In the dark space below, I could make out edges, and I heard metal rasping underfoot as I walked across some sort of paneling suspended from the floor below. I faintly saw in the dark ahead, some large corner filled out by what I guessed were rooms.
Hale stopped and turned back to me.
[HALE] "Hold on for a second. Stay right here."
And continued on. I was afraid for the second he was going to trip and fall in the dark, but it seemed he knew the way by muscle memory alone as he unlocked a door ahead with a... card? A card that unlocks doors? That's strange.
Not a moment later, lights came on.
I gasped.
'...!'
[MAJORDOMO] "Woah! Would you look at that...!"
BGM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNxYAoxu9HcI was in something far larger than his factory above ground. Something old, and obscured. A place of concrete and metal. Rafters and tunnels. A place of steel and trusses.
[HALE] "So... what do you think?"
'I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Hale, what is this? This is all underground, beneath your workshop...?'
[HALE] "That it is. This is an old bunker."
'Bunker?'
[HALE] "Practically a fort built underground. It was dug out and constructed a long time ago by the Heer in the event of catastrophe striking Eikrise. This was around the beginning of the Woldorian-Imperial conflict. Though sadly, as the Imperials never got this far, and the bunker was costly, it fell in disrepair and was sealed up and abandoned."
[HALE] "I discovered it almost thirty years ago, with the help of some old colleagues of mine. We noticed some hollow quality to the walls during a safety inspection of the workplace. This led us to finding the unlock mechanism and everything else. I didn't even know the Heer built right into my shop. I owned this place for a few hundred years and didn't know! Though I guess they may have slipped it in somewhere during a "maintenance" project. Heh. Government stuff."
[HALE] "My point is, the Heer doesn't believe anyone knows this bunker still exists. I'd been touching it up for a long time. Getting the power back up was one thing, but it still needs a lot of work. At the least, the computers work."
'I see... and what did you plan to do with it next?'
Hale stared down at the floor as leaned over one of the guard rails.
[HALE] "Well. I'll be honest. I didn't plan to do much of nothing. But meeting you has changed my mind on that."
[HALE] "So this is what I want to offer you."
[HALE] "Let's work together in pursuing your goal of world Redemption from here. I want to turn this place into a guild of likeminded and put you in charge, and from here, we'll work together to Redeem everyone we can, and put a stop to the madness outside."
'Huh...? Hale? You'd really want to help me?'
[HALE] "Can't do it alone. Not even as a goddess. There's a lot that needs changing..."
