Chapter 88: The Express Train to the Academy (2)

“H-Hazel… I’m Hazel, from Maplewood village…”

While preparing for our counter-attack against the train assailants, we exchanged simple introductions.

Saying she was Hazel from Maplewood village meant she was a commoner without a family name, a surname.

Well, that was already a given from the moment she failed to recognize our family crest.

“Ah, so you’re from Maplewood?”

“Y-yes…”

“Hmm? But if you’re from Maplewood…”

“…?”

How could I be so certain that Hazel was a commoner?

It’s simple.

Children of noble families like myself study every detail of each family and province from a young age.

Furthermore, if it’s a region ruled by one’s own family, knowing even the small villages like Maplewood is what makes a proper noble.

Maplewood.

It’s a small farming village located on the southern border of the western province ruled by our Rosegarden family.

The number of residents was… about one hundred fifty to two hundred, I think?

I don’t remember the exact details, but it was a small village of about that size.

Here, a question arose.

If the Rosegarden County, the direct domain of the Count’s family, was the first station for the Academy-bound train picking up people from the western province, then Hazel from Maplewood should have boarded long ago and already been seated in another compartment.

And yet.

For some reason, Hazel was only now peeking into compartments, long after the train had passed through the entire Flandia province.

That’s right.

It didn’t make sense for a classmate from Maplewood to be looking for someone to share a seat with because all the other compartments were full.

…

Click!

“…Eh?”

“Who are you, really?”

“Euh… Eh!?”

Feeling something was amiss, I immediately drew Caliburn from its holster.

With the muzzle of the gun pressed against her forehead, her pupils swirled in panic, realizing her flimsy alibi had been instantly exposed.

‘I see. I get it.’

‘Her plan was to pretend to be a scared, clueless classmate, frightened by the explosion, only to backstab us in the end.’

‘Is the name Hazel she just gave even her real name?’

‘I doubt it. Even that is questionable.’

“H-hehehe… I’m… Hazel…”

“From Maplewood?”

Having failed to deceive me, Hazel whimpered, trembling.

With no room for excuses, she just nodded her head quietly, as if trying to force the lie.

But the world isn’t so lenient.

To teach her a cold dose of reality, as a proper villainess should, I decided to corner her further by explaining my reasoning.

“If you were really from Maplewood, that would mean you boarded this train at least an hour ago.”

“Therefore, for you to request to share a seat at this point in time is undeniably strange, is that what you mean to say?”

“Yes. Correct, Heine. As a reward, I shall grant you 10 maid points.”

Heine provided the perfect assist from the side.

Under our interrogation, Hazel’s expression quickly hardened.

She glanced back and forth between mine and Heine’s cold gazes, then began to plead with a tearful voice.

“Th-that’s…”

“That’s? What is it? If you have an excuse, let’s hear it.”

Her begging was practically a confession.

‘So, she was in league with them after all.’

‘To think they’d disguise someone as a classmate of all things…’

‘There’s no villain more despicable than this.’

I pressed the gun harder.

“Heek…!”

The tip of Caliburn’s barrel met Hazel’s forehead.

Her frightened breaths came in ragged gasps.

As a proper villainess, I suppose I should at least hear her final excuse.

‘Now, hurry up and confess.’

‘Your true identity.’

“N-ner…”

“Ner?”

“Nervous…”

“Nervous, you say?”

‘About setting off a bomb on a train?’

Is the act of throwing a bomb really that nerve-wracking?

For a moment, I recalled the old days, when I first threw bombs wildly from a car.

…No matter how I think about it, it’s not something to tremble this much over.

In other words, this girl was trying to feed me another obvious lie.

“You’ve been dawdling this whole time… Spit it all out right now!”

“Hiiieek…!”

“…We’re the ones who look like the villains here.”

Hazel’s small shoulders trembled violently.

“T-talking… hic …to people… sob is… scar…y…”

Tear-filled hiccups soaked Hazel’s cheeks.

As Hazel’s desperate explanation continued for a short while, I had no choice but to naturally lower Caliburn.

“For… for someone like me… sob to dare… to speak to you… sniffle I-I’m sorry…”

…

Um…

I’m the one who should be sorry…

It seems… there’s been a huge misunderstanding…

…Yes.

“Mommmyyy…”

“…………”

Cold sweat trickled down my entire body.

Having unintentionally made her cry, I had no choice but to do my best to calm down the Hazel before me.

***

“A-are you feeling a little calmer now…?”

“……Uh-huh…”

“That’s a relief…”

Hazel wiped her remaining sniffles away, rubbing her eyes.

She had finally stopped crying, seeming to have calmed down a bit.

While calming her, I listened to her whole story. She had boarded the train, but then spent dozens of minutes lost in awe at the luxurious scenery.

Then, startled by the shadows of classmates boarding at intermediate stops, she hid in a corner of the train for another few dozen minutes.

By the time she came to her senses, the compartments were already full, and she had spent another several dozen minutes practicing her lines to ask to share a seat, which brought her to the present moment.

The saddest part of this story was that this wasn’t the first time she had tried to talk to us.

What does that mean?

It means that she had failed several times along the way, delaying her even further, which ultimately resulted in arousing my suspicion.

“Lin… you looked like a really high-ranking person… so I thought… I was going to be executed on the spot…”

“So that’s why you were crying your eyes out?”

“I-I wasn’t crying my eyes out…”

Executed on the spot?

What kind of image does this child have of nobles…?

“…For someone who thinks that, you don’t use honorifics with Lady Lin.”

“Eh? B-but… at the Academy… I heard that commoners and nobles… are all equal… and… my little sister said if I was too timid… I’d be looked down on… so…”

Hazel flinched greatly at Heine’s casual observation.

Perhaps because of Heine’s expressionless face, which she reserved for everyone but me, she seemed even more frightened.

“It’s fine. Neither I nor Heine care about things like that at all.”

“O-okay… I mean, yes…! Ah, no… …Okay!”

Anyway.

After a brief but eventful series of ups and downs, the time had finally come to leave the compartment.

A fair amount of time had passed since the explosion was heard from the front of the train.

“Heine.”

“Yes.”

Since we were starting later than the others, we had to act quickly.

“Make sure to protect the children around us, including Hazel.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Heine nodded as if she understood.

The moment the order was given, she moved closer to Hazel.

Hazel flinched in surprise and took a step back.

She looked like a squirrel that had instinctively recoiled upon encountering a predator on the road.

The pale, chestnut-haired girl, even smaller than me—she looked to be between 140 and 150 centimeters—seemed to be very timid by nature.

“Dinavel.”

“Yes!”

“You will stay by Heine’s side and assist her.”

“Okay, I will!”

“A doll… no, a spirit?”

Dinavel, not being a combat type, was more efficient with Heine than with me.

I could handle close-range detection myself thanks to my spirit arts, and more importantly, I had Exia, so it was fine.

“Exia will come with me. And as for you, Kiriel…”

“Yes. I’ll go to the luggage compartment.”

“Good.”

Kiriel understood my plan instantly without needing an explanation.

Her knack for skipping long explanations in a combat situation was a talent that surpassed even Heine’s.

Of course, in daily life, Heine was the quickest to catch on.

Truthfully, both of them read my thoughts so perfectly that they were beyond comparison.

“Well then, shall we go?”

Click.

I drew the two magi-pistols.

I held the jet-black X and the pure-white Caliburn in each hand.

I took my broom from the luggage compartment in our room and opened the window.

“Eh…?”

“It’s fine. This is something she does all the time.”

Hazel gasped in surprise, worried I would be swept away by the wind.

Heine reassured her from the side.

…Though there was a slight misstatement in her words.

“This is an order. From now on, proceed to your positions and carry out your assigned tasks!”

The order to commence the train reclamation operation, to retake it from the enemy, was given, and everyone scattered.

I tossed my broom out the window of the compartment and immediately jumped to mount it.

Slip!

“Oops…”

But my foot slipped on the broom’s characteristically slender body.

[…I saw that coming.]

“Ahaha…”

Fortunately, thanks to Melusine, who had already anticipated my misstep, I was able to get back on with levitation magic.

“W-well, anyway…! The real counter-attack starts now…!”

And so, the curtain rises on the train reclamation operation…