「Right. I guess I'll let Lia know. I doubt she'll turn the idea down. I'm heading back.」

Straf shrugs, and turns for the gate.

「I suppose I will return as well… I need a bath… And a change of clothes.」

Lily declares as she walks past Nona, and joins Straf's side.

After momentarily watching Straf with her head tilted, she runs up to his side, opposite of Lily.

「If you're going to do that, you should probably head to the palace and let the maids help you, Lily.」

He remarks, glancing at her blood-coated hair.

「Hm? Don't be ridiculous, Straf. I can bathe myself just fine-」

Lily's brows raise for a moment, before she turns her gaze away with a scoff, crossing her arms.

「Even the hair? Have you looked at yourself in a mirro- Right…」

Remembering that Lily is in fact a vampire, Straf rolls his eyes with his mouth aslant.

「…My point is, Lily… You do not look good. Your dress is all messed up, you're coated in red as if someone tried to give you a palette swap but gave up halfway in, and your face is bloody.」

Straf adds while looking at her again.

「…I'm not happy about the dress either! At this rate, everything my master gave me will be in shreds.」

She exclaims, pouting heavily with her gaze turned away.

「…Sentimental value, huh? I like old stuff too. I can relate.」

A faint amused huff escapes Straf 's nose as he looks at the gate. The pilot is trailing behind the three, far behind them.

「It's not just old. It's a precious gift from my master. There will never be any more, only less.」

Lily glances at Straf, still pouting somewhat. Nona tilts her head as her amber eyes dart between the two.

「Can't you just get a similar dress?…」

Straf asks, raising one brow.

「That won't do, Straf. Even if it's identical, it won't be my master's.」

Meeting his gaze, she replies with a serious expression on her face.

「…I see.」

Straf shrugs, and the three walk past the befuddled guards at the gate, who quickly return to staring at the landed aircraft in the distance.

「Straf…」

Lily calls out, briefly peeking at Straf's face.

「Yeah?…」

He asks, glancing back at her.

「…I'm hungry.」

「Of course you are…」

Lily bluntly declares, and Straf lets out a large, resigned sigh as his shoulder slump…

…

A few days later…

「Straf! Morning!」

Nona perks up when she sees Straf nonchalantly walk straight in.

「Yeah, mornin'…」

He replies with a shrug of his shoulders, and heads for the stock teller's counter.

「…Did that guy deposit his deed already?」

He asks, leaning in on his elbows towards the woman at the counter.

「Yes, he declared inability to pay just yesterday. Let me fetch it.」

She nods, and heads for the bank's vault. After a moments, she returns with a document in hand.

「…Here it is. He was rather… Bitter.」

She slides the paper over to Straf. He turns with his back to the counter and begins reading the deed, while Nona walks up with a bounce in her step to investigate.

「Whazzat?」

She asks, leaning in with her face almost close enough to brush cheeks with Straf, and using her hammer as a counterweight.

「A deed for a building I won off a loser… Think I'm gonna turn it into a proper stock exchange. This place is too cramped.」

Straf nonchalantly explains with a shrug of his shoulders. Nona reads through the text with him, but its nuance mostly eludes her.

「…What's a deed?」

She asks, tilting her head, blinking her amber eyes at Straf. Her hat's brim almost strikes Straf in his face.

「…It's a piece of paper stating that it's me who owns the place. It's a little more complex than that, but I think this should be enough for you.」

Straf replies after a large sigh, and throws the deed into his [Portable Storage]. He straightens out, escaping Nona's violation of his personal space, and places his hands in his coat's pockets.

「Indeed, the bank could barely hold the people trading the certificates when the prices suddenly increased. Now that they've went down, things are quiet again.」

The woman behind the counter chimes in, nodding her head in agreement.

「Which is why we need a proper, dedicated exchange. The bank works fine if people want to swap a few certificates at a time, but I have bigger plans. The fiat economy must grow. Forever.」

Straf nods as well and shrugs his hands, before returning them to his pockets. As he turns to leave, Nona trails behind him.

「Forever? Is it even possible to grow something forever?…」

She asks, tilting her head as her amber eyes idly look towards the ceiling. Straf stops and turns to face her.

「Nona… This isn't the type of insight I'd expect coming from you.」

He replies, blinking at her with his mouth aslant in indignant disbelief.

「Hm? I mean… I only stopped growing recently… Like, last year…」

Nona tilts her head the other way in mild confusion as her gaze turns to Straf's face, before absently gazing at nothing in particular, placing her hands on her chest as she explains.

《…Zero risk of recession.》

Straf thinks as his eyes drift down lower. When his attention returns to her face, Straf finds Nona looking at him, blinking innocently.

「…Don't concern yourself with whether or not it's possible. It must grow.」

Shrugging his shoulders, he replies with a sigh, and turns for the door again.

「…I'm invited to the party, right?」

Nona asks as Straf goes through the door.

「Yeah… Obviously. It'd be in pretty bad taste to leave you out after you suggested it… See you later.」

Glancing over his shoulder, he pauses just outside, and shrugs again as he leaves.

「See you!…」

Nona briefly waves at the now empty doorway, and sits back down in her chair with a wistful sigh…

…

A little over an hour later, in a large, spacious mansion near the bank…

Standing inside at the front door with a gaggle of maids behind him, Straf rubs his chin as he looks around the entrance. It's a little dusty, but as the man had said, it's fully furnished, beautiful, and very spacious. A crystal chandelier hangs above in the middle of the room, glittering when light from the large windows above the entrance doors hits it. The mansion shows no signs of old age, meaning it was either impeccably maintained, or constructed just recently.

As the man had claimed, it's as big as a warehouse. Due to the fact that it occupies the space of roughly five average-sized lots in the city, it must have been the latter, and the buildings around it were likely demolished to make way. Straf nods in approval while the maids patiently wait for him to say something. His fists return to his hips, and he glances over his shoulders at the frigid-faced one.

「Okay… First off, dust and air this place out. Once you're done with that, get all those pointless tables and couches out of the way….」

Snap.

Straf snaps his fingers, and points at the fancy furniture around the room. The maids nod, listening as he continues.

「…Move them somewhere to the rear of the mansion. If there's no space, get them into the palace, I guess. We need this space. It's going to be crowded… And loud.」

He adds, and shrugs his shoulders. The maids quickly swerve around him, pull feather dusters and rags out of their small satchels slung over their shoulders, and begin dusting.

「Understood. Anything else?」

Walking out in front of Straf, the frigid-faced maid bows slightly, then asks with an expression that's almost resembling enmity.

The rest of the maids are wiping down the wooden railings on the stairs leading to the second floor, while a few of them are fiddling with the windows at the sides. Like busy worker bees, they work hastily, but without being in a rush. The maids move around the room in their frilled uniforms like a well-synchronized clockwork, and the sight is almost hypnotizing.

「Hmmm… I guess that's where the screen will go…」

「Minister, sir?…」

Straf mumbles under his breath, thinking out loud, and the maid tilts her frilled head.

「Ahh… This room is going to serve a lot of people, and I want a counter somewhere around here to handle all the business… Maybe there, by that room. It could serve as a backroom.」

He replies, quickly peeking around the room above the frilled heads moving to and fro. He looks at a corner near the entrance, where there is more than enough space to potentially place a long, guild-styled counter, and a door to a room only a few paces away. The maid returns a slow nod.

「Anything else, minister?」

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The maid asks in a tone that really does not invite any further conversation, without verging on outright hostility or rudeness.

「Well… If you could style most of those rooms around here into offices, that'd be convenient. I want to have foreign certificate registries, domestic ones, as well as bunch of other stuff…」

Straf shrugs, nodding his head as he looks around the doors above, before returning his gaze to the maid's cold, expressionless face.

「Understood. Shall we arrange for a counter to be delivered here?」

She asks with a brief bow.

「Yeah, I guess…」

「Excuse me, then…」

Straf nods, the maid bows once more, and heads to help the rest. She begins pointing her finger here and there, ordering the maids around, focusing them on one task at a time.

「Hmmm…」

《…With the school in another mansion a stone's throw away from here, the Main Street is sure growing in value, huh?…》

Rubbing his chin with his brow raised, Straf turns his head in the general direction of the nearby school. He thinks for a moment while staring pensively at the floor.

《…I should buy out the rest of the property here while it's low. Everybody works, but the vacant lot.》

Straf stops rubbing his chin as an amused huff escapes him through his smug smirk…

…

In the evening, in Straf's room…

Straf walks in, quickly swinging the door open and shut.

「Ahhh… I'm tired!…」

Thwump!

He declares as he throws his boots off, and jumps into his bed, waking Stripe, who was sleeping curled up on his blanket right up to this point.

「Nnhh… You're back?… Where were you?」

She asks with a groggy golden-eyed gaze as she lifts herself up to her knees.

「I was busy doing stuff… Inflation doesn't sleep, but I sure as fuck deserve to turn my brain off every now and then!… Hmmpf!…」

Straf replies, stretching out while on his back.

「Is your brain ever on?…」

Stripe bites back, slowly waking up while rubbing her still-sleepy eyes.

「My, aren't you clever and original, you shitty cat…」

Pat.

Straf says with his mouth aslant in frustration, and heavily places his hand on top of Stripe's head, right on the mustard-colored tuft between her ears.

「I'm not a- Ahhhh… Why even bother…」

She tries to protest, but gives up with a sigh.

「…How come you're tired? You were fine without any rest at all in Parnatau Kingdom, and it didn't even slow you down.」

Stripe asks with her mouth scrunched.

「When I say, I'm tired, you can safely assume that I mean the existential dread and the lack of meaning is getting to me, and I just want to tune out for a few hours to continue chugging along.」

「…Huh?」

Straf explains with a shrug of his hand, and Stripe lightly shakes her head with confusion on her face.

「Look, if you don't get it, you don't get it. I was busy creating the world's first casino, the world's first strip club, the world's first insurance company…」

After a quick sigh and shrug of his shoulders, Straf begins counting up on his fingers.

「…Ah, and most importantly, the world's first stock exchange. Basically, a bunch of ways to drain people of their money. Forced health insurance is a big one. Heh.」

Straf adds, and shrugs his shoulders again with a smug grin while looking at the canopy above.

「…What's a casino?」

Stripe asks with her brows furrowed.

「You're not going to ask about the strip club?」

Straf asks back, raising his own brows.

「It sounds filthy just by the name alone. I don't want to know.」

She declares, pulling away from Straf's hand.

「Well… Strip club being mentioned…」

Straf sits up, and reaches into his [Portable Storage].

Fwap.

「…Put this on.」

He bluntly demands as he throws pale straw-colored rags into Stripe's lap. Confused, she takes them into her clawed fingers, and holds them up to investigate.

Her confusion only grows as she processes Straf's demand in her head. His brow raises expectantly while he waits.

Zzzzzzzzap!

「Agh!」

Stripe recoils with a crackle of the collar on her neck, and rolls off the bed while clutching at it.

Thud. Zzzzap!… Zzzap! Zap!…

「Gah!… Kuhhh!… I hate this damn collarrrr!…」

Thwump!

Growling in frustration through her clenched teeth, she slams her fist down on the bed with a soft thump of the bedding.

「Hurry up already, only one of us can see in the dark.」

Lying on his side with his cheek on his fist and his mouth aslant, Straf rushes Stripe with a dismissive wave of his fingers. She grimaces heavily, and takes the rags into her hands.

「…Turn around!」

Stripe demands with a shout, kneeling on the floor by the corner of the bed.

「No.」「Khhhhhkkhhh!…」

Straf nonchalantly replies with a casual shrug of his shoulders, much to Stripe's teeth-clenched dismay.

「…You bastard!… I hate you, go die!」

She curses Straf out while looking around the room for an escape. Stripe's gaze lands upon a tall cabinet. She shoots up to her feet, and swings one of its doors open, obstructing the view.

「Huuuuh? Booooriiing.」

Disappointed by this turn of events, Straf throws his hand up as he looks on with a bored grimace on his face. Only Stripe's feet are visible beneath the cabinet door.

「Shut up! You said to put it on, not to put it on while you watch!」

Stripe shouts back in anger while fiddling with the rags. She tries to further cheat the collar by putting the rags on over her clothes, but it very quickly becomes clear they won't fit that way.

「Fair enough… But this is petty.」

「Look who's talking!…」

Straf remarks rolling his eyes out of boredom while watching glimpses of Stripe peek out from beyond the cabinet. She shouts back while looking at the rags.

「…Tsk. Shit.」

Eventually, she curses under her breath and gives up. Stripe throws her hat down onto the floor just beside the cabinet door, and begins to pull her sweater up.

「…And don't dare to peek, you perverted bastard!」

She pauses just before pulling it over her head, shouting again.

「I won't. I actually respect people who skirt the rules, even if they're mine.」

Straf replies with a nonchalant shrug, causing Stripe to let out a frustrated exhale. She throws the sweater down by her hat, then slips her pants down, and hops out of them.

「…There, I put it on! And don't you dare touch me!」

She declares while clutching onto the cabinet door.

「Okay?… Now show yourself.」

「Tsk…」

Straf shrugs again, and demands in a casual tone. Stripe clicks her tongue, and takes a reluctant step into his view.

「Hmm… Fair enough, you put it on… But…」

He nods, looking at Stripe in her tight-fitting rags fit for a slave.

「…Take your underwear off too-」

Straf demands in the same casual tone when his eyes notice the slivers of her gray, ordinary underwear a boring city woman would likely wear.

「Huuuuuuuuuh!?-」

Zzzzzzzzap!

Her jaw drops, and golden eyes widen at Straf's abrupt demand. The very next instant, the collar crackles again, causing her to wince.

「Kkhhh!… I can't believe this!… I can't believe this! I'll die! I'll seriously die of shame!…」

With her teeth clenched, Stripe hides behind the cabinet door again…