Claud stared at the screen, struck dumb by this unexpected windfall. He didn’t recall doing anything whatsoever, so why…

[Results: Grade 5]

[Your recent actions of taking down two Moon-aligned Bearers of Destiny have alarmed those who know and those who see. As a portent of fate itself, those who cast their gaze wide are unable to see you, and were forced to redress the balance through a destructive act. As such, you have been awarded 20% of his lifespan.]

[You have been awarded a Fragment of Fate]

“Claud?” Lily waved her hand in front of his face, and Claud jumped. “Oh, great, you’re back. Did something happen?”

“Oh, yeah. Something definitely happened,” Claud replied. “You see, apparently, the death of two Bearers of Destiny that triggered similar messages alarmed some people watching over the world, who were forced to even out the playing field by brutally murdering another poor Bearer of Destiny.”

“Two factions, then.”

“Eh?”

“Well, that announcement thing was different. And there’s a second hourglass now, right? At the top left, there’s two hourglasses now. One has a black background, while the other is coloured with the three Moons,” Lily replied. “Didn’t you notice?”

“I was distracted by something else,” said Claud. “Oh, wow. There are two hourglasses now. Hmm. What kind of game is this supposed to be?”

“Hmm. So…Bearers of Destiny are split into allegiances. The Dark and the Moons?” Lily tilted her head. “And…well. Look out of the window. The darkness seems to have weakened.”

The absolute shadow had indeed grown a little less dense — anyone with a working set of eyeballs could tell that. In fact, Claud could even hear the people downstairs marvelling at this miracle, although only mana-users would know the reason behind such a miracle to begin with.

“Anyway,” said Lily, “what was that something else that distracted you?”

“Remember how I told you about quests and missions?” Claud asked. “As it turned out, the death of the Fifth Bearer of Destiny…well, the quest awarded me a bit of his lifespan. Not much, just twenty percent, but even twenty percent of a hundred years is a lot of lifestones.”

“Whew. Sounds like you have it really lucky, then,” Lily noted. “Still, isn’t this a bit too convenient? There are at least ten-odd Bearers of Destiny, and even if you just gain a small fraction of their lifespan, you’ll be a penta-folder easily.”

Claud pondered over her words. “Yeah. It’s a free lunch, and you know the saying. In fact, now that I think about it…”

Omen. That odd skill he had obtained after finishing off the Third Bearer of Destiny. No matter how he sliced it, that skill had to be related to this unexpected boon. For one, that skill was incredibly convenient for his current circumstances. It ticked all his boxes and provided him with the necessary protections against the weirder skills. Secondly, the mission that came with it, , encouraged the annihilation of the other Bearers of Destiny.

It sounded somewhat narcissistic for him to even think of such things, but for the first time, Claud felt that the world was intentionally trying to strengthen him.

Either that, or he had somehow struck the most insane of birth lotteries. Whatever the reason, Claud had many reasons to be cautious…but there wasn’t much he could do either. The status was attached to everyone from birth, and apparently no one could do anything about it.

“Be careful, okay?”

Claud nodded, and then turned his attention to his quests. He had somewhat forgotten about it, given his fear and everything. But now was a good time to consolidate a bunch of things. He navigated to the list of quests — three of them had been revealed, with the remaining eleven still as question marks — and located the newest entry at the very bottom.

[Personal Quest: One’s Order]

Quest introduction: To hold fate in one’s hand requires both knowledge and wisdom. Rediscover yourself, and recreate your conviction that drives your order.

Quest requirements: Impose order upon your tribulation.

Quest rewards: FiBod:A??? evolves, 300 years of lifespan

Additional Remarks: Trigger a tribulation by bringing your Mana Circuit Superimposition to 4.00.]

Claud looked at his quest, and question marks popped up in his head. What did ‘impose order on your tribulation’ mean? What world within? Rubbing his head, Claud decided that today was not a good day to interpret his status and stopped thinking altogether.

With the death of the Fifth, his lifespan had increased by another fifty-three years, bringing him up to a nice total of three hundred and sixty-eight years of lifespan. With this much lifespan, along with his nice store of lifestones, he could directly complete his fourth mana circuit. However, Lily had brought up a very salient point — something like a tribulation would fall upon him the moment he became a tetra-folder.

He had to be very careful; if something happened to him here, Lily would be all alone.

“The world has lots of secrets, doesn’t it?” Claud muttered.

“What brought that up?” Lily asked.

Claud laughed. “When you think about it, doesn’t it feel that our status and all these things…they feel somewhat unnatural? I mean, the Goddess of Water apparently made it for us back in the Primordial Era or whatever, so it is unnatural, but we’ve all learned to treat it as part of our life.”

“It is rather convenient, though. Knowing when your body will give way and everything,” Lily replied. “You could prepare for that. Forestall a natural end by putting in effort. I like to think that the Goddess of Knowledge wanted to install in us the importance of effort and hard work.”

“By walking around the whole day, looking for random lifestones,” Claud replied. “What? That’s the only way you get can lifestones for free now. The mines are always controlled by bigshots, and the shops sell them for exorbitant prices.”

“Earn time by wasting time, huh.” Lily had a sad expression. “I wonder what the goddess would think if she knew the state of things today.”

“She’ll be disappointed by the greed of humanity,” Claud replied. “A bunch of people monopolising lifestones for wealth…fortunately for everyone, she’s long dead. I mean, if someone were to abuse my legacy for nasty purposes, I might just throw a tantrum and destroy everything.”

“That would be bad.”

“Yes, to put it mildly,” Claud replied. “Man, my head’s tired. I don’t want to look at all these things. I just want to lie down.”

“You could examine everything else tomorrow if you want to,” said Lily. “And I agree that you should take a long rest. Today has been a really crazy day. You killed a Moon Emissary and the Fourteenth, then someone killed the Fifth…oh, and you made a mistake and left the sovereignty on a one-way trip with me.”

Claud flipped over and buried his face into the pillow.

“Sorry,” Claud replied, his voice muffled.

“It’s alright. Everyone, even someone as meticulous as you, makes mistakes sometimes,” said Lily. “And besides, it’s a real holiday for us now. No more annoying things happening in town. We can now explore new things!”

“Like Celestia, yeah.” Claud shifted his position. “I’ve always wanted to explore it, ever since I heard some guy in Lostfon got rich from it.”

“Once we get an identity, we’ll head to Lostfon and check it out,” Lily replied. “Shouldn’t take us too long, right? We’ll look for nice things and then sell them for good money.”

Claud licked his lips. Now that he and Lily had left the Istrel Sovereignty, there were a lot of things he could do. The Thief of Time moniker couldn’t be attached to him here any longer; everyone knew that Tot operated in what used to be Umbra. Claud could hold his head up high and start filching lifestones for Lily now.

It would be a bit hard, but no one would expect a tri-folder thief. And if something bad really happened, Absolute One would solve these problems easily. Even the Moon Emissary couldn’t stand against a full-powered blast; tri-folders were definitely going—

Claud shook his head. “I’m growing arrogant again.”

“Arrogant?” Lily asked.

“Yeah. Just moments ago, I was under the delusion that I could solve any and all enemies by turning them into ash,” Claud replied. “That world-destroying lance of light…but I can’t do that all the time, right? I’ll end up killing innocents or something. And everyone would immediately…”

“Know that Tot is here,” Lily completed his sentence. “What? Come on, there’s too many coincidences. I believe you can survive ritual magic. There’s no proof to the contrary.”

“Alright, I’m sorry.” Claud gave up. “I didn’t mean to lie to you, okay? Yes, you saw it for yourself. I’m him, okay?”

Lily did a cute fist pump. “I’ll make sure to seal this memory away, though. Don’t you go telling anyone else! It’s our secret! Two people!”

“Yes, yes.” Claud rubbed her head, before yawning. “I’m sleepy.”

“Let’s go to bed, then. I demand my fair share of the blanket!”

“Yes, yes. Whatever you say, okay?”

Covering their heads with the blanket, Claud closed his eyes and let sleep claim him.