Chapter 109 Tower

Meanwhile, within the comfines of the city down below, Celine ran atop the rooftops without a care in the world.

The only thing that mattered to her right now was the place she was going to. The grand palace that is being held up high by a large mound, allowing it to look over everything it ruled besides the mountains and cliffs that surrounded it all.

As Celine got closer and closer, she started hearing sounds. The sound of children laughing and having fun, which greatly infuriated Celine.

After a few more rooftops, she saw where the noise was coming from.

She saw a group of children by the main gate of the palace. The guards, who were assigned to guard the gate and prevent entrance to those not allowed, are just standing on their pose as they watched the children play happily infront of them.

Aside from the group of children, an adult is in their mist. A man with a pair of deer antlers are playing with them.

He had a few children trying to scale his tall body, which he did noy try to remove, just keeping them safe and preventing them from falling.

But, this all changed when a kid touched his antlers. He picked them all of his back and carefully placed them onto the ground as he was saying. "No, no, no, no. No touching the antlers."

As the children began causing a tantrum, they asked. "Why?"

The man with the deer antlers, while posing gloriously, replied. "Cause they're only for the ladies."

Then, a young innocent girl said to him. "I'm a lady. Can I have a piggyback ride?"

To which the man with the antlers, looking a bit stumped, replied. "Sure..."

As the man knelt down allowing the little girl to climb onto his shoulders, the other children began to complain.

"What?! Why does she get a ride?! I want a ride."

"Yeah! We demand our mandatory piggyback ride!"

"Piggyback ride! Piggyback ride!"

The man nervously tried to calm the children down by saying. "Calm down. There only so much I can carry."

Then, a boy began climbing onto his back saying. "There so much space here! Charge me into battle, Elder brother!"

"Hey! No fair! I want to ride the pony!"

"I also want a go!"

"Wait, I'm supposed to be a deer, not a pretty pony. Wait! Stop trying to climb me! Aagh! Help their eating me alive!"

As the man with the deer antlers acted overdramatically, the children couldn't help but laugh and giggle.

Then, the man stood upright. Carefully holding onto the three children that managed to cling onto his back, he began to run, as fast and carefully as he can atleast, while shouting. "Special technique- Running away!"

As the man began the slowest escape in all of history, the children giggled as they shouted.

"Don't let him get away!"

"Oh no! He's too fast! We can't catch up to him!"

"Go for the legs!"

As the man took the children somewhere else to play, Celine, still on the rooftops, watched the entire thing with an expression that's so done with everything in life.

While still looking like this, Celine returned her attention to the palace.

She gazed upon it's mighty walls that prevents her from advancing to her goal, the tallest tower within the palace grounds.

As imposing as the walls are, with the aid of a running start, Celine left from the rooftops and onto the palace walls, clearing the massive distance between with a single leap.

Her hands, coated with her Lucile, she began scaling the walls with ease.

As she reach the overhang on the tower, she tucked her feet in, pressing it against the walls, before pushing while simultainously letting go.

As she flew away from the wall, with the threat of falling looming over her, she casually clung onto the overhang of the wall.

After securing her grip, she began scaling again with much care or effort.

As she was about to reach the top, she peaked her head over to see of there are people making rounds on top of the walls, only to be surprised at what she saw.

She saw a woman, with a pair of rather furry arms, leaning directly to her face while saying. "Sorry. But, we can't have you doing that."

The woman then offered Celine a hand, as she was still clinging onto the side of the wall, only for Celine to slap the woman's hand away with a bit of animosity.

But, before Celine could realize, a rope was tied to her wrist with the other end wrapped around a log, hanging on the other side of the wall where Celine is currently at.

The woman with the furry arms, without much hesitation, pushed the log down, pulling Celine onto the wall without her permission.

Luckly, before she went with the log hurling down onto the palace grounds, Celine managed to dig her fist onto the floors of the walls, stopping herself from falling.

It only got better for Celine when the woman cut the rope that attached Celine and the log. 

As the log fell down and landed within the log pile down below, Celine glared at the woman with anger.

As Celine stood up from the ground, ready to fight, to her surprise, the woman just raised her hands into the air saying. "I apologise for that. It was rather unsafe for you to just hang from the side of the wall."

Celine, completely ignoring the woman's words, charged at her with her fist ready.

As Celine threw a few normal punches, the woman with the furry arms casually dodged them while saying. "I'd like to ask you to stop. Otherwise, I would have to restrain you and interrogate you the hard way."

The woman's words were only met with punches thrown towards her face.

After dodging Celine's blows by backing away, the woman dug her fist onto a box placed beside the walls before sending the dust within towards Celine.

Seeing that some dust was just blown into her direction, Celine backed off, only for the woman to appear behind her and pull Celine's arms backwards.

"Aargh!" As Celine tried to break free from the woman's grasp, the woman grabbed a piece of rope that held some decoration for the walls before wrapping it around Celine's wrists.

After she did this, the woman backed away from Celine. But, to her surprise, Celine broke the rope directly from where it was nailed in place.

As Celine was getting ready to charge again, a few guards ran up the tower and approached the woman fron behind asking. "Miss Yasashi! Do you need help with the intruder?!"

To which the furry armed Yasashi replied. "No. Just back away and return to your post, I got this."

As the guards nervously backed away before going down the walls, Yasashi stared into Celine's sunglasses, which were staring directly at her.

She saw something else besides her reflection. She turned around, offering her back to Celine as she took a look at it.

"Ah! The main tower. I'm sorry to say, you are not allowed there." Yasashi said as she looked at the tallest tower.

But as she turned back to Celine, Celine took the opportunity to close the distance while Yasashi was distracted.

As Celine's arms were about to be covered by Lucile as she got ready to punch, Yasashi said to her calmly. "Maybe I could make an exception for you and take you there if you ask nicely."

Hearing this, Celine stopped her fist and backed off.

With a smile on her face, Yasashi said. "Seeing as your not the type to ask nicely. If you answer a few of my questions, I'll let you up there, sound good?"

With a bit of deliberation, Celine gave her a nod while still looking wary and angry.

Yasashi pointed her hand as she said. "Follow me."

A bit later, Yasashi, with Celine in tow, walked along the palace walls.

Celine, who were walking slightly behind Yasashi, felt the gazes of the inhabitants of the palace all gazing down onto her.

This, not only made Celine uncomfortable, it also made her incredibly agitated and angry.

After ascending a flight of stairs, they found themselves atop the tower. But to Yasashi's surprise, Celine wasn't done.

She climb onto the railing before climbing onto the roof. With a sigh, Yasashi followed.

Now, with both of them on top of the roof, they gazed down upon the cityscape that laid before them. But, Yasashi was the only one looking down, as Celine was looking high above the clouds and it's clear open skies.

After seeing Celine's expression calm down a bit, Yasashi let a few moments pass before she said. "My name's Yasashi. May I ask yours?"

"..."

"..."

"...Celine."

"Very well, Celine. Do you know what this place is?"

"I don't know, and I don't care." Celine replied as she continued to stare at the clear blue sky with the sun behind her.

"Well, for your own good. This is the royal palace, so you're not really allowed to just scale it's walls."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Celine."

"Fine, fine! I get it! I won't do it again! Now, shut up before I push you off!"

Yasashi merely smiled at Celine, not letting her thoughts show.

"That's a nice flower you got there, Celine."

While still looking up at the sky, a gust of wind blew Celine's hair into her view, allowing her to see the flower that has been placed into her hair.

With an extreme amount of speed, precision, power, and so much malicious intent, Celine took the flower off of her hair before crushing it in her hands.

Yasashi watched with a saddened face as she watched the petals of the once beautiful flower fall to the ground.

Celine saw how Yasashi reacted and somehow, it filled her with joy as she crossed her arms before staring back towards the sky.

As she did this, Yasashi asked. "Was all of that really necessary?"

With a satisfied smile on her face, Celine replied. "Yes..."

As the two of them laid on top of the roof, staring at the great blue sky while the sun continued to rise behind them, time seemed to fly before them.

With it now being afternoon, the two of them felt like it was time to go as the high noon sun was now bearing down onto them.

Before they headed down, Yasashi asked. "You're quite fond of the sky, aren't you, Celine?"

Looking down onto her hands, Celine replied calmly with an almost longing tone. "Yes, I find them quite beautiful."

Celine then picked herself off of the ground before walking towards the edge.

Seeing that Celine didn't seem to have the intention to stop, Yasashi, with a look of concern on her face, reached out towards her and grabbed her in the hand while shouting. "What are you doing?!"

Celine turned around, allowing Yasashi to stare into Celine's orange pupils and her blackened sclera for Celine, has taken her sunglasses off and hung them on her clothes.

Yasashi found herself looking at the eyes of a lonely person who looked like they have lost a lot in life, and are now on the brink of deciding to lose it all.

As Yasashi's heart felt like it was being stabbed multiple times the longer she stared into those eyes, they suddenly changed.

Coating themself in a layer of anger, Celine shook off Yasashi's hand off of her's as she shouted. "Let go off me!"

Yasashi, taken a bit back, backed away from Celine.

After realizing Yasashi was staring into her eyes, Celine put on her sunglasses before jumping inside the tower.

After realizing that Celine has left, Yasashi gave chase. She casted her eyes down the staircase of the tower as she watched Celine run down it.

With a look of genuine care, Yasashi called out. "Celine! Please stop!" To no avail.

Seeing as Celine had no intention of listening, Yasashi ran after her, running through the palace walls.

And after a bit of chasing, Celine just leapt off the walls without a hint of fear or hesitation.

Seeing this, Yasashi immediately looked over, only to see Celine running away completely fine along the rooftops.

As Yasashi breathed a sigh of relief, a few guards ran up to her, asking. "Miss Yasashi! Is everything alright?! Do we need to give chase?!"

Yasashi merely gave them a few sways of her head as she said. "Yes, everything is alright."

"There's also no need to chase after her. She isn't a threat to us, or anyone on that matter... only to herself."

"We got it, Miss Yasashi! We will then leave you to it!"

As the guards returned to their stations, Yasashi was left alone, on the palace walls, staring at the direction where Celine disappeared to with a genuine sad expression on her face.