anyway.

After Lily poked his sides a few times, Claud put aside his smug demeanour and focused on explaining the process to her. Without Crown to guide her mana, attaining the initial Mana Organ skill was probably going to be down to luck or something, but Claud had a feeling that even if she failed, Lily would still benefit one way or another.

“Still,” Claud asked, “how did you exactly blot out all this external noises and stuff? I remember nearly going insane when I first became a mana-user. Without this skill, I would have gone crazy or something.”

“I think my senses were dulled over a long period of time,” Lily replied. “It’s too long ago, though. It would be better if we asked Schwarz.”

“Yeah, he recently became a mana-user, shortly after I did. I suppose he’s the best person to ask…but he’s not with us now.” Claud touched his forehead. “And…of course. We forgot to leave behind a Second Shadow to talk to them. Damn it. Should we just turn around now? Or should we stay in Vacuos while I send a Second Shadow over?”

“Well, it’s not like we’re in a rush or something,” Lily began. “And we can take turns operating the Second Shadow. It’s not like it’s us doing the actual running. The only issue is with the Moons, though…”

“Yeah, the aesthetics are a problem.” Claud sighed. “Wouldn’t it be nice if the Moons didn’t just treat all moving shadows as enemies?”

“Both sides are in a ceasefire, though?”

The two looked at each other, thought for a moment, and then shrugged. The distance between Monsville and Vacuos was not prohibitively insane; but that was because they were mana-users. In fact, Claud knew that it would be faster if they simply mana-walked back, created a Second Shadow there, and then returned to their journey.

It was the most sensible thing to do, but…

“Hmm.” Claud thought for a moment. “Okay, I have an idea.”

“What do you have in mind?” Lily asked.

“Well, now that the Moons aren’t going to be paying that much attention to this place, I could just fly back with all my strength, place a Second Shadow near the house or something, and then return here. We can operate it afterwards, and we’ll be fine!”

Lily nodded. “Yes, that works too!”

“It’s a shame we can’t speak while using that, though,” Claud muttered. “We’ll have to make do with writing.”

“That’s already a darn good achievement, okay? You’re so picky…”