「…Straf?」

Will utters out, squinting heavily at the tall man with a familiar voice in the darkness.

「Yeah. Somehow I'm not surprised you are to blame, but I'm not any less pissed the fuck off… Untie him. I'm going to injure my neck if I have to look down on him more than I already do.」

Straf replies with his mouth heavily scrunched to the side, and nods towards Will while looking at one of the masked men.

Will gets lowered to the partially flooded floor, wincing when he makes contact with the cold water spilled everywhere. When he's down on the ground, the boar draws his bastard dagger and cuts the ropes binding Will's wrists. With his hands freed, Will pushes himself up to sitting, squinting heavily up at Straf.

「Do you have any fucking clue how much of a headache you gave me, you little shit?」

Straf asks as he squats down in front of Will, glaring at him with his mouth scrunched. The masked men step aside, simply exchanging glances and listening.

「…What? What did I do?」

Will asks and glances around for his glasses, but can't find them.

「Oh, let me fucking tell you!… Do you have any fucking clue how much you've set me back on fighting inflation!? Do you have any fucking idea what type of shit you were promoting!?」

Straf says with his voice raised, and points his finger at Will's squinting face.

「Huh?… Inflation? You mean like, currency inflation?」

Will adjusts the thin air up on his wet nose, then looks around some more in search of his glasses.

「No. I mean like balloon inflation…」

Straf replies with a tight-lipped smile and a light shake of his head.

Tfwap!

「…Of course I mean fucking currency inflation! What else!? You fucked up so much! Anytime I wanted to do something, I found out I suddenly can't do that! Why?… Will!」

He slaps his knee in frustration then spreads his arms as he adds. Straf frantically waves his arms about in random directions as he speaks, further confusing Will.

「W- What? How did I cause inflation?… I can't change the money supply… And I didn't really do anything. I'm not a part of the government.」

Deeply perplexed, Will explains while furrowing his brows.

「How did I cause inflation, huh?… Well, let me fucking tell you!…」

Straf echoes Will's words with a disdainful, scornfully amused smirk on his face.

「…The other day, I made a new ministry. New ministry means new people. New people means they need to be hired… Are you starting to understand what I'm getting at yet!?」

「…What? No. Explain.」

Will's brows only furrow further, while Straf only grows more frustrated in response, grimacing heavily and visibly holding himself back from screaming in his face.

「…I learned that the other day, while I was out, Lia passed a fucking minimum wage law! Can you guess what caused inflation yet, you speccy twerp!?」

Straf explains, just barely holding back his shouts, before pointing at Will's face again and unleashing them.

「Eh? But… But wasn't it something along the lines of no less than 30 golden dragons a month?… That's just a little over one per workday-」

「Ffffffffffffffffffff…」

Will's head perks up in surprise at the new information. Straf cuts him off by just barely holding in a string of curses, blowing air through his teeth in frustration.

Splashsplashsplashsplashsplashsplash…

Straf stands up, pinching the bridge of his nose as he takes a deep breath. He takes a few seconds to compose himself, tapping his foot on the floor and splashing water around.

「…The worst fucking part about this is, you're「well meaning」so I can't even just chop your fucking head off and be done with it…」

He squats back down, staring at Will with an ominously calm yet tight-lipped grimace. He airquotes with his fingers with a voice full of scorn, shaking his head as his hands drop down.

「…You made everything cost more. You gave everything, even a shittiest, worthless job a fucking minimum profitability floor! You ever thought about that!?」

Straf asks, once again raising his voice while glaring at Will's confused face.

「…Huh? Minimum profitability floor?」

Will asks, once again adjusting his glasses that are not there.

「Yeah. Fun concept, right? Let's say I own a business producing paperclips. One employee makes one drake worth of paperclips a day, after material costs. Have I made a profit?」

Straf asks, nodding his head with a facetious smile. Will lowers his gaze, thinking.

「…Assuming that the worker consistently makes one drake's worth, and that includes the materials… I'd say it's up to the market demand?-」

「No, you fucking idiot! I did not make money!」

Will replies, raising his eyes up to Straf's twitching face. He interrupts Will with an ear-paining shout.

「Huh? But-」

「No fucking buts!… Land costs! Taxes! Building rent! Competition! Material cost fluctuations!… Thought about those!? And what if the employee just plain fucking gets sloppy!?…」

Straf shouts again, cutting off Will before he can get a word in. He pats the back of his fingers into his palm as he lists each issue omitted by Will.

「…Thanks to you, if someone needs a cheap paperclip, he's shit out of fucking luck! Now everyone has to do this stupid fucking dance where all prices rise to adjust for the wages!…」

As Straf continues his angry explanation, the masked men exchange awkward glances between each other, simply idly standing around them.

「…And for a short while, people are happy! We have plenty of money now, hurray!…」

He mockingly quotes the theoretical people with his arms spread, shrugging his shoulders.

「…Until they realize that the bread prices got another zero to their tail-end! Help! We can't afford to live!… Again!…」

He continues, throwing in another mocking quote. Will furrows his brows again, lowering his gaze as he thinks.

「…Then, and only then, the prices of paperclips ffffucking normalize!… But there is a difference! Their normal price is higher too!… And we're never going back to the old prices!」

Tfwap!

Straf slaps his knee in anger again, and stands up. He idly paces around the room, turned away from Will to cool off.

「I… I didn't know establishing a minimum salary would cause such ripples. I knew it was risky to raise it too high, but… I just didn't want the workers to be as barely-paid slaves!…」

Will explains with his arms spread, causing Straf to loudly scoff and shake his head with his back towards him.

「…I saw a bunch of kids bullying a hard-working man, and he was barely being paid for his effort! He could barely feed himself!-」

「Which brings me to another fucking point!…」

Straf turns around interrupting Will as he stomps back towards him. Will recoils back, grimacing with worry on his face.

「…You little shit. How dare you fuck up my carefully crafted national spirit of this country!? Kids are the future, and you're fucking it up!」

With his fists on his hips, Straf glares down at Will. The masked men exchange glances again then stare at Will, frightening him further.

「W- What are you teaching them at school!? That's not something that kids should be saying! They were calling him a slave, and trash, and-!」

Will protests, once again adjusting his missing glasses.

「That-is-the-fucking-point! It's Redwing people at the top!…」

Straf cuts in, leaning forward as he barks back at Will. He raises his hand, holding it horizontally at his head level for Will to see.

「…And everyone else at the bottom!…」

He raises his other hand and places it underneath the first one, all while scowling down at Will, who tilts his head with a perplexed look on his face.

「…It doesn't matter what their actual factual value or standing is! All that matters is that everyone at the bottom fights to be at the top… Amongst themselves! The actual top, us, watches!」

Straf adds, spreading his hands as he explains with a scornful scrunch to his mouth.

「W- What? But that's… That's cruel! You want our own empire to fight itself!?」

Will asks, baffled and outraged with his jaw dropped.

「Nooo? I want the provinces to fight themselves, while the core population is wealthy and happy. That's like imperial government 101, what the fuck is wrong with you?…」

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Somewhat baffled himself, Straf shrugs his arms with his eyes narrowed.

「You really think you can run an empire the way you wanted to?… Your ohhh we're equal, and ohhhhh let's all be happy and work towards one goal!…」

Straf asks, then mockingly quotes Will while rolling his eyes with his fists back on his hips.

「…Will inevitably lead to a bloody civil war when the provinces start asking questions, such as「If we're equal, why are we being fucked over so badly?」and the like.」

He adds, pointing his finger down at Will's face.

「Then maybe don't fuck them over! Treat everyone as an actual equal!-」

「Pffffft.」

Straf interrupts Will's outraged protest with an amused puff of air escaping his lips. Will's brows furrow again as his face shifts to anger.

「Hey, twerp… Tell me, you think Carrothead is equal to you?」

He asks with a mocking smirk directed at Will.

「That's… Equal to me in what?」

Will lowers his gaze, adjusting his thin air on his nose.

「Yeah, thought so… How about an alcoholic peasant from some no-name shithole village? Is he equal to you, a smartypants mage?」

Straf scoffs, then asks another question as his smirk grows.

「…If he makes no effort to improve himself, why would he be?」

Will reluctantly replies with his gaze lowered.

「Oh, no, I agree. Some people just don't have it in them… Here's another question, twerp…」

Straf nods, shrugging his arms with an amused grimace. He then squats down again.

「…Do you think I'm equal to you?」

He asks with a completely calm face while staring into Will's eyes, only keeping his brows inquisitively raised a little.

Will grimaces, struggling to formulate a reply that wouldn't sound pathetic or angry, but comes up blank.

「…Who are you to dictate what the Redwing nation is, anyway!? Why do you get to decide what it should look like!? Why do you get a say in it!? Aren't you a foreigner!?」

Instead, Will decides to change the subject as he shouts angrily at Straf, clenching his fists. Straf's eyes widen, his brows shoot up, and he stands up with an amused smirk on his face.

「…Wow. Wooooooow…」

Spreading his arms, Straf nods his head as his smirk grows to a grin. He looks around himself at the masked men, and the very act of that makes Will nervous again.

「…You guys heard that? I can't believe he actually pulled that one on me after all that shit…」

He says to the animal-masked men around the room, chuckling quietly as he places his fists on his hips. Will gulps nervously as the green men stare down at him.

「…So, the blood and soil makes the great Redwing people, right? You've got to be born here to be a part of this great nation, right?… See, I'm already inferior!…」

Straf asks, glancing at the cloaked men as his grin grows, chuckling. Will grimaces heavily, lowering his gaze.

「…Looks like we've got that question settled… But isn't that a little… Hmmm…」

After a shrug of his shoulders, Straf begins to rub his chin as he humms, turning his eyes aside as he thinks.

「…A little phobic? Arachnophobia is an aversion to spiders, right? Looks like you've got an aversion to foreigners, Will.」

Returning his fists to his hips, Straf leans in forward a little, smugly grinning at Will's confused face.

「W- What?…」

Will asks, furrowing his brows at Straf's blurry grin.

「Hey, it's perfectly normal. It's as you say, I wasn't born here so I'm an outsider, but!… I'll have you know I appeared around that walled shithole, so cut me some slack. Just a little.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders again as he flashes his grin at the masked men around him, then raises his index finger to clarify his questionable citizenship status.

「Ah. N- No wait, I didn't mean it like that! I just- I meant-…」

Will stumbles over his words and stammers as he realizes he contradicted the very essence of his long-winded lecture delivered to the children.

「…Look, that was a pretty terrible thing for me to say. I'm sorry.」

After a moment, he lets out a resigned sigh when he realizes the only graceful way out is to admit defeat. Will quietly apologizes with a lowered gaze.

「Hey, it's perfectly natural. That's the right response… Who the fuck are foreigners to demand changes and other shit of your nation? Don't like it? Fuck off to your own kingdom!…」

Straf squats down beside Will and loosely wraps his arm around his neck, poking him in his bare chest with his finger as he nods with a grin on his face.

「…See what I mean? You've got a right to do that… But you gotta think of the long-term stability! You can't let them subjugate you, you know?…」

He adds, standing back up and placing his hands back in his pockets. He briefly looks around for Will's glasses, and finds them in the washtub.

「…Everyone is equal! We're all the same!… That is cruel. We all know on instinctual level that we're not. Lying to people who are obviously not equal that they are… What's the point?…」

Straf plucks the glasses out of the bucket-washtub and returns to Will, handing them back to him. Will takes them, grasps the frame, and shakes the water off.

「…Some dirt farmer on the edge of the empire will never be a government official, or wealthy?… Who gives a fuck? You can't force him to be, if he's incapable of it naturally…」

Spreading his arms and shrugging his shoulders, Straf turns around then walks a few paces away from Will, who puts his glasses back on and takes a closer look at the masked men.

「…The best thing you can do is, give the inferior people a place where they belong and feel at home. Farming dirt all his life? So be it.」

Straf adds with another nonchalant shrug. Will gets up off the wet floor, brushing his pants off with his hands.

「But in that case, if the roles were reversed, I'd be stuck in my village as a farmer all my life. I want to be a mage, not a carrot supplier!」

Will protests, adjusting his glasses.

Snap.

「Oh, no, you wouldn't be… You already forgot the part where I said let them fight amongst themselves?… The provinces will be fighting to be on top…」

With a scoff and a snap of his fingers, Straf's smirk returns to his bored face as he points at Will.

「…On top, meaning the top of the bottom. They can do that in many ways… Prostrating themselves as a nation to demonstrate loyalty, military might and willingness to serve…」

He rubs his chin as his gaze drifts up and aside. Will furrows his brows with a troubled grimace.

「…Economic might, where they will clamor about how valuable they are to the empire and its people… Cultural… Seriously, people are very happy to serve.」

Straf adds, shrugging his shoulders with a nonchalant smirk.

「But why should they? Why should we make them?」

Will asks, once again glaring at Straf.

「'Cause they're conquered people, and woe is them. They'll ask questions otherwise. We'll only make them serve at the start, to get the ball rolling… Then they'll do it themselves.」

Straf casually replies with his hands in his pockets, and glances at the cloaked men around them.

「…I can't believe this. Everything you say sickens me to my very stomach. On top of that, you use criminals to kidnap people? Does her majesty even know about this?」

Outraged, Will shakes his head and adjusts his glasses, unable to even afford to twist his face into a scowl from the mental exhaustion. He glances briefly at the masked men.

「Tsk… First off, they're not criminals anymore, and most of them weren't to begin with… Second…」

With a frustrated click of his tongue, Straf walks up to Will with his mouth aslant.

「…It would make Lia's heart very heavy to find out what it really takes to keep a country with a government like hers from falling apart. I think you're smarter than that.」

He ominously adds, leaning forward to better meet Will's height.

「…So you want to scare me into keeping quiet about this? What else do you do to people? They were going to pull my teeth out. Is this something you can order at snap of a finger?」

Will adjusts his glasses as he asks. Straf straightens back out, grimacing slightly with his mouth jumping left and right.

「Don't ask if you don't want to find out. You slipped on ice, hit your head, and had a very bad dream about animal people torturing you… Got it?」

Straf bluntly declares, then shrugs his shoulders.

「And you expect me to go along with this story?」

Will narrows his eyes up at Straf.

「If you know what's good for you…」

He nonchalantly replies. Straf then looks at the fox standing a few steps away from Will, and motions a knifehand strike at his own neck.

「I'm supposed to be quiet while you-? Ungh!…」

Thwack.

The fox-masked man unceremoniously hits Will in the base of his neck with the edge of his palm, cutting him off.

Will drops to his knees, but before he can slam his face down onto the wet floor, the masked man moves to grab him by the bottom of his chin and his arm, then lowers him down.

「…I'm still amazed by how consistently that works. Good job.」

Straf remarks to the fox with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders…