Angel stepped out of the Geometric Lock and checked the time, only to discover that a full day and night had already passed outside.
He wondered whether Sigmund's side had made any new progress.
With that thought, Angel returned to the Illusion Cottage.
But once inside, he discovered that Laplace was not in the room. He had no idea where he had gone.
Angel did not pay it much mind and headed outside.
The enormous warehouse district was still bustling with activity. Crystal puppets carried semi-finished products everywhere, like orderly worker ants, repeatedly entering and exiting corridors of varying sizes along their respective tracks.
Angel swept his gaze around for a moment and quickly fixed on a crystal puppet near an aerial track. It was clearly slacking off, spending ages pushing and pulling a crate without moving it an inch.
Angel beckoned to it.
The crystal puppet jumped when it saw Angel appear. It immediately pretended not to see him, then began putting on a show of laboriously moving the crate.
Angel could not help but laugh at the sight.
"Come here."
The crystal puppet turned a deaf ear, pretending it had not heard him.
"I'm talking to you, Ninety-Five."
It still made no sound, hiding itself among the crowd of crystal puppets.
"If you don't come over, this Crystal Condensate can only go to someone else..."
As his words fell, Angel saw the crystal puppet that had been trying to blend into the crowd suddenly leap up and dive toward him like a whirlwind.
When it reached Angel, Ninety-Five slowed down, then smoothly dropped to its knees before him as if sliding onto rails.
Plead, bow-bow. Crystal Condensate, hungry-hungry.
Angel had no idea why, despite clearly being a crystal puppet—while the other puppets showed no emotions at all—this fellow