Despite the purple sphere that had erupted randomly — or not so randomly, in Claud’s opinion — he and Lily still had a calling card to deliver, so they walked around the purple sphere that was preventing people in the Ninth Street from reaching the Vacuos Palace.

Thankfully, there weren’t any more sobbing people that ran up to Claud, but the image of the purple sphere was still burning fresh in his mind. The news about some weird purple sphere spreading had disseminated rapidly, and even those who didn’t care to gossip could also see that there was a purple dome blocking off the entirety of Ninth Street.

“I wonder if we can pass through it.” Lily looked at Claud, her eyes sombre. “But not even the five grand skies can deal with this.”

“They wanted to, but they couldn’t.” Claud let out a sigh. “Here’s the important thing, though. Why couldn’t they?”

“I wish I knew too.” Lily patted his head. “But don’t worry about this, alright? We’ll just need to beef up security or something. Maybe I can plant some explosives around the shop, if you think those guys were really looking for you.”

“I don’t think that’s going to help, but I really appreciate the sentiment,” Claud replied. Plucking out the little meeplings next, he said, “Thanks, guys. You saved us.”

“Meep!” Crown bounced once on his palm, and the others, like little chicks, scuttled around on his hand, before nestling in Lily’s hair.

Crown cuddled up his neck, unlike the others, and then made a few contented little meeps.

“So adorable.” Lily frowned. “I can only hope that none of the shadowy little toddlers were caught by that sudden expansion. What exactly is inside anyway? You said that there was a crying woman that looked like she was searching for you, and you think that she’s the cause of the sphere, but why a crying woman?”

“Moons if I knew.” Claud breathed in deeply. “We nearly died or something, though. I’m not even sure how to react to this yet. I’m still in shock.”

The two of them walked towards the Vacuos Palace in silence after Claud uttered this statement. Lily, who had elected to use her presence to cheer his tired, heavy body up, tightened her hold on his arm as a bunch of soldiers raced away from the palace and towards the purple sphere.

Mana-users flitted from rooftop to rooftop at the same time, covering the air and looking for people that were attempting to fish in troubled waters. At the same time, spellhounds and their handlers followed behind the cleared streets, guarded heavily by armoured knights.

“Grandis’ Spellhound Unit…” Claud made a face. “Brings me back.”

“Brings you back?” Lily asked.

“Yeah. Back when Tot made an appearance,” Claud replied. “I was resting in an inn when those spellhounds started looking for Tot, see? Quite nostalgic.”

Of course, the him back then and the him now were very different. He had very little to fear now…in a sense, anyway. Claud really didn’t think he would hold out well in a fight in his current condition.

The dogs and their handlers passed by the two of them without incident, and while the archers that were bringing up the rear glanced at them suspiciously, no one came to stop them for questioning.

“It’s nice to walk around as a couple,” Claud noted. “No one suspects us all that much.”

“We’re not doing anything shady, though.” Lily reached out for his cheeks and squished his face. “Why do you make it sound like we’re criminals or something? We’re not suspicious people!”

“I know, I know. But still, it’s quite the blind spot,” Claud replied. “Well, at any rate, that purple sphere has stirred the waters of this very deep pond, hasn’t it? I’m sure everyone is heading here because there is a good possibility that this incident is related to Tot.”

He paused. “Well, it’s probably linked…”

Claud checked the Looped Encryptor, and then bobbed his head. His words had become less guarded ever since the Third Tutorial began, which was definitely a bad habit.

“Linked, huh.” Lily looked at him. “Come on, let’s speed up a bit. I don’t want to scare myself by thinking about what could happen to me or something.”

Vacuos Palace, while not as opulent as the Nightfall Palace, which had been spruced up by copious amounts of tax money, was still quite pleasing to the eyes. Of course, the book motif the castle had going for it was definitely helpful too — rather than a castle made from bricks, Vacuos’ outer walls looked like bookshelves filled with books.

“Wait, those are real bookshelves, right?” Claud asked, rubbing his eyes and peering at the walls that were closest to the main gate. Indeed, these walls were actually real bookshelves that had books on them, and the guards protecting the main entrance all had a book in their hand too.

“…Are they trying to pretend, or do they really read books while on duty?” Claud asked. “Both sound like they would be problematic, see?”

“Either they’re poseurs or slackers,” Lily summarised his words. “Hmm. Which one is better? Showoff or lazy guards?”

“Hmm. That’s a good question, but I’d go with arrogant guards.” Claud smiled. “The lazy have an incentivise to make their own job much, much easier, just so they can laze off with good justifications. If that means they need to lay out traps every dusk and to remove them every dawn, they’ll do that.”

“So lazy people are dangerous.”

Claud nodded. “That’s how it is. Don’t get between a lazing person and his or her bed.”

With that little nugget of wisdom, the two of them trotted up to the Vacuos Palace main gate, where a bunch of guards had long noticed their arrival.

One of them walked up, a hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword, and said, “Halt. By order of Count Vacuos, lay forth your name and your purpose here.”

“We have a letter to send to the Folder Association President, Neo Cadenza,” Claud replied. “I am Claud Primus.”

“And I am his spouse, Lily Primus,” Lily added. “This is our calling card. We will be back on the appointed date.”

She turned around and left. Claud reacted a beat later, and then mimicked Lily’s graceful exit. They walked in silence for a minute, before Claud asked, “That simple?”

“Yeap. Send a card, and then leave.” Lily paused. “Normally, we should have gotten someone to send the card in our stead, but I don’t think anyone’s willing to run errands right now.”

She paused. “Or at least, no one with sufficiently good bearing and poise would be willing to help us out at the standard prices. Anyway, we’ve sent the card, so it’s fine. Don’t worry about it too much.”

Claud eyed her once. “Do I look like I’m worried at all? You have full reign in matters like this, so feel free to disregard my opinions on this matter…mostly, anyway.”

He looked at the purple dome once more. Claud could see it very clearly, but some parts were blocked by the various personnel that had been dispatched. However, despite the fuss, it was evident that Count Vacuos and the other bigshots were either rushing back right now or were completely unaware of this incident — the knights were and mana-users in this county were simply cordoning off the area.

If the bigshots had returned, explorations into this purple dome would have begun.

“Where did the other nobles all run off to?” Claud asked, folding his arms. “Sure, the bigshots are probably out of the city right now, but there are other nobles here, right? What are they doing? Why aren’t they responding to this?”

“Why would they?” Lily asked. “Most of them don’t have manpower enough to begin with, and those that do aren’t interested in spending lives for someone else’s city.”

“…Good point.”

More knights and spellhounds raced past them as Claud and Lily retraced their steps. This time, however, the spellhounds had their sense of smell fully unleashed, but…

“What are they even trying to sniff out?” Claud asked, thinking about the other things he’d done as the Fourth Bearer of Destiny, as the Thief of Time. He was dead certain that he didn’t leave any clues behind, so what were making those dogs excited?

Their handlers released the dogs as that thought flickered through his mind, and the canines scattered merrily.

For obvious reasons, however, none of them bothered to approach Claud or Lily, and instead raced towards the centre of the city. Their handlers followed behind closely, ready to intervene or to capture their apparently discovered target.

“…I suppose they’re barking up the wrong tree,” Lily observed, a wry smile on her face. “What are they even doing?”

“Maybe they found something around that purple dome,” Claud replied. “It’s quite possible. Or maybe they found another clue…but that’s not for us to care about. Let’s head home, wash up and call it a day.”

“It’s our grand opening, but we’ve closed shop early, encountered some insane incident with purple spheres and even sent a calling card to Neo Cadenza.” Lily let out a long breath. “Can we just sleep for the next three days instead?”

“Sure, why not?”