The thief's own ambush

Ducking into a corner, Claud tore up a skillstrip for Presence Nullification, before commencing his long walk out of town. The plans he laid out couldn't be perfect, so he had to take matters into his own hands. Although he did have a skillstrip for Skyward Eye on him, Claud knew that spotting anyone who was hidden from above was a lot harder than it seemed, as long as the right precautions were taken.

Claud surveyed the streets of Licencia. People were walking with huddled shoulders, with the more experienced hands using only the corner of their eyes to survey the area. Like him, most of the people on the streets right now were ready to make a break for it anytime, while the ones that were more confident would occasionally pat that pockets or some part of their torso.

"Meep."

"Yeah, I know. It's so sharp," Claud murmured. "People glancing around in fear, trying to look as innocent as possible…word must have gotten out somehow."

His pocket jiggled once more, and a sense of worry flooded Claud's mind. There was nothing much Claud could do to lift the little guy's spirit, save for nudging the pocket Crown was in.

"Looks like I can't really get skewers or cake for Schwarz and Lily, though." Claud eyed the street stalls, which were closing up before his eyes. Most of the shops were already closed too, with their owners bolting up the doors with some hastily employed labourers.

His lip twitched at that sight. Their actions were something that people would do when a huge storm was on the way, but even a fool would know that a fight between tetra-folders would not be stopped by the likes of some iron rods. This was the textbook definition of a placebo, if nothing else.

Shaking his head, he hurried down the main streets of Licencia, completely hidden from the world. As he trotted through the city, Claud couldn't help but note that there were hints of a few shadows doing the same thing. Clearly, there were some people who wanted to see for themselves the impending showdown between the inquisitors of the White Church and the murderer of Zulan Patra.

The city gates were manned by a lot more guards than usual.

As Claud ducked through some worried guards, he arrived at a clearing. The clearing was occupied by Caroline, who was sitting on a table that had been brought out from somewhere and drinking from a cup.

"Hmm?" Caroline looked around as Claud glanced at her, her gaze sweeping past Claud's location.

"What's wrong, Your Grace?" asked one of the city guards.

Without a word, Caroline tore up a skillstrip, before sweeping the area with her gaze again. On instinct, Claud held his breath and continued on his way slowly. From how she reacted only after Claud glanced at her, Caroline was probably quite sensitive to people looking at her, but as for how this was possible, he didn't quite know.

Maybe it was a passive skill or something.

Walking around her slowly, while taking care not to look at Caroline, Claud slipped through the city guards and left Licencia in silence. His shoulders lightened as he stepped through the city gates, which was simply proof that the tense atmosphere inside had affected him in ways he didn't quite know.

Taking a deep breath, Claud tore a skillstrip for Flight and took to the skies. Within seconds, he was high above the ground, allowing him to take in the area around Licencia easily.

"Well, someone did at least listen to our advice." Claud glanced at the Cord of Cause inside Licencia. The plan was simple — the person affected by the Cord of Cause could sense where the Knife of Karma was at, and vice-versa. However, given the knife's ability to inflict pain on a one-sided basis, there was a very strong incentive for the murderer to actually approach the knife's owner.

It went without saying that an ambush would be prepared for the murderer's approach.

The moment the sounds of battle were heard, one of Holy Daughter Clarissa's guards inside the city would use the Knife of Karma and torment the murderer over and over again, thereby creating huge opportunities for his colleague and his master to finish off the unfortunate fellow.

It was a delightful strategy, and when coupled with heavy support from the city's archers…

However, the approach of Zulan Patra's murderer could only mean one of two things. Either the murderer was sane and driven to end this near-hourly torment, or the puppet master was confident of winning or saw some advantages in sending his pawn towards Licencia.

The former was obviously less alarming than the latter, but given the recent confluence of coincidences, Claud was certain that there was a mastermind behind the scenes.

Plus, his Absolute One was also stirring up some very odd emotions in him. Even if he ignored all these nasty omens, it was undeniable that he had felt an unnatural urge to hunt down the Third and finish off that fellow.

Life was tough at times.

Shaking his head, he flew over to the planned ambush site, and what he saw nearly made him fall out of the sky.

For some reason, the Holy Daughter and her bodyguard had seen it fit to simply stand in the middle of the road, as if they were trying to block a bunch of carriages or something. There were just a few problems in that — first, they weren't so much as on a road than in a wide-open space in which any murderer hoping to escape capture could easily spot them.

Second, the enemy had killed Zulan Patra, who had a skill capable of killing anyone his spear touched. Either they were more than enough to overcome Zulan Patra with ease, or the murderer had plotted meticulously to kill their target. If it was the former, ambushing would yield far higher chances of success, while if it was the latter, the murderer would obviously notice something off.

In other words, the inquisitors of the White Church were probably idiots.

"What are they doing?" Claud muttered. "Why are you guys throwing away your advantages? Did your parents drop you on the head as a kid? Or are you trying to prove something? If so, why don't you just face the murderer alone?"

After cursing the two idiots for abandoning their tactical advantages, Claud turned his eyes to the soldiers lying in ambush. Unlike the two idiots standing in the middle of an open field, the archers were actually disguising themselves by tossing some green cloth over their bodies and hair.

"Now what? I know I said I was going to do some walking, but that was just some excuse I cooked up." Claud looked around. He hadn't quite thought about what he was going to do next, once he stepped out of the city. Tracking wasn't his strong spot, especially when he was acting on his irrational desires like this.

Tapping his nose, he landed on a nearby outcrop, before pulling out his trusty Box-opener. Pushing what looked like a bladeless hilt into the ground, Claud activated the artefact and cut out a bunch of small square cubes, before prying them out one by one. Hopping into the newly created cubical space, Claud took out a small sheet of brown cloth, using it to cover both the displaced cubes and the space he had created.

Once done, Claud retrieved the skillstrip that contained Risti's Skyward Eye and examined it closely.

Like most skills, it only had a duration of thirty minutes, which was why the others back at Moon Mansion were going to take shifts in examining the place once the battle started. Claud, however, was more interested in using the skill now. After all, if there was a puppeteer like him, they were almost certainly going to arrive early, like he did.

Claud paused for a moment at that thought, and then produced a second Presence Nullification skillstrip. Tearing it into two, he took a good long look at the Skyward Eye skillstrip, and then took a deep breath.

The sound of paper tearing entered his ear.

His vision changed a moment later, as he looked down upon the world. It wasn't all that different from the view he had when he was flying earlier, but there was something special about the world he saw now. All sorts of things had been outlined by a rather specific colour; people were outlined in red, rocks in brown, man-made objects in blue and flora in green.

"Tis a pity you can't witness this," Claud said, uncomfortably aware that his body was still on the ground, despite having such a viewpoint.

Crown, who was idling away in his pocket, tilted to the side unsuccessfully, and Claud smiled. Patting his thigh, Claud focused on the new world in his eyes, outlined and coloured by the skill.

Other than the two fools who were standing heroically — or foolishly, depending on who one asked — he could also make out the soldiers hiding on a nearby hill. Although they were fairly covered by some form of camouflage, the camouflage itself had been highlighted by a blue outline, and the occasional leg or arm that stuck out was highlighted in red.

All things considered, Skyward Eye was truly a trump card in the field of surveillance. After making a mental note to ask Risti about this skill, Claud began to look through the area in general, before focusing on the outcrop he was in. Unlike the soldiers, his little hidey-hole was—

"Wait. Moons take me. Are you serious?" Claud narrowed his eyes and fixed his eyes onto a particular spot not too far from his own hidey-hole. A small chill ran down his spine as he noted the fact that there was actually someone like him, already spying on the area.

A raging urge to storm over to his target and put him down violently tingled in his brains, but Claud fought the urge by counting prime numbers…and by cooking up ways to kill the Third Bearer of Destiny.

Whipping his frantic breathing into shape, he gripped the hilt of a small knife and focused on making a plan to approach his target.