Editing Amaryllis in the Ice Country:Chapter 9 (section)

===Part 7===

“C-36, C-39, C-41…C-49 is the last one.”

Thirty-eight Cradles have been salvaged from the Storage Unit. These Cradles are moved to the ‘REM forest’ and inspected. Even though they might seem okay on the outside, there are quite a few masters who died due to system malfunction on the inside.

As the Cradles are being checked, I’m reunited with the children led by Daisy. They all run towards me, sobbing, and I hug them tightly.

—What do we do now…?

We have a cave-in, and are stuck deep underground. Typically, this is a dire situation, but as robots, we can easily push aside the rocks blocking us, and we can crush them. Götz and Eisbahn have much destructive power, and it’s not difficult to eliminate all obstacles as we escape to the surface.

But this isn’t the problem.

—The Cradles.

The Cradles require a lot of electricity to be maintained, and the internal batteries can only last for less than twenty hours. In other words, if we can’t reach the surface within twenty hours, the Cradle will lose electric power, and the humans inside will freeze to death. Of course, the villagers sharing electricity with the Cradles will collapse.

Also, we can no longer return to the village. The cave-in caused by the earthquake blocks off the return path to the villager, and has it mostly buried. If we had voted the preposition to ‘let humans live’ or ‘wipe out humanity’ during that meeting, it would have undoubtedly resulted in a tragedy of a higher scale.

And the issue most tricky to deal with is the villagers who are buried alive. Given the remaining batteries, there’s a high likelihood of us barely managing to return to the surface, or even running out of power. It’s almost impossible to do this and save the villagers who have fallen to the bottom along with the Snow White. If we do, there’s no doubt there’ll be a second disaster—the rescuers will run out of batteries and lose mobility. When that happens, the villagers and Cradles will both be wiped out.

—Argh…

I’m forced to make a painful decision—truth be told, the worst decision. We’ll have to abandon all our friends and most of the villagers who are buried alive, all for the sake of returning to the surface.

I lower my head bitterly. At this moment, a pair of hands land on my shoulders.

I look up, and see Eisbahn standing there.

<strong><i>“Chief.”</i></strong>, he gives a signal that’s not easily detected. <strong><i>“Please give the instructions.”</i></strong>

I recover.

—Right, I am.

The Chief.

Looking closely, the warning lights of the Cradles spread throughout the room like red fireflies. The time left is ’21:47:56’.

There’s still battery power. But we can’t return to the village. We can’t save those who are buried.

—Then there’s only one way left.

“Everyone look here!”

I call out for attention. The villagers all look at me.

I exert strength into my words, as though trying to wipe away the anxiety.


 

“I’m giving the next instruction…!”


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| Back to [[Amaryllis in the Ice Country:Chapter 8|Chapter 8]]
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| Forward to [[Amaryllis in the Ice Country:Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]
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