"Have you guys figured it out yet? I have three or four guesses myself, though I'm not really a politics type person." Celestia prances around the room, while the rest of us sit around the tables quietly, arms and legs crossed, a sour atmosphere having come across the entire room.

"Alright, this is getting nowhere, you're all dismissed." Crux says in frustration. Investigations over the past two weeks have come up completely empty, just about everyone's record was clean.

And there was the merchant, the one who was transporting the goods in the first place. Yea... He's been having a pretty rough time over the past two weeks.

Screams continually echoed throughout the night, yet the man kept vehemently denying any knowledge about the traitor day after day. Always insisting that someone snuck the papers into his cart without his knowing. He then began to simply lie after a point, trying to make up a believable enough story so that the torture would be stopped.

It wasn't until Celestia of all people came in and said that he was telling the truth did Crux finally order a stop to the torture. She said something along the lines of, "I feel bad for him, even though I don't think I could go through what he's going through and still lie... What? Don't look at me like that. I have empathy. I just choose not to act on it a lot of the time."

Speaking of Crux, his behavior had been getting increasingly crabby over the past two weeks, though everyone's attitude had been diminishing, his has been especially bad. Now that he was the leader, he does have a huge responsibility after all.

"Hey Tetsudo, walk with us!" Celestia calls out as the the people in the meeting room scattered away.

I silently obey her and join Celestia and Crux as they walk down the halls, all three of us completely silent.

"Crux is the traitor." Celestia suddenly says to me.

...

"It's not nice to joke around like that." I say in response.

“You’re walking a very thin line here.” Crux says without turning to look at her.

"Come on, can't you take a couple jokes? Plus... Is what I'm doing really that harmful?" Celestia rests her hand on Crux's shoulder.

Crux snaps away irritably and begins walking faster, leaving the two of us behind until it was just me and Celestia walking together.

"Shouldn't we keep up with him? It's your job to shadow him after all." I say.

"Never mind about him for now. I know exactly where he's going, what about you Mr. Froseid? You sound like an interesting guy, but everything that comes out of your mouth are boring things, did something happen? You seem to be holding yourself back quite a bit."

“Do you just say things looking for a reaction?" I snap back quickly.

"Yep, it's actually very fun to do." Celestia doesn’t deny it at all.

I sigh. "... I hold myself back because I don't trust myself anymore."

"Ohh, so something did happen, what did you do? Make someone upset at you? Hurt yourself? Injured someone? Or maybe someone you knew died?"

I clench my fists.

"Oh hey, the air just got a little warmer, you're actually quite the emotional guy aren't you?"

I keep my best to keep my gaze forward, trying not to react to her provocations.

"You know, you shouldn't bottle up your feelings like that or you are going to self-implode one day, we are all human after all."

"And what about you? Has anyone driven you to your edge before? Made you show any genuine emotions?" I say with a tinge to my voice.

"Yea, about a couple months ago actually. After the incident I walked around for a bit, punched a couple trees and guys, then decided to join the war after a little bit of self-reflection."

"And what exactly happened for you to decide that?"

"I lost." Celestia says with a weak grin. "Actually, even worse, I got spared. It was a lot to take in for someone whose worth is primarily their fighting dominance."

"And what did you figure out about yourself after all of that?"

Celestia stops walking. "I figured out... That the strongest isn't whoever is the best fighter, it's someone who can do whatever they want, bend the world to their will, be it with fighting, or something else. So, I'm putting myself through a little test right now, I'm going to make Lyster win against all odds. The ultimate test to see if I can truly bend the world to do whatever the hell I want... Anyways, that's my story, how about you talk about yours?" Celestia suddenly randomly spits on the ground.

... I stay silent, looking at the glob of spit staining the pearly tiles on the ground.

"Damn... You really aren't afraid of me aren't you?" Celestia's eyes light up unexpectedly. I feel an eerie chill wash over me as she says this.

Although...

"I've never seen anything quite like it, the ability to project your Anku into my body without direct contact or transfer of blood. This fear I'm feeling isn't actually natural is it?" I say out of curiosity to see if I'm right. I don't expect Celestia to actually lie about anything despite her personality.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Who knows, some of it might be." Celestia smiles at me. "Although of course I should have expected that this little trick wouldn't work against a Tetsudo. It's too hard for me to sneak my Anku into your Tetsu."

Celestia scratches her head after saying that. "Mmmmm, then, if I expose the traitor sometime tomorrow, will you tell me a little bit more about yourself?"

"Sure, why not." I say casually.

"If you don't keep your promise I'll kill you." Celestia says lightheartedly.

"I have a feeling you've been wanting to do that every since you've seen me." I say in response before turning around.

"Tomorrow at noon I'll let you know the place, and if you want to, you can bring someone you trust to make all your decisions for you." Celestia calls out before we walk our separate ways.

"Annoying." I murmur to myself loud enough to know that she heard me.

"How are the investigations going?" I ask Yesenia as we pass each other in the hall.

I ultimately decide on bringing Yesenia with me. Stronl was a solid choice, but... I probably wouldn't like her methods, I don't know Hanafin well enough, and Rainel is Rainel.

"What, what did you say?" Yesenia had dark circles under her eyes, presumably from a lack of sleep.

"How are the investigations going?" I ask once more.

"Oh you know... They're going great. We sent out that decoy merchant a week ago to see where the papers would have been received, haven't heard back... All investigations into the council showed no results, and as you know my brother and I are the only ones allowed to send and receive communication—" Yesenia yawns. "—to the outside."

I check the clock on the wall. "Are you free the next hour?"

"Hmm?" Yesenia steps back a bit, in a bit of a strange reaction.

"Scratch that, even if you have something planned please cancel it."

"Cain?"

"Celestia knows who the traitor is."

Yesenia looks at me blankly for a couple seconds and rubs the dark circles off her eyes. "Please explain everything from the very beginning."

"There's not much to explain, Celestia told me that she was going to expose the traitor to me today, I'm not sure what the hell I'm supposed to do with that information, so I'm bringing you along." I say, trying not to explain too much.

"I—"

"You guys are talking about something very interesting aren't you." Hanafin steps out of nowhere.

"Greetings." I lower my head slightly as he joins the conversation.

"What's this about Celestia?" He then asks.

"It's nothing—"

"Celestia told me that she will expose the traitor this noon." I interrupt Yesenia as she tries to start talking."You are welcome to come with us if you'd like, I'm just the messenger." I then say.

Hanafin looks down at the ground and starts thinking for a second. "Sure, could be interesting. Why aren't you bringing Crux though? He's the official leader."

...

I stay silent, unsure as to what to say; however it was a silence that spoke a thousand words.

Hanafin eyes widen at my reaction, indicating that he understood what I was implying.

"Alright, you've convinced me, let's go see what's going on."

"Wait, wait, wait, everyone slow down. How can you trust that Celestia knows what she's talking about, what if she points out the wrong person?" Yesenia butts into the conversation again.

"I hate to say it, but Celestia most likely knew from the moment she called out that she knew who the traitor was. From personal experience, strong people never lie. " I then say.

"No, no, no, you don't understand my point; it doesn't matter if she's lying, what if she's just wrong?!?" Yesenia says unexpectedly.

"I mean... Maybe?" I cross my arms and sigh. "I already told you; what I think isn't important, I'm just a tool. However, I'm going to tell you right now, if you refuse to go, I will simply ask Stronl instead, She—"

"Cain. Stop talking." Yesenia says angrily.

I step back little bit, surprised from unexpected fury that was emanating from Yesenia's eyes.

Hanafin looks at both of us, then sits down on the side of the hall, content to watch the whole thing unfold, until Yesenia quickly lashes out and yanks him back to his feet.

"No, you too brother. If you also believe their bullshit." She says as she drags him by his arm. "I'm not dumb, I can read in between the lines. I know exactly whom Celestia has been targeting and harassing for the past two weeks. She has you all wrapped up in the palm of her hand if you think that, 'she couldn't be wrong! She's so strong!'”

“I do not care if you think she's strong. I know both of you are trying to avoid saying his name for some dumb reason again, but Crux is not the type of person who would do that sort of thing. I do not care if Celestia is a one in a thousand years talent who can do anything she wants, I know from the bottom of my heart that Crux is not the traitor." Yesenia breathes out heavily after saying all of that in a single breath. "Cain, this is an order. We are going to ignore Celestia and continue on with our investigation as normal." Yesenia glares at me as she says this.

I slowly nod my head, accepting her words. Although... Remembering her words about bending the world to her will. I don't think this is going to go so well...

"Mind if I join the party?" I wince at the familiar voice that seemed to always come with the absolute worst timing imaginable.

Celestia thumps her way into the crowd, positioning herself right in front of Yesenia.

Yesenia stares at her defiantly, not giving an inch to her crushing presence.

"I came here to find Cain, but... It seems like you guys are having a little bit of a disagreement; it's rude to eavesdrop so mind telling me what it's all about?" Celestia says.

"I am not afraid of you. I don't care how strong you are, you—"

"Really!?! That's great! Everybody seems to be afraid of me these days; it gets kinda boring!" Yesenia gets interrupted for the third time that day.

Yesenia taps her fingers on the side of her hips in annoyance. "Crux is not the traitor, I will promise you that. I don't know how you managed to convince these two, but stop pursuing this or I'll make sure you'll never fight in this war." She then says.

"Yesenia, please calm down." Hanafin breaks his silence and tries to take Yesenia's hand, but she lashes out.

"I'm disgusted." She says before storming off.

The three of us sit together in silence as she leaves.

"You want to bring some other people along?" I ask Hanafin, "If your sister isn't having it maybe Stronl would be more understanding."

"Nah, nah, nah. This has become way too interesting. I didn't originally care about who you brought along with you, but I've made up my mind, we're going to bring that girly along." Celestia responds instead of Hanafin.

Hanafin sighs. "I think it's best if we just leave her out of this. Crux is a very important person to her, so this reaction isn't totally unexpected. So let’s uhh, bring Grandy along for the confrontation, he’s usually pretty level-headed.”

“Alright, you go find that guy then, the more the merrier.” Celestia says before running off.

“Wait I told you— Stop! Don’t drag Yesenia in with this!” Hanafin tries to chase after her but quickly loses sight of her.

We stand together in awkward silence for a few moments.

“I don’t know if it’s my place to ask this, but why is Yesenia so attached to Crux? I didn’t expect such fierce resistance from her.” I say.

“Well… It’s a long story…”