Three weeks since she had achieved her dream. Three weeks since she had bought this European castle. Three weeks since she had escaped Hope's Peak Academy and Monokuma's killing game with her classmates. Celeste didn't know how they did it, but they had all escaped that nightmare together, leaving the mastermind behind without bothering to look back. Of course, out of the goodness of her heart, she had given the others a place to stay in the castle with the money she got from Monokuma.
It was a nice life, even without having gotten any vampire servants yet. She could spend her days relaxing in her castle, being served tea by Yamada. His skill at preparing the tea had improved dramatically, to the point that she was considering him as a C-Rank now, maybe even a B-Rank if he keeps it up. Secretly, she did enjoy his company as he rambled about various anime and manga. On occasion, she had been tempted to start a conversation with him about some of the gambling-themed manga she had enjoyed, but always kept quiet. Taeko Yasuhiro enjoyed manga. Celestia Ludenburg had much more refined tastes.
The others had certainly made themselves at home as well. She frequently found Asahina swimming out in her moat, cracking jokes about being the crocodile. Togami pretty much buried himself in the library at all times, it brought to mind the way he had been acting before the second case. Owada and Ishimaru frequently hung out together, playing sports, watching movies, and generally having a blast. They would sometimes bring Fujisaki with them when he wasn't busy working on setting up the castle with some new tech. Enoshima had become something of a gossip friend. Somebody to talk about the girlier things that most of the others had no interest in, despite their differing tastes. She sometimes found Naegi and Kirigiri by themselves, light blushes on their faces, but she had been expecting their relationship to continue like this. She suspected ever since the first trial after Maizono's betrayal. Speaking of which, she had taken quite well to cooking, brandishing a large knife as she cut all kinds of vegetables, impaling them through the stomach. Wait, that wasn't right, that was Kuwata. Maizono tried cooking but only ended up cutting herself pretty badly. Now she just sang for the rest of them when they were all together.
Then there was Fukwawa and her alter-ego. She seemed content with just staring at Togami for now, but she was on guard. It wouldn't be much trouble for Ogami to take her out, and banish her from luxurious castle. It was strange that nobody ever seemed to hold long conversations with each other, only her. Not surprising though, she was the center of her world, and offering her new home. No wonder it was rare to ever see Hagakure chatting with Ishimaru, or Kuwata with Ogami. Not like they had the time to get to know each other before now.
Still, it sometimes felt like nobody was really there with her in this castle. Like she was all alone in this dark place without any of her friends. She could see them all right there, going about their business, doing everything that she remembered they did in Hope's Peak. She still felt a crushing sense of loneliness, no matter how many times she had told herself that they were all right there. They hadn't all been killed by the mastermind when she betrayed them, she hadn't killed Ishimaru and Yamada, she hadn't framed Yasuhiro for it; everybody was fine.
Maybe she should talk to Naegi? He had always been empathetic towards everybody. He would reassure that this all wasn't an illusion. That they were all real, and here in this castle with her. All of them happy to be together, and she wasn't actually alone in this massive castle.