Ch.534Episode 20 – Who Threatened You with a Knife?

The train car is as quiet as a dead mouse.

There was no excitement of travelers or the hustle of homebound passengers.

Without even glancing at the uninvited guest who appeared by pushing open the door, the people inside the car maintained their thorough indifference and disregard, as if they had achieved enlightenment.

I crossed the suffocating silence and gently claimed an empty seat. As if I had just boarded at the previous station, as if this was my rightful place.

“Sir.”

Only after I had settled down with such brazen attitude did their gazes finally rest on me.

“Is that your seat, sir?”

“Yes.”

As soon as the foreigner sitting across from me spoke, I casually showed my unreserved ticket. It was something I had purchased during the brief stop at the previous station.

The foreigner glanced back and forth between the ticket and me, his eyes suggesting he was struggling to find the right words. However, unable to find a valid reason to drive me away, he simply stared at me intently before eventually looking away.

Crimson sunlight poured through the window.

As the train slowly advanced northward across the red desert.

Forty suspicious foreigners were crossing the border.

Episode 20 – Who Threatened You with a Knife

The train “Al-Raed,” which traverses the Mauritanian continent, boasts unparalleled speed, living up to its name’s origin.

This train, which races along the railway at high speed carrying over 1,000 passengers and their luggage, was renowned for its explosive power, and the substance that gave birth to this tireless iron horse was none other than mana stones.

Just as the Kiyen Empire’s mana stones contained high-purity magical power while withstanding the cold of frozen lands, the mana stones produced in the Mauritanian continent generally contained the scorching heat of the red desert.

Cracks that had faced the blazing sun for tens of thousands of years.

That power, fully absorbed, is precisely why Mauritanian mana stones trade at high prices in today’s Mauritanian International Exchange, and serve as an inexhaustible source of funding for military organizations.

“……”

Even as the train raced roughly along the tracks, the surroundings remained infinitely quiet.

No conversation or communication passed between anyone.

The forty foreigners occupying the car remained silent like monks. As if the very act of conversing was unnecessary.

But humans don’t reveal their thoughts through verbal expression alone.

For instance, the way the men in the diagonal back seats were staring intently at the back of my head, as reflected in the window.

Or the gesture of the man on the left, scratching the calluses on his middle finger joint with his fingernail.

I could easily notice their anxiety and impatience expressed through body language, the wariness in their gazes, and the discomfort dissolved in their breathing.

“…Hmm.”

Sturdy men in their 20s-30s, peculiar tattoos on their bodies, strangely tense gestures and uncomfortable demeanors.

Plus those calluses on their middle and index fingers.

“Are you miners? I can see you have many calluses.”

“Yes.”

I smirked and leaned back comfortably in my seat.

For good reason, as the men’s hands were hardly those of laborers. Rather, I’d seen such hands frequently around me.

For example, like those of my colleagues who had transferred to intelligence after serving in special forces since they were lieutenants.

Those were natural calluses that formed from daily shooting practice.

In other words,

There were never any miners in this car to begin with.

Just forty bandits without their Ali Baba.

*

Rebel combatants had boarded the train.

Whether they’re rebels, revolutionaries, or just gang leaders isn’t my concern.

But regardless of where they came from, I could tell these bastards made their living as cannon fodder.

And what would happen next.

“Damn it. What kind of disaster is this during my vacation…”

For now, I couldn’t move far. As soon as I stood up from my seat, there were guys who followed me as if they’d been waiting for just that.

So, instead of trying to shake off my tail, I entered the bathroom near the connecting car as if I had an upset stomach and filed a report.

I reported that approximately 40 combatants, presumed to be rebels, had boarded the train, and a clash with armed police was anticipated.

After sending that urgent message, I didn’t wait for a reply and immediately called Camilla.

-‘It hasn’t been 30 minutes yet. Just barely safe, right?’

“Camilla, we’re fucked. We might have to jump off the train.”

-‘…Oh.’

The stream of profanities I often heard from my British friends flowed out like the flooding Nile.

After regaining her composure, Camilla hurriedly began searching for an escape route.

-‘Hmm… The safest escape method would be to get off the train. The problem is we need to travel at least 560 miles more to reach the next station.’

“Why are you using yards and pounds in this situation? Convert it to metric, quickly.”

-‘About 900 kilometers left!’

“You should have said that from the start!”

900km was the distance of a round trip from Seoul to Busan on the highway.

Until just a while ago, we would have reached the next stop after just 1 hour and 40 minutes of travel, but now we’d be stuck on the train for a full 24 hours before we could finally disembark.

We’re doomed.

“We’re all screwed.”

I tried to gauge when the police would burst into the car.

The exact timing was hard to predict, but the police would arrive at the car full of suspicious gunmen within 10 minutes at the minimum.

I leaned my head against the wall and sighed.

“At this rate, I might really have to jump off the tracks like James Bond…”

-‘How about requesting help from the police or military? If you ask the conductor or police officers, they could call for backup.’

Camilla’s suggestion was quite reasonable. However, the problem was the time it would take for backup to arrive.

Until then, we would be trapped on the train with those gunmen.

Camilla was no stranger to this fact.

-‘Maybe I should directly-‘

She suggested that she would subdue these presumed rebels herself, but.

“Absolutely not. I can’t allow that.”

I strongly objected to this.

“In the Zamria Federation, you could arrest criminals because the government authorized it, but right now, we’re civilians with no authority. When a magician gets involved in a violent crime, nothing good comes of it.”

-‘Then what do we do?’

“First, you escape. Use teleportation or whatever to get to a safe place, and then we’ll think about what to do next.”

-‘What about the people? The crew? You’re telling me to leave everyone behind and run.’

“It’s not running away, it’s about bringing support first. If by chance a spell flies toward a civilian during a fight on the train, you’ll become a murderer that very day.”

-‘What about Frederick…’

“I’ll see how things go and slip away to follow you.”

-‘…Are you sure you’ll be alright?’

“Don’t worry.”

As always, I reassured her that everything would be fine despite her anxiety.

-BANG!

The conversation was cut off by a sudden loud noise.

-‘…What was that sound?’

Leaving Camilla’s worried voice behind, I carefully peered outside.

“……”

The moment the door opened, the two separated spaces connected, and noise poured in.

Someone’s agitated voice and authoritative shouts. The commotion had started in the direction of the passenger car.

I couldn’t see the situation in the car, but through the slightly open gap, I spotted three foreigners. They were the ones who had been following me.

All of them were looking toward the passenger car.

And the moment the one standing at the front turned his head.

-WHAM!

The kicked door slammed into the bridge of his nose.

*

Camilla snatched the annoying earpiece.

The cord tangled in her grip. After the earphone came out of her ear, the communicator was next. The disconnected communicator began rolling under the seat.

Regardless, Camilla showed not the slightest interest in retrieving the fallen communicator. After pulling out the cord wrapped between her fingers all at once, she sprang up from her seat.

“Ma’am, it’s dangerous to leave your seat-“

-WHOOSH!

The attendant’s expression melted instantly. The warm atmosphere was swept away by a rough gust, and the quiet surroundings filled with noise.

“Hmm…”

Standing on the roof of the swaying train, Camilla barely maintained her balance.

She cast a glance in the direction the train was heading. After brushing back her disheveled hair, she turned to look behind her.

A line of train cars stretching one after another.

Concentrating with her back to the wind, she suddenly opened her bright blue eyes wide.

“…Found it!”

Her senses, heightened beyond necessity by magical power, vividly captured the events unfolding inside a distant car.

A person thrown down and a knife rolling under a seat.

Red muzzle flashes dancing through shattered glass and floor materials.

Despite the ongoing gunfire, passengers in other cars seemed unaware. Camilla stared intently at the car where the battle was taking place and finally let out a gasp.

Magic.

“A barrier? Or a veil?”

Countless speculations crossed her mind in a brief moment. Flames rose from both her hands.

Whatever it is, let’s break it first and think later.

Camilla took her stance, preparing her magic.

Her sharpened senses thoroughly distinguished between targets to hit and those to avoid, wove perfect flames without a single error even on the dizzyingly swaying car, and.

Despite the rough wind, clearly caught the faint footsteps.

Footsteps coming from behind.

“……”

Having completed her flames, Camilla twisted her upper body forcefully, using her legs as an axis.

“…Stop right there, criminal scum!”

On top of the car where the gale was raging.

A man holding a staff was walking across it.