Chapter 76 - Questioning Pt I: (Master, No, Big Boss!)
"Let\'s go," Dios said right on the 2-hour mark.
Everyone already rested their one and a half hours and done their 30-minute shift. It was about time they started heading out, even if there was still a downpour.
Hunter naturally took charge of carrying the bags while Zeek just stared at him as he grabbed everything.
Haneo didn\'t even bother realizing there was something to carry while Calim was most definitely not carrying anything else other than himself.
As for Dios, who would let their superior carry anything?
Well, the bags just naturally landed on Hunter\'s shoulders and he didn\'t say anything about it since he knew that nothing he could possibly say would change the situation.
In order to keep his patience as well as mental sanity in check, he just took this as extra practice and weight training, not that the bags weighed much.
"Blindfold her too, we don\'t want her knowing the path," Dios added off-handedly.
"Captain Dios, we don\'t have anything left to blindfold with, we used all the usable cloth to tie her up," Zeek, who had been the one to do the tying, said.
This was also one of the reasons Emilin didn\'t hold much of a grudge.
They had used soft cloths to restrain her, and they weren\'t even tied that strongly, she wouldn\'t even have marks around her wrist as long as she was careful enough.
"Just take off the ones on her ankles and use them as the blindfold, at least like that she can walk by herself." Dios promptly decided, pointing to the white cloth binding Emilin\'s ankles.
Dios had decided so because even if Emilin was lighter than them all, she wouldn\'t be able to our run him.
He was especially confident seeing as Emilin still had her injury on her left leg from before and this weather would not be her ally.
Zeek didn\'t waste any time untying and retying the cloth around Emilin\'s eyes and though the cloth was white, once it was tied tightly enough with the layered fabric, Emilin wasn\'t able to see anything.
The 5 people already got used to how cooperative Emilin was about everything, just like how she let herself be tied without making a fuss.
It was disturbing at first, but then it felt somewhat natural.
This would become quite a headache for these five in the future when they compared other hostages and enemies they had captured with this little lass.
Comparing is really the root of all evil in the world.
Previously, they had been thinking of just carrying Emilin over one of their shoulders to get her to their destination, but then the blindfold thing popped up and so they all ended up just walking.
Well, even if that had not happened, Emilin wouldn\'t have easily agreed to have any one of these people carry her, even if she still had her injury.
"Will you be ok?" Calim asked while glancing at Emilin\'s left leg and pointing up at the cloudy grey sky.
It would be inevitable for the wound to get wet, and things would only get more complicated from there.
Emilin nodded gently to indicate that she could walk, not commenting any further on the matter.
She had to grab onto the person next to her\'s arm so to make sure that she wouldn\'t trip and so that they could lead her as they walked for the next 20 ish minutes.
It was slightly longer than expected, but that was most likely due to the fact that Emilin had almost bumped into several trees and tripped on multiple roots due to Zeek\'s amazingly poor guiding skills.
Otherwise, it went quite smoothly despite the heavy rain.
As for the part about blindfolding Emilin so that she wouldn\'t know the path, that was quite useless.
Perhaps if they had just carried her on someone\'s shoulder, she wouldn\'t have been able to figure it out, but since Emilin was taking the path with her own two feet, it was pretty much as easy as pie to figure out the path she had taken from the cave to the base.
"Who\'s that?"
Emilin could vaguely hear another voice coming from up ahead, which made her assume that they had already reached the base.
"We\'ll have to inform the Big Boss, but chances are we\'ll need to make an appointment with Moulan to figure things out," Dios informed the guard at the front entrance.
"I see, but the Big Boss isn\'t here right now, I\'ll contact Sir Liam for you," the guard took out his communication device as he motioned for the 6 people to head in with a hand gesture.
They passed multiple detector systems before Emilin was finally unblindfolded after getting inside with the metal door outside closed shut.
She couldn\'t tell just what kind of establishment this was since it was incredibly spacious, looking as if there were multiple floors, but she still had to consider that this was in the middle of a forest.
\'Considering how large this is and that I haven\'t seen a building all around this parameter, chances are this is underground, but we didn\'t go into any elevator or anything of the sorts either.\' She thought as she walked past the censors with no issues.
These were metal detectors and while the other 5 took off some of their metallic accessories, Emilin didn\'t have to take off anything, including her shoes.
\'You\'ve done it Big Brother Theo! It works.\' Emilin had a barely noticeable smirk growing on the corner of her lips.
One of the major advances her Big Brother Theo had when creating these shoes was actually passive components.
The GPS and other systems wouldn\'t be caught in either passive nor active metal detectors and x-ray wouldn\'t be able to catch the inlaid contraptions.
If there was nothing wrong, then none of this would matter, but once something was up, this would make a huge impact on the survivability of the user.
The user wouldn\'t be caught with strange gadgets on enemy territory and the GPS would still be functioning.
If this was found, then the shoes would probably be tested before being destroyed and then Emilin would have to face some really troublesome questions when questioned on why she had those types of gadgets and where she got them.
After all, there were no normal devices inlaid into the shoes.
"Take her to a waiting room," Dios ordered one of the people standing guard at one side.
Emilin couldn\'t help but notice how bustling the room was as she surveyed her surroundings.
There were a great number of people walking around at the same time and just as many standing guard, yet everything seemed incredibly orderly.
The person who was ordered to bring Emilin to a room promptly moved without asking any unnecessary questions.
Everyone here seemed incredibly respectful as well as well trained, which really beg the question, \'Why did all the people, who seemed to be ranked higher than these guards, act so differently?\'
The people who had brought Emilin thus far seemed so carefree and, well, unrestrained, while these people who were being perfectly respectful to the group of 5, seemed much more like well-trained mercenaries, or even soldiers.
Emilin once again didn\'t make any fuss while quietly following the guard into a room, or better yet, a well-decorated cell, with her wrists still tied.
The guard saw that there was nothing else and so he also closed and locked the door without any hesitation.
\'If this girl were a guest, they would have said so,\' was the thought that ran through his mind, and so, he didn\'t have to treat her as a guest, and the only other reason she would be escorted here by a captain would be to have her locked up for questioning.
Since Captian Dios said, waiting room, it was safe to assume that she wouldn\'t be taken into the deeper basement levels.
All of the guard\'s analysis was spot on.
It was indeed as he had calculated. Emilin wasn\'t a guest, but she wasn\'t an enemy just yet either.
There was no need to head to the lowest basement levels unless explicitly told to do so.
While Emilin observed her surroundings, Dios had already sent all the available information he had on Emilin to Sir Liam, who was also the personal assistant to their Big Boss.
Since their Big Boss wasn\'t here, Sir Liam would be one of the only people who would be able to contact him, being most definitely the most accessible one.
Everyone else who could directly contact the Big Boss was definitely eccentric on some level.
Dios sent a photo of Emilin which he had secretly taken like a stalker with the camera inlaid in his comms while including the short description that Cenci had given him and sent the file to Sir Liam before calling it a day.
On a different floor of the same establishment, Liam, who already had piles of paperwork and other documents to read, received the message on his communication device.
In an attempt to take a rest, he stopped all that he was doing to read this message.
He was ecstatic when he realized that this wasn\'t something that he could deal with without first asking for his master\'s input, no, here he should use the term boss.
He quickly made his way to the separate office the Big Boss was at and knocked twice before coming in when he heard the voice inside allowing him in.
"Boss, there\'s something for you to take care of. It should be quick." Liam said, looking straight at the man who had his eyes closed with his head leaning back on the couch and his legs resting on the glass table in front.
\'But hopefully, it won\'t be too quick,\' he inwardly thought.
The man sitting on the brown couch in the office slowly opened his pale green pupils as if he had just woken up from a rest before asking in a husky yet penetrating voice.
"What is it?"