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The car was eerily quiet, as if a mouse had died inside.

There was no excitement from travelers or haste from returning visitors.

The passengers inside the car gave no glance to the unwelcome guest who burst in, fully committing to a thorough denial and disregard.

With a calmness that suggested a moment ago he had boarded at the station, he casually claimed half a seat, as if it were rightfully his.

“Teacher.”

Only after his brazen seat-taking did anyone finally turn their gaze toward me.

“Is that your seat, teacher?”

“Yes.”

As the foreigner across from me spoke, he timidly produced a free-seat ticket. It was something he had bought during the brief stop at the last station.

The foreigner glancing between the ticket and me had a look on his face as if grappling with what to say. However, unable to conjure a valid reason to eject me, he merely kept staring at me before finally diverting his gaze.

The bright red sunlight spilled through the window.

The train, cutting across the red desert, slowly advanced northward.

Forty suspicious foreigners were crossing the border.

Episode 20 – Who Threatened with a Sword?

The train “Al-Ra’id,” piercing through the Mauritania Continent, boasts a speed as exceptional as its name suggests.

Transporting over a thousand passengers and their baggage at high speed, this train has gained acclaim for its explosive power, with magic stones being the substance that birthed its unyielding iron horse.

Just like the Kien Empire’s magic stones endure the frigid cold of frozen lands while containing pure magic, the magic stones produced in the Mauritania Continent generally hold the searing heat of the red desert.

Having faced the scorching sun for tens of thousands of years, the rift had absorbed that very power, which is the secret to the high prices of Mauritania Continent’s magic stones traded at the Mauritania International Exchange and a never-ending source of funds for military organizations.

Even as the train charged raucously along the tracks, the surroundings remained utterly tranquil.

No conversation or communication passed.

The forty foreigners who occupied the car sat silently like monks, as if the very act of conversation were unnecessary.

Yet, humans do not solely express their emotions through words.

For instance, the way the men in the back corner, reflected in the window, were staring at the back of my head.

Or the nervous movements of the man on the left, scratching the calluses on his middle finger.

I could easily pick up on the anxiety and restlessness they expressed through their gestures, the wariness that seeped from their gazes, and the discomfort encoded in their breaths.

“…Hmm.”

Men in their twenties to thirties, with robust physiques, peculiar tattoos etched on their bodies, and awkwardly tense movements.

Not to mention the calluses on their middle and index fingers.

“Looks like you’re a miner? Those calluses tell a story.”

“Yes.”

I chuckled lightly, leaning back comfortably in my seat.

It makes sense; their hands didn’t resemble those of typical workers. Rather, those hands were often seen around me.

For example, like colleagues from the special forces who transitioned to the intelligence agency.

Those were merely calluses formed from daily shooting practice.

In other words, there were no miners in this carriage from the start.

It was just a band of forty robbers without Alibaba.

*

Rebels had boarded the train.

Whether these guys were revolutionaries or alleyway thugs was none of my concern.

But I knew one thing for certain: these bastards lived by the gun.

And I also foresaw what was about to unfold.

“Dammit. What kind of disaster is this on my day off….”

First things first, I couldn’t move far. The moment I stood up, there were those who had been lying in wait to follow me.

So, rather than trying to shake them off, I decided to pretend I had an upset stomach and slipped into the bathroom toward the connection car to gather my thoughts.

Right now, about forty combatants suspected of being rebels were aboard the train, and a confrontation with the armed police was anticipated.

Having sent an urgent report, I called Camila without waiting for a reply.

-‘It hasn’t even been thirty minutes. You’re cutting it close, right?’

“Camila, we’re screwed. We might need to jump off the train.”

-‘…Oh.’

For a moment, expletives I often heard from my British friends flowed out like the Nile River.

Once she regained her wits, Camila hurriedly began mapping out an escape route.

-‘Umm…. The safest escape method is getting off the train. The problem is, you need to go at least 560 more miles to the next station.’

“What the hell does it mean to use yards and pounds in this situation? Switch to metric, hurry!”

-‘We’ve got about 900 kilometers left!’

“You should have said it earlier!”

900 kilometers was the distance for a round trip from Seoul to Busan on the highway.

Just a moment ago, we could reach the next stop in just an hour and forty minutes, but now we had to be stuck on the train for a solid 24 hours just to barely get off.

We were done for.

“We’re all finished.”

I tried to estimate when the police officers would storm into the carriage.

It was hard to gauge the exact timing, but it wouldn’t be long before the police would burst into a carriage full of suspicious gunmen.

I was supposed to arrive at the car.

I leaned my head against the wall and sighed.

“If this keeps up, I might have to jump off the tracks like James Bond….”

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

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

In the meantime, we would have to stay stuck on this train with those gunmen.

Camila was no stranger to this situation either.

-‘Rather, I’ll handle them myself—’

She claimed she would subdue those suspected rebels herself.

“Absolutely not. I won’t allow it.”

I firmly opposed that idea.

“In the Jamria Federation, the government permits the arrest of criminals, but right now, we’re just civilians with no authority. If a magician gets involved in a serious incident, it won’t end well.”

-‘So what do you suggest we do?’

“For now, you run away. Use teleportation or whatever to get to a safe place and then think about it.”

-‘What about the people? The stewards? Are you saying to leave them all behind?’

“It’s not running away; it’s about bringing back support first. If you accidentally hit a civilian with magic during a fight on the train, you instantly become a murderer.”

-‘Frederick…’

“I’ll see how it goes and just detach my tail and follow.”

-‘…Are you really okay with that?’

“Don’t worry about it.”

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

-BOOM!

The sudden loud noise cut our conversation short.

-‘…What was that sound just now?’

Ignoring Camila’s worried voice, I cautiously peered outside.

“……”

The moment the door opened, the two previously separated spaces merged into one instantaneously, and noise poured in.

Someone’s agitated voice and a commanding shout. The commotion was coming from the direction of the car.

I couldn’t see the situation inside the car, but I caught a glimpse of three foreigners through the slightly ajar gap. They had been tailing me for a while.

They all turned their gazes to the direction of the car.

And the one standing at the front turned his head.

-THUD!

The kicked door crashed into my nose.

*

Camila snatched the annoying earpiece.

The tangled wires coiled within her grasp. After the earpiece slipped from her ear, the communication device soon followed, rolling around under the seat.

Not that it mattered, Camila seemed to have no intention of picking up the fallen communicator. As she forcefully pulled the tangled wires from her fingers, she leapt up from her seat.

“Customers, it’s dangerous to leave your seats—”

-WHOOSH~!

The stewardess’s expression melted in an instant. The warm air was swept away by a fierce gust, and the tranquil ambience filled with noise.

“Hmm….”

On the swaying train, Camila, standing on the roof, barely managed to keep her balance.

She threw a glance in the direction the train was heading. After brushing her disheveled hair aside, she turned her head backward.

The cars lined up one after another.

With her back to the wind, she focused her mind and suddenly her blue eyes sparkled wide.

“…Found it!”

Her senses, heightened beyond normal with the aid of magic, vividly captured the events happening far away inside the train car.

People thrown around and a knife rolling beneath a seat.

A red gun barrel dancing through breaking glass and flooring as it connected.

Despite the ongoing gunfire, the passengers in the other cars were blissfully unaware. Camila watched the melee unfold in the car, and finally gasped in realization.

It’s magic.

“Is that a shield? Or maybe a curtain?”

Countless speculations raced through her mind in a brief moment. Flames erupted from her hands.

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

Camila prepared her magic and took her stance.

Her sharpened senses carefully distinguished who to hit and who not to, creating perfect flames without a hint of error atop that swaying car.

Even amidst the fierce wind, she clearly caught the faint footsteps behind her.

“……”

Having completed the spell, Camila braced her legs and twisted her upper body with all her might.

“…Stop right there, criminal scum!”

On the tumultuous car, a man holding a staff was striding across it.

 

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