Thief of Time

“What’s going on?” Lily asked.

“The spellhounds have picked up Tot’s scent,” Dia replied immediately. “It seems like they…followed his trail here.”

Her ears continued to twitch. Spellhounds were creatures that held great importance to people with shady jobs and bounty hunters; being able to interpret their barks correctly would help anyone a great deal. Matching those barks she heard with her newly-obtained knowledge, she continued with the interpretation.

[You have met the requirements to learn ‘Animal Speech’. Learn it?]

“Apparently, Tot actually entered the inn for a day or so,” she added, ignoring the intrusive prompt. “And then the trail abruptly vanished.”

“As expected of a Named’s daughter,” said Countess Farah. “I still can’t understand what those barks mean.”

You mean, as expected of an Experiential Potion…right, I should find some time and bring them over to that, uh, boutique. Maybe they might want to buy other Experiential Potions there too. Making a mental note about that bit, Dia followed the countess outside, where a whole bunch of spellhounds were pawing at the ground.

The other mana-users in the inn had also filed out, creating a rather modest crowd that stared back at the company of soldiers.

“Stand in a line and don’t move,” said the soldier at the very front. The uniform of her right sleeve was decorated with a white flower — the rank of a lieutenant. “Any attempts to flee will be dealt with harshly.”

A blue-haired mana-user stepped out, his eyes alight with an arrogant blaze. “With just a bunch of normal people? I could crush the whole lot of you here with my pinky alone.”

“You could,” acknowledged the soldier, “but you’ll be hunted down by those behind me. I suggest that you restrain your arrogance and let my men do their investigations.”

The two people locked eyes for a moment, and the mana-user snorted. “Fine. I’ll treat this as giving Duke Istrel some face. Tell him that I’ll be going over to ransack his wine cellar after this.”

“Very well. You are…”

“Edgeless Night, Hulid,” the man replied. “Bi-folder. Remember this name: I’ll be dropping by to pick out some fine wine at the Duke’s treasure house afterwards.”

Dia’s lips twitched. She’d seen less arrogant and more unassuming tri-folders than this man.

“I shall convey your message, then,” said the soldier.

“How hardworking. And you’re quite a looker too,” Hulid muttered. “Care to join me for dinner tonight?”

“I’m afraid not. There’s a thief to be caught, after all,” the soldier replied humourlessly. Turning away to face her subordinates, she said, “Let the spellhounds loose.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The sea of blue dogs was released from their leashes immediately. Most of them immediately surrounded the inn, sniffing around it, while a few of them broke off into the town. None of the soldiers made a move to stop them, but before Dia could see where those spellhounds ran off to, something sniffed at her hands.

She took a few steps back immediately, which was a cue for the spellhound sniffing her to advance. Before it could pounce on her, however, Countess Farah had walked up to it.

“Aren’t you a little cutie, hmm? Paw!”

She held out her hand, and the spellhound touched it with its own. There was something rather spectacular about how a dog half her size was acting like a puppy, but Dia was more focused on trying to curb her instinct to gut the animal. Taking a few deep breaths, she stepped away from the spellhound slowly, backing up against the wall of the inn.

“Isolde, something wrong?” Lily asked. “Isolde?”

“Hmm?” Dia glanced at her. “Oh, it’s just that I’m not good with animals. I get the feeling that they’ll bite me when I get close.”

“Well then, just stand behind Farah next time. She looks like a natural at this,” said Lily.

The countess raised a thumbs-up at those words, before returning to playing with the spellhound.

Dia shook her head. The spellhounds didn’t seem scary at first glance…unless you were their target. Right now, most of them were sniffing around, and rather than growling, they made little mewling noises that reminded her of cats.

“Why did I treat them as an enemy earlier?” Dia muttered under her breath.

“Did you say something?” Risti asked.

“It’s nothing important,” Dia replied, making sure to keep her guard up against Risti. Despite her seemingly-harmless exterior — Risti was disguised as her, after all — Dia couldn’t forget about how Risti somehow managed to dig out some very private information on her. If not for her poker face, well trained from years of court life, Dia was sure that a look of disgust would emerge on her face whenever she looked at Risti.

“Alright.”

The spellhounds continued to mewl as they prowled around the inn.

“It’s a bit off-putting, though,” Lily muttered. “Huge dog-like creatures that mewl so sweetly. When on such a large scale, it’s a tad hard to digest.”

“True,” said Risti. “One would expect fearsome growls and barks, right? Instead, we get a whole bunch of kittens mewling. It’s really unexpected, even if you knew that spellhounds mewl like cats.”

“Don’t be fooled by their cute sounds,” Countess Farah warned, standing up. “When pursuing their enemies, they don’t show mercy. Even if they mewl cutely while they’re at it.”

“Yeah,” Dia said. “The two of you don’t seem to know about spellhounds, but they can put up a good fight for one-folders…alone.”

“While making cute mewling sounds,” Farah added.

“You seem particularly hung up on that part,” said Lily.

“You’ll be too, if you had to fight spellhounds as a teenager. The amount of money my dad paid to heal me was enough to buy a barony a few times over. Unfortunately, no amount of money was enough to heal my mental trauma.” She shook her head. “For a few years after that, I would tremble and shift into a combat stance whenever a cat mewled. I got over it eventually, and these guys are cute…in a sense.”

Farah turned to Dia. “Anyway, you…seem to have a similar experience.”

Yeah, if you count instincts that were instilled in me from drinking that Experiential Potion. Dia nodded. “Let’s not talk about that too much. With this many spellhounds, I really feel like running away.”

“Running away, eh? What kind of training did you do to have such an instinct when faced with spellhounds?” Farah asked.

“Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape,” Risti unexpectedly said. “This course, which is usually reserved for the folders from the special forces, is the only one that uses spellhounds.”

I haven’t even come up with a cover story, and you’ve already thought one up for me? Dia sighed heavily. I guess I’ll have to thank you or something…if you didn’t add another trauma a few minutes ago.

“As expected of a Named’s daughter, I guess.” Countess Farah patted Dia’s shoulder. “Stay strong.”

“The spellhounds seem to be stumped at this point. Seems like Tot didn’t hang around here for too long, after all.” Dia cupped her ears. “That seems to be correct. The spellhounds are correcting their initial impressions now.”

“It’s nice to have someone like you,” Farah said. “What now, then?”

“We wait for the investigators to move, and then we try to pick up on clues. There seems to be a particularly strong scent coming from…that direction.” Dia pointed at the direction the spellhounds indicated.

“I remember seeing a whole bunch of people strung up there, near a military encampment. Maybe Tot’s one of them?” Farah ventured.

“A master thief caught by ordinary soldiers? I’m not buying that,” said Risti. “But maybe he got drunk off his success and did something stupid, so he got caught. It’s worth a shot.”

“Alright, let’s head over to the encampment first,” said Farah. “Before the others notice.”

Walking through the scattered crowd of spellhounds, she led Dia and the others away from the inn. The constant mewling sounds behind them, however, made Dia want to make a break for it; the instincts she’d gotten from the Experiential potions were kicking in at full swing.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the military encampment, where three dogs were sniffing at a body. There were two different sets of corpses, and these spellhounds were sniffing at the corpses that had clearly died a lot earlier.

That sight alone was enough to excite the soldiers there, but whenever any of them tried to approach, the spellhounds would mewl and bare their teeth. Eventually, however, some soldiers from the newly-arrived company showed up and took over from them.

“What are these spellhounds saying, Isolde?” Farah asked.

“They’re…unsure. Apparently, this guy smells like their target, but isn’t actually it,” Dia replied.

“Maybe they spent some time together?” Risti suggested. “After all, who said Tot had to be a guy?”

“True,” said Lily. “But they could both be guys too.”

“Well, we’re at least certain that he spent quite some time with Tot,” said Risti. “A shame he’s dead, though. We won’t be able to find out anything much with this lead.”

“Not as we are, no.” Farah smiled. “But if I remove my disguise…”

Mist billowed around her, vanishing a moment later to reveal a green-haired woman. Her facial features were sharper, her clothes somewhat different. Emerald eyes glanced around at Dia and the others, and a small set of lips curled. “Countess Farah, at your service.”