Farah stowed away the greatsword, her eyes fixed upon the shadowy monster, before turning away to kneel at the side of the fallen guard. She stared at the body for a moment, and then clenched her fist. Dia took in that sight in silence. Clearly, Farah was hoping that the man wasn't quite dead, but…
The countess turned to the other guards. "What happened here?"
"Milady, Countess Farah, we were on patrol when we heard someone scream, and when we came, that monster had bitten a huge chunk out of Fisher's throat," replied one of the guards, who was spotting a red armband. "We were trying to kill it, but it was too strong to be killed, so we could only drive it away from any nearby innocents."
"Mm." Farah looked at the monster. "Any idea what this monster is?"
"No, milady."
His partner nudged him. "Lui, didn't they—"
"That's just a rumour, Jack." Lui rolled his eyes. "And this is the first time we've seen this…monster. Monster dog. Or something."
"What rumour are you talking about?" Farah asked.
Lui glared at his friend, as if to say 'We just wasted the countess' time, happy?', before turning back to Farah. "Reporting to milady, it is said that ever since New Moon, some people have heard monstrous howls and cries within the darkness. Animals turned feral, scratching and barking away in the darkness."
"In the darkness, huh?" Farah turned to look at the deep darkness, worry in her eyes. "I see."
"It's a preposterous rumour," Lui replied, "but I suppose the darkness does make people more scared. There is nothing to—"
A bloodcurdling howl came from the darkness, and he shook like a leaf.
"Acting all mysterious!" Farah raised her greatsword and hefted it above her shoulder. "Guards, to me! Bring torches along and move in groups! We'll show them what we do to monsters!"
A cheer rang out, and the city guards assembled in front of Farah, who had jumped onto the roof of an emptied stall. "People, my apologies, but today's celebration ends here! However, my staff will be preparing a nice meal in my palace — everyone is invited! Stay inside, keep a lookout, and be careful at all times! We'll handle those monsters!"
The crowd tittered in chirps of what sounded like agreement, and then marched into the palace in orderly lines. At the same time, Farah began to split up the assembled guards into groups of four, before handing over command to the guard officer.
"You're not taking command?"
"Let the professional do it," Farah replied, fire blazing in her eyes. "I'm going to hack through every last one of those damned monsters, before they do too much damage."
"Your territory is too big to properly defend, though," Dia pointed out. "No city walls, nothing."
"Yeah, well, I didn't expect that there would be monsters showing up here," Farah replied. "The guards do regular sweeps of the place, so it's almost inconceivable that monsters actually popped up inside the territory itself. It must have crossed over from somewhere else."
"Or maybe," said Dia, "it's the darkness."
Her voice was quiet enough that only Farah could hear it, but the twitch the countess gave in response was more than enough for Dia to know that she was indeed thinking that the rumour actually had some relevance to this incident. Considering the shadowy, misty motif that the monster had been sporting, even the most unobservant of people would think that it had some connection with the all-pervasive darkness that had descended recently.
"Yeah, I know," Farah replied. "I'm…going to have to relocate everyone or something. What a pain."
"Do they fear light?" Dia asked, glancing the corpse that was being hauled away.
"We'll need to find out. After all, no one was focusing on the lighting when they were dealing with the monster," Farah replied. "We'll need to institute a lighting policy if there's such a weakness."
"And don't go out at night."
"Preferably that. Lock the doors and make sure the walls are sturdy too." Farah's lip twitched. "Lucky me. I came back with a few thousand gold. Surely we can do something about my people's homes."
"Where did you get all that money from?"
"Well, I sold off a few mid-ranked lifestones," Farah replied. "Schwarz gave them to me and told me to sell them."
"And you accepted?"
"No, he wanted to buy my analysis of the market for the next two months," Farah replied. "Since I won't be in Licencia for some time, Schwarz got worried and wanted me to do two months' work in advance."
Dia tilted her head. She wasn't quite sure if Schwarz was just making use of any excuse to give her some charity, but either way, Dia felt a bit bad that she hadn't thought of it on her own part. "I see."
"Right? I'm lucky I put in some real good work," Farah replied. "Analysis of the markets usually become fairly inaccurate after a week, but Schwarz said he believed in the abilities I had displayed so far. Hard work really is the best."
"Agreed," Dia replied. "Anyway, you go back and do something about your people. I'm heading out too."
"Alone?"
"Yeah. It'll be great if we can get a few more monster corpses to dissect," Dia replied. "Don't worry about me; it'll take five Farahs to defeat me."
"…Am I the smallest unit for combat ability now?" The countess flicked Dia's forehead. "Go on then, you shameless poseur."
"Oh, now you're piling on the insults, huh?" Dia grinned. Over the past few days, Farah had slowly dropped the semi-polite demeanour she usually had when interacting to anyone that wasn't Claud or Schwarz, although Dia had a feeling that she didn't use such an attitude for another reason altogether. Either way, however, it was proof that she was now treating Dia not just as the princess' double, but also as a person in her own right…
Which, when Dia considered it rationally, made absolutely no sense at all.
"Yeah, what of it?" Farah patted her shoulder, and the smiley expression on her face vanished. "Anyway, stay safe out there. Thank you for offering to help too."
"Well, it'll be best if there's a mana-user ready to provide aid, right?" Dia asked. "It'll prevent needless injuries, at the very least. Now go. Your people are getting worried, and I don't need people envious at how I can talk to their beloved Countess Farah so freely."
Dodging a light smack, Dia rolled her eyes at Farah and held out her hand. "Get me a light source."
"Is a lantern good enough?"
"That's plenty," Dia replied.
Taking a nice little lantern, which was decorated with a nice portrait of Farah, Dia followed the trail of the guards that had been dispatched into the darkness. Other than searching for any monster that might have been in the darkness, these guards were also setting up impromptu lamp posts at regular intervals, lighting up the vicinity of the palace.
Those lanterns themselves were made of glowstone; the people in charge of the city guards were guarded against the possibility of starting a fire. However, even though they were nice and bright, these glowstones did not emit any hit whatsoever, which meant that Dia was shivering slightly as she followed the guards ahead.
Without a roaring fire by her side, the cold light of those glowstones just added to the eeriness of the scene. Back at the little impromptu festival earlier, the torches and flames had heated up the atmosphere, but here…
"Be careful!"
"Don't stray too far from your buddies! You don't know where another monster might just strike!"
Shouts like this rang through the ankle-high fields as Dia stepped into them. This was a place where nasty critters could hide easily, and as she followed a small part, Dia found herself wishing that she had worn some armour on her legs.
To her displeasure, Dia found herself slowing down as she continued walking down the path; her mind was warning her to watch where she stepped on. It was one of the disadvantages of being in a combat state, and Dia didn't want to numb herself to such issues by forcibly ignoring them.
As a result, she was now trailing far behind.
"Great," Dia muttered. "How am I to provide support when I'm worried about my ankles?"
A monster growled behind her, answering Dia's question.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Dia muttered, dropping the lantern as she turned around. "Is today a bad day for me?"
A bear-like monster, clad in shadow, bared its teeth at her, its claws glinting with the promise of murder under the cold lights. Standing only on its two hind legs, the bear drew its front paws back, ready to lash out at a moment's notice. Clearly, the bear-like monster had seen it fit to attack her, since she was ostensibly the slowest person out of the search party, which by extension probably meant that she was the weakest.
As a deafening roar split the night, Dia drew her blade. Reinforcements were on their way, but Dia didn't quite need help for this particular enemy.
Measuring the opponent, Dia licked her lips. "Here I go, then."
The world turned into a blur at those words.