Late afternoon, in a certain shop in Kreisfeld…

Ring ring!

A bell above the door lets out a clink. A young, skinny man in a tuxedo approaches the figure wrapped in a green cloak.

「Welcome back, sir.」

The serious-looking man with a large, graying mustache says.

「Wh-!? Th-! What-!? How-!?」

The cloaked figure stammers. The cloak flutters violently as hand grabs onto its edge from underneath it.

「What the fuck do you mean welcome back!? What gave me away!?」

Straf shouts angrily at the mustached man at the counter, throwing his green cloak off of himself.

「Not one thing in particular, sir. We just remember our customers by their gait, form, height… Even if you haven't bought anything. How may I help?」

He replies to Straf with a serene tone, gently nodding.

「Tsk. And I thought I could make an anonymous purchase… Whatever. Keep watching people, and calling them scum.」

「Why, I would never!-」

「Are you looking for something specific, sir?」

The young man walks up to Straf, his hands already clasped together in anticipation.

「…Yeah. Do you still have that swimsuit?」

Straf grimaces as he answers, then asks.

「Of course! Please.」

The young man points his palm down the aisle towards the back of the shop, and encouragingly nods his head. Straf reluctantly heads this way, and the young shopkeeper follows.

「Yup. That's it alright. And to be clear, this isn't for me. It's for everyone else.」

Straf remarks, looking at the large-breasted mannequin wearing a micro-bikini.

「…I see the lady from before is absent. We have many different sizes… Is this a gift for her, or?…」

The young man asks, spreading his white-gloved hands.

「No, it's for someone else.」

Straf shakes his head, looking at the bikini with a slanted mouth.

「I see. What size is the lady you have in mind? Larger? Smaller?」

「Larger. By like… One size?」

Straf rubs his chin as he compares the cup sizes in his head.

「I see. I will fetch the-」

「Actually, hold that thought. It's perfectly fine if it's a little too tight.」

Straf stops the young man, holding his index finger up.

「Very well. That will be 5 silvers for the top part, 4 for the bottom. 9 silver for the whole set. Anything else?」

The young man nods his head and rubs his gloved hands as he names the price.

「That's so cheap-! No, wait! That's fucking expensive! A sword costs 8 silvers! Managing a shitton of money and life in the capital ruined my view of money even further!」

After a brief chin rub, Straf remarks in shock.

「You live in the capital, sir?」

The young man asks, tilting his head.

「Hm? Yeah, I guess you could say that.」

「Ah. Indeed, the prices there are brutal. The pitfalls of life in a large city. I was thinking of moving, but that pushed me away from the idea… And I would not call this bathing set expensive. It's valuable, sir.」

The young man smiles with a nod of his head.

「Call it what you call it, the slutty clothing is still more expensive than a sword. I thought about crafting this, but I guess I either don't have the recipe, or my mind isn't twisted enough.」

Straf sighs, placing his fist on his hip while pondering the bathing set.

「…Pardon?」

The young shopkeeper tilts his head in confusion.

「Never mind me. I need another bathing set, but something elegant. For a proper lady, not a slut.」

Straf dismissively shakes his one unbroken hand in front of his face.

「Very good sir, and what size would that lady be?」

「Flat as a plank.」

Straf bluntly declares.

「…Well that's unfortunate.」

The young man says under his breath with a suppressed amused smirk, looking aside.

「Oh, and she's child-sized.」

Straf adds, glancing at the skinny shopkeeper.

「Ah. I see. In that case, we have a selection of old bathing sets. They're not as popular, but they've had their days.」

The shopkeeper says, pointing his palm to another section of the store.

「As long as they cover everything, and maybe have some frills.」

Straf shrugs, following the tuxedo man…

…

In the evening, in the capital's bank…

「…Hellooo? Am I in the right place?」

Nona peeks her head in and looks around the room. The clerks distracted by an idle conversation look at her, and the man at the desk doesn't react, content to keep his head hanging and hidden in his arms, slumped on his desk.

Knock knock.

「Hello? Knock knock. Straf sent me.」

Nona says towards the man, lightly knocking her knuckles on his desk. The man finally stirs, hearing Straf's name.

「…Straf? Why? Who are you?」

The man asks with hollow eyes full of despair.

《Uwa… No joke, he really is grim…》

「I'm Nona. I'm supposed to be the Ministry's interrogator, or something? Straf told me to tell you that you're meant to make a torture-interrogation chamber out of the guards' barracks, or the dungeon, or something.」

Nona introduces herself, noting how remarkably grim the man before her is.

「…Ah… The Ministry, huh…」

He lowers his head, and his dejected eyes blankly stare at the desk.

「…Wait, torture-interrogation chamber?」

He lifts his gaze up, looking at Nona's uniquely orange eyes.

「Well, that's what he said, so…」

With her hands clasped behind her back, she shrugs her shoulders and tilts her head in response.

「…Mercia forgive me…」

He mutters out under his breath, sinking his face into his palms. An uncomfortable silence begins.

「Um… Are you alright?-」

Nona leans in a little, looking with concern in her eyes at the man in visible anguish.

「…I'm Niklaus. I suppose I will be your superior… I run the Ministry of Security for Straf. If he sent you, he must think very highly of you.」

「I wonder, ahaha…」

The man's face pops up from his hands, and he introduces himself to Nona with a more normal tone, albeit still looking at her with deadened eyes. Nona shoots back an inconsequential reply with a nervous grin and chuckle.

「What will I do here? I can't say I have any work experience in this.」

Nona says, and looks around the bank. The clerks look onto their dialogue with a concerned gaze.

「Since he sent you as an interrogator… You'll interrogate. It just so happens that I might have some work for you to do right now.」

「Like what?」

Nona tilts her head curiously, and Niklaus hangs his head low again.

「…Earlier today, the guards were ordered to keep an eye on the ducks in the park…」

「…Ducks?」

「…As luck would have it, the Ministry's workers- Former manhunters, my subordinates noticed one of the guards left his post. They followed him, and they saw him exchange something that looked like a letter with another man.」

Niklaus raises his head and explains.

「They moved to arrest, but the man he gave the letter to disappeared into the crowd. Regardless, they arrested the guard on suspicion of spying, as there was no reason for him to leave his post, and the circumstances were shady to say the least.」

He continues, staring at Nona's eyes blankly with a fish-like gaze.

「Um, and how does that relate to me?…」

She tilts her head, blinking.

「You will- It's not me doing it. I'm just telling you what to do. Yeah, you do what you do…」

Niklaus almost explains it, but then his eyes widen, and he hangs his head again as he mutters something underneath is breath.

「Uh, hello?」

Nona waves her palm in front of Niklaus as he keeps muttering. He abruptly stops and raises his head.

「…You will interrogate him. Your task is to extract information out of him. We want to know who the second man is, what the letter was, as well as confirmation whether or not he is a spy.」

He answers bluntly, still staring at her like a dead fish.

「…And how am I meant to do that?」

Nona asks with innocent amber eyes.

「That is up to you. You will be given tools-」

Niklaus says, and immediately retracts his head down to the desk, covering it with his arms entirely.

「…It's not for my sake, it's for the kids and Mary… It is what it is… I'm just ordering people around…」

He mumbles quietly into the desk, face down. Just as Nona opens her mouth, he abruptly straightens out again.

《…What is with this guy?》

Nona thinks, staring at the man's dejected face as his dead eyes stare at her.

「…You will be given tools. The method of extracting information is up to you. I'll take you there.」

He says and stands up, stepping out of his desk.

「Can you take care of the bank while I'm out?」

Niklaus asks, looking at the closest bank teller. She nods energetically a few times, and he nods once in reply.

「…Come with me…」

He says, walking past Nona. She bows her head at the clerks, and follows the exceedingly grim man out…

…

A brief walk later, Nona and Niklaus enter the capital's dungeon. A manhunter manning the guard's desk nods his head at Niklaus, and he nods back in acknowledgment. He and Nona descend a long flight of stairs.

「Mr. Niklaus, am I going to get-?」

「…Just call me Niklaus…」

Niklaus says, interrupting Nona with a slow and dark side-glance.

「Right. Am I going to get one of those things that you show to the guards, and they leave you alone?」

She asks, gesturing with her hands and mimicking Straf showing off his Ministry of Security identification.

「…What are you talking about?」

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Niklaus asks back, lifelessly staring at her eyes with gently furrowed brows.

「Huh? You don't have one?」

She blinks, somewhat surprised.

「No. I'm not even sure what you are talking about.」

Niklaus replies, and they descend to the bottom of the stairs. He takes a turn into a long corridor, and they arrive at a closed door. A sliding hatch to view the inside is situated around the eye level in the door, but Nona is too short to properly see through it, if it were open to begin with.

「We're here… Remember… Your goal is to extract information. We have no certainty of guilt, only suspicion.」

Niklaus reminds Nona, and opens the door. He nods his head at the dark room, and Nona hesitantly enters.

「…You know what to do…」

Niklaus says, unable to look at Nona.

「No, no I d-」

Thud.

The door shuts before she can finish. The room is poorly lit by two flames dancing on candles that hang off the walls.

「Hey! This is a mistake! I'm innocent!」

A man tied to a thick, heavy wooden chair calls out to Nona. Shadows jump on his face as the nearby flame wiggles completely carefree.

「Um. Can you tell me from the start what happened?」

Nona says, walking up to the man wrapped with so much rope, that only his head can move semi-freely.

「They arrested me for nothing! I'm a guard! Can you believe this!? A guard getting arrested!? And this whole formation… Ministry, or something or other of Security. Bah. I've never heard of these fucking guys! And then they tell me they were formed today, and have authority over me!?」

The irate man complains, scoffing at the idea of the Ministry.

「You're right, it does sound kind of odd…」

Nona nods her head, leaning forward with her hands on her thighs to look at the man head level.

「Right!? It's either illegal, or it's a fucking mistake-」

The man smiles a little, glad that he is finally being listened to. The door swings open, and Niklaus carries in a wrap of rolled cloth in his arms. He walks to a table next to the chair, and throws the wrap onto the table with a loud, dense metallic clatter.

Thud!

The cloth unwraps, and he spreads the various tools within across the table. A hammer, pliers, an awl, a meat cleaver, a large pile of long sewing needles, a cattle branding iron… All in all, a rather menacing collection.

「…Tools.」

Niklaus unceremoniously declares, as both Nona and the man stare at him. He departs without an additional word, and shuts the door behind him.

Thud.

Nona glances at the tied man, and walks up to the table to look through the tools she was given.

「…As I was saying, it's a fucking mistake. We were told to guard ducks! Ducks, for fuck's sake! I'm a guard not a duck-keeper! I leave to talk with a citizen and ask him if he saw any criminal activity, and I get accused of being a criminal!? This is ridiculous!」

The man continues, as Nona picks up and examines each of the tools with curious orange eyes.

「You were guarding ducks?」

She asks over her shoulder, holding a hammer.

「Yeah! It's the queen's order for some insane fucking reason! And-!」

「And you didn't respect it?」

Nona sets the hammer down, and walks back up to the chair, leaning forward to face the man head level once more.

「What?- I mean, come on… I mean… Ducks?…」

Nona's question throws the man out of his complaining rhythm for a brief moment. While uttered with a completely innocent tone, her amber eyes staring directly into his create an odd feeling of unease.

「Yeah, it's weird, right? But it's a rule… Are you bad at following the rules?」

Nona asks, tilting her head with the same innocent tone.

《…What is this bitch saying? Is she accusing me?》

The man furrows his brows, mildly angered by the question, but keeps his anger veiled.

「No, I'm saying I'd rather protect the innocent from criminals than guard ducks.」

He bluntly answers, and Nona nods.

「I see, so you would call yourself an honest man?」

She asks with a smile.

《…Wait, is she actually just fucking stupid? What kind of a fucking questioning is this?》

The man thinks with furrowed brows while suppressing a smirk.

「Yeah. I'm just an honest man and I was trying to do my job as a city guard, you know? I admit, I shouldn't have left the ducks, but what was I meant to do? Someone could have been getting murdered while I watch people throw bread at ducks!」

The imprisoned guard nods, attempting to shrug his shoulders, but the rope is too tight to let him.

「I see. I really like honest men. So you were just trying to be a good guard?」

Nona straightens out and asks with her arms casually crossed behind her back.

「Yeah, that's what I'm saying. This is a big misunderstanding, you see. Can you untie me?」

The man wiggles his arm, tightly tied to the chair's armrest. Nona glances at it, then back at the man's eyes.

「I want to ask you a few more questions first, so that I'm sure you're an honest guard. Okay?」

Nona tilts her head as she asks with a disarming smile. The man sighs.

「Tsk. Fine, ask away. But make it quick, I need to take a leak bad.」

The guard rolls his eyes and clicks his tongue, but nods his head in agreement.

「Do you think it should be illegal to arrest guards?」

Nona asks, looking the man in the eyes.

「Yeah! I mean, fuck! What is this shit!? Some random guy has the power to arrest me all of a sudden!? This isn't how things should be!」

He loudly complains again, wiggling in his chair out of frustration.

「You shouldn't be able to just accuse guards of breaking the law, right?」

She tilts her head, smiling at the man.

「Yeah! A criminal could shout all sorts of accusations, and then what? We're supposed to arrest each other!?」

The man scoffs with a ridiculing grin on his face.

「Right! The guards are supposed to enforce the law. It's not like they can break the law themselves, right?」

Nona nods as she speaks, still smiling.

「Yeah! I wish you got here sooner, those fucking assholes kept accusing me of shit and wouldn't listen to a word I'd say! The guards are supposed to be the symbol of law and authority! If you have some asshole throwing baseless accusations of corruption, nobody is going to respect the law!」

Content, the man smiles back as Nona walks up to the table, and looks over it again.

「Yeah, I agree! The city guard is meant to be made up of the finest people of good character.」

She says, returning back to the man. Nona smiles at the man, her eyelashes flutter in front of her amber eyes. The guard pauses for a moment, and the two look each other in the eyes in silence.

《…She's kind of giving me the fucking creeps. Stop fucking smiling so much and untie me already!》

「Yeah, well… I'm not perfect. I like a stiff drink from time to time, but I like to think I'm a fine person of good character as you say.」

The man says, gently furrowing his brows as something about the woman unnerves him.

「Ahahaha! You're fiiine! I know an old man who really likes to drink, and he's a good guy!」

Nona laughs softly, shooting another innocent smile at the bound man. He lets out a sigh.

《…Right. She's just an airhead. That's a relief.》

「Well, thanks… Can you untie me now? Seriously, I've been sitting like this-」

The guard clenches his fist, struggling against the rope tying his arm to the armrest.

「Sure, one more question though…」

Nona nods her head as she cuts the man off, and looks him in the eyes again with a wide smile.

「…Criminals should not expect to be treated kindly when caught, right?」

She asks, tilting her head.

「Yeah, obviously. Isn't that what we're here for? To make all the law-breaking scumbags fear for their lives, and not dare to fuck with the law-abiding citizens?」

The bound guard shrugs, but the rope digs into his shirt and restrains his shoulders.

「So say you catch a thief… You can do basically anything you want to him, right?」

Nona asks with a warm smile, staring at the prisoner.

「Yeah, pretty much- Well, you can't kill 'im or anything. You'd get into trouble for that. But nobody is going to care if he trips a few times on the way to the dungeon, you know what I mean?」

Looking into Nona's amber eyes, the guard returns a cocky grin.

「Ahahaha! Yeah! I know exactly what you mean!」

Nona laughs, leaning forward a little with her hands behind her back. She nods energetically, and straightens out.

「Yeah, so can you-?」

「That's all the questions I have. I'm glad you're exactly who I thought you'd be!」

Nona says with a wide, happy smile. Her attitude and bright smile makes the guard warm inside.

「Yeah, alright. So can you untie me now?」

「I have to interrogate you first.」

Nona bluntly replies, the smile remains on her face.

「…What? You said-」

The guard is once again knocked out of his rhythm, tripped up and befuddled. He blinks at Nona with his brows furrowed, and lips parted in stunned surprise.

「I said that's all the questions I have. I still need to interrogate you. So, who was that man?」

She asks in a cheery, inquisitive tone as if asking about a friend of a friend.

「Some random citizen, I don't know him-」

The man replies, shaking his head gently in denial. Nona raises her arms.

Clunk!

「Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!」

The guard screams in agony at the top of his lungs when the hammer impacts his hand. He clenches his teeth, writhing in the chair from pain, albeit the ropes restrict most of his anguished thrashing.

「…What the fuckkrrkkk?…」

He groans out through his gnashing teeth, as he looks at Nona. Her amber eyes intently take in all his strained gasps for air, struggling against the ropes, and the confused, pained look on his face.

「You're lyiiiiinng!」

Holding a hammer in her hands, Nona exclaims with a smile and a carefree tone, as if she caught the man telling a little white lie, and wasn't particularly upset about it.

「…Grkkrr… What the fuck?… So all that was to just butter me up? To lower my guard?」

Breathing heavily and groaning in pain, the man stares at Nona's smiling face.

「Nope! I really wanted to find out what kind of a man you are! I really know what you mean! You're the type of guard that will do whatever you want to do, because you're a guard!」

Nona leans forward, her amber eyes level with the man's as she grins at him.

「No, that's not it at all-」

The man denies, shaking his head while profusely sweating. Nona lifts her arms.

「Wait!! Wait wait wait! Hrk!- Stop! Wait! Fine! I'll talk! There's no need for that!」

The man screams in panic as the hammer looms over Nona's brown head. He writhes and wiggles to escape, but the rope doesn't allow him the slightest movement, and he only manages to lightly injure his neck in the struggle. Nona tilts her head, and lowers her hands onto her shoulder.

「So are you a spy?」

She asks with a curious tone, as if asking a friend about his job.

「I- Well- Not exactly. I just write up information once a week and hand it over to the guy for some gold. Stuff like troop movements, rumors, news, notable people that got arrested, garrison strength… Just a whole bunch of shit you could glean from living here.」

The guard explains, breathing heavily, wincing from pain in his hand and the rope against his throat.

「Listen, I know it sounds bad, but… I'm not a traitor, or a spy, or something. Alright? It's just a little side thing. It doesn't harm anyone… Can you do something about this rope on my neck? I can't breathe, I feel like I'm going to pass out… Please.」

The man continues, and looks at Nona with pleading eyes. She looks back at him with her brows curiously raised. After a tense moment of near-silence, the man's labored breathing being the only sounds, she lowers her hammer.

「Let's see…」

Nona says, walking behind the man's chair. He sighs in relief with visible fatigue on his sweat-covered face. She traces the rope with her finger to find out which loop belongs to the rope on the prisoner's neck, and eventually finds a knot.

「Thank you… Can someone take a look at my hand, too? It's definitely broken- Hrk!」

He prematurely thanks Nona as he feels her manipulate the rope from behind him. She yanks at the knot, and the rope painfully tightens.

「Is that better?」

Nona hops with a bouncy step to the front of the chair, leaning to get a good look at the man's twisting face at head level, as she asks with a smile and a cheery tone.

「Hrk!- Hhhgh!- Too tight!- Hnnnnhgh!」

Between his strained gasps for air, he manages to say two words while looking at Nona with wide-eyed terror in his eyes. She tilts her head with a smile.

「I know.」

She bluntly declares, and straightens out.

「I said… I said I'll talkkkrk!」

The man desperately pleads, looking at Nona's grinning face.

「Ahaha… It's better if you talk. I'm supposed to extract all the information out of you, after all. But since I know you're a criminal, I can do whatever I want to you, right? And I want to do something bad.」

She giggles as she leans forward, placing her hands on her thighs. Her cheery amber eyes stare directly into his terrified ones.

「Hrk- Please, stop, I beg you…」

The guard pleads again, trying to gain some slack against the rope strangling him.

「Ahahaha! Saying please and stop and begging doesn't really work!」

Nona laughs, and raises the hammer above her head with a cheery grin…