In the Rankor Kingdom's capital, in the throne room…

「These terms are preposterous. I won't agree to this.」

A young man sitting on the throne declares, surrounded by all matter of courtiers.

「Then you decline the peace Queen Cycelia is offering? In that case, we will have no choice but to send the man who turned your army back to enforce a peace. Any peace. You are attempting to portray yourself as a wise and a strong ruler, and cities in ruins would not match your image.」

The diplomat of the Redwing Kingdom makes a threat, standing before the throne.

「I did not say I am declining the peace. I said I do not agree with the terms. This much gold? Every month? Did she go mad? I admit I was surprised by the development, I have nothing against your people or even the queen. I saw her rule as weak, and was proven wrong. That's all it was. The mere satisfaction of proving me wrong, and a restitution for the slain should have been enough.」

The young king argues, and his advisors nod as he speaks.

「King Rankor, we are all but men in the end. We all err, and by the end of it all, we are bones. You have plenty of time to prove yourself, and you will have plenty of time to make mistakes. What's important is that you learn from them, instead of doubling down on obvious and ruinous mistakes. I implore you, take this peace.」

The diplomat responds with voice full of sympathy, but ignoring his complaints and arguments.

「Peace. Bah. Peace… Everyone's drunk on peace.」

The king scoffs and looks aside in frustration, dismissively waving his hand in front of himself.

「I heard he won a duel. Against Kerul, but still only a duel. That was the reason the army retreated, they were honor-bound. You are telling me, that a single man can raze cities? Slaughter armies? As ridiculous as the queen's demands.」

King Rankor looks back at the diplomat, and shrugs with an incredulous expression as he questions the might of the one man.

「Your majesty… Queen Cycelia, as well as the rest of the Redwing Kingdom, is greatly pained by your sudden invasion. For over 40 years, our relations were nothing short of amiable. Your father, your majesty, made a similar mistake some 40 years ago. Since then, late King Anguis was on very good relations with him.」

The diplomat explains the recent historical background of the two kingdoms, resulting in a scoff from the king.

「And what does this have to do with anything?」

The king asks with an annoyed frown as he sits slouched in his throne.

「I believe you and Queen Cycelia can be on friendly terms as well, should you accept the peace.」

The diplomat nods as he answers, and the king's advisors start whispering amongst themselves.

「Please, do not spill any more blood than necessary. The skirmish at the border was a completely senseless waste of life. I have asked your courtiers about Commander Kerul, and have heard he was an exceedingly loyal and courageous man. We have lost many brave and loyal men as well. Is this not enough?」

The diplomat spreads his hands, and shakes his head gently. Aside from the courtiers' whispering, the throne room is silent. King Rankor taps the golden crown on his head in a slow rhythm as he stares at the Redwing diplomat blankly, in deep thought.

A man with a thick, black mustache and armor on his chest leans in towards the king, causing him to jolt out of his thoughts, as he glances at the man closing in. The man whispers something into king's ear, looking at the diplomat with a side eye. He then straightens out, and takes a few steps back, bowing with his hand on his shoulder as he steps away.

The king inhales deeply, then lets out a long and frustrated sigh.

「Very well. I will accept your terms after all. But do not for one second think that I deem them acceptable. Let the queen know that. I will be re-negotiating them. If she refuses to listen to reason… Time will tell what will happen.」

The king shrugs his shoulders as he ominously threatens a vague action. The diplomat bows his head low.

「Thank you, King Rankor. I cannot speak for certain, but I know the queen is just and fair. She will likely be open to diplomacy, and I am certain the tensions between our kingdoms serve nobody, except our enemies.」

The diplomat nods, and the king rolls his eyes, waving his hand at him.

「Yes, yes… Go now, go. Let the queen know we have welcomed you with hospitality.」

「I certainly will, your majesty. By your leave, then…」

The diplomat politely bows one last time, and heads for the exit. The king lets out a sigh loud enough for the departing man to still be able to hear it…

…

On the road between Ossen and the Redwing capital city, late in the evening…

Straf is sitting on a bouncing wagon, allowing his head to jiggle and wobble around like a bobblehead as he's slouched lazily with his arms drooping off the wagon's side, staring up at the sky.

「Now hold right there!」

A voice in the dark shouts out from the front of the wagon.

「Shit…」

The driver mutters out, and brings the wagon to a stop. Straf's brows rise, and he stirs out of his lazy torpor.

「What 'ave we got 'ere?…」

A chuckling voice asks as it draws closer to the wagon.

「It's just passengers, no cargo. Nobody awful rich, either.」

The driver anxiously explains.

「Yeah? We'll see that for ourselves. 'Ey! Everyone out of the fuckin' wagon! Now! If you make me-!」

A bald, mostly toothless man demands, and Straf jumps out of the wagon from the side.

「That's the spirit. Turn out your pockets」

The bald man shrugs and places his fists on his hips with a toothless grin as he makes a demand.

「Make me.」

Straf puts his fists on his hips, and answers with a slanted mouth. The bald man clicks his tongue.

「Listen here you pretty boy fuck…」

The bald man growls with a scowl, and drags a long dagger, almost a shortsword.

「Either you turn out your fuckin' pockets, or I check if you have personality to a match, get it?」

The bald man makes an innuendo towards Straf as he points the tip of the blade at him. Straf's brows rise slowly while he maintains his unimpressed and bored expression on his face.

「No. I don't. What the actual fuck did you mean by that?」

Straf shrugs, and spreads his hands.

「Fuck's sake… You stupid or somethin'? I'm sayin' you either turn out your pockets, or I turn out ye fuckin' guts. Got it?」

The bald man asks again, nodding his head angrily.

「Oooohhhh… You mean check if I'm handsome outside and inside, right? Like, personality?」

Straf spreads his hands, with a light pitying smirk.

「Ye.」

「Man, how fucking stupid do you have to be to make a vague word play like that, and think someone is going to get it? How low is your fucking intelligence?」

Straf squints at the man, and focuses his eyes on him.

Luckas Thornway

[|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||] Lv. 7

Strength: 12 Perception: 10

Agility: 11 Endurance: 11

Dexterity: 13 Willpower: 10

Luck: 12 Intelligence: 4

Charisma: 2 Wisdom: 5

「Yup. That's roughly in-line to what I expected. Why is your name Lu-ck-as? Was regular Lucas too good for you?」

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Straf scoffs at the bald man's intelligence attribute, and sneers when he reads his name.

「How the fuck do you know-? Are you emptyin' your fuckin' pockets or not!?」

The man recoils in shock, before shouting angrily at Straf.

「I said make me. You picked the wrong wagon to rob, and you have no clue how fucking wrong.」

Straf chuckles, grinning smugly at the man.

「Tsk. Well if you want to try another life-」

CrackClang!

Straf smashes his fist into the man's face, crossing the gap between them in an imperceptible instant. A dull echo of flesh impacting metal rings out, and the nervous passengers take a few steps back.

「Arrrghh! Fuck! Fuck!」

Straf shouts and clutches onto his hand, as the bald man is propelled backwards into other bandits on the road. They narrowly manage to jump out of the way, and the man rolls some distance further along the dirt. He gets up, clutching onto his face with a pained grimace.

「Ahhh… You motherfucker. That ring was a good investment after all…」

The bandit says, looking at the blue-gemmed silver ring on his finger.

「You motherfucker! You stupid, bald, horse-faced motherfucker! I broke my fucking hand on your face, what the fuck!?」

Straf groans and clenches his teeth, holding his limp hand and swelling fingers.

「Heh. Serves you fuckin' right! That wasn't fuckin' pleasant though, fuck.」

The bald man rubs his face, seemingly uninjured in the slightest.

「Yeah, snapping my fucking fingers on your dumb face wasn't nice either, so let's call it even. So that ring is magical? Where'd you get it?」

Straf lets out a pained sigh, and looks at the man's silver ring.

「Up yours, fucker. I'm not telling you shit. Get him! And take everyone's shit when you're done with him!」

The bald man backs out, hiding behind the rest of the bandits. Two crossbowmen fire at Straf, the bolts take ages to draw near him.

《Ah, for fucks sake. Now I have to do this with a fracture?》

Straf thinks, and catches both of the bolts with the fingers of his unbroken hand. When [Contextual Time Perception] deactivates, both of the crossbowmen recoil in shock at the sight.

「What the fuck?!」 「…The fuck?」

They mumble out almost in unison, and lower their crossbows.

「See this? Do you realize now how high of an encounter level you have walked yourself into?」

Straf holds up the bolts to show them to the bandits. The bald man looks at them with eyes wide open, and starts running away as fast as his legs can take him.

Fwoooop-thwack!

A crossbow bolt zaps through the air and hits the fleeing bald man in his calf.

「Aaarrgh! Fuck! Fuckin'- What the fuck!?」

The bald man clutches onto his leg, looking for the crossbowman that shot at him. None of them seem to understand what has happened. He looks at Straf, and realizes he is holding only one bolt in his hand.

「Dumbass. Escape chance scales with level. You're fucked.」

Straf grins as he approaches the bandits…

…

In the Redwing capital's throne room, after sundown…

Lily walks into the room, her face bears a smug and satisfied smile.

「Lily! What brings you here? You look like you're in a good mood- Aaahhhhh…」

Cycelia calls out to Lily as she sees her walks in, but abruptly yawns and covers her mouth with her hand.

「I see if nothing else, you are at least working hard, Redwing girl… The vampire problem has been solved.」

Lily says, and crosses her arms, smirking.

「…The vampire problem?」

Cycelia tilts her head, blinking in confusion.

「The murder from the other day. A vampire has slain a human without my permission. I have dealt with it, and thought that you may want to know.」

Lily lifts her clawed hand off her arm as she explains.

「I see. Thank you, Lily… What have you done exactly, if I may ask?」

Cycelia anxiously taps her fingers together as she looks at Lily. The little vampire looks down, visibly amused and grinning.

「I will spare you the specifics. All you need to know is that I have made an example out of him. There will be no more unruly little brats breaking my laws, out of fear of them being next. As for the perpetrator…」

Lily turns for the exit and takes a few steps before stopping.

「…His punishment will be metal.」

Lily smugly smirks at Cycelia, looking over her shoulder, then continues walking towards the exit.

「Um. What does metal mean here, exactly?」

Cycelia asks, her head tilting again. Lily clicks her tongue, and abruptly stops in her tracks.

「Redwing girl! Do not ask of me to correct your ignorance! Educate yourself! Hmpf!」

Lily snarls at Cycelia while looking over her shoulder again, then stomps away with a pout on her face, keeping her chin held up high in an exaggerated display of superiority.

「…What?」

Cycelia tilts her head the other way, and blinks with her mouth ajar…

…

The next morning, just before sunrise, at the capital's gates, just outside the walls…

Two guardsmen stand watch. The traffic at these hours is very low, and only a few pairs enter or leave the city every few minutes. One of the guards keeps glancing up the wall with furrowed brows.

「…Man, this is creeping me the fuck out. Do you just not care?」

The guard asks his partner standing across the road, on the other side of the gate.

「I'm ready to hit the hay man, it's creeping me out too, I'm just too tired to care.」

His partner answers, and sighs as he leans onto his halberd. His weary eyes blankly stare at a distant wagon riding towards the city. The guardsman glances up at the wall again.

「…He's still wiggling and shit. How? I mean, look at him!」

The guardsman urges, nodding his head up at the wall. His partner sighs, and looks up at the wall as well. Dismembered pieces of a man are nailed into the stones, high, high up on the wall. His arms and legs hang loosely off massive nails of wrought iron.

His head is facing away from the wall, staring at the horizon with a terrified expression on his face, appearing to silently scream every few moments or so. His feet and fingers bend, flex and wiggle, trying to fruitlessly free themselves of the nails.

「It's a vampire. They can put themselves back together when they're in pieces like that. I wonder if he feels all of that.」

The guardsman's partner explains, then looks back onto the road with his fatigued eyes.

「Didn't the girl put him there?」

「What girl?- Ah, you mean the… Baroness? Was it? Yeah…」

The other guard shrugs his shoulders with a clatter of his plate armor, and sighs.

「Fucking animals. They do that to each other, imagine what they used to do to us before the hero came and fucking killed them all. Mercia's grace…」

The guard shakes his head, looking at the dismembered vampire above.

「Halt… What's your cargo…」

The tired guard on the other side of the road mumbles out a routine guardsman's mantra, as the wagon rolls to a halt next to him.

「Just some passengers, sir…」

The driver explains as the guard walks closer and looks at the wagon's contents.

「Damn, that's pretty fucking metal.」

Straf says, chuckling at the sight of the writhing vampire above. The sun rises above the horizon, and as soon as the day's first rays hit the vampire, he is set aflame. The vampire's face appears to contort in agony as it rapidly turns into gray ash.

「Oop, there he goes…」

The guard exclaims, looking somewhat relieved that the vampire is burning to ash.

「Cool. Did you know the more excessively brutal you are with your executions, the more likely people will think the victim deserved it?」

Straf asks his fellow passengers, and they look at each other with nervous expressions, unsure how or if to even reply.

「Is that fucked up, or what? You could technically torture a literal saint to death, and the people would go 「Huh, I wonder what did he do to deserve that!」 the next day he's hanging off a bridge or something. Humanity sucks, doesn't it?」

Straf chuckles with a wide grin, reclining in the wagon, and making the passengers even more uncomfortable with a morbid psychological fact, as the driver continues onward into the city…