Cycelia looks at the shop windows reflecting the sun's orange light as she and Straf walk past the storefronts. Dolls, perfumes, clothed mannequins, furniture. She turns her head towards Straf and opens her mouth, about to say something, but is startled when Straf's gaze snaps over his shoulder, twisting his torso a little as he takes a long look behind himself.

「Hm…」

Straf squints, looking back at the alleyways and side streets they just passed. Cycelia's eyes scan the thin crowd giving them a wide berth. The people look with mild confusion and ridicule on their faces as Straf is frozen in his odd pose.

「What? What happened Straf?」

She skitters closer to him, growing nervous.

「I feel like I'm being watched…」

He rubs his chin in suspicion with narrowed eyes.

「B- By who? Do you think there might be assasins-?」

Cycelia's eyes slowly widen, she asks in a near whisper.

「Must have been a hobo!」

Straf shrugs and turns his head around, walking onward as if nothing happened with his hands in his pockets.

「What!? Straf, don't ignore your instincts!」

Cycelia jogs up to him to catch up. She anxiously peeks over her should every few steps.

「But I am not, trust me.」

「What? But- You- …Okay.」

She sighs and gives up, after initial confused protests. They continue their return to the inn. When they arrive, the innkeeper trots up to them while rubbing his hands.

「Lady Lia! Sir Straf! We have been waiting for you! Welcome back!」

Running up, the innkeeper nods his head as he greets them, making himself rather diminutive and pathetic in their presence. Straf snaps his fingers.

「Get us two of your fanciest rooms, with fresh sheets, and everything. And get us a table for two. And uh… A pizza.」

Straf commands the man and snaps his fingers again, smugly smirking.

《Let's see how you get out of this one, you cheap bastard.》

「Naturally! Please come with me!」

The innkeeper nods, nervously swiveling his head around in search for an empty table. He finds one, and picks the chair surrounding it up.

「Here's your table, sir! I'll be back with your food in just a moment! Please wait!」

The innkeeper hauls off the excess chairs behind his long table, and drops them just about anywhere. He runs into the kitchen area and starts indistinctly shouting at someone. Cycelia and Straf sit down at the table, with Straf propping his head up on his hands in a slouch.

「Finally, the treatment we deserve from this place.」

Straf says as he looks through the kitchen pass. The innkeeper is haphazardly running around the kitchen from one spot to another, disappearing behind the wall or the door at random.

「Straf, I was meaning to ask you for a while now. Are you a noble in your kingdom?」

「Huh? No, I was a slave like all the rest.」

Straf turns his head at Cycelia, and his forehead wrinkles.

「What? But you are so well-educated, and know so many things. Slaves are usually trained for monotonous labor until they physically can't do it anymore.」

「Oh yeah, we call that retirement.」

「Huh?」

She tilts her head a little.

「What made you think I'm a noble, Lia?」

Slightly amused, Straf smirks.

「Well… You know how to read and write, calculate, you're really good with a sword, and you even seem to know some things that I don't. I just can't believe you'd call yourself a slave, when you seem to be more learned than me, an actual noble.」

Cycelia leans forward over the table, counting Straf's relatively mundane feats on her fingers.

「What can I say? The real noble class needed slaves capable of mental tasks, so they convinced everyone they're free. Like I said, it's the illusion of freedom, Lia.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders and grins.

「But- But how?」

Her head gently jitters in utter disbelief.

「Well, everyone got a job that covers a little more than their basic needs. So then, every idiot thinks he's a nobleman ruling over his serfs. What a band of chumps.」

「…What?」

「Yeah, stupid isn't it? Oh yeah! I left out the funniest part! Nobody is even paid with real money! It's just worthless slips of paper! When you're back in the throne, you should introduce banknotes. That'll ensure the population nobody ever disobeys you again!」

Straf chuckles as he describes his past world's social mechanics,

「…Banknotes? What? I don't understand, how does that work?」

「Oh, you're not alone, Lia. It just does. Imagine fighting and dying in a war over promissory notes weaker than a pinky promise! Isn't that a neat trick?」

Straf shrugs his hands, leaning back in his chair with a grin. Cycelia's perplexion reaches its peak. She squints, and her brows furrow.

《…Is he just joking? He must be. He's waiting for me to catch on.》

「Straf. What are you talking about?-」

Cycelia tries asking in a mildly peeved tone, however, the innkeeper interrupts her by putting two plates of pizza slices on the table.

「Here you go! Please, do let your acquaintances know of my establishment!」

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

「That was fast. Are you sure these aren't under cooked?」

Straf crosses his arms as he looks with suspicion at the meat-dotted, cheesy triangles.

「Of course they're not, sir Straf! I let my staff know ahead of time to prepare all the food on the menu as soon as you arrive!」

The innkeeper grins, spreading his hands as he explains before clasping them together again.

「Huh. I may be literally ahead of the times, but good job. Franchise this.」

Slightly impressed, Straf raises his brows and lightly nods his head with an acknowledging twist of his lips.

「…Um. Thank you, sir?」

「Now stop standing over me. Go get busy. With work, not the waitresses.」

Straf shoos the man away as he takes a slice off his plate. He bows at Straf and Cycelia.

「Understood. Please call me anytime. Your rooms are waiting for you.」

The innkeeper bows once again, and walks away from the table backwards. Cycelia takes a slice as well.

「I don't know whether or not I should be surprised he knew what a pizza is. Then again, it is peasant food.」

「Hm?」

Cycelia hums inquisitively as she bites into her geographically ambiguous meal. Straf' glances at the ceiling as he seems to remember something.

「Oh yeah, you didn't finish your story. About the dragons. What was it about?」

Straf raises a singular eyebrow as he takes another bite.

「Ahem. As I was saying. It's common knowledge that the Redwing dynasty are descendants from the dragon Redwing. That's where we draw our name from, you know.」

Cycelia exaggerates clearing her throat, continuing her explanation from before.

「Huuuuuh? So you can turn into a dragon, or grow wings and stuff?」

《Man, she's one certain trope index.》

Straf thinks and takes another bite. Cycelia shakes her head.

「No. The dragon blood is really thin in me by this point. But my grandfather could!」

She extends her index finger as she proudly declares her grandfather's abilities.

「He could turn into a dragon?」

「…No. But he could partially transform some of his parts into the dragon form. It was for just a short duration, but he liked to impress the nobles with it.」

She shrugs her shoulders, and nibbles on her pizza slice.

「Huh. So are dragons are like… Good? Are there bad dragons?」

Straf asks, crunching onto his crust with boredom on his face.

「You don't know?」

She asks, her eyebrows slowly rising.

「How am I supposed to?」

Straf replies, and Cycelia looks away. She fidgets slightly, tapping her fingers together.

「Well. Um…」

「What? Don't tell me that Redwing guy just huffed and puffed flames everywhere until he got himself a girlfriend. That's setting a bad moral example-」

「No! No, that's not it. It's just… Dragons are not… Good. Generally.」

She raises her voice and shakes her head, picking her words carefully.

「Huh. So they're bad around here?」

「No- Well… There are some really evil ones, and then there's ones who may want to interact with humans for one reason or another. Redwing was one of them.」

Cycelia is visibly uncomfortable discussing the topic, tilting her head for emphasis as she talks about her ancestor.

「So what'd he do? Your pizza is getting cold.」

Straf asks, grabs another slice and gobbling it down. Cycelia takes a quick glance at her plate, and takes one as well.

「A long time ago, a vengeful witch approached Redwing and swore fealty to him in return for his power. There are a lot of conflicting myths about this, but eventually Redwing started a family with her. He wanted to rule over humans, and I guess he figured that his son would make a good… Face for him, so to speak.」

She nibbles her pizza and quickly swallows between the sentences. Straf raises his palm.

「Hold on, hold on, hold on. Aren't dragons huge? How did that work?」

「What did what work?」

「You know. The starting family part. The not-so-bad-dragon part.」

Straf asks with a squint. Cycelia blinks obliviously for a few seconds before her brows shoot up, and she blushes faintly.

「Ah! Uh… You know, dragons can transform… He transformed into his human form. Pureblood dragons can transform for as long as two days sometimes.」

She looks away from Straf down at her plate.

「Alright. Makes sense.」

「Anyhow. He wanted to rule humans, and that was his sole ambition, but… Then he realized he's actually fond of his son and aging wife. Dragons live for millennia, and it was just a blink of his eye before his son had a son of his own, and his wife was already an old woman.」

She swallows a larger bite to hurry on with the story, and continues.

「At this point, our kingdom was already in its infancy. Then, one day, Redwing's son was ambushed in battle. The dragon swooped in to his aid, devastating and scorching anyone threatening his child. But, he was mortally wounded himself in the process. There's theories how the attack was actually a plot to kill Redwing himself.」

「Nice. That's a classic. So the further you go from the dragon, the thinner your blood, and then you can only brag about being a special snowflake dragonkin, right?」

「Huh? Yes. The dragon blood also comes with longevity. His son lived for hundreds of years, then his grandson for another hundreds… My grandfather lived for a venerable 120 years. I don't suppose I'll get any older than 80 or 90. I wonder how old my father would have been…」

She frowns a little, freezing as she looks at her half-eaten slice.

「So, does the dragon blood also make you want to rule over people?」

Straf asks, and Cycelia starts coughing. She looks at Straf with huge eyes, as if she was just found out.

「…It's not like you think it is, Straf.」