Celestina had appeared in the forest. She instantly sent her threads out scouting, finding numerous other parties. She didn’t spend that much time thinking about which party she should fight, simply walking towards the closest one. Emerging from the forest, she found herself standing atop a cliff, at what was presumably the edge of the floating island.
There was a party of four ahead of her—three men and one woman, all of whom looked rather rough. At first glance she thought all four of them were men, but one was a woman in men’s clothing. Judging by her posture and more refined manner, she seemed to be the leader. They all wore swords, but the woman’s sword was clearly different from the rest, a clue as to her true identity.
As Celestina approached, the space around them flickered. Reaching the ten-meter distance, they had been moved to a separate channel to fight. Seeing the channel change, the woman turned to look at Celestina.
“Good day,” Celestina greeted them. “Shall we fight?”
“Oh? From your appearance, I thought you’d want to add some rules, but you’re actually pretty direct.”
“My goal is only to kill Yogiri Takatou, after all,” the concierge explained.
“Oh? In that case, I think we have some room to negotiate.”
“Not at all,” Celestina said. “The only thing that matters is killing Yogiri Takatou. I am taking the course of action with the highest probability of accomplishing that. There is no reason to allow an opponent who would lose to me to move forward, and if you can defeat me, the chances of defeating Yogiri improve if I let you proceed in my stead.”
“You’ve got some guts, huh? I really like straightforward people like you.”
“I appreciate the compliment,” Celestina replied.
“Let’s talk a bit. My name is Degul.”
“My name is Celestina. I am currently employed as the concierge of a certain hotel.”
“I see. You do give off that impression,” Degul said. “Out of curiosity, have we met somewhere before?”
“I am quite certain we have not. I am quite confident in my ability to remember faces.”
“Guess I must be imagining things, then,” Degul shrugged.
“No, I believe there is a reason you think we have met before.”
“Oh? Please, do tell. It’s really starting to bother me.”
“You must be royalty, yes?” Celestina said, pointing to Degul’s sword. “The weapon you hold is the Holy Sword Orz, passed down in the Manii royal family.”
“Oh, so this thing is pretty impressive?”
“You are unaware of it?” It didn’t seem like Degul was simply feigning ignorance. She must not have known about the sword.
“I just picked it up recently,” Degul explained, “though I had an idea it was linked to the royal family somehow.”
“I see. Normally that would be unthinkable, but within this chaos, I suppose it isn’t impossible for you to have come across it.”
“So? Now that you know I just found it lying around, do you still think I’m royalty?” Degul asked.
“I suppose the only thing that is left is your appearance, as your facial features closely resemble those of the royal family.”
“Is that it? I’ve never really looked at my face that hard before. Couldn’t I say the same about you, though?”
“Yes,” Celestina replied. “I am related to the royal family as well, though only through a branch family.”
“Ahh. So there are branch families scattered about, huh?”
“I would not say ‘scattered about,’ no,” Celestina corrected her. “My sister and I are very much an anomaly. There was no attempt to stop my parents’ elopement, nor any effort to track us down afterwards.”
“My luck must be crazy for me to meet two members of the royal family in one day,” Degul said.
“These are quite unique circumstances,” Celestina replied. “I cannot imagine it being that difficult to believe multiple members of the royal family would gather to attempt to save the world, given their special abilities.”
“I’m not here to save the world or anything...but all right, my curiosity has been satisfied. Let’s do this.”
Degul vs. Celestina: FIGHT!!!
Degul’s words seemed to constitute an agreement with the rules, so the fight immediately began. And as quickly as it started, it was over.
Celestina Wins!
Degul and her party were scattered in pieces across the ground, thoroughly dismembered. Celestina hadn’t given them a single moment to react. Even before the fight had begun, she had wrapped her invisible threads around their bodies. That first and deciding action had prompted the channel shift. The next moment, Celestina found herself in another room.
“I imagine she felt secure in her royal ability to suppress the Gifts of others, but I am afraid my skills with the thread are no more than plain swordsmanship.”
Degul hadn’t even noticed the thread wrapped around her, so she had no way of defending herself from it. In other words, she hadn’t been all that strong. Against another opponent, her ability to nullify powers may have brought her victory, but being so weak herself, Celestina wasn’t interested in letting her pass.
She was glad to have gotten Degul out of the running as early as she did.