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The sheer feeling of relief that washed over me the moment we got back to Port Decima was like a breath of fresh air. After having quickly left the capital city behind us, we took a short break out in the nearby woods to rest and recuperate. From there, we made a beeline back to the port in an effort to run away from our crimes. It was a stressful time, one filled with anxiety and nerves as we kept looking behind us to check if we were being followed. But after spending the whole night catching up on a bit of rest, our group managed to leave without even so much as seeing an Academic gunning for us.

Not gonna lie, it felt strange to be walking about without anybody chasing us for what we did. Sure, we were still making sure not to be seen by the local authorities, but we were currently walking about the port markets without a care in the world and nobody was even questioning us.

In fact, it would seem that the commotion coming from Centrax hasn\'t reached this part of Marquee yet.

"This feels weird," I couldn\'t help but voice out. "We\'re technically supposed to be in hiding, right?"

"News travels slow, it would seem," Shade scoffed right behind me. "Not that we mind it. In fact, it\'s even to our advantage."

I couldn\'t help but frown at that. It still felt a bit off to me that we\'d gotten off scot-free from all of the death and destruction we had caused. Even now, I could see Guidance starting to fidget in both paranoia and guilt beside me as we slowly made our way back to the [Rig]; her joy and relief at beating the proverbial boss gauntlet with me quickly fading away as the gravity of what we just did finally sank in. Of course, Shizu wasn\'t far behind, with the princess also looking like hell had frozen over ever since we got out of that death crater of madness. Truly, adrenaline had a huge effect on how we processed things.

Hell, even I wasn\'t completely unaffected. While I might look like I was still holding things relatively together, I just wanted to walk onto the nearest bed and flop myself down onto the mattress and stop moving. I\'ll let the professionals handle things for a while. Clearly, Shade and Maruki were doing well despite it all, having had a bit of experience with this sort of stuff, surely.

"Who cares? When do we get to do the fun stuff of sellsword activities?"

And of course, there was the new addition to our party that we really didn\'t expect to have after everything that had happened. Nicole was still boundless and full of energy despite us having clearly destroyed her home country. Not that she even seemed to care. That crazed look in her eyes really just hammered home how insane she was with her passions.

"For the last time, we\'ll get there when we get there," I sighed, taking on the role of having to interact with her. With Shizu and Guidance still clearly out of it, it fell to me to try and keep this woman entertained. Well, Shen or Shade might be able to do such a task, but I might as well since she seems too focused on me anyways. "You\'ll get to play with everything we have once we have you on board."

"And that\'s all I\'ll ever want in terms of my employment," she giggled. "Well, that and having an unlimited budget to buy resources for my experiments."

"We\'ll have to chalked up along with our expenses," I offhandedly replied. "You\'ll have to wait a while before we have whatever it is that you need in terms of materials though. We have to leave as soon as possible, and I don\'t want us to buy more stuff than we already need here."

It was only fortunate that we decided to stock up on supplies the moment we landed here in port. If not, then we\'d have to run on our dwindling food and fuel reserves, and I really didn\'t want us to be stuck in the water if I could help it.

A few minutes of walking later, we finally arrived where we last left the [Empire\'s Wrath] on. The massive [Rig] still looked as good as how we last left it. Then again, it had only been around three days since we last left the damn thing.

"Ohh! This is amazing!" Nicole cried out in sheer joy. "And you\'re telling me that I get to play with this baby while I\'m with you all?!"

"That\'s the plan," I sighed. "Though you might want to talk about whatever changes you might want to do with us first. Most of all, you should talk to Shen if you plan on doing any upgrades even after that. She\'s our mechanic after all, and you\'ll be closely working with her throughout your stay with us."

Just a ways from me, Shen flinched at the sound of her name. It would seem that the kid was still tired from all of the insanity that happened. I\'m also pretty sure that she was slightly traumatized by the experience, what with her usual bravado now completely absent as opposed to it only being muted after that whole Island Sanctuary debacle.

"I can do that," Nicole huffed with a hint of pride and excitement. "I\'ll make sure that we won\'t die out at the Deep!"

I blinked at the specificity of that line. Did she really have to say it like that?

Shaking my head, I turned to the rest of the party as we approached the entrance to our [Rig]. Sure enough, Guidance and Shizu were still a bit out of it. And with Shade and Maruki deferring to me for leadership, I sighed as I went ahead and opened the door.

The hiss of the massive door opening almost felt like we were walking back into our bunker of safety. Almost immediately, the ladies of our group filtered in and disappeared into the halls, never to be seen again while us men were left with having to run the rest of the operations ourselves.

"It would seem that our beautiful ladies have left us to our tasks," Shade sighed with a shrug. "I wouldn\'t fault them, however. We\'ve been through a lot lately."

"Agreed," I nodded. "Well, it\'s not like we need a lot of people to get this thing out into the Deep anyway. I guess we\'ll just set course back to Kattleyna and get our bearings back."

Maruki stayed silent as he nodded, probably wanting to avoid blowing out our eardrums with his loud voice as we slowly made our way up to the bridge. Making our way through the hallways, I had a feeling that the [Rig] itself had changed somewhat. It was as if the overall atmosphere of it had become... brighter somehow? And it smelled of bubblegum for some reason.

Ah well, it was probably nothing...

I shrugged as we reached the door to the bridge. Pushing it open, I ignored whatever it was that was nagging at the back of my head. Surely, it wasn\'t too-

"New people!"

I froze midstep at the childlike shout that reached my ears. My eyes widening, I gawked as I saw what looked to be a couple and their child casually lounging around on the bridge. They turned all turned around to face us, and the two adults simply gave a nod before they stood at attention before us.

"You must be the leader then," the woman diplomatically bowed to me, her blue hair almost gravity-defying in how immaculate it looked. "I\'m Carbuncle Schneider. This is my husband Alcian, and this is our Daughter Gem."

I blinked at the sudden influx of information. Even as I watched this Carbuncle introduce herself and her family, I was wracking my mind as to how and why they were here in the first place. Were they intruders or something?

As if sensing my confusion, Carbuncle gave me a faint smile and explained herself. "Ah, perhaps Shade here hasn\'t explained our circumstances?"

I immediately turned to the man in question, Shade quickly turning away with a faint blush of clear embarrassment on his cheeks.

"I... might\'ve forgotten to inform you that I offered them a place here in our [Rig]," Shade winced as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I kind of owe them that much after everything that has happened."

"I see..." I drawled out, turning to Maruki to see if our tank also didn\'t know of this arrangement. Seeing his lack of surprise and usual overprotectiveness, I could only assume that he already knew who they were, which begged the question, "Who else have you told about them then?"

"I\'ve told Shen, at least. She already knows who they are," Shade quickly replied. "....And that\'s it."

Huh... Well, at least we have more people to man this thing while the women are ruminating in their respective rooms.

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