“Meep!”

The little meeplings bounced around on the bed, revelling in their newly regained freedom, and Claud tickled their sides one by one.

“Sorry for keeping you guys cooped up,” Claud replied. “But I’m glad that you three are now out and bouncing around. We still can’t fully trust anyone other than Lily, okay?”

“Meep!” Crown rolled over and nuzzled his hand, before bumping his fingers. “Meep. Meep?”

“I’m fine.” Claud chuckled. “But I’m indeed a bit tired. It feels like…how do I put it? Like when I wrap you guys up in lots of little towels. You want to close your eyes and doze off, and you definitely don’t want to move at all. It’s not pain. It’s easy to deal with pain past a certain threshold. But it’s a lot harder to deal with the promise of comfort.”

“Meep?”

“Well, it’s fine if you don’t understand.” Claud laid down on the bed, before wrapping a blanket around himself. He didn’t dare to sleep, however. Right now, in front of his shophouse, was a veritable crowd of bigshots that were all staring at the barrier that was blocking them off. Before long, the three largest bigshots in the entire mortal world would come knocking on the flimsy eggshell that held off everyone else.

“Lily?” Claud called out.

“Just a moment.”

Claud played with the three little shapes at that reply, before tickling them once more. The little guys really loved it when he or Lily tickled them for some reason…as a rule of thumb, anything that made them feel loved and cherished was the way to go.

It probably spoke volumes to the loneliness they endured while looking for an owner. Crown had spent untold years sitting — and presumably sleeping — in Duke Istrel’s treasury, while Sceptre and Throne came from the long-destroyed Celestia Ruins. How many years did they sleep? Did they remember anything about the ruins?

“Meep?”

“Sorry.” Claud rubbed the three of them gently. “Thanks, though. I’m feeling a bit bad right now, so having you guys here is really useful.”

The meeplings bounced around at his words, and Claud smiled. His head felt a bit heavier, and the urge to sleep grew slightly, but he wasn’t going to fall asleep or give into the awful hollowness in his chest anytime soon.

All he had to do was to endure for another few months. Of course, it was easier said than done, but Claud knew that the rewards would be extraordinary…and yet, by all accounts, his previous iteration, the one who had received the same warning from the Hollow God, had failed too.

He couldn’t help but feel fearful at that prospect. What would his Last Tutorial hold for him? It was a question that generated a variety of feelings and emotions, something that he didn’t want to ask.

“Say,” Claud muttered, “would it be fine if I took Lily and fled to someplace beyond the reach of the divinities and the madness sweeping this world? I’m scared.”

The three meeplings promptly cloistered together and hopped onto his head, before weaving in and out of his hair.

“Meep.”

“Meep. Meeeeep.”

“Meep!”

Despite everything, Claud had to laugh, and he plucked them away from his head. “Thanks, guys.”

He forced himself to get up. Plopping the little meeplings back onto the bed, he said, “Play nice with each other. We have some very nasty guests headed our way, so you three will have to bounce around quietly, okay.”

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“Meep.”

Claud laughed. “That’s right. Meep.”

Lily walked in at that moment. “Why are you meeping with them too?”

“I felt like it, I suppose.” Claud smiled at Lily, and then lowered his head. “Sorry to make you do all the menial stuff. It’s supposed to be a couple’s effort, but I ended up letting you do all the chores by yourself.”

“You’d do the same for me, so I don’t really see any need for you to apologise,” Lily replied, before straightening out his hair. Squishing his face a few times, she added, “And it’s nice to do something for you. You usually do all the hard things. I feel a little irrelevant sometimes.”

Claud blinked. “Ah. Sorry. Um…maybe you can handle the very annoying conversations that are about to happen? I get a feeling that the three of them and their entourage are going to be very tiring…of course, I’ll still be sitting there. I just don’t want to talk all of a sudden.”

“Aha, turning on your inner introvert. Sure!” Lily rubbed her hands. “Well, you must have been tired, though.”

Claud yawned. “Yeah. Travelling across worlds is no joke. I’m a bit sleepy, but I can’t leave you and doze off all by my lonesome. We’ll need to deal with those pricks. Life sucks, I suppose.”

“Life hasn’t been on the up and up for a long time.” Lily smiled. “We’ll deal with it. Well, I suppose if you want to cheer up…how about a dance?”

“Here?” Claud tilted his head. “Sure. Let’s go!”

Before they could do anything, however, the house trembled once, and a harsh knock echoed through the entire building. Claud clicked his teeth, uttered some choice words, and then peeked out of the window.

The barriers that had been conjured to block everyone had cracked. Of course, it had to be that armoured, mace-wielding brute of a Supreme Saran that had knocked, since no one knew what manners were.

Somehow.

“Alright. Let’s go and welcome our guests.” Lily pouted once, and then said, “We’re going to dance at night later. Under the moonlight or something.”

“It’s a promise, then.”

Lily supported him as they made their way downstairs, and a bunch of entitled-looking fellows stared at the two of them as they appeared on the small garden outside the shophouse. Claud pondered on the viability of just pointing the middle finger at them and activating a few more barrier artefacts, but…

“Well, looks like we’ll need to bear with them for a while.” Claud looked at the crowd that had formed in front of the barrier, and then held his head. “How are we supposed to do this?”

“Leave it to me,” Lily replied.

“Alright.”

Claud touched the sword hanging off his waist. He was an absolute stranger to something like this; Lily, who had the necessary education and upbringing, would settle this far better than he ever would.

“But it still wouldn’t hurt to learn, right?” Claud muttered, before following Lily as the barriers began to fade.

“In times like this, once everyone is assembled and ready, just bring down the barriers. Let the bigshots settle the smaller ones; why would they want the smallfry buzzing around while they conduct their business?” Lily grinned at him. “Come on. Back into the shop we go. Let the professionals clear the others.”

“That’s how we should do it, huh?”

“Yeeep.” The two of them returned to the counter, before Claud activated the artefacts that were sitting underneath it to reinforce the booth. Supreme Saran looked like the violent type that would probably punch a wall to make a point, and this shophouse wasn’t reinforced for that kind of punishment.

The ground shook a few times, prompting him to pull out even more artefacts. He could hear a blunt weapon smacking the ground a few times, and that weapon wasn’t made of feathers either.

“I thought rulers of entire continents are graceful fellows brimming with elegance and style,” Claud muttered. “Clearly, I was very wrong.”

“To be fair, we don’t know much about the Lacheln continent, so…”

“Point.” The two of them exchanged glances.

“…Lily, if he acts up, you have my full blessing to slap him around,” Claud added. “Here are a bunch of skillsticks that you can use.”

“We can just do it together. I’m not that confident,” Lily replied.

“Oh, a couple bonding exercise over slapping the ruler of a continent?” Claud rubbed his hands. “I’m not going to lie. That does sound fun.”

“Don’t be silly, okay?” Lily rolled her eyes. “Alright, they should be coming soon. I’m a bit excited, actually. What do they look like?”

Claud thought about that question for a moment, and the first memory that came to mind was just how opulent the three of them were when he saw them back then. “Gaudy. Like. Really, really blinding, I suppose. In their full battle regalia, they were blinding and all…oh, here they come.”

“All mine, then.” Lily patted his head. “Leave the rest to me, alright?”

The door opened, and three imposing presences walked into their little shop. This was probably the first shop since the Third Godsfall that had Emperor Grandis, First Lady Cecily and Supreme Saran visit it at the same time, which probably gave it a status like no other.

“…So, you are the couple in the rumours.” Emperor Grandis looked at them. “Well met, Sir and Lady Primus.”

“I don’t recall giving you the permission to speak for me,” Supreme Saran, who was still in that trademark armour of his. A mace sat on his shoulders squarely as he eyed Claud, but before he could say anything, First Lady Cecily cleared her throat.

“Shut up, the two of you.”

As the three glared at each other, Claud could tell that today was going to be extraordinarily tiring.