An hour later…

With his hands in his coat's pockets, Straf approaches the abandoned camp with the girls in tow. He looks at the mangled bodies, collapsed and torn tents, and scattered equipment with a bored face.

「Nice. They left supplies too…」

He remarks while looking at the gathering of mostly undamaged crates stacked on top of each other, grinning.

At the same time, Stripe's golden eyes capture the full details of things, despite the darkness. She looks at the corpse of a man by his feet. His mouth is agape, arms curled up at his chest, his legs are nearly torn off, and the remaining stumps have belts tied around them. He's looking at the late evening sky with a fatigued face and vacant, still gaze. Grimacing, Stripe turns her eyes away.

「…What? You actually care about this kind of stuff? You're an assassin.」

Straf notices her avoid the enemy casualties with her gaze, and turns to her with a light smirk.

「Tsk… And you mean you don't!? I'm not some sort of a serial killer! I mostly spied on people and killed foreign spies!…」

She clicks her tongue, scowling at Straf with her arms crossed.

「…Stop trying to make me into a ruthless killer. I follow orders, that doesn't mean I'm heartless. Unlike you.」

Stripe adds, grumbling as she turns her gaze away again.

「Hmpf. You are a weakling. Straf, being powerful, understands the weight of power. It would crush you if you had a morsel of it.」

Lily scoffs, and looks at her with a condescending smirk.

「Aghhh!… I get it! He's big and strong, so he gets to do what he wants! The world is his toy and everyone is his pawn! I know! He's not the first powerful person I ever dealt with!」

Stripe lets out a frustrated groan, and points her clawed finger at Straf while speaking with her voice raised, but just beneath shouting. Lily lets out a disdainful yet amused huff.

「Is that what you think I meant? Raw personal power? Physical strength? Magic talent?…」

She asks, tilting her golden head with her arms crossed. Her twin tails sway from the motion. Stripe's head perks up in light confusion as Lily looks up at her with pure disdain in her scarlet eyes.

「…You are a child. You know nothing about power. Every fool wants to be king, until they realize how heavy a crown can be.」

Lily adds, and the condescending look in her eyes only grows.

「…He's not a king! He's just in the government!」

「Hmpf…」

Somewhat taken aback by Lily, Stripe points at Straf, rebutting her. Lily scoffs again, gaining an amused smirk as she lowers herhead.

「…Straf, can you believe this idiotic cat?」

Lily asks, sneering as she look up at him.

「I am not a cat!」

「You accept you're an idiot, at least. Progress…」 「Tsk…」

A brief back and forth ensues between the two while Nona stays out of the conversation, only glancing at Straf every now and then while they argue. Stripe clicks her tongue, crosses her arms, and turns away, knowing better than to risk angering Lily. Straf lets out a fatigued sigh and looks at the two with a patronizing smile.

「Lily, be nice to her… At least pretend. You do that for the humans in the capital.」

He says, turning his eyes to Lily.

「Tsk… Fine.」

She clicks her tongue with her gaze turned the opposite way of Stripe, while so is Stripe's, both giving each other the cold shoulder.

「Eh? So you'll pretend you're nice to me? That's worse than just being mean!」

Indignant, Stripe exclaims. Lily simply looks at her with a smug smirk.

「…And cat… Stop being an idiot.」

Straf adds, turning his gaze to Stripe.

「I am not-! Ahh, I'm so tired of repeating this…」

She protests her moniker, but quickly gives up and sighs, choosing to grumble instead.

「…Anyway, everything is going smoothly. Let's hope this keeps, I'd rather avoid night battles.」

Straf rubs his chin as he continues looking around the camp, nodding in approval.

「Are we not going to stop here for the night? Were you not listening when they said that they're tired?」

Stripe asks, furrowing her brows.

「Huh? Fuck no. We can stop inside their shitty kingdom… You'll also have something to do there, Nona.」

An incredulous, lightly baffled grimace appears on Straf's face, and he scoffs at Stripe, before turning his eyes to Nona.

「I will? What?」

She tilts her head, blinking her amber eyes at him.

「State secret, Nona. It'd be unwise to tell you here. We need to be technically outside of the kingdom's borders first.」

He shrugs, smirking a little. He then walks past Stripe and Lily, placing his hands back in his coat's pockets.

「Let's head back. I'll let them have the abandoned supplies, so maybe they'll shut up.」

Straf adds, glancing over his shoulder at them as he heads back to the nearby fortress.

「…You know that's not the problem, right? They want to sleep and rest.」

Stripe asks from behind his shoulder with her eyes narrowed.

「Unfortunately, I am not a wishgranter. Their wishes will remain unfulfilled…」

Straf scoffs, and a light smirk appears on his otherwise bored face again…

…

In Parnatau Kingdom, past the Gap, inside a fortress overlooking the passage…

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

Fatigued soldiers are resting inside the keep. Their heads are hanging low, and the atmosphere is outright dreadful. They sit on the floor, lining the walls of the nearby hallways and the entrance foyer, without exchanging as much as a word with each other, or the keep's garrison. Every now and then, the only sound that comes out of the men taking shelter are dejected sighs.

CRASH!

「Fuck!…」

Someone exclaims as a loud noise of impact rumbles the walls, and a portion of the ceiling collapses.

「We're in their range still!?」

Another voice asks. The soldiers get up and look at each other with uneasy eyes.

「They're on the fucking mountain, of course we're in their range!… And we probably will be even if we run for hours!」

A tired man replies, pointing up in the general direction of the mountain.

「…So what can we do?」

Yet another man asks. Everyone's faces quickly become even more gloomy.

「Nothing. We're fucked, but maybe someone will take notice and help us. The king's officials got away, or so I heard…」

The tired man shrugs, looks at the hole in the ceiling, then sits back down.

「…Humpf… If we manage to survive long enough, maybe help will come. Other than that, we can't do shit…」

He grunts as he lowers himself and rests his armored back on the wall, speaking in a disinterested, detached tone.

CRASH!… THUD-thudthud!…

「…We're just a handful of guys from the siege camp, combined with the survivors from the field camp. There's not enough of us to do anything. Everyone else fucked off deeper in.」

The tired man throws his hands up, ignoring the loud noise and the stones falling nearby, shattering on the ground just a few paces from him.

Seeing the man's attitude, the rest of the soldiers exchange crestfallen looks, then sit back down as well…

…

Around the same time, on top of the battlements…

A handful of terrified soldiers and an older man wearing jewelry on his fingers are standing on top of the walls, peeking over their shoulder up at the mountain every few moments.

Fffffffwap!… Crash!…

Though they only catch a glimpse of it when it's already near, they see a large rock descend at a high speed and impact the top of the keep. It collapses a small portion of the ceiling.

「Commander, shouldn't we be taking cover?…」

With an incredibly nervous expression on his face, one of the young soldiers asks the older man.

「Believe it or not, we're the safest out here. How safe do you think you'll be in the keep, when its roof falls down on your head?」

The man nonchalantly asks back, though bearing a tight-lipped grimace.

「…That's true, but… I still feel like the rock will specifically hit me.」

The young soldier concurs, but continues peering at the mountain with an uneasy gaze.

「Relax, soldier… You're not nearly important enough to worth specifically attacking.」

The commander gains a sardonic smirk, and looks down at the pass.

「Commander! The enemy is approaching us! It looks like they want to talk!…」

A soldier on a distant part of the battlements shouts, and points down towards the Parnatau Gap. Everyone focuses on the darkness below, and notice a rectangular shape closing in.

「…Archers, hold!… Let's see what they want!」

The commander raises his hand, when he sees a man and a little girl rolling towards the gates in an apparently self-propelled, horseless cart.

Straf rolls the kubelwagen to a stop just outside the gate, and looks up at the walls. The archers are standing ready, though without drawing their strings yet.

「Are you their officer!?…」

He shouts towards the very obviously oldest of the men on the battlements.

「…Yeah, I am! Who are you? What do you want?」

The commander shouts a question back, leaning down to get a better look at the man and the contraption.

「I've got a great trade deal for you!… And I'll have to warn you, the last dipshits who turned one down from me ended up regretting it!…」

Straf grins, and smirks at Lily sitting beside him in the front passenger seat.

「…What are you talking about!? What trade deal!?」

Confused, the man asks.

「…Hand over your fortress, and we won't kill you! If you don't, I'll let the vampire here with me finally get some screen time! Choose wisely, because I'm getting the fortress anyway!」

Grinning ear to ear, Straf says, and points his thumb at Lily. Her scarlet eyes look up at the battlements with disdain.

「Oh shit!… He really has a vampire!」

「I heard their capital is full of them!」

「I don't want to fight a vampire! I dodged death enough times today!」

The men begin panicking at the sight of Lily in the car, then turn their eyes to the commander, who is grimacing heavily.

「…Are you going to let us march out if surrender!?」

The commander shouts back, looking at Straf with a wary gaze.

CRASH!

「Oh fuck!…」

The young man jumps back as a large rock hits the battlements right between him and the commander, ripping out a portion of the wall. The commander is alarmed, but remains still.

「…Oh fuck. That almost hit me!」

The soldier utters out, sweating profusely while staring at the hole in the battlements with a wide-eyed gaze.

「Fuck no! Are you stupid!? I'm taking you and your men prisoner! You're out of your fucking mind if you think you're in a position to request this!」

Straf scoffs, resting his elbow on the driver's door with an amused smirk. The commander looks at the frightened men around him, grimacing heavily.

「…Do I have your word of honor that if we surrender, we will be unharmed!?」

The officer shouts from atop the wall, turning his troubled face back to him.

「Them, sure! You, not sure!… I'll try to not get you killed, at least! Does that answer your question!?」

Straf replies, shrugging his hands with a grin. Lily joins him, grinning up at the battlements, her crimson eyes being the only easily visible thing in the darkness below.

The man grimaces heavily with much consternation on his face. The soldiers are whispering amongst themselves, and looking at the car with massively furrowed brows.

「Very well! We'll surrender!…」

「Tsk…」

The commander replies, causing Lily to click her tongue in frustration, and turn her red gaze aside.

「…Men, drop your weapons! Open the gates! We'll have to hope that there's at least a shred of humanity in them!」

The man turns his attention to the garrison, and begins ordering them around. Though hesitant, the men drop their bows, spears, and swords, then begin opening the gate.

CRASH!…

Another rock comes crashing into the wall, punching a hole through.

…Krrrrrkrrrackrackrackkrkkkk!

A handful of soldiers narrowly evades danger when they feel a portion of the battlements shift beneath their feet. They run away, and a large chunk of the wall collapses soon after.

「Tsk… Come on…」

「Hm?」

Also frustrated by the sudden and unwarranted rock, Straf clicks his tongue while looking upward at the mountain. Lily tilts her golden head, then looks up as well.

「…Heh. As expected, Straf.」

She searches for the object of Straf's attention for just a brief moment, before crossing her arms and lowering her massively smug, grinning face. Straf raises a brow at her.

「…You noticed, huh?」

He asks, and pulls the golden bracer out of his [Portable Storage]. He slips his forearm into it, and raises it up below his chin level while looking up at the mountain's ridge.

「This is your commander speaking… Stop fucking up the fortress already. Good job, now cut it out. I'll take it from here.」

Straf says, and lowers the bracer, still looking up. After a moment, a light begins to flicker up on the mountain's ridge. He clicks his tongue, rolling his eyes.

「And fucking stop that, too. Just go do something else…」

He adds, and throws his hands up with his mouth aslant. The light disappears, and the soldiers at the battlements remain both confused, and terrified.

「Right. Lily, mind going back and telling everyone to just walk in here like we own the place?…」

Straf turns his slanted mouth to Lily, and she nods.

「Not at all, Straf. I will be right back.」

She stands up, then disappears from the car into a blur, merging with the darkness of the mountains, only gently rocking the kubelwagen as she departs.

「…Thanks, Lily.」

Straf says towards the empty seat, and turns his tight-lipped grimace towards the now-open gates.

Vrrooooooooommmmm…

He fiddles with the gear stick, then stomps down on the formerly gas pedal…