Around the same time, in Redwing Kindom's capital region, in a fortress by a highway…

In the rowdy barracks, William limps to his bed and lies down with a large sigh. Julius sits down on his own bed's edge, facing William.

「Fucking drills, drills, drills… I'm sick of this shit…」

William grumbles on his bed.

「…Why not just take it easy? You're out next month after the cycle extension period ends, right?」

Julius asks with his brows lightly furrowed, then lies down on his bed as well.

「'Cause if they realize you're slacking off, they'll drill you even fucking harder, Julius. It's a bad idea… And theoretically I already should be out…」

He replies, side-glancing at Julius from his bed, his armor neatly stacked at his bedside.

「…But then that bullshit happened. I bet they'll come up with another excuse to not let us go.」

William sighs out out and rubs his face with his palm.

「That can't be legal.」

Julius declares with an incredulous confidence.

「Hah. Yeah, you'd think. But nothing in the law says that you're not duty-bound as a levyman to guard the kingdom 'til the end of fucking days if we're constantly at war, right?」

With a singular chuckle, William's face gains an amused smirk caused by Julius's naivete

「Well… Guess not…」

The young man's head perks up. He gains a markedly unnerved expression on his face, them slumps back down on his bed.

「Trust me, Julius. If they want us to fight forever, they don't need an excuse… Die on the gallows or die in battle, simple as.」

「…I think you're being too negative, William. They wouldn't do that.」

「Yeah? Want to bet? If I'm out next month, you're buying me a beer when you're on leave. I'll stick around a few days before I go back to the farm, so don't weasel out.」

William chuckles, shaking his head while staring at the ceiling. Their fellow soldiers are also discussing something, though most are too fatigued to even do that much.

「Sure, I'll bet…」

Julius shrugs, then resting his head on his arms, he turns his eyes to the ceiling as well.

「…You know, I'll kind of miss you, William. I know people back at the village, but I don't know if I could call them friends. We've been through some stuff, huh?」

「Heh. You're getting sappy too early…」

William scoffs with a grin, shaking his head again.

「…I kind of feel bad for those poor fuckers who'll have to sleep in the tents outside 'cause of the cycle extension. Imagine if it landed on you! Hahah!」

He adds, nodding towards some vague direction at a wall behind them, then lets out a greatly amused cackle.

「Yeah…」

Julius nods along and grins, though he doesn't laugh out of genuine pity.

「…Where's your farm, Julius? You talk about it a lot, but you never told me where it actually is. Maybe when you're out too, we could catch a drink.」

William asks after a brief pause.

「Ah! It's like a day's travel south of the capital! It's on the road, can't miss it!」

Julius abruptly perks up, speaking loud and clear.

「No shit. My village is south too, a little farther though. I might have passed by your home and didn't even realize it.」

「Small world, huh?…」

Julius chuckles and drops back down into his bed.

「Yeah. Small kingdom…」

William nods along while staring pensively at the ceiling.

「…But I have a feeling it won't be small for long.」

He adds, and shrugs his shoulders…

…

In the palace, in Cycelia's bedroom…

Cycelia is sitting at her desk, deeply focused and reading through a magic grimoire.

Knock knock knock.

Her focus is shattered by a knock on the door to her room.

「Yes?」

Cycelia asks over her shoulder towards the door.

「Your majesty, a letter from Rankor Kingdom…」

A voice from beyond the door says.

「Rankor?… Enter!」

Cycelia raises her voice towards the door. It opens, and the chancellor steps in.

「Shall I read it for you, your highness?」

He asks, holding the letter in his hands.

「No need, thank you.」

She returns a small smile and holds her hand out. With a bow, he hands the letter over.

「By your leave, your majesty…」

The chancellor bows out of the room, and closes the door behind him. Cycelia's emerald eyes turn to the letter and quickly skim through it.

「…Huh?」

She utters out, lowering the paper with her brows furrowed. She shakes her confused head and rereads it.

「…Please prepare a welcome for my official diplomatic mission. I will be arriving within a week at latest of this letter's date…」

Cycelia reads the part that confused her again, out loud. Still confused, she lowers the letter once more.

「…That's in two days at most. He was here not too long ago, what could have possibly happened?」

She thinks out loud under her breath, thumbing her lips while looking at the letter with furrowed brows.

「Nhh… I hope things won't be too awkward after the last time…」

Cycelia lets out a troubled sigh and sets the letter aside, then slides herself further towards the desk and resumes her magic study…

…

A few hours later, in front of the Royal Reserve Bank, just before evening…

「Come and hear about the future of steel industry! Can you afford to miss out!?」

Straf beckons the passersby out on the streets as a small crowd forms in front of him and his table in front of the bank. Stripe is standing right beside the table on its other end, wearing one of the skimpy maid outfits from Strafdrakes, and appearing visibly displeased about it. Her golden eyes refuse to make eye contact with anyone in the crowd, and her tight-lipped grimace is turned downward towards the ground.

The crowd grows and grows like a rolling snowball. A few moments later, Straf notices Lian and Will's staff peeking out of the crowd at the back.

「Okay!… Now listen up, 'cause this is your financial future! Your children will never forgive you if you let this slip by you!…」

Straf grins, and grabs one of the sheets from the stack of papers on the table. Ministry of Security agents nearby run up, mistaking the crowd for a riot, only to hastily walk away, embarrassed.

「…Today, Strafsteelworks is aggressively expanding, and it needs your capital! What is Strafsteelworks you might ask!? Well, I will tell you!…」

Straf raises his arms, capturing at least mild interest from just about everyone passing by.

「…Do the thing.」

He commands Stripe with hushed voice. With a click of her tongue, she takes a large chunk of the paper sheets lying on the table and begins handing them out to the crowd.

「Thank you master… Thank you master… Thank you master…」

She repeats over and over with a polite bow of her head, just barely hiding her grimace from the people she's handing the papers to. The crowd begins to read through the leaflets.

「…As you can see from the promotional materials, Strafsteelworks is a successful and established company! It produces steel in quantities so massive, that we don't know what to do with it!…」

Straf declares with his arms spread and a giant smug grin on his face.

「…What is it all for!? Well, that's simple! To make more, better, cheaper steel! Everything will be steel! Steel will be so cheap, it'll lie as trash on the streets! We'll pay hobos to clean it up!…」

He continues his shilling while the people read through the leaflets handed to them by Stripe. They nod along as they skim through the contents, chattering quietly amongst each other.

「…To give you the quick rundown of the company's plans… One, expand! Two, expand! Three, expand! There will be no international anti-competition laws holding back the monopoly!…」

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Straf shouts, flapping the slip of paper in his hand towards the crowd. The people are slowly drawing closer to him and the table, one small step at a time.

「…Wrought iron is for peasants! We'll use steel nails! Steel cookware!… We'll even use steel horses! I guarantee you!」

「Steel horses!?」

Shaking his head, a man chuckles with an amused grin on his face.

「That's right! It might sound funny to you now, but wait until we combine the deeply-embedded problem of alcoholism with steel horses! We'll see if you're still laughing then!…」

Straf snaps his fingers and points at the grinning man. His grin quickly disappears, and is replaced with a confused, mildly nervous grimace.

「Thank you mast- Khhhnnhkk…」

Stripe hands out another promotional leaflet, only to realize she just handed it to Will. She cringes heavily, hands them to the rest of his party, then quickly rushes off to get more.

「Let's see what's this really about…」

Will adjusts his glasses and begins reading through the leaflet's contents.

「…To participate, you need to buy Strafsteelworks bills at the Royal Reserve Bank behind me! Only and only drakes are accepted! No gold, no foreign currencies!…」

He glances up at Straf as he continues explaining, then adjusts his glasses again. His bespectacled eyes stumble upon the company's stylish logo.

「…Ah. Strafsteelworks… He meant that it's all one word.」

Will remarks to Greaves, who is looking at his own leaflet with a puzzled and a disinterested gaze.

「…I don't get it. You pay money, and they pay you money? What's it all for then?」

Greaves asks as he throws his hand up.

「It's like a loan. Look. It's theoretically not even a bad deal… If you have some spare money lying about, and if they actually pay you back, it's a pretty decent profit.」

Will points at Greaves's leaflet while Straf continues shouting towards the crowd in the background. He adjusts his glasses again, shrugging his shoulders.

「…Not for me. I'd rather spend that money on armor that will make everyone stop and look at me, like that Roland guy.」

Greaves scoffs and casts the leaflet aside, discarding it like trash with the wind.

「Good grief, Greaves… Can't you pick a better example to imitate? It's either someone who's been dead for a really long time, or someone who's not that smart. Like you…」「Hey!」

Will shakes his head in disapproval, adjusting his glasses higher up on his nose.

「…Well, Roland isn't a bad guy I guess. It could be worse.」

He sighs and shrugs his shoulders, turning his attention back to Straf.

「…Again! No foreign currencies! You try to peddle that shit here, I'll rip it up!… With that in mind, I'll be taking a few questions now!」

Straf warns with his index finger extended, then throws his arms up and waits for the crowd's response.

「…I'll go ask some stuff too. I'm a little curious.」

Will says to Greaves as he squeezes in through the crowd and slowly nudges his way towards the front.

「…So it's really just free money later?」

A man from the edge of the crowd asks while pointing at his leaflet.

「Absolutely free money with zero risk!」

With his fists on hips, Straf grins at the man. Another man mostly in the center of the front row raises his hand.

「Yeah?」

「If it's free money why is the company just handing it out?… What's the catch? It seems too good to be true.」

A cautious man asks with a shrug of his shoulders.

「Heh. See? You're a clever one, huh? There is a risk!… But the company is shouldering it! There is zero risk to you! All you do is buy the bill, and wait for the money!」

Straf replies, spreading his arms. The man slowly lowers his hand, furrowing his confused brows.

「…Why is Strafsteelworks a single word?」

As Will squeezes in to the front, a man beside him asks.

「Good question…」

Will comments quietly, adjusting his glasses misaligned by the crowd.

「…Because it is! Alright!? Stylistic choice! Are you going to ask why donuts have a hole in them next!?」

Straf replies with his fists on his hips and his mouth aslant. Dumbfounded by the revelation, the man lowers his hand.

「…It's due to cost cutting! The consumer doesn't mind, and at scale a donut with a hole is a whole donut more!」

He adds, throwing his hands up. Straf notices Will holding his hand up.

「…Let's take a question from that speccy twerp over there!」

He points at Will, grinning.

「Tsk… If you're producing more steel than you know what to do with, aren't you just flooding the market with trash!?」

Will clicks his tongue and shouts a question. Straf scrunches his mouth to the side, then scoffs.

「…I think you missed my explanation, little guy! Strafsteelworks makes more, better, cheaper! The company makes sure there's supply, it doesn't care about demand!」

Straf nonchalantly replies with a mocking tone as he spreads his arms towards the crowd.

「…Then how is the company going to pay all that money back!? Are you telling me you'll just plummet the prices and still somehow make a profit!?」

Will asks another question and adjusts his glasses, veiling his frustration and furrowing his brows with his mouth aslant.

「Yup! That's exactly it! What part of more, better, cheaper do you not understand!?」

Straf nods, casually placing his hands in his pockets with a huge smug smirk. The crowd begins to loudly chatter amongst themselves with audible excitement.

「…Well? Any more questions, twerp?」

He briefly pulls his hands out to quizzically spread them, then turns them right back into his pockets. Will nods while adjusting his glasses.

「Yeah, just one…」

He says as he looks over Straf from head to feet.

「…What happened to your armor?」

Will rubs his chin for a few seconds, then asks with a shrug of his hand.

「…I smelted it.」

Straf bluntly replies.

「You smelted it!? Don't you feel bad for the craftsman!?-」

「Nope.」

「Why!?」

「I made it, stupid.」

「You-!?… You made it?…」

Will's head perks up in disbelief as his voice trails off. The crowd has mostly ignored the last question.

「Okay! That's enough questions! You can buy Strafsteelworks bills inside! Up to one million drakes is available for investment!…」

Straf steps aside, making way for the crowd already slowly trickling in towards the bank's door. He notices Sir Vinis standing at the back of the crowd.

「…And hurry before this spiritually bald bastard buys it all out without leaving you a single one!」

Straf points at the long-haired magnate, who appears rather confused by the epithet and the accusation.

「…Is this investment even available for members of the government? The terms are… Interesting, to say the least.」

Sir Vinis asks as he slowly walks up with no rush in his steps, flapping the promotional leaflet in his hand.

「Yup. Go ahead and knock yourself out, dump your entire fortune into it. Risk-free money.」

Straf nods with a tight-lipped grimace on his face.

「…Even if it were, I don't like the words risk-free. I might invest ten thousand and see how it goes.」

The magnate replies, then looks over his shoulder at Will, Lian, Greaves, and Alicia, as well as Straf's helper in a skimpy maid outfit, who are the very few that remain outside the bank.

《Heh. Fucking sucker…》

「…Yup, great idea. Eggs and basket, so on, so on.」

Straf snaps his fingers and points at the long-haired man as his face gains a smirk.

「…Alicia, how much money do I have saved up that we don't immediately need?」

Will turns to Alicia, who then gazes upward at the darkening sky as she thinks and counts on her fingers.

「…With the reward for finding the dungeon and excluding what we need for a month or two… Thirty drakes?」

She shrugs, tilting her head a little.

「Wow, that's a lot more than I thought…」

Mildly surprised, Will rubs his chin with his brows furrowed as he looks at the ground before his feet.

「…Do you mind if I put half of that into this thing? When Greaves finally changes his mind about being an adventurer, we could use that money.」

He asks, and Alicia kneels down to quickly access a very tightly wrapped satchel. She pulls out a thick stack of drakes of small denominations, counts them, then hands them to Will.

「Here. It's your money Will, you don't have to ask me for permission.」

She smiles as she holds the thin stack of new drakes out for him. He nods, takes them, then heads into the bank while looking at Straf with a wary gaze the whole way…