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Hesta couldn't sleep again that night.

She hadn't expected that she would come to Silei with one troubling question, only to leave with another.

At the time, she had said, "That would never happen."

Silei had said, "That's why it's an 'if.'"

She had said, "I'll prevent that if from happening."

Silei had smiled and waved goodbye to her.

Lying alone in bed, Hesta began seriously considering that possibility. Could such a day really come? She couldn't imagine it.

Hesta went over her memories again and again, trying to find clues in her past. She realized that she and Miss Chiba had never truly clashed. There had only been a few scattered occasions when Chiba gave her advice she disliked, and she didn't follow it. Chiba never pressed the matter.

What kind of conflict could count as "standing at opposite ends"? Her position would have to conflict with Miss Chiba's, while also harming her real interests enough that she couldn't ignore it. The reverse was true as well. If, back when she had been single-mindedly planning her revenge, Miss Chiba had suddenly said, "Stop, Jane. We should trust the laws of the Habitable Zone and punish those evil people through proper procedures..." then Miss Chiba would have stood at the opposite end from her.

But how could that possibly happen?

She rarely found anything in Chiba that she couldn't tolerate. Whether it was their beliefs, temperaments, or ways of doing things, even when they occasionally disagreed over execution, she seemed to share the same principles with Miss Chiba.

Hesta turned over and considered another possibility. If one day she and Anna reached a point where neither could coexist with the other, then Chiba might indeed be forced to choose.

So what she should really avoid was a fight to the