Just after sunset, on the main road in Ossen…
Straf is lazily reclining in a mostly-empty cart, looking at the sky blankly with a slanted mouth. The vampire lamps glow, burning away the dark. A red-caped, armored man is discussing something with two guards nearby. When he notices Straf on the cart he jogs up in haste.
「Hold!… Hold! Stop the cart!」
He shouts, waving his hand at the driver. He complies, and the horses slow to a halt.
「The fuck?」
Mildly annoyed, Straf jumps out of his recline and turns his gaze towards the commotion. The caped man approaches.
「It's you.」
The man says, looking at Straf with his hands on his sheath's belt.
「Yeah. It's me. And you forgot your S, Clark.」
Straf says, looking at the man's red cape with a disdainfully amused smirk.
「What?」
The man asks, lightly shaking his head out of confusion.
「Forget it. What do you want? If you have a problem with me taking the girl off the gallows, you'll have to raise the issue to the queen-」
Straf hops out of the wagon and walks up to face the armored man, casually keeping his hand in his pocket.
「To thank you, actually.」
The man says with a nod of his golden head.
「Wait, what? You mean you're not going to bitch at me how I'm perverting justice, swear that you'll see me pay for it, and yadda yadda yadda?」
Straf spreads his arms, surprised and grinning a little.
「No.」
「Good, 'cause justice is kind of perverted already. I mean, what's the blindfold for?」
Straf asks, glancing at the driver before returning his gaze to the blonde man.
「…She may be a criminal, but I don't think she deserved death. I have no say in court sentences, and so her being sentenced to death was out of my control. Still… It would have left a bad taste in my mouth.」
The man says, nodding his head in approval at Straf.
「Yeah? You'd rather give her a stern talking to how stealing is bad?」
Straf scoffs, grinning at the man.
「Please… I do think her punishment should have been severe. If it was up to me, I'd have her pay every single coin she stole back. Any work she'd do, half of it would need to go to the victims until they are paid off… And it's unlikely she'd ever pay it off.」
The man scoffs as well, a little amused by Straf's quip. He maintains gripping eye contact with a cold gaze.
「Man, you're fucked in the head. Brutal. You'd garnish her wages and turn her into a wage-slave instead? Three months of that, and she'd start skipping meals to save up for a rope and do a little DIY.」
Straf chuckles, shaking his head at the man with a grin.
「It certainly would have been more fitting than putting her to death. I am strongly against sentencing criminals to that which can't be taken back, for crimes that are not unforgivable.」
He says, adjusting his grip on his sheath's belt.
「So those two from before can get fucked?」
Straf asks, nodding his head in the general direction of the Hangman's Square.
「Those were murderers. Undeniably guilty with sufficient evidence. They've killed, and they should have expected to be killed in return. Do not confuse my idea of justice with me being soft, minister. Punishments should be harsh. But death for theft is not equivalent, no matter the amount.」
The armored man says, looking towards the road leading to the Hangman's Square. His eyes promptly return to Straf again.
「Pardon my manners, minister. I am Arthur Reiker, Ossen's captain of the guard.」
The captain extends his armored hand for a handshake, and waits. Straf looks at his gauntlet, then at the man's blue eyes with a disdainful smirk. Arthur gives up on the handshake, seeing that Straf is making no effort to move his hand to his, and simply shrugs before lowering it.
「…Okay. Am I under arrest? Am I free to go?」
Straf asks, grinning at the captain.
「…You are free to go, of course. Please do not interfere with my city's executions, unless you see a perversion of justice happening again. I'd rather have her be unjustly free, than unjustly dead.」
Arthur nods, and makes a commanding request. Straf nonchalantly jumps back into the cart in an uncanny manner, causing the captain's eyes to widen out of surprise. Straf lands with his feet on the wagon with a thud, and returns to reclining.
「Okay, let's go! We are traveling! Just traveling!」
Thud thud!
Straf slaps the side of the cart, proclaiming loudly. The driver whips the horses with the reins, and the cart continues onward towards the capital. The captain briefly watches Straf depart, with his thumbs hooked into his sheath's belt, and his red cape gently flutters in the cold night wind…
…
A few hours later…
「…Pleashe… Sthop…」
The tied man pleads Nona. His shirt is completely soaked with a mixture of sweat, blood, and drool flowing from his needle-filled face. The man's labored breathing with his sputtering must be audible through the door, and he makes no more hopeless effort to struggle against the rope.
「Why? Does it hurt?」
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Nona innocently asks, leaning forward as she places her hands on the man's knees. He yelps and whimpers in pain as soon as she puts some of her weight on them.
「Augh!… Yesh… Pleash… Told you evything…」
The man slurs, largely caused by the needles obstructing his tongue through his cheeks. He stares blankly at Nona's amber eyes as she listens with a bright smile.
「I see. Would you rather die instead?」
She tilts her head, intently looking at the man's sapless face. His dejected gaze drifts onto the ground and his head drops, ignoring the ropes painfully strangling him.
「Hrk- Yesh… Just makeh it stopf…」
He sputters, and a trail of bloody drool drips onto his shirt and pants. Nona looks at the man's hand, terribly swollen and his fingers bent all sorts of wrong, and places her hand on top of his.
「Ahahaha! Well, you don't get to! We'll keep going until some really nice person comes and tells me to stop!」
She says smiling, giggling nonchalantly and speaking in a tone as if she was only tickling the bound guard. Nona raises her arms.
Clunk!
…
A man screams in agony through the door, and his scream trails off into sobs. Niklaus retracts his hand, having almost reached for the handle. He clenches his fist and turns his back to the door.
「…I didn't tell her to do this. This is her own decision, yes… He must have earned it. I'm just following orders…」
Niklaus mumbles to himself with his head hanging low. He glances with surprised eyes at the door when he hears something resembling a giggle coming through it.
「I'll… I'll check how she's doing in an hour or two… Yeah…」
Niklaus mumbles, staring at the door with dead eyes. He places his hands in his pockets, and walks away with his gaze on the dimly-lit floor. As he ascends the stairs, another scream echoes through the dark corridor…
…
In the morning, in the capital's streets…
Heading to attend to some trifling issues, Lily walks through the city's streets causing minor panic with her presence as usual. Hidden behind the gray clouds, the sun feels pleasantly weak on her pale skin.
As she walks past one of the city's large cemeteries, she notices a curious sight that makes her pause her step. A large group of sobbing, crying women, and equal amount of men with sour faces standing at a freshly-dug and covered grave. The women lay flowers on the grave, and hug their crying faces into each other, as well as the men.
A few moments later, one of the men notices Lily is looking at the group. He gently nudges the sobbing mass the other way, and they move to exit the cemetery. Out of curiosity, Lily approaches the grave and looks at the pile of flowers.
「Hmpf.」
Lily scoffs, amused at the dead man's short life. Her crimson eyes continue looking at the gravestone.
《What a pathetic farce. Dying so frequently, and they still find the time to cry over each other?》
She thinks, smirking disdainfully at the many colors of the flowers rendered washed-out by the rapidly graying sky. Her smirk quickly dissipates, and she stares at the grave in silence for a few minutes.
《…Humans die quick, don't they? Either a plague, a famine, injuries… So fragile. It takes no effort to kill one at all.》
Lily attempts to scoff again as she thinks about all the examples of human transience she saw over her 1012 year old vampiric lifespan, but finds herself unable to even smirk. A human's face briefly flashes before her eyes, and she lowers her gaze towards her dress.
《…He's human, too…》
She thinks, clenching her teeth in frustration. Droplets fall from the sky, initially sparse, but soon it transforms into a real rain. Lily reaches for her parasol.
《Ah. Of course…》
She thinks, as her clawed hand grasps at the empty air. Her fingers slink into her collar, and pull at a delicate chain upward. She raises the crescent moon necklace up on her palm, intently looking at it.
《Of course… Straf gave me this. I don't need my parasol anymore…》
The human's face flashes before her eyes again. A cold rain pours down from the sky, but Lily easily ignores it as it soaks her hair and dress.
《…Is it going to end like this, too?》
She looks up from the crescent moon back at the grave stone with fearful crimson eyes. She can almost see it, Straf Katastrof Vindict carved into the stone to keep her company for the rest of eternity, in lieu of Straf himself.
《…I don't want it. I hate it. Is that all I will have left? Just things? I don't want it… I hate it.》
Lily clenches her teeth, thinking about Straf's gift of the frozen moment. A familiar, uncomfortable feeling spreads in her chest. Her crimson eyes see Straf's face again.
「Hey. Someone you knew?」
Straf's face says, looking in her slit eyes.
「…Huh?」
Lily blinks, looking at the dead man's face.
「The dead guy.」
Straf nods his head at the grave.
「Huh!? Straf!?」
「Yeah, who else?」
Straf grins with a scoff at Lily's panicked reaction, as she shoves the necklace back into her collar.
「No, I don't know this human at all.」
She replies, looking at the grave.
「Right. So you're just summoning rain? Seriously, what's with graveyards and rain? Maybe instead of dancing around a fire, people should longingly stare at gravestones. Rain guaranteed, or you get your tragic flashbacks back!」
Straf says, chuckling.
「What?」
「Forget it, you were supposed to find me, Lily. But never mind that, I found you first, I guess I'm just better at hide and seek. I've got something for you, but let's see Lia first, alright?」
Straf nods his head towards the cemetery's exit. Lily still remains stunned the dead man is indeed talking with her as if his mortality didn't matter. She meekly nods back.
「Right. Come on, you're scaring the shit out of the people. Kind of hard to grieve for a dead guy if you might be next.」
Straf says, walking back to the streets. Lily glances over her shoulder, and indeed, a large mass of people is waiting some distance away with flowers in hands. She quickly catches up to Straf, and they depart for the palace…