An hour later, in the Royal Reserve Bank…

With Cycelia safely escorted back to the palace under his guard, Straf walks through the bank's threshold.

「Fuck… He's not there when I need him to be?」

He throws his hand up at the sight of the empty chair. Nona can be found sitting right beside the desk however, and her head perks up at the sight of Straf.

「Straf!… The boss is out working, he left a moment ago. What do I tell him when he's back?」

Nona asks as she straightens out of her bored slouch over her hammer's handle. Straf looks at the ticker screen, rubbing his chin. It appears Strafdrakes has gained in valuation recently.

「…We have spies. Again. They caught one, one went splat, and the third ran away. I want him to find the third one. The Ministry guys will know more.」

He turns his attention back to Nona and explains.

「Got it! I'll let him know and take care of him right away!」

She returns a powerful nod and salutes while still sitting with a bright grin on her face.

「So… How are you feeling?」

Straf asks with a wary gaze, maintaining a significant distance as he stands practically in the doorway still.

「Hm?… Ah! I'm fine now, don't worry! I was so sick I thought I was gonna die at work though! Ahaha!…」

Nona takes a few seconds to process the question, then waves her hand dismissively while cackling. Straf gains a tight-lipped grimace on his face.

「No, what I meant was… Are you feeling any different?」

He shrugs, placing his fists on his hips.

「Hm? Different how?」

「…Do you feel more forward than usual? Liberated?… Open about your feelings?」

Straf asks, causing Nona to tilt her hatted head in confusion.

「…Do you like that sort of thing?」

She bashfully turns her amber eyes aside, hiding most of her face behind her hands as she slouches down to her hammer's grip. Straf grimaces while thinking heavily.

「…I don't want to tell you anything that could be interpreted in a wrong way, especially today. For now…」

He walks up in a cautious step and holds his waiting hand out for her.

「…Hand over the hammer.」

Straf wiggles his fingers, waiting for her response. Her head perks up in mild surprise.

「Huh? I'm not allowed to have it anymore?」

Her large, innocent orange eyes blink at him as she tilts her head.

「I don't want you to have it right now. C'mon, give it here… It's not like you can use it on that guy anyway.」

He replies, wiggling his fingers again, faster and more insistently.

「You mean I'm not allowed to?」

Nona furrows her brows at him, tilting her head further. Somewhat confused, Straf shakes his head with a perplexed look about his face. His hand retracts back to his hip.

「…What do you mean you're not allowed to? You mean you were actually going to use it on the guy?」

He asks, pointing his palm at the hammer still in her grasp. She bashfully turns her face away again, wrapping her exposed legs around its handle to ensure constant contact.

「…Am I not allowed to?」

Nona asks again, tapping her index fingers together with a little pout. Straf stares at her in a moment of troubled silence.

「Nona… Never mind that guy, he actually earned it, but if you did that to a random detainee it would be pretty bad.」

He replies with a tight-lipped grimace. The two look each other in the eyes, and another brief silent pause begins.

「…It would be?」

Nona gains a nervous grimace herself, gripping onto the hammer with her hands and unwrapping her legs from it, eliciting a wary gaze from Straf.

「Yeah. I mean, what if the guy was actually innocent and you hammered the shit out of him? If that would make its way to Lia, she'd strangle me to death. She's a really nice girl…」

He shrugs his arms, gesturing heavily with his eyes focused on Nona's hands on the hammer's grip.

「…If you're not actually sure if the guy is guilty, I'd say the most reasonable form of interrogation is electrocution. Beatings and waterboarding included, of course.」

「…What's electrocution? Is that like a magic thing?」

「Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic… So yes, you can consider it a magic trick to get confessions out of people.」

With a nod, Straf snaps his fingers and points at her.

「I see… So you don't want me to hammer people unless I'm sure they did it?…」

Nona blinks her amber eyes up at Straf with a tight-lipped, nervous grimace on her face.

「…Paraphrasing, yes. That being said, I heard you have a pretty high conviction rate. What do you usually do to break people? The uniforms must be helping a lot.」

「A hamm-」

She replies without thinking, but Straf's raising brow makes her quickly rethink her answer.

「…Mmmmmm, you mean like break their resistance, haha!… Not like physically break their bones! Ahahaha!…」

Nona lets out a nervous laugh, ruffling her fluffy brown hair at the back of her head with her hand.

「Yeeeah?… What'd you think, dummy? That I'm asking you what's your favorite way to leave someone half-dead in the interrogation room?…」

「Aha! Ahaha! No way, ahaha!…」

Ruffling her hair faster, she continues laughing nervously and avoiding eye contact with Straf as he stares at her with with his brows furrowed.

「…I know it may not look like it, but we have the rule of law here. You can't just scoop random people off the street and put needles under their nails, or pull their teeth…」

「Haha… Ahaha… Obviously…」

Nona nods along, grinning. Straf nods back.

「…Right. So, what'd you do up to this point?」

He spreads his hands, still warily staring at the hammer.

「I!… Just convinced them to admit it!」

Awkwardly grinning, she points her finger at Straf's face. His brows furrow again, and his mouth tilts.

「I… Um… You know…」

Her impetus runs out and she lowers her head, mumbling as she grips onto her hammer for comfort.

「…Convinced them how?-」

Straf asks, throwing his hand up. Her nervous amber eyes meet his, and in an effort to keep watch on the hammer, he looks at her exposed thighs beneath her skirt.

「…Nevermind. You're pretty cute, so I'm sure it doesn't take a whole lot of work if they have small charges.」

He briefly pinches the bridge of his nose, then shrugs again with a resigned sigh.

「R- Right! That's exactly it! I just use my feminine charm!」

Nona points at Straf again, then squeezes her tanned face between her hands into a forced pout.

「Right… But it can't be easy on you if it's a murderer, or something. Beating him to a pulp with girly hands ought to be tough… I'll see if I can't get you a car battery sometime…」

Straf nods, sighing again as he looks at Nona's hands when they return to the hammer. He shrugs his shoulder, then sticks his own hand out again.

「…Still, hand it over. I'll give it back later, but I'm not letting you keep it today.」

He adds, expectantly wiggling his fingers towards the hammer. Though hesitant, Nona reluctantly tilts the hammer's grip towards Straf. He takes hold of it and easily picks it up.

「…What's a car battery?」

Nona asks as he effortlessly flicks the heavy two-handed hammer into his [Portable Storage] as if it were made of foam. He lets out a relieved sigh and places his fists on his hips.

「It's a magic device to help you with interrogations. By the way… Go to the palace early today.」

Stolen story; please report.

He shrugs his hands then turns to leave, briefly glancing over his shoulder at Nona.

「Hm? Ah, is it because of the vampire thing?」

Confused, she tilts her head.

「Among others. You girls close up early too, I don't want to have to headhunt for another bank employee…」

Grimacing heavily, he shrugs his shoulders and cautions the bank tellers standing behind their counter as well.

「Understood, sir.」

All of them bow, though only one speaks for them. Content, Straf nods and leaves.

「I'll see you tonight then!…」

Nona waves his way, then lazily slumps on the side of Niklaus's empty desk…

…

An hour later, at the construction site of the new government building…

Like busy bees or ant drones, pairs of construction workers are hauling large gray bricks inside the building and laying them down on an elevator platform in an unfinished stairwell.

「Hey! Where is the band of snobby assholes?」

Straf calls out towards one of the workers heading outside for another brick. He briefly pauses near him.

「You mean those government people? They're in that room over there… Fuck 'em. We're here to build this place, and they think we're their butlers or something…」

The man nods his head towards one of the wooden doors already fitted in on the ground level. Though full of dust and tools lying about, this level appears mostly finished.

「…Are you an assassin coming to kill 'em?」

The worker stops in his tracks, glancing over his shoulder at Straf.

「Nope.」

「Tsk… Too bad…」

With his hands in his pockets and a bored expression on his face, Straf lightly shakes his head. Disappointed, the man clicks his tongue in response as he walks away.

「Ahahaha!…」

「…And then for half the price I tell him-!」

The laughter at the long table and the story being told stops abruptly when Straf nonchalantly walks in through the door. The amused smirks quickly sour.

「…Minister Vindict. I'm glad you've come to see us.」

Sir Vinis greets him with a light bow of his head, sitting at the far end of the table in a spacious, yet very barren room featuring only that, and the chairs.

「I see the tax money you're paid is being put to good use.」

Straf remarks in a snide tone, throwing his arms up with his mouth scrunched to the side, before returning his hands to his pockets.

「We're all hard at work here…」

「Exactly.」

「You pay attention to your business, and we pay attention to ours.」

The magnates nod along in agreement and shrug their hands, not picking up on the sarcasm, or perhaps ignoring it.

「Ahem!… I know you dislike pleasantries, Minister Vindict, so let me cut to the point…」

Sir Vinis clears his throat loudly, though it appears to be mostly in an effort to regain Straf's attention.

「…I did as you asked and bought all the steel, iron, and coal available. Now we have two problems. One, we are running out of storage space. Two, we are running out of money.」

He adds, spreading his hands as he calmly explains.

「One is not a problem, and two is a problem until I just print more-」

「That… May not be so easy, minister.」

Sir Vinis holds his palm up, softly cutting Straf off. He interlocks his fingers again, leaning further onto the table on his elbows.

「…You see, the Parnatau ultimatum aside, the kingdom's merchants are finding it increasingly difficult to purchase goods for drakes, and only for drakes.」

The long-haired magnate shrugs his shoulders, and some of his nearly-blond hair slips off of them.

「And the reason is?…」

Straf grimaces heavily as his brows rise.

「Well, to put it plainly, minister… There are so many drakes around everywhere, that nobody wants them anymore. Who can blame them? We have only so much commerce.」

Sir Vinis calmly replies, once again shrugging his hands.

「Ugh.」

Straf winces, then looks aside towards nothing in particular.

「Tsk… Ahhhhh…」

《…Who'd guess printing millions of fiat money would cause inflation, huh?》

He clicks his tongue, angrily tapping his foot on the floor with a sour expression on his face.

「Alright. Tomorrow, I'll handle both problems. The assassins after me will have to wait.」

「Assassins?…」

The long-haired magnate's head perks up in surprise as Straf turns to leave.

「Like one of you assholes said, stay in your lane. I'll handle it. Just keep embezzling-」

Straf stops just short of opening the door again, then stomps back up to Sir Vinis, alarming the other magnates slightly. He reaches into his [Portable Storage].

Thud.

「Good thing I remembered. I was bored on the way back, so I worked on this. Here's the new budget, stick to it.」

Straf slams a sheet of paper down on the table right in front of Sir Vinis, then returns to the door as the confused magnate reads through it.

「One more thing, minister!…」「Tsk…」

He calls out with his hand raised just as Straf grabs hold of the door handle.

「…What?」

Visibly displeased, Straf glares at the long-haired magnate with his mouth heavily scrunched to the side.

「…Why is the uniform budget so high again?」

Sir Vinis asks, lowering the piece of paper with his brows furrowed.

「None of your fucking business. Stay in your lane.」

Straf shakes his head and leaves without a word more. The magnates exchange confused looks, then shrug and return to their chattering…

…

In the evening, just before sunset, in the consumer goods factory…

「Nnnnmmmmmhhhhhhhgggg!…」

Stripe lets out a loud groan as she stretches out. Her box of components is empty, and a fully assembled IED Mark 2 lies on the table before her.

「…Ahhhhhh.」

She lets out a content sigh and looks around. Most of the workers are now idle and talking with each other, and the remaining few still working likewise have empty boxes and a pile of ready IEDs on their tables. The idle mages are leaning on their table, discussing something magical in nature as if they were in a bar. Stripe gets her instructions out and reads through them again.

「Okay! Everyone listen up!… Since it looks like we're done for today, everyone who's done working, carefully put your IEDs in the box over there in the corner!…」

She exclaims, pointing at a crate conspicuously placed at the edge of the dark warehouse. The people grab two handfuls, armfuls of IEDs, and begin shuffling over to the box.

「…When you're done and clean everything up, you're done for the day!」

She adds, and folds the piece of paper back up. A man approaches her, startling Stripe and causing her to jump up.

「Er, excuse me… Do we work tomorrow too? What do we do?」

With his head meekly lowered and retracted like a turtle, a middle-aged man a little past his prime asks, hunching slightly.

「I- Er- Um… To be honest, I know as much as you do… I suppose you're going to do more of the same tomorrow, but don't treat me saying this as a promise.」

Still startled but trying her best to give the man some sort of an answer, Stripe throws her clawed hands up with a tight-lipped grimace on her face. The man wordlessly nods and shuffles back to his workstation. A few minutes pass, the last remaining workers finish their assemblies, and the remaining IEDs land in the crate with the rest.

「Okay! Well… I suppose that's it for today! Good work!」

Stripe nods a few times towards the group, then exits the building. She holds the door open for the rest, and when the last worker is out, she locks the door with the key.

「Right… Guess I'll go sleep…」

She sighs out, rubbing the back of her neck and stretching some more, then shuffles down the street along with the rest of the tired workers…

…

Less than an hour later, in Straf's room…

「…Hup!」

Crack!

With a bullet-like supersonic crack, Straf flings a sword point-first into his purple vortex in front of him.

Knock-knock.

「Ah. Who's this?… A maid angry about the noise?…」

Someone knocks. Straf dismisses the crafting screen with a flick of his hand, lightly furrowing his brows at the door.

「…Nah, must be the wandering cat.」

He shrugs and approaches to open it.

Crrreak.

The door swings open with a creak of its hinges. The first thing Straf sees is a long purple skirt and a white woolly sweater.

「Can I come in?」「Oh shit.」

Standing in the doorway, Nona asks with a smile, a tilted head, and glowing amber eyes. Straf recoils back a step.

「Uh… You know, I was about to head to bed, so uh… How about tomorrow?-」

Thud.

Nona slides her foot in the way of the door, blocking Straf's attempt to shut it in her face.

「Great, we can do that together.」

Creak!

The door's wood creaks from strain as she gently pushes it open with her hand, forcing Straf back lest he breaks it.

「Do… What together, exactly?」

He reluctantly asks with a nervous smirk as Nona pushes the door shut behind herself, matching him step for step. Her grin grows while her glowing amber eyes remain focused on his.

「…Head to bed.」

With her hands behind her back, Nona stands on her tiptoes and leans against him, tilting her head and grinning…