The feast started, and amid the lavish food, Count Nightfall started to talk about his time in Ruler Istrel's encampment. Dia, who knew quite a few things, felt her ears twitch as Count Nightfall started to complain about his time in the gathered army, along with other things like the lack of penta-folders in the Istrel Dukedom, which was also slated for a name change too.
"Ruler Istrel and Duke Istrel — his first son — are fairly skilled combatants, but they can't do anything else." Count Nightfall picked up a glass of wine and chugged it down. "Their adjutant told us — me, Daybreak and the little barons — to put on armour and come down to the training field in ten minutes, fully armed. Guess what? We ended up waiting for two hours. Sitting there, looking up at the blue sky…"
He pushed his cup to a servant, who promptly refilled it. After taking another swig, he said, "Rush to wait, and wait to rush. This is not how an army should be run. Troops shouldn't rush to the frontlines, and nor should they wait at a theatre for too long. Thirty minutes is the maximum."
Count Nightfall sighed. "And then the two Istrels didn't even know what to do when the other dukedoms revealed their trump cards. Are they dumb? They should have guessed or something."
As the count groused on and on, Dia couldn't help but feel that the count had dropped all formalities with them. In fact, the way he talked to the Moon Lords were no different from how Caroline did it — other than showing that couples were quite similar in temperament, it also showed that he agreed with Caroline's assessment of the Moon Lords as trusty partners.
To be fair, if they weren't trusty partners after so much turmoil, Dia would have felt a bit depressed.
"Right, I must thank you guys. Not as the ruler of this city, but as friends." Count Nightfall smiled. "Caroline has gotten used to Licencia, thanks to everyone present…hmm. Two people are missing."
"You…didn't realise?" Caroline asked.
The count cleared his throat. "Well, I was busy ranting. My apologises. And you are…"
His gaze was directed at Nero, who was sampling some wine too. At that question, Nero jumped, and then cleared his throat. "I'm Nero, the Holy Son of the Black Church."
"Oh, yes. Caroline mentioned the incident with the Third Bearer of Destiny." The light in his eyes flickered. "I hear you're staying with the Moon Lords now?"
"As a member or something, I guess. Claud likes to say that I'm their final trump card against the Moon Emissaries." Nero grinned.
"Yes, indeed. Still, initial intelligence suggests that these Moon Emissaries are far stronger than you and me," said Nightfall. "It'll take you, me and Caroline to take down the strongest of the Moon Emissaries that showed up…but fortunately, we haven't had the need to yet."
Everyone nodded.
"Right. This is not the time to be talking about problematic things. Eat up, everyone! Drink to your hearts' content. Schwarz, I'm going down to your bar later, so you better open it after we're done with the vault."
"I'll bring out some new creations for you to try, then."
"Then I'm coming along too," Nero added.
As the three men started talking about drinks, Dia moved onto the rest of the feast. Within minutes, she had scoffed down quite a few nice-tasting morsels — the food here had to be well-made, after all. Although some parts might have been lacking compared to the Lustre palace cooks, she hadn't eaten luxury food even since her escape, so Dia didn't hold back.
The same went for Risti, who had lived in the capital before. From the speed of her devouring — which was comparable to Dia's own — Dia could tell that she too had missed good food, and a small alarm bell rang in her head. If she didn't pay attention, Risti would probably finish off half the food on the table herself. Farah, on the other hand, was more interested in tasting the intricacies behind the luxurious dishes, and as for Caroline…
Well, she was just watching Dia and Risti in horror, as they cleared up plate after plate. After watching Risti finish an entire plate of prawns on her own, she gritted her teeth and started eating too, which meant that by the time Schwarz and the others were done talking, most of the dishes were finished.
"Eh?" Count Nightfall looked at the dishes. "Where's my food?"
Dia, who was placing the last piece of lemon-flavoured chicken in her mouth, immediately swallowed down that morsel without spending the usual half-second to savour it. At the same time, Risti lowered her utensils subtly, distancing herself from her meal. Farah, who was still chewing slowly, hadn't noticed his exclamation, but Nightfall's gaze ignored her anyway.
"Wait," said Nero, "did we eat while talking?"
The three men stared at their plates, which were clean, and then tilted their heads. Caroline, fortunately, came in at that moment and said, "Three of us really ate quickly, huh? I was watching the whole thing…we'll just bring out seconds."
Clapping her hands once, servants soon poured out to add some dishes. Unfortunately, they didn't bring out a lot this time around, and Dia's skin wasn't thick enough to continue eating under Caroline's gaze.
Before long, the feast ended, and Count Nightfall got up, letting out a hearty laugh at the same time. "Come, friends, follow me. I have treasures to give out. They're not useful to me, a noble who runs a city, but to my treasured companions and colleagues, I'm sure they'll be of use."
Dia's ears twitched.
"That's too polite of you," Schwarz hurriedly replied.
"They don't come with obligations," Count Nightfall replied. "Rather, think of them as ways to preserve your life. In recent months, I've realised that the world is becoming more dangerous. I have some life-preserving trinklets that one-folders and bi-folders will find really useful. Please, don't turn me down."
With those words, he ushered everyone out of the room. After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at a thick, black door. The metallic sheen on it radiated strength and sturdiness, and Dia had a feeling that she would have to spend a few hours to cut it down normally, but there were a few obvious weak points on it.
The hinges and the knob didn't look particularly sturdy to her, for one. If she struck at them…
Wait, why would I do that? Rolling her eyes, she held her breath as the count walked over to the door and gripped the knob. Mana pulsed out from him, and thousands of azure lines appeared on the gigantic, near-featureless door.
With a groan, the door swung open, revealing a black maw. Before they could do anything else, however, two children burst out of the door with happy, playful screams, zipping past everyone present in three seconds.
"What the heck?" Nero asked. "Count Nightfall, you keep children in there?"
"No, of course not!" The count scratched his head. "How did they get in there? That's ridiculous! Who are they, anyway!"
"They look familiar," Caroline muttered. "Oh! Claud told me about this before! When we were contacting the White Church about Zulan Patra's death, these kids burst out of the room that contained the Comms Console! I think they're called the Mono-something Twins."
"The Monochromatic Twins?" Schwarz blinked. "They've been here the whole time. No wonder they didn't plague my bar."
"Guards, guards!" Count Nightfall called out, and as they assembled in front of him, he ordered, "Go and capture those Monochromatic Twins! Two children! They should still be in the palace grounds!"
He held his head as the guards scuttled off. "Those kids are scary!"
Clearing his throat, he stepped across the threshold of the room, causing azure lines to flare up through the floor. The treasury lit up a moment later, revealing a room full of treasures…and a corner with lots of rubbish. Clearly, the Monochromatic Twins had been living in this place, but…
"How did they go in and out?" Nightfall muttered, before calling over a servant to clean up the room.
Dia took this chance to look around. Like her father's treasury, the items here had been placed into many, many shelves, divided according to categories. Gold, silver and other precious metals took up the eastern shelves, while all kinds of weapons were placed on the west. The north, however, had both lifestones and artefacts.
"Come over." The count pointed at the northern shelves. "The artefacts here are specialised in defences."
"Defences?" Schwarz asked, his expression weird.
"Yeah." The count picked up a small helmet. "When I was out in the field, I could distinctively feel so many ways to die. I realised that my performance was affected due to that awareness, and I rectified that flaw by buying many defensive artefacts."
He clapped his hands once, and a servant pulled a small chest into the vault. "After that, I realised that my people should be equipped with peace of mind too. Therefore, and as thanks for your aid, everyone here is free to take defensive artefacts from both the vault and this chest here, until you're satisfied."
He guffawed. "From now on, you guys will walk the streets with no fear!"
Dia liked the sound of that.