7.1 Planning

200 F.Y.

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"What do you mean 'you can't use them'?!"

It was the day after our supposed breakthrough with our rifle, and as Baccus had mentioned, there were a few of our fellow Nenners that showed up just before I woke up, I think. Well, there were only two of them, the man and the woman that greeted us back when we first returned to this place, but that was more than what I expected which was absolutely zero.

"It's as she said, Rouge," the tall muscular man piped up, hefting a rifle of Baccus's design. "Not everyone can spare that much Wesen on something that we have no guarantee of hitting. Not to mention that any Zahler worth their salt could easily rush us and disarm us anyway."

I put a palm on my forehead as I briefed my two new 'assistants', as they might as well call themselves. One was a muscled blonde prick who introduced himself as Bernstein. The other...

"Hey now, don't be too harsh on Rouge!"

Well, she was the same woman that cried into my arms just over a week ago. Still practically naked as she walked around with nothing but the bare minimum to cover her modesty.

"We might not be able to use these 'rifles,' as he called them, but that doesn't mean that they aren't useful," the green-haired Nenner defended, her hand pointed at the freshly smoking target. "If it can do that much damage on something riddled with rudimentary Seigels, then we can use it for something other than a main weapon!"

I chuckled at the energetic woman's defense. At least someone was defending me right now. With Lise out at the Furnace's outskirts with the old man, I was left to my lonesome to stew on my rough plans for the rebellion. I honestly thought I was going to make good headway too... Well, at least until these two showed up.

"If it's not gonna be our main weapon, then why bother with making them then?!" the chiseled blonde rebutted, completely forgetting that I was still part of the conversation in favor of fully turning his attention to his fellow 'assistant.' "This delusional fool will only get us killed if we follow his so-called 'theories'! Why can't you see that?!"

Ouch. That was kind of rude. "Hey now, I take offense to that-"

"Those same 'theories' let him kill a Primzahl! A PRIMZAHL!" Emeraud shouted, completely cutting me off. "Nobody's ever done that in the history of the Empire!"

"Heh, lucky shot, I'd guess." I felt a vein pop in my head as the blonde muscle scoffed at his friend's words. "I'm sure he'd only really killed a Prime in his dreams!"

Okay, I've had enough.

*THUD!*

"ENOUGH!" My foot landed on the floor with a fairly sizable thud. Why did I have to get saddled with these two powder kegs? "You're not helping. Both of you."

"I didn't come here to help you, Fake." My eye twitched at the term. This guy was really making it hard to like him. "I'm here because of this fool," the dumb muscle rolled his eyes, thumbing back towards his green-haired companion. "This idiot is convinced that you can get us out of this place."

"And I didn't want you following me anyway," the woman ground out. "So why are you here?!"

And there they went again... I sighed for the umpteenth time as the two initiated their lover's quarrel anew. Well, I didn't think they were lovers anyway, but they might as well be with how often they argued whenever I saw them.

"I don't want you to throw your life away, Emeraud!"

I raised an eyebrow at the blonde's heated reply. My ship senses were tingling, and I hate that I was doing this subconsciously now.

Welp, I was officially done with this. "You know what? Just keep doing what you guys are doing," I scoffed. I didn't have the time to waste trying to reconcile these two. "Both of you already know what to do anyway. If you need me, I'll be at my anvil."

I turned my back on their surprised faces as I walked back towards my workspace. If they wanted to argue like a couple, then by all means, they were free to do so. At the very least, they should just be productive and make more rifles while I tried and worked out some semblance of a strategy for us.

"W-Wai-"

I shook my head. I'll just pretend I didn't hear either of them calling out to me. With the arguing couple thoroughly behind me and out of my mind, I let myself go back to where I was before they both arrived.

Ahh yes... The plan...

Or, a plan, at least. As in, me just essentially throwing stuff to the wall and seeing what stuck. We've only got one shot at staging a break-out, and I couldn't really afford a catastrophic failure of a scale that would get us all killed. So this morning, I told Lise to go with the old man today and give me a layout of the place. Baccus would know some of the nooks and crannies of the Furnace, and Lise would know what to look for... Well, probably.

On to other things, I guess...

With a small flourish, I drew onto the floor what I could recall about the Furnace's general layout. A fairly crude circle stared back at me with the points of reference clearly marked out at the center and on some of the parts that I could still remember from memory. Of course, the center was where we were currently at, marked with a crude representation of the water tower. Just a few inches below that was the place where we previously stayed at for the month and a half of Lise and I's tenure as enslaved factory workers. A few other minor details such as the second floor of the Furnace, as well as some of the larger earthen vats and forges, were omitted completely, seeing as I didn't really recall those details too well.

That left me with... "With shvt out of luck in terms of information..."

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