A few moments later…

Straf walks past the city gate with Cycelia by his side, weaving through the crowd coming in and out of the city.

「…I assume that prick is in the new government building?」

He asks, glancing at Cycelia.

「Do you mean Sir Vinis?…」

She asks, but Straf's silence and his tight-lipped grimace is telling by itself.

「…Yes. Why did you give the order to buy up steel and iron, Straf? Ah- I'm not saying that you shouldn't, but…」

Her emerald eyes blink at him as she tilts her head, gently furrowing her brows.

「You'll see, Lia… I figure the market should be pretty dry right now, and the merchants will be probably catching wind of the new prices soon…」

Straf shrugs as they arrive to a crowded intersection. He briefly stops in the middle to rub his chin, deep in thought.

「…That's when we'll profit too. Well, the point is two-fold… No, three-fold, even…」

He continues walking down the road as he explains. Cycelia continues listening with her brows furrowed somewhat, but so far still following and nodding along.

「…Speculators will speculate the craziest shit, leading to all sorts of bubbles, but all that is secondary to-」

Straf stops in his tracks again as he looks at someone past Cycelia's chestnut head. He stares off to the side of the road with his fists on his hips and a tight-lipped grimace on his face, appearing a little incredulous and maybe slightly amused. Confused for a few seconds as to why, she peeks over her shoulder, and her green eyes scan through the crowd for someone of interest. She can't really find anyone noteworthy, but when she glances at Straf's face again, she realizes that he is staring directly at a man in a dark cloak standing off to the side of the road, turned away from them.

「Hey, buddy!… Pulling a hood over your face doesn't make you inconspicuous!」

Shrugging his arms, Straf shouts the man's way as he's tugging at his hood's edge. With a look of frustration on his face, the man side-glances at Straf and Cycelia from beneath his cloak.

「Huh? Who is that, Straf? Do you know him?」

Cycelia asks, her head swiveling between the two.

「No… And honestly, I have no idea, Lia. I just saw this guy tag along with us and I thought he's just a part of the faceless mob…」

He points his hand at the man across the street. Standing by the buildings and ignored by the crowd, he clenches his teeth at the two and reaches into his dark cloak.

「…Did you do anything to piss anyone off lately? Politically speaking.」

Straf asks as the man pulls a dagger out from beneath the fabric. Its blade glints in the afternoon sun.

「Huh? No I don't think-」

Cycelia's voice suddenly cuts out as Straf feels time slow to a crawl while staring at the man. With a dagger in his hand, his posture is very obviously hostile and preparing for combat, but he doesn't appear to yet be doing anything outright threatening. Straf's brows furrow. He glances at Cycelia's pretty face frozen still, her collected emerald-green eyes look at him calmly despite the imminent danger.

《…Okay, focus. Why did it activate if he's just standing there?》

Straf rubs his chin, narrowing his eyes at the cloaked man ahead. He takes a quick look around the crowd.

《Ah. Well, that makes sense.》

He shrugs his hand at the sight of two men behind them, frozen in their mad rush towards him. Both are wearing same the dark cloaks as the third man. One of them has their dagger raised and ready to drive it into Straf's neck, and the other one intends to deliver a two-handed thrust into his back with his. Straf casually continues to rub his chin as he analyzes the situation.

《Okay… Is Lia in a considerable danger right now?-》

He swivels his head around looking for imminent danger to Cycelia as she stands there, frozen in time just like everyone else. His brows furrow.

《…Wait, if they're after her, why are they attacking me?》

He grimaces heavily, thinking for a few moments. He looks around her, and the third attacker caught off-guard aside, he doesn't see any threat that isn't directed at him.

《Oh well… I can just beat the shit out of these guys and ask them questions. Don't fix what's not broken.》

Straf shrugs, resigning to the old and tried method as he reaches for the raised wrist of the man behind him. He squeezes it firmly, hard enough to have a painful and tight grip without causing injury, and holds his free hand out for the second man's face in a fist, waiting for him to ram into it as he pulls the man's wrist forward to throw him onto the cobblestones. As the attacker in his grasp is lifted off his feet like a ragdoll, Straf feels the normal flow of time return.

「…So- Straf!」

With her emerald eyes widening at the sight of a dagger behind Straf, Cycelia shouts a warning, but it's already too late. One of Straf's attackers smashes his face on the fist that suddenly appeared before him, bouncing off as if he just ran into a brick wall, his nose spraying blood all over himself.

Yanked by his arm and with a grimace of confused shock on his face, the second man flips over Straf. He pulls his arm downward in an effort to lay the man out on the cobblestones.

Rrrrip-crunch…

However, not all goes to plan. The second man is sent flying across the street towards the third one, while his arm remains firmly in Straf's grip.

「…Eh?」

Straf blinks, lightly grinning with a mixture of confusion and embarrassment as he watches the man splatter the crowd below him with blood. His dismembered arm sprinkles the passersby in red like an aspergillum. All of it happens far too quick for anyone except Straf to process, but he can only watch it unfold.

…Splat!

「What!?」「Mercia's grace!…」「What happened!?」

Men and women scream in panic as something black flutters loudly above their heads, spraying them with something warm, only to then flatten on a nearby building like a tomato.

Plap.

The mushy, wet, deflated cloak peels off the wall and lands on the cobblestones below with a wet, clothy sound. Seeing the large red splatter on the wall, the other peoples' faces covered in blood, and realizing that hers is too, a woman lets out a high-pitched shriek. A panic breaks out, and the crowd quickly clears the general area around Straf, Cycelia, and their attackers.

「Wh- What?…」

The third man, the one that Straf spotted first, shakily turns his eyes to the dripping blood splatter on the wall, then lowers his gaze to what's left of the cloak-wrapped man on the floor. He takes an evasive step away as the squashed man's blood flows towards his feet. Panicked, he looks at the third assassin who appears to be mostly fine aside from his bloodied face, though he's down on the ground.

「Uh… This is a little awkward…」

Straf remarks as he looks at the limp dismembered arm hanging in his hand. Tight-lipped, he glances at Cycelia. Her emerald eyes dart between the arm and the rest of the man, equally shocked and visibly shaking, albeit gently. Straf turns his gaze to the third man and focuses his eyes on him.

[|||||||||||||||||||||||||------]

Completely ignoring everything else, Straf turns his gaze away, content after confirming that he is, in fact, alive. Taken aback by Cycelia's reaction and the unintended result of his throw, he rubs the back of his neck, thinking heavily with his mouth aslant as he looks at the remaining attacker. Their gazes meet, and the man breaks into a sprint down the empty street towards the crowd of onlookers consciously avoiding the area near the crossing.

「Hey! Hold it!…」

Straf shouts at the man, but a quick glance at Cycelia's deeply unnerved face makes him reconsider physically stopping him. He clicks his tongue and lets out an exasperated sigh.

《…What happened? I just wanted the guy on the floor, not splattered on the fucking wall!》

He thinks with a troubled grimace on his face, looking at the dripping arm socket with his mouth aslant.

「Wait…」

Straf's head perks up as his mind conjures up multiple instances of him ripping out doors from their hinges.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

《…Was it me and not them cheaping out on doors all along?》

Arriving at an unnerving conclusion, he rubs his chin with his brows greatly furrowed.

「S- Straf, are you O- Ok- Kay?…」

Cycelia asks with a tight-lipped grimace while fidgeting with her medallion.

「Uh… Yeah. How about you?…」

He nods, and the two look at each other for a moment in an awkward atmosphere.

「I'm unharmed…」

「No, I mean like… Mentally. You know I wouldn't hurt you, right?」

Straf shakes his head and taps his temple with his free hand's finger, seemingly in a competition with Cycelia as to who can narrow their lips more.

「No! That's not it!… It's just…」

She wildly shakes her chestnut head, then her troubled gaze escapes sideways towards the bloodied cloak on the ground.

「…That was very sudden and more violent than what I'm used to. I'm fine, I just need a moment to calm down.」

She adds, shrugging her shoulders as her large emerald eyes return to Straf.

「…Right…」

He nods with a discomforted sigh, then glances at the arm still in his grasp. Unsure what to do with it, he decides to walk up to its owner, lift his bloodied cloak up, then slip it underneath.

「…Maybe a healer can do something with it.」

Straf throws his arms up then places his hands in his pockets as he returns to Cycelia.

「I don't… I don't think a healer can do much there.」

She meekly replies as the two turn their attention to the man knocked out on the ground beside them.

「…Or maybe a potion.」

He shrugs and sighs again. A few moments later, the man begins to move again, groaning heavily.

「Who do you figure these guys are?」

「I don't know… Maybe a local gang?」

Cycelia replies, turning and twisting her medallion in her fingers while watching the attacker shake off his grogginess. His eyes snap wide open when he realizes they're standing over him.

「You're going to answer some questions for me, buddy, or you're going to end up like that guy over there…」

Straf nods at the large blood splatter on the building across the street.

「…Which was an accident, I may add!… The first time it ever-」

He loudly proclaims with his index finger extended. He quickly recalls a buttery sword slipping out of his hand.

「…The second time it ever happened to me!」

Straf corrects himself, and points at the man on the floor.

「…When was the first one?」

Cycelia asks, furrowing her brows at Straf.

「Don't worry about it Lia, it's not your fault. Anyway…」「Huh?」

Straf dismissively waves his hand at her, shaking his head. She grows further confused, and a little unnerved.

「…Now start talking. Who are you, and who do you work for? Why'd you try to stab me, asshole?」

He points down at the man again, glaring at him before placing his pointing hand back in his pocket.

「Heheh… What makes you think I'll tell you?…」

With his teeth bloodied and red, the man grins up at Straf. He stares back at him with an incredulous, tight-lipped grimace.

「…Lia, cover your eyes until you hear a splat.」「Eh?」

Straf reaches for the man, pulling him up by his clothes and alarming Cycelia.

「Wait wait wait! If you kill him, we won't find out what this was about!」

While the cloaked attacker struggles against Straf's unyielding grip on his clothes, Cycelia also grabs onto Straf's forearms and pleads with Straf for the man's sake.

「…I mean, do we really care? I'm really busy lately, and I don't think I have the time to break down this guy's deep backstory and intriguing motivations.」

Straf asks, letting go with one hand only to point it at the man as he replies.

「Hah… You're marked for death, Straf Katastrof Vindict. If not us, then somebody else.」

The man suddenly chimes in, grinning at Straf's unimpressed handsome face.

「So, who sent you? Telas, Parnatau, or maybe that blondie from the Academy?」

Straf asks as his brows slowly rise.

「Hahahaha…」

As the man cackles, Straf rolls his eyes.

「…That kind of narrows it down. So, which one is it? Some sort of a death cult assassin secret club, or the Eastern Kingdoms?」

「Wha-!?」

The assassin's eyes widen in shock at the question.

「Look, I already know it's either of these two, how about you go on a long monologue explaining your motivations now?」

Straf shrugs, grimacing heavily at the stunned man. Recovering from his initial shock, he scoffs, grinning.

「…I don't know how you figured it out, but it's meaningless. You're already dead, you don't even know it yet-」

「I do know it, stop rubbing it in my face. Now get to the point.」

Visibly growing irate, Straf violently shakes the man.

「Kkuhh… More will come. Her Divine Embodiment watches over our sacrifice for peace and prosperity. There's nothing you can do to me that I'm not prepared for.」

The cloaked man declares, squeezing onto Straf's wrists with all his might. Straf remains unimpressed.

「…Her Divine What? Explain-」

「I've heard a little about it from Stripe. It's apparently the dominant religion in the Eastern Kingdoms.」

Cycelia chimes in, blinking her emerald eyes at Straf.

「Stripe?… What happened to her?…」

Hearing the name, the man asks with his eyes narrowed. Ministry of Security agents squeeze through the crowd.

「Well, aren't you curious?…」

Straf scoffs, waiting for the agents to run up.

「Minister!…」「Minister!… What happened!?」

A group of five agents run up, though they fan out across the scene, leaving only two to approach Straf. He hands them the failed assassin.

「…Long story short, spies. The third one ran off, all three were wearing these shitty cloaks that stand out like sore thumbs. Question this guy.」

Straf explains, shrugging his shoulders as his now-freed hands snake their way into his pockets.

「Are you alright, your majesty?」

「Yes, I'm fine, thank you…」

One of the agents asks restraining the man asks, to which Cycelia nods her chestnut head.

「…I'll walk you home to the palace, then I gotta see Nona and that deadbeat. Come, Lia.」

Straf walks off a few steps towards the palace, waiting for Cycelia to join him. After a moment of hesitation joins his side, the two then head down the street back to the palace…