The pirates are approaching and Zilva is nowhere to be found. Where the pirate ship was around 15 meters, they hook the merchant vessels where the King of Verlaine Daara the 19th and Princess Rosaria is aboard.

“I’m going ahead, Princess.”

Bowing to her, he vanishes himself as he leaps into the Pirate Ship.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!! Take all of their belongings!! While that ship isn’t here, take all of their belongings and women!!”

“H-Hey!! Boss!! We got a big shot!!”

Looking at the sight of the King of Verlaine Daara the 19th and Crown Princess Verlaine, it even makes the Pirate Leader delighted.

“Woohoo!! We got a big bounty!! Let’s capture them and ask for a huge ransom from their country! Everyone, CHAARRGG…ee??”

When the Princess is praying for the safety of the ship, the Pirate Captain felt something is probing his chest. Looking down at it, he can see his own heart being shoved out. In fear, he looks back but no one was there.

“Ah… Ahh….”

“Boss!!!”

The heart was shoved clean, without any blood spraying out from it. When his heart was crushed, he fell into the deck.

THUD!

“T-The boss is gone!!”

“W-Where are you, you bastard?!”

They are getting close to the Verlaine ship, hoping to expose the assassin when they capture the Verlaine’s Sovereign. But, there were another two fighters who got their heart pierced again, one is slightly having its blood spilled while the other is looking at the heart itself.

“G-gaahhh…”

When the camouflage is worn off, they saw two people wearing a mask are crushing two of their crew’s heart.

“T-There they are!! Kill them!!”

But, when the ship manages to get alongside the Verlaine’s ship, the crews are occupied by trying to eliminate Shiki and Zilva. Every time they try to swing a sword to them, they can felt their heart is being taken and crushed. One by one, the crew on the other ship witness on how they are being easily killed by just two people.

“N-No… I didn’t sign up for this!! Turn back!! Turn back!!”

On Shiki’s side, they’ve just finished mopping things up.

“Sir, we’ve found lots of stolen goods.”

“Did you seize it?”

“Yes. I’ve put all of them inside item box storage.”

“Good. I will destroy this ship. Move to the next one and tell them that they will surrender or they will die. Running away is not an option.”

“Yes, sir.”

Zilva immediately leaps to the next boat while Shiki is using his Mystic Eyes abilities to cut the ship into pieces. Normally well-trained swordsman can cut it clean in half, but for Shiki, his eyes possess another serious threat. Given the title of the “Entity Killer,” Shiki can eliminate anything he wishes for using the Mystic Eyes ability. At first, the Main Council was called to eliminate him, but later, after some talk between Sacchito and Shiki face-to-face, Shiki agreed to work with him with the condition is to keep him at the seat of the Celestina Imperial Intelligence Agency Supreme Commander of the Zealot Strike Force.

Because of Shiki’s specialty as an assassin and once serve under Sacchito’s father as the Leader of the Special Operations unit, Sacchito entrusts the Zealot Strike Force to him while Maya will act as Chief of Staff or Second-in-Command of the Zealot Strike Force.

When Zilva reaches the second ship, she wears a steel claw glove on her left hand and immediately cuts the pirates down. The pirate trembles in fear as none of their attacks are working on her as she just simply dodged it.

“T-the ship!!”

They saw the ship operated by the ship’s captain is being split into many small parts. A man immediately jumps to the second ship and he points at them with his sword.

“Surrender or I will kill all of you. Running away is not an option.”

“Sir, the third ship.”

“The Coast Guard is here…”

BOOM!!!

The Coast Guard that was equipped with M39 Gauss Turret is attacking the third pirate ship. They intentionally miss the target by a margin of 10 centimeters.

“Drop your weapons or we will fire on you!! Drop your weapons!!”

“H-Have mercy, sir!!”

The pirates drop their weapon and surrendered to Shiki and Celestina Coast Guard. When returning to the Verlaine’s ship, Rosaria was amazed to see how Shiki and Zilva do to the pirates.

“Y-you two are really powerful…!!”

“Thank you for your compliment, Ma’am.”

“Just w-where did you came from?”

“We’re from Zealot Strike Force, the Special Operations that operate behind the lines.”

With the Coast Guard is apprehending the pirates, the ship now can safely reach the Port town Mayhark before being transferred into Celestina’s Cruise Ship for evacuation to Celestina. At 20th October 1523, they immediately depart for the Celestina Empire as soon as they disembark. When arriving two days later, Shiki and Zilva escort them to their refugee place, Scarlet Palace before heading to the Hereford for meeting with the Zealots.

Celestina Empire, Capital of Byade, Morroc, Celestina Zealot Strike Force Detention Center

Inside the Detention Center, there were a lot of screams inside each of the cells. It was a scream from the spies where their cover was blown by Celestina’s Zealot Strike Force and Intelligence Team. Inside the detention Center, Maya’s adjutant, Hakuren, is brainwashing Gra Valkas’s spies.

“Uuugghh…”

“Hold him steady.”

“Uaaaarrgghh!!!”

The spies from the Gra Valkas Empire that were captured during infiltration to any countries that have managed to develop a diplomatic relationship with Celestina Empire are teleported into the Detention Center and immediately placed into the cells.

The capture methods are simple. Cecilia’s team will track the spies to find their hideout. Maya’s team will infiltrate some of the bugs that have paralysis and sleeping poison, dipping it into their drink and immobilize them once the hideout was found.

Once the spies are asleep and paralyzed, Lyrallei’s team will extract it through the teleportation to Detention Center. On that center, they will be receiving temporary antidote to wake them up and begin the brainwashing process.

“Fuuuhh…”

Hakuren wipes her sweat around her face after completing the brainwashing process. She also inserts a mosquito-sized bug into the brain through its ears to ensure any information about Celestina’s technology and civilization level can be manipulated for Celestina’s benefits except for any information obtained by the books. The operation will continue until the diplomat visits the Celestina Empire in person.

“Send them back to where they sleep and make sure they forget everything about what happened here!”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

Ever since they’ve been teleported into this New World, they feel like they’ve returned to the first job where the Empire had just been found. Some of the Zealot Strike Force members are Valkyries, so the new ones are often asking the advice from the Valkyries.

The Detention Center runs by the Zealot Strike Force was one of the notorious facilities held by the Celestina Imperial Intelligence Security Agency. Prisoners who were released after completing their punishment tell how dreadful a facility is. The truth just keeps coming until the outlaws have an infamous nickname for the Detention Facility operated by Celestina Zealot Strike Force, it’s known as “Detention of Hell and Nightmares.”

Most of the notorious outlaw that are detained at the Detention Center refuses to lay its hand on the Celestina Empire once again. Instead, they choose to pick the Empire as a stopping and resupply point to where they will never commit any atrocities or any crime against any of Celestina Citizens. Although they may be a fugitive that was listed on the galaxy, as long as they did not mess with the Celestina Empire, they will not be captured at the Celestina Empire.

Celestina Zealot Strike Force, they run every errand from behind the scenes. Espionage, infiltration, disguise, assassination, and heist. It is what they do from behind the scenes. Each of the Zealot Strike Team has a unique specialty. Four known units are famous at Zealot Strike Force. They are the units that are led by Lyrallei Windrunner, Tohriu Shiki, Maya Lyliat, and Cecilia Keyron.

Lyrallei’s unit is specialized in blending in with people. Silvano and Jill are tasked to infiltrate the Papaldia Empire to obtain intelligence and to find a possible person who can be used for the benefits of Celestina and the Papaldia Empire. Currently Silvano Shin Regal is the Chief Clerk of the 3rd Foreign Affairs Department while Jill was the High-class maid, serving Emperor Ludius exclusively as his personal maid.

Cecilia’s unit is specialized in blending in with nature and long-range assassination. Every espionage that was held at the possible hidden place is bugged by her unit. This includes determining whether there was a spy or not. If they do found it, they will track it down to the settlement and capture it silently before handed over to Maya’s unit.

Maya’s unit is specialized in manipulation such as memories of the victims, indirect assassination, and giving false information about Celestina. Any captured spy will be brainwashed by Maya’s unit without exception. The assassination also utilized bugs that can produce such poison to eliminate the threats, mainly through food poisoning. They will cease the operation once the diplomatic relationship was formed and they will be in charge to maintain securities.

Shiki’s unit is specialized in assassination, particularly direct assassination. However, the assassination was very silent and it was very lethal. They do it in a flash where the camera won’t even detect it. Currently, Tohriu Shiki, the leader of his Strike Force, and Zilva Silverain are the ones who accompany Princess Rosaria and King Daara along with maids and retainers to Celestina to seek refugee.

Celestina Empire, Capital of Natunia, Hereford, Celestina Imperial Intelligence Security Agency Main Headquarters, 25th October 1523

All the chiefs of each unit that was assigned at the Zealot Strike Force are gathered, including Shiki, Maya, Cecilia, and Lyrallei. They discuss the matters about their next plan for the Celestina Empire.

“Now, I will begin the meeting.”

Opening the meeting, Shiki opens the list of the current operation they made.

“Reports from Lieutenant Silvano Shin Regal and Lieutenant Jill Wagner indicates that the Papaldia Empire has withdrawn from the Verlaine Islands, switching their main force with occupying force of at least two thousand personnel.

Also, the probes attached to the hull of the Grade Atlastar by Lieutenant Faira Desirae enable us to keep them on the track. Currently, their ship is kept going back and forth towards Leifor from their homeland, which they could be loading official personnel or has yet to make their move on the next target.”

Shiki points to where the Grade Atlastar currently is and also the map shows the movement of the Papaldia Empire that was captured from one of the ODP (Orbital Defense Platform) that was orbiting above the Verlaine Kingdom.

Celestina already deployed Rodenius Fleet that patrols around the Rodenius Sea, including the former Kingdom Louria that has been separated into at least two different countries following a brief period of the Civil War.

Looking at the current intel itself, Cecilia raises her hand for a question.

“So, how much we need to keep our information contained? Also, there is a possibility that they could bring back the books that we sold to the people at the bookstore.”

“We can limit the information only for the books and stuff like that. We can’t let them collect any confidential information that was not on the books. Their spies can be tricky, even to the point where when Maya’s team manage to discover one of the Gra Valkas spy memories where one of them is about to snoop around on how we get the road paving technology.”

“Ah, I remember that case. Hakuren already wipes that memory off.”

“So, here are our current objectives. We will carry on the usual duties at all front, but we need to start looking for any threats before we can snoop in around the southern front. Is there any report?”

Lyrallei raises her hand as she got a report.

“Yes?”

“Sir. Here’s the current intel I’ve been receiving.”

Lyrallei displays the current movements at the Southern Front, possibly close to where the possible enemy lies.

“First Company from Third Undine Corps reports that there are sighting of Sea Dragon guarding it. Also, we have confirmed that there was a nation further to the south-west of their position. We expect that they may conduct an isolationism policy to prevent any outsiders from coming in.”

Looking at the report of the sightings, Shiki’s interest perked up.

“Interesting…”

Looking at the possible threats ahead, surely it makes him understand why he got disturbed by a report that Celestina’s Zealot Strike Force can’t reach that land. It’s as the land itself was defended without leaving any single gap. It’s not like there were no casualties, rather, the Zealot Strike Force can’t find a gap to break it through. They can’t use any Orbital weapons since it will expose their true technology to the enemy.

“We will postpone snooping it around other than keeping an eye on them with Defense Platform. Even our population is abundant, that doesn’t mean we can sortie it there. Not to mention we dispatch a few of the S Rank Party above that are good on espionage to snoop around for information.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Alright, then. We will end this meeting.”

The Papaldia Empire, Imperial Capital Esthirant, Pardina Café

In this café, Jill and Silvano always meet up here during their day off. Jill as a high-class maid and serve under Emperor Ludius directly was allowed to be given two days off from a week’s work while for Silvano she only got a day off from work. Silvano pick Monday while Jill took Friday and Monday due to Saturday and Sunday are weekend and there are not many activities at the Officials.

The Emperor also sometimes took a rest and Jill was allowed to take an early leave if there was no service needed further until her shift is completed. Gathering at the café itself, they exchange their information and verify many things before they can send it in to the Command. They talk while playing chess, which was a liking of Silvano, the 5-times Celestina Imperial Chess Championship.

“What are the castles doing recently?”

“They’re in an uproar, just as Madam Alicia predicted.”

“The war will be close and have you secured the entrance site?”

“Yes. Everything is in place and the Palace Guards along with the Maids are not suspicious about it.”

“Good. I’ve also heard that Master Shiki is trying to get close to the Princess.”

“Oh, you mean Princess Rosaria?”

“Yes. Probably he doesn’t like being teased by His Grace Lexington all the times and… checkmate.”

Silvano makes a checkmate when Jill’s King was cornered. She sighs and eats the cake.

“You know, for once I want to beat you in a game of chess.”

“But you know that I like to play with brains, right?”

“At least, you need to hold back once in a while… Your superior could be irritated if they kept losing to you.”

“Oh. I’ve got a plan for that.”

Jill sighs a bit while she gives some of the money to Silvano.

“Pasos currency?”

“Yes. Probably you can give it to the Diplomat Team if they come back here. I bet the Grand Duchess wants to collect it and to examine these coins.”

“It sure is.”

Taking the money, Silvano looks around and she opens a transmitter in secret.

“I need Cecilia and Maya’s Strike Force to capture spies.”

Silvano and Jill figured out the spies, but they won’t make a move. They will leave that matter to the other team.

“Jill, let me know if there is more information from the palace.”

“Sure. Also, keep me updated from Foreign Affairs. Miss Lyrallei plans to infiltrate more agents into the Foreign Affairs Department and military to run a heist. Also, if you have a chance, buy all the slaves sold at the market and send them to the Celestina Empire.”

“What for—Ah, I see…”

Silvano realizes that Jill wants her to free as many slaves as she could, sending them to the Celestina Empire to take refugee.

Although Celestina does not practice slavery, they still do practice it but only as a form of punishment where the jail time is not going to be sufficient. Money Choker is one of the forms of the slavery punishment as people who embezzle the money and did not return it in full, will receive a money choker and the amount of money they need to pay is based on how much they embezzle it. Such convicts are immediately assigned to the “Orange Squad,” where they will join the people who work on the cleaning of the town such as cleaning the trash, sweeping the road, cleaning windows, and everything related to the daily activity with exception of some tasks that require professional to handle it.

“We will see each other again in a month.”

“Sure.”

As both part ways, the spies immediately tailed on them, but they were unfortunate as Cecilia and Maya’s Zealot Strike Force are already prepared to capture them when Jill and Silvano are heading to the alleyway to lure them into a trap. It was later they will be brainwashed and to revert their memories so they won’t remember about Jill and Silvano.

Celestina Empire, Imperial Capital of Natunia, Hereford, Forestry Special Assembly Drydock

Arcus is being taken into this place for the maintenance and at Natunia Territory, it houses several space warships such as Firefly-class Heavy Sniper Frigate. One of them is a Radar-class Prowler, specialized in reconnaissance. Since the territory belongs to Cecilia are specialized in here, any warships and types of equipment made for stealth and sniping are being produced here.

“How much do we need to wait for this maintenance?”

Lieutenant Faira, the captain of the Prowler Arcus is looking at the ship she’s commanding at.

“Three days, at least.”

“How come?”

“You didn’t de-icing it frequently does you?”

“Y-yeah…”

The engineer sighs as he gives a list of the damages around Arcus.

“You see this kind of damage. You need to always trigger the de-icing stuff or at least 30 minutes for every 3 hours. Even this material was made from Sage Ore, what we need to replace is the cable and stuff that was not made by a Sage Ore since you always go airborne almost like 24 hours a day. If this thing breaks, you won’t be able to use it efficiently.”

“I understand and… I’m sorry.”

“Fine. We will do the repairs right away.”

Leaving the drydock, the engineers are already working to give Arcus proper maintenance.

Natunia Seraphic Armory

Natunia Seraphic Armory, it is specialized in creating the equipment and materials fitted for stealth operations. The equipment belongs to the Special Operations and Zealot Strike Force, especially related to the stealth are being produced here. The company also produces an abundant amount of suppressor and materials fitted for sound suppression, to ensure the weapon was silent when firing. Years in the technology advance of the weaponry, it is still impossible to defeat the bow and arrow when it comes to stealth, but right now, they are very close to it.

“Looks like we’ve got a lot of work here. The Zealots have become active again.”

“Yeah. We also need to produce as much equipment and material as we could.”

One of the engineers shows the blueprint of the SAA (Special Assault Armor) fitted for a sniper, nicknamed Ballista. Cecilia already gave them a rough blueprint so they can start to make an actual one.

“Grand Duchess already gave us a rough design of this SAA, but we need to make sure it met the specifications she asked.”

“Yep, let’s get it to work then.”

At the same time, Cecilia arrives at the Armory Design Office.

“Attention to Grand Duchess of Natunia!”

The engineers stood up except those who are working on the tools as they can’t be interrupted at the moment. Cecilia had just finished meeting with the Zealot Strike Force and she immediately visits the Armory to know about the progress she asked a month ago.

“At ease.”

Going to the design room, Cecilia meets up with the designer and the engineers.

“So, have you manage to design the new armor I’ve requested?”

“So far, we’re about to develop a prototype. It also needs to be field-tested so it can be compatible with any weaponry that can support both long-range and close-quarter assassination.”

“Alright. Make use of it and please report if there are problems that need my assistance.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

With the meeting ends, the engineers immediately prepare to make a prototype.