In the dark warehouse, in the late afternoon…

《Prototype crafting experience gained. New prototypes available.》

The monotone female voice announces in Straf's head.

「Okay… This is really the top of the line stuff. I bet most high-ranking politicians all over the world would put two in the back of someone's head for this thing.」

Straf says to himself as he slaps the large, rectangular, trash bin-shaped container, appreciative of its quality.

「…Right. It still needs to be powered.」

He remarks, and opens his [Portable Storage]. He reaches in, and pulls the small red magic gem out. Straf turns a little knob on the side of the container, opening a small compartment, and places the gem inside. He shuts it, and turns the knob the other way.

「Lia is really antsy about the elections. Do I test this thing real quick?…」

Straf thinks, looking at the container with his fist on his hip.

「…Nah.」

He shoves it into the purple vortex that appears right next to it, and places his hand back in his pocket. He shrugs, and turns for the exit…

…

In the meantime, in the capital's streets…

「Look Greaves! Isn't that doll cute!?」

Alicia points at a decorative doll behind the storefront's window, dressed in an ornate dress. Almost life-like yet perfectly still, it stares somewhere distant with its glassy eyes. Greaves glances at it, and clicks his tongue.

「Tsk, I don't know… It's not my thing…」

He mumbles with a slanted mouth, looking aside. He looks at Alicia to see if she's ready to continue onward, and keeps walking as soon as she sees her following him again. They walk past multiple storefronts, only taking quick peeks at the contents of the stores.

Alicia's eyes are mostly focused on Greaves, however. She continues building up courage to speak up for the next few minutes as her eyes glance at his back occasionally.

「…Greaves, you're kind of different lately.」

Alicia says, and Greaves continues walking without reacting. His response or lack thereof is different from what she imagined. For a minute or so, she builds up courage to speak up again.

「Greaves, are you feeling okay?」

She asks, louder this time, impossible not to hear.

「…I'm fine, Alicia. Stop worrying.」

Greaves replies without turning his head to look at her. His hands rest idly on top of his carrot-like hilt of the sword in his sheath.

「…Are you really? Are you sure you're not pain? I might have healed you wrong, so if you're not feeling well, we could go back and-」

「I'm fine, Alicia. Tsk.」

He interrupts her, looking at her over his shoulder as he insists with his mouth scrunched to the side in frustration. He looks forward again, sighs, and clicks his tongue.

「Okay…」

She meekly replies, mostly looking at the ground more than the storefronts now.

Plap!

「Hey!-」

「Hey, I'm walking here.」

Straf says as he walks out of a corner, intercepting Greaves's face with his palm before he can bump into him. As he's too distracted and looking aside, Greaves walks straight into it with a faint slapping sound.

「Oh, Carrothead. Fancy meeting you here.」

Lowering his hand, Straf grins at Greaves while he shakes his fist with his teeth bared.

「I have a name!」

Greaves shouts in anger.

「Yeah, and your parents hate you. What are you two up to? Where's the twerp?」

Straf scoffs, placing his hand back in his pocket. He glances at Alicia, then at Greaves's orange mass of hair.

「Will is-」

「He's on a date with his girlfriend.」

Greaves says, cutting Alicia off as he crosses his arms and looks aside with his eyes narrowed, scrunching his mouth.

「Greaves…」

Alicia meekly protests the gross misrepresentation of the truth, but doesn't say anything else.

「Ah, what about you? On a date as well?」

Straf nods his head up at Greaves, smugly smirking as he asks. Alicia blushes heavily, and Greaves almost chokes.

「We're looking for something for Alicia to swim in! Shut up!」

「Yes…」

Greaves shouts, shaking his fist, and Alicia meekly nods in agreement, flushed red.

「So preparations for the beach episode are in full swing, huh? What about the elections? Who are you voting for, Carrothead?」

Straf asks with a sneer, nodding up at Greaves.

「Huh? I don't care about some election.」

Greaves replies with his brows furrowed.

Slap.

Straf quickly places his hand on Greaves's shoulder, outright slapping it.

「You are a model citizen for the kingdom.」

「What?」

Straf says with a grin, as Greaves blinks at him in confusion. He retracts his hand and places it back into his pocket.

「Still, I'm a bit surprised Lia just invited you. Kind of a rare opportunity to mingle with the queen, isn't it?」

Straf continues, asking a question as he looks at them, mostly at Alicia.

「Ah, yes… I was really surprised, but I'm really glad-」

「Tsk, you've got a problem with that, asshole?」

Cutting off Alicia's grateful words, Greaves clicks his tongue and snarls as he glares up at Straf, idly resting his hands on top of his carrot hilt.

「Greaves…」

With her brows furrowed, Alicia meekly protests Greaves's attitude, without saying much more again.

「Hmmm… I mean, you're not exactly who I'd invite, but it's Lia's choice. If she wants you there…」

Straf shrugs, grimacing with his brows raised. The two stare at each other in silence, with Greaves intensely glaring daggers up at Straf, while Alicia looks onto them with nervous eyes.

「Yeah. We're all really grateful. Please, in my name, extend my gratitude to the queen from Will's party.」

Greaves sarcastically says, selectively stressing certain words as he glares at Straf with an angry scowl. He scoffs, and storms past Straf, shaking his orange head as he walks across the crossroads.

「Greaves! Wait up!」

Alicia pauses to look at Straf with her brows furrowed, then rushes after Greaves to catch up to him. Straf scoffs, grinning a little as he looks at the orange mass of hair slowly disappear amidst the crowd, and he continues onward along his path…

…

In the evening, in the bank…

Nona is sitting in Niklaus's chair, slumped over onto his desk. She looks at the door, waiting for someone to come in, but that person never arrives. She leans back, crosses her arms, and places her boots on the desk, rocking in her chair.

Grinning at them, she gets a few dirty looks from the bank tellers. She tilts her head and her grin slowly disappears in confusion. She looks at her thighs, specifically, at the edge of her skirt.

Thud!

She drops her boots back to the floor, loudly slamming the legs of the chair back down as she tugs at her skirt to cover herself up more.

「Good grief… Pervolich…」

Nona mumbles to herself, slumping onto the desk again in embarrassment. She sighs, and returns to staring at the doorway aimlessly. After half an hour of this, she abruptly gets up from the desk.

「I'm going to help the Ministea out.」

Nona announces to the tellers, and exits the bank. They exchange confused glances with furrowed brows at each other, before shrugging their shoulders.

After a moment, Nona finds manhunters from the Ministry of Security patrolling the streets.

「Hey! I'll join you!」

She exclaims with a grin as she rapidly approaches.

「Wrong people to solicit to- Eh?」 「We don't need a street walke- Eh?」

They both speak over each other, but their heads recoil back in confusion in sync when Nona shoves the Ministry identification in their faces.

「Nona Bounder! I'm with the Ministea!」

With her fist on her wide hip, she proudly announces with a smirk while holding the identification up.

「…The what?」

One of the Ministry agents asks with his brows heavily furrowed while looking at the golden badge.

「Huh? Ministry?」

The other one says, squinting a little as his eyes dart from Nona's face, to Nona's face on the identification.

「That! I'm the Ministry's interrogator! I want to see how the work looks like from the street!」

She points her finger at the agent, correcting herself, and puts her identification folded away into her breast pocket. The two manhunters look at Nona's short skirt, and then aside while cringing.

「…Come, then.」

One of them says, shrugging his shoulders in dispirited acceptance. Nona follows them closely behind with a grin…

…

An hour passes as Nona and the two agents patrol the streets while she ceaselessly asks the most random of questions.

「Hey, what was the weirdest hunt you were ever on?」

「Please, stop asking stuff.」

Nona asks with a grin, and the manhunter sighs in frustration.

「Whyyy? I want to know more about you guys!」

She tilts her head as she asks with a little frowning pout.

「…We barely know each other.」

The other frustrated manhunter remarks.

「Yeah! So we should fix that!」

She suggests with a jovial tone, smiling behind them. Like a mosquito at night, the sound of her voice just won't stop coming from behind their ears as she follows them with her hands clasped behind her back.

Intent on completely ignoring him, they pass by a man holding a stack of sheets in his hand, shouting at completely random passersby.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

「…Stay informed! Is the finance minister plotting to take over the kingdom!? Why does the queen still not have a suitor!? Is the Ministry of Security the all-minister's grasp for power before the elections!? Read the Draconis Informer and find out! Only one silver drake!」

The man shouts, and something in his statement makes Nona pause her step.

「Hold on a moment! Come with me.」

She calls out to the Ministry agents, and turns around to approach the shouting man. The manhunters glance at each other and shrug their shoulders, following her.

「What was that about the finance minister?」

With her hands clasped behind her back and a smile on her face, Nona asks the street shouter.

「Ah! Good evening, fine lady! Have you not heard the news at all!? Have you missed the last week's edition of the Draconis Informer!?」

He asks Nona in a loud voice, just barely not shouting at her.

「I haven't even heard of it until now! Ahaha!」

Nona admits, and giggles with a grin. Her amber eyes look the man straight into his.

「Why, then no wonder you are uninformed! You lack the critical information! For quite some time now the finance minister, Straf Katastrof Vindict, has been consolidating power! There are very few aspects of governance that do not concern him now!」

The manhunters join in, silently listening to the man speak with a tight-lipped grimace on their faces.

「Ahaha… Is that so? And what about the Minustea?」

She asks as she tilts her head, smiling.

「It is so! Since you are new to the Informer, fine lady, I will let you have one on the house… Hushed voices say, that the minister seeks to put his favorite into power using the Ministry!」

The street shouter says. The manhunters scoff and shake their heads.

「Woow. Really?」

Nona tilts her head the other way, blinking at the man with innocent orange eyes.

「Yes, really! There are even certain by-names floating around regarding him. Such as… The Shadow King.」

「Woooow. That sounds really cool!」

Nona says with a grin as he utters out the supposed by-name. He leans in towards Nona's ear.

「I'm quite proud of that one.」

He says with a smirk, and straightens out.

「Are you not feeling a lot more informed already, fine lady!? Imagine how much more informed you could be, by buying the Draconis Informer for only one silver! Do you not want to know the why the queen remains unmarried!? The truth will stun you!」

The street shouter insists, waving a paper with some text on it in front of Nona's face. She looks side to side at each of the Ministry agents, smiling at them.

「Well, you see… It just so happens we're from the Ministry of Security! Come with me and tell me more!」

She says, flipping her Ministry identification open and showing it to the man with a grin on her face.

「Nona… Bounder?… Are you, fine lady?」

The man leans in and reads the identification, then looks up at Nona's smiling face as the manhunters approach each of his sides.

「Yup!」

She nods and replies with a cheerful tone, putting her identification away.

「Well, I'm sorry to say, but I have no time for that! The citizens must be informed! I have work to do!」

He shrugs his shoulders, throwing his hands up as he explains.

「Huuuuuuuuh? But I really want you to come with us for a questioning!」

She tells the street shouter with a smile, leaning forward a little towards him.

「A questioning!? Well, you should have said so! I have a lot of questions for the Ministry! But… I'll have to go home quickly to fetch my quill, inkwell and papers for the notes!」

The man smiles as he looks at Nona and the manhunters surrounding him. He explains the matter to one of the agents directly.

「Ahahaha! You won't need them!」

Nona grins as she giggles, and the man looks at her with his brows lightly furrowed.

「…You have everything prepared?」

「Nope, you won't need them.」

She shakes her head in response, smiling at him.

「Alright, come along.」

One of the Ministry agents says, and they grab the man's arms.

「Uh, wait. I will need them! I might forget some details on the way back home!」

Greatly confused and still clutching onto this week's issue of the Draconis Informer, the man protests weakly as the manhunters pull him towards the dungeon.

「Ahahaha! That's okay if you do, don't worry about it! I forget about stuff all the time!」

Nona giggles, hopping ahead of the man with a broad grin as the Ministry agents drag him along.

「But I am a serious man dedicated to informing the citizens! I can't do my job just good enough! Unhand me please! I don't want to come unprepared!」

The man continues protesting, trying to reason with the manhunters to allow him to take his writing implements all the way to the dungeon…

…

In the early morning, in the dungeon…

Nona exits the torture-interrogation chamber. A man sobs inside, mindlessly repeating pleas. She closes the door behind herself, and walks up the stairs with quick hops, approaching the guard at the desk.

「Hiya! I was wondering if you'd know what to do…」

Nona asks, with her militaristic uniform spattered by drops of dark red.

「…What?」

He asks, looking at her with a wary eye and furrowed brow, holding one of the Draconis Informer sheets that were brought in with the shouting man in his hands.

「…Hmmm… No matter what tools I use, he insists that he's innocent, and that he didn't mean anything by his newspaper. He said it's only for entertainment.」

She shrugs with her hands, looking at her work colleague with her amber eyes and a little smile. He looks back at her, staring at her in a brief, uncomfortable silence.

「…Some of this could pass as seditious libel. Or libel against the crown. I think we have some admission of guilt forms here, you could get him to sign it.」

He says, skimming through the newspaper sheet.

「Admission of guilt forms?」

Nona tilts her head, blinking at the Ministry manhunter.

「Uh-huh… Let me find them…」

He says and throws the newspaper on the desk as he stands up. He approaches a line of shelves behind him and digs through stacks of papers of varying age. He pulls one paper out, looks at it, and brings it back to his desk.

「Well, I've got one for libel. Get him to sign it, and he'll get a year in the dungeon for slandering the queen.」

The manhunter shrugs, and slides the yellowed paper to Nona. She looks at it in her hands, and turns for the stairs down.

「Got it! Thanks!」

She hops towards them, but stops after just one.

「Um, do you have a quill?…」

Her amber eyes look to her colleague for help again, when she realizes she has nothing to sign the paper with.

「Nope.」

He bluntly replies, shrugging his shoulders as he is lazily reclining in his chair.

「Hmmmm… Maybe I can get them from his home… Thanks anyway!」

She mumbles to herself as she slowly descends down the first steps of the stairs, before shooting a happy grin to the guard and hopping down he rest of the stairs rapidly. She returns to the torture-interrogation chamber, and shuts the door behind her.

「Please… I'm innocent… Please…」

The shouting man whimpers, sobbing, tied to the bloodied chair.

「I have good news!」

Nona hops up to the whimpering man, and his head remains hanging low.

「Hellooo?」

She waves her hand in front of his face, and only then he slowly raises his head to look at her.

「If you sign this, we'll be able to let you go on a warning!」

She flashes the admission of guilt form in the man's dismayed face with a smile.

「R- Really?」

Shaking, the man asks with terrified, wary, hopeful eyes in between his sobs.

「Yup! But… Hm… We have nothing to sign it with.」

With a little pout, she hums while looking around the room for a writing implement. She looks down at the battered, bloodied street shouter that's no longer feeling like shouting anymore.

Her amber eyes drift down to his mangled, smashed, twisted fingers. Blood drips steadily down onto the floor.

「Ah! I know!」

Hammering her open palm with her fist, she exclaims with a happy grin, and places the form near the man's hand.

「It's okay if you sign with your blood!」

Nona says, smiling at the man.

《I'm a genius!》

She exhales out of her nose in a smug triumph. His shaky hand attempts to bring his twisted, limp finger to the paper, but he struggles to do even as much. Nona brings the signature line even closer to his finger, and the man simply ends up smearing bloody fingerprints on it.

「Hmmmm…」

She looks at the blood smeared on the signature line with her brows furrowed, rubbing her chin.

「Please… Please…」

The man resumes his mindless pleading with his head hanging low.

「I think it's good enough! But next time, do not slander Straf, okay?… Or the queen.」

Tilting her head, she makes a request, leaning forward with her hands on her knees. The man nods his head weakly, as much as he can.

「Okay! Consider this your warning! They'll let you leave in like a year or so!」

Nona declares with a smile, and leaves the room. She walks to the stairs with a bouncy step, and hops up the stairs.

「He signed it!」

She declares with a grin as she slaps the form down on the desk, and clasps her hands behind her back.

「…Uh… Huh…」

The guard manhunter hums, warily glancing at Nona's smiling face and cheerful amber eyes while looking at the blood-stained form.

「Is that all?」

She asks, tilting her head.

「…Yeah. Yeah, that's all. You can go. Don't forget to clean up.」

The manhunter nods his head, still looking at Nona with furrowed brows and cautious eyes.

「Got it! Good work today!」

She exclaims with a smile, and tilts her peaked cap by its brim with her thumb and finger. She turns around, and hops up the stairs to the exit, disappearing behind the corner.

「…She's just pretending, right?」

The guard says to himself, lowering the bloodied guilt admission form…