Celestine Incident - Prelude (2): Family
Seti had spent quite a long time pondering that question.
To find the answer, she had to consider her birth.
There was truly nothing special about why Seti was born.
"You are the bridge that will unite the Rheinland and our Adelbain families. You must remember at least that much."
The answer lay in the words her mother had once spoken.
Seti's mother was ambitious. Her ambition was to swallow the Rheinland family whole in order to overcome the sorrow of being born as a daughter of a collateral branch.
To achieve that, Seti had to become the head of the Rheinland family.
Perhaps she had been striving toward that goal ever since.
To earn her mother's affection.
To fulfill her mother's dream.
To be loved by her blood relatives.
It did not mean siding with the Adelbain family and casting aside the Rheinland family.
Both were her kin—why would she choose only one side?
She simply wanted to become great.
She wanted to be acknowledged.
She wanted to prove that she was not merely a chain born of a contractual marriage.
"What kind of head is a head born from the dregs of lovelessness?"
That resolve had been tested time and again.
Eidel was the son of the Rheinland family's first wife.
They said the first wife had died from postpartum complications after giving birth to him.
Was it because he grew up without a mother?
His behavior was vicious.
Whenever he had the chance, he would hit her, hurl insults, and steal her allowance.
She hated him to death.
But even so, she could endure it.
Those were only surface-level problems.
What she truly could not endure was when he dismissed her dreams.
"Stop doing that dog-like nonsense and live an ordinary life. What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Around the age of ten, when she declared that she would one day become a conglomerate head and rise to the position of Rheinland family head, those were the words Eidel had spoken.
Even after several years, Eidel's attitude remained unchanged.
No—his personality had only grown more broken.
He tormented her, tormented her, and tormented her again.
At some point, she stopped thinking of him as her older brother.
That was when she stopped considering Eidel family.
What about the others, then?
Father, mother, her other siblings?
"We're busy, Seti. If you need anything, just tell the android here."
Her parents always used work as an excuse to avoid showing their faces.
She had thought it was because both were doctors, but it went far beyond that.
There were times when they did not return home for over a year.
And that was not all.
The other two siblings, excluding Eidel, also subtly avoided Seti.
Later, she realized it was because they saw her as a threat.
The position of family head felt impossibly distant.
At some point, Seti began harboring the unsettling thought that she was being ostracized by her own family.
The only one who had supported her was the android Bella.
But even she was ultimately just a robot.
A machine that only moved according to its programming.
In the end, she had no true family. Seti was someone who could never, under any circumstances, receive love from her blood relatives.
"O-oppa, stop! It hurts! It hurts, I said! Waaah…"
There were many days when she was left alone with Eidel, who was close in age.
The memory of Eidel grabbing her hair and tormenting her.
She wanted to die. She wanted to kill him.
A torrent of negative emotions exploded like fireworks in her mind.
No, wait a moment.
This was not right.
Recently, she had not felt these kinds of negative emotions…
She did not know.
Seti's consciousness faded to black.
Massive change in Fron detected!
'The God of Wisdom and Curiosity' is displeased.
What she had feared was beginning to happen.
Far away, from where the students were gathered, jet-black tentacles were radiating outward. The sight resembled a growing sea urchin.
No one had time to grasp the situation.
The bodies of the students closest to it were pierced through.
"Instructor Naire!"
"I know."
Instructor Naire drew her plasma sword and shouted.
"All units, prepare for combat!"
In an instant, the fourth ship descended into chaos.
In truth, right after their brief conversation, they had intended to warn the students that an Outer God attack might occur.
Before they could even do that, this disaster had unfolded.
It was the worst possible situation.
But it was not as if they were completely unable to respond.
"Everyone, head to the orbital elevator!"
Under the androids' control, a considerable number of students evacuated.
The injured students were quickly extracted by rescue teams.
It was not certain, but there were still no fatalities.
The Federation's medical technology was advanced enough to revive even brain-dead patients, so ordinary injuries would not be fatal.
She had to believe that.
"Find the Avatars and cut them down!"
Naire shouted.
While slicing through the tentacles flying toward the escape route, she calmly directed the soldiers.
As expected of a Great Omega Class swordsman.
Even though the situation had just erupted, she handled everything without panic.
"Young master, please evacuate."
Sonia approached and spoke.
"If not now, there will be no opportunity to ensure your safety."
I looked around and asked.
"Where is Seti?"
"If it is Lady Seti, Bella is with her."
"I'll stay here until I meet Seti."
Sonia frowned.
"That will not do. Young master, you must at least survive first…"
"Sonia."
I raised my hand to stop her.
"She's my family."
"……"
"As long as we share the surname Rheinland, she is family."
"……"
"Does it make sense for blood-related siblings to abandon each other and run?"
"You would have said the same thing just a year ago."
Even in this situation, she had to get a jab in. That was just like Sonia.
I gave a faint smile and stood close beside Naire, waiting.
After waiting for a few minutes, someone came running toward us in a panic.
"Bella!"
It was Bella, Seti's personal android.
She collapsed in front of me and bowed her head.
"I have committed a grave sin, young master!"
"What?"
"L-Lady Seti! Lady Seti…!"
Upon hearing the story, I staggered for a moment.
My mind would not clear.
Even after having hundreds of thousands of Fron injected into me by Cartesia as compensation, I had never felt this dizzy.
"Where? Where is she?"
I asked.
"Th-that is…"
"Speak quickly!"
"…Hic, hic! She left the bridge and headed for the captain's quarters!"
"The captain's quarters…?"
I looked ahead.
The veteran swordsmen who had come with Instructor Naire were skillfully cutting down the tentacle vines that had formed a nest, securing visibility.
At the end of that line of sight was the door leading to the captain's quarters.
Just as I was about to break into a run, Naire grabbed my wrist.
"You idiot! Where do you think you're going?"
"The captain's quarters!"
"Do you want to die? Leave it to us and get down to the surface! Now!"
I shook my head.
"……She's my little sister."
Right after possessing this body in this world, I had made a resolution.
At the very least, I would clean up the mess Eidel had made.
I would restore the shattered relationships to at least above average.
Seti was one of them.
I had only just thought we had returned to a normal sibling relationship, and now she was going to die here?
No.
I would never allow that.
"……"
I glared at Naire with determined eyes.
She let out a sigh and moved her lips.
"Don't go without a plan."
"I have a plan."
I answered.
"It's a bit extreme, so don't be surprised."
Captain's quarters.
Beyond the transparent reinforced glass, a beautiful view of the Milky Way was reflected.
The girl gazed at the scene and lowered her hand.
Thud.
The two androids serving as captain and first mate collapsed powerlessly.
One had its head split open, and the other was cleaved in half.
"……Heh."
The girl's lips twisted grotesquely.
Her eyes were unfocused and hazy.
Saliva dripped from her mouth.
Her limbs swayed unsteadily, and around her, sharp wire-like tentacles writhed like heat haze.
Her movements were loose, as if she were on cocaine.
Possession.
The silver-haired, golden-eyed girl—Seti von Adelbain Rheinland. Popurus, the Outer God, had possessed her body.
["Success."]
She reviewed the plan.
There were two objectives.
The first was to eliminate the human who harbored the absurd dream of developing a Graviton Bomb.
The second was to defeat the cowardly Outer God existing in this remote galaxy and obtain a new home.
By doing so, she would seize the immense energy emitted by the galaxy.
In truth, the first and second objectives were interconnected.
Because that boy and the Outer God were linked.
She did not know how it had happened, but the Outer God was failing to properly control even a single lower lifeform.
Even she herself had found it this easy to seize a human's mind.
It was undoubtedly a weak Outer God.
Popurus manipulated the girl's—Seti's—body loosely and thought.
Through this girl, she would shake the boy's mentality, then exploit the mental gap to seize his body as well.
Then, traveling backward through the boy's cerebral cortex, she would invade the black hole where the local boss resided.
That would have been the cleanest way to win.
The Avatars only moved once that method had failed.
"……So you've come."
Thud! The door to the captain's quarters opened, revealing two people.
A Great Omega Class swordsman.
And the boy who was the target for elimination.
The swordsman was quite troublesome. She had far too many connections behind her.
At least several billion.
Honestly, if it were her main body, it might be different, but facing her with an Avatar was pushing it.
The Omega Class swordsman, Naire, asked Eidel.
"Is that child your sister?"
"Yes, she is my sister."
Popurus, who had been remotely controlling Seti, let out a snicker.
She had rummaged through the recent memories of the people on the ship, considering who would deal the greatest blow to the boy if possessed.
After searching and searching, she had found this girl.
It seemed they had been on good terms for at least several months.
Of course, the memories before that were as filthy as excrement, but whether human or Outer God, what mattered was the present.
Blood relatives, was it?
She was the most delicious prey imaginable.
Popurus decided to begin the act she had planned.
Step.
"O-oppa…"
Using her mouth, she uttered a single word.
"I-it's me… me…"
She dragged out the end of her sentence like someone on the verge of death.
Surely this would make him waver.
After all, it was something his one and only precious little sister was saying.
Even knowing she had become an Avatar, even knowing she could never return to normal, he would hesitate to attack, thinking there might still be a chance to save her since some ego remained.
Unfortunately, there was no way to save her.
Physical control was complete, and her Fron level had been left barely clinging to life.
She was essentially in a brain-dead state.
Seeing this as an opening, Popurus immediately deployed her tentacles.
"What a pathetic trick."
Whoosh!
Naire swung her sword and sliced through the attacking tentacles in a single stroke.
Her expression was indifferent, as if she had faced such monsters countless times before.
And her skill was outstanding enough to justify that expression.
"……"
Even for Popurus, enduring an assault imbued with the wills of dozens of constellations was slightly burdensome.
Moving an Avatar to fight made it even more difficult.
That was why she had chosen the cramped captain's quarters to leverage the terrain advantage.
The steel tentacles she deployed could freely bend and slide even in such a space, always aiming for blind spots.
On the other hand, if Naire used a powerful technique with full intent, the hull would be torn apart, making the situation even more disadvantageous.
She was certain of victory.
"Heh."
Popurus deployed her tentacles once more and observed the face of the lower lifeform called Eidel or whatever.
Soon after, Naire swept away the second wave of tentacles—
And in that gap, Eidel had closed the distance to right in front of her.
"……Oppa?"
Popurus, sensing something strange, tried to create distance in a hurry, but it was already too late.
A caliper was falling toward Seti's head.