“You could say that, but more importantly, how are you going to take this mech out of here? Obviously, the entrance we came into this chamber from is too small for that.”
“Can’t you just blow it away?” asked Eilis. “You couldn’t put the Kaiser Frame in your inventory, but maybe with this?”
“I can try but I wanted to see if we could break from above. As for the inventory, I have already tried.”
They were going to try to blow away the entrance which I still wanted to investigate. Even if they failed they might erase some of the evidence left there so I needed to do something quick.
There was never supposed to be a mech inside of the World’s Egg, that was Saintess Petra’s work, which means I didn’t imagine those days I spent with her. They hadn’t been an illusion which is not entirely a bad thing, even though it also meant that “God” would send me to hell, if he hasn’t already, if I failed on this mission. However, the issue at hand was that since there wasn’t supposed to be a giant mech here and so there was no exit for it. Of course, I could just teleport them outside the dungeon but that wouldn’t be very fantasy-esque, as a last resort I would do it…
Just as I was pondering what to do, a giant purple portal suddenly opened. I immediately realised it must have been Lain who had control over the environment.
Just as the White Dragon Knight was about to step in, the “Farmer” protested.
“Hey! Stop, should we really enter this suspicious-looking portal which popped out of nowhere?”
“Why not?” asked Eilis. “It obviously appeared because the mech is too large to go back the way we came from.”
“Well, what if there’s another more powerful foe waiting for us at the other end of this portal, and we end up losing all of our loot, and that Dragon Knight or whatever you want to call it, too. Obviously, it’s up to you which way we go, Ms Grangewood, but I think we should go back up the way we came without taking any shortcuts.”
“You think that Nanashi and I would lose without your Populares leader, without Raphael!?”
“On the contrary, I have absolute faith that you will win against all the previous bosses who we have met up to this level.. But look, even Raphael died against the White Dragon because it was not an enemy he had beaten before.”
Eilis still looked displeased and liable to resort to violence at any moment.
“No, he’s right.” Nanashi calmly chimed in. “I am not yet used to piloting this machine, and you’re exhausted.”
“You’re a good lad.” The Farmer gave Nanashi a thumbs-up. “Let me have another look to check if the Dragon is still dead. You never know what tricks those AIs at the Castle Academy are up to. Frankly, I think it’s insane that the government has given so much power over us to an AI.”
Nanashi let The Farmer down from the mech’s hand.
God damnit, they were still going to blow up the entrance anyway. Even if the Saintess had decided to gift the mech to a player, I doubt that she would have locked us up with the dragon. I believed that there was another culprit who wanted to prevent us from getting here, and who was trying to hide their hand by mixing it up with the Saintess’ actions. Fuck it, I’ll teleport them now and come up with some excuse later-
Just then a familiar character appeared. It was Rina, but this time it wasn’t the giant low-polygon version. Just regular Rina.
“Citizens of Jerusalem, there is nothing to be gained from traversing the dungeon again. This portal is simply an exit.”
“Do you trust the maid?” Nanashi asked.
“Well, she’s a lot smaller but isn’t she the one who welcomed us and all other players to the game. I don’t think she’d lie to us.” Replied the Farmer.
“You sure change your mind pretty easily, old man.”
“When the facts change, I change my mind.”
“You have a stupid answer to everything. Are you sure you are not a politician, rather than a farmer?”
“Very droll.”
“Good-bye Mount Olympus!” Eilis waved back at no one in particular as she passed through the portal.
Rina bowed back to them as the three of them finally left. Then the portal closed and disappeared.
Rina looked around for me which was rather cute but then I got concerned when she started to look for me under random rocks lying on the ground, so I turned off my invisibility while she was turned away. She immediately turned and headed my way, as if she knew where I had been all along.
“Was that supposed to be a joke, Rina?”
“I don’t know what you mean, master.”
