"Ladies and gentleman, I've called this meeting to announce some bad news. We have a traitor situation on our hands." Roxan sets down a stack a papers.

"This was found on a merchant's caravan exiting the city just today, and there is an unbelievable amount of intel inside, lots of it are stuff that only we would know, so... Whoever you are, if you come clean within the next 5 minutes we will not execute you."

Roxan goes silent.

I look around, looking at everyone's faces and eyes, trying to get a read on their emotions from their facial expressions. I notice quickly that nearly everyone in the room was also trying to do this as well. A lot of them looking at me.

After 5 minutes of uncomfortable shifting, Roxan opens his mouth once more.

"Alright, whoever you are, you just lost any chance of mercy. A person in this room will die in the next week and that's a promise." Roxan snarls.

"Could it be you Roxan? I could see someone like you selling us out to survive." Rainel says from the corner of the room, a curved grin on his face.

"Rainel, now is not the time to throw accusations at people you don't like..." Hanafin warns him, then continues speaking. "Actually yea, make that a message for all of you. Our goal right now is to weed out the traitor, not a political opponent, set your personal vendettas aside right now; this is an emergency, not an opportunity."

"Couldn't have said it better myself Prince, don't be foolish, and unfortunately, for this situation we can't continue to operate under this fragmented equal-say system. A leader needs to step in to keep everybody in check." Roxan says.

I smile a little bit under the irony of his words. 'don't use this situation to your advantage, but we also need to give all the power to a single person.'

"Why are you smiling there Tetsudo? Find something funny?" A person in the room immediately notices my face.

"Nothing, nothing." I mumble and try to drop my smile immediately but the entire room's attention had already been deflected to me.

"Nah it's too late, even removing all personal feelings you are by far the most suspicious one in the entire room. Nobody knows what you were doing that month and a half away. You say you were taking the time to travel but can't Tetsudos fly?"

The whole room looks at me for a couple seconds.

"Permission to speak?" I look straight into Roxan eyes as I say this.

"Yes, state your piece." He replies, holding a similar stare back.

"First of all, I've noticed that nobody here has their weapons on them right now, you leave them outside the room in an act of good faith correct?" I see some nods, then hold up my hand. "This hand right here is my weapon. I ended the life of more than 400 people at once back on the battlefield using these, and they are not sheathed right now. The war can end right now if I choose so, all of you burn to death, Oliviand wins. So I am grateful that more than half of you decided to put your trust in me, so please, continue on, I don't believe I need to state the obvious here."

"That's true, but I wonder if you're emotionally attached to a certain person here? I wouldn't want to kill someone I'm in love with after all." Roxan says.

"Roxan that's enough." Yesenia speaks up.

"All I'm saying is that you may be the only reason this dog hasn't gone rabid yet." Roxan says slyly.

"I personally vouch for Cain, I know those words don't mean much given the type of person I am, but I've witnessed firsthand how strong his honor and values are; he will not betray us."

I shrivel slightly in the face of that statement. The characterization wasn't quite accurate anymore.

"I agree with Yesenia, Cain is very loyal, I doubt he would be the traitor." Stronl speaks up.

"Then if I told him to kill himself right now would he do it?" A man in the back said jokingly.

At that moment time froze. He doesn't know it but he's given me a great opportunity, but... if something goes wrong... No, no point in having to think about this, I'm a tool after all. I empty my mind of all doubts and plunge my hand through a porcelain vase, on the table, shattering it immediately.

Don't think, don't think, don't think, I grab a shard then plunge it into the veins of my wrist, causing blood to come out profusely.

"Cain stop! Don't you fucking dare!" Yesenia panics and immediately grabs my wrist and covers it up with her hand, blood oozing through her fingers.

"Come on... come on... first step was to connect the vessels back to each other." Yesenia closes her eyes and begins focusing.

"I don't believe I've made this clear enough. I am a tool and tools do not have free will. I will do whatever you ask me to do without taking into account any of my personal goals."

"Stop moving! I can't concentrate." Yesenia shouts.

The room sits in silence as Yesenia continues trying to seal my wound.

"Why would you be that stupid." She murmurs.

"Self harm to prove a point, I know, very stupid." I say in reply.

"Of course it is, why—" Yesenia immediately shuts up as she realizes the subtext beneath my words. "I'm allowed to do it, you aren't." She then says.

I wait for an explanation further, but she leaves it at that.

"...Alright, I believe the boy has proven himself enough. Why don't we talk about how who we're going to elect as the leader." A man near me suggests.

I lay down on a windowsill a pillow propped on my head, my face pale and my body exhausted after losing so much blood. The arguments have been going on for the past eight hours already with no end in sight.

I smile bitterly at the ceiling.

"Like I said, the leader will only be in power until the crisis is over, what do you not get about this!"

"Oh yea? And what's going to stop them from keeping their power after the crisis?"

Forty damn people, I'm surprised they've been able to make any decisions at all over the last couple of years. I stare aimlessly at the ceiling as the arguments continue.

"Are you bored? I'm getting pretty bored." Stronl walks up to my windowsill and sits down.

"Is it always like this?" I ask.

"We've had longer arguments over smaller problems, this system does not work in wartime, there are way too many egos clashing to get anything done decisively."

"Everyone must see this issue too surely right?"

"Everyone does, just that nobody trusts each other to lead effectively. It's a miracle in itself that Yesenia managed to become the person in charge of the arrival of the Tetsudo. We were arguing over that for damn weeks."

"And why don't you join them?"

"I used too but... I realized how pointless most of it was. See there? Crux and Rainel and a couple of other guys are also not paying attention."

"I see... How would you personally deal with this situation if you had the opportunity?" I then ask.

"That's a hard question... I think... I think I would give leadership to Yesenia and Hanafin, as they are the only two fully trustworthy leaders here right now. The rest of them would be assigned to maintaining specific aspects of our country. If the traitor continues to leak then, at least the traitor won't know the full extent of our secrets, and if the leaks get discovered again, we'll know exactly who the traitor is."

"You know... I was a prince back at home, from the royal family, and we had a traitor once."

"Oh?" Stronl eyes perk up in interest.

"My father was the king, and he did not let other people have a say in important decisions, he simply threw all his advisors in jail. Before launching an incredibly dense investigation that questioned families, searched through their houses, searched through private records, and in three days the traitor would be found just like that."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that he was able to lead via absolute unyielding strength. He was a horrible peacetime leader, but during a famine... except one thing he did... he managed to somehow create food out of thin air so the people wouldn't starve. He was like a miracle worker in negotiations and trade with other countries... So what I'm saying is that, right now, absolute strength is needed if you guys want to survive the crisis. Deny the opposition the chance to even speak."

"So you want me or somebody to take the leadership by force? That would cause so much more problems in the long term than if we just argued all day."

"No... I don't think you understand what absolute strength is like."

At that moment the twin great doors to the room slowly opened..

Every single piece of hair on my arms and legs stand up straight, adrenaline rapidly filling my bloodstream, a chill spreading throughout my entire body, paralyzing all my muscles. Stronl was still looking at me confused, and the majority of the room was still arguing. I look to the rest of the room, most of them were still arguing. None of them noticed the monstrosity that had just walked into the room. Except for Rainel and Crux, who were both on edge, staring at the door intently.

A beautiful young woman with long hair slowly crosses into the room. Yet only us three were aware of her presence, nobody else having noticed her.

"Stronl who the fuck is that." I say after the initial feeling of shock, able to speak again.

"What are you talking abou—" Stronl's breath catches in her throat as she also notices the girl. Unable to speak, she also couldn't do anything but just stare at her.

The girl walks slowly across the slate tiles, stopping before the table. She pulls out a chair, sits on it, then leans her feet on the table.

"Hey who the hell is putting their feet..." The whole room goes quiet as they notice the girl that had just effortlessly walked into the room.

"Man, I hate it when people do this. Can't ya'll just see me as some normal cute girl. No need for the shock and awe everywhere I go. It was fun at first but now it's just annoying."

...

"Hmm? Is nobody going to talk? Am I going to have to put up a one woe - man show here? I'm not very good at talking to people you know. Though I do like talking to people."

This must be that 'greatest anku user in the world' Stronl told me about. I look at her with interest, she glances back at me and grins.

"You there! Lying on the windowsill you seem to be able to talk right now, how are things going around here?"

"Aw, I hoped you wouldn't have noticed." Her presence was indeed terrifying, but it was just a tiny step down from the presence my father used to exude.

"Are you that girl? That proclaimed strongest anku user in the world?" I ask her.

"Yep, that's me! My name is Celestia, and I'm here to fight." She slams her fists together, making a large pop from instantly breaking the sound barrier.

I look around to see if anyone else had regained their wits yet, as she was providing everybody their greatest opportunity to control the situation yet. "Unfortunately, I'm not the greatest person to talk to for matters like these, so if anyone else around here has a mouth, now’s your chance." I say.

"I... Uh—"

"Celestia the powerful, if you are willing to lend us your aid. Then we have a traitor situation on our hands, if you are willing to follow my directions.” Crux instantly speaks up, his voice a little shaky but strong, also interrupting Roxan.

“Ohhh, so that’s why.” Celestia mumbles to herself. “Sure what do you want me to do?” Celestia then proclaims.

“There are forty-one of us in this room, and we do not have a leader to guide us through the emergency. I want you to pick someone here. Someone you deem most trustworthy to lead and put your full support behind them.”

Celestia goes quiet and stares down each member of the room individually.

“Issue is… I already know exactly who the traitor is.” She suddenly flicks her eyes to Roxan as she says this.

“Alright, that was just a bluff, but a particular someone’s heart-rate just shot up significantly when I said that.”

She scours the room for a couple more seconds.

“Alright, I’ve made my decision, you there.” She then points at Crux. “You’re the leader.”