In the next morning…

「…And it crawled from the bed?」

Niklaus asks, rubbing his chin while looking at the path from the door to the bed.

「…Your highness?」

He calls out towards Cycelia, who is nodding out of drowsiness next to him, almost sleeping while standing. The very top of her shirt remains unbuttoned.

「Huh? Ah, yes… I mean, that's what it looked like, at least…」

Cycelia snaps out of her daze and quickly nods her chestnut head. Ministry of Security agents are idly pacing around the room, looking around, peeking into dark nooks and corners with magic lamps in their hands. One of them opens a wardrobe and warily pushes a great many of exquisite robes apart to peek deeper within, only to find nothing of interest. With his brows furrowed, Niklaus returns a nod of his hatted head and moves towards the open door to the adjacent study.

Still inquisitively rubbing his chin, he looks around the bookshelves before turning his eyes towards the closed balcony door. Cycelia follows him in, while Nona remains wandering around outside in the bedroom. He glances over his shoulder and furrows his brows at the snow-covered balcony.

「…This balcony was closed last night, yes?」

He asks Cycelia while looking at the snow outside through the frosty glass.

「Ah… Yes. I considered opening it to take a peek outside, but I thought it might have been a little too cold for that…」

Cycelia nods in response again while standing behind him as he investigates the study.

「Hmmm… It couldn't have been the balcony. The snow is fresh, and it hasn't snowed overnight… Still, the door should be at least temporarily jammed with a plank or something.」

He humms and takes another look around.

At the same time, Nona idly wanders closer towards Straf's side. With her heavy hammer resting on her shoulder. She takes a glance at the nearby chair, then sits down, resting the hammerhead down on the ground. She leans over its handle and rests her chin on her hands upon its grip, briefly glancing at Niklaus and Cycelia while they talk.

「Hey, Straf… Maybe I should visit you at night?… But I think the queen would be upset about that…」

Nona says to Straf, though mostly mumbling to herself, not caring whether he hears her words or not. She glances at Cycelia again.

「…If you'd want, I wouldn't mind sharing you, but…」

With a slight sigh, she tilts her hatted head, practically lying it down on her hands as her amber eyes wander.

「…I kind of want you just for myself. I'm a thief after all… You know that, right?」

With a sulky pout on her face, Nona returns her gaze back to Straf.

「…Is there nothing else that you might remember, your highness? Any details? Even something vague?」

Niklaus asks with his hands on his hips, staring pensively at Cycelia. Her emerald eyes drift down and aside as she thinks.

「Hmm… I don't really remember much. Like I said, it stood out to me the most that it walked like a spider… I don't know if it'd help, but…」

She humms and shrugs her shoulders while looking aside with a weary gaze.

「Anything, your highness. Small details can be easily overlooked.」

Niklaus insists, nodding his peaked cap.

「…The monster gave me a… Cat-like impression?」

Cycelia says with her chin resting on her thumb, and tilts her head.

「…A cat-like impression?」

Echoing, Niklaus blinks at her with his mouth slightly left open in confusion.

「Yes. I don't know why… It was just a general feeling. I have no idea what it really looked like either. It didn't have a cat tail or ears or anything, so… I wonder why.」

Cycelia nods in reply, and shrugs her shoulders. Niklaus lifts his hat by its brim and scratches the back of his head as he thinks intensely. His face grows more and more troubled the longer he thinks and groans without replying, idly glancing around the room at nothing in particular with an intensely focused face.

「…Your highness, you might have been seeing things…」

He replies with an awkward look on his face and an apologetic tone as he sets his hat back down upon his head.

「…Ah! Don't get me wrong, we will still take it seriously!… It's just… It was dark, and you were tired… It's daylight now, but this room barely lets any natural light in…」

His eyes widen, and Niklaus quickly corrects himself with his palm raised towards her. He looks at the weak sunlight bouncing off the floor in the study, and the hallway.

「…We'll investigate it, but your mind might have just been playing tricks on you, your highness.」

「Yes… I think I might have been just seeing things too. I mean, what else could it be?」

Cycelia nods her chestnut head in reply, smiling softly with her drowsy eyes looking at him.

「We'll investigate the possibilities. In meantime, please get some rest, your highness…」

Niklaus nods back while pinching the brim of his hat, and turns for the exit.

「…Nona! Stop slacking off, we're going!」

He calls out to Nona and waves his arm for the rest to follow. Cycelia tilts her head in confusion when she looks at Nona, and finds her sitting in Straf's bedside chair. The two exchange brief eye contact as she and the rest of the agents follow Niklaus out in a small crowd, shutting the door behind themselves.

With a large sigh, Cycelia turns around and returns to the bed…

…

A few hours later, in the consumer goods factory…

Work continues as the excessively young and excessively old workers are processing some of the last batches of autowagon engines that remain from before the beginning Straf's absence. Stripe is idly circling around the warehouse-turned-factory and watching the workers press buttons on the machine, then simply cross their arms and wait for the mostly automatic, noisy process to finish. Those whose machines have finished leisurely take up brooms and begin sweeping the debris away, then dump it into a dedicated box.

Stripe simply nods along in silent approval while they work, making another full circle. The door to the factory opens, and Niklaus walks in.

《Gah! Shit!…》

Noticing him enter, she quickly turns her golden eyes the other way and pretends to be occupied with something else.

「Hello?… You're the boss around here, aren't you?…」

He asks while approaching Stripe.

「Eh? Ah… Yes, hello… How can I help you?…」

《…Shitshitshitshit… Just act natural!》

Stripe nods, twiddling with her thumbs as she smiles awkwardly at Niklaus. He tips his hat at her.

「…I wanted to ask you a couple questions… You're a beastman, right?」

Niklaus replies, and quickly blows some warm air onto his hands before rubbing them. He then places them both into his uniform pants' pockets.

《Shit! He definitely knows!… I'll just play dumb!》

「Ahhh… Well, yes… Why?」

Wincing very slightly, she reluctantly pulls the cloth hat off her head and reveals her animal ears. They twitch lightly. Niklaus furrows his brows a little at their sight.

「…Do you happen to know any cat-like beasts with no ears or tail to speak of?」

He asks with a gentle tilt of his head.

《…Huh?》

「Eh?… Pardon?…」

Stripe's head shakes ever so slightly out of sheer confusion. She bares the tips of her fangs as an awkward grin appears on her face.

「A cat-like beast with-」

「No, I heard you… But how is it cat-like, then?… And why the question?」

Niklaus tries to repeat himself, but she raises her clawed hand with a stronger shake of her head.

「Well, uh…」

He adjusts the hat on his head while looking aside at the busy workers, who are glancing back at the two with curious, narrow-eyed gazes.

「…There was a small incident at the palace, and I'm trying to figure something out. Frankly, I doubt its veracity, but I can't exactly just discount it as a non-issue…」

Niklaus begins to explain, carefully avoiding divulging too much and cautiously picking his words.

「…I'm kind of running out of clues here. It's a pretty large logical leap, but… I thought with you being a beastman, you might know about some cat beasts from your land.」

He adds, helplessly shrugging his arms.

「…But why me? What do I have to do with this? Wouldn't a mage or a hunter know more about beasts?」

Genuinely puzzled, Stripe furrows her brows as she straightens out of her awkward slouch.

「Aren't you a cat? I thought you might know some-」

「I am not a cat.」

Niklaus asks as he takes a glance at her fuzzy ears. She clenches her teeth, maintaining a veil of politeness as she replies in a stern, curt tone.

「…What are you then? Those look like cat ears to me.」

Likewise perplexed, Niklaus furrows his brows at her.

「I don't know.」

She bluntly replies with her arms crossed, and mouth scrunched to the side.

「How can you not know? You know you're a beastman, I know I'm a human… How can you not know if you're a cat or not?」

He asks, spreading his hands with his eyes narrowed in deep confusion.

「I am not a cat. I was abandoned as a child, I don't know what tribe I am!…」

She replies with her voice raised in frustration.

「Ah. Sorry…」

Niklaus lets out a surprised utterance as his eyes widen, and he awkwardly adjusts his hat with his head lowered.

「…Ahum. Anyway, any ideas as to what it might be?」

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Clearing his throat, he shrugs after a moment of pause.

「No… And how is it even a cat-like beast, if it has no cat ears, or a cat's tail?」

Stripe asks after a blunt reply, spreading her arms with an incredulous expression on her face.

「…Honestly, that's what I'm wondering too…」

Niklaus admits after a prolonged pause, nodding his hatted head.

「…Well, if you don't know, I'll have to try the mages' guild then… But I'm out of ideas.」

He adds, and turns for the exit with a helpless shrug of his arms.

「It doesn't sound like anything to me. What are you even looking for, exactly? And why?」

Stripe asks with her arms crossed, following him to the door a few steps.

「I can't tell you. I think it's nothing after all, anyway… Thanks for your time, and uh… Sorry, again.」

Niklaus glances over his shoulder at Stripe as he makes his way out, and nods with an awkward, tight-lipped grimace on his face before leaving. The door shuts.

「…Whew.」

Stripe lets out a relieved exhale, and pulls the cloth hat back onto her head…

…

In the evening, out on the streets of the capital…

Will is glancing at the noisy and tasteless ads littering the streets with disdain in his eyes. He shakes his head, adjusting his glasses.

「…Work harder, foreigner slave!」「…Your life is shoveling now, so put your back into it!…」「Yeah! Stop slacking off, you deadbeat! Do you not see how much snow there is!?…」

「…Yes, yes… Sorry, sorry!…」

Will stops and looks at a group of children pointing their fingers and shouting at a thin man, who's rapidly and desperately shoveling snow out of the way of the streets.

「No wonder Parnatau Kingdom is a pile of worthless garbage if you all work like this!」「Yeah! Call your home worthless garbage! Now!」

The children continue shouting, and Will furrows his brows with his mouth open in shock. He blinks in disbelief as the man visibly hesitates, simply shoveling snow instead.

「…Are you deaf!? Are you deaf and stupid, Parnatau trash!? You serve the Redwing people, so know your place!」「Yeah! Call 'em trash, or you're going home!」

「…Yes, yes, sorry… My kingdom is worthless-」

「Hey! What is wrong with you!?」

Will's outraged shout interrupts the scrawny man and the children's heckling. All of them turn their confused eyes towards Will as he approaches in a rapid step, angrily adjusting his glasses. Some passersby briefly glance at the commotion too, before simply carrying on. He glares at the confused children.

「W- What?…」

One of them asks nervously.

「What, is my question! What are you doing!? Why are you abusing that man!? Do you not see he's giving all he has!?」

Will adjusts his glasses again and points his hand at the man.

「Ahh, no, it's alright… The Parnatau people- No, Parnatau trash is below Redwing-」

The man shakes his head and feebly waves his hand in front of himself with an awkward smile, quickly correcting himself.

「Shut up! How can you just let them say stuff like that!? Where's your dignity!?」

Will points his finger at the man and interrupts him with an angry shouts. The scrawny worker shrinks.

「…I might get sent back to Parnatau Kingdom otherwise if I don't have a job, so it's really not a big deal-」

The man apologetically explains with a lowered head.

「It is a big deal! You can always find a job where someone will treat you like a human instead of garbage! You just have to not let anyone treat you like that!…」

Will interrupts the man again, fervently disagreeing with him.

「…And you! What is wrong with you!? Do you not feel bad for him!? I know kids are cruel, but isn't this too much!?」

He turns his angry eyes to the formerly heckling children, and angrily adjusts his glasses again, now shouting at them.

「B- But… But we're true Redwing citizens and he's just from Parnatau-」

「So what!? What right does that give you to treat him like that!?」

One of the boys points at the scrawny man, explaining himself, but Will interrupts his explanation. The boy shrinks from Will, lowering his head.

「But!… But those idiots from Parnatau don't even have a nation! They don't have a national song! They have no identity! They don't know who they are!」

Another boy defiantly replies while pointing at the man.

「And even if that were entirely the case… Does that make them any less human!?」

Will asks a rhetorical question, likewise pointing at the skeletal man who is taking the momentary distraction to take a break, gasping for cold air. The boy lowers his head without a reply.

「…But they belong below us! They're just inferior!」

「Who told you that!?」

Another boy chimes in, and Will quickly shouts a question back.

「At school! They told us that their king is greedy, fat, stupid, lazy, and they can't even feed themselves and they're wasting all of the riches of their kingdom!」

He replies, pointing in the direction of the newly-opened school.

「What are they teaching you at school!?…」

Will exclaims in wide-eyed shock.

「…Tsk… Listen! Their king being greedy… That's indisputable. Fat, stupid, lazy… I don't know, never met him. They can't feed themselves?…」

With a frustrated click of his tongue, Will lets out a quick sigh and adjusts his glasses with one fist on his hip.

「…Have you ever been to Parnatau? Only tiny scraps of their land are suitable for farming. You'd be starving too!… And they're not wasting their riches, their king is devouring them!」

「Yeah! That's why our empire and nation is greater, and everyone should be envious-!」

The boy nods along with Will's remarks on Parnatau Kingdom's ruler.

「Shut up! I'm not done talking!…」

Will quickly cuts in, however. The young boy obediently nods and lowers his head.

「…Listen, a nation is not a song, or the amount of gold you have, or your king! A nation is your people!… And you're not being the best example!…」

He adjusts his glasses again and glares down at the now quiet children.

「…Why are you lowering others!? You should be doing the opposite! Look at him!…」

Will points at the skeletal foreign worker. The children turn their eyes to the man.

「…He's bone-thin, but he's clearing the snow for the people here! He's making himself useful! He's working hard! He's making the empire a better place, even if by a little!…」

He continues, and the man awkwardly resumes shoveling the snow with the attention returning back to him.

「…And you're making it worse by making his life miserable! It should be the opposite! You want others to be envious of the empire, but what is there to be envious of!?…」

Will points at the group of children, still shouting angrily. Their heads remain lowered as they listen.

「…Life in the empire should be so good, that foreigners sing praises to everyone about it! When even the lowliest snow-shoveler lives like a king, that'd be cause for envy!…」

Without stopping, Will's thoughts and ideas continue flowing out onto the streets into an unwritten tract.

「…When wealth and prosperity overflows so much that the poorest man can buy out a foreign kingdom, that is greatness!…」

He adjusts his glasses and takes a large breath, before letting out a large sigh.

「…Listen. It's good you want our nation to be great, but this isn't the way. Learn magic, learn how to write, learn how to count properly…」

Calming down somewhat, Will places his other fist on his hip as well. The boys look up at him from below their brows with apologetic gazes. He points his hand at one of the ads.

「…I hate these things, but they're undoubtedly amazing. Stop taking them for granted. You should want to learn how to make things like these. Do that first, before lowering others. Got it?」

He asks, and the children nod.

「Tsk… Get out of here. And you better remember what I told you! Learn magic!…」

With another click of his tongue and a sigh, Will shakes his head and continues onward towards the palace.

「…Magic is the future! Don't be left stuck swinging a sword around like a muscle idiot!」

He glances over his shoulder at the children, and wags his finger at them one last time…