- Festival and Freedom -

The next day, the regulars went to take a look at the festival.

"This is an announcement for everyone participating in the auction today. In a moment, the festival will begin 5 hours earlier than scheduled. So we ask that anyone wishing to participate to the auction please make their way to their seats."

In the manhwa, Kaiser was shown as a gorgeous woman. Therefore, Charlotte was looking forward seeing her performance today. She woke up earlier than the usual just to watch her performance.

"Be careful" said Altaira. "You are going to fall if you keep looking like that."

"If I fall, brother will catch me" Charlotte nonchalantly replied. She kept waiting for Kaiser to show herself. "No problem!"

Altaira looked at Bam, "She puts too much trust on you."

"Of course" Bam replied as if it was something sure and obvious.

Soon enough, someone came to the arena. That person had long dark grey hair, a pair of either blue and green eyes and her attire was similar with Kaiser, except that she wasn't wearing mask at all. She didn't hide her beautiful face behind the mask any longer.

"Is that Kaiser?"

"She's gorgeous!"

Charlotte recognized who she was instantly with a wide smile, "It's Kaiser!"

Kaiser took off her green heels and walked to the center.

"The name of the regular up for auction is Lo Po Bia Elaine."

Once her name was being introduced or announced, Elaine took a deep breath and then prepared herself. Soon enough, to amaze the participants of the auctions and everyone there, she began to show her skills with her weapons.

She used to be Kaiser, the peak of evil who was trapped in this miserable place for the sake of her family. For a thousand years she had trained and trained and now, the skills that she shown to the people there earned lots of praises. She performed harmoniously with her weapons.

Charlotte was amazed that she might just jump around because of the excitement. She was indeed gorgeous.

"Amazing!" said Shibisu. "I can't believe there was a face like that behind the mask! It looks like they don't just choose anyone to be the princess of Zahard!"

"So you let anything slide as long as they're pretty, Isu?"

"I....I guess so, haha--!"

"Brother, she looks really beautiful, isn't she?" Charlotte asked while tapping Bam's shoulder. "We can't let anyone else get her!"

"I'm sure that you said you don't like the system here....."

"Ah, forget about that! When have I said those words? Let's get the beauty first!" said Charlotte as if it was a must. "That's our priority!"

"She definitely feels more like a princess than Endorsi" said Hatz, glancing at Endorsi who threatened to kill him.

"Gosh, which fool abandons such a beautiful girl?" Estrella wondered. "It is a waste to abandon a gem like her!"

"Some people are just blind."

"This is considered beautiful?" Altaira crossed his arms and tilted his head with a lazy smirk.

"Of course! You have bad eyes if you disagreed with it!"

"I have seen someone prettier" Altaira said.

"What?" Charlotte looked at Altaira. "You've seen someone prettier? Me?"

"Now, now, don't get ahead of yourself" said Altaira who flicked her forehead. "I never raised you in this way."

"You never raised me in any good way anyway" said Charlotte who rubbed her forehead with a smile. "Eh, tell me first, who could be prettier than me or Elaine? Celeste?"

Raisin looked at Celeste. He noticed that her ears reddened slightly when she heard that.

"Celeste is obviously one of them" Altaira said. "But there is someone else who I found pretty as well."

Celeste stiffened when she heard that, so as Charlotte.

There was a moment of silence before Charlotte frowned at Altaira.

"Who is that person?" She asked, looked rather displeased rather than happy.

"Why are you curious?" Altaira asked back. "This is my personal matter."

"Your matter is my matter" Charlotte argued.

"Oh, so my business is your business, but your business is not my business?"

"Tch, just tell me who that person is! I want to know who she is!!"

Altaira pondered about it for awhile and his smile slowly faded.

"She.....is no longer here" he answered.

Charlotte who frowned in anger now changed her expression into a worried expression.

"What....?"

"She isn't here" said Altaira with a smile. He patted her head and then added, "I'll show you to her someday."

"So she is still alive?"

Altaira simply chuckled.

"What are you thinking, foolish child?"

Charlotte looked at Altaira's eyes. Though he was smiling right now, his smile looked rather sad. Her carefree and lazy brother who cares for nothing will actually make a sad smile like this, she was sure that nothing good happened to him.

"Ohh, what a remarkable regular!!"

When she heard the noise, she blinked and turned around to watch the show that has ended.

"I can't believe there's such a talented D- rank regular!"

"What?! I missed the show?! It ends just like that?!" Charlotte couldn't believe it.

"She's got a bright future ahead! I bet the asking price is going to up!"

Charlotte pouted and puffed her cheeks in irritation.

"Well, you aren't paying attention" said Altaira. "It's not surprising that you missed it."

"It's fine" said Bam. "There will always be next time."

"I could only hope like that....." she mumbled in a sad tone.

Bam looked at Altaira. Unlike Altaira who paid no care of it, he didn't like to see Charlotte being sad. He wondered whether Altaira had a good idea to do something for her and even though Altaira understand why Bam was looking at him, he just shrugged off.

"...."

Altaira knew his younger sister the best. He knew that it won't take long for her to change her mood on her own. When Charlotte saw Ha Jinsung there, she brightened up again and smiled like before.

"It's master!"

She jumped and waved her hand, hoping that Ha Jinsung would be able to see her while Bam was trying to keep her down since she was getting them some unwanted attentions.

Ha Jinsung was there to participate in the auction as well. He was there to get Elaine and pay the debt of her family just like what his little disciples wanted.

And once he bet, he bet ten billion points for Elaine and won her instantly.

"TEN BILLION POINTS?!"

The regulars were shocked to see how much the middle-aged looking man was willing to pay.

"A...are you insane?! With ten billion points, you could buy a whole feet of floating islands!" said a ranker who had gained support from Yuri Ha Zahard. The ranker was told to go there to get all the auction items for her and especially the slayer candidates if the two of them showed up to be sold.

"T...ten billion points for a regular...?" A ranker from Lo Po Bia who came to participate was also shocked.

This Ha Jinsung said ten billion points easily like it was nothing.

"Well....it's not that much" said Ha Jinsung. "It's not such a high price to pay for winning a favor from some students."

He turned around and stepped away while adding, "I'll deposit all of the money right away. Now, this cancels that girl's debt. Well, take care--"

The ranker who had gained the support from Yuri Ha Zahard asked him, wondering who on earth he was and how he got lots of money. For this question, Ha Jinsung simply answered that he was someone who had vanished from the history book for a long time. He also corrected that he wasn't the one who buy Elaine, but rather, his Gods decided to save her.

And his Gods were smiling at their victory right now.

Charlotte was still wondering whether she will have the chance to talk with Ha Jinsung for a bit when she was being dragged away by Altaira who held his hand.

"Nope. Now, let's go back. I'll get you some foods later."

"I want something that you don't cook" said Charlotte bluntly.

"Oh, don't worry, it will be something that I buy and contained poison."

After the festival, they rested in the no- named residence and most of them were rather tired and exhausted after one tense night.

The Station Name Hunt will be managed by Alphine from now on and she'll have to deal with some problems that they couldn't be helping. Charlotte was certain that FUG won't be taking over this place after hearing their words. If FUG took over this place, who knows with what they'll do.

She was chewing a red apple while looking after Rak who they had saved. Even though Rak was unconscious for the whole night, he also had a serious fight with Arie Inieta so he was still wounded.

She gave him blanket, pillow, water and everything he needed. Rak just need to say a word and Charlotte would get it for him. Rak felt quite happy that he could get whatever he wanted without moving from his bed and rested peacefully. He didn't seem to care or even notice that this behavior of Charlotte was kind of weird for she won't be this obedient to someone other than Bam.

"You know.....I know that you love apples, but why do you always behave strangely when you are enjoying apple?"

Charlotte heard Noah's question and pondered about it before she shrugged off. Noah let out a sigh.

"I'm going to check on Celeste first" said Noah. "That Altaira guy must be taking advantage of her naive personality. I just can't leave the two of them for a second."

Rak was enjoying his time alone with Charlotte when Khun suddenly entered the room with Bam and purposely sat on him.

"Whew-- we'll have to head over the train soon! We've got Kaiser's name, too!" said Khun, ignoring Rak who he sat on. "Is going to the Floor of Death all that's left now?"

"Turtle!!" Rak called him and tried to pull back the blanket. "Move over! I'm injured!"

"Hey alligator!" Khun greeted him, pretending he didn't see him from the beginning. "I didn't see you there! More like loser instead of ! I heard that you lost to the Arie Family!"

Khun laughed at Rak for his defeat and irritated the alligator.

"Urgh, you damn turtle! Female Black Turtle, do something about this Blue Turtle!!"

Charlotte was busy chewing on her apple when she looked at Khun.

"Are you going to kick me out?"

Charlotte pondered while eating the red apple on her hands and then pointed to the two of them, "You can't sit on him."

"That's right! Ha, listen to the Female Black Turtle and move aside!"

"But I just want to sit on him. What can you do about it then?"

Charlotte pondered about it before she shrugged off, "I don't know."

"What? How could you not know about it? Just blow him away with your fan, turtle!!"

Khun observed the brown haired girl for a moment before he said, "You are behaving weird, you know."

Charlotte tilted her head, "Do I?"

"Could it be because of the apple on your hands? Bam said that you sometimes indulge yourself with those apples and become stupid" said Khun.

"Well..I won't say that she becomes stupid....but rather, ignorant?"

Charlotte shrugged off again and continued eating her apple happily. Khun sighed over her behavior.

There was a moment of silence.

Bam looked at the outside from the window and called Khun's name. He asked him, "Will this station....really be able to change?"

"....well...it will be tough..probably. If the named just can get rid of their greed, it would certainly become a decent station. But it won't be that easy. Since there are unequal floors no matter where you go on the tower. Maybe this station is actually being true to human nature" Khun explained. "But let's not try to change that kind of thing. We're not Gods, you know."

Bam smiled when he heard that, "Yeah. You're right."

'But after listening to what Khun said....for just a brief moment....I wished that we really could be Gods.'