In the throne room, in the evening…
「Ah, Straf! How did it go?」
With her fingers interlocked in her lap, Cycelia jolts out of her slump in the throne, still wearing her royal regalia.
「The will of the people manifested. You want to see the results?」
Straf asks, looking at a piece of paper in his hand as he walks up to the steps of the throne.
「Yes!」
She nods her crowned head with a smile.
「Are you suuure? You're still the queen, but if you see the results and don't hand the power over, you'll be a liar.」
Straf asks with a smirk, flapping the paper in his hand. His statement gives Cycelia a pause, and she momentarily twiddles her thumbs as she lowers her gaze.
「I'm sure. I'm confident my idea will work out. The people deserve to rule themselves.」
She lifts her eyes and nods at Straf with a determined expression.
「Well if you say so! I'm inclined to agree that they brought democracy onto themselves.」
Straf chuckles softly, handing Cycelia the paper with an amused smirk on his face. She blinks at him in confusion for a second, before reading the results.
「Wow. That's a lot of votes. I thought that people may deem this important, but this is surprising even to me.」
Cycelia remarks, looking distinctly amazed by the paper's contents with her eyes open wide.
「Yeah? Why's that?」
Straf asks as his brows slowly rise.
「Only about a third of the population can read, but eight tenths voted.」
She looks up from the paper at Straf, looking at him with naive emerald eyes.
《Ohhhhh sssssshiiiiiiiittt!》
Straf grins nervously and looks out of the tall windows at the side.
「Well I guess they had volunteers helping them read! Ain't that nice, Lia? The whole country coming together to manifest their will…」
Straf says with his hand in his pocket. Cycelia tilts her head, looking at Straf's grinning profile.
《Wow, he's usually so reserved, but he looks happy it's all working out well, too! And he's embarrassed about it! How cute!》
She tilts her head further, smiling. Straf glances at her, gauging whether or not she bought the explanation.
《How did this one slip my fucking mind!? Why did I not ask him about the literacy rate too!?》
「So uh, what do you think about the results, Lia?」
He deflects, grinning at Cycelia.
「Ah. I only read the total tally so far. Let's see…」
She breaks out of her contented warm smile, and her eyes return to the paper.
「I see… Sixty to forty split… Ah, candidate Albrecht lost? Tsk.」
Cycelia clicks her tongue and scrunches her mouth to the side in displeasure as she continues reading.
「He was your favorite, huh? Is the will of the people not right this time around?」
Straf nods up at Cycelia with a grin, and his fist on his hip.
「Ah- That's not it! The results are what they are…」
Cycelia shakes her head and hands in denial, and looks back to the paper.
「…And Sir Vinis is a prominent landowner, he has experience managing vasts swathes of land. I'm sure he'll do fine. I see Baron Hauser received over a thousand votes… Candidate Hartman received… Zero? Did she not vote for herself?」
She looks up to Straf with her brows furrowed in confusion.
「Well, Lia, maybe she just figured out her whole idea for running the kingdom is stupid, and she gave up?」
Straf shrugs his hand with a smug smirk, and places his fist back on his hip.
「Don't say that, Straf. This is meant to be a chance for the people to try new things, after all… It's good that the results are now known, but one thing concerns me a little, Straf…」
She lowers the paper to her lap and her green eyes look up at Straf, with her face bearing a tight-lipped grimace.
「Uh… And that is?…」
He cautiously asks.
「…The guards told me they saw an odd occurrence. The citizens were showing their vote forms to certain men, and once they cast their vote, they were handed some money. It almost seemed like they were being paid to vote a certain way…」
Cycelia explains with an uncomfortable expression on her face. A brief, awkward silence begins.
「…Do you know anything about that, Straf?」
She asks, looking Straf into his eyes as her eyelashes flutter in front of her emerald-green eyes.
《Shit. Is that an accusation? No, wait, stay cool…》
「Well, Lia… I might have seen something like that happening, yeah.」
Straf nonchalantly shrugs, placing his hand in his pocket. Cycelia lets out a troubled sigh.
「…As I thought. Doesn't this invalidate the election results, Straf? If Sir Vinis, or someone else bought their votes-」
「Well Lia, hold up just one second…」
「Eh?」
Cycelia tilts her head as Straf points his palm at her, interrupting her.
「…Even if he bought his votes, there's no law against it, right?」
He asks, shrugging his shoulders.
「Be that as it may, it's still-」
She nods her head in agreement, but protests with another point. Straf cuts in again.
「Lia, if you declare the results invalid because someone did something you didn't like, what if it happens again? And then again? And again? How many times will the people have to vote? You'll undermine the trust in the rest of the results.」
Straf explains, placing his hand back in his pocket as he looks down at her with a slanted mouth. Cycelia goes silent, and her gaze drifts down to the ground. She lets out another, soft sigh.
「But… Is this really the will of the people?」
She looks up again with furrowed brows, twiddling her thumbs.
「Well… The way I see it, Lia… They wanted to sell their votes more than they wanted their vote to matter, right? I'd say that's the will of the people. And if you don't like the fact he bought votes, you can always make it illegal in the next one.」
He shrugs his shoulders, and Cycelia's sullen mood slowly improves.
「…You're right, I'll have to make that my last decree.」
She nods, speaking with a still downcast voice.
「And!… Isn't it a good thing, in the end? He outplayed you, that means he's pretty clever, right? Isn't it a good thing if someone like that is running the country in your name?」
Straf rationalizes to Cycelia, and she slowly nods her head with more vigor.
「…You're right. You're right. I'm just upset because it wasn't like I envisioned it, but I'm sure it'll turn out well in the end.」
She smiles at Straf, giving him one more powerful nod.
「Captain, tell the town criers to assemble the people outside the balcony in half an hour for the results of the election. And send a maid to immediately invite Sir Vinis, tell her to make it clear it's urgent. I have things to discuss with him by tonight.」
She turns her head to the young captain beside the throne, and commands him while he attentively listens.
「Yes, your highness! Right away!」
The captain salutes, and hastily runs down the steps and to the door. Cycelia lets out a deep sigh when he disappears behind the corner.
「Straf, will you accompany me while I deliver the results? Please.」
Cycelia meekly requests, with her hand on her chest in a loose fist.
「Sure thing. I'll just go check on the bank real quick. When do you think those new lamps will be up?」
He asks, taking a few steps for the exit.
「In two, three days, I believe? The Mages' guild in the capital is on very bad terms with the Mage Federation due to Tolwick, they're rather happy to sell in bulk.」
「…Due to who?」
Straf furrows his brows at the unfamiliar name.
「Um. Tolwick. Do you not remember him? The mercenary mage?…」
Cycelia tilts her head, blinking at Straf with a tight-lipped grimace. Straf furrows his brows, and his gaze shoots sideways while he deeply thinks about something.
「Oh. Whatever happened to those mercenaries anyway? Tripped into a budget hole? Where are they?」
Straf shrugs his hand as he asks, shaking his head a little with his brows still furrowed.
「They're all acting as essentially retinue adventurers all over the kingdom. Peacekeeping, culling monsters, such and such… Except Tolwick. He's here in the palace somewhere. Or the city.」
Cycelia shrugs her shoulders and gently leans side to side while explaining the usurper's mercenaries' whereabouts.
「…And what's he doing?」
Straf shakes his head in confusion again.
「Research. So he keeps saying…」
She shrugs again, tapping her fingers together as her emerald eyes drift aside. With a grimace, Straf hesitantly nods his head, and throws his hands up with a shrug of his shoulders.
「Alright. I'll see you in half an hour, then.」
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「Mhm.」
Straf says, and departs, with an acknowledging nod from Cycelia…
…
In the meantime, in another throne room, in the Rankor Kingdom.
「Your majesty, I have brought you something interesting.」
A man says approaching the man in the throne, holding a rectangular piece of paper in his hand.
「What interesting thing could a steward possibly bring me?」
The bored young man slumped on the throne's armrest asks. The steward walks up, and hands the king the rectangular slip of paper.
「…What is this?」
He takes the paper in his hands, sounding almost displeased as he asks.
「Apparently, the Redwing Kingdom's new money, King Nide.」
The steward explains, pointing his palm to the drake in the young king's hands.
「Money? Paper money?」
King Nide asks, sneering at the worthless piece of paper.
「It's very popular with the merchants, your majesty. In fact, I believe we should introduce something akin to this ourselves. It's genius, really.」
The steward shrugs his shoulders, holding his hands behind his back.
「Why? Paper, really? That Redwing queen is really ridiculous. First the peace terms, now her money…」
With an amused smirk, the young man flips the paper around to its other side, shaking his head.
「It's light, your majesty. Saves the merchants cargo capac-」
「Wha-」
King Nide lets out a surprised grunt when he takes a good look at the other side of the drake, surprising and interrupting the steward himself.
「…What's wrong, your majesty?」
The steward leans in closer to peek at the drake with furrowed brows, as the young king stares at the golden drake in slack-jawed awe.
「…Is that her?」
King Nide asks, looking at Cycelia's non-existent portrait pictured on the drake.
「…Well I believe so, your majesty. Quite amazing, isn't it? The quality of the art? And they are mass produced too-」
「No, no. Is that how she really looks like?」
The young king interrupts the steward's explanation, staring at Cycelia's faintly smiling face.
「Er… Well, I believe so? I've heard she's somewhere around your age, your majesty… Quite a deceitful face, isn't it?」
The steward remarks, taking a peek at her mostly serious face as well.
「What did you mean by that?」
King Nide peels his eyes away from the golden drake to glare at the steward, with a barely veiled scowl.
「I- Er… Well… She's quite competent, and gathered some quite mighty people under her banner, hasn't she? She has the face of a doll, not a grand ruler…」
The steward awkwardly explains himself, trying to deflect some of the hateful glare of the young king.
「Yes… She is… And she does…」
The king returns his eyes to Cycelia, nodding his head slowly as he agrees with the steward's placating.
「Ahem… Your majesty, if we introduced similar money, our trades would become far more profitable. These can be exchanged for gold, this one in particular for 25 of the Redwing Kingdom's gold coins.」
「Uh-huh, implement it…」
The king nods his head, still looking at Cycelia's face, more preoccupied with the drake than what the steward has to say…
…
A few moments later, in the Royal Reserve Bank…
「Goooooood evening, I want to hear how much gold we've gained over the course-」
In an exaggerated manner, Straf goose-steps inside with a loud thud on the wooden floor, smugly grinning.
「The steward reserved four hundred gold to pay the Mages' guild, sir.」
The bank teller cuts in.
「Four fucking hundred!?」
Straf exclaims, and clenches his teeth in anguish.
「Yes sir. Four hundred. And we've redeemed roughly a hundred gold coins for drakes, sir.」
She nods her head, and adds.
「Fuck!」
Slap!
Straf shouts, and places his palm on his face within the same split second.
「Whatcha so upset about, Straf?」
Nona asks, rocking in Niklaus's chair idly with her boots on the ground.
「The looming budget hole that I can't seem to patch completely.」
Straf says, rubbing his face with his hand before dropping it limp.
「Ahahaha! Sounds tough! I don't get it though!」
She giggles and grins at Straf, slumping onto the desk with her elbows.
「Ahh, whatever, it's still net positive… Where's Niklaus? Did he quit? Is he slacking off?」
Straf shrugs his shoulders as he mumbles to himself, then glances at and nods his head up at Nona.
「The boss? Hmm… He's out working somewhere. I haven't seen him, but sometimes the Ministea people tell me he caught someone, and I have to go with them.」
Nona glances aside as she hums, then her amber eyes look up into Straf's while she replies.
「Right… I'll be gone for a day or two tomorrow, so I want you to make sure he's doing his job. And I want you to do yours. Alright?」
Straf requests, with a slanted mouth and his fist on his hip.
「Okaay.」
Nona nods her head, smiling gently. Straf snaps his fingers, and turns for the exit as he points at her.
「…Are you going to the beach with the queen?」
She suddenly asks, laying on her forearms on the desk.
「Yup. That's the plan, why?」
Straf asks over his shoulder while standing in the doorway with his hand in his pocket.
「No reason. Just curious.」
Nona listlessly shrugs her shoulders, pulling the corner of her mouth to the side a little. Straf nods his head in silence, shrugs, then leaves. Nona sighs, and looks aside at the wall with an upset frown…
…
A few minutes later, in the palace, in the balcony room…
「I'm back.」
Straf announces, walking in with his hand in his pocket. Cycelia sighs in relief, halting her pacing around the room.
「Straf… I'm glad. Right on time, too.」
She says, smiling at Straf as she idly plays with her sapphire-set medallion.
「Ready for the big announcement?」
Straf asks with a smirk.
「No, of course not. Let's go.」
Cycelia says jokingly, and turns for the open balcony's tall window door.
「Just remember what I told you.」
Straf emphasizes, following her onto the balcony.
A large crowd has gathered, although smaller than usual due to the relatively late hour. Dressed in her full royal regalia, with her late father's crown on her chestnut head and a golden scepter in her hand, she places her hand on the balustrade.
The murmuring crowd goes silent when they see the queen peer down at them, awaiting her words.
「Good people of the kingdom! I bring you the results of the elections! The manifestation of your will!」
She exclaims in a loud voice, pointing her palm at the people below with her fingers lightly spread in a very energetic pose. Her fur-trimmed royal mantle flutters gently in the cool evening wind. She reaches for her pocket, and pulls a folded paper out.
「Over six million of you have made your wishes clear! With a six to four split between candidate Albrecht and Sir Vinis, the voice of the people has spoken in the favor of Sir Vinis!」
She exclaims, and Straf suppresses a snicker. His mouth wobbles as he holds back laughter. She quickly glances at him with her brows furrowed in mild confusion, and her gaze quickly returns to the audience.
「I wish to congratulate candidate Albrecht for coming so close to victory! But as I have envisioned it, the will of the majority must be respected! And as such, tomorrow, exactly at noon's bell, while I will remain your queen, I will no longer be your ruler!」
She proclaims, folding the paper back into her pocket and once again posing with her palm out at the lukewarm audience. Straf watches on with bored eyes.
「Sir Vinis is a prestigious wine magnate, and I'm certain he will lead the kingdom to prosperity just as he leads his wine business! Remember that his rule is not eternal, and if you are not satisfied with his rule, you can vote again in a few years' time!」
Cycelia says, and the lethargic crowd slowly starts to disperse. She frowns, and her brows furrow at the sight of the bored faces watching her.
「…Additionally, to celebrate, tomorrow there will be a free feast and day of no labor-!」
「Hail Queen Cycelia! Hail the rightful ruler of the kingdom!」
The crowd suddenly shouts out, swinging their arms up in cheers. Straf nods his head in approval with his brows raised.
「Wow. You're learning, Lia.」
Straf commends Cycelia with an exaggerated smile as he nods.
「…I won't be the ruler of the kingdom, though. Eheh…」
She awkwardly smiles back, quietly giggling under her breath. The crowd's fervor only continues to grow as they chant praises.
「Hail Queen Cycelia!」 「Hail Queen Cycelia!」 「Hail Queen Cycelia!」
They scream in unison, slowly shortening the chant in a shortcut to efficient crowd mania.
「Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail!」 「Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail!」 「Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail!」
The crowd shouts, powerfully waving their hands at Cycelia with each chant. Straf lifts his brow as he spots a familiar face in the crowd looking around like a fish out of the water.
Holding onto the brim of her hat so she doesn't lose it in the crowd, Nona is looking around the street down below. She looks up at balcony, and notices Straf. He lifts his palm at her, acknowledging her.
Happy that she's been noticed from such a distance and in such a vast crowd, with a smile she lifts her palm up at the balcony to acknowledge Straf as well. Ironically, this makes her blend in with the crowd a lot more…