Yeah, it's been a while. A bit of writers block, a bit of midterms. But I've been working on it, and here we are!

I originally planned on only two chapters back in Lowee, but there was just too much stuff I wanted to cover, so I split it.

Cat Poster: Seriously, if you were to have to describe Ram as quickly as possible, you'd choose that too.

Etokaiten: Truly indubitably. Luckily, she also knows how to learn from her mistakes.

maizestudent21: Update schedule is whenever I get off my butt and get writing. This of course is not standardised because I am lazy.

Acrais: Sadly, that wouldn't quite work. One, because she'd assume it'd be a compliment (as she is the one responsible for half of the planning), and two, because that's not actually her name in this fic. There's a little bit different than the usual interpretation, that's for sure.

We stumble our way back from the Basilicom, near-frozen and uncomfortable. Even after shaking out what snow we could, there simply was just too much of it to completely remove. This of course was made even worse by the unavoidable dampness of it melting from body heat…

It's pretty obvious to say that by the time we enter the heated interior of the embassy, we're all practically trailing a river behind us.

There's a bit of an argument over who gets to use the washroom first, but I sidestep the entire thing by just grabbing a towel from the laundry room, running into the nearest broom closet, and just changing in there. Thus, I'm able to peel my skin-hugging soggy rags off of myself, and finally begin to regain warmth in my body.

It's a little bit dusty in the closet, and the mop behind me reeks of mildew, but it's definitely a better choice than just staying damp and cold. Donning my purple emergency clothes, I pick back up my clothing, and wring what feels like an entire litre of water out of them into the mop bucket.

Blech.

I definitely still need a shower, but I'll just wait till everyone else is done.

I pass by the drier, and drop my soggy clothing into a nearby basket. It makes no sense doing just one person's clothes at a time… Hopefully, they'll do all of the darks at the same time.

Soaked clothing now dealt with, I wander back into our usual room, hang my coat onto a coat rack, and take a seat near a bed. I'm not tired enough to sleep yet, and even if I was, I'm just too hopped up to try.

I can't think of anything to do, so I just dig through my inventory for something.

Huh, the polyhedron things. Eh, these are close enough to marbles, right? I've pretty much found a use for everything else.

I wonder what they're made of.

By the time the others all make it back into the room, I've destroyed two of my three polyhedrons. It turns out, despite looking rather durable and shiny, they simply aren't as strong as my new knives. Even more interestingly, they shatter into data rather than anything useful. No mess to clean up, but no new toys for me.

I mean, yeah, I was playing with them like marbles before, but seriously… It gets boring after like twenty minutes of waiting. And it's not like you can do anything with just three of them.

I mean, besides make the world's lamest snowman.

As the room slowly filled back up, more and more clothing began to accrue on the nearby furniture. If Compa's favorite sweater is any indication, it's all probably wool or polyester or whatever it is that can't be put in the dryer without shrinking to 25% of its original size.

Speaking of Compa, she just was speaking to IF, and then left the room. From the way IF's looking around now, I should probably pay attention. I banish my knife, and rise to a seated position.

"Okay… It seems like everyone's here." states IF, glancing around the room. "Compa's just preparing some food, but she said we can start without her."

She takes in a breath, before letting it out slowly. "We need a plan. We really need a plan."

The room is nearly entirely silent, as we exchange gazes with one another. Everyone's wearing a different set of clothes than their usual. I certainly haven't seen Marvy wearing a pair of jeans before.

"Doesn't anyone have a plan? Anyone?"

"This is so messed up…" murmurs Nepgear. She's sitting in a near-fetal position, and is making herself as small as physically possible. "Why would those two be helping ASIC? They're supposed to be on our side..."

MAGES. clears her throat. "It is unlikely that their participation is willing. Before we fled, I detected a significant concentration of unfamiliar enchantment magic emanating from their persons. It is not unthinkable to believe that this is the source of their uncharacteristic behavior."

I let the silence hang for about two seconds, before I helpfully translate. "MAGES. thinks they're under mind control. That's probably why they're acting weird."

IF and Marvy exchange glances. "Is that even possible?" asks the ninja. "I mean, I thought CPUs were supposed to be entirely immune to that sort of stuff?"

IF frowns, deep in thought. "I've never heard of such a thing. Heck, I've known Nep for a long time, and she never ran into that sort of problem... Never read about it happening before, either."

"It doesn't matter." pouts RED, leaning forward for effect. "That Underling lady is being real mean, bossing my wifeys around like that!"

I blink back at the redhead. "Wait. You actually sound serious."

RED raises an eyebrow back. "Of course I'm serious! Wifeys aren't to be bossed around like that!~ And mind control is really bad, okay?~ That's like… It's like she's trying to steal my wifeys!"

Someone sighs, but I'm not sure who. It wasn't me, despite my urges.

"Okay. Back to the mind control thing." states IF, who attempts to avoid rolling her eyes. Smooth. "What are we going to do about this?"

"We need to find a way to stop it, that's for sure." I chip in. It's obvious, but it needs to be said.

Marvy nods her head back. "It's a shame we don't know what happened…"

The sound of a door opening causes us all to jump. Fortunately, it's only Compa bearing a steaming container.

"It's fried rice." she says, placing it down on a nearby surface, before she retrieves a handful of cutlery and bowls from somewhere. "Sorry if there isn't enough… I thought that we'd be eating at the Basilicom, and didn't bring many ingredients."

And with that, we call recess on our top-secret planning session. Despite the deliciousness of the food, we eat near-silently, and dinner conversation is near-nonexistent.

By the time we've finished our light meal, we still haven't come up with any ideas. Dismissing it as a bad job, we dress in bedclothes and just call it a night.

For the first time in a while, I have issues falling asleep. There's just too many moving parts now, and my head's a mess as I try to make sense of it all.

After a satisfying rest, I awaken to the sounds of frantic shuffling about.

Well, on the plus side, I'm not being shaken awake. There's still probably something I should be concerned about going on, though.

I really want to stay in bed… It's so warm in here...

"Wuh…?" I murmur, as I roll out of bed. "What's happening?..."

My eyes open to the view of the room, which is abuzz with activity. Around me, the girls are either rapidly getting dressed, or are storing their now-dried clothing into their inventories. Marvy, the one closest to me, notices my awakening, and approaches bearing her phone.

"You… Uhh… Might want to look at this." she says, as she hands me the device.

Marvy, why are you showing me a newspaper article?

"Uh… Did ASIC do something?" I murmur, as I blink the sleep from my eyes. "Damn… Still half asleep… Eyes aren't focusing..."

I shake my head, rub my eyes and look at it again.

Lowee. Wait, why would they attack...

Oh. Oh fuck.

"It's us... Isn't it?" I murmur, and receive a slow nod back.

There, declared in large, underlined bold, lie the words "Terrorists attack Lowee Basilicom and escape, 7 injured." It's today's paper. The headline picture is of course of the smoke billowing out of the balcony. From the photo they used, it looks more like it's from a fire, rather than from a smoke bomb.

Today's… Uhh…

Huh. Apparently it's late March. March 15th.

The paper itself goes on for quite some time, and includes 'interviews' from a few of those 'affected' by the attack. Probably all ASIC stooges posing to make us look bad. Person after person demanding that those responsible be brought to justice. They've also tacked on our previous charges of property destruction, including the Global Expo and the World Labyrinth.

Actually, now that I think about it, I really had this whole thing coming to me, didn't I? I do a lot of property damage up here.

As I slowly scroll down, it's pretty obvious what's up next.

Yup. Police sketches of us. There's even money out for our capture. Four figure bounties for the humans, five figures for Nepgear and Uni. There's no names attached to the faces, though. The sketches themselves aren't very accurate either: my sketch, for some reason, seems to be slightly wall-eyed. And I don't think MAGES. was carrying a broom with her.

"Plan?" I ask, shambling towards my stuff. "Do we have one? Why is everything shit? Why is everything shit when I try to sleep? Should I just not sleep?"

Thankfully, by now someone else has noticed me. "Oh good. You're up." states IF, turning away from the others. She hands me a piece of bread, but I shake my head in response. "It's a hornet's nest out there. I don't know if they guessed that we're in here, or if ASIC told them, but there's at least two dozen adventurers waiting outside for us."

Without a comment of her own, Compa hands me my now-washed and folded clothing. I gratefully accept it, and stuff them back into my inventory for safe keeping.

I debate the fact that I'm still hungry, and then reach into my inventory for the big box of rice cakes I bought back in Planeptune. They don't taste like anything, but they're filling and light.

"We're safe while we're in the Embassy, but I don't know where we can go from here. Right now, the only thing we could think of was retreating back to Lastation or Planeptune to restock." she admits, before eyeing my summoned foodstuffs. "Huh. Where'd you get those? We don't really have much food to go around right now, so do you mind sparing a few?"

"Emergency rations. Can never go wrong with emergency rations." I reply, handing her a pair of sealed packages. "So is there a reason they're not coming after us yet?"

IF nods, turning away to hand the cakes to Compa. The grateful nurse quickly distributes them to the rest of the party. "The Embassy's neutral ground. Always has been, and always will be. When Nep and the others established that, it was entirely undisputed: ASIC would need to control at least two more CPUs in order to overturn it. Even if we're wanted felons in Lowee, they can't touch us in here. Unfortunately, the moment we step outside…"

"Eugh." I reply, chewing on a cake as I do so. Okay, not stale. Needs margarine, but screw it, least it's still filling. "So what's the chances of us getting a trial if we're caught?"

IF shoots me back a look. I shrug back as I reply. "Worth asking, right?"

"We need to get out of here as soon as we can. There's just not enough supplies in here to last us for a prolonged period." she summarizes. "I really… I really don't know. We should be able to make it to the border before anyone catches us, but if we do that..."

The agent lets loose a sigh. "Got any bright ideas that'd get us out of this? I'm worried about what might happen if we flee… It's already a mess up here, and time definitely isn't on our side."

Thinking back to the paper… "How quickly do you think we'd be able to throw together disguises? Those mugshots aren't great and I'm pretty sure we'd be able to fade into the crowd if we switched up our clothes."

IF frowns. "I mean, it might fool some of them, but we'll need to get away from the Embassy first though. Anyone they see leaving will definitely be seen as suspicious."

Nepgear taps IF on the shoulder. "Hey IF… What'd happen if I transformed and went out there? Would they attack me?"

There's a moment of silence from both of us.

"What?" replies the agent.

I lower my face to my hand. "Yeah… I don't see a reason why that'd not work."

IF frowns at the suddenly obvious plan. "Okay… So you go out and distract them… That'll get us out of the Embassy safe and sound. But then what? We still don't know where to go."

I shake my head. "We need to go back to the Basilicom."

By now, the rest of the group are all dressed, and seem to be either listening in on our conversation, or doing their own thing. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Uni, who is rather disdainfully chewing on a rice cake.

It seems not everyone's a fan of crunchy air. I throw her a small smile, before I continue.

"It's the only way." I say, leaning forward. "No, I don't mean we need to fight them head on… But right now, we don't know what's happening, right?"

"Right." IF slowly responds. "So?"

"Didn't those two want to throw me into their dungeons the last time we were there?"

"So your solution is to try and break back into possibly one of the most heavily-defended buildings in the entire nation, just…" IF steps backwards, throwing her hands into the air in frustration. "Augh!"

"Don't like my plan?" I ask, stepping backwards slightly. "I mean, does Lowee have any other prisons we could check?"

"It doesn't." chimes in Marvy from the side. "There's a few small ones dotted around the nation, but who are you trying to find?"

"The Oracle, Mina."

"She's…" Marvy fades to silence for a moment, and then shakes her head. "Yep. That's really the only place they could store an Oracle without raising suspicion. Not without just smuggling her out like they did in Leanbox."

"No." states IF, waving Marvy off. "Don't even talk about that, Marvy. This situation is already bad enough. Let's just do this probably incredibly stupid thing first, before we make it even more complicated than it already is."

As IF stomps off to hopefully scrounge up disguises, Marvy shoots me a sheepish smile. "She's just cranky because the only coffee I could find was decaf."

We're huddling in a small group near the rather-convenient roof access door, all in crouching positions to remain out of sight. To better obscure their identities, most of the girls have swapped clothing, or have switched up their hairstyles. Marvy's clothing somehow perfectly fits RED, which is both incredibly concerning and slightly hilarious. I personally ended up switching jackets with IF. Amusingly enough, between me being a head taller than her, and IF's already oversized coat, I'd say that the two coats are nearly the same size. It's not an exact fit, but it at leasts looks like I meant to wear this coat.

As for the situation itself, there's about two dozen sellswords on the ground around the Embassy, who were probably waiting for us to leave. From what little I saw when I scouted over the edge earlier, about three quarters of them are wielding some kind of medieval melee weapon, and the rest are either holding staves or bows.

I'm more thankful than ever that we don't need to fight through them all. About a minute ago, Nepgear transformed and walked out the front door, just as we made for the roof. Right now, all we need to do is wait for the signal.

"Where were these jerks when we needed them last time?" I mutter, as I sweep my eyes over the Embassy's surroundings. Around us, the winter winds bite at our now thankfully-dry clothing.

"They're offering a lot of money for just seven people. I don't blame them for trying to make themselves a quick fortune." responds Uni from behind me. I turn to face her. She's let her hair down, and seems to be wearing some of Nepgear's spare clothing. It's quite fortunate the two are similarly sized.

The bitter wind is blowing a few wayward strands of hair into her eyes, and I can't help but smile at the sight.

"So how you enjoying Lowee so far?" I ask offhandedly. "Does it live up to your expectations?"

Uni rolls her eyes, brushes her hair out of her vision, and pokes at her borrowed top. "Is it always this much of a mess?"

"Short answer: yes. Long answer? Also yes."

She sighs. "I mean, it's way more fun than just sitting around in Lastation all day, but I wouldn't want to have to deal with this much stress for days on end."

I chuckle. "I hear you. I'd rather be asleep right now. Or wearing clothing that fits-"

A rather familiar tone of a phone alert sounds from my left. "Alright. That's the signal." states IF, and with that, we sprint to the far corner of the roof, and vault over the retaining walls.

The soft snow beneath us cushions and silences our falls, although a slight, muffled cheer of success from MAGES. raises an eyebrow.

We regroup with our distraction about five minutes away, in the alleyway behind a building.

"Alright." Nepgear states. "I don't think anyone saw you. They were watching the Embassy when I left."

IF smiles slightly. "Okay. Step one is done. Now for the hard part… How are we going to get into the Basilicom?"

"I doubt it'd be for our best interests for the subverted Candidates to become aware of our intrusion." adds MAGES., who tilts her head to the side. "They are too dangerous to be allowed to interfere with this mission."

"The important thing is getting in without them knowing we're in the Basilicom." I nod. "It's not like they'd expect to find us back there again, right?"

Marvy shakes her head. "I'm not quite sure I follow that train of thought, but if there are in fact people in the dungeons, I'm pretty sure they're on our side. We should be able to fight our way out pretty easily if we free them."

"So we just need to distract all of them right? What if we -" I begin.

IF turns towards me with an annoyed, but slightly amused expression. "No. I can tell what you're thinking. No more property damage, at least not for a while, alright?"

"Fine." I pout, stepping backwards.

"Do you think they'd chase us if we flew past the Basilicom?" ventures Nepgear.

"You sure about that, Gear?" asks IF, shooting her friend a worried expression. "This isn't like with those adventurers… If they catch you…"

"Don't worry, IF. There's no way they'll catch me and Uni, right?"

There's a moment of silence before Uni replies: "Huh? Uhh… Right! As if they'd ever be able to catch us!"

"We'll be careful, don't worry." assures Nepgear, unaware of her friend's unease, or of her friend's sudden nervous chuckling, "If it gets too dangerous, we'll fall back to the Embassy and wait there for you to message us."

"Alright." sighs IF. "I really hoped that you two would be coming in with us, but I guess it makes sense. After all… I don't think anyone besides you two can outrun the twins."

"Or outfly!~" chirps in RED.

"Or… Outfly."

The two quickly transform, before beginning to rise into the air. It seems we're not wasting any time executing this plan. Interestingly, despite their switched up clothing and hairstyles, their goddess forms are the same as always.

"Be safe, alright?" I whisper to Uni, as she rises into the air. She nods back, and soon the two vanish in a blur of motion.

Let's get this party started.

We enter line of sight with the Basilicom just in time to see Uni and Nepgear fly past it, eliciting shouts from the dozen guards waiting just outside of it. A few of those guards are firing at them with ranged weaponry of various flavors, but even if they managed to land a hit, I doubt it'd even slow Nepgear or Uni down.

The two must've been at this for quite some time already: I can already see the beginnings of rough defensive barricades being constructed by a few of the troops not directly attacking our Candidates. It seems that ASIC isn't willing to give us an inch.

I barely catch sight of the two goddesses splitting apart, and then rapidly gaining altitude. They're probably repositioning to better swoop down on the guards rest of our group circle around the Basilicom towards the side, taking great pains to avoid being spotted by the hostiles in front of us. Ever so surely, we make our way towards a rather isolated side entrance, and hunker down behind a building.

Our position now secured, I begin to unzip IF's coat to hand back to her, before the chilling air reminds me of its presence. Needless to say, I zip right back up. I'll give her back her coat when we get inside.

"Wait for it…" murmurs IF. In front of us, the nearest entrance flaps open once, expels a few troops, and then is closed a moment later.

The front of the Basilicom resembles an agitated beehive now, with criminals piling out of every entrance to join the fight. Amusingly enough, even those without ranged weaponry are beginning to try to slow down the Candidates now too. I mean, I can't fault their enthusiasm, but I seriously doubt that they'll do anything with snowballs. A few particularly awry wintry projectiles paff into the pavement nearby us. From the clicking of their impact, more than a few have rocks inside of them. Petty.

Through the windows of the upper floor, a very familiar flash is visible, before two more streaks of light fly outwards. The twins have taken the field.

One final glance at our group, and nods all around. We're ready as we'll ever be.

"Go!" I state, stepping out of the alley and rushing towards the Basilicom.

With the sheer amount of screaming and shouting happening at the front of the Basilicom, intermixed with the sounds of rapidly-discharging firearms, it's understandable that no one even bats an eye as we charge their side entrance, weapons ready. The five guards still positioned there raise their weapons as we approach, but they simply cannot draw enough attention to themselves before we're on top of them.

And we hit them like a storm.

Feinting a high blow on my current target, I instead plant my foot directly into their midsection, forcing them backwards. I follow my opening with a lunge and slam my crowbar downward, impacting them with a force that reverberates through my arms.

The poor victim totters around aimlessly trying to swing back at me, before a sudden surge of pity forces me to knock them entirely unconscious with a baseball swing. They go down like a pile of rocks.

By the time I'm able to raise my head back up, the rest of the goons are all nearly unconscious, although one of them seems to be twitching in the snow.

"I apologize. I seem to have put an excess of power into that particular burst of shock magic." grins MAGES., who pokes the writhing goon with her staff.

"Take them inside." states Marvy, who has already begun to move a body. "We don't want to risk having them be seen by reinforcements."

Taking a key off of one of the goons, we quickly unlock the door, reposition the guards into a nearby broom closet, and wipe our shoes on the welcome mat.

Just because we're breaking into the building, doesn't mean we have to be savages about it.

The guards outside still seem to be hurling insults and projectiles at the Candidates outside, so we should be good for now. A chime from behind signifies IF sending a message to Nepgear. Hopefully she and Uni will be able to disengage safely, and meet back up with us later.

So all that's left is for us to make our move.

"It's really a shame…" speaks Compa, all of a sudden from behind us. "If all of these people hadn't made the choices they did… We could have been friends, rather than having to do this… I don't want to believe that there are so many bad people out there..."

"Some of them might just be doing this to be paid." I respond. "But yeah, I never really thought about it much."

"Let's just keep moving."

And move we do.

"Dammit! Another patrol?" hisses IF, now garbed in her own coat, as we retreat back into the hallway. "Just how many people do they have in here?"

Once more, we almost blunder into another marching group of people in ASIC garb. This is, what? The eighth or so group we've bumped into in the last half hour. They seem to be patrolling regular routes, but the sheer amount of them that we've nearly run into is still staggering. I suppose our little distraction might've kicked up patrol frequency a bit.

"ASIC's been doing some recruiting, it seems." murmurs Marvy. "So that corridor's bad too. Are there any more that we can check? We're running out of ways to get to the dungeons below."

"I don't understand why we don't just try to fight them…~" whines RED. "I mean, we can totally beat them, right?~"

IF slowly shakes her head. "There's no way they won't notice a patrol go missing in here, especially since they don't know we're in the Basilicom. It'll just make things-"

"Uhhh…?~" murmurs RED from behind us. "The wall's moving?"

With a nearly inaudible grinding noise, the wall behind us slowly moves backwards, and then to the side, revealing a concealed passage behind it. A girl wearing a maid headpiece stares back at us from within.

We blink at her for a moment, before the pieces finally connect and I recognise her. "She's one of ours. C'mon!" I state, gesturing for the others to follow.

The moment we all step inside of the passageway, a lever is pulled, and the wall slides back behind us. We're safe, for now.

"Phew…" murmurs our rescuer. "I thought I'd never see another friendly face. Ever since ASIC took over, I've had to hide in these maintenance tunnels to avoid being caught…"

"Derek. Who is this?" asks IF, giving our rescuer a wary side-eye. "I mean, she looks familiar, but…"

"My name's Financier." the girl introduces herself with a bow. "I work for the Basilicom… When I'm not working for the Guild."

"I sorta met her by accident when I was last in Lowee." I explain. "I never caught her name though. Nice to meet you, Financier."

I knew her name, of course, but I had no reason to know her name.

"Can you tell us about what happened here?" asks Marvy.

Financier nods. "They hit us right in the middle of a shift change. It wasn't just a ton of troops though: there was this hideous yellow dinosaur thing leading the charge. With our Candidates out of commission and with that… thing… in the way, we couldn't hold off ASIC."

"Wait." states IF. "What do you mean, 'Out of Commission'?"

Financier flinches for a second, before she shrugs her shoulders. "I mean, it's technically classified and probably would cause all sorts of issues if the truth was let out, but I think right now we're screwed enough that it doesn't matter. About three days ago, the Candidates were both incapacitated by a sudden plummet in Lowee's shares."

She winces as she continues. "We had half of the forces out doing quests to try and bring us out of the red. I don't know whether being at full strength when they hit us would have made a difference, but either way, they basically steamrolled us. Between wiping out half of us right away and getting the rest as we made our way back… I'd say about three quarters of the staff are locked up down below. The rest are in hiding… I think. I ended up fleeing into the tunnels, and locking down as many entrances as I can. The last thing we would want is for them to be even harder to remove."

Marvy shakes her head. "They managed to overrun the Basilicom, even at half strength? Just how many soldiers do they have?"

"No, you don't understand: that dinosaur thing just wouldn't go down, no matter how hard we hit it." replies Financier. "It was just healing far too fast for us to do any lasting damage to it. And without the Candidates, we just didn't have enough firepower to even slow it down."

"Where is the thing now?" asks IF. "If we run into it, we could be in for a world of trouble."

"I was in the tunnels before it could get into the Basilicom itself." frowns Financier. "I'm sorry, but I don't have any more information, save for what I've overheard when stealing supplies."

Marvy pats the girl on the back. "Don't worry. You did what we could, and held out for quite some time. We'll take it from here."

Marvy is quite taken aback when her hand is pushed backwards. "No, I need to be a part of this too. There's no way I'm letting this go unpunished. If you want to free the Basilicom, consider me a part of this too." states Financier, tone solid. With a flourish, she draws a bladed fan from a side holster, and brandishes it before herself.

The rest of us exchange glances. "Backup's handy." I murmur.

Absolutely zero complaints later, Financier begins leading us through the tunnels themselves.

Now that I'm able to get a better look at the tunnels, I can see pipes of all shapes and sizes lining the walls and ceiling. A cobwebs exist here and there, but otherwise, the place is relatively clean.

The narrow corridors force us to march two by two, though. I'm walking at the front, just beside our guide.

She clears her throat, and taps me on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry about… Last time." she states, turning away slightly.

"Huh?" I think back, but don't remember anything. "Uhhh… It's all right."

"So…" she murmurs. "You and the Candidate, huh?"

I blink back at her. "Seriously, does everyone… When did that rumor start? I mean… We're friends and all, but I don't think we're anything right now beyond that."

I hope she's all right. We haven't gotten a message back from Nepgear yet. I doubt the twins would be able to catch them, but...

"Really now? But what do you think of her?"

I relax my gaze as I try to think about this clearly. "Well… Honestly, even if this relationship doesn't ever go anywhere… She's lonely, and I don't regret helping her overcome that somewhat. Sure, I might be acting like your stereotypical 'nice guy', but… I really do enjoy hanging out with her…"

"I see." smiles back Financier. "I truly wish you and the Candidate of Planeptune the best of luck."

"Thank you." I reply. "It truly means a lot."

We seem to descended quite a bit. The ground is quite handily grooved with steps, and I guess with all of the pipes full of hot water warming up the place, there's really no chance of any leaks freezing in-

I then blink three times.

"Wait, what?"