"Hm?"
"What's wrong, brother?"
"No, it's nothing. I just received a message from Nicole, and it's a bit strange."
Wise looked at the content of the message on his phone. The message sent by the other party was as if she had been provoked. Things like how grateful she had always been to them, and that she would definitely repay them properly when she came back. Such a flag, it sounded as if she were going to her death.
Uh, wait a minute...
Wise, who had suddenly thought of something, once again reminded the other party. It's just that after the message was sent, he did not receive a reply. It was unknown whether the other side had received it or not.
After sending the message, Wise did not stay any longer. After all, everyone else was waiting for him. So after putting away his phone, he went into the Hollow with them. And they had currently set a temporary goal. Since Wrench had very likely stayed on the rooftop of Tower B before, then they would go there first.
Inside the dark tower, the group's current position was at the entrance of Tower A. So on the way, they could also help the group from Victoria Housekeeping with their facility maintenance tasks. At the same time, to show his professionalism as Phaethon, Belle also specially asked Fairy to do her best. The latter also said that she would not let the Master and Assistant No. 2 lose face.
The progress along the way was very smooth. Although they did encounter a few Ethereal, they were not enough to pose a threat. Wise also took this opportunity to show off his strength a little. Although because of his stat advantage, it was basically one-shot kills, and there wasn't much room for display, Corin still praised him with sparkling eyes.
"Big brother Wise is so amazing!"
"Thank you for your recognition, Corin."
"Hehe, you're welcome."
Just at this moment, the dim lights in the tower suddenly flickered a few times. Paired with the gloomy atmosphere around, it was as if a scene from a horror movie was about to appear. "I feel something is strange. The lights along the way seem to have been flickering all this time."
"Eh, i-is that so? Ha... haha..."
Corin was a little scared after hearing Wise's words. As she spoke, she also subconsciously leaned closer to Wise. And Ellen on the other side also nodded, indicating that it was indeed so.
"It has happened a few times. It seems the rumor might be true."
"Oh? What rumor?"
"What? You haven't heard of it, Wise?"
Ellen appeared a bit surprised. After all, in her opinion, this rumor was already a cliché.
"M-Miss Ellen..."
Just as Ellen was preparing to explain, Corin at the side once again spoke up and interrupted her. "Is this not something we can talk about? The boss's mission instructions were too long, I didn't read them. But it should be fine, right? Even if Wise finds out something he shouldn't know, he won't tell anyone. Or if it really comes down to it, we can just leave it to Lina to solve... Mmm, that doesn't seem right. Otherwise, I'll do it."
Solve? Is it the 'solve' I'm thinking of? Although I know that with Ellen's favorability, it's probably not, but I still can't help but think in that direction.
(The author's own thought: Ellen's original meaning was probably to feed Wise Lina's cooking and make him have a memory lapse.)
"Ellen, little Corin~ If you talk like this, you might give the guests the wrong impression of our Victoria Housekeeping."
Just then, Lina floated over from somewhere. And to avoid misunderstanding, she took the initiative to explain. That is, about that rumor. In fact, it was the ghost legend of Balai Tower that had recently become popular.
The story was: when Balai Tower was swallowed by the Hollow back then, a pair of famous dancer sisters unfortunately died here. After that, there were rumors that the resentful souls of these sisters became the masters of the building (this statement was not wrong, it was an Extremely Dangerous Ethereal after all). Once someone entered here without permission, they would use flickering lights to warn the visitors. If the other party still lingered in the building, they would cause a power outage and reap the souls of the visitors in the dark.
This was originally an outdated story, but recently someone said they had encountered almost the exact same thing in the tower. And the person who commissioned Victoria Housekeeping to come here was also because of this matter.
After listening to Lina's words, Wise was a bit surprised. Combined with his own memory, he could be completely sure that this was true. However, besides his instinctive fear of horror movie scenes (Wise really didn't like to watch horror movies, he was always dragged by Belle to watch them together), he said he was not flustered at all.
"Mr. Wise, we originally thought the rumor was just a fabrication by troublemakers. But from the situation just now, it's possible that the power outage is indeed a real thing. It's just that once the building loses power, it will cause some troublesome things—the atrium entrance leading to Tower B is equipped with an automatic fire barrier, which will close immediately during a power outage."
What Lycaon expressed was very clear. Since their priority now was to find someone, then to avoid unnecessary trouble, they had to speed up.
Afterward, the group quickly moved forward while clearing the Ethereal on the way. During this period, Wise also helped Corin take out an Ethereal that wanted to launch a sneak attack.
This part is omitted. In short, Corin's favorability has increased, after all, he is a person who can give her protection and a sense of security. It is also worth noting that the fighting styles of the members of Victoria Housekeeping can only be described as 'elegant, truly too elegant'.
It's just a pity that even though everyone worked so hard, they still couldn't reach the atrium entrance of the two towers before the inexplicable power outage. Therefore, they could only use the backup plan, which was the measure to deal with a power outage, that is, to perform a series of complex actions to turn on the underground power supply measures.
It wasn't that tiring, just overly troublesome. Fortunately, after some effort, the door was finally opened.
After arriving at Tower B, Belle immediately discovered a backpack on the stairwell. (Because Belle was still too embarrassed to have Wise carry her in front of so many people, so when they were not in a hurry, she decided to walk by herself.)
"This backpack, if I remember correctly, should be Wrench's. It seems she has indeed been to this building." Wise recalled the photo Nicole had given him. The Wrench in it was carrying this exact backpack.
"Mmm, then let me look for some clues."
As she spoke, Belle also rummaged through the things in the backpack, and then took out a rectangular player that was counting down. But when she saw the countdown on it end and a sound was emitted, Belle subconsciously threw it away. This action made the few people around immediately take a defensive posture.
Fortunately, in the end, besides the sound of music, there was no imagined explosion. Belle also breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this. It was just that when Belle wanted to go forward to pick up the player, Wise stopped her, and then looked at that direction with a grave expression. The others, seeing this, also did not act rashly. As expected, in the next instant, an Ethereal with slender limbs, legs as sharp as spears, and wearing a ballet dress appeared.
The silver-gray dance dress, and the body with a very metallic texture, with a gray hazy veil covering its face, and also gave off an elegant temperament. She did not take the initiative to attack, but instead used two fingers to pick up the player on the ground, and then did a high somersault to the middle of the hall. After making a few graceful dance poses, she extended a hand as if inviting everyone to a dance.
"What should we do? She doesn't seem to have any intention of attacking..." Belle looked at the Ethereal in the distance, holding a player and dancing alone. The Aether concentration reaction on its body was very strong, and it looked like it would be difficult to deal with.
"This Ethereal is actually attracted by music, and it also knows how to dance ballet. Could the rumor be true?" Ellen looked at the Ethereal in front of her with a look of novelty. After all, doing the same job for a long time would also become boring.
"Since the other party is inviting us to a dance, then it would be rude to refuse." Lycaon said as he stepped forward and elegantly extended his hand. Then, everyone went up together and launched a coordinated attack on this Ethereal.
During the fight, the player in the Ethereal's hand accidentally fell off. Wise, seeing this, immediately seized the opportunity and threw it into the spatial rift below. The ballet Ethereal, seeing this, wanted to retrieve the player, so it also fell into the rift together.
"Phew, that was tough. Good thing there was a spatial rift down there."
Belle also breathed a sigh of relief after the matter was over. And Lycaon at this time spoke up.
"It seems someone wants to use an Ethereal to deal with us."
"Yes, but who would do it?"
Belle frowned slightly, thinking about who would do such a thing in this building. However, just at this moment, several missiles with flames at their tails rapidly approached this way.
Belle was startled and subconsciously held her head with both hands. She had thought these missiles were aimed at her, but upon closer inspection, she found that the target of the attack was actually Wise. However, before he could make a move to block the missiles, Ellen had already come in front of him, swept them all away with her scissors, and then rushed forward quickly, facing the gunfire with a look of disdain.
"Ellen, leave one conscious..."
Lycaon had originally wanted to remind the other party, but he was still too late. By the time he arrived, the enemy had all been laid out. And Ellen was leaning against a wall at the side, her eyes closed, her arms crossed over her chest, and her scissors standing at her side.
Lycaon sighed helplessly upon seeing this. In the end, he went forward and began to inspect these people, wanting to find some clues from them.
"I didn't expect there to be other people in this building besides us."
As he spoke, Wise walked towards Ellen. After getting close, he then noticed that her breathing was even, her small mouth slightly parted. It seemed she had already fallen asleep.
No longer hesitating, he took a step forward and supported Ellen to prevent her from accidentally falling. And the latter also very cooperatively fell into Wise's arms.
"Eh? What's wrong with her, Ellen?"
Belle did not know the truth, so after noticing the situation here, she immediately asked anxiously.
"It's nothing, she just fell asleep."
As he spoke, to let Ellen sleep more comfortably, Wise changed his posture and held her in his arms princess-style with both hands. The others did not say much upon seeing this. Corin didn't understand these things. Lina showed a gentle smile. And Lycaon looked at the people lying on the ground.
"These people probably won't wake up for a while. Let's get them out of the Hollow first. Also... Wise, I'll leave Ellen to you."
This time, Lycaon did not add a 'Mr.' or the like after his name. And Wise also nodded after hearing this.
Not long after, the few of them left the Hollow. The few people who had been knocked out were taken away by Victoria Housekeeping, who planned to ask them some questions after they woke up and then hand them over to the Public Security Bureau.
And Ellen woke up not long after leaving the Hollow. When she noticed that she was being held in Wise's arms, her small mouth immediately opened slightly with a red face. She then forced herself to calm down and asked Wise to put her down. The latter could only smile and do as she said. However, before leaving, he also invited the few of them to come to his house for dinner when they were free. After saying these things, he then returned to the video store. It's just that the first thing he did after entering the house was to be pulled into a room by Belle and checked from head to toe.
After confirming again and again that there were no wounds, Belle finally breathed a sigh of relief. Just at this moment, Fairy also spoke with some apology.
[I'm very sorry, Master. Because the Hollow data analysis is still in progress, I failed to detect the approaching heat source in time.]
"You don't have to blame yourself for this, Fairy. You've already done a great job. And I'm not injured either. So continue your work, please."
[Okay, Master.]
Fairy's reply was still calm, but Wise seemed to be able to hear a hint of joy in it.
Afterward, the siblings began to discuss this incident. Due to their previous various experiences, it was not difficult to judge that Wrench's matter was definitely not simple. It was just that they didn't know what the members of Victoria Housekeeping would think. After all, they had only said they were ordinary friends at the beginning.
"Don't worry, brother. It's no big deal. After all, your relationship with them is so good, isn't it?"
Belle deliberately emphasized the 'them' in her words. And if her brother worked a little harder, maybe he could turn the two of them included in that into three.
"It's precisely because the relationship is good that I feel I need to explain it seriously."
"Mmm, actually, I also think so."
After making their decision, Wise immediately set off again. Along the way, he also bought a lot of candy. This was for Ellen. After all, she had helped him shoot down those missiles before. At the same time, it was also as compensation for him disturbing her sleep before.
Arriving near the previous Balai Tower, Wise happened to see Lycaon and Lina interrogating a person in a corner. The other party was trembling all over and looked very scared. Looking closely, wasn't it the group of people who had attacked them before? And after getting close, he then heard the other party shouting all the time.
"Stop! I'll talk, I'll talk! I'll say everything! Please have mercy... don't come over here!"
"Mhmm, congratulations, guest. You've finally come to your senses. If you had had this realization a few minutes earlier, both of us could have saved a lot of trouble."
Lina said with a smile on her face and a gentle expression. And this scene, in the eyes of the attacking soldier, was as terrifying as a devil.
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