A few minutes later, on the capital's streets…

With his hands in his pockets, Straf is walking with Nona latched onto his arm, her head resting upon it. She stumbles every few steps, but holding onto Straf helps her maintain balance.

…Krrrrkk… Cla-clack!…

「Hm?」

Straf squints at the specific sound coming from behind them. Nona briefly lifts her fluffy brown head off his arm and looks for something indescript with him, smiling.

Clack! KRRRRRRRKKKKKKKK!

High above on the edge of the rooftops above the streets, Lily zaps past them while doing a nosegrind on her skateboard. The crowd jumps away from the buildings in fear of the ceramic roof tiles plummeting down, shattering on the cobblestones in her wake. Straf and Nona track her with their eyes as she effortlessly jumps from building to building, only to continue her grind and disappear behind one of the buildings like a lightning bolt. Nona blinks a few times at her last position, then turns her confused, unfocused eyes to Straf.

「What was that?」

She asks, still clutching tight onto his arm.

「It was just Lily. Seems like she's having fun…」

Smash!

A roof tile drops beside them as he explains.

「…At the taxpayers' expense.」

「Who's Lily?」

Nona blinks her large amber eyes at Straf's face, and he turns his gaze forward again.

「The baroness. You haven't heard of her yet? How?」

Straf asks, and Nona furrows her brows gently, thinking.

「Ahhh… That girl…」

She says, and rests her head back down on Straf's arm while they continue walking down the street. They approach a crossing leading to the market, and Straf looks down the road.

「…Want to go check the market out? People browse for random stuff on dates, right?」

He asks, nodding his head down the way.

「Right…」

She nods in agreement, still pressing her cheek against his arm.

「Alright. Let's go, then.」

Straf shrugs, and takes a turn down the market road with Nona. A woman with a cloth hat on her head continues following them, slinking from cover to cover and hiding in the crowd…

…

Ten minutes later, Straf and Nona arrive at the capital's marketplace. Countless market stalls and shouting merchants form a thick man-made forest of commerce within the city. Counters full of cheeses, counters full of meats, sausages hanging off hooks and racks, clothes laid out here and there, with men and women alike beckoning the citizens closer to take a look. With Nona still attached to his arm, Straf lazily glances over the goods laid out at their sides in search of something unique or interesting. Nona lifts her head when she notices a particular stall.

「Ah.」

She utters out, and gently starts pulling Straf towards it. Rather than tugging at his arm, she simply seems to have forgot that she's grabbing onto it while trying to approach closer.

「What? Something caught your eye?」

He asks, and lets her tow him towards it.

「Welcome, welcome!… Have a look! Chains, rings, necklaces! All affordable and perfect for a beautiful lady such as you!」

The man behind the stall's counter exclaims, spreading his raised arms, targeting Nona in an instant. His counter is covered with all that he mentioned, as well as earrings, combs, and various other accessories. Though his wares seem to be mostly for women, there's a few things for both, as well as men. Nona leans in closer, her orange eyes dart over the merchandise.

「If you like something, I can get it for you. Don't worry about the price too much.」

Straf shrugs with Nona holding onto his forearm. The merchant grins.

「Well said! A good woman is priceless!…」

He nods, and with a shrewd, almost practiced motion of his hand, he pulls Nona's gaze away towards some of his most expensive assortment.

「…May I interest you in these, fine lady? Take your time to pick.」

The man adds, rubbing his hands while she looks at the golden necklaces and rings.

「Hmmmnnnhhh…」

Nona lets out a soft groan when her eyes briefly glance at Straf's medallion hanging off his neck.

《He already has one… This isn't fair…》

She pouts a little, and continues browsing through the wares. Unable to decide, her gaze aimlessly drifts all over the stall.

《I could buy her a ring or something… But she'd definitely misinterpret that.》

Straf sighs as his bored eyes look at the assortment of rings from precious and mundane metals alike.

「A hair clip isn't really substantial enough…」

He mumbles as he looks at a small silver clip meant to hold hair in place.

「How about these rings?」

Nona asks, pointing at a matching set of golden rings.

「Ah, good eye! These are-」

「No.」

Straf replies, shutting down the merchant's shilling.

「Huuuuh? Why not!? Straf, I want to wear matching rings with you!」

Nona loudly throws a tantrum, yanking at his arm back and forth in an uncoordinated manner as she exclaims. Straf sighs and rolls his eyes.

「I am not sure if you are aware, but people don't just casually wear matching rings…」

He replies with a slanted mouth, looking at her as she continues feebly tugging at his arm with all her might.

「But I wann'o!」

She shouts, pouting like an indignant child.

「…At least on the first date.」

Straf adds with a shrug, turning his eyes back to the merchandise.

「Straafff!」

Nona exclaims, still tugging and pulling at his arm, though she's slowly running out of steam.

「No. Out of all the accidental marriages I could walk myself into, this is the easiest one to dodge.」

He firmly repeats, briefly glancing at her pouting face and unfocused amber eyes that stare into his.

「Tsk…」「Tsk…」

Both she and the merchant click their tongues at the same time. While she turns her face the other way, the merchant quickly conceals his displeased grimace behind a friendly smile.

「…How about this necklace? I like cats.」

Straf asks as he reaches and picks up a thin-chained necklace of a black cat silhouette. Its back is strongly arched, its tail lifted straight up as if shocked, and its paws are close together.

「Ah. It's pretty cute!」

Nona briefly blinks at it, then exclaims with a large grin as she looks at it closer.

「How much is it?」

「Tsk…」

Straf asks, and the merchant clicks his tongue again.

「…Eight silver drakes, sir.」

He reluctantly replies, and turns his tight-lipped grimace back to the two.

「Wow. That's pretty cheap. Do you want it?」

Straf remarks with his brows raised, and turns his gaze to Nona.

「…I want the matching rings-」「No.」

She replies with a pout, but Straf immediately shuts her down with a quick, stern response.

「…Fine, I'll take it.」

She adds with a lightly disappointed shrug, still pouting.

「Well… I'm kind of used to everything here costing you an arm, leg, and your soul so I don't carry silvers around…」

Straf declares as he reaches into his [Portable Storage] and digs around for a few seconds. He pulls out a single golden drake.

「…How much is this?… Good enough.」

He squints at the bill, then holds it out for the man.

「Ah. That's two silver change for you-」

The man says as he takes it into his fingers, and begins to bend his knees to peek under the counter.

「I don't want change. What are you, silly? What the fuck am I going to do with two silvers in this town?」

Straf cuts in, looking at the seller like he's stupid with his eyes narrowed in disbelief. They briefly stare at each other, before the man shrugs.

「…Very well. Thank you sir. Anything else?」

He asks as he drops the golden drake somewhere beneath his counter, and leans onto it.

「Nah, I'm good…」

Straf replies, and maneuvers himself behind Nona as he unclasps the necklace's delicate chain.

「…Show me your neck for a moment.」

「Hm?」

Though briefly confused by his request, blinking at him, she lets go of his arm and pulls her sweater collar down, then brushes her fluffy brown hair out of the way. He drops the necklace down onto her chest, then clasps the chain back together around her neck. She takes the cat silhouette into her fingers and looks at it closer before smiling a little.

「There. Now you can't say I didn't give you a pointless sentimental trinket. Feel free to turn it into a phylactery, or whatever…」

Placing his fists on his hips, Straf shrugs as Nona turns to face him with the necklace now hanging off her neck. He turns around, and continues down the marketplace.

Pat.

「…What's a phylactery?」

Nona hurries to catch up and latches onto his arm again, rubbing her cheek into it like a particularly affectionate cat.

「It's a thing that stores souls. I doubt you'll need one, don't think too hard about it.」

Straf nonchalantly replies as he's moving his hands back into his pockets, but Nona intercepts it and quickly grabs onto his hand.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

「Okay. I'm not that good at thinking anyway…」

She briefly turns her mischievous smile to him, then rests her head on his arm again, tightly clutching onto it as they slowly head in the general direction of the lake while looking at the merchandise all around. Behind them, unbeknownst to the two, Stripe emerges from beyond one of the stalls' cloth rain cover draped over its wooden frame. Her golden eyes turn to an inconspicuous meat stall not too far away, before turning them back to Straf and Nona as they're preparing to leave. She quickly rushes up to the long-haired woman behind the counter.

「…Sparrow. Sparrow!」

Stripe tries to covertly call out to the woman at the meat stall in a hushed tone to grab her attention. She initially tries to ignore her, but it then becomes impossible.

「…Why are you here?」

Sparrow replies, looking left and right in search of Ministry agents or anyone that may be listening in.

「Sparrow, listen… The Hammerer discovered me just after we talked, and-」

「…Then why are you here?」

Glaring at her, Sparrow asks again in a stern tone when Stripe leans into her stall, constantly glancing down the market with her golden eyes.

「I wanted to tell you that I think I'm onto something! I'm following her right now! She's with some big fish, I'm trying to find out who he is and why they're here…」

Stripe says with a raised, yet hushed voice, speaking in an urgent tone. Her golden eyes briefly turn to Sparrow's cold, glaring face.

「You still haven't answered my question.」

Sparrow says with her arms crossed, her demeanor serious and bordering on angry.

「I wanted to inform you about what happened! I'll let you know how it went in dead drop A later! I need to go!…」

Stripe replies, leaning in further before she rushes towards Straf and Nona when they disappear from her sight at the edge of the market, holding hands.

Sparrow lets out a large sigh and rubs her face for a few seconds. When she lifts her hand off her face, she bears a warm faint smile as usual. A woman passes by her stall…

…

A few hours later, in the commercial district in vicinity of the main street and the lake…

Straf and Nona have spent the last two or three hours aimlessly wandering around, window shopping and commenting on random things they see in the stores. She continues to clutch onto Straf's arm without letting go, the cat on her chest bouncing slightly with each step she takes on her white sweater. Stripe continues trailing them.

「Tsk…」

《…What is this? What are they doing? I can't even get close enough to properly listen in. Are they just having a day off, or something!? All they're talking about is some tripe!》

She clicks her tongue watching them peer through yet another storefront window, talk about something for a few moments, then move on.

《I'll risk it. I'll get closer as soon as I get a chance.》

Stripe steels herself, narrowing her eyes at the two as she follows them in the crowd.

「My head is kind of whirly…」

Nona weakly declares as she rests her head on Straf's arm again.

「…Do you want to go and sit down somewhere?」

「Nh.」

He asks, and she replies with a light nod and a soft utterance. Straf shrugs, and heads for the lake. Stripe follows, slowly gaining on them through the crowd.

With Nona attached to his arm, a few minutes later, they eventually make it to the small plaza by the lake. Straf leads her to one of the benches, where they sit down.

「Hmmmmffff…」

With her eyes closed, Nona lets out a relieved, contented, and satisfied sigh as they sit down. She slowly lets go of his arm, dropping her hands down to her lap, and she looks at he lake.

For a few moments, they remain silent and watch the still water of the lake. A gentle but frigid breeze blows by, disturbing the yellowing leaves and ripping them off the trees surrounding the lake, sending some floating onto the water. Stripe uses the noise of the streets, the wind, and their general distraction as an opportunity to lean her back against one of the magic lamps' posts within earshot of the bench, appearing as if she was waiting for someone while being close enough to the crowd to merge with it if need be.

Straf looks at Nona's long purple skirt draping her legs and seizes the opportunity to get a little more comfortable.

「Hnnnnghhhhhh…」

He stretches his arms, then nonchalantly tips sideways and drops his head onto her thighs.

「Hm? What are you?-…」

Nona's attention snaps back to Straf's face in surprise, but she quickly calms down and her voice trails off into silence. She then returns her amber eyes to the leaf-littered waters, placing her hands on Straf's shoulder and head, smiling a little. With her soft gaze focused on the lake, she begins to gently stroke his hair.

「…You know, there was a lake like this by my village. I'd swim all the time there. There wasn't a whole lot else to do.」

She says, Straf glances briefly at her face from her lap.

「Yeah, that's how it usually is in the sticks. With no internet, all you can do is watch the grass grow and paint dry.」

He shrugs, and lets out a large sigh.

「…Internet?」

Nona asks, leaning a little forward with a gently tilted head. Her cat medallion hangs off her chain above him.

「…It's a tool for looking at pictures of cats.」

Straf nonchalantly replies, looking at the medallion while her amber eyes blink at him.

「Ahhh… I remember. That sounds nice.」

She straightens out, then continues stroking his head, nodding her own as if she understands.

「Yeah, it was….」

Straf nods lightly as well as he replies through a long and wistful sigh.

「…Couldn't you help your father do stuff, though? Didn't he work?」

「He worked… But he wouldn't let me help him. He said girls should do different kind of stuff. He had different plans for me, so he wouldn't let me help…」

She shrugs, briefly glancing at Straf before returning her gaze back to the lake, smiling.

「…I think he just knew I'm not too smart, so he was afraid I'd hurt myself or mess something up. Ahahaha…」

Nona giggles softly as she adds, then pauses for a moment as her grin returns to just a smile.

「…He was really bad at making money, you know.」

「Business wasn't doing to good?」

Straf asks, raising his brows, pulling his eyes away from the lake to look at her face.

「No, it's not that… He had customers. A lot, even. He was just bad at making money. We weren't poor or anything, at least not that I remember… But he'd offer his services half-free.」

「Ah. Like that…」

He says, nodding with understanding as he returns his eyes back to the water.

「Yes… He thought it'd be greedy and evil to charge people more than what he thought was fair, so we weren't rich. I don't think we were poor either, though.」

Nona replies, still smiling the whole time as she reminiscences, then shrugs.

「Somewhere in the middle?…」

「…Somewhere below the middle. He he he…」

Straf asks, and Nona replies with a small chuckle, looking down into his eyes before her gaze snaps back to the water. A brief silence begins.

「Tsk…」

《…This is starting to piss me off. I don't want to hear about your daddy. Talk about your kingdom's secrets!》

Stripe taps her clawed finger on her sweater, similar to Nona's, but gray and quite attention-repelling.

「…Say, Straf…」

Nona says, and his eyes turn to her face again.

《Straf? Straf Katastrof Vindict? That's him!?》

Stripe looks over her shoulder at the bench, catching a glimpse of Straf's profile through the gaps in the backrest.

「…Yeah?」

He says, and they look each other in the eyes.

「…Do you like it here on my thighs?」

Nona casually asks, smiling at him as her unfocused eyes look into his.

「Yup. As shameful as it feels, this should probably replace therapists' stupid couches.」

Straf replies with a confident nod of his head with a tight-lipped grimace on his face.

「Shameful?… Therapists?」

She tilts her head, blinking at him with her brows furrowed a little.

「Yeah. I can feel my existential terror slowly evaporating and being replaced with a void while my mind is being filled with thighs.」

He shrugs his shoulders, and his hands join in.

「Is that a good thing?…」

Nona asks with an awkward grin on her face.

「…I'd say thighs are better than thinking about the fact that all of this is just an elaborate, meaningless theater that just has to play out.」

Straf says in a nonchalant tone with a tight-lipped grimace, maintaining the eye contact.

「Hm? What do you mean?…」

Nona tilts her head, greatly furrowing her brows as an expression of deep confusion sets on her face. Straf pushes himself upright.

「Nothing. I might have drank a little too much this time around.」

He replies, shrugging his shoulders as he throws his feet out forward and leans back on the bench, aimlessly looking up at the slowly darkening sky.

「Ahahah… Well, you did drink most of the bottle…」

Nona lets out a quiet chuckle, grinning at him before turning her gaze ahead towards nowhere in particular.

「I did?…」

Straf asks, appearing almost surprised with his brows furrowed at her. She turns her amber eyes back to his, and silently nods.

「…Son of a bitch. So that's where it went. I don't remember drinking that much.」

He remarks as he returns to his lazy slouch on the bench. A brief silence begins once again.

「…Come to think of it… I sure drink a lot more often here than I normally would. Huh.」

While Straf continues staring at the sky, Stripe continues staring at them from just a few paces away.

「…Is there something interesting about that couple?」

A woman asks Stripe, approaching from seemingly out of nowhere.

「H- Huh? Ah- No- I mean- I- Um…」

Stripe stumbles over words and stammers, concealing her face from the woman. She is dressed exactly as any other woman in the capital would be. Stripe quickly grabs onto her hat's band and pulls it towards her face to conceal her eyes. She only dares to look up as high as the woman's smiling lips before turning away.

「…Excuse me!」

Stripe glances quickly over her shoulder at the couple on the bench, then pushes past the woman accosting her into the crowd. The woman briefly tracks her hat before it disappears somewhere amidst the people. She then turns her attention back to the bench, looks at the two for a few seconds, and likewise joins the crowd.

「…It's gonna get dark soon. Want to head to the palace and see if I can't get you a room there?」

Straf asks, and Nona turns her gaze to him.

「Sure… Time flew by, huh?…」

She nods, and asks as they stand back up.

「…Time flies fast when you're having fun and not entirely sober. Let's go-」

「Wait!…」

Nona calls out as she grabs onto his forearm just before he can take a step towards the palace. He turns back to face her.

「What's up?」

He asks, and for a prolonged moment, she refuses to meet his gaze. Eventually, her amber eyes meet his, and she places her partially sweater-covered hands on his shoulders.

She stands on her tiptoes, leans towards Straf's face, pursing her lips.

「Ah. Hold up.」

Straf says as he holds her shoulders, and keeps her in place just before she can plant a kiss on his lips. She opens her amber eyes back up, blinking at him in confusion.

「…That's something the first girl gets to do. That's a rule. Unless it's an emergency, and you're dying or something… You look fine to me.」

He explains, and her amber eyes slowly drop down to the ground. The gloomy disappointment setting on her face is almost palpable. Grimacing, he rolls his eyes.

「…Alright, fine… I'll just meet you halfway there. How about on the cheek? That skirts the rule enough, I suppose.」

Straf asks, tapping his cheek with his fingers as he turns it towards her. Nona silently looks into his eyes, and slowly draws closer to his cheek.

Just as she's about to give him a peck on his handsome, chiseled cheek, her lips dart towards his. Straf quickly catches on and turns his head further.

「…Eh?」

Surprised, she lets out an almost disappointed-sounding utterance when she realizes that despite her best attempt, she still only kissed his cheek.

「There. Now let's go.」

Straf nods his head in the general direction of the palace, holding his hand out for her to grab with a light smile on his face.

「…Fine.」

Though still severely disappointed, much less gloomy than before, she grabs onto his hand. He places his free one in his pocket, and they weave back into the crowd. The woman looks on…