Night had fallen by the time Claud recovered from his pounding headache. Lily, on the other hand, had been afflicted by a bad case of sore hands, which had given her the quality of teary eyes when she looked at him.

“There, there.” Claud blew on her hands and massaged them slowly. While mana-folders were stronger and tougher in general, there were some things that could never grow any stronger, like one’s tendons and joints. In fact, legend had it that a tetra-folder had retired from active fights after taking an arrow to the knee, so everyone had a tendency to be cautious against attacks targeted at this weak point.

For some odd reason, the outlines of Lily’s eyes had turned into blurry, wavy lines, which made him feel bad. Maybe it was his conception of the situation before him or something, but he couldn’t help but rub her cheeks too, and—

“Damn it, you’re too adorable.”

After pampering her for a bit, Claud took a deep breath. Now that he had recovered full control of himself, he recognised that there were some things he could never redo. Therefore, to dwell on them unnecessarily was pointless. What he needed to do was to apply the lessons he’d learned and face whatever came next in stride.

“Claud?” A set of cool hands rubbed his cheeks, and he laughed.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Claud tweaked Lily’s nose. “Let’s go down for some dinner. I feel a bit better, and I feel extra-hungry too. Maybe it’s because I’m recovering from that nasty headache.”

“Should we get the old man to send food up instead?” Lily asked.

“It’s fine. Let’s go down. We can read the news while we’re at it too,” said Claud. “Do you think the little babies are still milling around the area?”

“Probably,” Lily replied. “I’ll bring some sweets with me.”

Claud laughed. “Sure. It’ll be interesting, to say the least.”

The two of them rolled off the bed, Claud making sure to pose dramatically at the end, before leaving the room. To his disappointment, however, the little toddlers had vanished entirely, but there was nothing he could do about it unless he intended to snatch one of them and turn the little guy into the object of their affections.

For obvious reasons, that was a very bad idea.

“Lord and Lady Primus!” The innkeeper beamed as the two of them approached the counter. “Let me guess. Two dinner specials, right? And apple juice?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” said Lily.

“Is your husband fine now? He looked really out of it when you two returned to your room in the afternoon,” said the innkeeper.

“I’m fine,” said Claud. “Didn’t feel that well earlier and everything. That’s all.”

“Alright. You have to watch your health here. The apothecary fled with the others, so there’s no way you’re going to get stitched up,” said the old man. “And as for the military doctors…best not to rely on them. They’re providers of battlefield remedies, which means that long-term results aren’t their concern.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lily asked, curiosity evident in her words.

“They’ll pee on someone’s wound if need be,” the old man replied. “Especially if there’s no water available to wash their wounds.”

Lily’s face took on an interesting colour a moment later, and the urge to throw up infused Claud’s mind. His appetite, which had been roaring and demanding for a sacrifice, fell silent, as if someone had dumped some pee into its mouth.

“Do you know I feel like cancelling that order now?” Lily muttered.

“Totally didn’t need to know such details.” Claud shivered. “Pee on my wound…yikes. Doubly so.”

The two exchanged grossed-out glances. Possession of such knowledge would definitely affect his perception of soldiers on a fundamental level; Claud had a feeling that from now on, whenever he laid eyes on a soldier, a part of him would wonder if someone had washed his or her wound with a generous helping of yellow, stinking water.

It wasn’t a nice mental image by any means, but reality liked to make people recall the more disgusting bits of life over and over again.

“Were you a soldier?” Lily asked, after a minute or two.

“Used to be, yes,” said the old man. “Then I took an arrow to my elbow, so I became an innkeeper.”

Claud and Lily observed his elbows slowly. One of them looked deformed; something had smashed into it and it never healed well.

“So, was that the elbow that a military doctor peed on?” Claud asked. “It does look bad, yes. But isn’t it more of the injury caused by the arrow itself? Pee shouldn’t be an issue, right?”

The innkeeper laughed. “Sometimes, at night, I can still smell the stale, musty scent of that dehydrated ass of a doctor. Maybe it’s my imagination. I hope it’s my imagination. But you know…maybe a bit of it seeped into my wound and never got out ever since.”

Claud and Lily swore once and stormed over to the table, leaving behind an innkeeper roaring with laughter. Unfortunately, before they could stew in their anger for more than three minutes, the grinning old man had called them back to take their food, and as Claud supported two trays with his mana, his nose couldn’t help but pick up a transient, foul odour.

From how it vanished a moment later, Claud had a feeling that it was his imagination…but was it really his imagination?

“What’s wrong?” Lily asked.

Claud immediately resolved to never talk about it. For one, it was almost certainly his imagination screwing his perception over, and more importantly, it would definitely throw a second damper on Lily’s appetite. Lily had thousands of good points, but whenever she got hungry while asleep, she would nibble his arm.

Sure, it felt good whenever Claud was lucky enough to be awakened by her adorable nibbling, but in the morning, her jaws would hurt, so…

“Just thinking about how much food the inn has left,” Claud waffled. “The inn might not have much left, right?”

“We should indeed ration our food.” Lily sniffed at the dinner special, which was boneless chicken with black pepper sauce and potato slices. “Wait, forget I said that.”

Claud rolled his eyes at her, before working on his food. The old man had at least thoughtfully left the newspaper nearby, which they would look through after their dinner.

Flavour burst in his mouth like one of Lily’s crackling sweets, and Claud found himself enthralled by the flavourful sauce that had covered the grilled chicken slab. The potato slices were no slouch either; they were taking in the sauce the way a mana-user would take in mana, brimming with mildly spicy goodness the way he liked it.

Picking up another potato slice, Claud was about to toss it into his mouth when his senses tingled. He could vaguely sense a thick globule of mana approaching the inn; while high in mana circuits, the owner probably didn’t have much in the way of Mana Control Proficiency.

Lily looked at him, her eyes equally concerned. After all, the approaching fellow was a tri-folder, and neither of them were in the business of underestimating anyone else.

The mana source approached the inn a few seconds later, and Claud froze.

Count Lostfon.

The blue hair that seemed to be a hereditary indicator of his family danced merrily in the wind, although Claud had seen quite a lot of cases for blue hair. For some reason, however, the stately demeanour he had when they first met had been whittled away; Count Lostfon now looked a bit like a certain someone begging a certain bartender for drinks.

“He looks a bit like Nero now,” Lily observed.

Truly, great minds thought alike. Stifling a giggle, Claud watched on in rapt attention as the count swaggered over the counter, thumped it once, and then took out a bunch of notes. In response, the old man pulled a long face, explained a few things, and then shook his head.

As for the content…

“Hmm. Didn’t think Caroline was a heavy drinker, though.” Lily folded her arms. “Maybe it runs only in the male line of the family?”

“Possible, but I’m sure everyone enjoys a good drink here and there. I know one thing, though.” Claud grinned.

“One thing?” Lily echoed. “What is it, my dear Claud?”

“That if Count Lostfon ever drank Schwarz’s brews, he would never ever touch any other alcohol again, unless he has absolutely no choice in the matter.”

“You two are really close friends, aren’t you?” Lily smiled. “Yeah, I believe that too. It’s a shame that they’re in two different sovereignties, really. At most, we can get her to send a crate of his brews when all this blows over…”

Claud wanted to compliment her on that excellent, nasty idea, but before he could open his mouth, Count Lostfon noticed the two of them.

“Sir and Lady Primus!” Count Lostfon walked over to the two of them. “Fancy meeting you here!”

“C-count Lostfon.” Claud nodded at him once. “You look like you’re under the weather. Here for a drink?”

“Why yes. Of course.” The count sighed. “I’m actually a bit troubled, but Sudden Inspiration told me to come here at this point of time. It seems that there’s a reason.”

Claud felt his lips twitch. Clearly, Caroline had learned quite a few things from her father…