7
As the bike’s headlight lights the pitch-black mine path, we proceed along while avoiding going too fast.
We’ve gone quite a distance from Hideout City, and it seems like we should probably set up freight rails and such inside the mine and build out the infrastructure.
Alice, who sits on the back of the motorcycle, peeks her head out from behind my shoulder.
“We’re almost at the destination. But damn, Mr. Mogero did some good work.”
“Doesn’t your heart ache to have made Mr. Mogero self-destruct after doing such good work?”
“What are you talking about? Mr. Mogero was old and, after all the wear and tear, nearing the end of his useful life. He was happy to have one final chance to shine.”
“Seriously? Can you really understand the feelings of a robot? …Ah, it’s coming into view.”
Arriving at the end of the mineshaft, I stop the bike and look up.
“Oh damn! These are all water crystals?! Just how much will these add up to?!”
There is a veritable wall of blue stones in front of me.
…We are deep underground, in Toris’s water-crystal mines.
As we were preparing for our invasion of Toris, Alice and Rose used Mr. Mogero’s abilities to dig the tunnel from Hideout City to this seam.
This was the job she was going to have Russell do at first.
“We could have gotten the same result using a shield machine, but you don’t have nearly enough Evil Points to order one of those. We got lucky this time. There was also a reason for Mr. Mogero to self-destruct. We collapsed some of the tunnels under Toris to make it harder for them to find our tunnel. That’ll force them to spend time repairing their own infrastructure and buy time until they can resume their mining operations.”
“…I see. While they’re rebuilding their city, we can take all their resources. Damn, you really are an evil one!”
“Ah, c’mon now, you can’t say that to me, partner. Ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
Toris’s strength came from the wealth they’d gotten from their plentiful resources.
Thanks to Mr. Mogero’s self-destruction, Hiiragi’s probably in no state to be mining anything.
Us sneakily stealing their resources will lead directly to undermining their strength.
Alice’s scheme this time around was a wonderful piece of work that not only brought us money but also sapped the strength from our enemies.
All we need to do is to set up infrastructure down here and have the demons of Hideout City work the mines. It’ll create jobs and bring us wealth. It’s perfect!
After we spend a bit of time cackling maniacally, we exchange glances.
“No doubt Adelie would go blind with rage if she found out. Make sure you don’t tell anyone about this, got it? Even if Adelie smirks triumphantly at you, keep this to yourself, okay?”
“That was really close, honestly. I was this close to bursting out in laughter.”
Adelie said earlier that it was a stalemate, but Alice had won the negotiations all on her own.
I imagine Adelie’s reaction on finding out about this fact in the near future…
Manic cackling echoes throughout the tunnel deep below Toris.
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