Cracklecracklecrackle…

Straf and the group watch the last crackling sparks fizzle out, and leave the sky dark. The sparklers burnt out unnoticed, growing dark and cold while the firework rockets steal everyone's attention. He looks over his shoulder, and they are slowly exiting their mesmerized trance.

「Well? That was pretty fucking cool, wasn't it?」

Straf asks, spreading his arms as he turns towards the group with a large grin on his face, chuckling.

「That was really beautiful.」

「It really was!」

Cycelia says with a smile faintly visible on her face in the dark, and Alicia concurs.

「Well, it was a spectacle…」

Lian shrugs her shoulders, tilting her head a little as she looks the other way. Though she attempts to appear nonchalant, and her tone makes her statement sound completely normal, that of itself is unusual. Her voice lacks her usual smug and sarcastic note.

「It looked kind of like a mana disruption field…」

Will remarks, adjusting his glasses.

「Tsk. Another meaningless buzzword.」

Straf rolls his eyes, and looks at Lily.

「…I thought it was…」

Lily mumbles, crossing her arms as she looks down at the sand with a small pout.

「Hm? Speak up, Lily.」

Straf nods his head up her with his fists on his hips, encouraging her.

「…It was as expected of you, Straf.」

She replies, glancing very quickly into his eyes.

「That's probably the lowest rating yet-」

「That was cool.」

Greaves blurts out as he's looking at Will, speaking over Straf.

「…And that's probably the highest one. Show a kid an explosion, and he'll love it.」

Straf scoffs, smugly grinning.

「I'm not a kid!」

Greaves immediately protests, shaking his fists.

「Yeah? Then why do you think explosions are cool?」

Straf turns his grinning face towards Greaves.

「That's… Because…」

His eyes escape the embarrassment sideways, and he stammers as he searches for a good answer.

「Thought so. Man, the military-industrial complex really is the peak of young boy appeal when you think about it…」

Straf thinks out loud, rubbing his chin.

「Shall we head back now, Straf?」

Cycelia asks with her head lightly tilted.

「Hm? Yeah, I suppose we could. Did we get them all? Nooo… But I am not an obsessive completionist, either.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders, then his hands.

「I suppose it's high time we get our things then. Come, Will.」

Lian declares, and starts heading back to the mats. Will nods, and quickly follows behind her, adjusting his glasses while at it. Smiling, Alicia politely nods her head at Straf as she departs with Greaves to the mats as well.

Cycelia begins making her way back, but Lily and Athea appear wanting to speak with Straf first. Straf takes note of this, and calls out to Cycelia.

「Go on ahead, Lia. Put your clothes on, I'll be right there.」

「Okay!」

She nods, and continues onward. Every few moments, she peeks over her shoulder towards them, however.

「What's up, Lily? You can't wear that around town, if that's what you're planning.」

Straf snaps his fingers, and points at her black swimsuit. If not for the red lines running along its fabric, it would make her small form appear as a partial, black silhouette on the brighter sand.

「Hmpf. Don't be ridiculous, Straf. I am well aware how a proper lady should dress.」

She replies, and her crimson eyes glance at Athea behind her. Athea's mouth opens in shock, and she appears visibly insulted, as well as at a loss for words.

「…Is that it then?」

「What's it?」

Lily asks, looking into his eyes with her arms crossed, pouting a little. Straf quickly asks his own question.

「Your time with me…」

She elaborates, peeling her scarlet eyes off of his and gazing at the nearly entirely black sea.

「…You'll be very busy now. Correct?」

Lily adds, and looks at Straf again.

「Hmmm… Well I suppose so. I should get some things in order before we leave for the Academy of Cliches. But that doesn't mean you can't visit, right? And we'll be back, eventually…」

Straf humms for a second, and shrugs his shoulders. He replies in a quite matter-of-factly, nonchalant tone, meeting Lily's gaze. He shrugs once again, glancing up and aside as he concludes his point.

「…I see.」

Lily bluntly replies, and leaves for the mats. Straf tilts his head at the unexpectedly aloof response, but his surprise is very brief. Athea approaches, appearing neither upset nor greatly pleased.

「You can't wear that around town, but I'm not gonna stop you-」

Straf quips, grinning smugly at her with his fists on his hips.

「Tsk. Shut up…」

She clicks her tongue and rolls her blue eyes, before turning them back to his with gently tightened lips.

「…That was uncharacteristically nice of you.」

With her cold eyes looking into his, Athea frigidly commends Straf, covering her chest with her crossed arms.

「Yeah? How so?」

Straf asks, scoffing with a light, slanted grin. Athea lets out a large sigh.

「…My heart sunk, because I thought you were going to thoughtlessly hand out bombs. Or firearms. I don't think I need to explain what kind of a havoc that would bring to this world.」

「Yeah, I know my warlords.」

He chuckles in Athea's serious face, grinning wide. She clicks her tongue in frustration and her eyes roll again, but then return to Straf as much softer, with a closed-mouth sigh.

「Then, I was confused…」

She says, ignoring Straf's previous comment, and starting to frown just a little.

「…Then, I was relieved. When I heard the word gunpowder from you, fireworks were among the last possibilities on my mind.」

Athea adds, and lets out an other long sigh. Straf's brows rise as he silently listens.

「Maybe I was wrong about you. For once, I didn't have to regret that I brought you here- Tsk…」

She says, and clicks her tongue in frustration, glancing aside momentarily.

「…Aside from the humiliation you put me through. And the kraken…」

Athea grumbles, and turns her eyes to the mats with a slanted mouth. Cycelia locks her distant eyes with hers while putting her skirt back on. Athea breaks the eye contact to look back at Straf.

「…Aside from that, it was a breath of fresh air. Too bad I will now have to work twice as hard, and twice as fast to make up for it.」

She says in a normal, perhaps even a little upbeat tone of voice. There is some bitterness hidden within it, however.

「See, told you that you'd relax a little… If you want, you can come to my palace room and relax some mo-」

「Tsk. Shut up.」

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Straf chuckles in her face again, snidely grinning at her. She clicks her tongue and barks an order at him, turning her frustrated face away.

「But… I really think I may have been wrong about you.」

Her face returns, bearing a soft, neutral expression. Her blue eyes look into his.

「…Or right all along.」

She mumbles under her breath, turning her eyes away and down at the shadowy sand.

「Hm? Didn't catch that last one.」

Straf says, and his brow rises.

「It's nothing. Forget it. It was nice of you to show them the peaceful side of gunpowder. Now think of some excuse for my disappearance.」

Athea's blue eyes return to his, and she replies with a forceful tone. She then turns away, and takes a few steps towards the dirt road.

「Wait up…」

Straf calls out, and she stops in her tracks, peeking over her shoulder and partially turned towards him. He walks up to her, digging through his [Portable Storage].

「…There it is. Here.」

He says, and holds his hand out with a small object clasped in his fingers. Athea looks at his hand with her brows furrowed in suspicion, then brings her eyes up to his. She blinks a few times, still warily observing him, but then sticks her own hand out.

「So you can't say that I didn't pay you for today, and that you didn't agree to this.」

Straf says, softly lifting the corner of his mouth.

「What?…」

Athea quietly utters out, looking at her open palm with her brows furrowed, and her lips slightly parted. A single, small copper coin rests in the middle of it. She blinks at it, puzzled. When her eyes rise to Straf's face again, she does not see any scornful or sardonic expression.

With a resigning sigh, she closes her hand on the coin. A faint, pitying smile appears on her almost frighteningly perfect face. A smile ever-so-slightly affectionate, candid, and voluntary. Her eyes soften, too. No longer they are cold, glaring blue spotlights of scorn.

「…You don't have to pay me to spend some time with you.」

With a gently tilted head, Athea bluntly explains as if it was obvious.

「Hmmm… Maybe. But now you have no excuse.」

Straf humms, looking up and aside at he dark sky while grimacing lightly for a brief moment. He shrugs and replies, then heads for his clothes. Cycelia is buttoning her shirt up, watching them with her brows furrowed. Athea looks at the coin once more.

「…I was definitely right about you.」

Athea says with a soft smile, staring at the copper in her palm. She closes her hand again, and walks towards the rest of the group. Straf begins putting his clothes back on. Swiftly, yet without a rush. The group picks up their belongings, and they approach the waiting carriage.

「That was something incredible. Was that magic, your highness?」

The driver asks as he hops down from his driver's seat, and quickly struts to the door, swinging it open for Cycelia and the rest.

「Ahhh… I'm not sure, you'd have to ask Straf about that.」

Cycelia replies with an awkward smile, and looks towards Straf for answers.

「I'm tired of repeating the quote, and since it's indistinguishable to you, let's just say yes.」

Straf shrugs with his hands as he dismissively answers the mustached driver. The group slowly flows into the carriage one by one, taking their previous seats.

「Since it's already dark, we'll stop at the inn until morning. Is that alright with you, your highness?」

The driver peeks his head in, and asks.

「Yes, of course.」

「Very well, then. The road will be bumpy at start, we'll go slow, but please mind your head.」

He nods his head in response to Cycelia's answer, and hops back into the driver's seat beside the young man.

「Straf, we have a seat free, is Athea not coming with us?」

Cycelia asks as Straf climbs in and takes a seat.

「Nope, she has a place close by. Right, bimbo?」

Straf replies, and turns his gaze towards Athea outside, grinning smugly at her.

「Yes…」

She replies through her teeth.

「…Is that really okay, though? I mean, it's dark-」

「She'll be fine. Right, exhib-?」

Straf insists, once again turning his gaze towards fuming Athea.

「I will be fine, no need to worry.」

Athea seethes through her teeth, forcing a very fake smile on her face. She slams the carriage door shut, and walks a few steps back. A few moments later, the carriage moves. Just as the driver said, slowly.

What starts as gentle bobbing left and right turns into violent, unpredictable, and forceful movements. The cargo noisily clutters as the carriage wheel rolls into yet another hole. The horses pull the carriage out, and the passengers are thrown about inside.

Lily slides into Straf's side, almost as if hugging him for a brief moment. She quickly rights herself, acting nonchalantly as if that never happened. At the same time, Cycelia manages to hold onto the seat and slide into Lily's previous spot, and quickly returns to her own.

On the opposite side of the interior, Greaves is thrown aside into Alicia. Given that he's rather short, discounting his mass of hair, he lands face-first in Alicia's breasts, albeit mostly from the side. They both quickly peel away from each other, red-faced.

「S- Sorry…」

He mumbles out an apology and squeezes his blushed face into the window beside him.

「N- No, it's okay… Ah!- I mean… Nevermind…」

Alicia trips over her words, fiddling with her fingers while hanging her head low and hiding her face in her hair. When she realizes she implicitly has given Greaves consent for this, her head shoots up and her eyes widen, but she changes her mind on informing him of this fact.

《…Pillows.》

Greaves thinks with his arms crossed and his face turned away, tapping his arm with his finger.

Also at the same time, Will flies up, almost hitting his head on the carriage ceiling. His hands drift to just about anything they can to catch for balance.

Pat.

They grab onto Lian's thigh as she's sitting beside him, completely unbothered by the turbulent forces, rock-steady. With her arms crossed, she peels her almond-shaped eyes away from her window, and looks down at Will. He lifts his panicked eyes up from her thigh to her face.

「I- Uh- Um- The- The- The-」

Will stumbles through words even harder than Alicia, unable to get more than one utterance out while looking into Lian's black eyes. He lifts his hands off of her thigh, shaking them in panic in front of himself as if to signal that they're empty, and not holding anything.

「My, how forward of you.」

Lian says, and turns her face back to her window, smiling a little. Her face lacks her usual smugness to it, and her smile appears quite ordinary. Will adjusts his glasses, and hangs his head low, continuously adjusting them over and over as they attempt to slip, red-faced.

The carriage makes it out of the roughest patch of the road, past the severed tentacle, and continues onward in silence through the dark. The road remains bright enough to navigate along, but with each passing minute the task becomes harder, and harder.

Every few moments, Cycelia steals a few covert side-glances directed at Straf. Eventually, she builds up enough courage to speak.

「Straf… What is that woman's trade?」

She asks, looking at Straf with a serious expression in the dim carriage.

「Hmmm…」

《Shit, that dumb bimbo didn't tell me what's the story here… Whatever, not like it matters.》

Straf humms as he thinks.

「You should have asked that her yourself, Lia. Why are you asking me?」

He looks into Cycelia's emerald eyes with a nonchalant, bored expression. She momentarily breaks eye contact, thinking for a few seconds.

「Umm… Eheh… Well, she seemed to know a lot more than me about your sword, so that got me a little curious…」

Cycelia shrugs with a light smile, looking at Straf's face again.

「Well… She's something of a sword knower.」

Straf shrugs with his arms crossed, grimacing a little as he idly looks forward and up at nothing in particular.

「She identifies magic items? That'd be really helpful-」

Will lifts his head to ask, adjusting his glasses. With the corner of his vision, he notices Cycelia staring daggers at him with an intense expression on her face. That alone is enough to frighten him out of inquiring, or interrupting further. He adjusts his glasses in an uncomfortable silence.

「Hmm… Yeah, something like that, I guess.」

Straf shrugs again, dismissively answering.

「I see… Say, Straf… Is she from your kingdom?」

Cycelia slowly asks another question, warmly smiling at Straf.

「Hm? Where'd that one come from?」

Somewhat surprised and with his brows raised, Straf turns his face back to Cycelia.

「Ehehe… Well… Only you two knew what gunpowder was. I thought that maybe she's from your kingdom…」

She lets out a quiet, fake giggle. Cycelia then explains, holding her fingertips together as she smiles at Straf again.

「Nooo, not really… She just has seen them before, y'know?」

Straf shrugs, once again idly looking at a random point ahead.

「I see… I see…」

Cycelia nods a few times with a smile, then turns her gaze to the window beside her, glumly looking at her own reflection in the glass.

《…He's lying to me. But why? I know everyone has their secrets… But why this woman? It doesn't seem like there's something between them, so why?…》

She sighs as she ponders. Her sad eyes track random dark shapes in the shadows outside.

《It's fine if he has secrets. I don't mind if he has secrets… But it still hurts that he's hiding something from me. Why this woman? Or was she lying? But why? Did she lie to him? And what did they talk about?…》

Despite the overall happiness built up today, an uncomfortable feeling weighs upon Cycelia's heart, trying to crush it. She listlessly plays with her matching medallion in her fingers as she ponders on questions without answers…