「…I'm glad it went well.」

Cycelia sighs out with relief, smiling softly as she walks beside Straf while they return from the balcony to the throne room through the palace halls.

「It'd be hard for it not to when you dangle the feast in front of them.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders in reply.

「…Do we even have enough money to cover the feast?」

Cycelia asks, looking up at Straf with her brows gently raised.

「Hey, only now you worry about that?」

「Ehehehe…」

Straf replies, looking at her with a slanted mouth and furrowed brows. She lets out a quiet, guilty giggle with a broad smile as she looks away.

「Tsk… We should have enough by the time we're back. Besides, leaving budget holes in the new ruling party's lap is a pretty traditional way to transition power.」

With his hand in his pocket, he shrugs his shoulders in resignation.

「Hm?」

Cycelia tilts her head with a confused smile at Straf. They look at each other in silence for a brief moment.

「So? What's next? Today, I mean.」

Straf turns his eyes away to face forward and asks.

「Well, I should put my regalia away. And then I have to discuss some matters with Sir Vinis before he takes the rule tomorrow.」

Cycelia says, still looking at Straf with a contented smile on her lightly freckled face.

「Wooow, what a coincidence.」

Straf sarcastically says, rolling his eyes with his mouth aslant.

「Huh?」

「Ah, your majesty!」

Sir Vinis calls out from the other side of the hallway, raising his hands a little above his head in front of himself. He approaches them with a smug smile on his face, following beside a palace maid.

「Sir Vinis. Congratulations on your victory.」

Cycelia says with a polite and very light bow of her head, walking up to meet Sir Vinis and the maid at the midpoint.

「Why, thank you, your majesty…」

He replies, bowing low with his palm on his opposite shoulder. His hair slides off his shoulders like a short waterfall.

「…And we meet again, minister.」

Sir Vinis straightens out to look at Straf with a knowing smirk.

「Your highness, the guest room has been prepared. Shall I take you to it?」

The maid asks with an expressionless face, holding her hands in front of herself.

「Ah- Yes. Straf, could I bother you to take these back?」

Cycelia asks, unclasping her royal mantle from her shoulders and folding it into a square.

「Yeah, sure.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders, and holds his hand out for the mantle.

「Thank you. Take them to the captain, he'll know what to do with them.」

She says, handing Straf the mantle. She takes her crown in hand, and just as she's about to hand Straf the scepter and the crown…

「Ah, Straf! You're not supposed to…」

A little surprised, Cycelia meekly objects as Straf throws the mantle over himself and secures the golden clasp on his shoulders.

「How dare you, minister!? Stop this at once!-」

The maid shouts in outrage, glaring at Straf.

「How am I supposed to carry all this with one hand?」

Straf ripostes, holding his hand out for the crown, looking at the maid disdainfully with a tight-lipped expression.

《Is this a signal directed at me?… What an outrageous man! Surely the queen will behead him for this!-》

Grinning widely in amused bewilderment, Sir Vinis look onto the commotion from the side.

「Now, now, calm down… Straf is right, I asked him to do this for me. He's just taking this back.」

Still holding onto the crown and the scepter, Cycelia shakes her hands in front of the maid, trying to calm her outrage down with a disarming smile.

「But-! Your highness…」

The maid hesitantly protests, unwilling to go against the queen's word, but also not accepting the idea of Straf putting the regalia on. Her glare softens, and her eyes jump from Straf to Cycelia back and forth with an uneasy gaze and furrowed brows.

「It's okay! I wouldn't have these without Straf to begin with…」

Cycelia reassures the maid, and she apologetically bows her head. Straf takes the crown in hand, and without delay puts it onto his head.

《Unbelievable… Unbelievable! This is definitely a signal! He's telling me something, but what!? Is he saying that he's the king already!? Is he saying that I'm just his chess piece all along!? But which? A mere pawn? A rook? A knight?》

Sir Vinis covers his grin with his hand, looking at Straf in fascinated bemusement.

《…What's so fucking funny to this asshole?》

Straf disdainfully glares at Sir Vinis as he notices him grin, taking the heavy golden scepter from Cycelia.

「Is that all?…」

Straf asks, looking at Cycelia as she stares at him, blinking in silence for a moment.

《Ahhh! He has the look of a king! The regalia suits him! It suits him too well! What a kingly look!》

「…Lia? Hello?」

Straf waves the scepter in front of Cycelia's mesmerized emerald eyes.

「Ah-! Ah, yes! That's all! Thank you, Straf.」

She rapidly blinks for a moment as she realizes she's staring, and nods her head. She takes a step towards the maid, looking away from Straf.

「Alright then, guess I'll be in my room.」

Straf shrugs, and walks past them into the T-split of the corridor.

「…Thank you…」

Sir Vinis covertly says to Straf as he passes by, causing him to stop in the center of the diverging paths and turn around to look at him.

《…What? For letting him win? That was the deal, and you better keep your end of it, prick.》

Straf silently glares at Sir Vinis as he walks away with the maid and Cycelia down the corridor. The maid shoots one last parting hateful glare at Straf, and invites them into a room at the end of the corridor, just before another split, before departing that way with a polite bow.

「Huh. Guess they're still mad at me for nothing.」

Straf remarks, and shrugs his fur-trimmed shoulders, continuing on to the throne room…

…

Around the same time, in the city's dungeon…

「I'm innocent! Please believe me! I've done nothing illegal!」

The restrained man in the chair desperately pleads.

「I believe you.」

Nona replies with a nod, smiling softly.

「Then?…」

He stiffens up, blinking at her surprising admission with a hopeful look on his face.

「…Then you'll let me go?」

「Ahaha! Nope.」

Nona giggles, grinning at the man as she leans towards his tied hand and bluntly shoots his hopes down. She puts her hand on top of his.

「Wait. Wait wait wait wait!」

The man notices the needles in her hand when Nona leans down further to have a better look at his hand. He attempts to pull his hand away, kick her, free himself, but it all amounts to him just aimlessly thrashing about against the ropes.

Nona forces one of the needles under the man's fingernail. He screams while it is inserted, and for a brief moment afterwards, too. Blood flows freely from his finger down onto the needle like an open tap in a wine barrel.

「Aggghh… Why are you doing this!?…」

The man whines with his teeth clenched, when he manages to get his pain a little under control.

「Because I know you gave out money so that the people would vote a certain way…」

Nona says, and starts forcing another needle into another fingernail. The man screams and struggles, with ultimately the same result. More blood drips onto the cobblestone floor.

「Hhhrkk!-」

The man chokes on his spit out of fear when Nona straightens out, and her amber eyes glare down at him with a bored expression on her face.

「…And because it's fun, but… Hm.」

She explains, then hums quietly, deep in thought while looking at the needles sticking out of his fingers with an unimpressed pout.

「Khk!- I khan ekshplain! I can explain! It's legal! It's all legal!」

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The man manages to catch his breath after choking, and desperately pleads while looking at Nona's orange eyes in abject terror. She lifts the hand holding the hammer.

Clunk!

「Aaaaaaargggggggghhhh!!」

The prisoner screams, writhing around in pain with barely any movement due to his restraints.

「…Does it hurt?」

Nona apathetically asks the suffering man while he grunts almost in tears.

「Hey. Are you afraid?」

She asks another question, looking down at the man with a slanted mouth.

「…Yes… Yes. Yes I am… Please, stop. I didn't know it wasn't allowed, nobody told me…」

The man tearfully whimpers with his head hanging down, nodding it.

「I see… So you're afraid, huh…」

Nona says, looking down at the sobbing man, and lets out a long sigh. She walks up to the table with the tools, and throw the hammer and the remaining needles onto it, taking the piece of paper from it into hand.

「Hey. Sign this.」

「…What?」

She squats down in front of the man and shows him the guilt admission form with her mouth aslant. He lifts his head to look at it with his brows furrowed.

「Sign this and they'll let you go eventually. I'm bored.」

Nona says, her amber eyes stare into the man's terrified ones.

「Okay. Okay… Please, just no more…」

The man nods his head, nervously swallowing and just barely avoiding choking again. Nona brings the form to his hand, in front of the bloodied needles. The man looks at her bored face, unsure what to do for a moment, but then realizes it.

He brings the tip of the needle to the signature line, and starts signing it in blood, like a man-sized fountain pen, whimpering and grunting while the needle painfully irritates his nailbed. With watery eyes, he completes his signature.

Nona stands up, looking at the form, and shrugs. She heads for the door.

「This is boring… I need something more fun…」

She grumbles under her breath as she closes the door behind her shut, leaving the terrified man alone in the dim room…

…

A few moments later, in the throne room…

Straf enters. Scepter in hand, crown on his head, and royal mantle draped over his shoulder. The palace guards and the young captain of the guard standing near the throne becomes heavily disconcerted at the sight.

「You!… Minister! What are you doing!? Why are you wearing the royal regalia!? What is the meaning of this!?」

One of the guards leaves his position at the pillars to point his armored hand at Straf as he approaches the throne to shout at him. The guards glance at each other, suspecting another assassination incident.

「Lia told me to bring these back, and I have only one hand right now.」

Straf shrugs his mantled shoulders while he approaches the steps to the throne. The guards relax significantly at the reasonable explanation, although they remain greatly displeased by the sight.

Straf then walks up the steps, ignoring the captain's palms stretched out towards him ready to receive the regalia, and sits down in the throne.

「Ahh.」

He sighs in comfort, and puts his ankle on his knee, reclining further into the throne.

「You-!」 「How dare you!?」 「Stand up!」

The guards swarm the front of the throne, just below the steps, screaming in outrage at Straf and spitting commands at him. The captain of the guard looks on with his palms meekly outstretched at Straf, and his mouth agape in shock.

「Relax. Lia isn't using it right now, and I was wondering if it was comfortable.」

Straf says, and puts his head on his fist, lazily slumping on the armrest with the golden scepter in hand, crown on his head, sitting on the royal mantle draped on the throne beneath him like a king indeed.

The palace guards side-glance at each other with murder in their eyes, clutching onto their halberds with hateful, tight-lipped grimaces.

《Ahh!! What do I do? What do I do!? What do I do!?! If I let him sit there, that's like giving him permission! But if I rudely kick him out, he might kill me! He basically put the queen in power on his own!》

The young captain screams inside, and his armored fingers start twitching in panic as sweat begins trickling down his temples.

《What if the queen gets mad!? She's usually pretty kind, but I've seen her bad side too! She's a monster in her own right!》

He looks aside to the side passage, thinking about Cycelia's glowing glare.

「I said stand up! Get up! You don't deserve to sit there!」

The guard throws his arm to the side, screaming commands at Straf.

「Huuuuh? Excuse me, if we're going by merit, I earned this funny chair.」

With his brows raised in outrage, Straf points down at his throne.

「You bastard!…」 「How dare you!?」 「What was that!?」

The guards shout over one another, before one of them silences the other with a motion of his arm.

「…Are you saying that you are taking the throne?」

He growls a question at Straf, clutching onto his halberd while glaring daggers at him. The other guards appear to understand the meaning of the question, and grip tighter onto their weapons as well.

《Oh no oh no oh no! This is bad! This is bad! I can't let a fight break out! I need to do something quick!》

Practically rumbling in his armor, the young captain of the guard looks at Straf and the guards with a panicked nervous grin.

「Aha! Ahaha!… May I please have the regalia now, Minister Vindict?」

The captain lets out a brief nervous laugh and bows, holding his hands out to hopefully receive something from Straf.

「Tsk. Yeah, I guess. For all the fighting, this chair is pretty overrated.」

Straf shrugs his mantled shoulders, and nonchalantly hands the captain the scepter. He then plucks the crown off his head, and places it in his palms as well. The mood in the room remains extremely tense.

Straf stands up, causing the guards to jump a little. His hand reaches for the golden clasp, and the mantle comes loose. He throws it onto the captain's arms, and places his hand in his pocket with his mouth aslant.

「If I want the throne, I can just redeem the coupon.」

Straf shrugs, walking past the glaring guards to the door.

《Safe…》

The captain of the guard lets out a long sigh of relief…

…

A few minutes later, in Straf's room…

「Athea, we're going to the beach tomorrow. Get your ass down here.」

Straf says, looking up at the ceiling while sitting on his bed.

《No.》

The voice in his head bluntly replies.

「N-? What the fuck do you mean no!? You said you're coming!」

《I am coming, I will simply meet you there. Why would I go with you and waste hours on end? I have work to do.》

Athea explains, sounding annoyed again, though perhaps that's her normal voice.

「Tsk. Fair enough, whatever. But you better think of a good excuse as to why I'll randomly meet you there.」

Straf clicks his tongue and crosses his arms, shrugging his shoulders.

「Ah. Right. When are we even leaving? I didn't ask Lia that.」

He thinks, rubbing his chin, then stands up.

「Well, guess I can do that if she's done with that prick.」

Straf says to himself, and leaves his room. He heads for the guest room he saw Cycelia and Sir Vinis enter. He arrives there just a moment later, and just as he's about to reach for the door, it opens.

「Hahaha! Well, thank you, your highness!」

Both merrily laughing, Sir Vinis and Cycelia exit the room. He holds the door open for her, inviting her out of the room with his palm.

「Ah- Minister.」

Sir Vinis appears slightly surprised by Straf's presence, and he bows with his palm on his shoulder again while walking past him towards the stairs down, greeting him and bidding him farewell at the same time.

「Straf. Weren't you heading to your room?」

Getting her laughter under control, Cycelia tilts her head, also surprised that Straf is standing there.

「I was and I did. Then I realized I don't know when we are leaving tomorrow.」

Straf explains, and shrugs his shoulders.

「Ah! Sorry! Everyone except you knows by now! I meant to tell you a while ago, but I forgot!」

Her eyes widen, and Cycelia covers her mouth with her fingers, shocked at her failure to inform Straf.

「So?」

「A few minutes after the afternoon bell, when I'm no longer the ruler. We'll ride by royal carriage to the coast. You don't need to rush or anything, I want to give Greaves and his party a moment to make sure they have everything they need.」

Cycelia smiles, then lowers and clasps her hands in front of herself.

「Alright. What did you talk about with that pr- Sir Vinis?」

Straf asks, and Cycelia shrugs in response.

「This and that. Mostly the drakes, the financial situation, the magic lamps and our trip to the beach.」

Cycelia looks aside as she thinks, then smiles at Straf.

「Sounds like you had a lot of fun.」

「Ah. Well, Sir Vinis is a pleasant person. I have no reservations about him leading the kingdom now.」

She shrugs, then tilts her head with a smile.

「…Right. I'll turn in early, you should too. This is going to be the best beach episode of your life, Lia, don't snooze on the beach.」

Straf snaps his fingers, and turns around to go back to his room.

「Mhm, I will. Goodnight, Straf.」

She nods her head as Straf walks away.

「Yeah, night.」

He replies, and a moment later disappears behind a corner…