"Are we finally safe while hiding in here? I don't feel so safe right now."
Rita asked as she flattened herself against the wall of the base. She hoped that doing this would make her stand out more.
But she was only making herself stand out more by doing this. Quince was even looking at her behavior oddly and with a disgusted expression on his face.
"Just behave normally. I brought us here because I was certain that the administrator would not come after us here. There is no need for you to get so worried."
Quince replied and Rita puffed her cheeks at his cheeky tone. She did not like that he was making fun of her.
But Quince ignored her as he looked around this base. It was different from all the other bases that existed out there. This one had a lot of information archived in it.
This was a base that was made by the southern people and then taken over by the tower. As such, a lot of records that were left here were by the southern tower.
And Quince did not trust them in any way, shape, or capacity.
Especially even more so when he knew that the one in charge of this place had been Lady Dheva herself. She had been the one to hand it over to the tower as well since she no longer needed it.
"Hey quince, look at this. Doesn't this record look fishy to you?"
'Really, idiots and geniuses have the best luck in the world. I wonder which category Rita falls into.'
Quince was baffled as Rita held up a manual record from a hidden container. The feeling of the broken seal meant that it had never been opened before today after sealing.
And it had to have been sealed for a long time. Nothing had decayed but there was an air of abandonment around the safe.
"Just how in the world did you manage to find this information? Now, let me see."
Quince opened the booklet to see what else it contained. Most of the information on the first page did not make much sense to him. It was written in technical terms.
But one particular sequence of words did catch his attention.
'The false god project - Administrator'
Now that sounded ridiculous and important at the same time. Quince quickly opened the page to be able to read even more.
'The administrator is an artificial life form created in hopes to see if someone with an outlooker's authority can be birthed by unnatural means. The project aims at-'
That was all Quince had the time to read before a bird dropped a letter on top of Quince's head. The rudeness of that action caused Quince to tense up and he quickly opened the letter.
It was by the administrator which meant that they had not managed to get away from their control.
"Look, it says that Aurora made a bet. What the hell? How does she expect us to pull this off? Isn't this too much for us? Of course, we will save her."
Rita sounded offended and glad at the same time. But it was Quince who was suspicious of the letter.
He could not believe that this was all Aurora had sent them when asking for help. It did not seem like much for her to leave her allies hanging.
So there had to be something more. Quince took the letter back from Rita and looked it over.
And he did find an odd energy signature behind the letter's back that he put into the system and it causes static.
All of a sudden, the feeling of being watched went away and Quince was sure that the administrator could no longer see their moments.
Aurora had somehow managed to gift Quince and Rita with total privacy.
"We cannot stay here any longer because this place is not safe. Thankfully, Aurora managed to point us in the right direction."
Among the data Aurora had forced them to see, there was a mention of a resistance group that Quince wanted to head towards.
It seemed like the resistance group had been anticipated by Aurora and she had also betted on them winning.
How Aurora came to this conclusion, Quince was not sure or even interested in knowing about it. He just knew that he needed to follow Aurora's words for now.
She had not led him astray and she likely will not lead him astray in the future as well. If she believed in this resistance group, then Quince needed to believe in them as well.
"That's all well and good but where will we go? I doubt there is any safe place for us as long as the administrator is around."
Rita pointed out and Quince had to admit that he agreed. But he was also willing to take a leap of faith this time.
______________________________
The administrator watched as the two people on his screen opened the letter she had sent. She could see all their moments and it was only a matter of time before their grace period would be over.
She had given Aurora a ray of hope and now it was time to shatter it forever.
Or at least, that had been the plan before her screen went blank and she could no longer see the people on the other side.
"W-What happened? Why can't I see those humans anymore?"
The administrator asked as she smashed the screen in front of her in rage. No one had ever been able to get away from her eyes.
The only people who were not seen by her all the time were the ones whom she found to be too uninteresting or bothersome.
But it was on her rules and her account. Not forcefully like this.
"What did you do? How did you manage to hide the location of your companions from my all-seeing eyes?"
The administrator asked Aurora who was sitting quietly in her cell. The administrator hated to admit it but Aurora had gotten the better of her.
But she still could not tell what kind of trick Aurora had used to make it happen.
"I did nothing. I guess the abyss was the one who helped them escape. You should not try to rationalize its moments or you will go mad."
Aurora pointed out, only to feel the administrator's rage.
"Don't give me such half-assed answers. The abyss has never interfered with me before so why would it start now? I was born to overthrow its authority on this floor so I shall fulfill my purpose."
The administrator looked mad as she opened a second panel to order the people under her control.
"Hurry up and find those three criminals. If you fail to do so then you do not need to live."
The soldiers shuddered in fear hearing their administrator talk about killing them so easily. What was fueling these soldiers was not loyalty or even admiration, but fear.
They were scared of the administrator and that was why they joined the rebellion once it was underway.
But the one who had managed to kill the administrator was a hero from the outside. He would be arriving in the city after falling from the sky and being saved by the resistance.
Aurora needed to wait for that time to come so she relaxed for the time being.
"You! How can you be so relaxed? Are you not afraid that you might die in a matter of days?"
The administrator was unable to rationalize Aurora's behavior so she did not know what to make of this human.
Not only was her energy weird, but so was her temperament. She behaved like she did not care about anything but the smallest of things could set her off.
She was an enigma that worried the administrator a lot. Her energy was weird as well and it caused the administrator to feel faint. She did not know what she needed to do to get rid of Aurora since she could not kill her.
And believe the administrator when she said that she had tried. Her control had slipped as soon as she had tried doing that and her breath had gotten caught short.
"I know I told you this but you all are going to die in two weeks anyway. There is no need for me to be concerned."
It seemed like the administrator was trying to reassure herself much more than she was trying to scare Aurora.
It was getting repetitive and annoying for Aurora to watch but she still held her ground for the time being.
She was worried about the future and the point of her timing as well.
It was also possible that the future she knew had already changed a significant amount. But Aurora was willing to bet on the possibility that she was right and that things would work out for her.
They had to work out for her or everyone she knew would die on this floor alone.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺