Straf casually dodges out of the way of the thick branch, by simply walking aside.

Thud! Crackle!

The branch bends heavily with a woody creak, and pulls up. Straf kicks the animated tree's legs out from underneath it.

Crrrrasssh!

It topples with a rustle of leaves, and impacts the forest floor with a loud creak again.

《What are you doing!? Those are peaceful beings! They lead lost people out of the woods!》

Athea shouts in Straf's mind while he walks up to the fallen grove whisperer, and picks it up, rustling its leaves again.

「So they're kind of a leshy, huh? Not very peaceful if they attack Lily on sight.」

As Straf adjusts his grip on the wriggling tree, the other ones slowly close in, stomping their footless trunk-legs onto the ground.

「Huh? Who are you talking to?」

Lily draws closer, partially in effort to avoid the grove whisperers, and largely to simply stay closer to Straf.

「A dyslexiac. Don't mind me.」

Straf shrugs, and swings the grove whisperer in his grasp onto his knee.

SSSSNAP!

The grove wanderer cracks in half, splinters fly into the air, and the remaining giant tree-people seem to recoil in shock and take a step back in horror.

「I see… Straf, what were you even saying about coffee? It's been around for 400- Well, 500 years, if you count its early adoption…」

Thud-thud!

Lily tilts her head, blinking at Straf in confusion as he pats his immaculate hands clean, dropping both halves of the grove whisperer.

「No, Lily, you do not know coffee. Beans crushed with a mortar in a pestle with hot water aren't coffee.」

Straf shakes his head, and wags his finger.

「Then what is?」

She furrows her brows, further perplexed. Straf pulls out the blessed sword out of his [Portable Storage], and casually makes his way towards the lumbering group of grove whisperers. They stand still, waiting for the bravest of them to lead the sluggish charge.

「Coffee is high-pressure espresso. Coffee is latte. Coffee is cappuccino. Coffee is not bunch of haphazardly smashed beans in a mug with hot water! And it's not some long, deranged incantation uttered out in a coffee shop, at an underpaid and a frustrated service worker!」

Straf shouts, both to allow Lily to hear him clearly, and to vent his anger, as he cleaves apart the legs of one of the tree-people.

Crrrrrraaasssssssssshhhhhh!

The animated tree collapses, and the rest begin slowly fleeing. Their heavy, thumping steps are hardly faster than a leisurely walking human.

「I'm going to show you real coffee, Lily! I'll craft it! You'll see that coffee was never truly invented here! When you say wheel I don't think of a wooden piece of shit with spokes! I think of high-performance treaded rubber!」

Straf shouts, and chops the downed tree in half.

Thwack!

《Level up. Attribute points gained.》

「…What? A machine for coffee?」

Lily walks up to Straf again, even more confused than a moment ago.

「Yes! In fact, let's do that next week, Lily! I need to test the limits and possibilities of the crafting anyway! Let's do as much of the bestiary as we can, then next week, I'll make the machine to make you real coffee. How much time do we have left?」

Straf pokes his sword into the dirt, and rests his palm on the pommel while waiting for the answer with a massive grin.

「Let's see… Three more days, I believe?」

She places her clawed finger on her face, and looks aside for a second with a tilted head. Lily then looks up into Straf's eyes, and answers.

「It's already Friday, huh? Alright. Let's physically make it a double XP weekend, and we start collecting the things needed on Monday.」

Straf chuckles, and pulls the sword back out to chase the fleeing tree-people with casual, relaxed, wide-stepped stroll.

「…Friday? Monday?」

Lily tilts her head and narrows her eye, hearing the unfamiliar words. Straf deforests the area of animated trees, and throws his sword back into the [Portable Storage]. He pulls out the bestiary, and walks back to Lily, who is patiently waiting for him.

「Here, where to next?- Wait, shit!」

As soon as Straf hands the bestiary over, a realization hits him. Lily's eyes widen.

「What is it?」

She hesitates to open the book, blinking at Straf with a concerned expression.

「…I forgot I left all those fucking items behind! When we killed the woolers! And the bears! Fuck! Let me search these guys real quick…」

「Items?」

Lily furrows he brows, and Straf turns on his heel, looking around the forest floor for items.

「Worthless… Typical… Fucking shit…」

He starts picking small things up, mumbling to himself.

「Fucking worthless- Wait.」

He picks up a fragile-looking silver medallion on thin chain, with a crescent moon hanging off of it. He peeks over his shoulder at Lily.

「Lily, I have something for you. C'mere.」

「Huh? What is it?」

Straf stands up from a squat, and waves Lily to come closer. She walks up, and Straf clasps the silver medallion around her thin, pale neck.

「What?… What is this?」

「A little gift for you.」

She takes the crescent into her fingers, and looks at it with curiosity in her red eyes.

「Where did you get this? Did you have it in your… Inventory?」

She looks into Straf's eyes, perplexed, but not displeased.

「Nope, it's one of the items. Give me your parasol for a moment.」

He sticks his hand out.

「But the sun-」

「Come on, just hand it over for a little bit.」

Lily protests, ascertaining the sun's position from the shadows. Straf wiggles his fingers and insists. She hesitates a little, but then gives Straf the parasol, expecting a burning sting of the sun's rays.

「Huh? But the sun?… It's not burning?」

Lily looks at the sunlight on her hand, blinking, with her lips slightly parted out of surprise as the tell-tale steam of vampire burn is absent, and the pain is also missing.

「Nice. It's magical, it protects from UV rays. I thought you might like it.」

Straf grins in satisfaction, and places his fists on his hips.

「From what rays?」

She tilts her head, amazed and confused by Straf's gift.

「…The sun, Lily. It protects from the sun.」

He rolls his eyes, and shrugs before he gives Lily a watered-down explanation.

「Straf… That would make me a genuine daywalker. Surely that can't be true? There has to be some drawback, no?」

She asks as she safely tucks the medallion away, beneath the stiff and flared collar of her dress.

「Yeah. The drawback is, you gotta wear it. That's it. Now, where do we go? Come on Lily, snappy pace.」

Straf shrugs, then snaps his fingers rapidly and repeatedly while hurrying Lily.

「Ah, my apologies, Straf. I've gotten a little distracted…」

She opens the bestiary and flips through it quickly to refresh her memory…

…

The rest of the week passes quickly. Straf and Lily hunt down the local beasts and massacre their populations, causing a great deal of pain to adventurers everywhere, who are now forced to take herb collection and delivery tasks to make it through the day on a full stomach.

…

In the capital, in an orphanage in the slums…

「I'm back.」

A leather-armored man walks through the door, and shuts it behind himself.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

「Go play.」

Noticing Niklaus, a young woman with hair tied in a loose ponytail says to a band of children while leaning towards them.

「Niklaus! How is work? How do you like the palace?」

She straightens out of her lean. The woman gently nudges the group of kids away to another room, and they walk away without further resistance.

「The work is… Fine. Better than what I used to do. The palace is unbelievably rich. I wish the kids here could experience at least a tenth of it. How are things around here, Mary? Will you have enough to last to the end of the month?」

Niklaus pulls his mask down as he approaches the woman. She faces him with a warm smile, and holds her hands low in front of her.

「I think so… We might be cutting it a little close in those last days, but if we do run low, I'll just skip my meals-」

She shrugs, speaking with a cheery tone as she looks into his eyes.

「Mary, stop doing that. You need to eat too.」

Niklaus interrupts Mary with a serious voice, intently staring back into her eyes.

「Look who's talking…」

She smiles again, and glances aside.

「Just try to think of something until the end of the month. The queen will pay, and none of the kids will ever have to starve like us. If it comes to it, I'll just get my old contacts to find-」

「Don't!」

Mary shouts, and grabs onto his wrist, clutching onto it tightly. Niklaus goes silent, staring at her, his face slowly softens out of his serious and gloomy expression, into a simple sullen frown.

「Don't… I don't want you to come back covered in bruises, your blood mixed with someone else's, and hear you sobbing through the night again. Promise me you won't.」

Mary's smile evaporates and she speaks in a hushed voice to Niklaus, clenching her teeth and staring at him with wetting eyes.

「Fine, I won't. But what will you do if you run out of money? Have the kids starve? Starve yourself? Not again.」

「Just think of something… Something that doesn't require killing. Something that doesn't put you in danger.」

Mary pulls away from Niklaus as she finishes pleading with him.

「Jobs like that can't feed this many kids, Mary. You know that. Is my room still empty?」

Niklaus asks, and walks past Mary further into the orphanage.

「Yes, it always is. It will be always waiting for you, for as long as you want to come back here.」

She follows Niklaus in. Screaming children run past them, playing some odd game…

…

Week two.

In a cluttered store, in a city near Murusburg…

「Hey Mila! Listen to this! The return letter from the Academy came! They want the magnifying glass thing!」

A man just past his youth closes the door to the store with a massive grin on his face, as he looks at an unfolded letter in his hand.

「…And?」

Unimpressed, the woman asks, slouched lazily on the counter, propping her head up on her hand.

「Guess how much they want for it, Mila…」

He asks, and his grin only grows larger by the second.

「What, something good? Two gold? Three?」

Mila asks with a bored tone, and a bored face.

「Fifty, Mila. Fifty.」

Harold says with a massive ear-to-ear grin.

「What? What!? You're joking!」

Mila stands up straight, pushing herself off the counter.

「No, it's right here in the letter, but we need to seal the deal. They said they'll send someone here in two weeks' time, to verify it works. If it does, they'll buy it. We'll be rich, Mila. Filthy rich. We can probably offload the shop and the trinkets off to some sucker, and set up shop somewhere nicer!」

Harold puts the letter on the counter, and Mila quickly skims through it. A grin appears on her face too, and they both start madly chuckling.

「Maybe the capital?」

Mila suggests, and they continue their laughter, growing louder, and louder…

…

Clink!

Straf slams his pickaxe into a boulder, shattering it into tiny pieces.

「Aaaaaand… There! There's this elusive fucking piece of shit, finally!」

Straf exclaims with pride, and starts throwing large chunks of dark ore into his [Portable Storage].

「…Is that the last thing you need for this… Machine, Straf?」

Lily asks, picking up one of the ore-filled stones to examine it closer.

「Yup, but we still need to process this, and the rest. It's going to take some time.」

Straf takes the stone out of Lily's hand, and throws it into his inventory. After picking everything up off the ground, he stands up, dusts his hands off completely pointlessly, and looks around with his fists on his hips.

「Nice view, isn't it?」

Straf asks, looking down the massive, rocky, snow-covered mountain.

「Yes, indeed. It's a great relief to be able to actually watch the sunset, without having to mind the light.」

Lily stares at the orange glow on the horizon, gently smiling.

「If you want the parasol back for some reason, let me know.」

「Hmpf. As if I'd want to carry that annoying thing around all the time.」

Content, she smirks at Straf as they watch the sunset together.

「…Too bad it's kind of hard to breathe here, isn't it?」

Straf takes a deep breath, and sighs.

「Well, this is the tallest mountain in this kingdom after all. All the more reason to-」

「No.」

「Tsk. It'd be a great timing, too…」

Lily clicks her tongue, and sighs…

…

In the capital, in the throne room…

A bearded man enters the room, instantly frightening the palace guards with the size of his axe.

「Lukhyur. How did it go?」

Cycelia stirs from of her lazy, half-asleep slouch on her throne when she sees Lukhyur walk in.

「It is done, your majesty.」

He stops in front of the steps, and nods his head a little

「…And the tariff evaders?」

Cycelia nervously asks, with furrowed brows and her lips squeezed tight together.

「Didn't kill them, like you asked. Swung me axe around a bit, they got scared and ran.」

Lukhyur shrugs as he explains.

「I see… Thank you, Lukhyur-」

Cycelia sighs with great relief, and nods her head with a faint smile.

「Is that really wise, your majesty?」

Lukhyur asks, cutting Cycelia off.

「…Pardon?」

She blinks, somewhat taken aback.

「Is that really wise, to not come down hard on criminals, lawbreakers, bandits, murderers? The more you let live… They'll have a chance to rob someone again, kill someone again. Worse yet, they'll tell everyone how bravely they escaped death, and likely drag someone else into their gang. Is that wise?」

Lukhyur asks, and Cycelia quietly groans, lowering her gaze. She thinks for a second in silence, with her head lowered.

「I also want them to have a chance to return to normal life, Lukhyur. If possible, I want to avoid bloodshed whenever I can-」

「You can't. It's not possible. Face it, your highness.」

Lukhyur interrupts Cycelia again, shaking his head.

「Hey! Mind your manner-」

One of the palace guards reprimands Lukhyur for interrupting the queen. He looks at him with a completely neutral, slightly bored expression.

「…Ssss…」

The guard gets anxious, and finishes his sentence with a nervous hiss, breaking eye contact with Lukhyur's bored gaze.

「It's fine. Lukhyur is an honest, hard-working commoner, I don't intend to elevate myself above him.」

Cycelia disapproves of the guard's reprimand, speaking as she looks at her mercenary.

「Thank you, your majesty.」

Lukhyur nods his head.

「As I was saying… You can't escape bloodshed. The most peaceful places I saw, were the ones that killed the most of their criminals and undesirables. I put them to the axe meself. I've been there, can attest that. If you are soft, your rule will be seen as soft. Criminals will think your kingdom is an easy pickings… And then more death will be inevitable.」

He continues, and Cycelia listens in silence. She lowers her head again, and once again goes into deep thought.

「…Thank you for the thought, Lukhyur. That is actually something along the lines of what my father told me, some time ago. I didn't want to agree with it on principle, but I am not so sure I have the luxury, or the choice not to anymore. It seems I can only choose who suffers, and not if.」

Cycelia lifts her head, and nods at the mercenary. She speaks with a troubled expression on her face, and a quiet, dejected voice.

「Aye. But they have made their choice, your majesty.」

Lukhyur adds, nodding his head.

「You're free to leave, Lukhyur. Get some rest, you've well earned it past these few days.」

「I'll be in my room.」

He nods, and abruptly departs. Cycelia feels almost insulted at how sudden his exit is, but to her, the way he carries himself is simply awkward, and not disrespectful. Cycelia once again slumps in her throne, and sighs.

《…What are you doing right now, Straf? Where are you? First I hear worrying rumors, I start thinking bad things about you… And then, you start protecting the countryside without me even asking you to. Ahhh… Shouldn't he be back soon? I'm almost finished with my plan…》

Cycelia sighs heavily again, looking outside the window, as if searching for someone…