After discussing the details of the deal, Straf and Lily exit the busy maid-filled pseudo-coffee shop.

「We’ll be waiting, master!」

The maid at the door calls out towards Straf’s back with a bright and warm voice, bowing politely.

「Man… That took way longer than it should.」

Straf sighs out, obliquely looking at the mid-day sun past its zenith.

「…May I ask a few questions, Straf?」

Lily looks up at Straf, still causing the terrified crowd to part and let them through.

「Hm? Yeah, sure, go ahead.」

He shrugs his shoulders and looks ahead with bored eyes, and a slanted mouth.

「What exactly is this… Stock?」

She tilts her head as her golden twin tails jiggle with each step.

「Stock certificates you mean? It’s just a little slip of paper stating you are rightfully owed a portion of a business, Lily. The whole idea is that they’re written on paper and can be traded between people. Sound familiar?」

Straf asks with a grin on his face, looking down at Lily. She looks down at her feet, thinking.

「Hmmm… Ah! The drakes!」

Her crimson eyes snap wide open in realization, and she points her clawed finger up at Straf.

「Yup. They are like drakes in that regard.」

Straf snaps his fingers and points back at Lily, then looks ahead again.

「But… Are you not short on money? If someone comes to redeem the certificates, where will you get the gold from?-」

Lily asks with her brows furrowed and head tilted. Straf chuckles in response.

「That’s the best part, Lily. Those certificates can’t be actually redeemed for anything. I mean, technically, if you were to collect enough of them to become the majority owner…」

Straf rubs his chin as he thinks about the hypothetical scenario, but Lily disregards it and continues her previous thought.

「But then why would anyone buy them? It sounds like a worthless piece of paper to me, Straf.」

She blinks, tilting her head once more at Straf.

「Wrong, Lily. It’s only a worthless piece of paper if nobody is willing to buy it off of you.」

Straf says with a smug grin.

「Remember, they’re pieces of ownership. They represent trust, just like the drakes do. In fact, they’re really debt to the holders of the certificates, but they can’t really be paid out the way I designed them.」

He adds, shrugging his shoulders.

「If they represent trust, in other words… If the trust grows, so does the value of the certificates?」

「You got it, Lily. As long as the next sucker is ready to buy it off of you, you’ll be always profit. Unless the price drops, that is.」

Straf snaps his fingers, pointing his fingers at the little vampire as he answers another of her questions.

「I see… And this stock market?」

「That’s something for me to handle, Lily. For now, it’ll run out of the bank, but I guess I’ll have to buy a separate building for it once everyone wakes up and realizes what a neat trick stocks make.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders and looks sideways as he mulls over his options.

「But what is it, Straf? What does it do?」

「Well, what does it sound like? It’s a place to trade those stock certificates. It’d suck if you had to hunt down some random peasant in the countryside to buy his piece of paper, wouldn’t it? A stock market is like a bar for gamblers instead of alcoholics. It’s where they congregate.」

Straf chuckles with a light grin, spreading his arms.

「I see… And anyone can sell stock certificates of their business?」

Lily asks, and Straf quickly shrugs in response.

「Well, it’s not illegal, is it?」

Straf answers with a rhetorical, and they continue onward in brief silence between them, still terrorizing the busy streets with their presence.

「…By the way, Straf, what stops someone from opening an unprofitable business and selling expensive certificates- Mpffmpt!?」

Lily asks another question as she walks side by side with Straf. Before she is allowed to finish, he quickly swoops in and covers her mouth with his hand. Some of the citizens pause to check if a child is being kidnapped, but quickly depart with a hurried step, when they realize the child is the baroness of the night.

「Woaaah there. You are very quick on the uptake, Lily. Very quick. I think that does it for the questions. You’ll have to try again later, alright? No more questions.」

Straf says with a commanding tone, and lets go of her.

「Alright…」

Lily says as she brings her clawed fingers to her lips after Straf’s rough yet harmless handling of her.

「Can I just ask where are we going next?」

Lily asks, slowly lowering her hand from her face while looking aside towards Straf.

「Back to that warehouse, and we’ll hit the market for some materials on the way I suppose. That geezer’s business reminded me of a very important fact. One I already knew well, but one that doesn’t really occupy my mind all the time…」

Straf shrugs and sighs, placing his hand in his pocket.

「That being?」

With her head cocked, Lily curiously asks.

「People really like to see bare skin. Especially where they’re not supposed to see it.」

Straf replies to Lily with a dead-serious expression.

「…And I really don’t like the idea that I sold myself so cheap. I have an idea how to raise my market value, at least relatively speaking.」

「If you need human skin, I can-」

Lily lifts her clawed finger, about to make a suggestion.

「No no no no, not like that…」

Straf insistently shakes his head as they head towards the capital’s market square…

…

Elsewhere, in the evening, in an inn in a distant city…

Will and Lian enter the packed inn.

「There she is.」

Lian says, looking at Alicia sitting alone at a table while looking troubled.

「Where?- Ah… Wait, why is she alone? Did Greaves go to sleep already? That’s unlike him…」

Will adjusts his glasses as he catches sight of his childhood friend as well. They walk up to Alicia’s table, and she lifts her head when she notices familiar figures approach her.

「Alicia, has Greaves gone to sleep already? Or is he perhaps taking a bath for once?」

Will asks with a gentle smile as he pulls a chair out and takes a seat. Lian also joins the table, propping her spear up against it as she gets her chair. Alicia shakes her head and looks at Will with furrowed brows.

「No… He told me to wait here for you while he investigates the circle-」

Alicia explains, twiddling her thumbs as she apologetically explains.

「And you let him!?」

Will shoots up from his chair, leaning onto the table in disbelief with his eyes wide open. The glasses almost slip off his nose, and he adjusts them at the last second.

「I didn’t want to either! But he told me to wait here, in case you came back, and… Sorry…」

Alicia explains further, looking down at the table with a guilty frown.

「…It’s not your fault, Alicia.」

Will calmly says as he sits back down, sighing heavily, and hangs his head in frustration.

「…Is it safe to let him do as he wants? We don’t know the nature of the circle.」

Lian asks, glancing at both Will and Alicia with a serious face. Her foot swings idly on her crossed legs, and her finger covered by her blue bodysuit taps on her arm impatiently.

「No, it’s not. I told that dumbass to wait with Alicia until we come back. Ahhh…」

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Will takes his glasses off, and in frustration, rubs his face with his other hand while loudly groaning.

「…Have you managed to get help from-」

Alicia lifts her head and meekly asks Will a question.

「No, that bastard wouldn’t even hear it.」

Will shakes his head and puts his glasses back on.

「I see…」

She hangs her head again, and Lian sighs.

「Has he at least said where he’s going?」

Will asks, looking straight at Alicia.

「He wasn’t specific, but he said… How did he word it? 「That place we were at recently.」 or something like that…」

Alicia looks off to the side for a second as she quotes Greaves, before shrugging her white-robed shoulders and returning to twiddling her thumbs anxiously.

「Tsk… Argh… That’s something that dumbass would say word for word.」

Will groans again, rubbing the side of his head along with his hair forcefully out of frustration. Lian intently stares at a single point in silence, no longer idly swinging her foot or tapping her finger.

「I have to go look for him. I need to find him before he does something stupid.」

Frustrated and exhausted, Will sighs out and gets up from his chair, taking his wooden staff with him.

「I’ll go with you!」

Alicia shoots up from her chair, taking her silver wand in hand.

「Tsk, it’s fine Alicia… Go get some rest too-」

Will quietly clicks his tongue and dismissively waves Alicia off as he turns towards the exit.

「No! I have fix this! I knew I shouldn’t have left him alone, but he insisted! I should have just stayed with him!」

Alicia exclaims, clutching onto her wand with both of her hands, looking at Will with a determined face.

「It’s not your fault Alicia, Greaves is just like that-」

「It is! It’s my job to keep you safe! And if I don’t know if Greaves is safe…」

Alicia interrupts Will, causing his brows to rise in surprise. He adjusts his glasses as Alicia quiets down once again and lowers her head.

「…Then I won’t be able to sleep at night. I want everyone to be in the inn by the time it’s really dark out.」

Alicia meekly finishes her statement, lifting her frowning face as she hugs into her wand.

「Come along then if you really want to… Lian, it’s fine if you want to stay-」

Will lets out a large sigh, and shrugs. He glances at the spearwoman, who is still sitting deep in thought.

「I’m coming too, of course.」

Lian nonchalantly declares and stands up, taking her spear back in hand.

「Well, let’s go find that dumbass before it’s dark. Too bad we were recently just about everywhere in the city… Let’s go.」

Will lets out another large, heavy sigh as he takes tired steps towards the exit, with Lian and Alicia trailing close behind.

「…Alicia, if I give him a good whack over his head with the staff, you’re going to heal him, right?」

Will asks without bothering to turn to Alicia, still heading towards the door.

「Please don’t do that…」

Alicia meekly requests, nervously smiling…

…

A few hours later, nearby one of the dark alleyways of the distant city…

「Tsk… Who goes through the town laying down some magic stuff only to not care about it?」

Greaves grumbles to himself, hidden behind empty crates and barrels left out by a warehouse. For a long moment now, no people have passed by the road between the damaged fragment of the magic circle Greaves is observing, and his hiding spot.

Footsteps. Lone, quiet, but distinct. Slow, cautious step pausing every few paces for one reason or another.

「There it is…」

Greaves mumbles to himself quietly, observing the dark alleyway. A robed man walks into the moonlight out of the dark.

「Argh… Another one? Again? Have I been found out?」

The man thinks out loud while staring at the smeared, disrupted magic circle on the floor.

「That’s right! And now you’re going to tell me what’s this about, and what you were planning!」

Greaves shouts at the man with his sword drawn and pointed at him.

「Huh!?- Ah, it’s just some kid…」

The man spins around on his heel in panic, and sighs in relief when he sees Greaves pointing his sword at him.

「Kid!?- I’m not a kid! I’m an adventurer! I’m the legendary hero, at that!」

Greaves exclaims angrily, grinding his teeth in frustration. Moments later, a strange chill runs down his back, but the feeling quickly subsides.

「Heh… Kheheheh… The legendary hero, huh? Are you the one running around the town and damaging the ritual circle?」

The man asks, glaring at Greaves. His robes cast dark shadows on his face, making it impossible to identify him, only a faint glint of his eyes is ominously visible.

「Huh? What’s that? You mean that red thing on the floor!? Yeah! I kicked it apart! Now you’re going to tell me what does it do, and who are you!」

Greaves continues shouting, blocking the man from most freely available paths to escape through.

「And why should I, child?」

The man asks, disdain seeping through the tone of his voice.

「Ch-!? Because you’re obviously the bad guy! And I’m going to stop you! Nobody who’s good sneaks around at night and messes with magic!」

Greaves states the narrow-viewed obvious with an outdoor voice. The robed figure steps forward, ignoring the threat of Greaves’s sword.

「…Vexation. What a pest you are. Not only stupid, but also ignorant…」

The robed man gently holds onto his robes with his fingers, glaring at Greaves from within the hood.

「Hey! Speak for yourself! I’m strong, and that’s good enough!」

Greaves protests, still pointing his sword at the shady man.

「Vortex, vortices, swirling winds, become tame for my gain…」

The robed man speaks, though seemingly not towards Greaves.

「What!? If you want to give up, then take your hood off and show me your face!」

Greaves shouts, and clicks his tongue, waiting for the man to do something.

「Pleasant breeze and breath of life…」

The man ignores Greaves and continues speaking.

「What are you even saying? I’m not going to play along with your riddles!」

Greaves stares at the man simply standing there, not moving from the spot in either attempt to escape, nor charge to attack.

《Hold on… Doesn’t Will say stupid gibberish like that sometimes? Something something pleasant rays…》

Something causes Greaves to become wary and cautious of the way the man is acting. Greaves continues pointing his sword at him and waiting for his response while trying to recollect an important detail.

「Bring my adversary a final gasp.」

The robed man declares and lifts his hand up, pointing his palm towards Greaves with his fingers ever-so-slightly bent inward.

《Wait, Will does that when he’s-》

「『Windbolt』!」

The man says in a raised voice, breaking the night’s silence. Greaves’s eyes widen when the shout interrupts his thoughts. The space in front of the man’s hand blurs, yet it is barely visible in the night’s darkness and the dim moonlight.

The blur shoots directly towards Greaves, who jumps into air the moment he sees the blur form.

《Pointless. Writhing of a dying insect-》

The man thinks when he sees Greaves jump into the air. He leaps again, jumping higher. The blurred space shoots past Greaves just slightly beneath his feet, causing him to spin uncontrollably forward.

THUD-CRASH!

The spell hits the crates and barrels Greaves was hiding behind a few moments ago, shattering them into splinters and bent nails. The fragments fly deeper into the alley, strewing wood and pieces of metal along the ground.

「Shit!-」

Greaves curses out as the ground beneath him closes in, and he already used his sword’s enchantment.

Thud!

「Agh! Ow ow ow…」

Greaves impacts the ground in a mostly failed landing, and rolls a little off to the side. He rubs his aching side, before quickly standing back up to his feet, apparently injured by neither the fall nor the spell. He points his sword at the man once more, this time in a different stance, and much more wary.

「Heh. I thought you were dead for sure, but no matter. You can step on air, is that your blessing? Seems like there is a limit to it, too…」

The robed man comments, and immediately begins casting another spell. The moonlight shines through the clouds, illuminating his face brightly enough for his amused grin to be visible to Greaves…