Less than an hour later, by the city park…

Straf angrily stomps in to take a seat at one of the benches, but his head perks up at a peculiar sight, and he diverts his course.

「Hey, painter girl…」

He calls out with his hands in his pockets as he walks up to Olivia and her half-finished painting.

「Ah! Mr. Straf!… Long time no see, huh?…」

Her head perks up, and she smiles when she sees Straf's bored face. She returns her attention to her painting, carefully, yet without hesitation applying more strokes.

「But we just saw each other on new year's…」

Straf ripostes with his brows slightly raised.

「Hehe… That's right. But I still think that's a pretty long time. A lot can happen…」

She lets out a soft little giggle, applying more light blue hues to the ice of the frozen lake ahead. The ducks have long left, and only a lonely sheet of ice with a tiny island in the center remains.

「…And a lot has happened, hasn't it? I've heard something about it being the 4th era now. Time sure flies, huh?」

Olivia adds with a little shrug of her shoulders as her frostnipped fingers hold onto her brush. Straf takes a look at the frozen lake. The painting is a pretty approximate representation.

「It also loops and rhymes, and even circles around certain celestial objects like a drain- Wait, weren't you at the address the other day? Aren't those mandatory to attend without a good excuse?」

Straf nods along, then furrows his brows at the young painter. A cheeky smile appears on her face.

「He he… Am I going to be in trouble?」

She asks with an innocent smile and a briefly tilted head before returning back to painting.

「You might be if you keep doing it, eventually… Wouldn't the lake be a lot more interesting if it wasn't frozen?… Or were all the ducks already stolen over the last two weeks?」

Straf raises one brow at her half-finished painting of the frozen lake.

「I thought it would be interesting to paint… I mean, it will melt eventually, right?… That's why I have to hurry before it gets warm again. I need to capture it in its frozen-over state…」

Olivia shrugs without turning her gaze to Straf as she applies more gentle strokes, only briefly glancing down at her palette in her hand.

「…What if winter never comes back again? Nobody would know what it looks like when it's frozen.」

She says, applying another stroke.

「I know the battle fortress thing is going to show up as a blip on a temperature graph eventually, but you know that climate change isn't real, right?」

Straf asks his mouth aslant and brows raised. Olivia tilts her confused head at him, blinking her eyes.

「…Forget it, carry on.」

He rolls his eyes and shrugs his coat-covered shoulders.

「Anyway, I think the duty of a painter is to capture those short-lived moments. Turning seasons, special events, unique sights, people…」

She shrugs as well, and continues working on her painting with a light smile on her face.

「…I wish there was something that'd let me freeze a moment in time. There's so many things I want to paint, but I have to choose one at a time.」

Olivia lets out a wistful sigh, and applies a few more confident strokes. Straf grimaces slightly, thinking. He extends his hand aside, but then retracts it a little.

《Now hold on one second… I could give her the camera, but…》

As he mulls opening his [Portable Storage] behind her, Straf's eyes look at her incomplete painting, then peek over her easel at the frozen water.

《…But that would also probably ruin everything forever, and I don't have the heart to break some things.》

With his mouth aslant, Straf lowers his arm while looking at the young girl's gently smiling face.

She glances at him with her smile growing a little more upturned before her eyes return to the painting.

「…By the way, what are you doing here? Were you just passing by?」

Olivia asks with another quick glance directed at Straf.

「Yeah, uhh… I was going to meet with someone, but then got distracted. Work business, anyhow.」

Straf peeks over his shoulder and finds a grim-faced man sitting on one of the benches facing the lake on the plaza by the street.

「I see… You're always so busy. You should slow down and appreciate what's around you a little more.」

She nods, and gently applies a careful stroke with the very tip of her brush.

Straf scoffs with a ridiculing smirk without saying anything.

「Don't laugh! It's a common story! People only learn to appreciate things like nature and the little critters when they get older, and can't do much else. But by then, their eyes are too weak.」

The young painter sternly insists with her brows raised, and returns her attention back to the painting.

「Yeah?…」

If only to acknowledge her, Straf replies with his mouth twisted into a light smirk.

「Yes! And only when they learn to appreciate what's around them, then they wish they had more time to do so!… Isn't it a better idea to do that while you can, so you'll have no regrets?」

Olivia nods, then tilts her head as she blinks into Straf's eyes as she asks.

「…Yeah, maybe. You're not wrong, but I've got to get back to work. Lia still needs her own portrait, by the way. See you, painter girl.」

Straf shrugs, then turns around to head for the grim-faced man's bench. She returns a nod with a smiling face, and continues working on her painting.

「…Is this really fine? Should we not use the alternate-?」

「It's fine, she's just a girl who paints… Hup…」

The grim man asks as Straf sweeps the bulk of the snow away from the bench with his boot, then sits down beside him.

「…There is a certain someone who is causing me trouble. No mission details this time. These are your mission details, so be sure to note them down.」

Straf says while casually leaning onto the backrest with his elbows, side-glancing at the indescript man beside him.

「I understand.」

The man nods, every now and then glancing around himself to check for eavesdroppers.

「He's an ideologue, and very likely a foreign spy tasked subverting our great empire. I'm fairly sure his intent is to cause an uprising, riots, or at least sow discontent.」

Straf explains while nonchalantly looking aside.

「His name?…」

The grim-faced man asks with a glance.

「That's your job. Who the fuck knows who this guy is? What's certain is, he's responsible for feeding a load of bullshit to the kids hanging around outside a store by the Main Street…」

Straf glances back at him, before turning his eyes aside again. He idly wiggles his boot off his knee as he continues explaining.

「…They were promoting the Redwing national identity and motivating workers, exactly as they were taught… Until this guy came along, and fed them a bunch of fuckin' nonsense.」

He adds, extending his index finger as he turns to the man, who then quickly looks around to see if anybody is paying attention to their conversation. Nobody is.

「What did he say, exactly?」

The man asks, narrowing his eyes.

「Who knows? Probably a bunch of hammer and sickle shit how everybody's equal. Not on my watch. I want you to find out who he is. He's definitely living around the city, that's all I know.」

「…I see. I think I know what shop you mean. Anything else?」

Straf shrugs, adding his hands to the shrug. The grim-faced man nods his head in response as he asks.

「Nope. Inform me as soon as you find him, and you better be quick about it. Once demoralization starts, it's hard to stop.」

With a light shake of his grimacing face, Straf gets up and puts his hands in his coat's pockets. He walks away, leaving the grim-faced man behind.

The indescript man watches Olivia paint for a minute or so, before getting up and leaving the other way…

…

A little over fifteen minutes later, in the Royal Reserve Bank…

Straf enters, noticing a familiar scene of an empty chair behind a desk, and Nona lazily slouched over it from the side.

「Straf!」

She exclaims, instantly perking up with a broad smile on her face.

「Yeah… Listen, I've got news for you.」

「News?…」

With a tight-lipped grimace on his face, Straf nods as he enters. Nona tilts her head, blinking her amber eyes at him.

Snap!

「…You're getting promoted! Way up, in fact!」

Straf declares as he snaps his fingers and points at her.

「…I am?」

She asks, furrowing her brows in confusion as she props herself up on her hammer, straightening out in her chair.

「Yup! You're going to be a minister with your own ministry, in fact!… That means you should be paid a little more!」

Straf nods energetically with a massive forced smile on his face as his hand returns to his coat's pocket.

「Uwaaaa! I'm going to be a minister like you!?」

After a moment of processing the information, a gleeful grin appears on Nona's youthful face.

「Yup! With your own ministry to manage!… The Ministry of Internal Security and Terrorism!… The law has already been drafted, and we just need to make it official.」

Straf points at her again, nodding. Her grin widens with each second.

「What will I do there?」

「You're going to sign papers.」

She asks, and Straf bluntly replies.

「…Eh?」

Nona's grin quickly disappears, shifting into disappointed confusion instead as she tilts her head.

「You're going to sign various permits for all sorts of stuff… Like psychological operations, or arrests with no set trial dates or charges…」

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Straf explains while rubbing his chin, thinking with his gaze turned aside. Her disappointment grows the longer he talks.

「…Ah, but that's not all you'll do. You'll have the personal responsibility to ensure that the other ministers aren't up to no good…」

He adds with his index finger extended, and Nona's mood improves a little.

「…Since it's internal security, your duties extend over the military, too. Your job will be to ensure the officers are doing their jobs and properly motivating the troops.」

Straf shrugs his lightly snow-dusted shoulders, and returns his hands to his coat's pockets.

「…So it's mostly what the boss was doing? But now I have to do it?」

She asks, furrowing her brows and blinking her orange eyes up at Straf.

「Kinda. Not really… It's more like, you get to manage your own ministry! You'll have deadbeats like him under your command!… The Ministry of Internal will have its own budget, too!」

He exclaims, spreading his arms with a smirk.

「…I'll have people helping me?」

「Yeah. Did you really think you'll have to all that alone?」

Nona asks, and Straf replies with his brows gently furrowed with a mildly perplexed face.

「…Yeees?」

She nods, pouting a little as her amber eyes escape sideways every few moments.

「Well, you won't. I even have a good man for you that'll help you manage your budget, and from there on you'll be able to hire your helpers, all on the government's dragons…」

Straf nonchalantly explains with a tight-lipped grimace, and shrugs.

「…So, how about it? Are you up for it? If not, I have some alternatives, but-」

「I'll do it!」

Nona cuts in, raising her arm as if a student in a class volunteering for something.

「Really? You're up for it?… I thought you'd say it's a little beyond you.」

Straf's brows rise, and he grimaces with a little nod of his head.

「It'd help you if I agree, right?… I'm not very smart, and it sounds really hard, but I'll do my best!」

She asks, blinking her large amber eyes up at him as she lowers her hand back to her hammer's grip.

「Cool. That spares me one man I'd rather have out there, doing stuff…」

《…And I've set the playing field for myself to win to begin with, but oh well. This works too.》

Straf says as he opens his [Portable Storage], and reaches in.

「…You're going to get a new badge soon, along with the rest of the new ministry's agents. The uniforms stay the same. Here.」

Straf pulls an object resembling a door handle out of the vortex. She hugs the hammer's shaft with her toned thighs, and holds her waiting hands out for it.

Clunk.

「What's this?」

She asks with her brows raised while her eyes stare at the mix of wood and metal, quickly grasping the apparent handle.

「That's a-」

Straf says, and his face immediately winces in pain.

《That's a gun! That's a real, actual gun! You lied! You lied to me again! You're now handing firearms out to the people here! What is wrong with you!?!》

Athea screams in Straf's mind, causing him to grimace on a reflex despite the sound never reaching his ears.

「Tsk… It's just a tool, okay? It's no different from a pneumatic cattle gun!… Or do you want her to use the hammer!?」

Straf looks at the ceiling with his mouth heavily scrunched to the side. Nona tilts her head, furrowing her brows.

《Geh! You can't just present me with two terrible alternatives! Take it back! Take it back now! She's the last person that should have a gun, with you being second to last!》

Athea audibly recoils at the thought, then continues shouting demands at Straf.

「Why? 'Cause a gun demon makes you feel a little icky copyright-wise?…」

Straf scoffs at the ceiling, shaking his head as he lowers his gaze down to Nona.

「Who are you talking to?」

Nona asks, deeply confused by Straf's conversation with the rather uninteresting ceiling.

《That's dangerous! That's incredibly dangerous! What is wrong with you!?》

Athea continues shouting, but Straf ignores her.

「Doesn't matter. Anyway, it's a P08. Here's a holster…」

Straf shrugs, and pulls out a triangular leather container secured by a belt strap. Nona takes it and examines it in her free hand, while the other holds the pistol.

「…What's a P08?」

She asks as she turns the pistol towards her and looks into the dark barrel. Straf cringes and quickly reaches to pull it out of the way of her face.

「It's a gun. Don't do that, it's dangerous… For you, it's just an accessory. Kind of like a hat, or a badge… I suppose you'll get some use out of it later, but for now, don't touch the trigger. 」

Straf says with his hand still gripping the short barrel while Nona blinks at him with confused eyes.

「Trigger?」

She asks, tilting her head again while looking down at the pistol.

「It's the thing you have your finger on. Don't do that either. Only put it there when you want to use it, alright?」

Straf explains, and traces the barrel's line of fire with his eyes. The bank teller behind the long counter is oblivious to the peril that she's in while she stares at the two of them.

「Okay…」

Nona nods, then thinks for a few moments with her gaze turned up and aside.

「…Ah! It's a gun like one of those things that go「Tink!」and shoot a light?」

Her fluffy, hatted head perks up as she remembers the battle by Parnatau Kingdom's border.

Snap.

「Yup. That's why keep it holstered on your belt. This one's kind of easier to use, very iconic, and a little controversial, but I figured this can't make things worse.」

Straf snaps his fingers and points at her. Nona clumsily fiddles with the holster while figuring out how to use it, and how to attach it to the belt on her waist.

「When do I start?」

She asks while unbuckling the belts on the holster while it's resting on the desk beside her.

「Soon. I'll let you know when. Lia still has to approve the law… But that's nothing a few treats can't fix…」

He replies, shrugging his hands along with his shoulders.

「…By the way, since you won't be a part of the Ministry of Security anymore, that means you're also no longer the head interrogator. Someone else will take over.」

「What do I do with the hammer, then?」

Nona asks as she looks at the hammerhead at her feet, and the shaft sticking out from between her tanned thighs.

「Keep it. Keep it away from me, mostly. You'll get your own office, too… I'll explain everything else later. For now, don't think about it too much, and don't point the gun at stuff.」

Straf shrugs again as he puts his hands back into his coat's pockets. He turns to leave, and pauses by the doorway to caution her.

「Okay!」

Nona replies with a happy smile and her hand raised for no reason once again. Straf nods with a tight-lipped grimace on his face, and makes his way out…

…

A few days later, late at night, on the streets of the capital…

Will is walking the mostly empty streets alone. He adjusts his glasses, stomping on the well-packed snow compressed by other people before him as it creaks underneath his feet. He takes a turn towards an empty road and furrows his brows as he raises his bespectacled gaze up ahead, tilting his head slightly.

「…Huh. Guess the gems weren't swapped out in a while?」

He remarks as he carries onward, approaching a large, dark stretch of the street unlit by the streetlights. The lamps are off, wrapping the streets in dark shadows.

「This is kind of…」

As he delves deeper into the normally well-lit and populated street, an odd feeling fills him. He looks over his shoulder and all around himself for vampires, but fails to find even one of them.

《…Okay, this is actually kind of spooky. I shouldn't have went through here, but I'm already so deep in…》

He grimaces as he looks back, and realizes just how far he wandered in. Will adjusts his glasses and looks forward, where there is roughly another half of that distance to cross.

《…I need to bring this up to her majesty tomorrow. This is dangerous, it's not even the bad part of the city. I could understand one or two burning out, but so many-》

Will furrows his brows at the unlit magic lamps, then stops in his tracks as his brows rise, and his eyes widen.

《…Wait. That's right… Is it even possible that so many lamps have burned out by a coincidence?》

He adjusts his glasses in the dark, and walks a few steps aside to take a closer look at one of the lamp's housing against the moderately brighter sky.

「…What?」

Will's head perks up in surprise when he notices that the gem didn't burn out, it's simply missing.

He looks over his shoulder to take a good look at how deep he is inside the darkness. He adjusts his glasses once again, then breaks into a sprint.

「Hrk-!?」

His sprint is short-lived, as a thin rope digging into his throat and pulling him backwards immediately cuts his attempt to run out of the darkness short.

Clank!… Clankclank!…

Will drops his staff as he feebly grasps at the rope, unable to loosen it even a little. He chokes, trying to gasp for air, but none can come through his constricted throat.

Before he can even glance over his shoulder, a large amount of cloth is forced into his open mouth by a previously unseen hand.

Fwap!

The sky disappears as someone throws a sack over Will's head, and the rope around his neck loosens. He is forced to the ground and immediately wrapped by another rope.

「Mmmpfhm!? Mffm! Mfffffm!」

Finally able to breathe, at least through his nose, Will tries to spend his first lungful on shouting. The cloth in the way blocks all sounds, only amounting to muffled mumbling.

Multiple arms lift Will arm while he's tied waist-up in a canvas sack, and begin carrying him away in a hurry…