Let’s review: We got our first surprise when we arrived at the signing and found out that it was more like a party than a ceremony. After that we found out we got backstabbed and we fought our way through the sea of Neo Urbana grunts. Then Liebert assigned a bounty on us, and some Noble shot Max with a stray arrow, leaving him terribly wounded and us in disarray, which allowed Liebert’s reinforcements to knock all of us unconscious.

I awoke in a dungeon-like cell with iron bars keeping me from escaping. The room we were placed in had 4 cells: Aaron and I were placed in one cell, Ed and Cecily in the other one, with Jorgen in the third one. The fourth cell had some guy in it, but I couldn’t make out who it was exactly. We still have no idea where Max is being held.

“Ugh, crap… I overslept.” I commented on the situation.

“No kidding,” Cecily waved to me lazily through the bars, “looks like they did us in.”

“Nevermind that,” Ed joined the conversation, “Max is in danger!”

We looked at him as if to say How so? Before he reminded us of Liebert’s words.

“…And make sure that that selfless General of theirs doesn’t wake up any time soon! Heheheh…”

We suddenly understood what he meant, leading to Cecily and me trying our best to break through the bars as quickly as possible (it didn’t really work out, obviously). That’s when Jorgen calmed us down with an ahem:

“He’ll live,” he went on to explain, “if they wanted us dead they would’ve killed us on the spot. They’re keeping us safe here because they still have a use for us.”

We sighed in relief after hearing him out, but still asked him what it is Liebert can use us for.

“Simple,” Jorgen answered once more, “we’re bargaining chips. It’s not rare to see enemy troops get taken as hostages and then get bought back by their gang for a certain price, be it money or territory.”

“How do you know all this?” Ed couldn’t help but ask.

“How do you think BBG started off?” He answered back with a question, “God, it takes me back!”

We didn’t wanna ask him anymore questions, as we were afraid to find out any more terrifying facts about our dear tea-loving friend. Looks like this peaceful, calm mind of his has a scary side as well…

“So,” I asked to progress the conversation, “any plans on how to escape?”

“I got one.”

“Great! Wait… Who’re you?” I asked after seeing a hand pop out from behind the bars of the fourth cell.

“A fellow prisoner who wants out, although I think you already knew that.” He chuckled after not really revealing anything about himself.

“So basically…” he went on to explain his plan.

***

“Prisoners! Your dinner.” The guard said, holding a tray of what looked like mush.

“Ayo, guard!” the voice from the fourth cell called out to him as he was handing me my portion.

The guard looked away for just a second, but that second was enough for me to grab him by the hair and smash his skull against the cold, hard iron bars. After he fell to the floor unconscious, I grabbed the keys on his hip and unlocked our cells. Looks like that Old prisoner’s idea worked out! As I unlocked the fourth cell though, the person standing there surprised the hell outta me.

“Old man Linus!?” I shouted out in surprise.

“…Do I know you?” he asked me.

“Lune, you know this person?” Cecily asked me as well.

“We met on the wagon ride to Leins back when Ed and I were travelling through Trivis Numerica. But sir, didn’t you say you were visiting Sibirus?” I explained before turning to ask him about what he’s doing here.

“Ooooh! Now I remember! You’re the three kids who wanted to travel the world! You really grew up! You all look a lot more mature! But I don’t remember the girl’s hair being red…” he looked over at Cecily.

“Nono, this is Cecily, not Anna.” Ed explained.

“Anna?” Cecily posed another question.

“Think of her as our sister.” We answered back.

Apparently, Linus was heading to Sibirus to explore Shaid’s temple on account of the ITA’s assignment, but was found by Neo Urbana in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was captured here, and thus his assignment was left undone. They’re probably looking to commission some other adventurer in my stead… He would say as he sulked. After everything was adequately explained and all the greetings due were exchanged, we ran out of the basement to see a room filled with more guards. Jumping in to attack them was not an option, as 1: We didn’t have our weapons, 2: We were quite tired from the previous battle, and 3: They’d just call in reinforcements anyways.

Apart from this, our goal right now was to find Max and escape back to Bilgam, nothing more. Seeing as this was the case, it certainly did make this operation that much more difficult. This was when Ed found a ventilation duct in the wall near us, and suggested we sneak past the guards by going through it.

Everyone could just squeeze by, but Old Man Linus just wasn’t as slim as we were, so we’d have to leave him behind until we came back…

“Then how about we jump from that window to the other room?” Cecily suggested.

“…Let’s not.” I said as I was reminded of the balcony jumping Carter and I did when we were saving Nelly from the burning building.

“That leaves us with the vent option then.” Jorgen deducted, “Mister Linus, would you mind waiting a bit more before we set you free?” he asked.

“Nahh, don’t worry, kids!” He said, “I may be a geezer, but I’m still a bona fide adventurer! I’ll tough out a few more minutes, surely! Oh, but don’t make me wait too long, or else I’ll fall asleep!” He guffawed.

And just like that, we entered one by one, the thunking and clunking of our bodies hitting the metal walls making our escape a bit more obvious than we had initially thought.

“God, it’s cramped!” Cecily complained, “Whose idea was this? Ed, I’ll kill you when we escape this place!”

Looks like my little Cecily has a not-so-mild case of claustrophobia, can’t wait to tease her about it later, hehe…

Just then, I stopped upon hearing the guards utter Max’s name for a split second. I leaned my ear against the duct walls to hopefully hear a bit more of the conversation.

“That General isn’t human! He’s a monster!” One person cried out to the other, “He escaped the damned enclosure within seconds of waking up, leaving nothing but dead bodies behind!”

Yeah, looks like he’s alright…

In any case, this means he’s not only alive, but more than awake as well! If it’s him, then he’s probably waiting for us outside-!

“He’s running to bring harm to General Liebert! We need to stop him! Send reinforcements STAT!” the guard cut me off.

Shit. Looks like we have ourselves a change of plans, but if we play our cards right, we might be able to not only escape, but have Liebert hand over his territory as well!

We made it to the room in question in just about a minute, and we have the ducts to thank for that! Once again, Ed’s ability to escape and avoid is coming in handy, makes me wonder why he didn’t try out the role of an assassin…

“L-Listen!” we heard Liebert’s voice from under us, “I’ll free your buddies! A-And on top of that, I’ll give you 1% - no, 3% of my territory! Just let bygones be bygones, please!” He begged who we could only assume was Max.

We made sure to all jump out of the ducts dramatically on the count of three, but Ed was a bit off, so he made things awkward by jumping a bit early. Max made sure to stop his forceful negotiations to criticize him for it.

“Jeez, Ed! Way to ruin your guys’ dramatic entrance!” he shouted out, clapping with an annoyed tempo.

“S-Sorry!” Ed answered back as he brushed off the dust from his knees.

“Oh, Berty~!” I called out to Liebert in a mocking tone, “The deal you proposed earlier, we’d like to think it over between us, will that be alright?”

“O-Of course!” He said, “Just don’t kill me!”

“Hmph!” Aaron scoffed, “For this coward to be leading our most formidable enemy gang… Disgusting to even think about it!”

Nevertheless, we made sure to annoy and scare Liebert as much as we possibly could. We said things like How about raising that territory to 50% - no, 75%? (Ed’s idea) or Why don’t we just strip him and toss him back into the venue. It’ll be hilarious! (Cecily’s idea)

All of these ideas seemed all too good, but they were abruptly denied when Max suddenly thrust his sword into Liebert.

“…Or we could just kill him.” He said as he pulled the sword out of Liebert’s chest.

Without even spewing a single voice of protest, he merely fell face-first onto the floor. General Liebert of the Neo Urbana Gang was slain…

We wanted to say something to Max, but on one hand we understood where he was coming from, as he was shot by an arrow because of Liebert’s actions. But on the other hand, we didn’t want to join Liebert in the “Face-first on the floor gang”…

The guards who came into the room saw us and their General, before kneeling quickly.

“Sirs – no, Generals! You have slain our previous General and are now the heads of Neo Urbana!” they said.

“…Wat?” we stood mouths agape as they explained why this is the case.

“As is tradition in Neo Urbana, the person who slays the previous General shall be given the title of the New General. That is also how Liebert was promoted to this rank, as he poisoned the previous General.”

I guess now it all makes sense how this annoyingly cunning fat pig became General…

Before we could leave, we had to attend the rest of the party with the Nobles, covered in blood, whether it was ours or not. It was probably frightening for the Nobles, but for us we felt like a bunch of legends.

At the end, we had to stay for the official liquidation ceremony of Neo Urbana into ARA Gang. It was a magnificent sight, with almost a thousand people attending it, but as we were getting ready to leave we remembered Linus was still waiting for us.

We searched the entire Castle, checking every nook and cranny (including the ducts), but we couldn’t find any trace of him. We reasoned he went his way after hearing the news of Liebert’s passing.

With this, we left the town of Melgam in the morning after sleeping in until high noon. Our journey back was filled with Max groaning in annoyance about the pain his wound is making him endure, Jorgen criticizing the tea of Melgam with Ed, and Aaron asking Cecily and I how parenting has been going for us.

Finally, we got control over the entire Great Hiana underworld! We can now use our new authority and manpower to help the people of this beautiful country forever more! This is the peace we longed for… I thought as I remembered a dear friend’s smile, If only you were still with us to witness it…