The regular clacking of Moon Phase pieces filled the room as Schwarz faced off with Farah. The bartender had mailed the letter over to Count Nightfall an hour ago, but like everyone else, he couldn’t sleep.

Dia couldn’t blame him. If this envelope was opened and the count wasn’t around, Claud’s plan would fail catastrophically. She couldn’t quite believe just how much faith the Moon Lord in charge of their security had in the arrogance of nobles, for him to be relying on it to such a fault.

Everyone, not just Dia, was aware of this issue. It had been discussed to death, right after Schwarz left to mail it, but no one could quite understand why Claud chose such an approach. However, as Farah pointed out, few nobles ever assumed that commoners would dare lay a trap for them. It was a point that Dia would grudgingly concede, but would Count Nightfall, someone who was overwhelmingly concerned about his safety right now, really behave that way?

No one could say for certain.

Anyway, since no one could sleep and everyone had finished their work, the only thing to do left was to play Moon Phase with each other. Fortunately, Schwarz came up with a tournament.

Somehow, everyone could read her like a book, but they couldn’t notice that she was actually the real Princess Dia.

Stewing over her successive losses and her title as the worst player, she watched on as the two top players moved on into the capture phase. From her viewpoint, both sides weren’t employing any particularly intricate strategies — in fact, it seemed like they were actually moving on haphazardly. They were exchanging piece for piece, but somehow, both sides hadn’t revealed their trump card, the full moon.

Risti let out a low whistle as an odd symmetry revealed itself. Both sides had forced their greatest battle strength — a gibbous moon — into the middle of their opponent’s unrevealed pieces. The other gibbous moon remained unopened; both sides were keeping them in reserve.

“Didn’t think you were a player like me,” said Farah.

“Colour me surprised too.” The bartender smirked. “Still, to think you also moved without trying to expose my own full moon.”

“And give you a movement advantage? Dream on.”

“But it seems that we’ve reverted to the flipping phase once more, no?” The bartender licked his lips. “Can you read my mind? Or will I read yours first?”

“Let’s find out, shall we?” said Farah. Her hand reached out for the unopened piece in front of her own gibbous moon, poised to reveal it. If it was a full moon, her gibbous would remain safe; there was a new moon protecting it. If it wasn’t…

Schwarz said nothing, and that was enough to make the countess hesitate. Without warning, her hand drifted to the piece that was to the right of her original choice and flipped it.

“Bad choice,” said the bartender, his eyes alight with glee.

At the sight of the opened gibbous moon, Farah placed her hand down. “I concede.”

“That makes two rounds in a row, then.” The bartender chuckled. “I’m the best player, then.”

Farah reached out to her original choice and flipped it. A full moon sat there snugly, and she turned her eyes to Schwarz.

“What? I didn’t even say anything. You took a step back yourself, countess. I didn’t say anything. Neither did anyone else,” he replied. “That’s how it is.”

“I just lacked confidence?”

“You could say that,” Schwarz replied. Producing a small bottle, he poured out a cup of orange juice and handed it to the countess. “Mildly alcoholic, pure goodness. Try it out.”

“It would have been a lot easier if you didn’t say ‘pure’ in promoting it,” Farah muttered. "But since it's mild..."

Dia watched as the two bonded over a nice small glass of orangey alcohol, and then turned to Risti, who was eyeing Schwarz’s own pieces. “What are you thinking about?”

“I’m wondering where his own full moon is, that’s all.”

“That’s a very good—”

A thunderous roar shattered the silence of the night as a blue pillar of light shot out from the direction of Count Nightfall’s palace. The ground trembled slightly as metal smashed against metal, upsetting the gameboard. As one, everyone shot to their feet and raced into the courtyard, where the transparent dome surrounding Moon Mansion afforded them an unimpeded view of the skies above.

“Nightfall!” A roar surged out. “How dare you kill a Shadow of Grandis! Are you rebelling against the Emperor? Are you going against his agents now?”

“Looks like it’s begun,” said Schwarz.

“The count’s that efficient?” Risti asked.

“What other reason can there be for this to happen?” Farah shook her head. “But…it seems that Count Nightfall is already a tri-folder. There’s no way he would have been able to fight like this otherwise.”

Risti nodded. “Can we approach the battle to take notes?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Schwarz. “That’s too dangerous.”

Another pillar of blue light shot into the skies, and Dia frowned. “Mana’s erupting. It’s something only tri-folders and above can do.”

“But they’re giving off different mana signatures,” said Risti. “Interesting. It seems that a certain count has fully burned his second mana circuit, hasn’t it?”

“Equally surprising is the fact that there’s a tri-folder fighting him,” Schwarz murmured. “He must be—”

“Rickens, what I do is none of your business,” a cold voice replied. “As a count empowered by the emperor, I am well within my rights to be judge and executioner of any sentence! Blame your Shadow for disrespecting mine and the Emperor’s authority!”

“That’s trickery, and you know it!”

As the two men shouted and fought with each other, Farah turned to Schwarz. “What’s going on? Didn’t we make the count cripple one of those Shadows? Why did a death occur?”

“Something probably went wrong,” the bartender replied. “Maybe the count was too heavy-handed in crippling the unfortunate Shadow.”

High screams followed as a building crumbled into stone. Blue pillars of light flared skywards once more, but they were far closer this time. Clearly, the battle had moved into the residential district, and Dia found herself frowning. Both sides evidently held little regard for the lives of the normal people, and—

“Should these deaths be pinned onto us?” Risti asked, her voice small.

“They had the choice to fight in the Nightfall Palace,” Schwarz replied, his words one of rebuke. “In fact, the Count had the initiative, but he chose to not fight in his palace, where he’ll have a homefield advantage. It’s clear that he doesn’t want to damage his home.”

He gestured at yet another pillar of blue light. “This is the result.”

After a short silence, Farah nodded. “He’s right. Even my own palace has defences meant to augment my fighting ability. From this, we can tell that Nightfall is confident about his chances, which is why he has no desire to bring the fight into his palace. That's his choice, not ours.”

Risti’s face softened at those words, but Dia — and probably the others — were quite aware that the casualties that occurred this night was partially caused by them. The bartender was just trying to soften the blow for Risti.

A nice fiction, in other words.

Two figures darted into the sky at that moment. One was holding a halberd, while two discs orbited around the second figure. Both of their weapons were blazing with an intense blue light, one that was painful to stare at.

“Flight, or an artefact that has it,” Risti murmured.

“It’s an artefact for Count Nightfall. He doesn’t have Flight,” Schwarz said. “Those discs around him are controlled by one of his skills, I think.”

Before Dia could ask the bartender any further about the count’s skills, the two discs shot towards the halberd-wielding figure. Metallic shrieks followed as the halberd fended off the discs in rapid succession, with each strike releasing an arc of blue light that ploughed the land below.

“Arms Master?” Dia breathed in sharply. “This Shadow of Grandis sure is vicious.”

“So, it’s called Arms Master…” The bartender took a deep breath. “Everyone. I have a proposition.”

Serenaded by distant, dying screams, Schwarz’s words seemed a lot more ominous.

“Say it,” said Farah. “How do you intend to solve this situation?”

“We can shoot him down,” Schwarz replied. “The Moon Mansion has some siege weapons installed. Specialised ones for defence. We can use them, but we will almost certainly draw the count’s attention.”

“Which is the reason why all these happened to begin with,” Farah noted.

“Yes.” Schwarz closed his eyes. “But if we are all in accord…”

“Do it,” said Risti.

Farah glanced at Dia, and the two of them nodded.

“Use the ballista,” said Farah, “and let me see if tri-folders can stand up to a siege weapon!”

A warm smile appeared on Schwarz’s face. “I’m glad we’re all the same types of people. We’ll just need to explain to Claud why we used it later, but he’s the type to understand…I hope. Come on, follow me. I’ll show you the marvels of compound artefacts.”

The warm smile turned into a predatory grin. “That tri-folder will make for a good first demonstration.”