「Sir Straf! My barmaid will take you to them! Please give me a moment!」

The innkeeper says, panting heavily for air after a short jog. He looks back towards a waitress serving a table, and waves his hand at her. She fails to notice, and the innkeeper begins flailing his arm about frantically while grimacing nervously with his teeth clenched.

Finally, she notices and runs up. The barmaid looks at her boss, Straf, then Cycelia.

「Yes?」

「These are the very important guests I've told you about. Take them to the rooms.」

The innkeeper tries to whisper into her ear, but the inn is far too loud to permit it. He ends up simply talking in a hushed tone.

「Got it.」

She nods, the innkeeper shoves keys into her hands.

「And be more refined!」

He urges her through his clenched teeth.

「Um. Understood.」

「How much for the rooms and the food?」

Straf gets up and asks, and the innkeeper begins rubbing his hands with a disingenuous smile. Cycelia takes it as a cue to get up as well, and pushes her chair back into the table.

「Two silvers total, sir.」

「Man, what a ripoff. Whatever, here.」

Coins clink into the his hands as Straf drops them in. The innkeeper's eyes go wide when he looks at them while he gasps for air, and bows almost full 90 degrees.

「Thank you for your generosity, sir Straf! I hope you and lady Lia have a pleasant stay!」

Without lifting his head or turning away from them, the innkeeper walks away.

「I will take you to your rooms. Come- Please come with me.」

The barmaid says and moves towards the stairs. Cycelia looks at Straf inquisitively.

「Straf, how much did you give him? He looked really happy about that-」

「Two gold.」

「Wha-!?」

Cycelia's jaw drops, the barmaid's head snaps at Straf over her shoulder with huge eyes as they climb the stairs.

「That's a lot! Are you sure you can just afford to throw money around like that, Straf?」

「Yeah, why not? If you tip way more than what's reasonable, you give off the impression of being neck-deep in organized crime.」

Straf shrugs.

「Why would you want that?」

Cycelia stares at Straf with her mouth open. Straf side-glances at her.

「You mean aside from the blatantly better treatment you receive? It's funny.」

The barmaid unlocks and opens one of the doors, then presents the doorway with her palms.

「Here's your room, sir… Um… Uh…」

She looks aside with a discomforted grimace. Straf puts his hands on hips hips and sighs.

「…You forgot my name already, haven't you?」

「I- Yes… I'm sorry, sir. I've been told how important it is, but I have a hard time remembering things when I'm nervous.」

The barmaid bows apologetically, keeping her head low as she speaks.

「He screamed down your throat, that you're fired if we're not happy, huh?」

「…Yes. Please do not tell him. I have no other means to pay for myself.」

「How much do you get paid?」

Straf asks with his fists on his hips.

「Six coppers, sir.」

The barmaid looks up only to nod and lower her head again.

「Wooow. Per hour?」

「Per day.」

「Woooooooooooooooow. Take this, then.」

Straf digs around in his pocket and drops some coins into her hands. Her face twists into baffled shock, and she shoves her hands back at Straf.

「What!? No! I can't! This is way too much!」

The underpaid waitress protests, while staring at the 4 gold coins cupped in her hands.

《My, Straf is such a great guy!》

Cycelia puts her hands on her cheeks, smiling as she witnesses the scene.

「Tsk. It's alright, take them. I gave that cheap prick 2 of them, after all.」

The barmaid looks up at Straf who dismissively waves his hand, and lowers her hands.

「Can I get your name again, sir? I'll do my best to remember.」

She clutches onto her coins, locking eyes with him.

「I'm Straf. Katastrof. Vindict. Remember that.」

Straf enunciates each part of his name. The woman nods.

「I will, sir Straf. Thank you.」

The barmaid says as she hides her gold coins into her cleavage. She presents a key on her hand, and Straf takes it, giving it a momentary glance. The waitress opens the door across Straf's room, and once again presents it with her hands.

「And this is your room, lady… I'm sorry. I forgot as well.」

The barmaid turns to Cycelia, and sighs in disappointment at herself.

「It's Cy- Lia.」

Cycelia stops herself short of giving the barmaid her real name.

「...Cylia?」

「No, just Lia.」

「I see. I will try my best to remember as well, lady Lia.」

She bows politely, then presents her the key to her room. Cycelia takes it, and stuffs it in a pocket of her skirt.

「If there is anything else you need, please let me know. I will bring breakfast to your rooms in the morning.」

As the barmaid bows, Straf and Cycelia watch as she leaves towards the stairs.

「Well then. Goodnight, Lia. Don't let the closeted assassins stab.」

Straf takes a step into his room, his eyebrows rise when he notices how much more furnished it is. A small dining table has been placed in the room, right in front of the wide bed with three pillows on it. A fancy and ornate red carpet, right beyond the door on the wooden flooring, tops off all the decorations in an otherwise boring, and standard inn room.

「Huh. They really went all in on these two rooms didn't they-」

「Straf! Wait…」

Cycelia calls out to Straf, standing in her own room's doorway.

「What?」

「It's still a little too early for me too fall asleep easily. Wouldn't you like to… Come to my room… And tell me more about those banknotes?」

She asks, looking aside and twirling her hair. Straf's mouth twists into a very slight grin.

「Yeah. We can talk central banking all night.」

He nods, and struts confidently into Cycelia's room. She locks the door with a soft latch…

…

…A few hours later, at another inn, in another city.

「Ahhhh… I'm so tired…」

Greaves drops into his chair with a loud, exhausted sigh and leans back with his arms over the backrest. The rest of the party sits down at the table as well. Will lifts his hand at a waitress, and lowers it when she nods at him while serving another table. He turns his head to Lian, who doesn't seem that fatigued at all.

「Lian, are you sure you don't want to split the reward evenly-」

Will asks, and Greaves shoots forward, slapping his hand on the table.

「Will! We carried that stupid pelt of hers all the way to the city! That's her payment!」

He protests angrily, slumping after slapping the table a few times more.

「…Correct. Just a few coins, and what I got from the fur is enough.」

Lian smiles gently, hugging her spear while sitting in her chair with her legs crossed.

「See!?」

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Greaves points his palm at Lian, and leans back again. Will clicks his tongue, shifting around in his seat.

「…I just don't feel too good about that. It's like we're ripping you off, Lian. We'd be dead if not for you. Even the guild was surprised that it was a topdog causing all of this chaos.」

Will sets his staff aside, propped up on the table near Alicia's wand.

「Will, from my point of view, you are the ones being ripped off, as you call it. I can't imagine killing a beast like that for a few small pieces of metal. I only grew accustomed to it after a few long months, but it's odd to me even now.」

The spearwoman's face is serious as she looks straight at Will.

「Lian, those were gold coins. Two gold coins. It's not any pieces of metal. That's going to fuel our adventure for a decent while.」

「Pft. Gold. So what? Can you eat that gold? Can you make a weapon out of it? Armor? Gold is worthless for all three of these things. Meanwhile, I will have nice and warm bracers that will help me keep swords away from my hands.」

Lian scoffs, rolling her eyes with a slight smirk.

「What did you buy stuff with then? You're all clan this and clan that, how did you buy anything if you didn't use gold or silver?」

Greaves asks Lian with an incredulous tone and a slack jaw. She turns her gaze towards him.

「Why, beast parts, of course. Every now and then when we had to trade for something, we would use valuable pieces like bone, scales or hide. Hard metals are what we traded for the most. Steel, not gold.」

Lian replies with a similarly serious expression. Alicia leans sideways a little to get a better look at her.

「Um, I have a different question. What did you farm on your islands? Were there any vegetables that aren't here-」

Alicia asks, and Lian interrupts her.

「We didn't farm. Farming is for the serfs and lesser clans. I do miss the cliff pumpkins though.」

Lian spreads her hands, sighing a little.

「…Cliff pumpkins?」

Alicia tilts her head.

「Yes. The pumpkins here are nothing alike. Ours grew out of cliff faces, and yours taste disgusting.」

Lian smiles as she explains the difference. The barmaid hastily jogs up to their table.

「Good evening, I'm terribly sorry for the wait, we're just packed full. What will you have?」

She asks, looking inquisitively at the three adventurers and a vagabond with a spear…

…

Back at Kreisfeld, in Cycelia's room…

「…And then, those banknotes with no backing. Remember? Fiat currency?」

Straf continues his explanation, gesturing heavily with his hands as he does so.

「Uh-huh.」

Sitting very close to Straf on her bed, Cycelia nods. Her eyes are focused entirely on his face, drifting from one point to another at random. She bites her lip from time to time.

「Okay. So then fiat currency is just way out of control because all of that, and taxation exists not to raise money, because remember, the state can always just print more! No no, they don't need to raise money, it exists to take money away from you. You, as in, the average citizen.」

Straf stares in Cycelia's eyes without breaking eye contact for multiple minutes at a time as he feverishly explains the monetary system of his world.

「Mhm.」

「Because otherwise, you're going to enter the hyper-inflationary spiral. You, as in the state. That means your fiat currency becomes worthless garbage that's not even worth the paper it was printed on! Isn't that crazy, Lia!? You can just print money endlessly to fund wars, and then the only limit is the actual production capacity! It's called war economy, by the way. You're listening, right?」

「Yes… But I've been meaning to ask you, and I didn't want to interrupt… What is printing?」

Cycelia asks, tilting her head and revealing her slender neck to Straf. He blinks a few times.

Slap!

Straf slaps his forehead with his palm, Cycelia jumps up in surprise from his outburst.

「Oh. Shit!」

Straf exclaims with his teeth clenched, and eyes forced shut.

「What!? What happened?」

「I somehow forgot all the things here so far were handwritten. Ahhh…」

Straf shrugs while sighing.

「But… What is printing?」

Cycelia asks again with a confused expression.

「Don't worry Lia, we'll get to that later. It's an important part of information control and state censorship. You will probably note that all of these concepts tie to each other, so remember what I said.」

「…Okay? I'll try-」

Her eyes narrow as she glances sideways, thinking.

「When you're back on the throne, you'll want your peasants to be able to read and write, but not be able to read seditious materials. You should make it illegal, and punishable by death to have any manifesto or writing even implying a need for revolution.」

Straf gestures heavily again, wagging his finger. Cycelia nods with her brows furrowed.

「Straf, I really don't like the idea of putting someone to death because they read something…」

She looks deep into Straf's eyes with a difficult to decipher expression. A mix of confusion with worry.

「Well, think of it that way, Lia. If the peasants revolt, you'll have to put the rebellion down, right?」

「I suppose so, yes…」

「How many people do you think will die in a war like that?」

「A lot, that's why I need to keep everyone happy-」

Straf interrupts Cycelia by grabbing her shoulders, and shaking his head. She glances at his hands, then stares into his eyes while blushing, slowly moving her face towards his.

「No no no, Lia, you have the wrong idea about this. A worthless NEET sitting in a cafe and mooching off of his friends will never be happy. He'll tell other people they shouldn't be happy too, and then what? They won't be. And they'll take up arms against you.」

「But…」

She pauses for just a moment, protesting softly.

「Just trust me. Some blood spilled to keep the malcontents down prevents a lot of blood being spilled later.」

Straf nods and says, keeping his eyes locked with her. She leans further forward. Straf straightens out and lets go of her shoulders, much to her disappointment.

「I… What you're saying makes sense, but…」

「And! As an added bonus, it also makes the state more powerful! That means you, Lia.」

Straf shrugs his hands and smirks. She freezes when he looks into her eyes again, and fidgets with her medallion while blushing heavily.

「Still, I thought you asked because of the dragon blood in you, and not because you were genuinely interested. I picture two cute-deformed little Lias sitting on the each side of your shoulders, whispering into your ears. The one with dragon wings is whispering stuff like, reserve notes! Reserve notes! While the other one is like, noo! Think of your people! And stuff like that.」

「Huh?」

「Nevermind, I guess if you don't get it now, you just won't get it.」

「Straf, you're a very… Interesting man.」

Cycelia says and flutters her eyelashes. She puts her hand on his thigh. They both look at the hand, then lock their gaze together.

「Yeah. I-」

Straf says while smirking.

「This is creeping me the fuck out!」

Out of nowhere, Straf gets interrupted by a bizarre sensation and exclaims, his smirk disappearing off to somewhere. Lia retracts her hand with giant eyes in panic, as if she just touched a hot stove.

「Wha-!? I'm sorry! I didn't mean-」

She apologizes, waving her hands.

「No, I don't mean you Lia. Do you not feel that?」

Straf asks, squinting as he looks at her.

「Feel what?」

「I got the feeling that someone is watching me. And I don't mean a higher power. I mean someone with physical two, or more eyes. Or y'know, at least one.」

Straf looks at the window behind them with his brow raised, and suspicion clear on his face. Cycelia looks at the window as well, but loses her interest quickly as she sees nothing, and looks back at Straf.

「I don't see anything, Straf…」

「Yeah, me neither, that's what's so fucking weird. Whatever, I'll be in my room. Sleep well, Lia.」

「Ah- But-」

「Hm?」

Straf gets up, but pauses as Cycelia protests. He looks down at her, slightly confused.

「Nothing… Nevermind…」

She looks down, blushing heavily and puts her hands between her thighs as her shoulders slump.

「Alright. Well, goodnight.」

「Goodnight…」

Cycelia says softly as Straf leaves, shutting the door behind him…