A few hours later…

「…And the funny thing is, they were meant to guard them, but they actually ended up stabbing their ass more often than not-!」

「Um, Straf…」

As Straf continues his history lesson, Cycelia cuts in, interrupting him.

「…Yeah?」

He raises his brow, placing his fists on his hips.

「…I'm a little confused. How does… The Praetorian Guard, was it?… Tie into the Cold War?」

Cycelia tilts her head, blinking her emerald eyes at Straf. With a tight-lipped grimace forming on his face, he blinks back in a prolonged silence.

「While I'm sure that if you just search hard enough, you will find the events foreshadowing the looming threat of IRBMs in the beginning of the early dark ages… It doesn't.」

He shrugs, spreading his hands.

「Huh? It does not?」

Confused, Cycelia shakes her head in mild surprise.

「No. It doesn't.」

Straf bluntly replies, staring at her with an intensifying tight-lipped grimace.

「Then… It's all a series of disconnected events?」

She tilts her head, furrowing her brows.

「No. Not quite. Remember gunpowder? From the other country with warring states?-」

「There were quite a few countries that had warring states in your world, Straf…」

Cycelia remarks with a lightly troubled face, cutting in. Straf raises his finger and opens his mouth to say something, but then immediately closes it to think some more.

「…Yeah, you're not wrong. Not so united if you're killing each other less than a hundred years later, huh?… Anyway…」

With his mouth aslant, he lowers his hand back to his hip and nods in agreement.

「…The country that invented gunpowder. Remember how it made its way back to Europe, and everyone loved it so much, that they had a worldwide gunpowder festival?」

Straf asks, smirking slightly. Cycelia turns her gaze aside, thinking.

「…Do you mean the Second World War?」

She asks with her brows furrowed, turning her eyes back to Straf.

Snap.

「You're a great student, Lia. That's correct…」

With a nod of his head and a grin on his face, Straf snaps his fingers and points at Cycelia.

「…Anyway, it may seem like disconnected events, but gunpowder made its way back to the other country with warring states. A guy imported a bunch of rifles, called tanegashima, and-」

Straf continues explaining, but then his gaze idly drifts to Cycelia's leather belt set aside near her coat.

「…Can I borrow your belt for just a second?」

He asks, pointing at it.

「Huh? Sure…」

A little surprised, Cycelia peeks over her shoulder at the belt, then shrugs. Straf snatches it and wraps it around his coat-covered waist.

「…Shit. It's really late. I think we should call it a night, Lia. I can tell you more later, but you should get some sleep.」

He unbuckles the belt, and haphazardly throws it back where it was.

「Okay, but… Could I ask you a few more questions first? I'll be quick.」

She nods, then blinks her emerald puppy eyes at Straf.

「…Fine. Go ahead, ask.」

After a moment of thought, Straf shrugs his shoulders and relents.

「You told me about your world's history, and all the incredible parts of its society, and the rich families that kept funding both sides of the wars… But you never mentioned magic. Why?」

Cycelia tilts her head, inquisitively furrowing her brows.

「…'Cause magic kind of doesn't exist in my world, Lia. At least none that I know of. Maybe it follows different rules, maybe you need to sacrifice some babies for magic power…」

A little bothered by the nature of the question, Straf scratches his temple for a few seconds, before shrugging his shoulders and nonchalantly replying.

「…My point is, I never saw anyone throw fireballs that didn't come out of a factory, and I never saw anyone shoot lightning out of their hands, aside from a character in a movie…」

He adds, shrugging his arms.

「…Un-limited powaaaah!-」

「…What's a movie?」「Eh?」

Cycelia asks, interrupting Straf's impression of the aforementioned character.

「Tsk… It's like…」

Rubbing his chin with his gaze turned aside, Straf thinks about the closest approximation.

「…It's like a stage play that you can watch later as many time as you'd like.」

He replies with a shrug of his shoulders as he turns his eyes back to her.

「Please… Do not ask about the specifics of how it works, it's far too late for that. Anything else?」

As she brings her finger up, Straf holds his hand out and stops Cycelia just short of asking another question. She lowers her hand, and her shoulders slump.

「Then… Why did you break the statue, Straf?」

She asks, gently tilting her chestnut head. He gains a tight-lipped grimace again.

「…Good question. I guess the answer is… I just felt like it.」

Turning his eyes aside, Straf thinks for a few seconds before replying with a shrug.

「Huh? You just felt like it?…」

Shocked, Cycelia's head perks up in surprise.

「Yeah. I had an alright life, I guess… And then I see a statue of that dyslexiac cow. I didn't mean to completely disintegrate it, but I did mean to smash it…」

「But-」

「…And before you say anything, I'm not stupid, alright? I know I probably shouldn't have. I know it's not something that someone of my position should do. I knew the people wouldn't like it…」

Straf cuts in before Cycelia can say anything, holding his palm out towards her. She deflates, and continues to listen in silence.

「…Shit, I thought that if you'd find out, you would be furious too. I just felt like it, but honestly, I suppose a more complex answer is, I just felt like sabotaging myself.」

He adds, shrugging his shoulders as he looks up at the ceiling for nothing in particular.

「…Felt like sabotaging yourself? Why?」

Cycelia asks calmly, lightly shaking her head with a perplexed expression on her face.

「I guess if things are going too smoothly for me, I get this looming sense of dread that something will go wrong. If I have an obstacle, the enemy has a form that I can grasp… I guess.」

He shrugs, and side-glances at Cycelia before returning his eyes back to the ceiling.

「Straf… Sometimes, times are just prosperous and peaceful. Sometimes there just is no enemy.」

Cycelia lets out a troubled sigh, and looks at Straf with a soft smile and a pitying emerald gaze.

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「Yeah, I know that. I'm not stupid, Lia… But if there is no enemy, then the only enemy left is yourself. I figured that I can at least do some spoiling attacks, y'know?」

Straf throws his hands up, and glances at her again.

「Straf, that's…」

Her voice trails off with a troubled expression on her face.

「Insane? Yeah, guess it is.」

He asks, and lets out a singular chuckle.

「…I didn't say that.」

Cycelia says in a meek tone, lowering her head.

「I wouldn't blame you if you thought that. My world is a mess, Lia. People are wrecks. Seven, eight billion people, and with each passing moment, everyone gives less and less of a fuck…」

Straf lets out another chuckle, smirking at the ceiling.

「…The Night of Fangs. Billions dead. Must be nice.」

He remarks, and shrugs his shoulders.

「What? Straf-」

Cycelia's head perks up, and her voice gains an outraged tone.

「Oh no, don't get me wrong, I'm sure it was a great tragedy… But now that it's over, lives are valuable again. The people have a meaning, their lives have a purpose…」

Before Cycelia can properly say anything, Straf cuts in and continues, clarifying himself.

「…Craftsmen craft, peasants farm… What the fuck are you supposed to do if everything is crafted, everything is farmed, and there's no more room to grow?…」

Straf asks, turning his humorless smirk to Cycelia, before listlessly shrugging his shoulders. She thinks, blinking at him, but remains silent and without an answer.

「…People turn to busywork without value, Lia. Everyone wants to be an entertainer, everyone wants to be a writer… And when everyone is, then nobody is.」

He adds, throwing his hands up.

「But… But books have value, Straf. Even those purely for entertainment.」

Cycelia protests quietly, fidgeting with her medallion, furrowing her brows.

「Sure. But value is production divided by supply, Lia. How many systems and sick mothers can you have, before all you're changing is the title of the story?…」

With a tilt of his head, Straf nominally agrees, shrugging his shoulders as he continues looking at the ceiling.

「…I fear the day when we will have reached the theoretical limit of character permutations. The monkeys will have to pack their typewriters and look for a new job.」

Straf turns his grim, humorless grin to Cycelia, and shrugs again.

「…What?」

She furrows her brows in heavy confusion.

「I'm just rambling, Lia… It's strange. I first expected you to hate my guts, then I expected you to call me a bullshitter…」

He lets a faint, amused huff out of his nose, turning his eyes back to the ceiling.

「I don't think there's anything I could possibly hate you for, Straf.」

Cycelia replies, tilting her head with a light smile.

「Meh. You'll never know.」

He shrugs with a gentle tilt of his head in response.

「…Why did you keep it secret from me, Straf? Why tell me now?」

She asks, leaning in slightly.

「I wasn't really keeping it secret, but I wasn't exactly sharing it either. I mean, how would that come up in a conversation? How would I reasonably explain it?…」

Straf smirks, spreading his hands.

「…I just thought it was as good of a moment as any to tell you. And now that I have, there's this strange feeling. Not quite relief, but something adjacent to it. I don't know what to call it.」

「Maybe you're just glad that someone else knows too?」

Cycelia says with a warm smile on her face. Straf maintains a silent eye contact for a few seconds.

「…Maybe. But I'd appreciate if you'd keep that knowledge to yourself. Explaining it to everyone would get annoying real quick.」

He shrugs, and looks back at the ceiling. The two sit in silence for a prolonged moment.

「Back during the demon lord's times, there were magic experiments to summon a savior of humanity. They all failed. I don't know the specifics, but I know they got close a few times…」

Cycelia says in a soft, quiet voice. Straf turns his gaze to her.

「…The closest they ever got to success was summoning a very foreign-looking man who died immediately a few seconds later. Now that I think about it, it's starting to make sense.」

She adds, and shrugs her shoulders.

「Why'd he die?」

Straf asks, furrowing his brows.

「Nobody knows. But considering what you told me about your world, its apparent lack of magic, and my family's knowledge of demon summoning… Perhaps he had no mana?」

She shrugs again, thinking while she idly swings her feet off her bed.

「So a guy got randomly summoned from a world with no magic, and he dropped dead because he had no mana to sustain himself here? Yikes… I don't know if that's unlucky or not.」

Straf winces with a grimace of minor pity for the late mystery otherworlder.

「Your knowledge would probably answer lot of questions. I'm wondering why that's wasn't the case with you… But I suppose if Mercia is involved, then it only makes sense…」

Cycelia says with a warm smile directed at Straf, still idly swinging her legs.

「…You know, some time ago, I was giggling to myself that maybe you're my personal demon. I mean, you were using a cursed blade and dominated a real one with ease!」

She adds, and giggles softly with her smiling mouth covered by a loose fist.

「Heh. Yeah, when I first got here your luck was higher than mine, so it's not that far-fetched that-」

「What?」

Straf smirks at Cycelia, spreading his hands as he speaks, before very abruptly falling silent with his brows pensively furrowed, staring at her. The sudden shift unnerves her.

「…Grimoire. Actually a dragon girl. Had a cursed weapon drop from a suspiciously low level creature…」

Straf mumbles to himself as he conspicuously counts something on his fingers in front of Cycelia, staring at her.

「S- Straf?… You're not actually a demon, are you?…」

Cycelia asks, gaining a nervous grin as she leans away. Straf stops counting, and returns his hands to his hips in fists, staring at her with a tight-lipped grimace in silence.

「I don't think so. But between your family's thing being summoning demons from another world, me being from another world, being stupidly powerful, and a few other things…」

Looking down at the ground, Straf rubs his chin as he thinks.

「…I'm sure it's all just a wild coincidence, but I sure fill a lot of checkboxes for one, huh?」

He asks, turning his gaze back to Cycelia.

「Yes… An uncomfortably large amount of them, yes…」

Cycelia nods with an awkward smile on her face.

「…Want to check real quick if I have horns?」

He asks with an amused smirk, lowering his head towards Cycelia.

Though initially confused, she hesitantly stretches his hand out towards him. He nods when her hand stops partway, and she reaches for the top of his head.

Rather than actually checking for horns, Cycelia simply pets Straf's head with a gentle touch, and after a few moments, pulls her hand away.

「…It doesn't seem like you have any.」

She remarks, lowering her hand to her lap with a light smile.

「…For now. You might want to check frequently…」

Straf says as he stands up, smirking at her.

「…Well… Good thing I'm on your side then, isn't it?」

He adds, and places his hands in his pockets.

「Yes… I guess it is.」

She nods, and with her chestnut head tilted, she returns a warm smile

「…I'm going to work on our ride back in the stable. It'll probably take me some time, so don't rush out of bed and get some rest. Goodnight, Lia.」

Straf says as he heads for the door.

「Okay. Goodnight, Straf.」

Cycelia bids Straf farewell, smiling at him as he shuts the door behind himself. She takes her coat, folds it neatly on the end table, takes her boots off, and slips under the blanket…