After washing up thoroughly, at Claud’s behest, Dia and Risti took their seats at the table.

“Still,” said Risti, “why were you so insistent on us washing our hands this thoroughly?”

“Wouldn’t it be bad if you two got indigestion or something?” Claud replied, wiping his hands slowly with an embroidered napkin. “You don’t want to come back in triumph, only to be laid low by some dastardly poison. That would not make a good day, wouldn’t it?”

“He has a point,” said Schwarz. “Besides, now that you’ve washed your hands and all, you can do this.”

He grabbed a chicken drumstick, golden-brown and glistening with meaty goodness, before biting into it savagely. There was this raw, unbridled air to him, and within moments, Dia found herself agreeable to the notion of just chewing down like this, manners be damned.

“That’s a very, very appealing notion,” Risti replied.

“Right?”

Shaking her head, Dia joined the others using her hands directly. For the next few minutes, what seemed like a bunch of starving fellows demolished the huge spread together, using the most unrefined methods known to man. Fortunately, at least, none of them were interested in licking the plates clean, although from the ravenous look on Claud’s face, Dia had a feeling that he was not far from it.

Did something happen to him?

Shrugging, she went off to wash her hands.

“Nice and full?” Farah asked, glancing at Risti.

“My tummy seems to be silent now, so yes,” Risti replied. “Right, findings. Where do we start?”

“From the beginning, then,” Lily replied. “We need the context anyway, and Count Nightfall didn’t give us many details when it came to describing how you two solved the case.”

“Alright, then,” said Dia. “From the beginning. Risti, do you want to do the honours?”

“Sure,” Risti replied. “We’ll start from when we were about to enter Nachtville then. Three or so days after we left Licencia, we arrived at Nachtville…or rather, were about to arrive at Nachtville when an uncanny fear assaulted us. Thankfully, Dia had the sense to use a bunch of defensive artefacts…”

Risti began to talk about the first night they were there, and as Dia heard Risti’s recollection, she found it somewhat unbelievable that they had managed to do all that. It was as if the Dia then was an entirely different person from the her now.

“That was an inspired solution,” Schwarz said, rousing Dia from her reverie. “True. Skills like Clairvoyance don’t work in an indoors environment, and to begin with, those spears were arching over the city walls. It was a good countermeasure.”

“Yes,” said Claud. “There are no invincible skills.”

He glanced at Lily. “Okay, maybe there’s one or two.”

Dia tilted her head. Claud was referring to something Dia didn’t understand, but from the out-of-character smirk that Lily was sporting, she could tell that it was probably some inside joke that the two had developed over their previous expedition. After making a note to investigate what seemingly-invincible skill Lily packed, she leaned back and listened to Risti as she continued her recounting.

The more she heard, the more unbelievable she found the past to be. In particular was the portion about how they had ambushed the killer, and Dia shivered when she heard about it. Granted, she wasn’t by any means a life-loving person, but was that really her?

Of course, Dia knew that the only reason why she felt all this was because some trick of the mind. She was very capable of acting and killing when the situation called for it, but there was some mechanism that distanced her conscious self from all these things.

“Something wrong?” Lily asked, reaching out to pat Dia on her hand. “You look out of it.”

“Oh. Thanks. Don’t worry about me.” Dia shook her head. “It’s just that when I hear Risti recount what we did, I find it rather unbelievable. Like a dream that I couldn’t quite remember.”

“Hmm. Trauma?” Schwarz wondered out loud. “It’s quite common amongst my patrons. Other than the braggarts, many people come over and ask me for help, even famous mercenaries. Most of them, when they look back on their deeds, wonder if they actually were out of their minds at that time.”

“How did you respond?” Dia asked, curious.

“Well, I told them that the reason why their mind blurs those memories is to stop them from making danger a routine thing,” Schwarz replied.

“Makes sense,” Farah added. “Normalising danger leads to an increased chance of death of injury. By making memories that contain elements of danger seem foreign, danger is maintained as a threat to be respected at all times.”

“Somehow,” Dia muttered, “I get a feeling you stuffed some public administration theories into that explanation.”

Farah covered her mouth and laughed. “Now, now. Who knows? Anyway, do continue on your riveting tale, Risti. That stopping point, though good, is not one I would be happy to stop at for long.”

“Hey, you guys were the ones to interrupt me. Anyway, I was talking about the Seekers of Truth, right?” Risti yawned. “Well, that’s where I’m going to have everyone here pay attention.”

Everyone straightened up.

“Go ahead,” said Schwarz, “we’re listening.”

“Alright. First, the Seekers of Truth told us about this skill that was used to control the murderer.” Risti pondered for a moment, and then scribbled down the words. “This whole line stands for ‘Third Bearer of Destiny: Awakened’. It takes up two skillslots, and apparently allows access to a skill Norn calls ‘Absolute Domination’.”

The table shook slightly at those words.

“Claud?” Schwarz asked. “Something wrong?”

Claud looked back at him, his expression settling into a grave, featureless mask. “Absolute. Doesn’t it mean that the skill cannot be lifted by any method whatsoever? What’s the difference between it and death?”

Dia felt her heart twist up. She hadn’t thought about it all that much, but skill names were very descriptive. If, indeed, that skill was truly absolute, then there was no hope for Rodrio and whoever else that had been affected by it.

“Is there…any way to counter that skill?” Dia asked, her voice quiet.

Everyone froze, and Schwarz took a deep breath. “Preliminary analysis by Count Nightfall tells us that the people under the control of Absolute Domination have been normal people so far.”

“People like you, then,” Risti noted.

“People who used to be like me,” Schwarz replied, a sunny smile on his face. “As it turns out, there’s something magical called a sub-folder, which I forked out ten years of my life on immediately.”

“Magical…” Dia frowned. “Come to think of it, why isn’t being a sub-folder common knowledge for everyone? Being a sub-folder allows one to learn Mana Manipulation. They’ll become mages, at the very least. Why aren’t there more sub-folders walking around and trying to make use of that?”

Schwarz tilted his head. “More…well, it is ten years of one’s life. But yes, I…I didn’t know about sub-folders until Count Nightfall himself told me about them. Is it some sort of restricted information?”

Everyone looked around, but as if on cue, their eyes fell onto Farah.

“Why are you guys looking at me like that?” Farah shivered, and then rolled her eyes.

“You’re the only one who is actually the ruler of a territory,” Claud replied. “If there’s any standing policy to prevent laypeople from knowing about sub-folders, you’ll definitely know, right?”

“Exactly,” Lily added. “You’re the administrator of Farah County. Heck, the county’s named after you!”

“Fine, fine. You two have a point.” She paused. “Wait, we’re getting off-topic. Can’t we deal with that sub-folder thingy after we hear more about this Third Bearer of Destiny shindig?”

“…That’s all we know, actually,” said Risti. Her face flushed a moment later. “Now that I think about it, our discussion about Absolute Domination was derailed in a similar manner to what’s going on right now.”

“Are you two idiots?” Farah rubbed her head. “Never mind. Anyway, is that everything?”

“Pretty much,” Risti replied. “You can continue on your fascinating policy about sub-folders now.”

“Guess that’s out of the bag now,” Farah replied. “Anyway, there is such a policy…”