Soon after Issei had excused himself from the premises, other guards entered the room after hearing all the commotion. Obviously, they were more than pissed after seeing two of their own lying on the ground dead, but after numerous eye witness reports lining up, not to mention the fact that one of the guards was holding the bloodied pistol in his hands, the guards had no choice but to believe us when we said it was just an argument that got too out of hand.

“I knew that Ted would snap sooner or later.” One of the guards clicked his tongue, “All those pills must’ve been getting to his head. Damn, now I gotta file a report because of this damned asshole…”

Looks like what Issei said was surprisingly true. Most if not all of the guards are either depressed or extremely easy to provoke. In hindsight, it kind of makes sense, given they have to live such miserable lives away from their cushy Kingdom, but to think it was this severe. Well, this would serve as extremely good info for us if we were to continue to do this the Issei way, but we’re not like that. What he did now will serve as a good basis on what not to do. Actually, was he not my friend, I’d have called this the most despicable, inhumane way of killing someone.

“Should we go look for Issei?” Lee asked as we were being ushered back to our cells, “I don’t want him to be demotivated all over again because of what I said. Maybe we should just let him do this his way after all?”

“No, you did good to reprimand him.” I shook my head, “This isn’t how revolutions look like, nor is it the proper way to fight. Really, I wouldn’t even call what he did a sly tactic. It’s just downright horrible.”

“Right?” Lee then tore away from the line of prisoners, “Well, this is my cell. We’ll talk about the plan tomorrow, right now I gotta rebandage my foot.”

“Alright, I’ll try to talk to Issei and see if we can come up with a proper plan of action this time.”

“Sure, just don’t grill him too hard for what he did today. I don’t know where all that come from, but I’m sure we’ll be smarter for not prying too hard.”

And so, I went back to my cell a couple meters later. Inside was Issei, cooped up on his hanging stone bed looking as meek as could be. He had a sort of empty look in his eyes, and didn’t even say a word when he saw me enter the cell. I sat across from him on my own bed, positioning myself in a way which made it impossible for him to look away from me.

“Hello.” I began with a simple greeting.

“Hm?” He seemed confused by my rather polite introduction, “Uh, yo? Why the formality all of a sudden?”

“No reason. That’s just how I greet people.”

“Hm, okay then.” He then chuckled, “Heh, I really am sick in the head, aren’t I?”

“No one said that. The only sick people in this prison are the staff.”

“But I really did something horrible today, didn’t I?”

“I won’t deny that, but that doesn’t make you sick.” I replied, “You’d only be classified as sick if you didn’t learn from that and realize what you did was wrong.”

“So wait, are you lecturing me or consoling me?”

“Both, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. That being said, neither me nor Lee care too much about past mistakes, so we’re willing to follow you as long as you fight fair and square.”

“Cheh, you’re really giving me a tough task, y’know?” He chuckled before getting up, “I don’t mind, but you’re gonna have to promise to do everything I say from now on. I won’t be verbally abusing the guards, but I might have to do some convincing, will that be alright?”

“To a point, convincing is alright.” I agreed to his terms.

“Great! First order of business then!” He said as he hopped to the sink in the cell and moved it away, “Get in the hole!”

“Eh?!”

H-He dug out a secret passage?! Wait, when did he do that? And how?! He kept it a secret all this time, even from me, his cellmate! Geez, this guy’s too quick to change moods, leave him to his devices for a second and he turns the entire place upside down!

“When did this happen?” I asked as I crawled in.

“Before you even got put in here with me. I took a spoon from the cafeteria and dug it out bit by bit.” He sounded proud of himself, “You may have noticed by now, but the entire place is made up of shallow walls, so it wasn’t as tough as it sounds.”

“Uh-huh. But where does it lead us to?”

“You’ll see.” He hummed the tune of that song we sang the other day, “Ah, here we are!”

Crawling out of the hole, I saw a somewhat cramped but long space ahead of us. It was obvious to anyone where we were – we were in the middle of two walls. Pipes were sticking out everywhere, and it was kind of hard to breathe in here due to the small size of the room.

“Why are we here? Is this another plan of yours?”

“Well, yes and no.” Issei explained, “We’re gonna be killing two birds with one stone right now – We’ll be discussing the upcoming plans while we search for Othelia.”

***

“You think she’s somewhere here?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Well, she’s gotta be somewhere, and these backrooms seem like the perfect place to hide someone.” He explained, “That being said, let’s talk plans.”

“Sure. If I may, I was thinking that we prioritize one type of guards above all others.”

“Those being?”

“The snipers on the watchtowers.” I elaborated, “They’ve got amazing range, and even if we killed everyone else, they’ll still be in position to shoot us all down if we try and make a break for it.”

“Ooh, smart!” He smiled back, “But is that the only reason? If so, then I fail to see why we shouldn’t just kill any and all guards we get the chance to kill.”

“Well, I was thinking and…” I gulped before answering, “Maybe if we only kill the snipers, we could steal their guns and threaten the other guards to let us go freely. They may be monsters, but they’re still humans, and I don’t want you killing any more humans than you already have to.”

“…” He stopped talking for a moment, “You’re kind of starting to sound like him.”

“Hm?”

As I tried deciphering who he was talking about, we were stopped by yet another dead end. This area as a whole seems like some sort of maze, so it’s to be expected that we’ll have to backtrack a ton before getting anywhere useful. Just then, though…

“Stop!” He put his hand on my chest, stopping me from advancing, “I think I can hear her.”

“Othelia?” I jolted, “Yeah, now that you mention it, someone’s definitely crying. It’s a woman’s voice.”

“Alright, let’s follow the voice!” He immediately sped up.

Traversing through the pipeworks as nimble as a cat, he and I had finally reached a point where the sobbing could be heard the clearest. She was there, on the other side of the wall. But alas, it was a dead end.

“Crap, we’ll need to find another way…” I said in between heaving heavy sighs.

“Oi, you there?” Issei could be seen suddenly knocking on the wall without a care in the world.

“Wuh-! Dude!”

In the very next moment, the sobbing stopped, and a young woman’s voice could be heard from the other side. She was in disbelief, but it didn’t sound like she was with anyone else in the room currently.

“I-Issei?” She sniffled, “God, I’m hearing things again…”

“Wrong, dummy.” He jeered, “I’m really here, but I’m glad that the voice you’ve been hallucinating was my own at least!”

“Hey! That’s just because I’ve been hearing nothing but your annoying voice for the last couple of years now!” She sounded annoyed, “And where have you been all this time?! I’ve been in here for months, I thought you’d left me to rot and die in here!”

“I would never!” He said sarcastically, “Me? Abandon the fair and beautiful Othelia here? What kind of a man do you take me for?”

Just then, Issei had recalled all the horrible things Lee said the guards were doing to Othelia, so his tone shifted to a more serious one.

“What all have the guards done to you?”

“Ugh, it was horrible!” She complained, “They beat me repeatedly, barely give me any food and water, and the air here is so warm that they’re giving me no other choice but to strip to the point where I’m just barely clothed!”

“And nothing else?!” He sounded a bit desperate.

“Nothing else? Are you saying this much is nothing?!” She hissed back.

“No, goddammit! Did they, y’know…?”

“…Ooh.” She suddenly realized, “Nah, they didn’t. Well, some guards tried to at the start, but I successfully fended them off until they eventually lost interest.”

“Thank God!!!” Issei’s tear sac finally broke, “Thank God you fended them off! Fuck, now I’m crying, damn haha!”

“So wait, that thing we heard back then.” I added, “Was that one of the moments where you were fending them off as well?”

“Hm? Someone else is with you, Issei?” She sounded a bit scared, “You’re… a good guy, right?”

“This guy’s a saint compared to me.” Issei defended me, “But wait, if they lost interest, then why were you crying just now?”

“That’s exactly why.” She switched to a defeated tone, “After they realized they had no use for me, they just left me in here to rot. They stopped giving me food and water, so I was all but ready to die.”

“What?!” Issei jolted, “Those bastards…! Shit, if I had known, I would’ve smuggled some food from the cafeteria! Crap, what do I do!?”

Oh, this is my cue, I guess. Actually, it was kind of amazing how perfect I was for this situation, given that I know Materialize. So hey, thanks Lune. Your teachings saved yet another soul today!

“I can help with that.” I said, Materializing both an apple and a spoon, “We might not be able to dig out an entire crevice to see you just tonight, Miss Othelia, but we could possibly dig out just enough to pass you this food.”

“Huh?” Issei opened his eyes wide in astonishment, “When did you…? But... Huh?!”

“Right, you may not know this about me, but I’m actually an Iro Wielder. That is, I can use an Iro Ability to summon some nearby items. Thankfully, we’re close enough to the cafeteria from here.”

“Can’t you just summon her over, then?!” He grabbed me by the shoulders.

“Sorry, but unless I know how she looks like, I won’t be able to envision her. Thus, no summoning.”

“Hrm…” He donned a troubled expression, “Alright then, let’s get to digging. Hang in there, Othelia!”

And so, we dug our way through the night, one miniscule amount at a time, as the only tools we had available to us were some spoons. I had actually asked Issei if he wanted me to summon in some pickaxes, as we had a ton lying in the storage shed near the prison, but he declined, saying it’ll be too loud and will alert the guards.

“Still awake, princess?” Issei continued picking.

“Yeah, still here.” She sounded a bit frail.

“Hrmph!” He couldn’t wait any longer and punched through the hole, before putting his bloody hand through it and offering her the apple, “Then would you like some refreshments?”

Without even saying a word more, she immediately took the apple and soon asked for seconds. Issei and I winked at each other before we got to work, with me summoning in more and more apples, and him handing them to her. Before long, she was well fed.

“Crap, you guys may not see it, but I have a window in here with me!” Othelia raised her concerns, “It’s dawn, you should run back.”

“Oh right, I guess we pulled an all-nighter.” Issei figured, “Want some more apples before we go?”

“No, this was more than enough. But please do come back tonight if at all possible. It’s terribly boring in here all alone.”

“Will do, princess!” He ran out, “Come on, M-kun, we need to go!”

I had nodded and began following in his footsteps, but Othelia stopped me for a moment and beckoned me to come back. She had ordered me to take a look at the crevice we had previously dug out, and upon following her orders…

“Huh, you’re quite handsome now that I take a good look at you.” She giggled, “Thank you. From the bottom of my heart.”

“Don’t thank us yet, Miss Othelia, we still haven’t gotten you out of here.” I kept my guard up.

“Then, I’ll be sure to thank you when you do. Now run along.”

Catching up to Issei was a bit more tiring, seeing as we were both a bit sleep-deprived after staying with Othelia the entire night, but it seems we got back to the cell in time and blocked off the hole with the sink again. Due to the lighting of the rooms, Miss Othelia perfectly saw my face, but I sadly could not. Even still, I could at least discern a hopeful smile on that shadowy face.