I got a few glances on the tram, but you’d have a hard time finding people in the Pantheon without plenty on their mind. Not to mention, the tense but firm neutrality here between the Federation and the League meant that it was tacitly discouraged to pay too much attention to strangers you passed by, or indeed sat with on the tram.

Well, all right. I noticed a few glances as people were still boarding and unboarding at Section 70, but after that I didn’t notice much. I was too lost in thought.

Where do I go from here? Other than finding Mewi, the other major goal I had in mind from the start was to find answers about why the Tower took us. And those “back rooms” in the Fire Sanctuary could very well be a first step toward finding such answers.

That’s right—the Federation doesn’t have any information on any higher purpose the Tower might have, but they never found that area of a Sanctuary. At least, the challenger from the days of its founding that Helian told me about didn’t, and it’s not likely any others in that time did either. But...even if I do find a lead there, is it really worth it? The mysterious Syndicate...if I really do press for answers, I'll likely come up against them again. And I have a bad feeling that in some way, they've been going easy on me—or even on the entire alliance team. Although, I can't even be sure that they're done with me just because I restored the Fire Sanctuary. If they want me to join them because of my Qualification, who knows what they might try next, or when...

Well in any case, I'm contracted with Grosstin for over four more years. For now, I'll just get what respite I can, and take what comes, I guess. After that, hopefully I'll have a better idea myself of whether I want to keep trying to fight for peace in Area 1 or climb higher.

In the meantime, there's still Anna's situation to deal with. I've searched and searched Grosstin's database for an item or something that can break her slave contract, but turned up a whole lot of nothing. There has to be a way, though!

And there's also what was written on the Secret Scroll. "Open me again after clearing the 9th Floor." Then, it wouldn't open again when I tried to. We've got six more trips to the 7th Floor to fully use up the totem, then I have to assume we're still clearing the 8th and 9th Floors in the shortest possible time. Well, at least there will be a while to live it up before getting back to serious grinding again...

Though lost in thought, I at least managed to keep a count of how many times the tram had stopped, so I was able to break my reverie when it approached Section 30. From there, it was a much shorter walk to Section 2's elevators. From there, I took one more short ride to the opulent lobby of the Grosstin HQ.

The receptionist and security toughs hanging around near the elevator—the latter having been added to the staff after the safe zones fell—saluted, actually saluted, when I stepped inside. "Mr. Lheticus, sir. Edwin informed us of your arrival."

"I'll take the mister, but no sir, please. I'm not your boss. I'm here to lay low, and frankly, even if it wasn't Edwin's orders, I'd still be laying low."

"Si—err, Lheticus," said one of the toughs, "is it true that—"

He shut up as I gave him my best-practiced glare. "What did I literally just say? I am here to lay low. That means NOT calling attention to that. Now is there anywhere I can freshen up around here, or what?"

There was in fact a quite extensive facility, commonly used by Grosstin's Leeches returning from the Exit, and sometimes as well by office people or researchers there pulling all-nighters. After a long, hot shower and a delivered meal, I was getting quite bored waiting for further word from Edwin.

When he finally called, I had nearly dozed off. "I'm on my way," he said, then before I could say anything, "and the other members of the alliance team are as well, their flagships are en route to the nearest safe Dimensional Gates as we speak."

"The alliance team is coming here in person? I mean, of course they'd want to congratulate me, but isn't that going a bit far?"

"It's not for congratulations. The Federation President has expressed his wishes to hold a special meeting with his most trusted cabinet members, military advisors, and the Chairman of the Federation Council to examine what you recorded of the Fire Sanctuary with the Memory Gem. He's slating it to take place after he gives his own statements to the press tomorrow. As the primary purpose of your using the gem on your restoration mission was to provide intel for the other members of the team, they and their faction leaders are of course invited as well."

The Memory Gem is safe, of course? And it recorded everything about the Fire Sanctuary?"

"It's absolutely safe. I'll give today's recording a once-over, but I was reliably informed that there is one portion in which even its recording function was blocked. Everything salient to the mission should be there, though."

"I see...well in any case, the immediate concern is the Phonixxan egg. A real Phonixxan...that race is beyond legendary. I must say, I'm rather excited even to see this."

"I trust you'll get here quickly, then. We'll speak more then, right?"

"Of course. Talk to you soon."

Mere minutes after that, I met Edwin in the lobby. He seemed more energetic than I’d ever seen him as he eagerly led me to and through the office’s research facility level to a room with quite a few different types of machinery. So quickly after that that I thought perhaps we were being a little hasty, we’d hooked up the egg to one of the machines, which started converting mana from several storage batteries into Fire mana and pumping it into the egg.

After that, we waited, and waited. The egg began pulsing with blue light, first slowly, than faster and faster, until finally it broke off of the machines of its own accord. A moment later, there was a brilliant flash as the eggshell shattered...followed by an incredibly long, and dare I call it cute, yawn.

“Ahhhhhhh...I have to say, ten thousand years will put such a crease in your feathers...”