Ran, feeling a vibration all over his body, momentarily couldn't react. Quickly, however, he felt that the vibrations came from one of the pockets from his longline hoodie.
Seeing this person begin to release a buzzing noise, of course, the servants got increasingly nervous and almost unloaded all of their abilities on Ran until the Lord signaled them to stand down.
Obviously, Ran wasn't stupid enough to just fetch into his pocket while more than a dozen servants were on the verge of erasing him from existence, so he waited for the go-ahead from the Lord. Only then did he reach into his pocket.
When he fished out the item that emitted the vibrations, he was surprised.
Was this not the communication stone that Brother Pride had given him?
Then, could he be trying to communicate?
On the front-most face of the stone, two separate runes each took a space on the left and right sides while a different rune, one that appeared similar to a line, connected them through the middle. The left side was currently lit up while the right was not. Ran, seeing this, figured that the stone needed more power to establish a connection, so he inserted a few strands of soul juice until it lit up all sides of the stone.
At that moment, the vibrating stopped and soon after, a voice was instead emitted from the stone.
"Ah, young Guardian, surprised I called? I just wanted to check in; I'm assuming you've already made it to the middle-layer, yes?"
At the moment, when the voice finally stopped speaking, everyone was shocked. Of course the party was familiar with this voice, but the fact they could communicate with someone who knows how far away with such ease was quite the moment to be in.
The servants were probably the most surprised as a few even gasped. They almost thought someone was trapped within the stone. That's how foreign - unheard of - this application of runology was.
The Lord however, seemed to frown in thought. This voice in particular was familiar, no? Hmm, he had heard a lot of voices in his life, so he couldn't quite pinpoint this one just yet.
"Yes? Hello? Young Guardian, are you there? Oh no, did they take you again!? Well… you just hang on in there, kiddo, I'll be there before you can count up to your father's height!"
Ran finally woke up from his stupor as he was being addressed repeatedly.
"Yeah, I'm here. Brother Pride, I've already arrived at the middle-layer, the R.B.R. Are you okay? You kinda called me at a bad time."
Ran looked around at all the servants and gulped as he spoke. Every single one was at least rank-5, so any single attack would have ended him.
"Oh, well my apologies, it's already late in the afternoon on my end, so I figured you'd be more free. Anyway, you can call me at a later time if need be."
"However, there is one more thing I—"
"Hmm? Ran, where did you say you were again?"
"Oh, I'm in the city of the Red Brick Road. Do you know it?"
Hearing such a question, Pridicus snorted incredulously.
"Do I know it? Hmph, there's not a human city in this world that I'm not familiar with. The R.B.R. right? The Lord there is quite the softy; if you visit him, make sure to give me a call. There is an important matter I would like to discuss with him."
"Oh. Umm… Brother Pride, I'm already inside the Lord's royal palace."
While speaking Ran didn't make the situation more awkward by looking for the Lord's reaction after all that was said.
Brother Pride, too, noticed the strange underlying tone in Ran's voice.
"Cough, cough, he uhh… he wouldn't happen to be with you right now, yes?"
"He's right in front of me."
"..."
"Pridicus, care to explain exactly which lord is a 'softy'?"
The Lord, by this point, had already recognized the voice by the name "Pride" Ran kept calling him as, as well as the uniquely deep and hoarse voice he has.
Pridicus, as well, recognized the new voice that was speaking to him through the stone, and he couldn't help but cough a few more times.
"Hah, well, I don't know, Lordsly, you tell me? Remember that one time when—"
"Enough."
"Alright. Well, either way, this is a good opportunity. Say, you wouldn't happen to be in your throne room, would you?"
The Lord, who's name was Lordsly, narrowed his eyes and soon, he would understand the implication underneath Pridicus' words. He waved his hands and quickly, all the servants cleared out of the room.
Now, the only people left were Ran and the rest of the party, along with Queenie and the Lord. Very quickly, their attention turned towards the stone, waiting for Pridicus to speak again.
"Great, and now to get right to the point."
"How would you like to participate in the overthrowing of the top-layer?"