Meanwhile, in the underground prison, two shadows stood concealed in the darkness.
“Looks like they’ve already escaped. No surprise there, of course.”
They stared down at the guard passed out on the floor in spectacularly cartoonish fashion.
“He’s out cold, it seems.”
“Yep. Totally zonked out.”
On the left was a woman with long lavender hair worn in braids—Nadine. Though she held a Healer’s staff, her roots as a proud Assassin were shining through; she was dressed head to toe in black, tight-fitting clothes, with concealed weapons hidden strategically all over her body.
Next to her stood a foxkin woman with thick, luxurious blonde hair—Katherine the Mage. The long sleeves of her shrine maiden uniform were tied up with a tasuki sash for increased range of movement.
Katherine, a Mage whose primary focus was long-range attacks. Nadine, a Healer with the stealth and close combat skills of an Assassin. In terms of offense, they had all the bases covered. However...
“Um... are you sure about this?” Asked Katherine hesitantly.
“Huh? About what?”
“You know... sneaking into the castle? I should think this is obvious, but what we’re doing is a capital offense.”
Nadine reached into her hip pouch and pulled out a series of tools and magical items with which she proceeded to carefully scan the floor and walls, searching for any trace of their party leader.
You see, after Tanya was arrested, Nadine had hatched a plan of her own. Granted, perhaps Tanya and Laplace were strong enough to rescue themselves without outside assistance, but even so... Tanya was the woman who, when Nadine pledged to serve as her blade in the shadows, told Nadine she was free to remain as a Healer, since it was the path she had chosen for herself. This one small comment had won Nadine’s loyalty, and ever since then, she wanted to help Tanya however she could.
“Shouldn’t you... think it through a little more?” she frowned.
Although Katherine had proven herself during Anca’s civil dispute, she was still only a temporary member. She was by no means obligated to expose herself to this level of risk.
“Excuse me?” Katherine snorted. Then she thrust out her chest. “I made this choice. And besides... it’s you guys we’re talking about.”
“Huh?”
“How could you forget? Your party leader went up on stage at the Sparring Tournament and gave that big speech about how all girls are allowed to dream of adventure, regardless of men or marriage or whatever.”
The memory of Tanya standing behind the podium flashed through Nadine’s mind. She hadn’t realized that her speech had touched someone so close to them.
“...I take it she won you over, too.”
“Yeah, something like that.”
But it wasn’t just Tanya; truth be told, Nadine had done a lot to win her over, too. Like that time during the Tournament, right after they’d just fought each other, when Nadine came to the restroom where Katherine was hiding in order to bring her a change of clothes. But before Katherine could say anything—
“Oh!” Nadine exclaimed, knocking on the cell wall in a careful, practiced way. “There’s a hidden door here!”
She pressed on each of the nearby bricks until finally, there was a dull clunk.
“Wh... What’s happening?!”
With a series of gravelly clacking sounds, the bricks slid away to reveal—
“It appears to be a secret staircase. Shall we?”
Nadine stepped down without further hesitation. But before Katherine could follow, she suddenly came to a stop—
“GOTCHA!!!”
Nadine whirled around, and a sharp gust of wind shot past Katherine’s cheek. She didn’t realize what had happened until the guardsman let out a yelp directly behind her, the tip of a throwing dagger embedded halfway through his palm.
“Wh... What the?!”
“That man was only pretending to be unconscious. He was looking up your, um, what’s it called... hakama skirt. Pretty gross, actually.”
“Excuse me?!? Fuck off, dude!!! Go do your job!!!”
If you knew there were intruders, why didn’t you go call for backup or something, you lazy twit?! Fueled by her contempt, Katherine swung her leg up—
“Guh!”
—and drove the hard part of her boot directly into his jaw. Once again, the guard passed out, this time with a copious nosebleed (but not the fun kind).
“Fuck you, you dirty old man!!!”
Then she flipped up her skirt.
“Too bad for you, I’m wearing compression shorts under here!”
The best thing about Laplace’s custom armor: full coverage.
✦ ✦ ✦
With infiltration expert Nadine leading the way, the two of them progressed deeper underground.
Down... down... down...
Katherine wasn’t used to sneaking around like this. But just as she nearly lost all sense of time—
“...What?!”
“What is this?!”
The narrow stairwell opened up—and what they saw made them shiver in fear.
Spell runes covered the walls surrounding rows upon rows of cylindrical tanks, each of them filled to the brim with some sort of pale, cloudy liquid. There, floating inside each tank, was a human—a little girl—sound asleep.
It was so sickening... so twisted. Katherine had studied a fair bit of magic, but even she couldn’t decipher the room’s intended purpose. All she knew for certain... was that this technology was unheard of in traditional sorcery.
“Ugh... We should go back, Nadine. This place doesn’t feel right!”
“Agreed!”
The two women took a step back. They needed to find the others—fast.