As the circle of light faded, the first thought that Dia had was that even the Moons and their Emissaries could be predicted, to a certain degree. A look around her immediate vicinity directly confirmed this hunch; the carts and their backpacks had been brought along too, which meant that they had traversed over vast distances that took them days of trekking to cover in a single moment.

“Whew.” Schwarz looked around. “It’s a bit darker here too…but anyway, it seems that we’re back, aren’t we?”

“Correct.” The Lunar Lord glittered. “I will transport everyone to the frontlines eighteen hours from now on the dot, no matter what you may be doing. There is no need to gather here; the teleportation will trigger immediately.”

“You said it,” Schwarz replied.

The Lunar Lord tilted her head curiously, but she didn’t comment on Schwarz’s ominous words. Instead, she nodded her head once and said, “Good luck on the battlefield.”

Turning into a streak of light, she hurtled skywards and vanished in an instant.

“Well, I suppose…we managed to read the Moons like a book, huh?” Risti chuckled. “To think that we actually got free stuff and a trip back home like this. No matter how you cut it, this is definitely really important, isn’t it? Anyway, let’s go back and prepare for the departure.”

Schwarz’s expression flickered once as he glanced down at some weird, flat artefact in his hand. The bartender looked at that occasionally while they were mining; it seemed like a new way of reading books or something, in Dia’s opinion.

Which was handy, but whatever.

His serious expression turned into a grin a moment later, and he said, “Anyway, we’re all going to stay in Moon Mansion today. No one is to leave it.”

“Hmm?” A few question marks popped up on Dia’s head, but she didn’t think too hard about Schwarz’s words. The bartender probably just wanted to show off his new brews or have a little party — the last one they would have here for a reasonably long time — before they departed for the front lines. Either way, she wasn’t going to turn down the implicit promise of free drink and food by Schwarz, but…

“Don’t we need to handle some stuff here?” Dia asked. “All the administrative bits…”

“There’s no need to worry about that,” Farah replied. “We’ll just tell our people to maintain the current arrangements until further instructions come in. It’s just our trip out, but maybe it’ll last a year or two.”

“A year or two, huh?” Risti nodded. “That sounds way too optimistic. The Godsfalls lasted for decades, centuries, even millennia. They are…an era of their own.”

“That’s a freaking long time.” Farah had a sad face. “I wonder if my territory is going to be affected.”

“Well, it’s not a strong one. That’s why no Moon Emissaries came down there to begin with. At best, there’ll be more oddly coloured fellows coming over to buy some Moonwheat or something,” Risti replied. “Of course, Farah County is an agricultural province, so I would argue that there’s going to be some people protecting it.”

“Wouldn’t that fact make it a target?” Farah asked.

“But who does attacking Sunrise and Farah County affect?” Risti replied. “It’s us. Humans who eat. I believe that the Moons and the Dark know that they cannot alienate us, the little humans who scuttle around here. Why would they antagonise us? If the Dark attacks more humans than is necessary, the Moons can spin that to their advantage. The same vice-versa too.”

“So they’re safe…”

“As long as they don’t go stupid stuff, like us,” Risti replied. “Not like we had a choice in the matter, though. We don’t go, we’ll probably die a sad death somewhere down the road. Damn it. If the Dark hadn’t expended all this energy, how could the Moons have the breathing room to start recruiting seriously?”

“Does that even make sense?” Dia asked.

“I don’t know, it’s what Nero’s peeved about. I’m just citing him.”

The Holy Son of the Black God turned to look at them. “Did you guys call my name?”

“Nah, it’s nothing much,” Risti replied. “Anyway, let’s stop standing around here and go back home already. We do need to prepare our luggage and everything, after all.”

A round of grunts followed, and the five of them headed towards the city gates. The guards, who had already spotted them teleporting in, were already assessing them and preparing for any nasty incidents, but it would seem that there was an eagle-eyed fellow amongst their ranks.

“Ah, you guys are back!” Captain Blake, who had previously liaised with Claud and Lily, popped out of the garrison and waved at Dia. They had interacted quite a few times, since Dia had taken over the idiot couple’s role when they left for a oddly-timed honeymoon.

“Yes, it’s us. Sorry to disturb you…but it’s late at night, though.”

“Guard captains have a very shitty role in life,” Blake replied. “Is that your hauls from the trip outside?”

Dia nodded. “Mostly mana-user stuff.”

“Okay. Still, I gotta check them for dangerous stuff, so please do comply,” Blake replied. “This way, please.”

Dia glanced at the others, who obediently followed Captain Blake’s instructions. The inspection was rather simple too; it simply entailed the guards waving a bunch of sticks around and everything.

“Still, what are they scanning for anyway?” Risti asked, curious.

“Oh, mostly blood and other things stained with lifeforce,” Dia replied. “After the blood sacrifices in Licencia, the ones that apparently tried to summon a Moon Emissary, there was some protocol about detecting those things.”

“Can’t say they were wrong,” Nero replied. “I mean, remember that person? He tried to conduct a bloody ritual too, and that nearly killed a whole bunch of people.”

Dia, who knew that Nero was referring to Holy Son Mendas, nodded in agreement. Of course, it was possible that these artefacts were also capable of detecting lifeforms from Limbo, although…

She shook her head. Right now, there were more important things to take care of. Fortunately, the complaining guard captain, whose hairline looked like it wanted to go on a permanent retreat, quickly settled the inspections and waved them into the city.

“Poor guy,” Farah noted.

“Well, he does seem stressed out,” Schwarz replied. “Did you know Claud actually wanted him to work at my bar? If Captain Blake wasn’t promoted to the position of guard captain, he would be shaking up drinks and listening to jilted people complaining about their romances. Imagine that.”

“At this rate, he’s going to be one of those people who’s going to your bar to moan about his work all day long, though,” Dia pointed out. “By the way, do you have any drinks that can help his receding hairline?”

“Do I look like an alchemist or something?” Schwarz asked.

“Isn’t there an alchemist in the Profiteers?” Dia asked. “Why not just ask her?”

“Are you referring to Pheles? That old crone travels all over the place. And there’s nothing particularly interesting about Captain Blake. At most, she’ll give him a potion that would help him stay up all night,” Schwarz replied. “She does have quite the repertoire, though, but you’ll need to be interesting enough to buy things from her. If you’re too boring? No luck.”

“What a roundabout way of saying that Captain Blake is boring,” Nero noted.

“One more word outta you, and no drinks,” Schwarz replied.

“Sorry, boss.”

“Excellent.” Schwarz nodded to himself, presumably pleased at how he got a penta-folder and the Holy Son of the Black God to listen to his every word. It was impressive how the bartender had gotten Nero hooked on his drinks — last Dia checked, the drinks weren’t particularly addictive, and the alcohol inside could knock out a monster or something. What Nero saw in them was going to be a perpetual mystery.

They had left for more than a month, but the changes…well, there weren’t that many changes. Presumably, the populace’s nightlife habits had reverted to normal a few days after the Moons descended, seeing as how nothing major had apparently happened after that tumultuous event.

“As lively as ever, huh?” Dia looked at the innumerable little stalls that were spaced out evenly. Guards patrolled the streets with a regular cadence, accepting little snacks once in a while from the nearby vendors, while pedestrians just…did whatever they were doing.

Dia really didn’t get the nightlife.

“Sure is. Fortunately, there are people who are working the bar right now. I’m not going to show my face there. My patrons will be peeved if I show up only for one day and then live. Better that they didn’t know about my return to begin with.”

“True,” Farah noted. “I get the feeling that if they found out that you were been conscripted to the frontlines, a whole bunch of alcoholics would group up together and declare their own war on the Moons to get you back. At the end of it all, they’ll break into the Moons’ stronghold, hold out a piece of paper and force them to release you.”

“We won’t be included in that number, probably,” Risti added.

Dia nodded. “Lucky you, I suppose?”

“…I wish I can say that such a thing won’t happen, but…” Schwarz chuckled awkwardly. “A-anyway, let’s hurry up. I want to sleep.”

That was definitely an excuse to do something else, but considering all that teasing the three of them did, the bartender definitely deserved it.

Before they knew it, their little party had arrived at Moon Mansion, and without any ceremony, everyone dumped the carts in the small yard outside the house proper, before heading in with groans and other weird noises.

There wasn’t much time for them to relax, though.