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Gina looked over and saw that Madison was already moving to answer it for her. Gina held up a hand, then motioned for Madison to hand it to her instead.

Madison did so, perhaps only then remembering that no one was supposed to know that she was here.

“Hello?” Gina said into the receiver.

<“Gina? It’s Hector.”>

She blinked, then smiled. “Ah. How is everything?”

<“Uh. Not so great. As usual, I guess.”>

“Mm. Should I be worried?”

<“Oh, uh, no. But I need to talk to Roman. Like, right now, if possible.”>

“Ooh...” Gina bit her lip. “It’s not possible, unfortunately. Master Roman is away on business.”

<“...Hmm. Well, um. This is really important, though. Is there no other way I can contact him? Specifically, I need information from Voreese.”>

Gina frowned. With everything she knew of him, she didn’t think Hector would exaggerate about the severity of a situation. “Unfortunately, there isn’t. Even I can’t contact him right now.”

<“...How can that be?”>

Gina had to mull her answer over first. She supposed if it was Hector she was telling, then Master Roman wouldn’t get mad at her. “He’s in the Undercrust.”

<“Ah...”>

“You know about that, don’t you?”

<“Yeah, I do.”>

“So you know that I can’t just call him up. His service provider doesn’t exactly have coverage there. Assuming he even took his phone with him in the first place.”

<“I get it. Okay. Hold on a second.”> There came a rather long pause. <“Alright, um. How did he get to the Undercrust?”>

“Uh. He went down a big hole?”

<“Yeah, but which hole? They have names.”>

Gina shrugged to herself. “I don’t know. It was in Steccat.”

<“Mm.”>

“Oh, and, I guess... he may have infiltrated a paramilitary base belonging to a certain lady-servant emperor. Or empress, as it were.”

<“What the--? Are you kidding?”>

“Nope.”