Security Guard A: "It's that pervert who was secretly taking pictures of the female students!"
Security Guard B: "That little kid is with him! Get them!"
Ryn finished the melon seeds in his hand, then flicked the shells towards the guards' feet.
Just as the shells were about to reach the guards, they turned into a cloud of dust, obscuring their vision.
Ryn took the opportunity to break into a run, catching up with Mobius who was also fleeing.
Mobius glanced at Ryn's signature red hair and shouted without looking back:
"Follow me, Elysia! I know a hidden spot!"
"Not following, it's not on my way," Ryn replied without a second thought.
"?"
Mobius was full of question marks. Shouldn't he be listening to her and escaping first? How could there be such a thing as 'on the way' or not?
"You wouldn't understand even if I told you. Follow me, my place is definitely safer than yours."
Ryn looked at Mobius's tattered, patched-up clothes. Finding them a bit dirty, he thought about it and decided against grabbing her clothes to carry her.
In the end, Ryn grabbed Mobius's small, bony hand and pulled her towards Dr. Einstein's lab.
Mobius: OxO
Mobius was completely bewildered. She was being pulled along by Ryn like a kite, her body floating in mid-air.
How could a method of escape that only existed in cartoons be happening to her?
Mobius shook her head frantically, trying to clear her mind. Had this false world already started to deceive her?
After running around blindly again and again, and accidentally running into the security guards several times, Ryn and Mobius finally managed to shake them off and arrive at the entrance of the university's research center.
As they were about to step through the gate, Mobius's legs felt like they were filled with lead. She planted herself firmly on the ground, pulling on Ryn to stop him from going any further.
"Stop! If we go any further, the nature of this changes!!
If we trespass on university grounds, we'll get a verbal warning at most, and a scolding from those guards. But if non-research personnel illegally enter the research center and see something they shouldn't... as commoners, we could be executed by firing squad!!"
"???"
Ryn looked at Mobius with a face full of surprise.
Was research so highly valued on the Mu Continent? Illegal entry meant immediate execution?
Ryn: "So does that mean those security guards can't enter either?"
Mobius thought for a moment and nodded. She looked at Ryn in disbelief and said:
"You're not thinking of 'the most dangerous place is the safest place,' are you? This is different! If you want to die, go die by yourself. Don't drag me down with you."
"Heh, fortune favors the bold. Follow me, Elysia will never harm you~"
Ryn grabbed the struggling Mobius and, ignoring her protests, dived into the research center.
Mobius was on the verge of tears. She didn't want to get caught by those damn guards because it would mean her parents would have to come and get her.
Mobius's mother was seriously ill in bed, and her father worked himself to the bone every day to earn money for medical bills. Mobius wanted to acquire the knowledge she craved, but she didn't want her parents to worry about her actions.
Well, great. Now her parents wouldn't have to worry. They could just wait at home for her execution notice!
Seeing the researchers in white coats stopping in the hallways to watch her and Ryn's frantic dash, Mobius was so mortified she was about to explode on the spot.
"Elysia! I hate you!!"
"Hehe, then hate me all you want. Just don't fall in love with Elysia, okay?~"
A few minutes later, after much twisting and turning, the two finally arrived at the door of Dr. Einstein's laboratory.
Seeing Ryn about to kick the door open, Mobius leaped forward and hugged his leg, hanging on to prevent him from kicking it.
"Are you crazy?! We're already committing a crime by trespassing! If you disturb someone's experiment in there, we'll definitely be shot!"
"You're so annoying. Why are you so afraid of dying... At worst, you'll just eat a few peanuts. What's the big deal..."
Ryn was getting impatient with the constantly chattering Mobius and was starting to regret bringing this little brat along.
He lifted Mobius up and looked directly into her frantic eyes. The words he was about to use to scold her into silence vanished as he saw her panicked expression and darting eyes, on the verge of tears.
*Tsk, Ryn, oh Ryn... you seem to have gone a bit too far and forgotten your humanity, haven't you?*
*You once scolded Houraiji Kyuusyou for being indifferent to life in his heart. Have you forgotten to reflect on whether you've become indifferent to life as well?*
"Sigh, Ryn, why are you getting angry with a child..."
Ryn gently placed Mobius back on the ground and held her trembling hands.
"Sorry, sorry, my fault. I didn't explain why we're here, which made you scared.
But since we're already here, why not just trust me? It's not like I have nothing better to do than to drag a little kid down with me before I die, right?"
"I... I'll trust you this one time..."
She could only trust him once. Because if they failed, they would all be eating peanuts and kicking the bucket.
Mobius squeezed Ryn's hand. It wasn't large, nor was it like her father's thick, reassuring palm, but it was very warm, making little Mobius decide to try and trust Ryn this once.
Ryn: "I once experienced some bizarre things in a faraway land. There, a cheerful companion taught us how to wake up someone who is completely immersed in their experiments and oblivious to the world."
Mobius: "What is it?"
Ryn: "Break something not-so-important in their lab!"
*BOOM—*
After a loud bang, before Mobius's astonished mouth, which could fit several small quail eggs, stood Ryn, who had just kicked open the ten-centimeter-thick blast-proof door of Dr. Einstein's lab...
Immediately after, questioning voices of "What happened?" echoed from various labs throughout the research center. The sound of hurried footsteps rushed towards Dr. Einstein's lab.
At this moment, Mobius was surprisingly not scared. Instead, she suddenly started to laugh, a laugh on the verge of tears, and said to Ryn.
"Great, just great. The spirit of trust you wanted me to have was... to go from waking up one researcher to attracting the attention of the entire research center?
Alright, we were just betting on whether we'd eat peanuts before. Now let's guess how many peanuts each of us will get?"