CHAPTER 64: CHAPTER 64 - ESCAPE FROM AMAPYTU

"How interesting. Who are you bringing to my inn tonight?"

Huh?

The one who said that is none other than Boss Levinna herself. She’s sitting on a chair, turning to the window.

My invisibility is still up, so she couldn’t have seen me. But she obviously saw the window opening and ’someone’ picking a rope and throwing it.

Caught red-handed, I guess.

"So, aren’t you going to say anything? Are you here, the girlie or the foxie? Or someone else? No, I think that any would-be intruders wouldn’t know about that rope you set there in advance."

Damn.

I need to think fast on an answer. The last thing I want right now is a confrontation.

"I’m sorry for this, Boss. They aren’t staying here for long. We’ll be gone shortly."

The others are already coming in through the window, one at a time. I can’t see them, but I can hear and sense their movements.

"Oh, so it’s girlie. I heard that there’s a commotion in the neighborhood. Some wild gang attacking the slavers, or something. I assume you have something to do with that."

"We only need a place to stay briefly before we leave the city."

"Levy?"

"H-huh? That’s a name I haven’t heard for a long time."

The Boss is surprised, but I must say that I’m at least as surprised as her to hear my Mom calling her by a nickname. Are they acquainted?

"It’s me... ugh. Darling, can you dispel the invisibility so we can talk properly?"

"Only after everyone’s inside."

"It’s okay, I’m the last one."

That was Yaci’s voice, coming from the window. She closes it so nobody from the outside can peek. Then I dispel the invisibility.

"Lily... Wha... How? So you’re alive, after all... And that collar..."

They run to each other and kiss passionately.

WAIT WAIT WAIT

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT??????

My mother... And a mafia boss??

"I’m so happy!! I believed all this time that you were dead."

Levinna is crying copiously now, embraced by my mother.

"I’m alive. It’s okay. And I’m free again. I guess you’ve already met my daughter, then."

"Your... Oh. Yes, I found the similarity uncanny early on. But still, I would’ve never guessed. So you took your time... No, I can see how it is."

"I never cheated on you, if that’s what you’re thinking. Though some situations were..."

"I understand, my love. What matters is that you’re alive. And that you’re here now. But you need to flee immediately."

"Huh? Did something happen?" I butt in, getting even more anxious.

"Little girl, if you had talked to me before, knowing who you are, I could’ve lent a hand. But I was treating you like any other customer."

"..."

"I promised you that nothing would happen if you followed the rules. Using my inn as a base to launch an attack on another faction is not within the rulebook. Here or anywhere else."

"Which means..."

"That the guards are on their way here, of course."

Ugh.

I messed up hard this time.

"There’s so much I want to ask you... especially about how you came to own a place like this. But..."

"I’m sorry we can’t have this conversation right now. But now that I know that you’re alive, my heart is lighter."

They start kissing again. I get it, it’s more than ten years apart, but now’s not the time, you two!

And if we’re fleeing during the night, we’ll have to take the wall option. At least, the enhanced patrolling around the city means fewer guards on the wall itself.

Levinna breaks the kiss with my mother and goes to the door, shouting.

"Foodie!"

A few moments later, the street vendor who sells skewers comes rushing into the room.

"Yes, Boss?"

"Change of plans. Take them to the tunnel now!"

"Huh? If you say so, Boss."

"Now, y’all run. I’ll stall the guards."

She then goes running towards the entrance, while Foodie guides us through the corridor in the other direction.

Yaci and I barely have the time to pick up our backpacks and hurry after him.

He doesn’t say a word. Instead, he opens the last door of the corridor, where there is a room like any other.

He doesn’t waste time waiting as everyone enters the room, running to the side of the wardrobe where there is a cheap stone statue.

When Yaci closes the door behind us, it’s already possible to hear voices in the hall below. It looks like Levinna is talking to some guards.

Foodie has already raised a finger of the statue, which made the wardrobe slide to the side, revealing a staircase that goes down.

"Hurry up, if you don’t want to get caught."

The staircase has no light, which makes hurrying up a bit difficult, especially for me and my mother, who are humans. But we somehow make it.

The voices are already in the corridor, discussing something loudly. It seems that they are in front of the room we were occupying before.

:::

I go in front, walking down the stairs, followed by the rest of the girls, Yaci, and then Foodie. He stayed behind so he could activate the mechanism that would close the entrance again.

Now it’s really completely dark.

I keep going forward, guiding myself through with the feel of my feet on the stair steps, going as fast as possible.

After a time that feels too long, I reach a door. There’s no lateral path, only the feel of wood in front of me.

"Ouch."

The person who was behind me collided with me.

"Sorry. There’s a door here."

"Open the door and go forward." Comes the whisper from above, and I do that.

After the door, there don’t seem to be any stairs, only a flat corridor. Would this be the tunnel?

:::

Foodie is the last person to go through the door, closing it behind. Then he chants something that sounds like Latin, and a faint light comes from his hand.

I mean, from a small lamp that he’s carrying in his hand.

"Now we’re underground, so it’s okay to have a light. Just keep going forward; there’s no branching in this tunnel."

"Where does it lead?"

"The Barrens. When the Boss told me to bring you here, I thought that she had explained it to you."

"We didn’t have the time. But that’s exactly what we need right now. Thank you."

And like that, we walk to our final escape from the city of Amapytu.