After promising to visit the guard’s little baby boy someday, the three of them were ushered into the main throne room of the Nightfall Palace. It was rarely used, since Nightfall wasn’t someone who liked ostentatious bullcrap in his own home.

“He likes to show off outside, though,” Caroline noted, who was currently entertaining them in the waiting room outside.

“What are they talking about?” Risti asked, nudging her chin at the opulent double doors that was the mainstay of any respectable throne room.

“Countermeasures for the Red God’s familiar spirit,” Caroline replied, a faint smile. “You know, all that mess that you pulled my fiancé into.”

“…Ah, okay. He pulled you into that, then.” Risti cleared her throat. “Nero apologises.”

“Why are you apologising with my name?” Nero asked.

“Uh, because we used your quotas to pull him and Dia in?” Risti rolled her eyes. “Anyway, don’t worry about it. Nothing’s going to happen, as a rule of thumb, and if something really does happen, having knowledge of it is far more important than anything else. He might be a bit paranoid for the time being, but other than that, he’ll be fine.”

“Fine, you say…” Caroline’s lips twitched. “Anyway, he is quite paranoid right now. Every night, he pours through any files about incidents regarding abnormal deaths, and he’s looking into buying artefacts that can detect abnormal mana signatures.”

“He doesn’t need to buy them. There’s already some in the city,” Nero replied.

“They were installed long ago…well, I suppose we should teach him about it, since he’s this worried,” Risti replied. “The two of us and any of the seniors have knowledge regarding this, but if he’s going to waste money, we better stop him.”

“Waste money?” Caroline laughed. “How expensive can it get?”

“You’d need a carton of pure-ranked lifestones, I suppose?” Nero muttered. “Sure, it’s not that expensive—”

A bout of rapid coughs interrupted his words, and Caroline glared at the Holy Son of the Black God. “Not that expensive? Excuse me, mister Holy Son, we are a county. It’s pretty damn expensive, alright? We’re a county, not some dukedom with lots of resources.”

Dia rubbed her nose as the Holy Son of the Black God demonstrated his utter lack of financial common sense once more. It reminded her of Holy Daughter Clarissa, who was equally profligate with her money, but there was actually one crucial difference.

The Holy Son of the Black God didn’t actually have money.

Stifling the urge to laugh, Dia watched as the others made similar connections and cast critical gazes at the shameless Holy Son, who simply shrugged off their gazes with absurd ease.

Picking up a small square biscuit, Dia nibbled at the sugar-sprinkled exterior and listened to the others talk. Gossip was the name of the game here; after a while, everyone was now sharing rumours and legends about Licencia that they had picked up.

“Did you know that there’s actually a pair of twins who can appear anywhere?” Caroline asked.

“The…Monochromatic Twins, right?” Risti asked, before glancing at Dia. “I think she met them before.”

“Saw them once,” Dia replied. “They were doodling on Farah’s face. She had been knocked out at the bar after taking a single swig from Schwarz’s super strong brews back then, and then they doodled on his face. I heard that they were locked up in prison or something too, for doodling on Nightfall’s face.”

Caroline twitched. “I don’t know about the doodling part, but they can actually appear anywhere. Back when I was solving a case with Lily and Claud — ah, yes, Zulan Patra’s murder — we had to report the case to the White Church because a Blessed died. When we went to the room with the Comms Console, the two twins popped out and fled…leaving behind a mess.”

Dia laughed. “You must have been terrified.”

Caroline nodded. “I don’t know how they got inside there. It’s crazy. Anyway, the cold room was probably what drew them there. They were apparently using the room as a resting place.”

“I wonder how they did that,” Dia muttered. There were all kinds of odd people in the world to begin with, and all sorts of skills existed too. For the twins, maybe there was some skill that allowed them to run through walls or something? Either way, it was an interesting urban legend for Licencia.

There were a few other legends that had popped up, but the next most prominent one was naturally the Thief of Time, who had vanished from public eye entirely. It was a shame, since Dia really hoped that the Thief of Time would visit the Istrel Sovereignty for a few months or something, but the fellow seemed to have vanished entirely.

It was quite unfortunate, but a nice by-product of his absence was how people had largely forgotten about a certain dukedom’s little princess.

After finishing off a few more biscuits, a heavy pressure rippled outwards from the throne room, lasting for a heartbeat before vanishing entirely.

“They’re done, it seems.” Caroline got up. “Come on, follow me.”

“Wait, we don’t get to meet the Moon Emissary?” Risti asked. “Bummer. I was hoping to see him up close.”

“He’s not a lifeform that you should be observing,” Dia replied, rolling her eyes. Risti liked birdwatching and examining exotic animals in general, so the way she phrased it could only mean that Moon Emissaries were probably exotic lifeforms too.

Now that she thought about it, Risti’s gaze towards the Moonlit toddlers were probably half-adoring and half-inquiring…making a mental note to examine Risti when they next came across a little toddler, Dia followed Caroline and the others as they walked over to the throne room. Count Nightfall, dressed up in solemn and elaborate court attire, leaned against the throne, his eyes closed.

Some formless might seemed to emanate off his unmoving figure, and Dia had to restrain the urge to step back. She had felt this a few times before, whenever Farah was talking about Farah County with pride.

What exactly was this?

She thought about it for a moment, and then shrugged. Maybe her father or brother would be able to tell her more when she returned.

Everyone watched the count in silence for a few minutes to give him some time to rest. Dia was about to get a tiny bit fidgety when he finally seemed to wake up or something, and with a jolt, he got up.

“Since when did you guys arrive?” Nightfall asked, surprise in his words.

“Some time ago. You alright? You look very exhausted,” Caroline replied. “Anyway, the three of them came here to report about the murder. It’s been solved, and the culprits have been put away.”

She paused. “I’ll handle their trial.”

“…Thank you.” Nightfall yawned. “I’ll send you guys the payment n—”

“You can pass it to us when we leave,” Risti interrupted. “Anyway, you don’t need to stress yourself out over Limbo. When I moved here, I also brought with me an artefact that can detect traces of Limbo within a hundred kilometres. I can let you use it too, and it’s the kind that you won’t need to pay attention to.”

Nightfall paused. “You have something that handy?”

“Yeah.” Risti jiggled her shoulders. “Otherwise, every noble who knows about Limbo would have gone insane. Anyway, I can lend you the artefact until I decide to settle down in another city, but that’s probably not going to happen.”

The count rubbed his hands. “I’ll rent the artefact from you. How does fifty pure-ranked lifestones per month sound?”

“That’s a reasonable price,” Risti replied.

Dia didn’t know what to make of the entire exchange, but again, these two were bigshots. On one side was the daughter of the Folder Association’s President, and on the other was a full-fledged count of a thriving territory. As for Nero…hehe.

She felt a bit out-of-place in this very luxurious line-up of bigshots, especially since she was right now in the identity of a double, rather than the real Princess Dia. That said, even the real princess didn’t have that much spending power; only her father had access to the treasury.

Letting out a sigh inwardly, Dia watched as the two concluded the deal, and the conversation shifted to their future plans.

“You guys are actually considering the frontlines?” Nightfall asked. “That’s…actually perfect, to be honest. The Moon Emissary just visited and asked if there were any competent folders that were interested in earning some free resources, and told me that I’d get three hundred lifestones and prana jades for every person I recommend. Of course, you’d be paid on your own wages too and everything.”

“Hmm.” Risti pondered. “Sure, but we want half. And we haven’t called a vote yet, so you’ll need to wait for a while.”

“Eh, sure.” Nightfall grinned. “Good news and more good news. You guys are my lucky stars. Stay for a banquet?”

“We’ll have to call the others here first,” Risti replied.

“Sure, I’ll wait…”