Chapter 89: The Express Train to the Academy (3)

A direct train to the Academy.

Most of the students aboard were trembling with fear.

The unprecedented situation and the unfamiliar sound of explosions were more than enough to induce panic in their young minds.

“To think they’d choose this train of all things.”

“I’ll have to show those foolish bandits what true strength is.”

However, not all of the Academy’s new students were cowering in their compartments.

A few were preparing to teach the train attackers a lesson.

“Wait a minute. First, we need to head to the luggage car at the back of the train.”

“The explosion came from the front. So why should we go in the opposite direction?”

Only a select few talented individuals could enter the Academy.

The few brave students who had left their compartments to deal with the bandits were now engaged in a small argument about their course of action.

“My weapon is in the luggage car. So is my colleague’s weapon here.”

“So?”

“So, if you help me get our weapons, I’ll take care of all the bandits who attacked the train. How about it? It’s not a bad deal, is it?”

A male student claimed he would solve everything if they just helped him retrieve his weapon sleeping in the luggage car.

“Certainly. It’s not a bad story.”

“Good. We’re on the same page. In that case…”

“It’s just a foolish story.”

“…What did you say?”

Another male student who was listening sneered, looking down on him and his colleague.

“A weapon should be treated like one’s lover. Do you put your lover in the luggage car when you travel?”

“Kuhk…”

At the other’s words, the student who had lost his lover trembled with his fists clenched.

But having nothing to retort, he just kept trembling.

The other student sneered again at the sight of his classmate suddenly entering a self-taught martial arts course.

“I don’t need the help of you amateurs. You’d only get in the way.”

“You, you bastard…!”

“Calm down! It’s frustrating… but he has a point.”

“Hmph. At least one of you shows some potential for rehabilitation.”

Ignoring the other children, he took a step towards the next car.

With a flick of his arrogant fingers, a small magic circle was etched in the air.

Then, a sylph, a lower-ranking wind spirit officially recognized by the Empire, revealed its small form.

“For mere bandits, a single lower-ranking spirit is more than enough.”

“Even if you say that, you can only summon one of me anyway.”

“Quiet.”

The male student, a spirit user, crossed to the next car.

The other two classmates who were watching his back debated what to do, then decided to follow him.

Though unarmed, they wanted to help in some way and shut him up.

But their shallow plan went up in smoke.

The reason was none other than…

“Kuhk… of all things, the compatibility…”

“What should we do? Should we tie his hands?”

“Forget it, forget it. Why bother tying him up? It’s a hassle. Just lock him in a compartment like the other students.”

“Yes, yes.”

“You got caught?”

“…Let’s just get our weapons first and think about it later.”

They had been subdued by the bandits and taken hostage.

***

“This side is safe too… It seems the enemy is only in the front.”

Following Lin’s orders, Haine checked the students’ safety while moving against the train’s direction.

She reconfirmed that the attackers were only in the front, where the explosion was heard.

“So, so are we going back to the front…?”

“Yes. We’ve secured the safety of the students in the rear of the train.”

As Lin had ordered, from the car she was in to the one right before the luggage car.

Having guided many students to the safe rear, Haine prepared to head back to the front without hesitation.

“Heh, heh, heh.”

“Alright everyone. As per Lin-nim’s orders, please take care of the students here.”

“Woof!”

Thanks to the detection ability of Dinavel, whom Lin had left behind, she already knew there were no enemies in the rear, but the students’ anxiety was a separate issue.

She reassured them and created an environment where they could be protected by the Lycan Wolves that had emerged from the luggage car, in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

“B-but… Hai…ne?”

“What is it?”

“These guys… they’re monsters, right…?”

Hazel asked, carefully observing the Lycan Wolves.

As a druid who could communicate with animals, she could easily distinguish between monsters and animals, and thus noticed quickly.

“Hi, hiik…!”

“Monsters! They’re really monsters…!”

“We’re going to be eaten! We’re all going to be chewed up and eaten…!!”

Of course, there were plenty of students who had already noticed and were in a panic without any special abilities.

“They are… monsters, yes.”

“See!?”

“They’re good boys, so you don’t have to worry.”

“G-good monsters…? Is there… such a thing…?”

“……”

At the terrified reactions of Hazel and the other students, Haine briefly pondered how to explain.

After some thought, she approached the pack of Lycan Wolves for all to see.

“…Paw.”

Just as her master usually did.

She shyly held out her palm to a Lycan Wolf.

“?”

The Lycan Wolf glanced at Haine’s palm, then looked into her eyes as if to say, ‘What do you want me to do?’

It wasn’t that it couldn’t read the situation and intent.

Being smarter than Lin in most cases, the beast fully understood what Haine wanted.

However, no matter how much they resembled innocent mansion dogs, their roots were that of a pack monster.

They would not obey anyone’s command except for their leader, Kiriel, and the adorable youngest, Lin.

“……”

Kiriel, who was watching, applied silent pressure.

Only after a direct command from their leader did the Lycan Wolf place its paw on Haine’s palm.

Haine felt a slight pang of disappointment at the strict hierarchy.

They usually wagged their tails so affectionately…

If nothing else, Haine felt that the matter of ‘commands’ was a completely different issue.

“…See? They’re all good boys. So please don’t worry.”

Haine tried to reassure everyone, finally receiving the paw along with the Lycan Wolf’s resigned expression.

Though they felt something was off, since the wolf did put its paw up, the new students decided to trust her for now.

Confirming the half-hearted reassurance around her, Haine let out a faint sigh, glad that she could finally move on.

“Still, I’d like four, no. Five of them to accompany me.”

“Yes, please do.”

Following the Lycan Wolves’ chain of command, Haine asked Kiriel directly from the start.

Kiriel, who had taken over the protection detail, gestured, and five Lycan Wolves slowly walked out.

She was relieved that at least they didn’t make a gesture of being overtly annoyed like her master.

“Alright everyone. Stay put here…”

“I, I’ll go too…!”

Just then, Hazel volunteered to follow Haine.

Despite her legs and hands trembling with fear, Haine smiled faintly at her courageous display.

“…Alright. Let’s go together.”

And so.

Haine and Hazel, with the Lycan Wolves in the lead, headed towards the front of the train.

***

“My, my… No talent here. No talent at all.”

In a compartment at the front of the train.

Students held hostage by unusually strong bandits were trembling.

“To think the Academy’s new students are this weak…”

“That’s enough.”

“Yeah. Don’t you feel sorry for them, sniffling in their compartments?”

The Empire’s Academy, where top talents gather.

The few students who had bravely set out to defeat the bandits, full of themselves, had mostly been subdued by now.

The bandits, lamenting the unexpectedly weak new students, were laughing leisurely while waiting for the next challenger.

“Surely this isn’t the end, right? I want to play a little more.”

“I know, right? It’s about time another one or two showed up.”

The defeated new students, who hadn’t even managed to scratch the bandits, let alone get a speck of dust on them, were incensed.

But that was all.

Having lost their weapons and been completely defeated, they had no will to fight back and could only stay quietly locked in the compartment with the other scared new students.

Moreover, most of them were children of nobles who firmly believed they were the best.

Many of the new students were either completely out of it from the shock of losing to mere bandits, or were busy denying it internally, thinking it couldn’t be true.

“Heh heh, the young masters and ladies from noble houses are always like that.”

“Having grown up in a greenhouse, they must have thought they were the best… The shock of defeat must be immense.”

The bandits watched the shocked new students as if it were a familiar sight.

One of them leisurely rested his chin on his hand and offered his special commentary in a low voice.

“That expression of theirs, when their confidence crumbles. I enjoy watching those faces the most.”

“Hmm… that’s quite a bad taste, isn’t it?”

“…?”

Just then, a cheerful voice was suddenly heard.

The unfamiliar, youthful voice startled the bandits, and they quickly looked around.

Pshhhk─!

But then, steam suddenly began to fill the air.

They saw something like a can spinning around, spewing steam from both sides, but they couldn’t figure out who had rolled it on the floor.

“…Is it fog magic?”

“They’ve used their heads a bit.”

“Cough…! Is this any time for that!? Sil…!”

The steam, which instantly filled all the space outside the closed compartments, obscured their vision.

Unlike the other bandits who immediately held their breath after their initial admiration, one bandit carelessly inhaled the steam.

The moment he tried to summon a sylph, a wind spirit, to blow away the annoying steam…

Thud!

“…!”

In the thick steam, a heavy gunshot rang out, followed by the sound of someone collapsing to the floor.

‘Was that… a gunshot?’

‘He was taken down by a self-defense weapon that commoners use? And in a single shot?’

‘…This is no ordinary person. First, we need to clear this fog quickly!’

Unable to speak freely due to the thick steam, the bandits each had their own thoughts.

However, the lack of communication and visibility significantly reduced their cooperation.

Thud!

One by one, they fell to the gunshots that echoed through the steam.

Eventually, no one was left standing.

“Quite… something…”

“Kuhk… that hurts like hell, damn it…!”

“I shot you lightly, so please don’t be a drama queen, okay?”

The perpetrator, having confirmed that all the opponents were down, opened a window to ventilate.

As she vigorously waved her palms, the steam slowly spewed out of the train.

“Alright then… cough!”

In the midst of it all, Lin, who seemed to have swallowed the steam she had spread, started coughing mid-sentence.

“Cough! Hah… Keuhk!”

Eventually, she collapsed to the floor on all fours and continued to cough for a while.

Once she had calmed down, she let out an embarrassed cough and finally revealed her hidden form.

“……”

“I’m not used to it yet… I’ve shown you something unsightly.”

“Are you serious? We were defeated by such a klutz?”

“Who are you calling a klutz!”

The bandits, unable to move, tried to struggle to their feet.

However, the paralysis rounds from Lin’s Excalibur had left them in a state where they could barely move their fingers.

Knock knock.

“Excuse me.”

“Y-yes…?”

“Do you happen to have any ropes to tie these people up?”

Ignoring the fallen bandits, she politely knocked on the transparent compartment where the classmates were gathered.

After going around a few compartments, Lin obtained some tools for tying them up and, after binding the paralyzed bandits, locked them in a corner of an empty compartment.

“First one cleared smoothly, I suppose.”

Lin smiled and clapped her hands as if she had solved one case.

The captured new students were amazed at Lin’s strength, who had single-handedly subdued the bandits that several of them couldn’t even scratch.

“A-amazing…”

“Now that I see it, that crest. Isn’t that the crest of the Rosegarden family…?”

“As expected of a child from the four great bloodlines… She must be fundamentally different from us…”

“So then, is everyone okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

After putting the bandits in a corner, Lin checked on the injured classmates one by one.
As expected.

She found a few light scratches on some of the classmates who had bravely challenged the bandits.

Click!

“W-wait! What are you doing!?”

Bang!!

She then shoved the muzzle of her gun against their wounds and fired a barrage of healing rounds made of potions.

“My, what a very gentle young lady.”

“Gentle? Heh heh, what a foolish thing to say. There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. This is all a debt. I’ll be sure to collect it someday. And without interest, at that.”

A bandit who saw Lin treating her classmate sneered.

“But you’d be wise to know beforehand that such kindness can also be a poison.”

“Did you not hear my utterly wicked remark just now? Come here and lend me your ear.”

The bandit, who had been paralyzed in one shot, chuckled and uttered a meaningful phrase.

Lin would soon understand the meaning of those words in the very next compartment.

“Heh heh heh, to have come here means you’ve defeated all the guys in front, right? You must be quite skilled… but what to do?”

Shing…!

“H-help me…”

“If you move a finger, this child’s neck might fly off, you know?”

The opponent held an unfamiliar classmate and pressed a cold blade against their neck.

Since she only had one steam grenade in her possession, she couldn’t use the same method as before.

“…You’re playing quite a dirty trick.”

“I’m a bandit.”

At the sight of Lin lowering her gun, the opponent smirked.

Seeing the hostage in his arms, Lin dropped the gun she was holding and raised both her arms.

“Heh heh, you’re soft. But it was the right choice…”

Crash!

“…What?”

Just then, Lycan Wolves burst through the train’s corridor windows and charged in unison.

The bandit holding the hostage was greatly flustered by the sudden attack.

While the hostage threat might work on a person, the hostage was momentarily safe thanks to the beasts charging in, who wouldn’t—or so he thought—be reasoned with.

That’s right.

The reason Lin dropped her gun.

It was because she already knew that her puppies, connected through Kiriel, would attack from outside the train.

“Grrr…!”

“L-Lycan Wolves!? Why are these monsters here?”

“This way!”

Lin secured the safety of the hostage who had escaped while the bandit was flustered.

She pulled their hand, pushed them behind her, then picked up the dropped gun and pointed it at the opponent.

Click.

“Checkmate, I suppose.”

“…To think you’d be raising monsters. Impressive.”

With one arm caught by a Lycan Wolf and a gun pointed at his head, no one would deny their defeat.

He raised his remaining arm to signal his surrender.

At that, Lin immediately lowered her gun.

She also ordered her puppy, which was holding his arm, to stop.

“A truly impressive junior has joined us.”

The bandit slowly got up.

Calling Lin a junior, the opponent took out a small magic tool from his pocket.

At the same time, Haine and Hazel arrived late.

“Lin-nim.”

“You’re late, Haine. It just ended.”

“Heave-ho…”

Though he had been in rags just moments before.

When he infused mana into the magic tool, not only did his clothes change into the

Academy uniform, but his gender also returned to his original female form.

Similarly, the classmate who had been the hostage also returned to their true form.

“…That uniform is definitely the one designated by the Academy. As expected, Lin-nim’s prediction was correct.”

“Ah, so that’s what it was? No wonder their actions seemed a bit too relaxed for a real situation.”

Perhaps due to the side effects of the transformation magic.

The senior, now back in her original form, stretched her stiff body.

“So. Did I pass the test?”

That’s right.

In fact, the train was not attacked.

The huge explosion at the beginning was just sound magic, and there was no actual damage.

It was a kind of entrance test to gauge the new students’ abilities.

“T-test…?”

“Ah. You didn’t know, did you? Well, that’s okay. It’s normal not to notice.”

“I, I… didn’t do anything…”

Haine had secured the safety of her classmates.

Unlike Lin, who had single-handedly subdued all the bandits, Hazel began to tremble at the fact that she had achieved nothing in the test.

“A-am I… going to be expelled…?”

A rumor she had heard before coming to the Academy.

Hazel, who had heard that even a slight drop in grades would result in immediate expulsion for inferior students, began to tear up.

The thought of being immediately kicked off the train she had boarded with the full support of her hometown villagers made it impossible to face her parents.

“What? No, no, no… What are you talking about all of a sudden? There’s no way!”

“Hic… hic…”

The senior, surprised by the small new student’s words, corrected her.

The image of the bandit who had taken her hostage and threatened her was already gone, and now only kindness remained.

“This is just a simple test to determine your initial grades! And unless you fail spectacularly, you won’t be forcibly expelled, so don’t worry…!”

“S-so I am going to be expelled…”

Unlike the rumors, the Academy’s policy was not so cruel.

Of course.

It was unthinkable for a foolish institution to expel the talented individuals they had painstakingly gathered over a single slump or mistake.

Above all, a school is a place to process and grow uncut gems that are not yet fully grown.

For a student, especially a new student who had just boarded the train, it was only natural to be inexperienced.

“Anyway, those rumors are all lies! They’re all exaggerated, so don’t believe them!”

Upon hearing the reasonable truth, Hazel finally let out a sigh of relief.

Before long, the train to the Academy passed the capital and ran across a huge lake.

Lin and all the other new students stuck their faces out the window to see the artificial island floating in the middle of the lake.

“That place is…”

“Yes. That’s the place where you’ll be staying from today…”

Standing tall on it, a castle that even giant airships avoided, Lin clutched her swelling chest as she gazed at it.

“Welcome. To Hermes Academy!”