"I-I finished." – Beatrix's blue hands stopped glowing.
"They seem… okay?"
"Indeed."
As the process finished, Olivia and Nyza took a closer look at the two unconscious people and besides noticing that they were owners of relatable beauty, they now looked as if they were just sleeping.
"So, this is it, right?" – Olivia's words woke the group up.
Elizabeth snapped out of her daze and shook her head.
Dispersing the screens, she turned to the group.
"I think it might be a good idea to look around some more, to guarantee there is no one else from our side among the prisoners."
"Tsk, tss, tss, tskk, tsk, tsk, tss?" – Akihiko addressed Xia.
"Tsk, tsk, tss, tsk. Tsk, tsk." – The latter nodded with an understanding smile.
Akihiko then conveyed her words through hand signals.
"He says that it's okay for us to take more prisoners as long as we obey the restrictions she said before."
"Good. Let's get to work." – Elizabeth directed the others to cover a certain area and went to search hers.
Akihiko stood with the two from the Cathedral, quietly waiting for the others to finish.
As time passed, the team eventually finished looking through the prisoners but besides some people that appeared to have some affiliation to the army, they found no one else from their side.
"Alright, that's it. Let's go." – Elizabeth spoke and glanced at Xia.
The latter walked back to the elevator with a few clicks of her tongue.
"NO! PLEASE! GET ME OUT!"
"PLEASE, I WILL DO ANYTHING!"
"LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT!"
"YOU F**KING B*TCHES! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
"I WILL F**KING MURDER YOU!! DO YOU HEAR ME!?"
Seeing that their only chance of getting out of there was going away, the prisoners became restless and crazily banged their heads and fists on the bars – some even going as far as breaking most if not all of their teeth due to trying to chew the bars and break free.
This time, the group was somewhat used to it so they weren't taken by surprise.
"E-Eh?" – Beatrix blinked her eyes and asked amidst the yelling – "Aren't we going to take the others back?" – She referred to the ones that appeared to be affiliated with the army.
Nyza and Olivia were also puzzled by this.
"They are deserters." – Elizabeth answered nonchalantly.
"…" – The others immediately understood.
Deserters are to be immediately killed on sight. That's the order from the army.
However, Elizabeth considered that since they were the earth dwellers' prisoners, they could be let be since the deserters weren't under her team's jurisdiction in this case.
Akihiko grabbed the paladin by the back of his armor's collar and dragged him while he threw the nun on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
He then calmly walked toward the elevator under Olivia and Beatrix's surprised eyes.
"Do you need help?" – Nyza asked.
Akihiko was about to deny it but pondered briefly and eventually nodded.
He passed the nun to Nyza who then used her tentacles to grab the unconscious woman.
Upon entering the elevator again, Elizabeth and Xia were already there – waiting for them.
After confirming that everyone was on board, Xia lightly moved two fingers.
The open wall then closed – muffling the prisoners' shouts but also making several of them scream their lungs out from despair, producing a very uncomfortable scene – before the elevator rose again.
In less than a second, they were back to that endless wide space with pillars.
"Tsk, tsk, tss, tss, tsk?" – Xia asked while tilting her head in curiosity.
Akihiko once again translated.
"He said that she asked what are we going to do now since we already got the ones we came for." – Beatrix's blue eyes meet Xia's white ones and the former broke eye contact.
"Hum…" – Elizabeth pondered about saying that they would go back to the surface but something clicked in her mind.
"She said that there are no other earth dwellers around here, right?"
Akihiko nodded.
"Hold up." – She quickly tapped her bio-system but her hopes didn't come true as the connection was still off.
"Aki, could you ask her to take some distance from us? I want to see if we can get the connection to work." – She cast a not-so-discreet glance at the mentioned party.
"Tssssss, tskk, tsk, tsk, tsk?"
Xia pondered for a moment before tilting her head.
"Tsk, tss?"
"…"
"Tsk?"
"Tsk…."
"Tsk!"
Eventually conceding, Akihiko conveyed the conversation to his team before putting the paladin down near the group and walking away with Xia.
"…" – Elizabeth's eyebrow and lips twitched as she glared at Xia but she decided to finish things quickly.
Seeing the small scene, the ones who didn't understand Akihiko's words got curious.
"What did he say?" – Olivia whispered to Beatrix.
Beatrix looked at her and then at Elizabeth.
Nyza put the nun near the paladin and also came closer to hear it.
"H-He said that she had no problem but asked if he could go with her, to make her some company."
"…"
"No wonder she is pissed off." – Olivia, not sharing Nyza's wit or tact, muttered in realization.
Elizabeth snapped her head in their direction with a glare – her crimson eyes containing a fierce glow in them.
"…" – The three of them quickly looked away.
"…" – Elizabeth resisted the urge to click her tongue and went back to the task at hand.
Meanwhile, away from the group, Akihiko and Xia stopped walking.
The latter sat down on the ground.
"Tsk, tss."
Accepting her offer, Akihiko sat down barely a meter away from her.
"Tsk, tsk?"
"Tsk."
Thinking about something, Akihiko spent some time thinking of the best way to word his question.
"Tss, tsk, tssk, tskk, tss?"
"…" – Xia's smile receded and her eyes widened.
"Tsk, tsk?"
"Tssss…."
Confirming that she wasn't angry with his question, Akihiko was relieved.
Xia also corrected herself upon noticing that he misunderstood her reaction.
"Tsk, tss, tss, tsk."
'So I would need to spend more time here…' – His question was regarding the portal floating above the pyramid trunk structure. Surprisingly, Xia agreed to explain to him what that was and other things related to it but said that it would take some time since it was linked to her people's customs and ancestry.
"Tsk, tsk…" – He decided to verify with his team first.
"Tsk~" – She smiled gently and seemed happy that he would think about it.
'Although it wasn't shown in the game, I have a feeling that the higher-ups might already know about it.' – Akihiko maintained down-to-earth expectations of learning about the portal – he knew that whatever information it was, it shouldn't have gone completely unnoticed by the higher-ups during the past century or so.
"Tsss, tskk?"
"Tsk."
"Tsk~!"
"Tsk, tsk."
Making some casual conversation which consisted of Xia talking and Akihiko giving short answers like always, they spent some time waiting for Elizabeth to finish her thing.
After a few minutes, Xia turned her face to the side.
"Aki, I finished it already. I managed to connect with instructor Evelyn." – Elizabeth spoke with a smile.
Akihiko noticed her irregular heartbeat and already knew the reason why.
Getting up and making some hand signals, he conveyed to her what he discussed with Xia.
Although her annoyance grew, Elizabeth reined it in – "I asked if we needed to return as soon as possible but instructor Evelyn said that Lathz and the others already explained the situation to her. She communicated the Academy about it and our exam changed to learning more about the earth dwellers and their culture."
Akihiko was about to nod but stopped himself.
'Am I forgetting something?'
While the situation seemed somewhat forced to him – with Evelyn letting examinees with two people from the Cathedral be in monster's territory and without support – he could chalk it up to Elizabeth's protagonist's halo or plot armor.
However, something was bugging him at the back of his mind. He had a feeling that he was forgetting something.
"Also, she said it would be better if we stayed here for a few days here." – Elizabeth's ominous words further increased Akihiko's feeling.
"She said that there has been an urgent situation and she and the others will have to go back to the base. The outside is currently too dangerous for us to go out by ourselves so we should stay here in the meantime. She didn't elaborate much since she appeared to be in a hurry."
'Ah…' – Something clicked in his mind.
'It's The Disturbance.' – He understood why he was feeling like he forgot something.
The Disturbance was the next big event in the game after the Conference. It consisted of several sudden stampedes of monsters rampaging everywhere they passed.
And it was in this event that the game first implemented its "culling", massacring newbies and stomping on their progress by killing characters from their party or destroying the progress they made in relationships with NPCs by also killing them.
'So it's already time.'
"Hence, we will spend more time here." – Elizabeth's expression briefly contorted.
"…" – Nodding at her, he then turned to Xia.
"Tsskk, tss, tsk, tsk."
"Tsk~!" – The latter jumped to her feet with a happy face.
Elizabeth felt weird seeing Xia being so happy about it and turned her face away before walking back.
"Let's go."
"Tsk, tsk~"
"…"
As they walked back, Elizabeth saw Nyza, Olivia, and Beatrix gathered around the two unconscious people.
Before she could ask what they were doing, she heard the nun and the paladin muttering something while thrashing in their sleep.
"Hum~"
"Your tits look heavy, milady. Need help~?"
The team made strange expressions upon hearing their muttering that sounded more like moans.
Their thrashing got more and more intense as the two frowned.
"No… no…"
"Milady… why…?"
"Eh… Are those people okay?" – Olivia asked while pointing at the two on the ground.
As if it was a trigger, the moment she spoke, the two on the ground opened their eyes wide and abruptly sat up.
"Did anyone get the truck plate!?" – The nun shouted.
"…" – Akihiko felt a sense of deja vu while an absurd but possible guess formed in his mind.
"Eh? Where I am?" – The paladin looked around confusedly but the dark didn't allow him to see anything – "I'm dead? I was in my room when…"
'You gotta be kidding me.' – Akihiko's weakening headache came back stronger.
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A/N: If anyone is curious about what Xia looks like, I have posted her image on the Discord community.
Discord link: https://discord.gg/NZV2EtdJY8