Straf approaches the main room, where the rest of his group and the confused dealer are. The guards close in on the dealer when Straf walks up to him with his hands in his pockets.

「Hand over your money.」

He demands, staring down at the confused man who's still sitting on the floor. The guards walk up to both sides of Straf, staring at him with their thick arms crossed.

「Huh? Master, you're making it sound like a robbery. If you want to play, you'll hafta wait-」

「It's not a robbery, I'm getting what I deserve.」

The dealer replies, and Straf cuts him off by reaching for him. The man recoils back with a panicked look towards the burly guards.

「Hey, buddy, I think you ought to leave-」

Pat.

The guard says as he grabs Straf's wrist into his massive bear paw of a hand. His eyes rise in surprise when Straf simply ignores all his effort to restrain him, and brings his index finger tensed up against his thumb up to the guard's confused face.

He flicks his forehead. Straf watches the man fly away with a nonchalant grimace on his face.

Thunk! CRASH!

「…Ungh?」

The guard grunts after crashing through the wooden wall into the backroom, staring at Straf from the floor with a concussed expression.

「Ahhh, he went and did it anyway…」

Stripe mumbles out to herself, wincing heavily as she pulls out her curving dagger from behind her sash and stands ready for a fight with the other one.

「You bastaaard!」

The other guard jumps back, drawing his curving sword. With his mouth aslant and his hands in his pockets, Straf casually closes in.

CRACK!… Fwapf.

The guard lifts his blade up, and with a loud noise of snapping metal, finds it lighter than usual.

「…Eh?…」

The burly man gets somewhat distracted by the sight of a katana's curving blade stuck tip-down in the woven mat floor beside him. Stripe lowers her weapon hand, and her shoulders slump.

「…Wha…? But?…」

Perplexed, the guard looks at his sword. Its blade is broken just a little past its hilt, and as expected, Straf is still standing right in front of him with his hands in his pockets.

「What? Confused? Just for your information…」

Straf scoffs, taking a step closer to the guard staring at him in disbelief, unsure what to do with his stump of a sword. The dealer is frozen in panic on the floor, glancing at Straf's group.

「…I can do that to your balls too. Don't make me prove it. Now hand over your money.」

With a grin on his face, Straf adds, motioning a squeezing gesture with his palm turned upward. He extends his hand out towards the man and waits to receive money, wiggling his fingers.

「Y- You're bullshitting. This is a trick…」

The guard replies with a nervous grimace on his face. Straf scrunches his mouth to the side in disbelief, lowering his hand slightly as he blinks at the man with an annoyed expression. Straf lowers his disinterested, slightly frustrated gaze to the man's groin, which causes the guard's eyes to widen in panic.

Thump.

The burly man drops his stump of a sword to the side and reaches into his kimono, feeling for something.

「…W- Wait, wait… I'll pay.」

Clackclak…

He plaintively holds his hand out to stop Straf from taking any action, and pulls out a loop of coins from within his robes. He slips the loop off his neck, and holds it out for Straf.

Straf takes the coins by their string with a wary gaze, in a grip as if it were a garbage bag. He gives the loop a quick, tentative sniff.

「…Bleh. You ever heard of a fucking bath?」

He remarks as he recoils in disgust and shoots the man a disdainful glance, turning away. He throws the loop of coins into his [Portable Storage], causing Oleander, the dealer, and the guard on his feet to jump up in surprise. Straf approaches the terrified and defenseless dealer once again, briefly glancing at the guard still lying on a segment of a crashed wall.

「Hey, assassin bitch!… Get that guy's coins too while we're at it!… 」

Straf calls out to Oleander and nods towards the dazed man.

「B- Bitch!? Don't call me that! I'm Springflower!-」

Oleander protests, outraged at the open insult. She turns her shocked eyes to Stripe, who looks back at her with her arms crossed, and a smug grin on her face with a tiny white of her fang.

「No you're not, I know your real name. I just forgot. Besides… Do you really want to be called a flower girl?… I think that's a little less dignified than just a bitch.」

Straf replies, cutting the poisoner off before she can properly finish her sentence. Her head perks up in surprise, and Straf spreads his arms with a shrug of his shoulders.

「It's exactly what you deserve, assassin bitch. Now do it.」

Stripe chimes in with a massive grin on her smug face, hurrying Oleander.

「…Unbelievable. Treating a lady like that?」

Oleander grumbles, but ultimately follows Straf's order, searching the man for his coin loop. She finds it on his neck, tucked away into his kimono like the other guard.

「…Ah, and to clarify, I'm not singling you out. I just have a hard time remembering names, that's why you're getting an easy to remember nickname until I remember what it is.」

Briefly glaring down at the dealer, Straf peels his eyes away from him to explain himself to Oleander, who slips the man's foul-smelling coins onto her forearm.

「W- Wait, what about me? You remember my name! Why do you still call me a cat!?」

Stripe calls out, pointing her clawed finger to herself in outraged disbelief.

「…Cause it stuck, and it's not wrong.」「It is wrong! I am not a cat!」

Straf casually replies with a quick peek over his shoulder. Stripe immediately shouts a protest back.

「Now, now… Stop hissing already, little kitty…」

Oleander says with a calm tone and gentle, amused smirk as she re-enters the main room and approaches Stripe's side.

「I said I'm not a-! Khkh… You're lucky I can't just draw my claws across your stupid face…」

Recognizing Oleander's words and veiled snide smirk as a taunt, she grits her teeth and clenches her fists instead of playing into it.

「…Bitch.」

Stripe blurts out as she turns away with her arms crossed. Though she attempts to hide it, Oleander's face twitches in anger.

「…Now, hand over your money.」

Ignoring the bickering behind him, Straf says to the frightened dealer sitting on the floor.

「T- This is a robbery… You can't do this.」

The dealer feebly protests with a nervous grin.

「Yeah?…」

Tap!

Straf asks with his brows raised, and grabs the man's wrist.

「Ow! Owowowow! Stop!」

The man yelps and cries out as Straf begins to pull his ring off his finger.

「If you don't let me take the fucking ring off your finger, I'm taking the finger too.」

Straf remarks to the man with a bored grimace on his face. The dealer's eyes widen, and he reluctantly stops resisting. Straf then slips the ring off with no more trouble.

「…Robbery, huh?…」

Straf echoes as he reaches for the dice on the floor. The dealer gulps with a nervous grimace.

「…Hey, cat, Lily, Lia… Do these seem normal to you?」

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He asks with a lightly amused grin, presenting the dice stuck to the ring held between his thumb and finger. Cycelia's chestnut head perks up and Stripe blinks at them, enlightened.

「They're stuck?…」

Cycelia remarks, deeply confused as she exchanges puzzled glances with Will, Greaves, and the rest of his party.

「So that's why the sound was weird!?…」

Stripe points at the bizarre dice stuck to the ring and hanging in the air.

「Is that a magic ring, Straf?」

Lily asks with muted curiosity, tilting her golden head with her arms crossed.

「Yes and no. Indistinguishable technology magic, yadda yadda yadda…」

Straf shrugs and dismissively waves a circle with his free hand while wiggling his body left and right with his mouth aslant.

「…This guy or someone in his circle discovered magnetism, and he kept it secret. You could have had fridge magnets, but you chose to scam people? For shame!」

He adds, looking at the confused and still frightened dealer with a lightly disdainful and mocking look on his face.

Clacklak…

「Ow!…」

The dealer winces when Straf flicks the dice in his face. They bounce and drop to the woven mat floor, rolling slightly.

「…Magnetism? What's that?」

Lily asks, raising her brow at the six and six on the dice before returning her scarlet gaze to Straf. The guard still standing is making himself small, hoping no one will notice him.

「It's just a force that attracts things. It's not magic, so this guy or the ring aren't any special…」

Straf replies with a nonchalant shrug, and throws the dealer's ring into his [Portable Storage].

「…Now hand over your money. Don't make me ask again, or I just might pick the free XP up.」

He adds, holding his hand out for the dealer again, speaking with a low and growling tone.

「…Don't think you'll get away with this. We have connections.」

With shaky hands, the dealer reaches into his kimono and pulls his loop of coins off his neck. Straf takes it, and picks his fancy coat up off the floor.

Clank…

「Good for you, I'm painfully disconnected… Alright. We're leavin'.」

Straf declares with a wave of his hand as he throws the dealer's money into his [Portable Storage], and approaches the wall by the guard. He backs away into a corner.

「Huh? But Straf, the door over there?…」

Cycelia follows a few paces after him, pointing her dainty finger at the closed entry door with her brows furrowing in confusion.

CRASH!

Straf kicks a massive hole out of the building's wall and walks out.

「Straf!?」「Wha-!?」「What!?」

Cycelia's, the dealer's, the guard's, and most of Greaves's party's jaws drops at the sight. His group exchange stunned glances, and rush to follow him through the hole.

「Riiiiight… I'm hungry, so let's get some food…」

Straf rubs the back of his neck while looking left and right down the snowy street outside. Confused onlookers watch his group dressing as they emerge from the hole.

「Are we no longer in hiding then, Straf?」

Lily asks, tilting her golden head with her arms crossed and her brows gently furrowed.

「Tsk… Well, we kinda are… But at the same time, I also don't really give a shit…」

Straf clicks his tongue and shrugs his arms with his mouth aslant.

「Straf, are you alright? I thought that you and this woman…」

Cycelia asks with a soft voice full of concern, turning her emerald eyes to Oleander's frigid face staring back at her.

「She's an assassin, not a prostitute… I think. Why? What's up?」

He replies, glancing at Oleander for a brief moment before meeting Cycelia's worried gaze.

「…Did she do something to you? You seem a little… Different.」

Cycelia asks, fidgeting with one of her coat's upper buttons.

「We didn't do anything. She tried to feed me poison. Lily can have a taste if you don't believe me.」

Straf insists, shrugging his shoulder and holding his hand out for Lily, who tilts her head slightly.

「…May I?」

「N- No, that won't be necessary… And that's not what I meant…」

Lily turns her lightly surprised scarlet gaze to Cycelia, then Straf. Cycelia returns a shake of her head and takes a step closer to Straf.

「…Straf, did she say something to you? Something mean, or?… You seem in a very poor mood.」

Cycelia asks, blinking her large emerald eyes into his bored ones.

「Nah. She just reminded me of something important. Something I was kind of losing track of. If I seem like I'm in a poor mood…」

Straf returns a light shake of his head and turns around, spreading his arms as he takes a few steps away from Cycelia and his group, turning around when he reaches the middle of the street.

「…Well, that's cause I fucking am. I'm always in a poor mood, but I've been kind of numbing myself… Heh, I mean…」

With his hands in his coat's pockets, he shrugs his shoulders as his face gains a grin, shaking his lowered head.

「…I'm in a fucking world where people call a monster a horndog with a straight face… Heheheh… Come the fuck on…」

He spreads his arms, grinning at Cycelia and the rest. Oleander looks at Stripe with confused eyes.

「…Oooh, I'm a poor peasant sire!… My whole family died tragically in a horndog attack!… Khehehehehehe…」

Shaking his head with a fell cackle, Straf's hands make his way back into his pockets. Cycelia exchanges a concerned, and slightly confused look with Greaves and his party.

「…What's so funny? You think people dying is a joke?」

Will asks, adjusting his glasses with an angry frown.

「…Hahahah… Hah… Ahhhh… Honestly, I don't fucking know. You have all this metal shit going on in the backstory… Plagues, vampire genocide, dragon empire…」

Straf bends forward with a massive grin on his face as he continues cackling with his hands in his pockets. His laughter slows down, and he lets out a sigh, shrugging as he replies.

「…And then you have pfffft… Fucking horndogs… Kheheh… Fucking horndogs killing people…」

He throws his arms up with a massively amused grin, struggling to get the words out through his stifled laughter as he bends again.

「…Khahahah… And everyone's fucking nuts and taking it seriously… Seriously, what the fuck? Are you all out of your fucking minds?」

Straf lets out another sigh, and his laughter calms down a little. He spreads his arms, grinning at Cycelia and the group.

「…Straf, if you want to talk-」

「I am fucking talking.」

Cycelia replies, but Straf quickly cuts her off. She returns an apologetic nod.

「…Right. But are you feeling alright?-」

「Her majesty if asking if you aren't out of your mind.」

Will chimes in, speaking over Cycelia as he steps in and adjusts his glasses. Straf lets out an amused scoff.

「Nah. To be honest, I'm starting to fucking lose it. How long can I keep this up? A year? Two? Three? Thirty? Sixty? Three-hundred and fifty?…」

With an amused grin, Straf shakes his head as he asks. His gaze briefly turns to Lily, who blinks back at him with concerned eyes.

「…Do you any of you…」

He says, grinning as some anger leaks into his voice.

「…Have any fucking idea how fucking lonely I am?… Let's go.」

Straf asks with a wide grin then gestures his head down the street, nonchalantly walking off with his hands in his pockets.

With her brows heavily furrowed in worry, Cycelia exchanges confused looks with Stripe, Lily, Greaves, and the rest.

Holding onto her coat's button, she rushes after Straf. The group moves to follow as well…