Chapter 156 – You… Are…?!

"Out of the way! Move, R1... Rofi!"

Carol's furious, irritated shout echoed through the materials area, lined with cold metal walls.

But Rofi ignored the cry. She stood firm in the line of fire, arms spread wide, not moving an inch. Rofi was an extremely valuable "key specimen," and the guards, fingers on their triggers, could not risk hitting her by mistake; great hesitation and confusion spread among them.

"Letaria, hurry... go!"

"Rofi...!"

At the anguished voice of Rofi, who had turned her back to shield her with desperate resolve, Letaria bit her lip hard in frustration and helplessness.

A girl she had held hands with only a little while ago, played with, and shared just a little of her heart with. Letaria's feelings would not let her abandon that girl alone and flee by herself.

But... if I am caught as well now, even the path to rescuing her will be lost...!

Fierce conflict was nearly crushing her chest -- and in that very moment.

With a deafening crackle of discharge, the light of the large surveillance floodlights that had been blazing down on Letaria and the others vanished in an instant.

And that was not all. The emergency wall lighting and the hum of the defense systems that had covered the whole vast facility fell silent one after another, and the entire passage was suddenly swallowed in pitch darkness.

"What--?! What's happening?!"

"System down! The control network on the upper level has been forcibly cut off from the outside!"

In the dark, Carol's shaken voice and the confused footsteps of the guards bounced around.

"Letaria... run, quickly!"

Pushed on by Rofi's cry ringing out in the darkness, Letaria swallowed the tears that threatened to spill, wiped her eyes, and without looking back kicked off the ground at full speed into the depths of the dark.

◆◆◆

-- At that same moment, in the control room on the facility's uppermost level.

Beyond the heavy door, its electronic lock forcibly destroyed, security guards, knocked unconscious by precise shots to the neck, lay handcuffed to sturdy wall pipes. Scattered at their feet was the pitiful wreckage of a state-of-the-art guard robot, silenced, its internal frame physically destroyed from the inside.

In the hushed room, Lieutenant Priscilla Halevy brushed a small speck of dirt from her work gloves as if nothing had happened and calmly operated the hologram panel of the main console.

Once she had finished the necessary operations, she activated the bracelet terminal on her arm and opened an encrypted channel to Grain, who ought to be on the lower level.

"--Miss Priscilla! So this was your doing?!"

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Grain. I have rewritten the main server's security directly and forcibly shut off the power and internal comm network for the entire lower block. The automated defenses along the route to the data management room should now be completely offline. Please hurry there so that you do not run into any remaining guards."

"...You've got to be kidding me. You took down the control room's security and seized it, all by yourself...?"

The mutter that came through the comm clearly carried a twitch of nerves.

On the other side of the screen, he was surely breaking into a cold sweat over what a terrifying person a homeland-military special-forces operative could be. Priscilla paid his reaction no mind and went on with her usual soft smile.

"That completes the support. ...By the way, what has become of Miss Letaria?"

"Ah... well... it seems she found that Rofi girl, and she went off after her."

Grain told her without mentioning Letaria's magic.

"What did you say...?"

The gentle expression vanished from Priscilla's face in an instant, replaced by one of thought.

She worked the terminal and tried to trace Letaria's vitals and position, but on the monitor only a red "SIGNAL BLOCKED" warning blinked uselessly.

"...No good. The deepest part of the lower level is covered by a heavy jamming barrier. She may have stepped into a concealed area that even the surveillance cameras cannot reach from here."

"Damn... But all we can do is leave it to her."

"Yes... I will also shake up the systems from this control room and support her as much as I can."

◆◆◆

Priscilla's flawless covert work had thrown the enemy's entire pursuit net into panic, but for Letaria, who had escaped alone into the dark, the situation was still extremely bad.

What should I do... how should I act...?!

The route guidance on the simple map shown on her bracelet was barely alive, but outside communication was completely cut off, and she could not report her situation to Grain or Priscilla or ask for help.

Even if she headed for the dock as the map directed, the route might already be known, and if they were lying in ambush, she would be completely helpless.

At any rate, she had to hide somewhere out of sight and steady her breathing...!

Breathing raggedly, she struggled along a dim passage packed with intricately tangled pipes and containers. That her magical detection had dropped in accuracy from the severe fatigue only sharpened Letaria's impatience.

And just after she turned a corner--

From the darkness only a few meters ahead, the silhouette of a guard holding up a small light loomed into view.

Oh no--

Letaria caught her breath and was about to brace on reflex, when--

A sturdy arm shot out from a blind spot in the corridor wall and pulled her slender shoulders in with great force.

"Eek--?!"

With a weightless lurch her vision flipped, and she was dragged by force through a cold metal door into a storeroom piled high with materials.

A thick, large leather glove instantly covered the mouth of Letaria, who had been about to cry out in alarm.

"Quiet... Lady Letaria."

A low, calm, familiar man's voice sounded at her ear.

A few seconds later, once the heavy footsteps and the light of the guard searching outside the door had passed and faded into the distance, the hand was quietly lifted from her mouth.

Letaria hurriedly backed away to the wall as if to put distance between them and, bracing herself, looked up at the figure standing in the darkness.

There stood a towering giant of a man, far too well-built even compared with ordinary security guards.

"You... are...?!"