Ten minutes later, on the balcony overlooking the entrance gate to Telas royal palace…

Hundreds and hundreds of curious citizens are gathered right outside the gate after the mystery parade entered the city. King Telas, Cycelia, and Straf enter the balcony.

The crowd quickly begins chattering when they see Cycelia in full armor, draped with a trench coat, and wearing a crown on her chestnut head.

「Loyal citizens of Altenheim, hear me!…」

The king says in a loud voice, and the murmuring crowd quiets down.

「…There has been an important development regarding the throne, the crown, and the future of the kingdom, as well as the current war!…」

King Telas continues, the crowd listens attentively, though they're exchanging confused glances at the sight of the strangers standing behind the king.

「…The war is over, and we have lost!…」

He announces, and the crowd begins murmuring loudly again. He raises his hands, and the people go silent.

「…We have lost, but the kingdom remains! I remain your king, but the land becomes a part of the Redwing throne under a vassalage! We are now a part of the Redwing Kingdom!…」

The king reassures the confused people, leaning onto the balustrade.

「…Redwing Kingdom becomes the authoritative administrative body, but unless otherwise stated, all laws remain the same! The queen… Graciously left the throne in my hands!…」

He explains, looking over his shoulder at Cycelia while he struggles to get the deferential words out to the people through his throat.

「…That is all! The town criers will clarify the confusing situation at a later time!」

King Telas exclaims, then sighs as he straightens out. He turns around, then walks past Straf and Cycelia back into the palace.

「…I hope this humiliation is enough, your highness. I've went from being a sovereign to being dragged through mud in a single day.」

Standing near Stripe, he turns to face the two as they join him inside.

「You only consider this a humiliation because of your pride, King Telas. I am certain bowing your head to another ruler hurts, but in the end, I'm sure you will be glad this happened.」

Cycelia smiles slightly at the middle-aged king, then turns her emerald eyes to Straf.

「…So, I suppose that makes you an empress?」

Straf spreads his hands with a tight-lipped grimace and bored eyes.

「Eh?」

Her head perks up, and her green eyes blink in confusion.

「I mean, you are a sovereign ruling over a semi-autonomous territory with a vassal king. That sounds like an empire to me.」

He explains, pointing his hand at the grim-faced, visibly displeased vassal standing near them.

「Wha-? Nonono! That's not like it at all! I only went through with it because it was your suggestion! It was in defense of the kingdom, not to gain land!-」

Shocked, Cycelia starts shaking her head and waving her gauntlets in front of herself.

「You may as well go with it, your highness.」「Eh?」

King Telas chimes in. Her confused emerald eyes snap to him.

「Indeed, bowing my head to another ruler pains me, your kingdom may be larger, but mine is better built up, and we're both of equal status…」

He continues, and lets out a large sigh as he strokes his short beard.

「…But some of that indignation could be erased if I could simply say,「I rule a kingdom within the empire.」instead of admitting that I bow my head to a queen.」

The king adds, and shrugs his hand.

「…You essentially want Redwing Kingdom to present itself as mighty to save face from this loss?」

Cycelia asks, furrowing her brows. She glances at Straf's bored grimace.

「You can call it as such. I'm old enough to understand that power is like a pile of sand, the weak fall from the top to fall in under the strong. It's only natural.」

「…I'd like to think it over. Would it be a problem if you hosted us at your palace overnight? Just me, Straf, Stripe, and the men with me. The rest can camp outside.」

She asks, tilting her head slightly, before pointing out Straf and Stripe with her gaze.

「No, of course not. It would be unseemly to reject my liege. Hopefully it is as you say, and this humiliation will once turn to prestige. You are welcome to stay for breakfast.」

The man shakes his head, speaking in a sighful, resigned tone, throwing his hand up.

「Just one more thing…」

Straf chimes in with his index finger extended, just as everyone else is about to leave the room. They stop and turn to face him.

「…We're taking all your gems and taking ownership of your mines.」

He nonchalantly says to King Telas, placing his fists on his hips.

「Wha-!? You can't! The gem mines are the kingdom's main income!」

「Straf, that's… A little unfair.」

The king and the queen are quick to protest, with the king's jaw dropping in shock, and Cycelia's brows furrowing in concern as she glances aside towards him.

「I am well aware of how much trouble that is… Now, normally I would say that's it's not my problem, but if this place suddenly turns into a collapsing shithole, it will be…」

Straf calms them both, spreading his arms. The king glares at Cycelia with an indignant, distrustful gaze while she looks back at him with a tight-lipped grimace.

「…So what I'm going to do is, I'm taking all your gems and your mines, but I will be reimbursing you for the trouble. The gems are a strategic resource, we take 'em. End of.」

He adds, and casually places his hands in his pockets with a smug smirk. The king calms a little, stroking his beard while staring down in deep thought.

「…You want a tight control of the gem market? If the payments for the mines are constant and at a fixed rate equivalent to what we'd sell on a good day, I'm fine with it.」

King Telas replies, raising his eyes off the ground.

「You'll get slightly above average price for the shipments. On the upside, you're protected from fickle market demand, on the downside, no huge profits for you.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders. Cycelia's concerned expression mixed with embarrassment softens.

「…Fair enough. But what could you possibly need so many gems for?」

「None of your business.」

He asks, and Straf bluntly replies with his mouth aslant. The king's face briefly twists into indignant anger, before he realizes it's entirely impotent as Cycelia seemingly won't react.

「…Come. I'll show you to your room, your highness.」

King Telas sighs in defeat, and exits the room. Straf, Cycelia, and Stripe follow him out…

…

Ten minutes later, in Straf's guest bedroom…

Thud.

「Aaaahhhh… What a day.」

Straf shuts the door behind himself, then heads for the canopy bed. The entire bedroom is very similar to his bedroom back in the Redwing palace, though the walls are covered in decorative patterns, and seemingly no expense has been spared in an attempt to awe the guests in how rich the furniture presents itself. While the chairs, desks, wardrobes, and others can at best hope for a decorative wavy edge in the Redwing palace, the furniture in the Telas palace is anything but utilitarian. Beautiful patterns and elaborate images are carved and polished into the available surfaces, depicting animals, beasts, or people alike.

Stripe is rapidly tapping her foot with her arms crossed, and her mouth scrunched to the side.

「…Why am I here?」

She asks in an angry tone. Her golden, vertically slit eyes stare at Straf's bored face as he's slipping his boots off.

「Why do you think? I gave my stylish and iconic coat to Lia…」

He replies as he crawls towards the pillows and peels the blanket away, much thicker than the ones on beds in the Redwing palace.

Pat pat pat.

「…Get in.」

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Straf pats the free space beside him on the bed, grinning at Stripe. She lets out a large sigh and reluctantly shambles over to him.

「Don't you dare touch me.」

Stripe growls as she lies down beside him, and crosses her arms again.

Pat.

「Tsk… I knew you'd do that anyway!…」

She clicks her tongue and speaks in a raised voice as Straf ignores her demand and places his hand on top of her head, pulling her closer while covering them up with the blanket.

「Ahhh… Much better. This shitty ring is a liability at times. Now I'm going to feel cold for like half an hour longer…」

Straf pulls his free hand out from beneath the blanket and looks at the ring on one of the fingers while rubbing Stripe's tiger-like ears with the other.

「…Did you orchestrate this war to get more gems?」

She asks, looking up into his bored eyes with her golden ones.

「Do you have any proof?… If so, go destroy it.」

Fwap.

He scoffs with a grin on his face, noisily dropping his ring-wearing hand onto the blanket.

「I don't, but it seems pretty obvious to me. You make a gem-based weapon, then a border incident sparks into a full-blown war between kingdoms that were historically at peace…」

She shrugs in response. The anger from her voice has quickly disappeared, and she slowly begins to slur the more Straf rubs her ears.

「…Then you use that gem-based weapon to win, and demand full control of their gem supply. I think the only reason no one caught on is because they don't know how they work.」

「Hmm. Meh.」

Straf nods for a moment, then shrugs his shoulders with a light grimace.

「…You're actually pretty smart, or at the very least, have pattern-recognition skills that a lot of governments don't like. It's going to be our dirty little secret.」

His eyes drift down to her face, meeting her gaze. She quickly turns her eyes away.

「Idiot! Don't say things like that while we're in a bed!… Someone will get the wrong idea!」

Fwapfwapfwapfwap!

Stripe exclaims, and her ears flap violently a few times from Straf's touch. He waits for them to calm down, then resumes caressing them.

「Seriously though, don't tell anyone. I'm fairly confident I could turn their entire army into mincemeat with magic, but Lia would get upset….」

Straf says with his mouth slightly aslant, briefly looking at her with his brows raised above his bored eyes before returning them to the canopy.

「…If you have a single point of failure, like me, then they'd get the wrong idea that they can just kill me and turn the battle around…」

He explains, rubbing Stripe's ears and ruffling the hair between them while she struggles to keep her golden eyes open.

「…But if you have hundreds of peasants who can practically disintegrate your entire army in seconds, that kind of changes things, doesn't it? There's always one more.」

Straf adds, shrugging his shoulders as he grins at her drowsy face. She forcefully wakes herself back up by shaking her head.

「So all of this was just so everyone would be too scared to fight?」

Stripe asks as she raises her head, furrowing her brows at him.

「…Yes and no. This shithole is more like a speed bump. The test run was surprisingly more effective than I thought, I actually intended to grind through their center.」

Pat.

He throws his hands up, before returning one of them to Stripe's head and resuming his petting.

「So what is the actual end goal of this war?…」

She asks, mumbling as her head drops down to his chest.

「More of the same on a larger scale, and hopefully Lia won't feel like she's doing something wrong. Worst comes to worst, I'll just say I was hungry for power.」

He casually replies, shrugging his shoulders again.

「…And are you?」

Stripe mumbles out a question while looking at him with half-open eyes. He instantly scoffs, letting out an amused huff from his nose.

「…Nah, I'm full.」

Straf replies, and turns his gaze back to the canopy. A brief silence begins as he rests his head on his free forearm.

「You're really unfair…」

With her eyes lowered, Stripe says quietly as he's petting her head.

「Yeah? Cry me a Nahr river, or whatever it was called… All is fair in love and war.」

Chuckling, he makes an attempt to glance at her face, but it's hidden on his chest.

「…I don't mean the war.」

She replies with the same quiet, slurring voice.

「Yeah? What did you mean, then?」

He asks, and she hesitates to answer.

「…No one ever had said good job, or ever praised me for anything. If I completed my mission, it was that. A brief pause before a new assignment. Nothing else.」

Stripe says, glancing at his face while hiding most of hers.

「Heh. So a little worker appreciation is enough to get your loyalty?」

「No! I'm loyal to the Eastern Kingdoms!…」

She perks up, shouting back at Straf with her teeth clenched. Her eyes drop down, and she lowers her head back down to his chest.

「…That's why it's unfair. I'm loyal to the Eastern Kingdoms, so why is working for you so much nicer?…」

She asks, clutching onto the blanket with her clawed fingers.

「Better work-life balance.」

Straf replies, grinning.

「…You don't know what's it like to be unwanted. Even smallest shred of acknowledgment feels good-」

「That's a pretty wild claim.」

Straf cuts in, interrupting Stripe. Confused, she blinks her golden eyes at his.

「…Huh?」

「What makes you think I don't know what's it like? It's a pretty rough feeling. I think most people run into that at some point in their lives….」

He replies with a light smile, shrugging his shoulders as his eyes return to the canopy.

「…Rejected by a girl, rejected by a publisher, rejected by an employer… Some people are even rejected by their own parents. Imagine that-」

He scoffs, glancing at Stripe's face.

「Ah, yeah. Guess you don't have to, heh…」

His face gains an awkward smirk, and he looks at the canopy again, petting her head.

「…But my point is, it's all the same feeling, just different intensity. For better or worse, at no point are you alone in this. There's plenty of people who can sympathize.」

Straf shrugs his free hand, grimacing lightly at the canopy.

「…And all in all, even if you were unwanted, you're not anymore, and I'm not giving you back to those dipshits. You're mine now.」

He adds, grinning at her. She immediately breaks the eye contact.

「Idiot… Idiot. I hate you. Go die…」

Stripe grumbles quietly while hiding her face from Straf and giving him full access to her ears.

「Wooow… You really are a cat through and through…」

Straf replies with a grin, caressing her ear up and down with his fingers.

「I am not a cat!」

Stripe insists with a shout, clenching her teeth in anger…