Count Nightfall’s office was, as per tradition for the high and mighty of Licencia, situated on the highest floor of the building. After climbing up multiple flights of stairs, Claud and Lily stopped in front of the only door on that floor, with Captain Blake at the front. The other two guards that had been accompanying him had been instructed to help with some filing — apparently, there were all kinds of paperwork that came with murders.

Who knew?

“What’s the point of having a single room to the entire level, though?” Claud wondered out loud. “What, is his office really big?”

“You could say that, I guess,” Captain Blake replied. “I mean, the entrance is three metres away from the staircase…”

“Why would a single person need such a big room?” Lily asked.

“You’ll find out once we enter,” said Captain Blake. “Alright, look sharp.”

Straightening his uniform, Captain Blake puffed himself up and knocked on the door. Claud, who wasn’t sure what pose he should adopt when talking to the count’s fiancée, decided to look like a stone instead. That was something he was great at — looking like some ignorable small-fry came second nature to him.

As for Lily, she reverted to the pre-Julan Lily, looking like a little quiet flower. After quite a bit of interaction with Lily, Claud had gotten a rough read of her character — she would only revert to her chatty self when the people around her were those she trusted. Of course, she had been improving over time, but the eye-catching sprightliness she exhibited was only reserved for her friends.

A clear soprano floated out of the door. “Who’s there? What do you need me for?”

“I’m Captain Blake, the vice-commander of the city guards. I’m here to report to you about a certain murder that happened earlier this morning.”

There was a pause. “Come in!”

The door knob let out a small snap, and the captain twisted it. Gesturing for Claud and Lily to stay silent — not like Claud had any intention to speak and stand out — he led the two of them inside.

At first glance, the interior looked like Farah’s office in Moon Mansion. Bookshelves lined both sides of the room, each of them with filled with books that clearly had been read multiple times. The corners of the room, however, resembled Schwarz’s working space more — there were four filing cabinets, each of them labelled with stickers that had esoteric scribblings on them. There were other doors that led out of the room, but those doors were dull, compared to the one at the entrance.

In the middle of the room was a rather luxurious desk and chair. The back of the chair was facing the three of them, hiding the occupant from view.

“Your Grace,” said Captain Blake, lowering his head, “Captain Blake of the city guard reporting in, along with two representatives of the associate organisation, the Moon Lords.”

The chair turned around to reveal a blue-haired woman, which, when coupled with the blue sky that served as the backdrop, made a rather striking scene.

“Please, be at ease, captain.”

“Thank you, Your Grace.” Captain Blake raised his head.

She nodded her head, and then turned to Claud and Lily. “I am Caroline Lostfon, representatives of the Moon Lords. As you might have guessed, I’m from the ruling family of Lostfon County. Pleased to meet the two of you.”

Claud blinked. He had done a bit of research after hearing about a particular entrepreneur from Lostfon. Lostfon itself was situated north of not just Licencia, but also of the Umbra Sovereignty in general. It was actually in the Nihila Sovereignty, which was pretty much a distance Claud couldn’t quite fathom.

“Pleased to meet you too,” Claud replied, taking his cue from Lily, who had shifted closer to him. “I’m Claud, and this here is Lily.”

“Claud and Lily…well met. I would like to exchange a few more pleasantries, but the anxious look on Captain Blake’s face tells me that this murder is going to bring lots of trouble to Licencia. Aran’s busy out there, so I must handle this to the best of my ability. To that end, I request your aid.”

Claud, however, found himself distracted by a different issue. “Who’s Aran?”

“Oh. That’s Count Nightfall, I guess.” Caroline frowned. “My apologies. He tends to be very formal, even with people he works closely too — I only learned his first name a year into our engagement.”

“Your Grace, Count Nightfall doesn’t like you to tell that story either…”

“His subordinates need to know that his coldness is not because he looks down on them or something,” Caroline replied. “It’s just his nature, and not because he thinks they’re doing a bad job. As his fiancée, it’s my job to help clear up any misunderstandings he might have made.”

“I-is that so...”

Caroline giggled, and then straightened her face. “Alright. Tell me about this murder, captain.”

Captain Blake nodded. “Yes, Your Grace. Early this morning, a few residents of Street 33 came down to the guardhouse and reported a horrible stench. One of my men went with them to track down the source of the stench, which turned out to be a dead body in…”

The stand-in ruler of Licencia paled when the captain told her about the identity of the deceased.

“Zulan Patra…yes, I see why you had to brief me in person.” Caroline clicked her teeth. “Moons above. What Moondamned person would kill anyone else in such a manner?”

“Your Grace, we need to contact the Church of the White God.”

“Yes, we do. But we need to make sure that nothing bad happens to us, although I don’t think that’s possible at this point.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “How distressing. What recommendations do you have, captain?”

“I recommend that we contact the closest branch of the White Church. Or we can contact their headquarters with the direct line. Personally, I’m in favour of the latter choice, since it shows that we didn’t dally in this incident, but you might need time to prepare.”

Claud was interested in what the captain meant by ‘direct line’, but instead of asking right now like a tactless fool, he sidled over to Lily and tried to hide behind her. Lily, fortunately, didn’t seem to notice that he was using her as a shield of sorts, and she continued to stare at the table in silence.

“…Yes, I think your second recommendation’s a better idea.”

“The White Church is bound to send out a huge delegation, either way. If we delayed in informing them, it’s possible that the delegation might decide to make trouble for the count in passing, given the past animosities between them,” said Captain Blake.

“Yes, yes.” Caroline sighed and got up. “Please follow me, everyone. We’re going over to the Nightfall Palace.”

The three obeyed her words in silence. As they went down the many flights of stairs, Claud couldn’t help but think that their earlier climb up had been wasted. They hadn’t even stayed for more than ten minutes on the top floor before they had to leave it — in fact, there really wasn’t a point in getting him and Lily to tag along to begin with.

Claud paused for a moment, but he forced himself to smooth over that random stop by moving his right leg onwards.

Now that he thought about it, there really wasn’t a point in getting the two of them to tag along. In that case, why did Caroline request for them to follow along? Clearly, she probably had her own motives in doing so, and after a bit of thinking, the master thief settled on a conclusion.

She probably intended on getting the two of them to be the direct liaison between the White Church and Licencia. He didn’t know the ins and outs behind such a choice, but Claud knew that such a course of action would put the Moon Lords — and by extension, himself — into quite the quagmire.

“Your Grace,” said Claud, “can we request to be excused from this conversation you intend to hold with the Church of the White God? We have private, extenuating circumstances behind this refusal, circumstances that we are not at liberty to share.”

Caroline paused. “Ah. Is that so? I was intending to have you two testify about what you saw, but—”

“Our words won’t be as useful as an in-person examination by the investigation dispatched here,” said Claud. “Captain Blake has preserved the crime scene. It will serve as far better proof than our words.”

“I see.” Caroline mulled on her words. “It’s unfortunate, but if you two do have your reasons, I suppose I can’t compel you. Why, do you have some animosity with the White Church?”

Claud thought for a moment. “No, nothing of that sort. Please rest easy. It’s just something…personal.”

Caroline eyed him for a moment, and then shrugged. “Well, if there’s no other choice, then. Still, I’ll like you two to come along so that I can tell you about some important points you two should know. Is that acceptable?”

“Okay. That should be fine.”

“Thank you.”