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Alice stirred her tea and dropped in a cube of sugar before taking a sip out of the steaming cup. She sighed as she stood up and walked out of her office, holding her cup and a stack of papers. The party had finally ended, but she still had to take care of some paperwork that Henry had saved up for her. Tafel didn’t mind waiting and had been hanging out with the skeletons.
A strange ripping sound drew Alice’s attention, and she followed the noise to one of the storage rooms in the adventurers’ guild. Mr. Skelly was tearing large swaths of cloth into smaller pieces while other skeletons were stitching them onto large, rectangular cloth pieces.
“Sewing skeletons,” Alice said and shook her head before taking a sip of her tea. Mr. Skelly raised his head and smiled at the guild master before handing off the cloth in his hand to an old lady, whom Alice recognized as the town’s oldest seamstress. “What are you making?”
“Flags,” Mr. Skelly said. “Did you need anything, guild master? Your hair is awfully lustrous today. You’ll have to tell me the secret to keeping it so healthy.”
Alice snorted. “Don’t try to flatter me, you hairless being.” She frowned at the grinning skull with a golden halo depicted on the flags by the skeletons. “What are you making flags for? Are you planning on sailing?”
“Sailing? No,” Mr. Skelly said. “We’re here to plant them. See?” He pointed outside the window, causing the guild master to follow his finger with her gaze. A large flag was waving in the wind above the tallest building in Anfang.
Alice tilted her head before taking another sip of tea. “Why?”
“You don’t know what planting a flag means?” Mr. Skelly asked while blinking.
“We don’t have any flag-planting customs here,” Alice said.
“Oh,” Mr. Skelly said and rubbed his chin. “Well, it means—”
“Tell me the truth,” Alice said and kicked his shin, causing a crack to appear on the skeleton’s bones. “I always feel like you’re lying when you rub your chin like that.”
Mr. Skelly cackled. “Alright, the truth then,” he said. “In our continent, you identify someone’s territory by their flag.”
Alice waited for more, but Mr. Skelly kept his mouth shut. She knit her brow as the skeleton’s words sunk in. “So what you’re saying is … Anfang is your territory?” Her eyes narrowed at the grinning skeleton.
“Precisely,” Mr. Skelly said with a nod. “You’re an awfully smart individual; won’t you reconsider joining us?”
Alice smacked Mr. Skelly’s head with her shield. His skull detached from his neck and rolled across the room just as Tafel appeared beside Alice. The demon blinked at the rolling skull and glanced at Alice. “Violent much?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you said you’d try to get along with them.”
Mr. Skelly’s headless body nodded by bending at the chest. “Right?” Mr. Skelly asked. “I was even extending an olive branch to her.”
Tafel blinked at Mr. Skelly. “You can speak without your head?”
“Of course,” Mr. Skelly said. “Skulls are a formality when you’re dead. We don’t have vocal cords. Regardless of whether or not our heads are attached, we shouldn’t be able to speak anyways, right?”
Tafel scratched her head. “I never thought about it that way,” she said. Her gaze shifted onto the flags on the ground. “Flags of Damnedism? Really?”
“It’d be wrong not to spread the glory of our mistress since we’re already here,” Mr. Skelly said as he retrieved his skull from the child by his side. The seamstress’ grandchild had chased after the skull when it started rolling.
“Why are you claiming Anfang as your territory?” Alice asked, placing her one hand on her hip while the other held her teacup. “It belongs to me.” She nodded. “And the mayor, but he doesn’t count.”
“Does it really belong to you?” Mr. Skelly asked, twisting his skull back into place.
“Yes! I’m the guild master,” Alice said. “I was entrusted by the king to protect and maintain order in this place. Everyone knows the guild masters own their towns.”
“Well,” Mr. Skelly said, drawing out the word. “Then where’s your flag?”
Alice glared at the skeleton. “Like I said,” she said through gritted teeth, “we don’t have flag-planting customs here.”
“Then just pretend you still own the territory,” Mr. Skelly said with a nod. “It shouldn’t matter if I plant our flag here.”
“Pretend? I still do own Anfang!” Alice shouted. “Keep pushing your luck and I’ll really destroy you!”
Mr. Skelly gasped and clutched his chest. He lowered his head and glanced at Tafel through a sidelong gaze. He sighed and asked, “Why…, why is she so mean to us?”
“Don’t act like an abandoned puppy!” Alice said and smacked Mr. Skelly’s skull off for the second time. The seamstress’ grandchild tottered after it again.
Mr. Skelly made a sighing noise. “Alice,” he said. “Have you ever considered that you might be a bad person?”
“I’m the bad one!?” Alice asked, her eye twitching. “You’re the skeleton!”
“Yes, I’m a skeleton,” Mr. Skelly said. “But that doesn’t mean anything. Are skeletons inherently evil? If we abide by the laws and help people in need, are we still bad people? There’s no rule saying skeletons can’t be good people, just like there’s no rules saying living people can’t be bad people. I’m sure you met many unjust living beings throughout your life despite being so young.”
Alice frowned. “I—”
“Look at what you’ve done,” Mr. Skelly said. “Instead of assessing the situation before acting, you immediately tried to kill me at the party. You’ve shamed our religion and made it out to be evil despite the fact our believers contributed the most to the rebuilding of Anfang. You refuse to let us spread our culture, and, most importantly, you’ve knocked my head off twice now. If I was a living person, I would’ve died, you know?”
“If spreading your culture involves claiming my town as your territory, then I’ll knock your head off as many times as it takes to get you to stop,” Alice said and placed her empty teacup down. She snorted. “Maybe I’m a bad person. So what? If you don’t like it, you can leave.”
Mr. Skelly shrugged. “Well, as long as you realize it,” he said. He turned around and retrieved his skull from the child while muttering, “Just what do I have to do to make her pity us?”
“Try adopting some baby gryphons,” Tafel said.
“Will that work?” Mr. Skelly asked, turning his gaze onto Alice.
“N—Yes,” Alice said. She bit her lower lip and clenched her hands. “The next time I see Stella…. Oh boy.”