"How do we even get there? Through all those damn monsters?"
Amy’s shocked voice echoed Ethan’s suggestion.
I agreed with Amy. It was questionable whether we could even make it there alive.
And then there was what Aurora had said during her last phone call—something about the roads in Westmore being blocked. That detail nagged at me, so I mentioned it.
"She said the roads in Westmore are blocked, and the people in the capital can’t get out. It might be impossible to reach Notium above ground."
"Who told you that?"
Nox’s question prompted me to explain the call I’d received from Aurora earlier today.
Then, I brought out the floor plan of Happy House and spread it out on the table. Not the front page—the back.
Remember this:
1 is Brunel, 3 is the Spring, 6 is Hague, 8 is Notium.
"But everyone, look here. What if these numbers indicate paths connected to the underground passage?"
I began explaining the theory I had developed earlier.
"There weren’t just one or two paths in the underground passage. If we keep clearing the way and pressing forward, we might find more hidden routes."
A heavy silence fell over the room, the group visibly stunned by the implications. Ethan, his expression grim, murmured,
"So, there are at least eight paths?"
"Yes. And as you can see here, one leads to Hague, and another to Notium."
"If we can locate the connected underground passages, we could not only break through Westmore but also reach Notium in the capital directly," Ethan concluded.
He was right. If we could manage that, Ethan wouldn’t have to go off on his own, and we could leverage the underground passage for support.
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And...
Benton is flanked on three sides by rivers, with the Rubelt mountain range to the north.
‘Could they have built the underground passage beneath the river?’
I had no idea how they’d done it, but if it truly connected to the capital, the scale of this underground passage was staggering.
Would a project of this magnitude be solvable with just time and effort? Surely, it would have required significant resources or influence.
Or perhaps the mastermind behind the passage wasn’t Baron Ruskin at all, but someone else entirely.
"Who would build such an extensive underground passage, and why? The whole thing is suspicious," I said aloud.
"And a bit frightening. Who knows what they intended to do with it," Victor and Emma chimed in, their faces uneasy as they stared at the back of the floor plan where Baron Ruskin’s notes were scrawled.
"Miss Cherry, can we be certain this underground passage is safe?" Nox furrowed his brow as he posed the question, looking up at me. Following his gaze, everyone else turned to me as well.
"Who in their right mind would create something like this, in a rural village, under an abandoned house?" Ethan, who had been quietly listening, spoke up again, echoing everyone’s doubts.
"But thanks to this underground passage, we successfully reclaimed Brunel. It expanded our range of survival," I countered. "If used wisely, it could become an asset rather than a liability."
The room fell silent again as my words settled in. One by one, heads began to nod in agreement.
"I understand your concerns," I continued. "But think about it—does any truly safe place exist in this world anymore?"
After emphasizing the point, I sought their consensus.
"So, do we agree that we need to explore the underground passage further?"
Amy raised her hand enthusiastically and nodded.
"Honestly, who knows how much longer we can hold out here? Maybe we’ll find a safer place through the passage. I’m with Sugar Star on this one."
Amy’s statement seemed to tip the scales. The others followed suit, nodding in agreement.
"Being around Miss Cherry really does seem to improve our luck," Ethan muttered to himself as he nodded.
With a reasonable amount of trust in my hypothesis, the plan was quickly put together.
We divided into teams to manage and clear the underground passage. We’d also start mapping it—an underground passage map.
Once Harrison returned from the village and Ethan traded shifts with him, and when José came down from his rooftop watch post and handed over to Nox, we finally briefed everyone on the situation.
The plan proceeded smoothly.
That is, until those damned Kintner scumbags started causing trouble again.
‘I guess it’s time to give them a taste of my burning rage.’
If we managed to reclaim Brunel, there was no reason we couldn’t deal with the Kintners too.