I had half expected it, but I never thought it would actually explode.
My ears were still ringing, perhaps because of the blast.
"Are you all right?"
Dolnesia, true to a protagonist who had been through every hardship imaginable, wore an expression that said she was used to this.
As for Iris...
"Iris, get ahold of yourself! Look me straight in the eyes!"
She seemed to have already fallen into a panic, hanging her head and trembling.
Haede gripped her shoulders tightly, desperately trying to calm her down.
In a sense, Iris was a flower raised in a greenhouse.
She had lived peacefully in a rural fief, so of course she would not be accustomed to a sudden situation like this.
She had been the same way in the game.
The same went for Haede.
Though she was pretending to be fine as she soothed Iris, I could plainly see that she was trembling too.
Crash—!
Aahhh—!
The sound of shattering glass and screams came from far away.
A signal flare announcing that the attack had begun.
"It is an attack."
"I heard it too."
"Do you think they are targeting the first carriage, where the nobles are?"
Who knew?
Surprisingly, I really did not know.
Because this was random too.
The terrorists’ motives changed with every playthrough.
The motives of the terrorists who appeared at this point came in all varieties.
Some committed terrorism because they believed all nobles should die and only commoners should survive.
Some did it because they wanted to kill all those bourgeois bastards and create a new world for themselves.
Some were simply ordinary robbers who committed terrorism to rob the train.
And some did it because they wanted to kill dignitaries from foreign nations and pin the blame on the Empire.
Their motives were just slapped together afterward.
They were troublemaking assholes whose sole cry was, "I really want to blow up a train."
Their actual purpose was simply to terrorize the train. Their motives and everything else were merely accessories that came with it.
In other words, they were people who existed solely for this train terrorism event.
Dolnesia put a hand to her chin, thought for a moment, then spoke.
"For now, it would not be safe to remain inside the compartment."
"Agreed."
"Isn’t this train made through magitech? It is protected by magic, so wouldn’t the inside be safer?"
Though it looked like an ordinary steam locomotive, it was a kind of magical artifact made through magitech.
That was why it came loaded with all sorts of options, one of which was a magical barrier.
So Haede’s judgment was reasonable.
The problem was that the exterior and the compartments were protected by the same magic.
"The exterior is the same. But that exterior has already been breached."
If the exterior itself had been breached, then the inside was not safe either.
And since we did not know where the terrorists might come from, it would be better to respond in the relatively wider corridor than in a cramped compartment.
I took out the sword my brother had given me from the luggage compartment and Carnwennan from my inventory, then strapped one to each hip.
"Whew... I’m all right. I can do this."
Having apparently snapped out of her panic, Iris took deep breaths and nodded.
Dolnesia was circulating her spirit power, remaining ready to summon spirits at any time.
Once I judged that all preparations were complete, I opened the door.
With a sliding sound, the door to Room 404 opened.
The corridor was not merely intact. It was completely empty.
There had been no passengers out here; they had probably decided the compartments were safer.
Or perhaps they had fled to another carriage.
"I’ll send Rocinante to another carriage first."
As I circulated spirit power, a horse manifested before us.
Rocinante turned into wind and flew out through the window.
"Wow... so that is Rocinante."
Iris stared at the window Rocinante had flown through, her eyes shining.
Her eyes were sparkling so brightly that it was hard to believe she had been panicking only moments ago.
Since that was not important right now, I decided not to point it out.
With another sliding sound, the gangway door connecting to Carriage Three opened.
People poured out through that narrow passageway.
They wore masks to conceal their identities.
And their eyes looked completely fucked up, as though they had downed a bowlful of drugs.
They were not bandits.
If they had been bandits, they would have gone to the first carriage, where the nobles and wealthy merchants were, rather than coming to the fourth.
Then were they resistance fighters?
[Activating Insight Eye.]
【Heinz】
◈ Level: 18
◈ Danger Level: D
◈ A follower of the Abyssal Mother Cult.
Fuck, they were cultists.
Of all things, I had run into cultists.
#
Dawnstar Academia was an academy story before it was a romance fantasy.
Naturally, that meant there were villains who caused incidents at the academy and opposed the protagonist. The cultists before my eyes were among those villains.
The Abyssal Mother Cult.
An organization that worshipped an evil god called the Abyssal Mother and performed human sacrifices.
In short, a cult.
The Holy Kingdom had such radical openness that, while serving the Supreme God it called the one true god, it still acknowledged other religions’ gods instead of rejecting them.
Yet the one place that even that open-minded Holy Kingdom had unequivocally branded heretical was this cult.
They stood apart from other organizations when it came to human sacrifice, so if anything involved human sacrifice, you could generally assume these were the ones behind it.
"You are fortunate indeed, for us to encounter academy students here."
Someone walked out from amidst the crowd of followers.
A man in a black hood, practically advertising, ‘I’m the boss here.’
【Von Granité】
◈ Level: 32
◈ Danger Level: B
◈ A priest of the Abyssal Mother Cult.
He really was the boss.
His level was nearly double that of the grunts, and his danger level was as high as B.
He had probably attacked the train to abduct people as sacrifices for human ritual offerings.
There was no need to challenge him to a duel.
After all, those guys were the bad guys, weren’t they?
With the goblins, I had raided their home first, so I had needed to issue a duel challenge.
But here, they were the ones who had committed terrorism first.
And while I might have been guilty of trespassing, they were guilty of terrorism, which was obviously worse.
In other words, this was self-defense, so I had no need to show that bastard any consideration.
I drew in a deep breath.
"Consider it an honor—"
"My name is Ian! Ian de Logres!"
I let out a lion’s roar.
Iris blinked as though startled.
Dolnesia and Haede looked at me as if to ask whether I had lost my mind.
Knights were supposed to be crazy, weren’t they?
And that guy seemed to have been trying to say something, but that was none of my business.
He was going to explain why they were abducting us anyway.
What, was he going to tell us to consider it an honor to become offerings to their god?
I could see it all coming.
Did I really need to listen?
Let’s speedrun this. Speedrun.
Besides, knights did not converse with villains.
"You are—"
"A knight of the Logres family!"
"Your bodies—"
"You treacherous and wicked lot!"
"We—"
"I have drawn this sword to personally judge you!"
"Hey—"
"Come forth and receive my blade!"
"Hey, you son of a bitch!"
Calling me a son of a bitch was a little harsh.
Apparently upset that he had not gotten to say his lines, the hooded man pointed at me and spoke.
"Capture that one alive. Alive. There is no need to bring him to the Apostle. I will tear him apart myself."
His voice was thick with murderous intent, seemingly because he was quite angry.
"For Mother—aaah!"
"Mother—!!!"
At the hooded man’s command, the fanatic cultists began rushing at us, crying out for their mommy.
I kicked one of the mommy’s boys charging in first.
His body flew through the air and slammed into the wall.
Then I pulled that mommy’s boy out and hurled him at the second man rushing toward me, breaking his stance.
[You have leveled up.]
A notification suddenly informed me that I had leveled up.
I wondered if he had died, but...
【Tura】
◈ Level: 17
◈ Danger Level: D
◈ A follower of the Abyssal Mother Cult.
◈ The target is incapacitated.
He was not dead.
It seemed that simply beating someone into an incapacitated state counted as defeating them.
Then the reason I had not leveled up from the bandits back then had simply been because their experience was too low...
Unlike the game, I could not see an experience gauge, so that was a little inconvenient.
"Dolnesia, take care of these two."
"Sigh... all right. You will not need Sancho, will you?"
"I’ll be fine."
Iris had yet to awaken the Holy Maiden’s power, and while Haede could fight, the train was too cramped for that.
In the game, it had simply glossed over it as the others working together to attack, but these people and I were meeting for the first time on this cramped train.
It would be difficult to expect coordinated attacks.
Unfortunately, I would have to handle this alone—
Ding!
As if to make that concern ridiculous, a notification window appeared.
[A party of four has been formed!]
[Party Members: Ian, Dolnesia, Iris, Haede]
Well, there went that concern.
The experience from enemies I defeated would go to them too.
The party system.
From now on, they would share the experience from enemies I defeated.
I did briefly consider simply leaving everything to Dolnesia...
But since the experience gained differed according to contribution, I decided to get moving myself.
I lightly loosened up, my wrists cracking crack, crack.
Leaving Iris and Haede with Dolnesia, I charged out.
Rocinante was rampaging in another carriage, so he was away from us, but Sancho was at Dolnesia’s side.
Unless the hooded boss came after them, Sancho could handle most ordinary grunts, so they would be fine as long as I kept the boss in check.
Thwack!
The mommy’s boys were sent flying with a single punch.
Drawing my brother’s gift against level-eighteens would be a waste.
They all rushed me with daggers and the like, but their weapons could not touch my body.
Because of the overwhelming difference in stats between them and me.
They did not die from a single punch, but they were sent flying away without the strength to do anything more.
Every time I threw a punch, the shockwave rocked the train and swept away the cultists.
But...
"So you really are academy students?"
The hooded man was still smirking, as though he had plenty of room to spare.
Right.
If it had been this easy, I would not have lamented running into cultists.
The hooded man pulled a staff from within his concealing hood and struck it against the floor.
A magic circle formed across the floor around the staff, and the followers’ bodies began to change.
"Kraaaaaagh—!!!!"
The followers’ bodies swelled and warped.
This was why I had lamented encountering cultists.
Even their grunts had a second phase!
【Heinz】
◈ Level: 24
◈ Danger Level: C
Their levels had risen, and their danger levels increased accordingly.
And that was not all.
Had they not swollen up like grotesque test subjects straight out of a movie?
But apparently, that had been the wrong move.
"What...?"
The hooded man was flustered.
Because the moment they transformed, they had instead begun to hesitate.
[Effect of the Holy Maiden’s Ring.]
[Hostile entities’ stats decrease by 10%.]
The second effect of the ring the Holy Maiden had given me.
Undead and demon stats: -10%.
Perhaps those inhuman test subjects were classified as undead as well. They were instinctively feeling an aversion to me.
The cultists who had charged at me like lunatics before had finally learned restraint.
So this was how the effect applied in reality.
Of course, their stats themselves were probably higher now, but level eighteen or twenty-four was all the same to my stats.
Still, their current hesitant state was easier to handle than when they had mindlessly charged in.
"Urp!"
I heard someone retching behind me, though I did not know whether it was Iris or Haede.
This sight would naturally have been too intense for young noblewomen from the countryside.
They would be seeing things like this often enough, so they needed to get used to it now, but...
"Close your eyes."
Because things were about to get rather graphic.
I drew the sword my brother had given me.
Chilly frost poured from the sword, filling Carriage Four.
I took my stance.
Logres Swordsmanship.
The [Logres Quick Sword Form], which I had become able to use after leveling up through my swordsmanship match with the Second Prince.
A swift sword strike with no follow-through cleaved through the followers.
My target was the hooded man hiding behind them.
Slash, slash, slash.
[You have leveled up.]
The sounds of something being cut and of my level increasing rang out.
Along with those sounds, the followers were swept aside, and before I knew it, I had reached right in front of him.
As if he had been waiting, he generated flames with his staff and fired them at me.
A third-circle spell, Fireball.
Why a priest could use magic was not important.
I merely raised Carnwennan and slashed downward.
The fireball vanished with a fizzle the instant it touched Carnwennan’s blade.
At the result, the hooded man stood aghast, as though he had seen something impossible.
"The magic did not get cut—it simply disappeared...? That is impossible... Why is it here!"
I did not know what had shocked him, but deciding it was an opportunity, I infused mana through Orlando’s Muscle Cultivation Method and kicked him squarely.
"Kugh!"
And he promptly fainted.
The rest of the transformed followers also stopped moving.
[You have completed the Challenge: The Train to the Academy Always Has an Incident.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
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