Chapter 93: Race Against Time

Chapter 93: Chapter 88 – Race Against Time

With Phaethon

“…did I come at a bad time?” Wise asks as he sweatdrops, watching the previously armed individual shake like a leaf while Rina threatens him with shock therapy via her Bangboos.

“Oh, don’t mind us. Our uninvited guest was just awake and planned on leaving without any permission. We were simply asking him to stay for a moment,” Rina says with a smile, but Wise could tell it’s not as innocent as she made it seem.

Not with her Bangboos floating and cackling as they launch static electricity at the guy, at least.

“Sir soldier, as a member of the rebel army, you should be well aware of the consequences you’ll face if we hand you over to the authority,” Lycaon says gently, but it seems more like a hidden threat as Lycaon shows his claws to the soldier. “If you simply tell us the truth of why you’re at the Ballet Twin, we may just let you go.”

“…well…our unit’s sponsor commissioned us to do…something on the roof of Tower B of the Ballet Twin…I didn’t know the specific details; I was just a grunt,” The soldier explains nervously. “A few of us were tasked to guard the perimeter, and we were told to keep anyone from getting too close to Tower B.”

“So, you’re the one causing the blackout,” Wise accuses.

“Yeah…we thought you were just a random explorer and were hoping we could scare you off. I didn’t expect you guys to bring the power back on so quickly.” The soldier explains. “Our leader immediately suspected you guys weren’t ordinary people and were probably here for the girl, so we lured those weird Ethereals here-!”

“Wait, that girl?” Wise asks in surprise before he looks a bit angry and grabs the man by the collar, surprising everyone. “Where’s Rain? What did you do to her!?”

“T-that little girl isn’t in any danger!” The soldier panicked. “S-she was with the squad leader on the roof of Tower B!”

“I take it you admitted you’re kidnapping Ms. Rain?” Lycaon says as he narrows his eyes, causing the soldier to nod rapidly. “Rina, keep pressing this man for details. Master Proxy, may we talk in private?”

“…yeah,” Wise agrees before letting go of the soldier, leaving the man at the hands of an electric mommy and her babies.

As they walk away, they hear the scream from the background, followed by the sound of electricity. If not for the soldier admitting they kidnapped his friend, Wise would at least spare a glance for him.

“I’m sure a person of your intellect knows what I’m going to ask, right?” Lycaon asks as Wise nods.

“You’re wondering if we might hide something,” Wise says as Lycaon glances at him.

“Rebels have occupied the Tower, and Ms Rain seems to be quite important to them. If you are reluctant to share information with us, it’s likely to impact our next move,” Lycaon explains, causing Wise to raise his eyebrow.

“Next move? Does that mean you’re still willing to work with us?” Wise asks curiously.

“I’m sure you understand that our employer is quite well-known in New Eridu. As the representative of our employer, if we depend on the Public Security for a simple task like property maintenance… Victoria Housekeeping cannot allow such idle gossip to arise, tarnishing our master’s reputation.” Lycaon explains. “And since we confirmed that Ms Rain is kidnapped, Victoria Housekeeping cannot stand by and watch criminals use our master’s property for such a misdeed. So, in other words, we share the same goal. As I said before, if you wish to work with us, I hope you’ll be honest with us.”

“… thank you, Sir Lycaon. I understand. We wished to keep Rain’s identity a secret, but now isn’t the time for that.” Wise says gratefully. “Rain is actually a hacker. We would be in trouble if you decided to seek Public Security for help.”

“…I see, if Ms Rain is a hacker, that means the kidnapper knew of her skills, and the Ballet Twin rooftop is a perfect place to transmit messages.” Lycaon muses. “Those thugs are still guarding the building, which means the mission is still ongoing. We need to save Rain as soon as possible. Otherwise, who knows what might happen…”

Both adults look at each other with grim expressions before they share a look of determination.

“Victoria Housekeeping is of the same mind. I’ll make preparations for the rescue; please wait for further contact.” Lycaon says as Wise nods in appreciation.

“Thank you…” Lycaon nods in response, then leaves in a hurry. As he left, Wise glanced at the sleeping Ellen in the corner with Corrin sitting beside her. He pulls out a bag of candy before approaching the girls to thank Ellen for saving Eous earlier.

————————————————————————————————————–

Meanwhile

With the Cunning Hares and PubSec Officers

“Wah!!! I don’t wanna die!” Nicole wails as she starts panicking. “I didn’t work so hard to escape poverty to only die terribly by the hands of crazy cults! And I’m too beautiful to die!!!”

“There’s no hope for us in the first place, Nicole. We were meant to be broke, but since we kept defying the law of nature, they punished us for this,” Anby says dejectedly, causing Nicole to look at her incredulously and start shaking her like crazy.

“What was that supposed to mean, huh!?! Meant to be broke!?!” Nicole stops her wails and becomes extremely furious.

“T-to be fair, boss. The amount of debt we had wasn’t supposed to be paid back so easily by simply selling books, but we somehow did…” Billy says nervously.

“That doesn’t excuse her terrible choice of words!” Nicole exclaims in anger. Meanwhile, the officers watch the entire drama unfold with mixed reactions.

“…I start questioning how we are unable to arrest them, given how dysfunctional they are,” Zhu Yuan mutters in disbelief.

“Some skilled people have unique…quirks to balance things out. It’s kinda like how stories usually balance out a powerful protagonist with a flawed personality. It’s to keep them from being an unrealistic perfect being,” Qingyi explains as she sips her tea, sitting beside the pilots.

“…what are you doing?” Zhu Yuan asks blankly.

“Enjoying the show,” Qingyi says as she sips her tea.

“…there’s a time and place, Senior…” Zhu Yuan groans.

“Given our current situation, I doubt there might be another time or place for us,” Qingyi says calmly, earning a look of disbelief from Zhu Yuan.

“…senior, are you okay?” Zhu Yuan asks in concern.

“Ah, no need to worry much. I was joking,” Qingyi waves it off.

“Then take this situation seriously!” Zhu Yuan yells in annoyance.

“No need to yell, junior,” Qingyi says as she stands up, holding a memory card made of ice before inserting it into her head. Her eyes glow for a moment before she starts pressing the controller and takes over the cockpit. Zhu Yuan blinks in surprise, watching her senior casually display piloting skills she didn’t expect her senior could have.

“Ah, crud…” Qingyi mutters as she presses a button. “It seems that whoever hacked the system also considers the possibility of someone trying to take control back. The ship’s autopilot will suddenly turn on by itself and continue to set the course to the tower.”

“Is there no other way to deal with this?” Zhu Yuan asks in concern.

“The only way to deal with this is to stop whoever’s controlling the ship. As long as they’re still active, this will be a battle over control,” Qingyi mutters before she turns off the autopilot once again. “The only thing I could do is to delay the trip as long as there’s no more interference, keeping it in a stalemate.”

“Yeah…about that…” Zhu Yuan says nervously as the Exaltists start rising, catching everyone’s attention. Each of the members emits an aura that sends chills down everyone’s spine before their bodies start to shift, turning into beings akin to Ethereal. All of them have an appearance only mothers could ever love, and it shows.

“Uh…does anyone expect this from them?” Billy asks nervously as he pulls out his guns. “Like…turning themselves into Ethereals…”

“Nope,” Anby says bluntly.

“…what was that you said before, junior?” Qingyi asks dryly. “They feel underwhelming, is it?”

“…damn my mouth…” Zhu Yuan could blame no one but herself as she pulled out her gun.

“…ARRRGH!” Nicole yells, startling everyone, including the Exaltists, as her suitcase turns into a multi-barrel bazooka. “I HAD ENOUGH OF ALL OF YOU!!! ALL I WANTED WAS TO ENJOY THE LUXURY OF THE RICH FOLKS AFTER YEARS OF STRUGGLING TO PAY ALL OF MY DEBTS, AND YOU FUCKERS HAD TO RUIN IT ALL BECAUSE YOU DUMBFUCKS BELIEVE HOLLOW ARE THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY OR ANY OTHER DUMB SHITS!!! FOR RUINING THE FUN FOR ME, LET ME BLOW YOU FUCKERS INTO PIECES, YOU-!”

Nicole was cut off by the loud sound of a toilet flushing, and everyone immediately turned their heads towards the sound as the toilet door opened. It turned out to be Nekomiya, who let out a sigh of relief before noticing the horde of Ethereals. She blinked owlishly, rubbing her eyes before chuckling nervously and slowly closing the door, making sure she locked it.

All hell breaks loose as some Ethereals charge at her, and Nekomiya meows in fear while everyone tries their best to beat the Ethereals.

————————————————————————————————————–

As Wise returns back to the Video Store, Lycaon contacts him and reported to him about the rebels haven’t leaving the building. After telling Wise that confrontation might be unavoidable, Fairy chimes in by saying how she managed to finish decoding the building’s Hollow data and is able to detect heat signals in real time.

Thanks to Fairy’s decoded data and Victoria Housekeeping, it didn’t take long for them to reach Tower B and knock out the Rebels on patrol. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Rain, but they did find something amongst the pile of unconscious soldiers.

“A military-issued G03 multi-frequency signal transmitter. It’s quite powerful,” Lycaon muses. “Along with the right multimedia device, it could even aid an intelligence operative in hacking into a high-level security system.”

“Wow, I’m surprised you’d know about this sort of thing. What kind of work do you usually do?” Wise asks suspiciously, glancing at the device using Eous.

“I apologize if that surprises you, master Proxy. For housekeepers such as us, this is simply common knowledge.” Lycaon replies.

‘Bullshit,’ Both Phaethon and Fairy thought in unison, while Eous gave him the best deadpan expression he could towards Lycaon.

“Well, at least this confirms that they kidnapped her for her hacking skills,” Wise muses. “But what do they need to hack?”

“Hey, I found this with all of the enemy’s craps.” Ellen approaches them while holding a folder. They frown a bit before taking a look at the file, and upon reading the content, Wise can’t help but panic slightly.

“Wait a sec, isn’t this the airship used by the court!?” Wise asks in surprise. “Timetable, route maps… They even have a hardware diagram of th integrated control system! Crap, the Cunning Hares!”

“Master, there’s an incoming call from Billy. Allow me to connect you,” Fairy chimes in.

“Manager, is this you? Argh, let go, you-!” Wise looks surprised as the sound is drowned out by a sound reminiscent of a cat fighting on the other side.

“Nekomata?” Wise asks in surprise.

“S-sorry, Manager! We’re really in a pickle right now. I was hoping we could call after our trip.” Suddenly, Billy ends up being the one responding, followed by gunshots and explosions.

“What’s going on over there? Why does it sound like you guys were fighting?” Wise asks in confusion.

“That’s because we are,” Anby responds. “Apparently, a crazy group of cult called Exaltist had infiltrate the airship and planning to kill Perlman along with the crowd of witnesses in the airplane by crashing them into the Ballet Twin. Right now, Officer Qingyi is trying her best to keep the airship in a stalemate while keeping the cultists from harming everyone on the ship.”

“So, that’s their plan…” Lycaon muses.

“Officer Qingyi? Why are they with you guys?” Wise asks in confusion.

“Sorry to chime in, Phaethon. Caelus sent us to guard the prisoners,” Zhu Yuan explains.

“Caelus? How does he even have that kind of hunch?” Wise asks in disbelief.

“He didn’t expect the attack, but he did suspect that Perlman may have planned on escaping capture with the help of the Exaltist leader, who happened to be Perlman’s partner before the arrest,” Zhu Yuan explains. “Apparently, it was much more complicated than what he predicted.”

“Then how did you guys even get information about the attack? From the fight, I doubt you guys managed to interrogate them in time,” Wise asks in confusion.

“Our robo lady here got the power from the gaze of the god and managed to extract their memories!” Nicole explains before she was muzzled.

“…Qingyi is a Remembrance Pathstrider?” Wise asks in disbelief.

“Huh?” For the first time in their life, the Victoria Housekeeping felt so confused by the conversation.

“Sorry, Manager. But we might need to hang up the call,” Anby says. “Just…tell Rain that she’s a great friend we could ask.”

“Uh…but Rain is the one controlling the ship; she was kidnapped and forced to do all this…” Wise explains.

“…then what are you waiting for?! Go save our friend!” With that, Anby hung up the call, and everyone stood there in silence.

“…what was that call all about again?” Ellen asked in confusion.

“… information, I guess?” Wise says unsurely.

To be Continued