Around the same time, in the capital's throne room…

Queen Cycelia sits in her throne, lazily slouched onto the armrest with her elbow, holding her head up on her fist. Her sleepy, tired eyes look at the throne room entrance as if Straf were to walk through the doorway any second now.

…Donnngggg… Gonnnnnggg… Doooonggggggg…

A bell tolls heavily, and Cycelia looks outside the window. the sun's last rays shine on the sky as it hides below the horizon.

「Aaahhhhh…」

She stretches, yawns, and lets out a heavy sigh.

「Fourth chime, huh…」

Her tired eyes return to the darkness outside the window, and she gets up. She stretches one more time while standing, and starts walking down the steps.

「Are you retiring for the day, your highness?」

The captain of the guard asks when he sees Cycelia start walking away.

「Yes, I suppose Lily is taking over for now, so I can go rest. Let me know when Straf shows up.」

She says, and yawns again as she walks away. On the way to her room, Cycelia comes across a maid cleaning the floors.

「Ah, your highness! Heading to sleep?」

The maid asks with a smile, still sweeping the floor.

「Yes… Curious how the bell tower now chimes four times a day, isn't it?」

Cycelia pensively looks at the dark sky through the large window at the stairway down.

「Yes, it is. It's the… Baroness letting us know that her hours of rule have come, isn't it?」

The maid also gazes to the window, momentarily pausing her sweeping.

「I believe it's something to that effect, yes… Goodnight.」

Cycelia nods her head to agree, then nods again to bid the maid farewell. The maid bows low in silence, and resumes sweeping the floors. Cycelia returns to her room, and goes to sleep…

…

In the middle of nowhere, on the road to the capital…

Straf is riding his horse through a forest road, staring forward with bored eyes as he bounces up and down on the saddle, trotting at a moderate speed.

《That was nice of you.》

Athea's voice suddenly praises Straf in his head. He looks up at the sky with furrowed brows.

「What was?」

《Telling him to disinfect the wounds. They are not aware they should do this yet, and you have likely saved their lives from a premature death.》

「Pft. Yeah, big deal. You know I could just make some penicillin and blow everybody's fucking mind, right? I'd get mad rich too, but that'd be kind of boring.」

Straf scoffs, shaking his head with an incredulous grin on his face.

《…It is a big deal to me. I have been watching you for a while now, and you almost didn't make me want to scream every 5 minutes. You were very close. That being said, this was an uncharacteristically goodhearted thing of you to do.》

「What, telling some nobodies how to not die a pointless and preventable death? You know it doesn't actually matter to me if they did it or not, right? It's not like I will be seeing them again regardless.」

Straf scoffs again, looking at the faintly moonlit sky with bored eyes and a slanted mouth.

《…And yet, you did it. You did something good. Why?》

Athea asks with a curious tone of voice.

「I do what I want. Dying in battle is pretty metal, dying after the battle of a shitty infection is lame. Does that satisfy your question? Now here's mine… Have you found some shit for me to do yet? I'm busy right now, but as soon as I'm done with the stuff I want to do, you best believe I'm going to start fucking the world up. Unless you find me more stuff to occupy myself with.」

《I am working on it. Can't you be more patient!?》

「Nope. Patience isn't my thing. There have to be explosions and insane power levels on the first page, or else the story is dead in the water. I'm serious, I just might make gunpowder to get some momentary amusement out of it. Do you want gunpowder in this world, bimbo dyslexiac?」

Straf grins at the sky as he threatens it with an unwarranted technological level jump.

《I am not a- Tsk. Can you not do that? Nearly all the worlds in existence that have invented gunpowder are at constant war all the time.》

Athea clicks her tongue in frustration, but calms herself and tries to reason with Straf.

「Wait, nearly? What's the common theme in those that are peaceful?」

《…No fiat money, like in this one.》

She sighs, almost as if hesitating to answer.

「Hahaha… You're going to love what's next.」

Straf laughs, and sighs as he shakes his head.

《What? What are you planning?》

「Ssh. No spoilers.」

Straf chuckles quietly, grinning ear to ear.

《What? What is it!? Answer me! Don't you dare do something stupid! I am convinced there's a good person in you, but you're just really upset at everything! Don't incinerate the last shreds of my remaining respect for you to do something idiotic and selfish!》

Athea shouts at Straf but he simply continues grinning, and ignores her…

…

The next morning, Straf rides into the city on his military horse. Its hooves clop noisily across the still empty, misty morning streets. On the way to the palace, he notices a peculiar gathering of the city guards standing around an alleyway. He stops to investigate what is going on.

Peeking over the guards on the horse's back, in the dim alleyway, he sees the body of a mangled man laying in a pool of old, dry blood. Two men are looking around the alley, one of them squatting down right next to the corpse, cautiously looking it over.

Straf's brows rise when he notices a little girl in a gothic dress staring at the corpse, though she has her back turned to Straf. He dismounts, and walks towards the alley.

「Hey, no entry-」

「Official business.」

Straf ignores the guard sticking his palm out, and simply slips through with his hands in his pockets.

「…That wretch… That worm… The very same night? How does he dare? When I find him- Straf!」

Lily fumes and seethes under her breath, snarling with her teeth on full display as she glares at the mangled corpse. She hears Straf's footsteps and glares at him with murder in her crimson eyes before they soften, and a smile appears on her face.

「What's up, Lily? Lost your temper and unloaded on someone already?」

He asks with a grin, looking at the corpse. The man investigating the dead body looks up at Straf with a sour expression, but remains silent.

「Hmpf. You jest, Straf. Some maggot made the mistake of challenging my rule. He will pay for it. I will make an example out of him.」

She crosses her arms, nearly growling as her eyes return to the mangled corpse on the floor.

「What makes you think it was a vampire? Are serial killer permits only handed out to the vampires?」

Straf scoffs, walking around the corpse.

「Bite marks. And the mess he made.」

The second investigator answers the question for Lily. He points his finger to the man's neck, and his flesh is ripped at the throat. The grievous injures were either inflicted by a large and sharp blade, or deadly claws.

「Who are you, exactly? I know… The baroness, but who are you?」

The investigator squatting down near the body stands up, and both of them walk up to Straf.

「Straf. Katastrof. Vindict.」

Straf enunciates each part of his name. The man who asked the question glances at his partner, then returns his eyes to Straf.

「…Who?」

He asks, furrowing his brows.

「Knew it-」

「Ah, wait, I recognize you. You were on the balcony with the queen, weren't you?」

The second man interrupts Straf and points his finger at him as he asks.

「Yeah. Yeah, I was. I'm the guy who stood very close to the queen, yup. That's me.」

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Straf rolls his eyes and grimaces in annoyance.

「Straf, since you're back, I assume you have slaughtered them all?」

Lily smirks, looking into Straf's eyes.

「No, actually. I only killed their commander, and the rest left.」

Straf shrugs, adding a little tilt to his head when he does so.

「Hmpf. You are far too merciful, Straf… You should let your enemies see just big of a mistake they have made by opposing you.」

She scoffs, turning her eyes away from Straf back to the corpse.

「Hey, it wasn't my idea. It was Lia's request. I gave him multiple chances to give up, too. Oh well, free XP.」

Straf shrugs his hands, then places them back in his pockets.

「Hmpf… Of course, the Redwing girl and her silly aversion to spilling blood…」

Lily scoffs with a smug smirk on her face.

「Ahhh… The idea that the worthless maggot behind this slaying remains unpunished, even if only for a few hours, makes my blood boil.」

She suddenly clicks her tongue and glares at the corpse, then turns her eyes back to Straf.

「Want me to help you find him? Shouldn't be too hard, right?」

Straf asks, and shrugs.

「No. Thank you for the offer, Straf, but this is something I have to do myself. Despite how incredible you are, Straf, I cannot allow a human to mete out punishment in my stead.」

She shakes her head, and smiles gently. There is a layer of frustration beneath her smile, however.

「Well, good luck, detective Lily. At least it's not a locked room mystery.」

Straf chuckles, and shakes his head as he turns to leave the alley.

「I will see you later, Straf, after I punish the mangy rat responsible…」

「Yeah, yeah, yeah. See you later, Lily.」

Straf returns the farewell with a wave of his hand, without turning his head back towards Lily as he's walking away.

「…Where the fuck is my horse?」

Straf looks left and right, only to find his horse missing.

「Some guy took it.」

One of the guards in front of the alleyway chimes in.

「Then why the fuck didn't you stop him!? What the fuck are you getting paid for!?」

Straf asks with a raised voice full of frustration, pointing his palms at the guards.

「…I'm getting paid for guarding the murder scene, not your horse.」

「Yeah.」

The guard responds, and his partner concurs with a nod. Straf's arms drop.

「Yeah, whatever. Not like I need the horse beyond this point, it despawned for all I care… Tsk, fucking prick…」

Straf shrugs, and copes with the loss of his mount by leaving towards the palace. A few steps later, the anger within becomes too much to bear, and he clicks his tongue, shaking his head…

…

Straf returns to the palace and heads up the stairs to the throne room. The maids performing their early morning chores glare at him with disgust in their eyes as he passes by. A few minutes later, he enters through the doorway.

「Straf!」

Cycelia is sitting in her throne, looking at the entrance with fatigue of the routine in her eyes. She sparks to life and reanimates when she sees Straf enter with his hands in his pockets. She calls out to him with a huge, relieved smile on her face.

「Told you I'd be back today… Too bad some fuckin' asshole stole my horse…」

Straf shrugs, and clicks his tongue again as he grumbles while looking aside.

「Straf, I have so much to tell you and so many things I want you to take a look at. I was waiting for you to come back this whole time! How did it go?」

Cycelia hastily jumps down the steps of her throne and walks up to Straf while fiddling with her medallion. Her emerald-green eyes stare directly into his as she warmly smiles at him.

「I did ask you asked. I even tried to get the commander to surrender, but I guess he was the type of person to ragequit over the smallest losses.」

Straf shrugs as he vaguely explains the situation to Cycelia.

「Did… Did you kill him?」

She asks, blinking a few times as her warm smile transitions into a serious expression.

「Yeah. I mean, what was I supposed to do? It was either that, or cut through like a few hundred unwashed peasants from the other side.」

Straf spreads his arms and shrugs his shoulders. Cycelia shakes her head.

「No, Straf. You did the right thing. Thank you. I believe you have saved more lives than you have taken.」

She takes Straf's hands and looks deep into his eyes with a very somber, grave expression on her face.

「That being said… Those guys holding the army up? They got pummeled. Can you believe that they tricked their army into thinking that there's more of them there, than there really were? By the time I found them, there were like 20 of them left. Isn't that funny? Kind of like that battle on that island that was literally just landmines.」

Straf asks with a smirk, and shrugs his shoulders.

「They… Only so few men? And they managed to stop the advance?… I see… I will tell the marshal to compile me a list of the defenders. Thank you for letting me know, Straf. I can't let their bravery go unrewarded.」

She lets go of Straf's hands with a sigh, and pulls out a patched, sewed shirt.

「Here. I fixed this for you. I know it's not much, but…」

Cycelia says as she presents Straf's old shirt to him. Abashed, she shrugs her shoulders and looks aside.

「Meh, I'll take it. Starter gear always has some significance to it.」

Straf says as he pulls his shirt off. He throws it into his [Portable Storage], and his brows rise as he remembers something.

「Oh, yeah. Here, good thing I remembered.」

Shirtless, he pulls out the scepter made of solid gold, and presents it to Cycelia in one hand.

「Hm?-」

Cycelia looks at Straf to see what he's holding, then immediately turns her head away again.

「…What, don't want your scepter back?」

Straf furrows his brows, amazing the palace guards standing behind him with his muscle-bound, defined, broad back.

「I do! But…」

Cycelia nods with a tight-lipped grimace as her face flushes red rapidly.

「But?…」

Straf asks, and a prolonged silence ensues.

《Straf! Why are you so clueless!? Do you have no idea how stupidly hot you are!? Ahhh!! If only the guards weren't here!》

Cycelia screams internally, as she tries to find an excuse.

「But… But it's heavy! Can you put the shirt on, first?」

She asks, still not daring to take more than a quick peek at Straf's chiseled abdominal muscles.

「Yeah, I guess. Hold on…」

Straf takes the shirt off Cycelia's hands, and slips his repaired shirt on. Only a second or two of fiddling with the sleeves later, he is no longer shirtless.

「There. Do you want it back, or not?」

「Mhm…」

Still flushed red, Cycelia nods her head, and takes the scepter in both of her hands. Though it is heavy, she does not have the slightest issue with holding it in one hand.

「Captain! Could you return this back to the regalia storage, please?」

「Yes, your highness!」

The captain runs up, takes the scepter with both of his hands with a little accompanying bow of his body, then runs into the side passage.

「Straf, I have something very important to me to show you. Could you come with me?」

She turns back to Straf and fiddles with her medallion, looking into Straf's eyes with a serious expression.

「Yeah, sure. I'm just wondering when are you going to stop being a static harem member. As it stands, I'm basically back to square one.」

Straf shrugs, and Cycelia starts leading him out of the throne room.

「Huh?- Well, it is pertinent to your party… A little bit, at least. Could you wait until you see it?」

She asks, looking at his face with anxiety as she continues toying with her medallion in her fingers.

「It? What's it? And don't say the clown.」

Straf asks, squinting at Cycelia.

「Huh?… You will see. Just… Please wait patiently.」

Cycelia pleads, biting her lip to calm her nerves.

「Okay?… I'm honestly getting kind of creeped out, Lia. You're not going to take me to some nasty place and make me do some stuff that can't really be shown, right?」

Straf looks warily at Cycelia with a squinted eye.

「What? No! I just want to show you something I worked on really hard! It's important to me, so…」

She shrugs her shoulders and clutches onto her medallion again as she looks aside, pouting a little while they walk side by side.

「…Alright, fine. I'll give it a look.」

Straf sighs and shrugs, Cycelia replies only with a massive, happy smile, and continues leading him down the palace hallway…