A few hours later, on the streets of the capital…

With his hands in his pockets, Straf is leisurely patrolling around the streets. His head swivels left and right in search of women in cloth hats.

「Nothing, huh?…」

He mumbles to himself, furrowing his brows in a gently disappointed grimace while weaving through the late-day crowd.

「…Well, at least most of the city girls are cute. Bet no one will appreciate the background character artists, though.」

Straf thinks out loud, watching a small group of women discuss something off to the side by a storefront, two of them with headwear on, though neither of which could be called a cloth hat.

He continues searching, meandering and looking around with his bored gaze. At a crossing, he notices a spearhead bob and weave above the crowd as it slowly approaches him.

It doesn't take long for him to see the wielder's face. Lian's neutral expression quickly sours when she sees his.

「You…」

Will says as he adjusts his glasses, stopping in front of Straf.

「Yup. How goes the search?」

Straf nods, and briefly spreads his hands before returning them to his pockets.

「We haven't found anyone yet. I assume you haven't either.」

Before replying, Will glances at Greaves, who is similarly displeased by having to interact with Straf.

「Nope. But I have a good feeling about this!」

Straf shrugs, smirking at Greaves and Will. Alicia's face is barely visible behind them, her eyes peek out towards Straf from above their shoulders.

「…Yeah. Good luck with that. Let's go.」

Will looks at Straf with an incredulous look on his face, almost with a hint of pity, before turning his eyes to Greaves and nodding his head forward. They walk past, swerving around him. Alicia bows her head lightly as she passes by, and hurries to catch back up to Will, Greaves and Lian, leaving Straf behind. He shrugs again, and carries on as well.

…

An hour later…

Sparrow enters an alleyway, leaving the bustling city streets behind. When she reaches a crossing between the buildings, she looks over her shoulder to check if someone is following her. Reassured that she's alone, she takes a sharp turn. Her long hair trails behind her as she approaches a metal gutter pipe behind one of the buildings. She squats down and sticks her hand into the bent part by the ground.

「Hn?…」

Sparrow lets out a surprised utterance. Her brows rise, and her head perks up. She gently grasps onto the moderately heavy object that collided with her fingertips, and cautiously pulls it out of its narrow hiding spot. A cylindrical package wrapped in wax paper, tied with a dark cord, completely unmarked. She quickly drops it into a canvas pouch slung over her shoulder and swivels her head around. Ensuring that she's alone, she walks towards the direction of her home in a rushed step through the alley…

…

Less than thirty minutes later…

Sparrow arrives at the unassuming residence in the capital, and shuts the door behind her. She drops her canvas bag off her shoulder onto the table, pulls the package out, sits down, and pulls at the cord. It easily comes loose, allowing her to unwrap the contents from its paper cover.

「What?…」

She utters out softly, taking a thick stack of large-denomination drakes into her hand. The Minister of Finances is grinning at her from the frontmost bill, holding his thumb up.

Sparrow sets the stack aside when she notices a folded note in the package among the stacks of drakes. She takes it into her hand, and unfolds it to read through it.

「…Coded. Of course it would be.」

She lets out a small sigh of exasperation and gets back up, leaving the note on the table. She walks to the kitchen, takes the cutting board, takes a knife into her free hand, then wedges its tip into a notch at the side of the board. She wiggles its handle left and right, digging the blade deeper and deeper in.

Crack. Thunk.

The cutting board splits. The bottom half drops down onto the kitchen counter with an unceremonious thunk, while the cutting board and its handle remains in her hand.

She haphazardly and hastily discards it as well the knife onto the counter, taking the bottom piece that fell off into her hands. She returns to the table and takes a seat.

The wooden slab in her hands has many rectangular holes punched through its body at equal intervals, though some of them appear to have been intentionally omitted.

《…VICTORY.》

Sparrow peeks at the note, reading the vertical text along its side, then presses the slab against the note, aligning some of the characters on the letter with the holes. Her eyes then begin scanning the letter, ignoring some of the characters. Taking no written notes, she deciphers the encrypted letter in her head.

《Sparrow, I knew it… My hunch was right. As you can see it bore fruit…》

She reads the first line, then briefly glances at the drakes wrapped with and held together by a paper band. Her eyes drift lower, reading the letter further.

《I have discovered this kingdom's money mill…》

「…Money mill? Did I decode this right?」

Sparrow utters out, furrowing her brows while her eyes briefly dart over the wooden cipher tablet, before she continues reading.

《…It's located in an unassuming warehouse past the commercial district, and the door isn't even locked. I've secured funds for further operation for both of us.》

Her eyes once more glance at the stack of drakes, then drift to a line lower.

《While I have not yet discovered the cause for the light, I believe it's connected to Straf Katastrof Vindict…》

Sparrow glances at Straf's grinning, handsome face. She blinks a few times, and before she realizes it, she is staring for a prolonged moment. A little ashamed for herself, she continues.

《…Please send one of the drakes back and make a report explaining everything. Put in a good word for me. Stripe.》

She finishes the letter, and lets out a large, troubled sigh.

「Good grief… She's such a hard working girl… I feel a little bad for being so cold to her now…」

Thinking, Sparrow places her cheek on her hand, propping her head up on the table.

「…Guess I'll buy her some more time. I need to glue this thing back together and burn the message before something unlucky happens.」

She thinks out loud in a hushed voice, and stands up, holding onto the deciphering slab. The legs of the chair scrape against the wood louder than her voice.

「…Maybe I'll give that orphanage girl free meat today.」

Sparrow mumbles, her long hair flowing behind her as she takes the wooden tablet back to the kitchen…

…

Around the same time, in the commercial district…

Straf continues his search, when suddenly two uniformed Ministry of Security agents run up to him.

「Sir!… Sir!」

One of them shouts, trying his hardest to get Straf's attention on the busy street. He succeeds, and with his hands in his pockets, Straf glances at the two over his shoulder.

「Huuh? Yeah?…」

He asks in a lackadaisical tone completely mismatching the agents' urgency.

「Niklaus wants to see you…」

The agent replies, catching his breath.

「Huh? Why? I just saw him a few hours-」

「There has been a development! It's about the new money!」

Straf asks, but the agent straightens out and exclaims, cutting him off.

「…Son of a fucking bitch. Are they counterfeiting it already?」

For a moment, Straf's face gains an incredulous grimace, before outright turning into outraged disbelief.

「No, no… The money is real, but…」

The agent shakes his hatted head, and leans in closer.

「…It appears some people have got their hands on large quantities of it by some means. Illegitimate means. They couldn't have stolen from the bank.」

He adds, speaking in a hushed voice. Straf rubs his chin, thinking deeply.

「That's why Niklaus wants to see you and discuss this situation. We've arrested the suspects, but they refused to tell us anything.」

「…Tell him I'll handle it at the source. Tsk.」

Straf replies, and shaking his head, walks off in the direction of the warehouses. The two agents look at each other, then rush back to the bank…

…

An hour later, just before the evening…

Straf arrives at the printer warehouse and walks in. Just after entry, he notices something is off. His wary eyes scan left and right.

「…Did I kick one here and not notice?」

He thinks out loud as he notices and squats down by a stack of drakes on the floor just by the entrance. He looks at the output end of the printer, which has bundles of drakes haphazardly piled up on each other. He scoops the orphaned bundle off the floor, and throws it into his [Portable Storage] before approaching the pile.

「Did the printer fuck up somehow and kept printing after I left?」

He looks at the printer and its new, modified section. His eyes turn back to the shredded bills. He squats down, and investigates a few of the scraps.

「How did this happen, though?…」

Straf turns a shredded piece of a drake in his fingers, looking at it with brows furrowed and eyes narrowed. He stands up, discarding the scrap back onto the pile.

《Some kind of internal fuckup? I didn't build this machine with maintenance in mind…》

With his hands back in his pockets, he reluctantly approaches the control panel. His head tilts in surprise when he sees the knobs and their positions.

《…Did I leave those like that? I don't remember.》

He rubs his chin, thinking for a few moments.

「Well, whatever. I'll just check if it breaks.」

Crrrk.

He gives the lever a tug, and the machine slowly whirs to life. He approaches the output side and waits for the drakes to begin jumping out.

Plap. Plap. Plap…

When the first bundles are out, Straf returns to the control panel, and turns the machine off. It audibly slows, spits out its last bundles, then goes silent while he's watching.

「Hm…」

His brows furrow further, and he rubs his chin harder while staring pensively at the pile. He looks over his shoulder at the door.

「It's probably a bad idea not to, but I didn't lock this place. Did someone sneak in and help himself to the drakes?… No way. That'd be too audacious, wouldn't it?…」

Straf thinks out loud, then looks at the lever again. He turns a few knobs, pulls it once more, then approaches the pile.

Plap. Plap. Plap. Plap…

The money continues coming out as usual, with no sign of drakes disintegrating. He returns to the lever and stops the machine.

「…Did someone seriously just break in and steal a bunch of money?… Fuck.」

Exasperated, he spreads his arms while looking towards the door, before throwing his hands up in frustration. He packs the leftover bundles of drakes into his [Portable Storage], brushing the ripped shreds of destroyed bills aside underneath the machine with his hand. He stands up, and heads for the door.

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「I'll have to start locking this place up… Ahhhhhh…」

He lets out a large, fatigued sigh as he reaches the exit.

…

At the same time, outside…

Dressed in her incognito attire, Stripe takes a turn in the alleyway and walks towards the warehouse door. It opens.

「Hnnngh!-」

With a shocked, stifled gasp, she jumps back where she came, hiding behind the corner as her golden eyes widen.

「…Just another fucking thing for me to do. I need to start delegating things to people. This isn't at all manageable.」

Straf grumbles as he exits the door into the alleyway, shaking his head. He takes a turn straight for Stripe's corner.

《Shitshitshitshit!… Just my luck! I was going to learn how it works, and I had to run into him now of all times!》

With a tight-lipped grimace, she stays hidden and listens for his encroaching footsteps. Her eyes keep darting towards the corner, and she begins sliding away along the wall.

《Do I run? He'll hear me if I suddenly start running! These damn shoes aren't sneaky!》

Wincing in anger, she looks at her feet clad in ordinary shoes one could find on an average city woman. The footsteps get closer, and closer.

《I'll just… I'll just leave!》

She leaves the alleyway into the street, walking in a hurried yet relatively normal pace.

《I'm just a normal woman! A normal city woman living in Draconis, capital of the Redwing Kingdom! It's perfectly normal from me to go from place to place!》

Stripe lets out a confident huff from her nose. Keeping her head high, she walks down the road to the commercial district.

「Hey!…」

「Urk…」

Straf's voice calls out from behind her. She winces, but ignores him and continues walking.

「I said hey! You, with the hat!」

「Khhkkk…」

She clenches her teeth, stopping in her tracks, unable to ignore Straf any longer without appearing deaf.

《Stay calm… Stay calm. He has no reason to arrest you. You were just in an alleyway… That's legal…》

Awkwardly grinning, she turns around halfway, pointing her finger at herself with her arms close to her chest, appearing like a meek and shy woman.

「…Me?」

She asks quietly as he approaches with his hands in his pockets.

「Yeah, you. Have you seen any suspicious-?…」

He nods and asks, but his voice trails off with a faint movement of his brows when they properly look at each other's faces.

「…People hanging around here?」

Straf completes his question with narrowing eyes, taking on an audibly wary and accusative tone at the end. Stripe gulps, and her expression turns into a tight-lipped grimace.

「N- No sir, I can't say that I have. I'm rarely here, you see… Aha… Very, very rarely…」

The golden-eyed woman lets out a singular, very awkward chuckle as she explains. Her voice becomes barely audible at the end, and she hugs her hands closer to her chest.

「Right… So if you're here very very rarely…」

Straf nods, and takes a step closer. The woman responds with a matching step back. He tilts his head.

「…What are you doing here?」

He asks, looking into her golden eyes which are slowly widening.

「I- Um… I… I am…」

《…You iiidiiiooooot!》

Her expression blanks, and her lips tighten as they narrow into thin lines, pressing into each other. Straf takes another step forward, slowly getting within arm's reach.

She takes one more look at his face, then turns and runs.

「Hey! I'm not done talking with you!…」

Straf shouts, leisurely following her while she's fleeing at full speed and quickly leaving him behind. Her eyes dart to a building's corner at a crossing ahead, before glancing at her laid-back pursuer. When she reaches the crossing, she slows in a wild slide, then runs to the side in an effort to break the line of sight.

「…Don't you know it's rude to do that?」「Wha-!?」

Her jaw drops when she turns her head forward, only to inexplicably see Straf standing in her path when he was far, far behind her just a second ago. She slides to a full stop.

「But how!?…」

Shielding herself from him with her arm, she takes a step back for each of his step forward.

「…Why are you trying to run from me?」

He calmly asks, tilting his head.

「Because…」

She utters out, quickly trying to find a reasonable excuse.

「…Because I don't feel safe with you here! The Ministry doesn't come here and we're alone! I don't know you! Who knows what you want to do to me!?」

Stripe exclaims, hugging herself with her arms and pointing her clawed finger at Straf, watching his face closely to see if he bought it. He lets out a large, exasperated sigh.

「…This isn't the first time I have been accused of being a sex pest, and it probably won't be the last, but you really should keep your voice down. The maids already hate me.」

He plaintively spreads his arms with a fatigued face in a weak plea.

「The maids?…」

「Yeah. They think I like little girls, or something… Look, I'll get to the point…」

Straf explains, rubbing his brows with his thumb and finger in mild frustration. Stripe unwraps her arms from herself and covertly moves her hand behind her back.

「…You did it, didn't you?」

He asks, placing his hands back into his pockets while staring at her with a piercing gaze.

「I didn't steal any money!」

Stripe vehemently denies, resisting the urge to run again.

「No, what I mean is… It was you in the palace, right?-」

Fwoop!

Before Straf can properly finish his question, three daggers of black metal with leaf-shaped blades zap through the air, thrown in a lightning-fast flick of her arm at him by the woman. Very faintly, the daggers resemble masonry towels a little, if their heads were squashed and stretched forward. They appear to be more suited for stabbing and digging rather than slashing like an ordinary dagger. On the end of its cloth-wrapped hilt, there is a ring pommel. With time significantly slowed, Straf leisurely watches the daggers close in with a bored, tight-lipped face.

He calmly reaches out for them, and picks all three out of the air with one hand. The effect of [Contextual Time Perception] ends.

「What?…」

The woman's golden eyes widen, and her head perks up when she sees Straf nonchalantly examine all three of her daggers in his hand with an unfazed look on his face.

「Hm. Kunai. Nice. So I assume you're a spy from the Eastern Kingdoms, or whatever?…」

He nods at the daggers with a mildly approving grimace, and throws them aside into his [Portable Storage] as if throwing garbage into a trash can.

「Hnngh?…」

《…Just from that?… How does he know?… Who is he?》

Shocked speechless, the woman takes a step back, staring at him in utter disbelief.

「By the way… I haven't mentioned any stolen money, so good job digging yourself deeper in… Nona would have a field day with you.」

He smirks, placing his hand back in his pocket as he takes a few slow steps towards her. Her jaw drops with an expression of stunned, indignant betrayal on her face.

「…Why did you-? Slit pupils?」

Straf's head perks up as he looks into the woman's eyes again. Her pupils in her golden eyes are now vertically slit. Unable to think of any better plan, Stripe runs.

She runs heading directly towards the commercial district, but just as she runs back into the crossing, she notices a small group of people ahead.

「…Cloth hat!」

A young-looking swordsman with spiky orange hair exclaims when he sees Stripe. A man his age beside him adjusts his glasses. She turns around, and sees Straf approaching closer. She decides to run into the short side path directly across Straf, which turns one way at its end. The group begins chasing after her, while Straf continues casually following her with his hands in his pockets. Her golden eyes snap upwards.

《Shit, shit, shit!… It's all because of this!? My hat gave me away!? How!?》

Dismayed, she grips onto it, pulling it further onto her head. Two points refuse to go down and flatten along the top of her head.

「Stop! On the queen's authority you're under arrest!」

The man with the glasses shouts as he and the rest of them run out into the crossing. She reaches the end of the road, and takes a turn. Her eyes widen when she realizes the street only goes on for a few paces more before abruptly turning into a dead end. Her eyes dart for an alleyway out, but she can't find any. The dim street is entirely surrounded by buildings with no space between them, all sharing walls.

「No… No, no!」

She slows her run, frantically looking for a way out. Perhaps out of desperation, it takes her a few seconds extra to accept that there aren't any there, and she's forced to turn back.

「Halt!」

The man in the glasses catches up. A spearwoman with a cold glare menacingly points her weapon at Stripe from the corner. They fan out, completely blocking her way back.

「You are under arrest on suspicion of high-value theft, trespassing the royal palace and injuring the queen's guard!」

He shouts, pointing his finger at her, holding a wooden staff in his free hand. A woman with a silver wand positions herself behind everyone else.

As the group edges closer, Stripe reaches behind her waist and pulls out a single-edged dagger. The spiky-haired young man leaps ahead of the group in a combat-ready stance.

「Drop the dagger and surrender! You will not be harmed!」

The man in the glasses keeps shouting while taking steps forward. Stripe matches their steps backwards, but is rapidly running out of space to retreat to, nearing the dead end.

《Shit… Is this really it? Right after my big win? I ran out of luck in this life!?》

Stripe clenches her teeth in anguish. Her slit pupils dart over the group. Straf appears from beyond the corner, joining behind everyone else in a casual pace.

「Will…」

The spiky-haired man calls out, peeking over his shoulder at the one in the glasses.

「Yeah…」

He nods, adjusting his glasses, and points his palm at Stripe, taking a few steps aside.

「Lian, try to not hurt her too much.」

He turns his bespectacled eyes to the tall spearwoman, who quickly lets out a resigned sigh.

「Fine… I'll see what I can do.」

She smirks, then rushes forward after a brief pause. Her cold glare is centered on Stripe's hand, and her spearpoint is darting for her wrist in an effort to slash it apart.

Clangkrrrrk!…

She deflects the spearhead with a deft flick of her wrist, redirecting most of the force away. The spearwoman's eyes widen, and she leaps back to the group.

「…She's not a normal woman.」

She cautions her group. Her smug smirk is now gone, and she's staring at Stripe with a cold, serious glare.

「I thought as much…」

The man in the glasses nods, and begins saying something quietly to nobody in particular.

《Why did it come to this!?… All those years of being cautious, only for a stupid coincidence like this!?…》

Stripe thinks, narrowing her eyes in dismay. Her back is now pressed against some building's wall while the group in front of her slowly closes in with Straf in the rear.

《…I'm not going to let them torture me for information.》

She decides, and her grip on her dagger tightens.

「Hm?」

The spearwoman's eyes widen in surprise.

「What is she?…」

The swordsman asks, furrowing his brows.

「Wait! Don't!-」

The man in the glasses stops whatever he was doing and calls out as Stripe places the blade of her dagger on her throat, and presses it closer with her free hand on its blunt side.

She closes her golden eyes, briefly hesitating as her face surely grimaces at the discomforting thought of what will happen next. She pulls hands diagonally down across her throat…