Chương 91: “The Second Tragedy (1)”

What exactly had happened? Celestia paced the length of her office. The curtains were drawn and the door was locked. She had told Paimon and Martha that she needed privacy. She needed time to think alone. Her father was Duke Armond von Reingarde. He had fought in the northern campaigns against the barbarian tribes, and he had done so at the front, swinging his blade until the enemy stopped coming. He had survived ambushes, sieges, and prolonged field engagements in an icy hellscape.

He was one of the few in the Empire who could wield the third stage of aura. And though he could not match the Empire's zenith-level knights in a prolonged exchange, he could still hold his own long enough against such a foe. So did it make sense for him to simply disappear after a carriage had crashed? And even then, her parents would not have left the Reingarde borders without their personal knights. A group of loyal retainers who accompanied the Duke and Duchess on any trip.

These were soldiers her father had handpicked over the course of his career. Each one was a capable fighter, and had been chosen because her father trusted them with the lives of his family. So for the carriage to be found wrecked off the Summit borders, and for her parents and their entire escort to be missing, every single one of them, gone without a trace… how did that make a lick of sense? Celestia stopped pacing. She pressed her fingers against the edge of the desk and stared at the sun outside the window.

Apparently, the crash was reported to the border soldiers by adventurers heading to Summit. Once it was found that the carriage belonged to a noble, officials had quickly taken over the investigation, having found only the wreckage and nothing else. She pushed off the desk and resumed pacing. Her father alone would have walked away from a crash like that with bruises at worst. A bandit attack was equally implausible; the bandits would be dead, and her father would have sent word by now.

And if it had been an ambush by a larger force, someone capable of threatening a third-stage aura wielder, there would have been evidence. But there was nothing… just a broken carriage. It was too illogical, and she could not plan a response to something she could not identify. She had already gone through the list of who might have the capability and the motive. Rival noble houses? The Reingarde name had enemies, but none with the resources to overpower her father's personal guard without leaving a trace.

The Empire itself? Though the crown had reason to move against the Reingarde household, there still would've been traces. The northern barbarians? Criminal organizations? Every answer she reached had a hole in it. At some point the light through the gap in the curtains had shifted from white to amber, and now it was fading entirely. The sun was setting. The office had grown dim, and she had not lit the lamps. Then she heard someone giggle.

"Hahahaha..." She stopped mid-step. The sound came from the desk. She turned. There, sitting on the edge of her office table, legs crossed, one hand resting on the surface and the other raised to her mouth, was Celestia von Reingarde. The same face, the same hair and crimson eyes. But the expression was wrong. Where the person standing in the middle of the room was worn down and barely holding herself together, the one sitting on the desk looked entertained.

Amused even, as though she had been watching the pacing this entire time and found it funny. It had gotten better recently. Taking breaks from work, managing her stress, stepping away from the desk before she exhausted herself, those things had helped. For some time now, this version of herself had not appeared, and she had started to hope it was gone for good. But it was never gone. Whenever the stress crossed a certain point, whenever everything piled on at once and the weight became too much, Celestia came back.

Always with that expression on her face, admonishing, superior, as though she had seen this outcome from the very beginning and had been waiting for the person in her body to catch up. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"And what are you laughing about?" she snapped. Celestia lowered her hand from her mouth, but the smile stayed.

"Isn't it plain to see what's happening?"

"What?"

"Isn't it quite popular in all those stories you've read?" Celestia tilted her head. Her crimson eyes caught the last of the fading light from the window.

"A trend in stories where the world is trying to correct itself."

"What do you mean? Fathe—""He's Duke Armond von Reingarde to you." Celestia's voice was sharp.

"He's my pathetic father. Not yours." She gritted her teeth. Her hands curled at her sides. Celestia studied her face for a moment. The smile widened.

"Hmm. This look suits you." She glared at Celestia. Celestia swung one leg off the desk and stood. She slowly walked toward the window, and stopped with her back half-turned. When she spoke again, her voice had shifted into something theatrical, as though she were reciting from a stage.

"Hero! Oh, hero! Whatever shall the world do without its champion?" Celestia laughed, soft and self-satisfied.

"Look at how things are going. After you took Jade away from the equation, the world needs to fill in a replacement to keep the narrative going. Does it not?"

"Jade had nothing to do with—""He was meant to face off the Hero. You know that." Celestia turned back to face her.

"And you took him. You removed a piece from the board, and now the story is adjusting." She raised one hand and gestured toward the desk, toward the stacked reports that had been sitting there since yesterday.

"Your parents' disappearance. Arthur's stagnation. The cracks that keep appearing no matter how many you patch. Do you really think all of this is a coincidence?" She stood there with her fists at her sides.

"So what?" she said.

"I was supposed to let such a horrific thing happen to such an innocent man? Stand back when there was something I could have done?" Celestia smiled at that.

"Innocent man, you say? As innocent as that debt-slave you murdered in cold-blood?" Her voice came out harder than she intended.

"T-that wasn't…"

"Ah, but since we are in a story, such characters don't matter even if we kill them off, right?"

"That wasn't... I—... we aren't in a story anymore. Look at Anna, she doesn't exist in the original. And Liana, her path has started to change from what was written. People are acting on their own…!" Celestia listened to all of this with her arms folded..

"Ah." Celestia held up a hand.

"But you don't truly believe that within your heart, do you?"

"What do you me—""Because if you did," Celestia said, stepping closer, "then why are you making concessions? Why spend every waking hour calculating your next move around a story you claim no longer exists?" Her voice dropped lower.

"Why insert yourself as the rival?" It was about controlling Arthur's growth, managing the pace of his development, ensuring he was strong enough for what came next. Purely practical. But the words did not come. She looked away from Celestia, toward the window, where the last sliver of light was disappearing behind the curtain. The real question was one she had been avoiding for months, and Celestia knew it. The room had gone dark.

The last of the sunlight had faded, and the only light left was the faint glow from the gap between the curtains, thin and pale. Celestia was right next to her, staring straight into her eyes.

"And above all," Celestia said, "this." The status window appeared between them. The translucent panel hung in the air, its text faintly glowing in the dim office. The numbers and labels were all there. Name: Celestia Von Reingarde Race: Human Elemental Attribute: ክዐ፪ጎረጎፕሃ Synchronization: 50% Story Relevance: 71/100 Celestia pointed at one line.

"Story Relevance. Is this not the ultimate proof that we are in one?" Celestia turned and walked toward the door. Her footsteps were loud on the floor. She stopped with her hand on the handle.

"I will secure our survival no matter what." Celestia stood there for a moment, her back to the room. Then she pulled the door open. Celestia stood in the doorway, her figure framed against the hallway's light.

"It's time for you to step down." She did not move after that.