A Night of Paranoia (9)

“Well, even so, digging the passage back out wide enough for everyone to get through will take time. If their goal was to trap us, then they’ve halfway succeeded. Either way, I can’t dig that fast without releasing my limiters, and I can’t use that again today, so we’ll be stuck here for a whole day.”

At that moment, Kagami himself refuted Menou’s assessment.

Even if they released their limiters to dig, the speed Menou was talking about only applied if they dug straight down. To dig upward, they would have to make the passage slope gradually enough for people to walk up it. And unlike the earth that regenerated when Earthclear dug through it, they would need to clear away all the dirt after digging so the passage was actually passable. That would take a fair amount of time, so Kagami thought Menou wasn’t wrong if the enemy’s intention was to trap them.

“Hmm... Then, as Kagami-dono says, trapping us really is their goal? It’s hard to imagine, though...”

“We don’t know what their goal is, but the fact is, we’re less able to move freely now, aren’t we? At the very least, we should absolutely avoid acting alone. Maybe their goal is to leave us in this uneasy situation for a while and see what we do.”

Parna considered various possibilities in her own way, but couldn’t find a definite answer. Instead, she suggested a temporary course of action to protect Alice and their companions.

“We should be careful when we’re bathing. Other than that, like Parna-san said, we should stick together as much as possible... Actually, are we really going to keep living with the Resistance even in this situation? Wouldn’t it be better to withdraw for now and wait for an opportunity?”

Tina seemed to agree. Rather than speculate about the enemy’s goals and intentions, she turned her thoughts to what they should do next. Seeing the worried expressions on Parna and Tina’s faces, Menou considered the matter for a moment and said, “Hmm...”

“It would be difficult to live outside, wouldn’t it? As we discussed before coming here, even though our movements have already been discovered, they would eventually have found out once we returned to the Resistance anyway. We should stick to the original plan... At this point, we’ll just have to see what happens.”

Menou repeated to the two of them the best course of action they had already settled on, though it could hardly be called a solution...