The restrained man spits more blood on the floor, evading eye contact with Straf's glare.

「Fucking tell him!」

The irate bandit holding onto his arm yells in his face as they grow increasingly nervous, pierced by Straf's gaze.

「Let me guess… He paid you to kill her, huh?」

Straf scoffs, keeping his hands in his pockets, and the bandits glance at each other with nervous eyes. The crossbowman spits more blood aside.

「Tell 'im or I'll fuckin'-!」

「Pfoot. He didn't!…」

The man shouts over his panicking underling's threats directed towards him, spitting blood one last time.

「Then speak the fuck up. My patience is running thin.」

Straf declares, staring daggers at him. The leader's eyes dart side to side again.

「…I can't.」

He replies with his head lowered.

「What the fuck you mean you can't!? Tell him!」「Start talking you fucker!」「I'll carve your fucking face up if you don't talk!」

His own men immediately begin threatening him again.

「Start talking or I'll let them.」

Straf warns, looking down at him with a disdainful smirk.

「I can't! He'll fucking kill me!」

The highwayman leader shouts back, staring into Straf's eyes with an angered gaze.

「He'll kill you if you talk, I'll kill you if you don't. Who can reach out and touch you right now?」

Spreading his hands, Straf asks with his brows lightly furrowed and a smirk on his face.

「I either get my throat slit here, or I live the rest of my life looking over my fucking back… You think that's a fucking choice!?」

「You could have picked a softer target, like a dragon or something…」

Straf replies, squatting down again with a somewhat neutral, but visibly disdainful expression.

「…He won't have a lot of time to look over his shoulder-」

「I'm so fucking tired of your shit!」

Thud!

Another irate bandit loses his temper and delivers a rough kick in the crossbowman's ribs, interrupting Straf.

Thudthwackfwapthudthwack!…

「You think I give a shit!?」「Tell him or you'll wish I fucking killed you!」「Fucking piece of shit!…」

The highwaymen once again begin pummeling their leader. Straf throws his hands up.

「Okay, interrupt my fucking line!… Whatever…」

With a slanted mouth on his face, he briefly watches the bandits kick and punch the man.

Snap snap snap.

As if a magic trick, Straf snaps his fingers, and they freeze in their current poses once again.

「Hey, mustachio!…」

He shouts over his shoulder, looking straight at the mustached driver's uneasy face.

「…Hand me that dagger. We're going to snip his thing.」

Straf nonchalantly adds with a tight-lipped grimace while doing a scissor-cutting motion with his fingers.

「What?…」「Eh?」

Both the bandit leader and the driver appear shocked by Straf's words. The driver looks with hesitant eyes at his dagger, then back at Straf. The bandits exchange nervous glances.

Then, the two men briefly turn their eyes to each other, and the driver approaches with a slow, reluctant step. The highwaymen begin wrestling with the man and spread his legs forward.

「Wait!… Wait, you fuckers!…」

Their leader shouts, trying to yank his arms or legs away, but there's simply too many hands holding him. They sit him down, spreading his legs towards Straf as far as they can.

「Straf… Is this really necessary?…」

Cycelia meekly asks with her brows furrowed and her lower lip gently bit, fidgeting nervously with her medallion.

「Wait! You can't fucking do this to me!… You're a man too, aren't you!? Are you fucked in the head!?」

The man wiggles heavily with the very little motions he's left with, screaming in panic with his eyes wide open as the driver hands Straf the dagger.

The somewhat obese aging man steps back, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, appearing greatly disconcerted, yet relieved not to be the one to do the deed.

「Wait! Wait, please! You can't fucking do this! Just fucking kill me! The worst fucking murderers don't do this shit!」

The crossbowman continues screaming as Straf turns his glare back to him, holding the dagger up ominously. Cycelia turns her emerald eyes away with a heavy grimace on her face.

Straf raises his dagger hand with his cold gaze focused on the man's defenseless groin, and the highwayman's eyes widen in terror.

Thunk!

「AAAaaaaaa!!…?」

The bandit screams in panic, and the rest of the band jumps up as they flinch. His shout trails off from complete and utter terror into silence, sounding confused before he goes quiet.

「If you'd be dealing with anyone else, you'd be in deep shit right now, but I'm not much into power fantasies…」

Straf calmly remarks while the man breathes heavily, staring at him with a shaky, dread-filled gaze. The rest of the bandits aren't any more relaxed either. Hearing Straf's voice, Cycelia hesitantly opens her eyes and peeks at the restrained man. She lets out a sigh of relief when she sees the dagger stuck in the ground, right between the highwayman's legs. It sits in a cracked rock, threateningly close to his groin, but just barely far away enough to not hit the important parts. The man is sweating heavily despite the cold autumn weather, huffing and puffing.

「…I already have a good idea what he wanted, but I want to hear it from you. What did that guy pay you for?」

Spreading his hands while squatting in front of the terrified man, Straf adds, and shrugs his shoulders.

「He's going to kill me if this gets out… And you motherfuckers too! I'm going to tell him everything! Fuck you, you treacherous fucking rats!…」

The crossbowman flails body about as he furiously yells into the faces of the men restraining him. He takes a brief pause to catch is breath, looking down at the dagger.

「…He wanted two things. One was to verify that there's a green-eyed, chestnut-haired girl in the carriage. Two was to retrieve a tome with a blank cover bound in dark leather.」

「Huh?…」

He replies, and returns to idly spitting blood down on the ground. Cycelia's head perks up as she hears the man describe the grimoire.

「…And he didn't pay you to kill her?」

Straf asks, raising his brows.

「No!… In fact, he said he'd prefer not to have anyone killed, but he said that we should do what we gotta do.」

The man replies, breathing heavily as if he just ran a marathon. His limbs and shoulders go slack, and he's visibly not even resisting the grip of his men anymore. They loosen their grasp on him a little, looking at each other with nervous eyes above their black masks covering the rest of their faces while he speaks.

「So… In other words, the choice to grab Lia was your genius decision?」

「I didn't fucking tell him to do that! When we're robbing people we do all sorts of things for leverage! It's a heat of the moment thing!…」

The man shouts back, shrugging his shoulders. He pauses to catch a breath.

「…The trees are a pretty standard deal. You're pretty sharp to have noticed. What are you, some sort of a mercenary? He mentioned a tall guy too… But he didn't say shit about a mage!」

The bandit leader adds, nodding his head at the felled trees blocking the road.

「Well, it looks like it wasn't your lucky day, buddy. But you said it yourself, the day is long… You could have ended up like the dipshit over yonder.」

Straf takes the dagger and stands back up, placing his free hand back in his pocket. He nods towards the dead highwayman in a pool of blood on the other side of the carriage.

「…What the fuck even happened to that guy? I just heard a weird sound, and it's like he was already dead. Don't you need to say some stuff before casting a spell?」

The man asks, furrowing his brows at the deadman, before turning his confused eyes to Straf.

「Well, y'see, I'm more of a man of action… Man of violence, too, so I just cut the middle man out. I could have probably talked him out of it… But I don't negotiate with terrorists…」

Straf shrugs his shoulders, walking a few steps back towards Cycelia and the drivers.

「…When the government fails to keep a monopoly on the ability to inflict violence and terror, you're basically asking for trouble! I only negotiate with states, and only when I'm in a good mood.」

He adds, looking at them over his shoulder with his index finger extended, and turns back around to face the highwaymen after a few steps more.

「Now here's the deal. Jump out o' your gold and fuck off. I'll let you off with a warning. Take whatever gold that asshole has on him and throw it here.」

Straf says, smirking at them with his arms spread. He nods his head towards the restrained man, and points at the ground before him, then crosses his arms.

「…Unless your life is worth less than a gold coin. That's fine by me.」

He adds, placing his hand back in his pocket. The bandits glance at each other, then quickly reach for the man's belt. They fiddle with it for a few seconds, and produce a large, clinking coin sack from behind his back. They throw it at Straf's feet, then begin flicking singular gold coins near the bag, one after another in a rapid succession.

Clinkclink!… Clinkclinkclink!… Clink!… Clinkclink!…

「Fuck this! One gold isn't worth the trouble!」

One of the highwaymen remarks, and flicks his coin towards Straf.

Clink!…

The coins continue flying towards Straf, bouncing and rolling along the ground. The last bandit appears to have flicked his, and the men are now cautiously watching him.

「Let other dipshits like yourselves know that if I don't like the way how they look at a Redwing carriage, they're dead. Now fuck off.」

He says, glaring at the highwaymen, and nods towards the forest behind them. They turn around and break into a wild sprint, leaving their leader behind, who quickly turns to flee too.

「Fuck you, prick! I was considering slitting your throat while you're sleeping anyway!…」

One of them shouts at the crossbowman in a bitter tone as they disappear between the trees.

「…I think I dulled your knife. Sorry about that.」

「Ah, no, don't worry about it. I was going to get it sharpened anyway…」

Straf hands the mustached driver his knife back, and he receives it with a bow of his head, sheathing it beneath his shirt. The younger one lets out a relieved sigh, and sheathes his too.

「But there's trees on the road still…」

The older driver remarks, slowly approaching the obstacles ahead with his fists on his rounded hips.

「…We'll chop through them, but it'll take some time-」

「Heave!…」「Eh?…」

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Straf casually picks up one of the massive oak trees on the road, and lifts it above his head. The mustached driver blinks in shock at the sight.

「…Hup!」

Fwoosh!

As if it barely had any weight, Straf flings the entire felled tree aside into the forest, above the treetops.

《Ahhh, he's such a workhorse!… I need to think of something better than headpats!…》

Cycelia blushes as Straf nonchalantly picks up the next tree, trying to hide her red cheeks with her palms.

…Crash!

The thrown tree lands noisily somewhere, spooking birds into taking flight.

「Heave… Hup!」

Fwoosh!…

「…Hup!」

Fwoosh!…

He throws another tree, and then another. The two drivers stare at him in awe, then glance at each other.

Crash!… Crash!…

「Well, that solves it. Let me just pick this up real quick and let's go.」

Patpatpat.

Straf returns back to the drivers, dusting his hands off. He then walks past them, shrugging, and crouches down near the scattered coins.

Clink. Clink. Clink…

「It might be a good idea to hurry back, your highness. Since we're no longer so pressed by time, we could stop at an inn along the way.」

Clink. Clink. Clink…

The mustached driver approaches Cycelia together with the young man. Straf is scooping the coins one by one into the sack with the rest of them.

「Ah… Yes, but…」

She nods her head, and turns her eyes to the dead man nearby.

「Ahhhh… That was a scare. You see, we were beset by bandits once during his majesty's time, your highness, but his guards made quick work of them.」

He adds after a large, relieved sigh, and begins to climb back into his driver's seat.

Clink. Clink. Clink…

「Um… Thank you. For protecting me.」

Cycelia nods her head towards the aging man and the young man beside him.

「No, no… We were just doing our part, your highness. In fact, I'm sorry for letting that lowlife get his filthy paws on you to begin with.」

He shakes his mustache left and right and gains a troubled, apologetic look on his face after briefly glaring at the dead bandit.

Clink… Clink.

「Alright!… Let's go, Lia.」

Straf stands up, taking the sack into his hand. He nonchalantly throws it into his [Portable Storage] and climbs a step into the carriage.

「Straf, wait!…」

Cycelia exclaims, furrowing her brows at his back with a light frown. He narrows his eyes, looking at her over his shoulder halfway inside and holding onto the door frame.

「What? Don't tell me you want me to clear the ones behind us too-」

「Are you really going to leave him by the roadside like this?…」

She asks, turning her emerald eyes to the dead man nearby. Straf rolls his eyes and sighs as he hops back out.

「Fiiine…」

He grumbles as he approaches the corpse. He then squats down, and quickly pats his pockets for the gold coin.

「…I'll just throw him somewhere out of sight.」

Upon finding it, Straf flicks it into his [Portable Storage], and grabs the man's legs by the ankles.

「Straf, no!」

「Huh?」

She shouts, clenching her dainty fists at him with a large pout. Straf's eyes narrow at her, deeply perplexed as his mouth corner raises a little in a face of utter confusion.

「Straf, do your magic thing… And dig him a grave!」

Cycelia demands with a vertical wiggle of her finger downward at the ground beside the road, pouting heavily at him. Straf drops his legs, throwing his hands up.

「Lia, do you think I have a grave-digging spell or something?」

Straf asks, staring at her with an incredulous look on his face.

「…Maybe?」

She replies, looking aside while tapping her fingers together.

「Lia…」

Straf sighs out, shaking his head.

「Just… Don't let him rot there! He might have been a bandit, but he deserves a proper burial! You heard what the headmaster said!」

She exclaims, pointing at Straf with her other fist clenched close to her large chest.

「Yeah, yeah, yeah… How you treat the dead says a lot about you… Something or other.」

He grumbles as he stands back up, looking around for something elusive with his hands in his pockets, his mouth heavily scrunched to the side.

「Right! And I deem myself an honorable and just queen worthy of my father's throne!」

Cycelia nods her head in response, tracking him with her finger as he lazily walks towards the back of the carriage.

「Well said, your highness…」

The mustached driver nods at her with asmile, and turns his head to Straf.

「…We don't have shovels, but we can probably find some sticks and help you dig-」

「Forget it, I have a better idea.」

Straf replies as he passes. He walks towards the tree blocking the way back.

Crack!

He delivers a powerful stomp to it, splitting an eighth of the tree away from the rest.

Fwssssh!

A blue orb appears over his shoulder, and fires a beam at an angle towards the end of the shorter log. With a sizzling noise as if water splashing onto a searing hot frying pan, the blue beam impacts the end at a shallow angle, carving a shape strongly resembling a shovel head. In the end, it appears like a water-powered bamboo deer-frightener for gardens, albeit made of oak, thicker, and not hollow.

「Hup…」

He takes the improvised log-shovel under his arm, and returns to the corpse.

「It's not perfect, but it's good enough.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders as he walks past the drivers and Cycelia, and forcefully drives the pointed end into the dirt.

Crruk!… Swish!

He rips out the grass along with the dirt, and throws it aside, then jams the tip back into the shallow pit once more.

Crrrrk…. Swish!

Watching Straf casually handle a log which would have an ordinary man grunting and straining just to carry it on his shoulder, Cycelia blushes again. The drivers exchange awed glances.

Crrrrk… Swish!

Straf continues digging the hole for roughly five minutes before he rests his forearms on the blunt, axe-cut end with the improvised shovel pointing downward.

「Lia, do I have to dig a man-deep hole, or can it be just deep enough to bury him?」

He asks, looking into her emerald eyes with his mouth aslant.

「Um… Well, I don't want to work you too hard… It's fine if it's a little shallow, just make sure the animals won't dig him out.」

She replies, meekly shrugging her shoulders.

「Well, it's already deep enough for that. I think most dogs would give up after something's knee-deep… I'll throw him in, then.」

Thunk.

Straf discards the log, and casually drops the man into the grave by his clothes. He then picks his improvised shovel back up, and sweeps the dirt over the hole.

「I feel kind of bad letting him be buried uncovered like this…」

「I am not making him a coffin on the spot, Lia. Forget it.」

Cycelia remarks, and Straf glances at her with a tight-lipped expression as he continues moving the dirt on top of the dead man with the log.

「No, I'm not saying you should… Never mind. Just do that nice grave marking again, and then we can leave.」

She shakes her chestnut head, then shrugs her shoulders with a resigned sigh. Straf sets the log aside and looks at his handiwork with his fists on his hips.

「Man… Don't tell me I started a new fashion.」

He sighs, looking around for a suitable stone. He finds one just a few steps away, a little into the forest. He picks it right up, upsetting the shadowy world of creepy crawlers beneath it.

「Heave… Hup!」

Straf raises the dark, flattish stone above his head, and rams it into the dirt, just past the buried bandit's head. It digs in deep, forming sort of a blank headstone.

「Right… Now the inscription…」

He mumbles to himself, and points his finger at the blank stone. A small blue orb appears at his fingertip.

Fwwwsh!… Fwssh! Fwssh!… Fwsssh!…

A narrow blue beam projects from the orb towards the stone, carving into it. Straf takes a moment to write something upon the headstone, then stands up and places his hands back in his pockets.

「Well, I think that about does it.」

He says, grinning at the now marked grave. Cycelia steps beside him, and furrows her brows at the gravestone while fidgeting with her medallion.

「Some guy?… Dunno, 3E 14…」

Her emerald eyes scan through the contents, slowly making her way down as she reads it out loud.

「…Ambushed the wrong carriage… And died like a stupid idiot!? Straf! You can't put that on a grave marker!」

Cycelia keeps reading, then turns her gaze to Straf as she exclaims with her dainty hands clenched.

「Why not!?」

He asks, spreading his hands in surprise.

「Straf! It's meant to be a memorial! And you can't just call him some guy either! He had a name, we just don't know it!」

She replies, pouting. Straf rolls his eyes and sighs.

「Straf, make a new one! Just write unknown for his name and birth date!」

Cycelia points her finger at the headstone, and Straf approaches it with a frustrated click of his tongue.

「Fine!…」

He throws his arms up, and pulls the headstone out.

Fwoopwoopwoopwoop!…

He sends it flying it towards the forest like a discus. It spins wildly with a loud noise as it carves through the air. Straf briefly searches for a similar rock, then sticks it in place of the old one.

「Tsk… You've become a real fucking connoisseur of gravestones, Lia…」

He grumbles over his shoulder as he squats down over the grave in front of the stone, looking at Cycelia with his mouth greatly stretched to the sides in a tight-lipped, frustrated grimace.

Fwwsssssh… Fwsssh! Fwsssh!… Fwsssssh!…

「Well it can't be helped!…」

She replies, crossing her arms as she pouts aside while Straf carves the stone with focused ray of energy again.

「There. It's exactly as you wanted, now let's go.」

Straf declares, and quickly returns to the carriage with his hands in his pockets. Cycelia briefly watches him, then turns her eyes to the grave.

「Unknown… Unknown to 3E 14…」

She reads the inscription under her breath, nodding her chestnut head gently.

「…Highwayman who beset the carriage of Queen Redwing in an ambush…」

Cycelia smiles a little as Straf seems to have corrected everything she had an issue with.

「…And died like a chump!? Straf! You kept that in!…」

She continues reading, and her head perks up in surprise. She runs up to the open carriage door, pointing at the gravestone while she pouts angrily at Straf sitting inside.

「Well, am I wrong?…」

With his arms crossed, he tilts his head lightly as he asks, and extends his hand towards Cycelia to aid her in climbing in. She looks at the headstone some more.

「Straf! You even wrote「You're next if you try that.」under it!」

Her emerald eyes snap back to Straf's face, and she somehow manages to intensify her pout further.

「Yeah, it's a warning so others leave us alone… Or do you want me to leave a trail of corpses on each roadtrip so we can find our way back?」

Straf nonchalantly asks, shrugging his shoulders.

「…But you even signed it!」

Cycelia exclaims, pointing her finger at the inscription below which reads Straf Katastrof Vindict.

「Lia, we'll be here the whole day at this rate… I'm sure whatever you have in mind for him says that you're very nice to dead guys, but I fully accept that I make fun of dead people.」

Straf replies with a large sigh, shrugging with his hands. With his mouth aslant, he reaches out towards her again. She lets out a dissatisfied groan, but then takes his hand.

「…Fine. It's fine as is, I just think you just could have done better.」

She says, and sits down beside him with her arms crossed.

「I could have done better, he didn't deserve better, we kind of met halfway there, Lia…」

He sighs, and reaches for the door.

「…Guess if you weren't nice to dead guys I wouldn't get headpats.」「Hm? Did you say something?」

Thud.

Straf grumbles under his breath, and pulls the door shut.

「Hup hup!…」

The driver whips the horses with the reins, and the carriage begins rolling forward again…