Chapter 155: Unexpected Encounter at the Shelter

The battle outside was still raging on, with the situation only intensifying instead of calming down. More and more airships were falling from the sky, not just the dragon airships of the Crestvale Republic, but also increasing casualties among the Empire's airships. 

However, this did not affect our pace of advancing. For the two Parristol resistance soldiers, they seemed more familiar with the condition of this city. 

We learned that the shelter was not located above ground, but underground beneath the city. So to get there, we had to first find the entrance to the underground passage.

After leaving the residential area, we did not head towards the dense building clusters. Instead, we went straight towards the more secluded forest corners. Taking advantage of the soldiers leading the way upfront, I finally found a chance to move beside Cyra at the back and whispered a complaint. 

"Where did you learn those tricks just now? You really grossed me out!"

I was referring to her acting all cute and adorable earlier. Truthfully, if I didn't know her background inside out, who would have guessed from that performance that she used to be a guy.

"Tch, I only had to make that sacrifice for the greater good!" 

But Cyra didn't seem bothered at all, defending herself as if it was natural.

"If not for my superb acting skills earning their trust, there's no way it would have been so easy! Besides, you were quite the actor yourself, looking all pitiful like you were really scared of those monsters. But behind the scenes you've probably killed more than anyone, with all the bodies piling up into a mountain by now, right?"

"Well, it wasn't that exaggerated. And I was just going along with you!" 

I really felt like wringing her neck. Where was the promised manliness? Even if I had suggested posing as local Parristol residents initially, did she have to use such shameless methods?

Fortunately the goal was achieved overall. To be fair, her cute act wasn't that professional. But her looks gave huge bonus - those two soldiers wouldn't suspect a thing no matter what we said.

"Oh by the way, let me tell you guys a secret!"

While I was feeling conflicted, Cyra suddenly turned her eyes as if remembering something. Giggling, she caught up to the leading soldiers and began "divulging" to them.

"Actually, my sister really likes His Majesty the King. She always casually brings him up, even saying if she could see the King up close, it would be worth dying on the spot!"

"Hey hey, when did I ever say that!"

This really took me aback - afraid of what and it came true with this slanderous rumor! I hurried to pull this ignorant girl aside and struggled to clarify.

But those two soldiers didn't seem to take my words seriously. In fact, they looked like they thought I was just being shy. One of them smiled and matter-of-factly told us:

"It's not that strange actually, His Majesty is very popular with girls. But getting to see him up close is quite difficult. You should know the Chromos Tower is heavily guarded, commoners are prohibited from getting near!"

"But there are other ways too!" 

The other soldier then chimed in, saying without any guard:

"It's said the ancient city of Lantine Oasis has an extensive underground passage network. Maybe one of them could lead to the base of Chromos Tower. But even if you get in successfully, you might get caught very quickly. At that point, whether you can actually see His Majesty would really depend on luck."

He finished with a suspicious look at me, as if I really was some delusional fangirl who would recklessly try to "stalk" my idol.

"You're not actually thinking of trying, are you?"

"Of course not! Don't listen to my sister's nonsense. How could I possibly do something so dangerous!" 

I quickly denied it, then glanced at the smugly grinning Cyra, looking like her plan to extract information had succeeded... Really so annoying! Why did I have to call her "sister"?

Fortunately, after my denial, the two soldiers did seem to believe me. The idle chatter finally moved away from this embarrassing topic to other directions.

For instance, from their casual mentions, we learned that many of the city's facilities and their purposes were only known indirectly from those monsters, including the shelters and underground passages.

In other words, the monsters understood way more about this city than we imagined! 

This piece of information was rather unexpected to me. I had always assumed Adrian, as the Loren royal heir, should be more familiar with this place. So who first informed who about the existence of the sky city? That's quite intriguing.

"This is one of the entrances to the underground passage. Next we need to prepare some lighting tools!"

After walking for about 10 minutes, we finally reached the end point of the ground route - a small door situated in a park. It was already open, revealing a slanted stairway passage extending downwards, but anything beyond was pitch black.

"For such an advanced and grand city, the underground evacuation passage doesn't even have its own lighting system? I heard the shelter is still quite far from here..."

Seeming a bit afraid of the dark despite the soldiers lighting some torches for temporary lighting, Cyra made the sign of the cross over her chest and muttered complainingly. 

"It's probably just like sewers, what do you expect, light bulbs installed down there?"

This passage entrance didn't look very spacious. I couldn't help muttering under my breath, just hoping it wouldn't reek terribly.

However, once we fully entered, we realized our assumptions were wrong. The narrow part was only the short segment leading to the surface. After descending to the passage bottom, we were surprised to find the space was much more spacious, easily allowing two or three cars to pass side-by-side!

Unfortunately, there was still no lighting inside the passage.

"The rest of the way is simple - just keep going right along the passage. Whenever you reach a fork, always take the path furthest to the right. After around 1000 meters you'll reach the underground shelter."

The one leading pointed to the right and said. Now we could only rely on the dim torchlight to slowly advance forward.

I have to specifically mention the two Parristol resistance soldiers here. They actually did seem to have professional conduct - in this pitch black underground place with no daylight, they had yet to make any untoward harassment moves against us two "fat sheep."

Of course, while there was no physical action, there was no shortage of verbal flirtation routines. Plus it was quite boring along the way, so the soldiers' courage increased greatly underground. This put more strain on Cyra though. Who asked her to overact earlier! Most of the fire was directed at her as she was constantly asked about her name, age, hobbies, dating standards, if she liked anyone, etc...

Finally, Cyra couldn't stand it anymore and hid behind me, shoving me to the front lines. But facing the new wave of assault, I was completely unrestrained, straightforwardly revealing my three pairs of wings. 

"Angels!"

This immediately brightened up the dark passage considerably. Accompanying the soldiers' gaping mouths and dumbfounded expressions, Cyra suddenly smacked her forehead in realization.

"Right, why didn't I think of that! Why did we have to make it so complicated? We could have just used force to make them lead the way, no need for this whole act of pretending to be locals!"

"It's not that extreme though!" 

I shook my head to refute. 

"If we resorted to force right away, who knows if they would have tried to lead us into an ambush instead. So your efforts were still worthwhile...puhahahahaha!"

At this point I couldn't help bursting into laughter.

"Little sister Elizabeth, is your dream guy really a superhuman? And one day he'll appear in a prominent event, donning a golden holy robe and riding a red horse to take you as his bride?"

To get it over with, Cyra had thrown together all sorts of random bizarre answer. But strung together they sounded so incoherent. Yet those two idiots didn't understand the references at all, thinking she was telling the complete truth...

"Damn it, stop reciting it!"

Publicly exposed by me, Cyra was finally flustered for real this time. Blushing, she spread her wings to charge over and started pummeling the two soldiers, venting her frustration. Fortunately they at least had the power of two to three tiers, otherwise they would have been beaten to death by her.

knocked out, I cast a sleep spell on each of them too. They probably wouldn't wake up for a day. I then dragged them to a secluded corner to hide before putting away my wings, picking up the still-lit torch and continuing onward.

Having learned the way ahead, it didn't take long before we reached the location of the shelter. However, I had failed to account for there being guards here too. Seeing Cyra and I, two random girls emerging from the pitch-black tunnel, the guards stationed at the shelter entrance immediately became alert, raising their swords and shields to shout at us.

"Halt! Who are you? How did you find your way here?"

"Uh, we're residents who accidentally got separated during the earlier evacuation. We just met some soldiers going out from here who told us the way and even gave us this torch..."

I was already quite practiced at dealing with such situations, quickly making up an excuse.

"It should be the torch assigned to Pansy and Barry. It was their turn to go out on a rescue mission. So where are they now?"

The lead guard took the torch I handed over and immediately recognized it as equipment from their own Parristol resistance group, lowering his guard considerably.

"They dropped us off at the passage entrance and left, saying there were other residents awaiting rescue. They'll probably be back soon!"

Cyra hurriedly went along with the lie. At this point, she could easily come up with reasons to keep it going.

"Is that so? They actually let you walk through the underground passage alone..."

Hearing this response, the guard suspiciously took out a small notebook and casually asked while flipping it open.

"From your looks, you're probably still minors, right? Do you have any family or relatives inside here? I need to verify and register you."

This...

I was truly at a loss now. We had no family or relatives at this shelter. But if I honestly said we didn't, it would probably make it even harder to clear their suspicions. I shouldn't have impulsively revealed our identities - it would have been better to just return together with those Pansy and Barry guys!

"They're my daughters, you don't need to ask anymore! During the frantic evacuation earlier, our family accidentally got separated. But now we can finally reunite!"

Just as I was wavering, a resounding booming voice came from behind the guards at the door. A middle-aged man walked over to the guard in charge of registration and stated this.

Wasn't that Mike?

I immediately recognized his identity with one look, and Cyra was no exception. At the same time, another major figure followed out behind him. Although the newcomer claimed to be Mike's son, his appearance was completely unfamiliar. But to us two angels, we could see through his face - he was actually wearing a magical disguise mask, his true identity instantly apparent.

As Mike's protectee, Cyra and I almost immediately guessed this was Cysper. However, we felt puzzled as to how they had managed to arrive here ahead of us.

"Little sister! I really missed you two. Why were you still wandering outside at a time like this? What if you got accidentally hit by a stray arrow spell? I'm so relieved you're finally okay..."

Upon seeing us, Cysper immediately rushed over, continuously patting Cyra's head while scolding her.

"You must have been the ringleader, right? You're always being so naughty! Just wait till I properly discipline you later!"

The two of them were already very familiar with each other, not bound by such notions of status. But towards me, a six-winged angel he wasn't as well-acquainted with, the Pope obviously didn't dare act so brazenly.

"Heh heh..."

As Cysper kept mussing her hair, Cyra glared at him before teasingly complaining in an ambiguous tone:

"Brother! You left your girlfriend behind just to come welcome us. Doesn't your girlfriend get jealous? She's so fierce usually, can you really handle her? I guess having just a little sister is best after all? Because I'm the only one who truly cares for you, bro~ther~!"

Saying that, she firmly jabbed his stomach with her elbow, causing Cysper to grimace in pain. Even Mike watching from the side couldn't help looking dumbfounded for a moment.

The Pope was being openly accused of having a girlfriend - if word got out to his followers, that would be disastrous! Of course, as long as we didn't say anything, there was no real risk of others finding out. But having no way to deny it, Cysper could only grit his teeth and hurriedly declare:

"You're right! I...I'll go break up with her later!"