- Kaiser's Scheme -

It was evening when they reached the ground and left the Floating Island.

When they saw a smoke coming from a direction, they had an ominous feeling and headed to the direction of the smoke immediately where they found Sachi and the others arrived earlier than them.

Charlotte was still surprised whenever she saw Daniel and Aka around. She still didn't expect the two of them will be following them until here. But she quickly forgot about her thought since her mind was now thinking about Rak, Ehwa and the swordsman.

From the looks of the ground, there must be a tough fight. There were also blood all around.

Charlotte was certain what happened here. It was the fight between Yeon, swordsman and Rak against one of the Ten Bosses, Arie Inieta.

Rak was the first to be unlucky to encounter one of the strongest Ten Bosses, Arie Inieta and fought against him bravely. When Yeon and the swordsman noticed that there were something wrong, the two of them rushed to help Rak but only made things worse.

The ignition sword that the swordsman owned had done Arie Inieta a great favor. An ignition sword on the hands of a swordsman from Arie Family had completely destroyed the chance for the three of them to win. The three of them ended up lost against Arie Inieta who snatched the sword and brought the three of them to Kaiser.

And right now, there was a high chance that they will be sold at the auction. 

If there was something else terrifying about this station, then it must be about this auction. The regulars whose name has been bought by a ranker should live as the ranker's property for the rest of their lives and if Rak, Yeon and the swordsman were bought by a ranker, there was a high chance that Charlotte and Bam would not be able to see them.

'We took the no- named on our side, so this must be a way for Kaiser to show us how scary this station could be. She wants to use them as a bait and look for a way to defeat Endorsi, me and brother. What a nuisance.'

"Crap...." she heard Khun was talking in stress. "I never thought that the alligator would get caught. I never imagined this would happen."

"We didn't think that they would get caught either. Did something happen to you guys too....?"

"Yeah....there's a bit trouble between us and the other companions who were...."

"Trouble.....?"

"Yeah...it looks like they're after Kaiser's name too...."

"What?!"

They have been crumbled from inside and now they were facing an enemy at outside. This was sure a tough situation.

"We may even end up fighting them..."

"....fighting them...? Are you saying we're going to have to fight our own companion to win Kaiser's name?!"

"Yeah....but I didn't think that things would get screwed up. I never thought that the alligator and those guys will get caught" Khun earnestly said.

The reason why the other two lords from Four Lords of FUG created by Xia Xia weren't kidnapped. It was because Hwaryun had seen this coming and purposely avoided the path that the others took and Sachi and his companions were considered strong that not all bosses dared to approach him.

"...I see..." said Novick. "So you guys came here for Kaiser's name too. If I had known this, I wouldn't cooperated with them."

After all, if Charlotte remembered it well, the leader of his team was still Khun. But now, they were opposing against each other.

"Forget it....you owe Isu for saving you...and we're able to get to Kaiser thanks to you guys."

"...So who captured Ehwa and Rak? It couldn't have been easy to take those two away" Bam asked.

"Arie Inieta" Charlotte answered. "Some years ago he came to this station. He might not be pure blood, but he is definitely one of the strongest Ten Bosses and Kaiser acknowledged his ability. During his fight against those three, that careless swordsman lost his ignition sword to him. Imagine how strong would an Arie be with an ignition sword."

"You sound as if you know about the details" said Daniel.

"Believe it or not, I also know that Arie Inieta wants to keep Rak as his pet" Charlotte added again. Seeing Bam's worried expression, she quickly added, "But Kaiser won't allow him since she's planning to sell the three of them at the auction. We still have the time to save them before that happens."

"Looks like we have someone else to watch out..." Khun responded.

"It's not entirely true" Charlotte said again with a smile. "When I had a short fight with Kaiser, I have tried to measure her ability. Brother still has the chance to defeat her and since Kaiser could defeat Inieta, that also means brother could win against him as well." 

But Charlotte was worried, that when they met Kaiser once more, the one who should be fighting against her wasn't her brother, but herself. She was unsure if she could defeat Kaiser with her current condition and she can't risk her life for this one. She should figure out a way so that Kaiser will be fighting against Bam and not her.

Before they could say a word, the ground seemed to be shaking.

Outside, they saw something rising.

"W- What's that?!"

"The gallery!" Charlotte answered. "It's rising right now!"

"That's to prepare for the festival to begin!"

"What...?! Preparing for the festival?!" Khun asked the Red Gramon, one of the named regulars there.

"Yeah, on the day of the festival, the gallery falls away from the station and becomes an isolated island. That way any regulars who aren't qualified to participate in the festival....are unable to even approach the gallery."

The gallery wasn't the only one that completely floated on the air. There was something else followed the gallery and floated on the air as well. According to the Red Gramon, it was the floating ships that carried the auctioneers who were invited to participate in the auction.

Eight floating ships will surround the floating island that rise with the gallery, on the eight floating ships, there were the auctioneers who came to participate and buy the regulars who caught their interest.

The festival will happen in an interesting way. To show how valuable the regulars were, they will be told to fight against each other, including their companions, to be able to demonstrate their skills and talent before leaving this place.

"...I see....so that's what the festival is. An event where people try to prove the auctioneers that they're better than each other....?" Khun concluded.

"Yes. Although whoever gathers the names of all the Ten Bosses may compete with Kaiser at the festival, of course....no one has challenged Kaiser for the last thousand years."

"This is an announcement for all of the named currently on the Name Hunt Station."

Khun recognized that voice. It was Kaiser's voice!

"The festival is expected to begin tomorrow at 5 in the floating island."

"What's this?" He was taken back when he saw the message at his pocket.

┌──── •✧• ────┐

Tomorrow night at five in the auction house.

Jue Viole Grace Vs Nox Vs Endorsi Zahard.

The winner will receive the items at auction.

└──── •✧• ────┘

"I've also prepared a special event along with the auction to make it more interesting for you all. There will be a fight between the two infamous slayer candidates and Zahard Princess!

The winner will have the right to take the names of the items up for auction. The loser will lose their name and be up for auction. .

It will certainly be interesting so I hope to see you all there. Any named person may watch the event, so if possible, I would like all of the named to be there.

If either of the three of them doesn't show up, the auction items will be all disposed of. That is all."

".....W- what is this?!"

"Jue Viole Grace, Nox and Endorsi Zahard are going to have a fight!?"

"What the heck is that Kaiser up to?!"

Then, they heard the sound of shattered glass and turned their heads around to see the source of the voice.

Charlotte was really pissed this time. First, Kaiser had hurt Endorsi. Second, now she wanted her future sister-in-law, her brother and her fight with each other. Third, Kaiser threatened the three of them with their friends.

She knew what Kaiser wanted. Kaiser wanted to show them how scary this station was. This was also a way for her to retaliate at them for making the no- named regulars rebelling and also a way for her to get rid of Zahard enemies. Kaiser wasn't aware that they were already crumbled from inside so she came up with the idea to make the three of them fight each other. But compared to the station, Charlotte thought that she was even scarier. Right now, she felt that she wanted to and could destroy this whole station and wreck this place.

Bam called her, "Charlotte, control your anger! Your hand is hurt now!"

She reversed the time.

The shattered pieces of the glass flew upwards from the floor and fixed themselves. The water also flew upwards and returned back to the glass while the drops of the blood that fell on the floor returned to her palm and her palm was then healed as if it wasn't hurt.

She threw the water outside and put the glass away.

"There" she showed her palm. "It's fine now."

"....."

'No matter how many times you think of it...the power of manipulating the time is indeed extraordinary' Khun thought.

There were three entrances to get to the festival. The two entrances were close with the place where the hostages were being kept. So Khun suggested them to be divided into three teams, two teams to seek the hostages and one team to fight against Kaiser. The regulars who held major grudges were willing to help them as well. He also added that just in case that their identities had been spread, they had to get changed.

Charlotte went to look for the White Chocolate members who were currently taking care of Noah and Altaira. Both of them had a fight earlier to vent out their anger and they were badly injured and needed rest. To say that they fought to vent out their anger, it looked like they were having a death match with each other considering how badly they were hurt.

Celeste had to stay behind since she was the only one who the two men will listen to. Estrella was willing to come with them and Raisin was willing to help. The two of them will join the hostages- seeker teams.

"Anyway, where is my fan?" Charlotte asked.

Estrella threw Charlotte's fan back to the owner who caught it single- handedly.

"You know, you said that your fan could control shinsu. I tried it but it did not work" Estrella said. "Are you sure that you aren't lying to me?"

"You've seen me fighting with this fan right? How could I be lying?"

"She tried to use your fan to blow some trees but she only ended up embarrassing herself" Raisin explained. "Maybe that fan only works on your hands."

"Is that so?"

Charlotte looked at her powerful yet mysterious fan.

Estrella let out a sigh, "What a shame. I was looking forward to blow an annoying red head with it but it didn't work on my hands at all."

"Are you trying to blow yourself?"

"Excuse me, but can't you see that my hair color is pink?"

'Loyalest companion....?'

Charlotte opened her fan and brushed the surface gently.

The simple and plain- looking fan only worked on her hands and not the hands of the others. This fan was starting to get more mysterious than what she thought.

"You might want to get changed right now" Celeste said to the three others. "I'm sure that you don't have that much time, don't you?"

Charlotte nodded and hummed.

"You're right" she agreed. "Then I'll get myself changed. The two of you will go and look for the others. They're probably discussing about it with the other regulars."