Seeing that Big Beard, the assistant technician, was safe and sound, all of us breathed a sigh of relief. After all, the Engineering Team's safety had been our greatest concern when the three of us jumped down here. Although Viska had scolded me more than once after we came down for being a leader who got fired up every other day, and had also scolded Sandora for falling from a once calm and stern queen into a silly girl who got fired up alongside her husband, that Rogue looked delighted as well. She slapped Big Beard's shoulder twice and declared grandly, "As long as you're alive, it's fine! You people are really something. For you troublesome bastards, two of the Empire's leaders jumped straight into the Abyss Gate!"
Big Beard's expression was complicated—extremely complicated. It was so complicated that I could not tell what emotion he most wanted to convey. At least twenty different expressions seemed to be scrolling across his face, and after Viska's lukewarm jab, he looked ready to kill himself on the spot to apologize to the world. "Your Majesty, this subordinate acted on his own authority and endangered the Head of State..."
"Enough, enough, I'm getting goosebumps..." I hurriedly waved him off. I had already witnessed the so-called "Frontline Battlefield Scientist" at work, and now he was switching to the sentimental route. Unfortunately, this was exactly the sort of thing I could not handle. "How's the engineering ship... never mind, tell us everything that happened down there exactly as it occurred. Why did you suddenly cut off communications? What accident did you encounter? And what was with that Fallen Apostle ship? Did it destroy the Abyss Gate?"
"We destroyed the gate," Big Beard said astonishingly, with pride written all over his face.
"You... destroyed the gate?"