Despite many unfortunate things. Her reluctance, her suspicion, and even now as she was contemplating taking that call’s advice and getting out of there without another thought, she still arrived at that library 5 minutes early.

She of course went with one of her sharp knives just in case anything was to happen and cautiously looked around. The library had two exit doors. If anything was to happen, she needed to make a plan on where she could escape to.

Standing somewhat in the middle of the room is a risky move, but if someone enters via the same door as her’s, she still had space between herself and them to escape. If anyone else other than Hide enters, she has already prepared an excuse on why she’s there and can swiftly hobble away. As much as Carole hated to admit it, no one would easily suspect a cripple girl of much anyway.

Just as she nodded her head to her fully formed plan, the door handle creaked and clicked, causing her to freeze in place. All she could do was face towards the door and grip the handle of her cane tightly. The handle of the door turned as she slowed down her breathing. If it was not him, she needed to at least act somewhat normal.

Thankfully, moving through the newly opened door were those distinguishing fluffy ears as she let out a soft sigh.

“You’re late,” was all she could say to him.

“Well, I was busy with my 'job',” He had his fingers in air quotes as he spat the last word out in disgust.

“... What even is that job, anyway,”

“Look, it’s just slavery cus apparently I have some debt on me, which is Bullshit, by the way,” He turned his head to the floor and mutters, "I was just sold out by some assholes I called friends not a big deal."

He tugged on one of his ears in evident annoyance, "I just chop up body parts for them down there. Do some crappy clean up, be all cute. Nothing too fancy, they probably got sick of me by now."

“Wait,” she interuppted, “What do you mean chop up body parts?”

Hide’s scrunched up his face with irritation and impatience before saying, “Oh I don’t know human I think. I guess they just send down a dead body and yell at me to chop it up.”

He grimaces, "But to be honest those unfortunate jerks are pretty weird looking to be honest. Extra eye, weird growths on thier back. Freaky stuff."

The more Carole learns about the Asbjorn manor, the more it all felt unreal. Dead bodies being chopped up, those… creatures, turning people into those things, the ventis…

What was wrong with this place?

...If they are turning humans into those small creatures... Maybe those bodies where the unsucessfull ones?

This was giving her a head ache.

“Hey, but who gives a shit?” Hide said, breaking her from her thoughts, as he walked up to a bookcase right beside her. “I just want out of here, I already suck off enough of these freaks to get my escape tools, I don’t want to keep this act up,” his voice was a low mutter at the end of his sentance. Carole could only barely hear it as he tugged on a book on the shelf, followed by another and another until she heard a click.

The goat man then tapped his foot on the floor and what opened up beneath his feet was a small metallic keypad.

He then flashed a wide grin as he took out his laptop and to her surprise took out the keypad itself from the door, revealing it to be a false one covering the real one. He then connected said false keypad to his laptop via a USB wire.

“Those idiots didn’t even notice, heh,” he giggled to himself as he inserted this device into his computer.

“Got the password, now just...,” he then inputted a sequence of numbers onto the floor keypad causing another click.

Hide actually was skilled with technology and not just bluffing. By the looks of it, he must have been planning this escape for a long time now.

The floor opened up revealing a staircase leading straight down, Hide turned to her and said, “Short cut, you have that key right?”

“Of Course, let’s just get this over with already.”

As Carole entered the entrance, that suffocating red smog smothered her with a vengance. It filled her lungs and felt like feathers in her eyes.

Wait. The ventis should not cause any negative effects... right?

Hide looked back at her with an unreadable expression. He did not seem bothered by the sudden onslaught of that smog. Why was she then? Why now?

“Need some holy water, madam?” the cheeky guy chimed.

Carole glowered at him and said as she walked down the stairs, “No...”

“It’s a legit question, or do you prefer holy milk?”

Hide was the dictionary definition of insufferable, but, as much as she hated to admit it, he distracted her from the feeling of wrongness that increased the further they went down those stairs.

By the time they had reached the very bottom, Carole felt almost light-headed from the amount of smog she was breathing in. Hide stopped as soon as they reached the bottom and seemed like he was observing the room, even though he must have been there before.

The room was a small barren place with many of those linking pipes. The only entrance other than the stairwell was a hallway leading to even more hallways. The biggest thing of note was the door. A large metallic door that required an access card to enter.

Hide stood in front of the door before turning to Carole, gesturing her towards it.

“Well, I trust you came in with that key. It would be pretty dumb to just come here empty-handed,” he jested, but his eyes that followed her made it clear he was not in the mood for a forgotten card. Thus she just took out the stolen item and without even a glance in his direction, she swiped it at the door causing it to open up with another click.

“There it’s open… can I go now?”

He shook his head as he stepped towards the now opened door, “Of course not I need this thing off and you are still my accomplice., Carly Warly”

Carole breathed out a sigh and without another word followed him and allowed the door to shut behind her.

The room was an office with shelves upon shelves of books and files. Fur rugs of exotic animals, like those of polar bears and arctic foxes, covered the floor. There was a table with a mess of papers and files that laid scattered. However, the thing that stood out most was that furnace.

Carole had been so used to seeing modern forms of heating that she did not at first recognize what was in that corner. Said corner was bare of anything except the cold concrete floor extending up to 6 feet before reaching carpet. There was a pipe on top of it that led up into the ceiling among the other pipes. All full of that ventis smog. The fire was still raging from within.

Hide only gave the room a basic glance before already rummaging around the table. He turned to her and said, “Don’t just stand there, I need that key collar before these sociopaths wake up.”

“Nice instructions,” was her sarcastic thought. Not knowing where to even start, she began with an opened cabinet looking for any tiny item.

However, among the papers and small odds and ends, a particular article caught her eye.

It looked similar to every ordinary, obnoxious church pamphlet that showed up at her door step. It had the bold title, “Can the Church of Flesh have a guardian angel?”

Carole quirked her eyebrow at the title. It was obviously just some relious nuttey nonsense but either way she was about to open it up to figure out the contents. The triumph sound of Hide's voice however momentarly distracted her.

“Yes, found it!” he gripped a small key in his hands, his face marked with a relieved joy. Without another word or action, he pressed it into a small hole of the collar and like magic, the metallic prison fell to the floor. Hide’s neck underneath marked with slight burns and scars, probably caused by the device. He rubbed his hand over the area as if to feel if what was happening was real.

“It’s...off..,” his voice filled with disbelief, “I can leave...”

The smile that spread upon his lips showcased bliss as he repeated those words back to himself.

“Good, I’m... I’m glad you can,” Carole was not exactly sure what to say, especially to the man quivering with joy.

“We still have to get out of here before someone catch us...”

“Yeah, yeah, I know whatever” but before he got over the desk and headed to the door, he gave an oddly genuine smile, “Thank you, Carly.”

Well... Atleast he seemed happy about it.

"No, problem," she said back. Even thou if she had admit there was alot of problems but best not dwell on them.

“Yeah, he..um couldn’t have done it without you. So um th-thanks,”

Wait… that smooth gentle voice was... familiar. Hide must have recognized it as his expression of gratitude turned to one of alert suspicion as it swiftly shifted to the voice’s direction. His face turned to one of just... surprise and...betrayal?

“Loulou,” was what slipped out.