Without waiting for her any further, I went in the opposite direction to take a so-called "shortcut" ahead.
As for Frisk, she simply took the same path Papyrus had taken.
"So, as I was saying about Undyne—"
Before Papyrus could say anything else, he suddenly glanced in the direction and saw Frisk standing there.
Then he looked at me.
I looked at Frisk.
Then I looked at him as he looked at Frisk.
Then I looked at Frisk as he looked back at me.
It went on like that—faster and faster. I swear, at one point, I felt as if I might actually take off into the air.
"Sans!! Oh my god, is that a human!?" Papyrus exclaimed, his voice rising with excitement.
"Uuhhh... actually, I think that's a rock," I replied cautiously.
"Oh." He paused. Then, curiosity took over as he asked, "Hey, what's that in front of the rock?"
"Oh my god!!" he gasped again, this time whispering, "Is... is that a human?"
"Yes," I said back quietly.
"Oh my god!!! Sans! I finally did it!! Undyne will... I'm gonna... I'll be so popular! Popular! POPULAR!!!" His excitement was practically bubbling over.
Ahem.
"Human! You shall not pass this area! This area! I, the Great Papyrus, will stop you!!! I will then capture you! You will be delivered to the capital! Then... then I'm not sure what's next. In any case! Continue only if you dare!!!
Nyeh heh heh heh heh!!!"
Well, that went well.
I said to Frisk, "Don't sweat it, kid. I'll keep an eyesocket out for ya."
Then, I followed behind where Papyrus had just left, leaving Frisk to her own devices.
Moments later, Frisk appeared back where I was standing.
"Hey, here's something important to remember," she said, her tone serious. "My brother has a very special attack. If you see a blue attack, don't move—and it won't hurt you."
I nodded, encouraging her to continue.
She smiled faintly and added, "Here's an easy way to keep it in mind: imagine a stop sign. When you see a stop sign, you stop, right? Stop signs are red, so imagine a blue stop sign instead. Simple, right? When fighting, think about blue stop signs."
She nodded simply and then walked ahead toward the icy area.
As for me, I had been thinking about all this, and it hit me—she hadn't really killed anyone yet. I'm not sure why I'm mentioning it now, but I was able to see her level and EXP. According to the world of Undertale, LV naturally means level of violence, and EXP stands for execution points. But based on her current actions, it was pretty obvious she hadn't really killed anyone yet, meaning this was the neutral route.
Either way, I figured this path wouldn't be as violent as most. Maybe I could even learn something from it.
For now, I just kept following the path Papyrus had taken, watching Frisk move forward with steady determination, knowing the road ahead wasn't going to be easy. But somehow, I felt like this story was just beginning to unfold.