“Anyone there!?”
“No, looks like a miss.”
“Then the next.”
“Yes……!”
Doors left open, we ran through the underground passage.
Past the cells, the basement extended further — small rooms connected like an ant hive on all sides. We were combing through.
We chose underground over above for several reasons.
On Lamdarb Island, Floné had built the [Body-Strengthening Extract] factory underground.
Andrews might similarly hide Alice below.
I, if in his position, wouldn’t leave someone of Alice’s ability above ground where she could easily escape.
That said, leaving the basement this defenseless is suspicious.
”…… Isn’t this strange, Ouga-kun?”
“Yeah…… no one here……?”
It might be we just keep drawing blanks.
But some rooms we’d opened still had signs of life.
Blankets thrown back as if someone got up in a hurry. A half-finished bottle on the table. A photo frame of someone smiling in black uniform.
Clear traces that people lived here recently — and yet we don’t pass anyone.
Could that happen?
”…… What do we do? We can still turn back.”
”…… No, only a few left. We push through.”
Can’t be half-hearted. Now’s the time for the original plan.
I never thought Andrews would prepare nothing.
We jumped into the enemy’s bosom knowing it was a trap.
Suppressing my anxiety, I opened the door in front.
The four-directional doors of before reduced to a single forward door.
“This is the last……”
If Alice isn’t beyond this, our plan fails.
We’d have been completely outwitted by Andrews; Alice’s fate sealed for Floné’s hands.
Please…… be here, Alice……!
Praying, I opened the door of fate.
What spread beyond was a shelter so vast you’d doubt it was underground.
Carved deep downward rather than out, securing height. We stood on what amounted to a catwalk.
Grey bare walls surrounded everything — a prison.
And in the center stood the very person we sought.
“Alice!”
I shouted her name; she looked up.
…… Thank god. Consciousness, at least.
The worst is avoided.
To share joy, I leapt the railing, landed on her floor — and Alice’s sword was at my face.
“Eh?”
“[Thunder]!”
A fringe of my front hair fluttered. A moment more — if Reina’s spell had been a moment slower, Alice’s stance would have been perfect, and what flew wouldn’t have been hair but my head.
A chill ran down my spine at the death possibility I’d just brushed.
“Are you all right, Ouga-kun!”
Reina landed beside me.
Her gaze at Alice carried both panic and hostility.
And Alice, sword ready, glared sharply at us.
”…… Suspicious — a prisoner without any cuffs.”
Wait, wait. ……What’s happening.
My confused mind could only squeeze out her name.
“Alice……?”
“Alice, Alice — who is that?”
It was as if a hammer struck me.
Her words made it clear. I understood.
Conduct impossible from the Alice in our memories. The method that enables it — we know.
”…… Dark-element magic.”
Already Floné? No — her mana volume…… we couldn’t have missed her presence.
Then how? Could Andrews……?
Questions and possibilities pouring out. My brain refused current understanding, escaped into thought.
But reality kept presenting only facts.
“Let me inform you. I am Chris Lagnica. Lord Juke Andrews’s blade. As a knight, I will exterminate trespassers.”
—— The bottomless-swamp-like crimson eyes that had lost their light glared at us.
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