Editing Amaryllis in the Ice Country:Chapter 10 (section)

===Robot=106\Human=113===

“From here on, we’re going to climb.”

We arrive at a fork, and Viscaria stops, looking up. There’s a slope forty-five degrees steep, and looking up from the bottom, it looks like a broken cliff.

“Ack, we can climb this thing?”

Like usual, Eisbahn remains unmotivated.

“Stop complaining. Let’s go.”

“Yes yes.”

I grab onto the wall of ice, as though ready to rock climb. It’s not difficult if I have to climb on my own, but it’s really not easy having to carry Cradles of two hundred kilograms while doing so.

“It’s a little steep. Don’t force yourself here, children! Eisbahn and I will pull you up with rope!”

“Ehhh, you serious?”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

I feel the weight on my back with my fingertips as I climb with all my might. I feel that I expended quite a bit of battery power, but I’ll slip and fall if I don’t control my power output well.

Eisbahn and I watch the footing as we cautiously climb up. Soon after, the other adult robots follow. Viscaria instructs us on a path that’s easy to climb, while the children are looking up at me worriedly.

After the short climb of about ten minutes, I put down my Cradle.

“Everyone, take it easy! There’s not much time! Be careful!”

It’s steep, but luckily, the slope isn’t that high. After about twenty minutes, the adults have all finished climbing. Following that, the children have all climbed, and finally, we pull up the children’s Cradles with rope. Götz, the strongest of us all, really put in a lot of effort during this time.

“Oraaahh, orraahhh…and we stop!!”

Many loops are wrapped around the Cradles, but the villagers cautiously pass them on one after another. Even after a long time, none of the hundred and so Cradles dropped. This is the best situation for us.

“Okay, five minutes rest!”

I want to rest for twenty, thirty minutes, but after considering the battery power, I decide against it. There’s only twelve hours of electricity left. More than half has been depleted if we consider the initial twenty-two hours planned.

—Can we last until the end?

We have few spare batteries at hand, and we’re almost at our limit. I try to act as calm as possible as I observe the resting villagers. Over the past ten hours, they have been exerting grueling manual labor, and thus, all of them are looking really weary.

Once rest time ends, we head off again.

But thirty minutes in, our worries become reality.