The azure ocean stretched as far as the eye could see.
A single thick line ran through that expanse. That artificial structure was a series of large arch bridges built from quarried stone. Identical structures continued endlessly beyond the horizon.
A rhythmic “kaclunk, kaclunk” came from those bridges.
They formed the main line of an intercontinental ocean railroad that was known as the greatest creation of humanity’s sorcery. A 13-car spirit engine train followed the rails atop the bridges, using many centipede-like legs to move the luxury sleeper train.
And inside…
“Why?” groaned a voice.
It belonged to Henrietta Split Destrius. She wore her blonde hair in a waist-length braid similar to a ponytail. Her tight skirt armor was made by adding monster leather and tendons to oxidized mana-conducting silver, which was colored a deep gray similar to the environmentally-destructive material known as asphalt. That beautiful girl and legitimate knight asked a horrified question of the boy across the table from her.
“Why would you wait until we are already onboard to mention we have no money, dangerous individual!?”
To reiterate, this was a luxury sleeper train.
It did not have seats lining the walls and it was not packed to 300% occupancy. The seats were ranked from 1st class to 3rd class, but they generally took the form of private sleeper rooms, the only food came from restaurants proudly displaying their number of stars, and the train even offered a pool, a casino, and a dance hall. This 7-day journey was going to take a fair amount of money. Buying enough tickets for everyone was not enough in this case.
And right now, Ayato Criminaltrophy, a black-haired boy in a blue blazer and with a sword at his hip, put on an exceedingly obedient look while the luxurious space was filled with the quiet music played from a needleless record player that read the disc using light.
“Not so loud, Miss Henrietta. We really do not want this information getting out.”
“…”
The straitlaced Striker looked awfully squirrel-like as she actually did clap both hands over her mouth.
Also, Ayato was the only one she was still calling a “dangerous individual”. She had started off applying the title to Teleria and Mamilis as well, but that seemed to have changed over the course of their journey. Ayato felt a little left out noticing the girls were drawing closer without him.
The sorcery network worked by sending out invisible mana mist along thin, spiderweb-like threads, so it generally only supported stationary devices. That meant pedestrians and sorcery vehicles could not use network devices, but that did not apply here. This train had a largescale spirit engine loaded in the very front, so it functioned as a single large server. It was very different from the city trains that ran using external energy. And since it followed a fixed route, the spirit engine could resonate with the manaflow sent along the course of the track, allowing those onboard to connect to the outside world. The Media Summoners that functioned as a TV, a radio, and a search engine all at once were usable here. That gave a Sorcery Hacker like Ayato a lot to focus on.
As a sorcery criminal who generally infiltrated a location and hijacked the circuits there, a spirit engine that forcibly carried a network base around with it was an impressive device.
“To be blunt, we don’t have what we don’t have. Sorry, but I’m a Sorcery Hacker, not an alchemist.”
“The point is you should have done something about this before we found ourselves in this predicament!”
The train’s interior contained scarlet carpeting, a deep wood grain reminiscent of a violin given coat after coat of varnish, and the occasional crystal or gold decoration shining here and there. It was a train and yet it had crystal chandeliers. The place felt more like a fancy mansion, yet this was only the train’s 2nd class restaurant. It was apparently for the casual passengers since it had no dress code and anyone was allowed in. There was of course no menu to be found. You apparently told the sommelier how you were feeling that day and they would prepare the best possible food and wine combination for you. Ayato did not even want to think about how much a small salad there would cost. Even taking a seat was bound to come with a hefty table charge.
“I was keeping this from you for your own good, but if you must know why, then so be it. As Forwards, our job is to pursue people with bounties on their heads, but, Miss Henrietta, you and your odd sense of righteousness keep getting in the way of our work, leaving us with no income.”
“…!?”
“Really, though. What are we going to do about this? This wasn’t how it was supposed to go at all. At this rate, they’re going to find out we’re flat broke and they’re gonna tie our hands behind our backs while we have nowhere to escape on the running train.”
“Gh, b-but my chivalrous heart cannot bear to let some filthy outlaws chase down fleeing people with sorcery guns in hand. Those jobs should be left to the royally-authorized knights or, if I’m being generous, an organized law enforcement group formed by the local citizenry.”
“Don’t act like we’re bullying innocent people. They’re criminals. Wanted criminals.”
“If they are on the run, they have yet to be tried for their alleged crimes. I do not agree that suspected criminals are free game to abuse as you like.”
Where’s that presumption of innocence when it comes to me? wondered the Sorcery Hacker (who she absolutely despised) while about ready to hold his head in his hands. But he decided to stick to the topic at hand.
“I’m a guy, so if they find out I can’t pay, they’ll probably chuck me out into the ocean from the running train. I just have to hope they don’t decide to wrap a thick chain around me beforehand. But I imagine the unpleasantness will last a lot longer for you girls. I mean, this is a luxury train equipped with plenty of beds. People often look for exotic thrills on a trip and there are plenty of rich people here, if you catch my drift. Oh, and recall what I said about there being nowhere to escape on a running train.”
“Hgee! Wait, don’t you dare defile our honor by having such obscene fantasies about us!”
“Now, you brought this on yourself, but Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis got a raw deal here. But maybe that’s just how it is with powerful knights. You refuse to accept a fall from grace without taking a few maids with you for company, huh?”
An unbelievably provocative bunny girl whose outfit shined a brighter red than her lipstick passed right by while weaving between the tables. The midday sun was shining bright outside, but her round silver tray contained colorful alcoholic drinks, the cleavage of her large chest was left exposed, and her butt wiggled side to side. As the straitlaced Striker’s eyes followed her, a cold sweat began to pour down her face. This was a new world for her. It did not look like she would be washing dishes in the kitchen if she was found unable to pay.
Yes.
And the honest people who could generally endure any pain or humiliation would never let someone else suffer for their own mistakes. The human heart was strange thing. The people who fought hardest to prevent suffering often saw themselves as the one exception.
“(No, no. This can’t be happening. A Striker like me cannot offer her body up to a bunch of strange men. That alone would be a terrible scandal for my family, but placing those innocent girls in danger with my own actions is even more unthinkable. I cannot let that happen. But what do I do? What can I possibly do? Is there any way to turn this around now and save everyone? Oh, no. Oh, no, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no!)”
Henrietta was applying the standards of a knight to her position of Striker, but that was her own personal high standards at play. If it gets too confusing, you can simply think of her as a privileged noble who still insists on fighting on the front lines at all times.
“S-s-so, dangerous individual.”
“Yes?”
“I have an earnest question for you. Heh…eh heh heh. That is to say, I am willing to be more frank with you than you really deserve, so I would appreciate it if you would answer me.”
“Hoping for a guy’s opinion on whether bunny girls or bikini armor would earn more tips?”
“Okay, sorry for being so rude, Lord Ayato, my Prince Charming. In your great wisdom, do you perhaps have an idea of how we can escape this crisis? Ugh, if you would lend me just a taste of your towering intellect, that would be more than this rustic noblewoman could possibly understand after wasting all her brain space on how to fight!!”
She truly was desperate. She leaned out over the table and clung tearfully to that sketchy guy she barely knew. The butlers and maids of her family home would have fainted had they seen it.
Meanwhile, there was something odd about Ayato.
He had a thin and androgynous face that looked young for his age, but there was a striking difference between his expression compared to Henrietta’s. He did not seem remotely worried despite the dire straits they found themselves in.
“Miss Henrietta, you can start by wiping away those tears. Blow your nose too if you can. Then can you listen calmly to what I have to say?”
“Yesh, sniff, yessss.”
“Listen, Miss Knight.” He casually pointed his thumb toward the adjacent car. “This train has a casino.”
Henrietta felt dizzy and came to a stop as soon as she set foot in the casino car.
“What’s wrong, Miss Henrietta? You’re blocking the entrance.”
“But, um…I…”
The Striker could only tremble while trying to say something, but her mind was swept away by a deluge of sound and voices.
“I’m the shooter now. Hand over those dice.”
“No more bets. The board remains as is, got that?”
“Raise. I still have a chance, so I raise!”
The classy clientele here was not speaking all that loud. In fact, the music and the sound of collapsing stacks of chips were louder. But take Henrietta’s mental state into consideration. This was like a storm. She had been adrift in a small boat for three days and now a gargantuan storm was blowing in. If she raised the sail, she might be blown back to land all at once, but she had no idea which direction was right.
So in the end, the straitlaced Striker looked up at Ayato with the eyes of a puppy dog in the rain and pleaded him with a tremor in her voice.
“I-I don’t think I can do this. I can’t make heads or tails of anything they’re saying! How am I supposed to win when I don’t even know the rules!? This get-rich-quick scheme will never wor-”
“Oh? Well, if you say so. Then you should probably start checking out the sample costumes they have on display. Oh, look. They’ve made a micro version of the traditional bikini armor. Hm? And it seems to have a special opening right here, Miss Henrietta. Ha ha ha. That extra ventilation should come in handy on a hot and sticky summer day.”
“Can we please discuss whose side you are even on, dangerous individual? I will do anything, so please stay on my side here!!”
“Then I would recommend a game that does not require competing against another player. Then you can use math to calculate out your odds of winning. There are no guarantees in gambling, but some strategies are better than others.”
“R-roulette? Hyah!”
Henrietta straightened her back and shrieked because Ayato had moved up behind her while she hesitantly approached the table. He almost looked like a boyfriend giving his girlfriend a hands-on lesson on how to play the game. Of course, this was a casino, so if two acquaintances were standing so close for any other reason, they would gather attention as possible cheaters.
The straitlaced Striker blushed and shrank down from the ticklish breath on her neck as she quietly protested.
“M-must you take advantage of the situation, dangerous individual?”
“I believe you were the one who asked me for help. Or do you want to give it a whirl on your own?”
“Please…”
“I can’t hear you.”
“I said please help me. But don’t think I’m going to forget this!”
“You say you will do anything and you also promise to never forget it? I am very excited to see where this is headed.”
Ayato was not cruel enough to immediately convert their limited remaining funds into chips and seat Miss Straitlaced down at the table. He had her start by watching a few rounds of the game from a short distance away.
“Now, I should probably explain the rules.”
“I have no idea what to make of all those numbers on the table.”
“You’ll get used to it. For this version of roulette, the wheel is divided into the numbers 0-36 and you want to predict which one the ball lands in. The payout is based on the odds of that particular result. So betting on red or black and even or odd pays back double, betting on the front, middle, or back sections containing a third of the 36 numbers pays back triple, and guessing the exact number pays back 36 times your bet.”
The dealer called out “no more bets”, the wheel slowed down, and the ball fell into a pocket.
This time, it was red 17.
“But guessing it exactly right like that pretty much never happens, so the normal way to play is to bet on multiple things at once during a single round. Like betting on 4 or 5 spots.”
“O-okay, I think I get it. So to go for a solid victory, I should bet on red or black or even or odd. That seems like the easiest to get right.”
“Don’t be dumb. Those only pay back double your bet when you win. When betting on 4 or 5 spots, you need to make back at least 4 or 5 times your bet to just break even.”
“Ugh…”
“The front, middle, and back sections won’t work for the same reason. Tripling your bet won’t make back what you paid out. By the way, you might try to win three bets at once by betting on red, odd, and 1-12, but those don’t all align as often as you would think. Going for that will only have you slowly losing money. Although you’ll feel kind of happy about it since you will be winning some here and there.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“The standard strategy is to go for the individual numbers. You bet on 4 or 5 of them at once. If any of them win, that’s 36 times the bet, giving you plenty to make up for all 4 or 5 bets.”
“B-but! Don’t I lose it all if none of them are right?”
“Of course.” Ayato whispered in her ear. He claimed to be helping her, but he was acting a lot more like a demon corrupting a virtuous person. “Don’t even think about trying to win every single round. This is all about statistics, so you want to lay out a barrage of bets. You might lose the first or second round, but that doesn’t matter as long as you average out in the positive after 10 rounds. A single win pays back 36 times the bet. Even when making multiple bets per round, you’re making money as long as you win by the 35th bet.”
“Eh? What? It’s that easy to win!?”
“It is. That’s why it’s such a popular strategy.”
“Then what was I so worried about? This is nothing more than a game, so maybe I should have tried to stayed calm.”
Now.
Nothing he had said was strictly wrong, but if there was such a surefire way of always winning in the end, every casino on the continent would have gone out of business ages go. But Ayato decide there was no good reason to tell her that part. There was one factor you should never get wrong while discussing probability and statistics. He had mentioned the odds of winning after 10 rounds, but that denominator was important. And doubling the value was a very different thing from squaring it.
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? And how long do you plan on holding onto my hips like that? It’s rude! Excuse me, dealer, is that seat open?”
Henrietta remained oblivious to that mathematical pitfall as she cheerfully took a seat at the table with her ponytail-like blonde braid swaying behind her. Ayato simply watched from behind. The straitlaced Striker was a good listener at least because she did exactly as he had told her.
“Hm, hm, hmm. I want to bet on 5 numbers at once, so…black 12, red 15, black 21, black 24, and red 36 should do it.”
“No more bets. …Red 19.”
He could have sworn he heard a cracking sound come from her smiling face.
The smile remained as sweat began to pour down her brow.
“Ha…ha ha ha. Not to worry. This is about probability and I am laying out a barrage of bets, so each individual round is of little consequence. As long as my 10-round average comes out on top, I have nothing at all to worry about, so I just need to keep it up.”
“No more bets. Black 8.”
The smile was now permanently frozen to her face as she looked down at the table to watch the chips vanishing before her eyes. She began to tremble. Was she picturing that bikini armor in her mind’s eye?
(Now, then.)
Meanwhile, Ayato viewed the rest of the casino from directly behind Henrietta – which also placed him in a blind spot for the most annoying watchdog here.
Meanwhile, the third round came to an end.
“Black 21!? I bet on that one last round, so why does it have to land there now!?”
Henrietta’s mind was boiling over now and tears were welling up in her eyes, so Ayato approached from behind in his blue blazer and whispered to her.
“Black 14.”
“?”
“I won’t say it again. Bet on that and all the numbers around it for good measure.”
Fortunately, she was not dumb enough to look back at him. He could sense an aura of distrust radiating from her back, but she did ultimately bet on black 14 while also going for a few of the numbers immediately preceding and following it.
“No more bets,” called the solemn dealer. And, “Black 14. Again, that’s black 14. Congratulations.”
“~ ~ ~☆♪○＊％〒~ ~ ~!!!???”
She leaped to her feet and shouted something that did not even qualify as language, but black-haired Ayato grabbed her slender shoulders and pushed her back into her seat.
“Henrietta-kun, you should understand the basics now.”
“Eh? What? I won, didn’t I? I won, so aren’t I done?”
“A single win is nowhere near enough to procure the funds we need. If you keep it up at this rate, you’re going to want…yes, about 5 wins. Remember, this is a luxury train, so if all four of us want to make it safely to our destination, we will need around 30 gold[1].”
“Hgeeee!!” she cried from the bottom of her gut now that she knew she could not leave the roulette table quite yet. Spectators were gradually gathering around, perhaps hoping to absorb some of the winning player’s luck.
(This place isn’t like a normal casino. There’s no such thing as a fair game when the train is shaking so much.)
Just once, the boy glanced over at the needleless record player that used light to read the disk.
The needleless variety had been chosen so the shaking would not cause the needle to scratch up the disk. And once the spectators formed enough of a wall, he slipped away from Henrietta.
(That means I only have to use some Sorcery Hacking to get the train to shake just like it did for that black 14. That should make the spinning ball hop and bounce in exactly the same way. Now, the trick is to give her a mix of wins and losses that won’t look suspicious.)
He did not want her interfering with his Forward bounty hunting work, so he had needed to tie her down somewhere.
With that done, it was time to get down to business.
He slipped out of the casino car and back into the 2nd class car. Unlike the city trains, the aisle was along the right wall instead of down the center. Why he had returned here went without saying. They had a large private room on the train and being surrounded by walls was perfect for doing a little hacking.
He placed the “do not disturb” card on the outside doorknob and slipped inside.
“Coach.”
The Dark Elf named Mamilis awaited him in the private room. She wore a faded leather vest and tight pants, along with a large leather belt floating around her like a planetary ring, perhaps to make her waist look skinnier. The belt was a type of sorcery fashion known as Expansion Armor. Her chest was small for her height and her overall build was slender. Her long, straight silver hair and healthy brown skin stood out, but her most noticeable feature, the long ears, were cleverly hidden by the magic in her earrings. Those were a Mimic Option that demons would use to blend into human society.
“We’re ready to go. Miss Henrietta is busy in the casino as planned.”
“I feel kind of bad doing that to her.”
“I wasn’t lying about us being in dire straits. Did you want to try working as a bunny girl or dancer, Miss Mamilis? If not, you’ll need to pay your way by working as a Forward.”
What they had to do was simple enough.
The boy opened the window that slid up and down and then he climbed on out. He wanted to reach the roof of that passenger car.
“Coach, that’s dangerous.”
“Which is why I’m going first. Give me your hand, Miss Mamilis.”
“Nh.”
Once on the roof, he got down on his stomach and reached down to help her up from the window. He pulled the nervous Dark Elf up onto the roof with him.
They could not let their guard down here.
The sea breeze blew up at them and the smoke blowing back from the spirit engine out front contained a faint bluish-green phosphorescence. If they got careless and let the summer sun up above the cumulonimbus clouds dazzle them, they would plunge into the ocean 50 esoule[2] below. They were still on the train, but this was a deadly zone where the passengers’ safety was not guaranteed. He more or less held the brown girl in his arms to support her.
“Coach.” She twisted her body ticklishly. “Are we going with the front or the back?”
“That is a very philosophical way of putting that, Miss Mamilis. Especially when whispered so warmly into my ear by the lovely young lady I am holding in my arms.”
“?”
“And the correct answer is the very back. Once you stand up, make sure only to move while the train is going straight. If it curves in the slightest, crouch back down and wait. Feeling silly is always better than then being flung off to your doom. Got that?”
“Yes.”
“We will be facing to the back of the train, so do not forget to check behind you to see when a curve is coming up.”
“Got it. I will do anything you tell me to, coach.”
This student had a way of inspiring philosophical thoughts in him. If his brain expanded any further, he was certain he would see the unifying theory at the center of the world.
Ayato slowly stood up while making sure the wind and shaking did not affect him too much. Then he drew the double-edged crystal sword from the hip of his blue blazer. That Linkage Plug was the representative tool of a Sorcery Hacker and it worked alongside the crystal tarot Linkage Monitor he scattered in the air where the cards remained floating near his face.
Meanwhile, the Dark Elf raised the mana-conducting silver she wore with a sling belt. That sorcery gun was a full-auto shotgun model that had its ammo supply increased with a drum magazine.
“Rookie, you can’t aim well with that scattershot weapon since it self-replicates the magic and spreads it in a fan shape, so make sure you don’t panic and shoot me in the back.”
“Then I should be in front.”
The way she made no promises was due to her reluctance to show affection. Or so he hoped. Really, the unwavering lack of emotion on her face made his balls shrivel up.
He remained crouching to keep his center of gravity low and walked along the shaking train’s roof with Mamilis following after. Whenever they reached the connection between two passenger cars, he would stab his drawn blade into it and pull the trigger to release just the 0.5 esoule[3] blade.
“Coach, does that really build up your level much?”
“That one got me up to about Level 30, I think.” He replied nonchalantly while pulling out a new blade that was compressed in the hilt. “I already needed to shake the entire train to keep Miss Henrietta in the casino, so I had torn away the wall in our bedroom to stick this thing into a bunch of stuff there. The higher the level the better after all.”
While they discussed that, they arrived at the rearmost four cars – which made up the back third of the train’s 12 non-engine cars.
“Is it really this hard to get into the 3rd class cars in the back?”
“The ordinary route was not an option. Didn’t you find it odd, Miss Mamilis? This is a luxury spirit engine train and we are very clearly short on money, so why were we placed in a 2nd class car? If not us, then who is in the 3rd class cars? Surely the conductor and engineer cabins don’t fill up all this space, right?”
He lay down on the roof and peeked inside a window below him, but it was covered by a thick metal mesh. No one could get inside or out and no one could see in. He had been right to stab his Linkage Plug into so many sorcery devices and resonate with their processing space to build up such a high level. He stabbed his sword into the roof and moved the floating crystal tarot cards with his fingers, causing a square metal door on the roof to spring up. It must have originally been an emergency exit in case the train fell into the water.
An almost sticky darkness lurked below.
“The 3rd class cars look even worse than I’d heard.”
Something was wrong with the world here.
He sensed an unpleasant level of heat and an oppressively powerful stench that may have been cooled and oxidized sweat.
“As a gentleman, I must warn you, Miss Mamilis. There is no need for you to follow me inside here.”
“Hurry it up or I’ll shoot you in the ass, coach.”
Now her reluctance to show affection was taking a violent turn. Or was the violent threat a sign of affection in and of itself? Ayato decided he needed to ponder these philosophical issues more once he had time, but for now he hopped down into that hellmouth.
Everything changed.
It was midday, but the blocked windows did not let in much light and the simple lights swaying at the ceiling were much like those used in mines. The pale orange light illuminated small rooms separated out by metal bars. Instead of beds, they were all laid out with smelly hay.
The jangling of thick chains was impossible to miss.
When Dark Elf Mamilis jumped down after him, she held a hand over her mouth, probably more due to the stench than the visual.
“This is unbelievable, Coach.”
“Yeah, business being booming isn’t always a good thing. Especially for doctors, executioners, and Forwards.”
The train had 1st class, 2nd class, and 3rd class cars.
The people thrown behind these bars and curled up on the damp hay appeared to be girls Ayato’s age or a little younger. There had to be 20 or 30 of them in this car alone. One was a Harpy with falcon wings in place of arms, one was a Cat Sith with feline ears poking up from her head, and one was a Dryad who wore tons of acorn accessories, but not one of them appeared to be a pure human girl.
“This is a luxury train and it’s crammed full of all the entertainment the wealthy might want: a pool, a casino, a dance hall, etc.” Ayato spoke like he was reciting a creepy nursery rhyme. “But people like that always want poor people most of all. The greatest entertainment for the rich is the social stratification that allows them to legally look down on the poor from a position of absolute safety. And if they can feel superior about their species while they do it, all the better. It unfortunately does not matter what the demons say when the authorities don’t recognize their rights.”
“…”
Mamilis looked unsure what to say. Dark Elves were officially classified as demons too. That was why she used a Mimic Option to hide her long ears in front of others. The girls here had lost all their possessions at the casino, so their Mimic Option had been taken from them and their secret had been revealed.
The new money rich on this train did nothing to them.
Because giving into desire and having their way with one of the girls would hurt her value as a product. They would keep their distance as if that preserved their own purity and they would laugh together as they looked down on that minority. Those behind the bars would be mocked and mocked and mocked some more until their dignity was reduced to tatters without anyone laying a finger on them. The people doing that to them made Ayato sick.
As a Forward, he would receive a quest completion reward if he freed those girls.
But he had to make a quick detour first.
He walked down the narrow aisle, checked inside each cage, and finally put on a cruel smile.
“Imagine finding you here, Miss Teleria.”
“Gulp!?”
“I am glad to see you are feeling well enough to actually say the word ‘gulp’ out loud. But you certainly do have bad luck. This wasn’t one of those fitting rooms where young women go missing, you know? What did you get mistaken for to get captured like this? I mean, everyone else in these cages is a demon of some sort.”
“Oh, no, no. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. I’m a normal human! Y-you know that, don’t you!?”
The person tearfully holding her own body while seated on the hay beyond the metal bars was a girl with fluffy blonde hair, a blue blazer uniform similar to Ayato’s but with a pleated miniskirt, and black tights over her legs. As Expansion Armor over the miniskirt, she also had a princess-like long skirt floating in a C-shape around her hips. She pressed her lightly-clenched fists against her mouth and had tears in the corners of her eyes while she gave him the puppiest puppy dog eyes anyone had ever seen and she also had an unbelievably large chest for her short height. As a girl appraisal specialist, Ayato rated her a perfect 100 with no room for criticism whatsoever.
Incidentally…
“…”
Right next to the skinny boy, Dark Elf Mamilis formed a small triangle with her mouth while she stared strangely into the cage, but did Ayato even notice that?
While sinking down into the hay, the tearful blonde girl gave the slender brown girl an overly obvious series of winks to make eye contract.
“(I-I couldn’t help it. I can’t tell Ayato I’m a mermaid hiding my fish part with a Mimic Option! Eek, stop giving me that cold look, like I’m a liar! It makes me feel even guiltier!!)”
“(Hmm, I could really go for a tomato and cheese pizza today.)”
Their failure to communicate was honestly impressive.
Oblivious to that secret conversation(?), black-haired Ayato looked all around the dimly-lit passenger car.
“Miss Teleria, do you remember the original job the client gave us?”
“Um…investigate the ‘noble entertainment’ running rampant on this ocean railroad, rescue any prisoners, and eliminate any enemy forces for an extra bonus.”
“I have a feeling that ultra-militaristic client would rank those in the opposite order, but by those rules, we can complete the job by detaching these four 3rd class cars.”
“Wait!! You aren’t going to rescue me from this cage!?”
“Coach, wouldn’t that also leave Henrietta behind?”
“Exactly right. Which means, Miss Teleria, we need as many fighters capable of wielding sorcery guns as we can get. Are you willing to rejoin the fight?”
“Ummm, my guns are in that metal box in the aisle.”
Throwing the guns out the window into the ocean would have been safer, but knowing how nasty the rich could be, they had probably wanted to see their poor victim desperately reach through the bars to try to reach them despite knowing they were too far away.
“But, Coach, the box and her cage are locked.”
“Not a problem assuming these aren’t nonmagical artisan locks. I can force them open with my Sorcery Hacking.”
It was as easy as lopping off a fish’s head on the chopping block. He stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the center of the metal box that came up to his hip height and the easily-unlocked lid popped up.
He pulled out two handguns, some blue glowing ammo, and a holster meant to be worn around the hip. Then he tossed them into the cage. The guns had a suppressor built in, a dot sight, a guide laser below the barrel, and a longish magazine that all made the weapons swell out like a snowman. Ayato watched through the bars as the blonde girl grabbed them.
“Miss Teleria, you were captured due to a baffling misunderstanding and we snuck across the roof to rescue you. If we had tried to force our way in directly, the military-equipped engineers would have repelled us.”
“Um.”
“Specifically, they use submachineguns, which are perfect for this narrow space. The power of each magic blast is reduced from normal, but the mobility and rapid-fire more than make up for that. The low range and accuracy are of no consequence on a train, after all. They can simply fire their magic blindly to keep us pinned behind cover while another group circles behind us to cut off our escape.”
“Coach, we have full-auto weapons too.”
“Not good enough. I refuse to accept odds of only 50/50. I will not allow any of you to lose your lives to such ridiculous scum during such a backwater case. Listen, I will not allow them to even scratch you.”
“Oh, come on,” grumbled Teleria behind the bars.
Did the boy notice the way she was looking at him or not?
He acted above it all and claimed he could not survive without rationally analyzing even the unwanted factors around him, but the boy in the blue blazer could be frighteningly cold when it came to such things.
“Thus, we must be stealthy about it. Miss Teleria, I will open your cage now, but do not make a fuss. We will use the roof to reach the casino car, open the ceiling emergency exit, snag Miss Henrietta with a wire to pull her up, and then release the rear four cars to escape safely.”
“Um, what is our role in that plan?”
“Miss Mamilis, you specialize in fire, so select Primary Flash. When I open the ‘lid’ above the casino, fire a bunch of nonlethal flashes to sow confusion. Miss Teleria, you specialize in water, so do you have any magic that can play the role of the wire?”
“Um, wouldn’t metal things like that be earth magic?”
“I thought you could maybe use a vine or something…but okay. If you can’t do it, you can’t do it. So with water, select Secondary Splash.”
“Hm? You fire that against the floor or ground to create a giant pillar of water. I thought it was used to deter enemies and destroy barricades.”
“Fire it at the floor below Miss Henrietta’s chair while the roulette wheel has her dizzy. The world’s largest bidet toilet will lift up her triumphant rear to instantly launch her to the roof.”
“Bff! U-um, Ayato, has no one ever explained the concept of dignity to you!? That knight treasures her honor, so she might refuse to ever get out of bed again if you do that to her!!”
“Miss Teleria, I will only accept complaints that are accompanied by an alternative plan. If you do not have one, then we continue with mine. Now, come with me.”
After the boy stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the cage’s lock, a loud click came from it and the door slid to the side. A stir ran through the oppressive space, but they could not give those girls the freedom they desired quite yet. Stealth was key at the moment. They could never complete their job if they opened the rest of the cells now.
As they left, Mamilis and Teleria whispered toward those other cells.
“(Don’t worry. My coach will never abandon us.)”
“(Trust us.)”
Once they got started, the job did not take long.
They climbed onto the roof, walked to the casino car, and rescued Henrietta.
“………………………………………………………I have been defiled…………………………………………………………………”
“See, what did I tell you? That’s one of the things you should never make a girl say!”
“I will admit it was my plan, but you were the one who actually did it, Miss Teleria.”
“Hgh!? Wh-wh-what ever are you talking about!? Now, we have work to do, so let’s head on back and release the 3rd class cars to rescue everyone!”
“Also, that was a serious disappointment, Miss Henrietta. I was expecting a cute ‘kyah’ or ‘hyah’, but all you gave me was a ‘nwohhhh!!’ I get that you knights prize strength, but you went a little overboard there.”
For once, the combat-focused Striker was hunkered down and covering her face with her hands (with one part of her body soaking wet). The Dark Elf supported her shoulders from behind and asked an emotionless question.
“Coach, they have figured out where the Primary Flashes are coming from. There are more military-equipped conductors than I expected. And didn’t you say they have submachineguns, so we will only get repelled in a direct fight?”
“I did say that, yes.”
In the blowing wind of the roof, Ayato slid his floating crystal tarot cards in midair, causing a large tremor to run through the train itself. No, it was accelerating. The bluish-green phosphorescent smoke coming from the front had grown denser.
“Wh-what have you done now, dangerous individual!?”
“Level 55. That’s enough to hack the very spirit engine pulling the passenger cars along. They should be freaking out over the abnormal internal pressure in the engine right about now. And they won’t locate us right away since I’m remotely controlling it all. The conductors and engineers will gather at the front while we move to the back. Then we only have to release the four 3rd class cars. The soldiers left on the accelerating train won’t be able to pursue us while we vanish into the distance.”
Ayato explained his plans while casually making his way back along the cars. With the glaring exception of how he treated his female companions, he was pulling this job off flawlessly. Everything was following the initial timetable with no delays. He had the odd ability to make it feel like the situation was progressing as if he were running his finger along a map.
Or it should have worked that way.
Until, that is, they were caught in an explosion from directly below them.
Henrietta immediately drew the large-caliber bolt-action carbine from her hip while Ayato reached an arm each around Teleria and Mamilis’s hips to get them down on the roof. Someone would have been vaporized otherwise. That was just the type of magic it was.
Right next to them, in the position they had just vacated, the roof was torn up and blown away, leaving jagged edges.
“What was that, dangerous individual!? It most certainly was not a submachinegun that holds people in place by firing intentionally weakened magic at a higher rate! The power was obviously amplified, suggesting either an anti-materiel rifle or a magnum!”
“…”
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Ayato always had an answer ready to go, so his silence seemed unnatural.
“Ayato…this isn’t that magnum, is it?” asked Teleria.
“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”
He was not the only one acting weird. Teleria was pale and trembling while lying collapsed on the roof.
What did the two of them have in common?
The blue blazer.
The Academy Towers.
The boy was now a Sorcery Hacker who wielded a Linkage Plug and Linkage Monitor, but he had once been an incredibly skilled Forward. If the rumors were to be believed, he had been known as the Hexajinx because he would complete any job in 6 shots or less, so no one had ever seen him reload.
“I got rid of it. I dismantled that revolver and smashed, crushed, or otherwise destroyed each piece in turn. And I threw the wreckage into the furnace in the gem science tower.”
He could not believe what he was seeing.
He could not believe what weapon their enemy was wielding here.
“So how did the Queen Astaroth Revolver come back!?”
Another blinding light and deafening boom blasted the world up from below. The train’s roof might as well have been made of thin wet paper for all the protection it provided. A single hit would end it all, so Ayato’s group had no choice but to jump to the next train back.
“Are they using Primary Sting!?”
“Primary?”
“Yes, Miss Mamilis. Of the same fire element you use! Normally, it only provides enough force to open a fingertip-sized hole in an outdoor grilling panel.”
They heard the sound of creaking and straining metal. The monstrous revolver had blown a massive hole in the roof and someone was grabbing onto the jagged edges to climb up.
Ayato did not recognize the boy.
But the thick magnum was a different story.
To use both his hands to climb, the boy was holding the giant revolver in his mouth. After climbing up, he coated it with his sticky saliva as if trying to lick off the silver luster and he moved the gun to his right hand, holding the black grip tight.
He wore a distinctive blue blazer, but the jacket was tied around his waist.
He was someone from the Academy Towers, just like Ayato and Teleria.
He was a lot bigger and more muscular than Sorcery Hacker Ayato. His red hair was disheveled, but not necessarily because of the wind.
His identity and objective were unknown. He may or may not have had anything to do with what was happening on this sleeper train. Ayato only knew he was trying to take their lives. And while it was speculative, he was pretty sure the boy must know that he was the Hexajinx who had originally wielded that gun.
“That was two shots.” Ayato held his left arm out to protect Mamilis and raised his sword in his right hand. “Four to go!!”
“Wait, wait, wait. Are you hoping to attack while I reload?” The boy snorted with laughter. “Do you really think you can survive another four shots from firepower this deliciously great? Well, do you!?”
The boy’s right hand shot up.
Ayato immediately stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the floor and the centipede-like train shook violently on its many legs.
When the boy pulled the trigger, a sinister red muzzle flash burst from the magnum. Mana shot through the center of the orderly sparks, forming supernatural magic.
The Primary Sting magic had been brutally enhanced, but the boy’s aim had been thrown off enough for the white light to pass right next to Ayato’s group. However, that trick would not work again.
“How many more tricks you got up your sleeve!? Answer me, buddy!!”
“You want to hit me? Then I recommend taking careful aim right here.”
Ayato pointed his thumb at the center of his chest.
The large boy unnaturally narrowed his eyes at a bright green light, but did he even realize Ayato had used a floating crystal tarot card to reflect the pale phosphorescence floating back from the spirit engine?
Ayato used that opening to get flat down on the roof. Behind him, Teleria held her twin handguns and Mamilis held her full-auto shotgun.
“I’m counting on you,” whispered the Sorcery Hacker.
The suppressor-equipped handguns and the ear-splitting shotgun produced a storm of fire and water magic that rushed toward the boy wielding the large revolver. The used red shotgun shells and the empty blue cartridges were ejected from the side of the firearms, but their colors faded even as they fell.
However…
“You’re nothing but small fries!!”
A single roar of Primary Sting was all it took to sweep aside the barrage and push back to attack the girls instead. Still down on the roof, Ayato spun around as if breakdancing to sweep Teleria and Mamilis’s feet out from under them, getting them out of the line of fire.
“And a school of small fries isn’t enough to trick the shark’s eyes. It’ll just tear through the school like it’s nothing. Don’t you know that!?”
“Miss Teleria, prepare Secondary Splash.”
Ayato had no intention of killing this fool who did not even know sharks searched out their prey using their sense of smell and electrolocation. But allowing the girls to come to harm was even less of an option.
With a muffled gunshot, a pillar of water burst violently up alongside them. The attacker’s revolver gave a roar at the same time. The barrier in between diverted the attack off course, but the boy did not seem to care.
“You’re running out of tricks up your sleeve, buddy. And once you’re out, you can kiss your ass goodbye. Can’t you hear the grim reaper creeping ever closer?”
“Two to go,” muttered Ayato.
“Why even bother keeping count!?” roared the large boy. “You’re gonna die helplessly either way!!”
“Wait, you fool! Stop firing!!”
“Why the hell should I listen to you!? Because you can’t stop me much longer, is that it!? I’m the legend now, cause I’m the one with the demonic revolver! So quit acting like you’re better than me!!” It was too late.
Another two blasts erupted out.
The fool must not have even been keeping count because he pulled the trigger again, producing an empty click.
The gunfire had stopped, but Ayato still cried out in despair.
“That gun requires a contract with that demoness, Queen Astaroth! If you haven’t killed your initial target after using up all 6 shots, then the wielder’s soul is devoured as payment!!”
The boy actually looked puzzled.
He must have never even considered the possibility that such great power came with a price. Or maybe it did not seem real even after it was explained to him.
But the result did not wait for him to catch up.
“Ugh.”
Several reddish-black lines extended from the revolver in his right hand and raced up toward his heart as if following the paths of his thick blood vessels.
He had entirely misinterpreted Ayato’s countdown.
Ayato had not been counting down until he could defeat his opponent. He had wanted to prevent this. His efforts had been in vain, though.
“Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”
“Miss Teleria, select Secondary Taboo Sleep! Top priority!!”
“Eh? But that’s a forbidden cold sleep spell.”
“He’ll die if you don’t! So fire!!”
The magic gunshot surged forth. It hit the attacker’s chest before the contract’s punishment could reach there and something like transparent spikes exploded out in all directions, but they did not stab into him. They formed a block of ice resembling a giant snow crystal or the tetrapods used for breakwaters, and they instantly swallowed up the attacker’s body.
“Gh…kh.”
He must have finally realized he was freezing over and could not move like he wanted.
Only his head was still sticking out of the countless growing legs of ice and he shook that while groaning.
Each piece of the complex crystal sculpture branched out like ice covering a tree.
But those would shatter themselves as they continued to change form. The number of angles gradually reduced to simplify the shape in what seemed like a countdown.
“Dammit, they never told me about this. Was I just another pawn to them?”
But the boy still managed to raise his discolored right hand and aim the empty silver revolver at Ayato. That revolver would take something from its contracted user. Was that what had made this boy so unreliable?
The countdown of the giant crystal’s simplification was not done yet.
“The Academy Towers are watching you, buddy.”
“…”
“Because you’ve decided to start sniffing around where you aren’t wanted. That incident is over. Dig it back up and this is what you get. Sure, you survived today. But what about tomorrow? Or the day after that? Or the day after that? You will rue the day you made that foolish choice.”
“Who are the ‘them’ you mentioned earlier? And what incident do you mean? Since you mentioned the Academy Towers, do you mean the hostage situation I resolved in one of the towers there? Do you – and whoever you’re working for – know what else is lurking beyond that incident?”
He had already looked into that. When he had found nothing at the Academy Towers, he had figured someone might have pressured them into it and had started journeying around the world.
He heard a gasp from the blonde girl who was always with him.
“Wait, you can’t do this, Ayato! Digging too far into my stepbrother’s case will only land you in a bottomless bog!”
“Ha ha. She’s right, you know? You’ve already stepped one foot into it and you might think you’re still fine and can keep digging further, but you can never lift that foot back up again. It’s only gonna sink further and further!!”
“What the hell do you know!?”
“Heh. We’re both nothing but pawns. We’re just two guys who were both taken in by the same demoness. I’ll be waiting for you down in hell, buddy.”
With an ear-splitting sound, the rectangular ice coffin closed around the attacker.
The crystal structure’s simplification was complete.
The oblong block now fully contained his body from head to toe, effectively stopping time for him.
Ayato could not move for a while afterwards.
The demonic revolver had fallen to the boy’s feet, but the train was shaking too much and it slid off the edge and vanished into the ocean below. But what did that matter? He had dismantled it, smashed each part with a hammer, and chucked it into a furnace, yet it had found him again here. It would appear before him again this time too. In the hands of a new wielder. That much he knew for certain.
Ayato said nothing and Teleria remained silent.
Dark Elf Mamilis hesitantly spoke up.
“What…do we do now, coach?”
“Good question. First, we need to complete our initial job. Let’s detach the 3rd class cars to free those girls from those new money bastards.”
“Was that guy really working alone? I don’t want to find he has any accomplices hidden around here.”
Henrietta’s question was an obvious one. Anyone would want to avoid a surprise attack from such a powerful gun.
“Which is why we aren’t going to bother with any of that. Once we split the train in two, we can remain on the rear four cars. I doubt such a powerful attacker would simply have his sorcery gun confiscated and be thrown in jail and since we don’t know how much danger remains on the front nine cars, we can just let them continue on without us.”
“I more or less agree with that,” said Teleria after a moment of thought. “But.”
“Yes,” agreed Ayato. “This is enough for the client to pay us, but how this ends could still leave a bad taste in our mouth. If you want to make those people pay, we can always rig the spirit engine to run haywire, have the train derail going around a curve, and send it plunging right into the ocean.”
He received no response.
Evidently, no one here wanted to go that far.
Henrietta sighed half in exasperation, as if to say there was no end to trouble while traveling with Ayato.
“But, dangerous individual, the cars can’t move once they are separated from the engine. I resent that you hid this from me, but I can gather that you are working to rescue some harmless demons who have no intention of attacking anyone. …But this is an intercontinental ocean railroad. What are we or the rescued demons supposed to do once we are stranded out here? Did you give this no thought whatsoever?”
“It’s true the railroad crosses the ocean, but that ocean isn’t just an empty expanse of water. The railroad bridges generally run from island to island. And fortune would have it, the closest island is well within walking distance. We can wait on that island for another train to come by and ride that back to the Static Continent. The demons can choose what to do for themselves.”
“Hm, and what island might that be? No, wait…”
Teleria looked like she had just realized something she very much did not want to have realized.
Something leaped up above the ocean water in the far distance. The silhouette was reminiscent of a dolphin, but something was not quite right. She had the upper body of a human, but her lower body was formed by a large fish tail.
And she was not alone.
Oblivious to what was happening onboard, several forms were innocently matching the train’s speed to swim alongside it and occasionally jumping up either as a greeting or to show off.
Speaking of oblivious, Ayato failed to notice all the blood draining from Teleria’s face.
“Laguntreat, the island of mermaids and decursing. Thanks to its distance from the continent, it’s a rare place where humans and mermaids – in other words, demons – can coexist.”
“Ha, ah ha ha. A-are you sure that’s where we should go? I mean, um, there are plenty of fish in the sea, or islands in this case, so why not chose somewhere with better food, right!?”
“This is the island of mermaids and decursing, Miss Teleria.” Ayato placed emphasis on the one word. With the sun shining on his distinctive blue blazer, the boy pointed an annoyed thumb at the pillar of ice. “I want to learn everything this frozen fool knows, but the revolver’s punishment will kill him if we remove the cold sleep. We need to have the curse purified at Laguntreat before we can thaw him from that coffin. That is a must. No other island will do.”
“U-umm…”
Tears were welling up in Teleria’s eyes now. Meanwhile, brown-skinned Mamilis lightly elbowed Henrietta in the side.
“(Is Laguntreat a well-known place?)”
“Hm? In the medical and health fields, yes. Especially for their purification methods using water. You can forget your worries and relax there, so it also ranks highly as a tourist destination and a location for villas. In fact, it is favored by the Fifth Prince of the Static Kingdom’s Combined Royal Family. That is something of an open secret, but try not to mention it too openly.”
He would likely travel there on a royal cruiser instead of a luxury sleeper train. That would be above Level 2000 as a sorcery device, so the boat itself would qualify as a villa.
That said, Dark Elf Mamilis had trouble imagining much about the top of the human power structure, nor was she really all that interested in doing so. The real problem was what Henrietta said next.
“Also, I have heard it is the home of all mermaids. Of course, research on demons as a whole is not exactly a high priority, so that could only be a baseless legend.”
“(It’s true. It’s the home of all mermaids,)” added Teleria.
“Hey, what are you all whispering about?” asked Ayato. “You can talk more openly, you know?”
He did not know why they would be keeping secrets, so he was not going to play along.
“(I see.)” Mamilis placed a hand on her chin. “(An unexpected visit home, huh? That might present some challenges when it comes to hiding your identity.)”
(*I know it is old-fashioned, but I will be gathering my information in a lockable journal since an analog format should be the best way of defending against a Sorcery Hacking specialist. It also reminds me of my late father who adored pocket watches and bottle ships.)
I do not know much about Sorcery Hacking, but based on what I have seen while traveling with Ayato Criminaltrophy, the items he uses are not all that unusual. To my chagrin, it seems they do sell fancier tools at sketchy shops on the surface.
His sword is known as a Linkage Plug and he uses that to hack into mist mana lines and the gemboards of sorcery devices.
His crystal tarot cards are known as a Linkage Monitor. They use the arcana to visualize the manaflow, allowing him to view stolen information and manipulate devices.
However, the shape and format used for these things varies from hacker to hacker. Some Plugs are launched using a slingshot and some Monitors are round horoscopes. A sword and tarot cards is the most popular combination, much like the umbrellas cheaply sold at the front of general stores.
My Striker instincts tell me this is the caution of a criminal. A crime committed with an ordinary kitchen knife found in any home makes it hard to trace the culprit using the weapon. And if the criminal’s tool is unexpectedly damaged or lost, they can easily acquire a new one. I imagine he also has his own unique logic behind the choice, but this means that dangerous individual has intentionally chosen to use an entry level product anyone can easily acquire.
He stabs the blade into a sorcery device and releases it from the grip so it can act as an antenna (according to him). More blades are supplied from within the grip, but that requires leaving the blades behind at the scene. That means he cannot use anything that could be traceable back to him.
The negative possibilities presented by Sorcery Hackers are incalculable.
They might begin by hacking a Level 1 alarm clock, but they will not stop there. That dangerous individual will go on to increase the upper level of sorcery device he can hack. By building up his level using the simple growth of “1+1=2”, “2+2=4”, etc., he could ultimately take control of a warship or fortress cannon.
As a Striker it is my duty to preserve the peace, so I must keep an eye on him.
The truly baffling part is how his blatant violations of the law have a strange way of bringing smiles to people’s faces, protecting people’s lives, and earning him the thanks of the villagers.
The azure ocean stretched as far as the eye could see.
A single thick line ran through that expanse. That artificial structure was a series of large arch bridges built from quarried stone. Identical structures continued endlessly beyond the horizon.
A rhythmic “kaclunk, kaclunk” came from those bridges.
They formed the main line of an intercontinental ocean railroad that was known as the greatest creation of humanity’s sorcery. A 13-car spirit engine train followed the rails atop the bridges, using many centipede-like legs to move the luxury sleeper train.
And inside…
“Why?” groaned a voice.
It belonged to Henrietta Split Destrius. She wore her blonde hair in a waist-length braid similar to a ponytail. Her tight skirt armor was made by adding monster leather and tendons to oxidized mana-conducting silver, which was colored a deep gray similar to the environmentally-destructive material known as asphalt. That beautiful girl and legitimate knight asked a horrified question of the boy across the table from her.
“Why would you wait until we are already onboard to mention we have no money, dangerous individual!?”
To reiterate, this was a luxury sleeper train.
It did not have seats lining the walls and it was not packed to 300% occupancy. The seats were ranked from 1st class to 3rd class, but they generally took the form of private sleeper rooms, the only food came from restaurants proudly displaying their number of stars, and the train even offered a pool, a casino, and a dance hall. This 7-day journey was going to take a fair amount of money. Buying enough tickets for everyone was not enough in this case.
And right now, Ayato Criminaltrophy, a black-haired boy in a blue blazer and with a sword at his hip, put on an exceedingly obedient look while the luxurious space was filled with the quiet music played from a needleless record player that read the disc using light.
“Not so loud, Miss Henrietta. We really do not want this information getting out.”
“…”
The straitlaced Striker looked awfully squirrel-like as she actually did clap both hands over her mouth.
Also, Ayato was the only one she was still calling a “dangerous individual”. She had started off applying the title to Teleria and Mamilis as well, but that seemed to have changed over the course of their journey. Ayato felt a little left out noticing the girls were drawing closer without him.
The sorcery network worked by sending out invisible mana mist along thin, spiderweb-like threads, so it generally only supported stationary devices. That meant pedestrians and sorcery vehicles could not use network devices, but that did not apply here. This train had a largescale spirit engine loaded in the very front, so it functioned as a single large server. It was very different from the city trains that ran using external energy. And since it followed a fixed route, the spirit engine could resonate with the manaflow sent along the course of the track, allowing those onboard to connect to the outside world. The Media Summoners that functioned as a TV, a radio, and a search engine all at once were usable here. That gave a Sorcery Hacker like Ayato a lot to focus on.
As a sorcery criminal who generally infiltrated a location and hijacked the circuits there, a spirit engine that forcibly carried a network base around with it was an impressive device.
“To be blunt, we don’t have what we don’t have. Sorry, but I’m a Sorcery Hacker, not an alchemist.”
“The point is you should have done something about this before we found ourselves in this predicament!”
The train’s interior contained scarlet carpeting, a deep wood grain reminiscent of a violin given coat after coat of varnish, and the occasional crystal or gold decoration shining here and there. It was a train and yet it had crystal chandeliers. The place felt more like a fancy mansion, yet this was only the train’s 2nd class restaurant. It was apparently for the casual passengers since it had no dress code and anyone was allowed in. There was of course no menu to be found. You apparently told the sommelier how you were feeling that day and they would prepare the best possible food and wine combination for you. Ayato did not even want to think about how much a small salad there would cost. Even taking a seat was bound to come with a hefty table charge.
“I was keeping this from you for your own good, but if you must know why, then so be it. As Forwards, our job is to pursue people with bounties on their heads, but, Miss Henrietta, you and your odd sense of righteousness keep getting in the way of our work, leaving us with no income.”
“…!?”
“Really, though. What are we going to do about this? This wasn’t how it was supposed to go at all. At this rate, they’re going to find out we’re flat broke and they’re gonna tie our hands behind our backs while we have nowhere to escape on the running train.”
“Gh, b-but my chivalrous heart cannot bear to let some filthy outlaws chase down fleeing people with sorcery guns in hand. Those jobs should be left to the royally-authorized knights or, if I’m being generous, an organized law enforcement group formed by the local citizenry.”
“Don’t act like we’re bullying innocent people. They’re criminals. Wanted criminals.”
“If they are on the run, they have yet to be tried for their alleged crimes. I do not agree that suspected criminals are free game to abuse as you like.”
Where’s that presumption of innocence when it comes to me? wondered the Sorcery Hacker (who she absolutely despised) while about ready to hold his head in his hands. But he decided to stick to the topic at hand.
“I’m a guy, so if they find out I can’t pay, they’ll probably chuck me out into the ocean from the running train. I just have to hope they don’t decide to wrap a thick chain around me beforehand. But I imagine the unpleasantness will last a lot longer for you girls. I mean, this is a luxury train equipped with plenty of beds. People often look for exotic thrills on a trip and there are plenty of rich people here, if you catch my drift. Oh, and recall what I said about there being nowhere to escape on a running train.”
“Hgee! Wait, don’t you dare defile our honor by having such obscene fantasies about us!”
“Now, you brought this on yourself, but Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis got a raw deal here. But maybe that’s just how it is with powerful knights. You refuse to accept a fall from grace without taking a few maids with you for company, huh?”
An unbelievably provocative bunny girl whose outfit shined a brighter red than her lipstick passed right by while weaving between the tables. The midday sun was shining bright outside, but her round silver tray contained colorful alcoholic drinks, the cleavage of her large chest was left exposed, and her butt wiggled side to side. As the straitlaced Striker’s eyes followed her, a cold sweat began to pour down her face. This was a new world for her. It did not look like she would be washing dishes in the kitchen if she was found unable to pay.
Yes.
And the honest people who could generally endure any pain or humiliation would never let someone else suffer for their own mistakes. The human heart was strange thing. The people who fought hardest to prevent suffering often saw themselves as the one exception.
“(No, no. This can’t be happening. A Striker like me cannot offer her body up to a bunch of strange men. That alone would be a terrible scandal for my family, but placing those innocent girls in danger with my own actions is even more unthinkable. I cannot let that happen. But what do I do? What can I possibly do? Is there any way to turn this around now and save everyone? Oh, no. Oh, no, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no!)”
Henrietta was applying the standards of a knight to her position of Striker, but that was her own personal high standards at play. If it gets too confusing, you can simply think of her as a privileged noble who still insists on fighting on the front lines at all times.
“S-s-so, dangerous individual.”
“Yes?”
“I have an earnest question for you. Heh…eh heh heh. That is to say, I am willing to be more frank with you than you really deserve, so I would appreciate it if you would answer me.”
“Hoping for a guy’s opinion on whether bunny girls or bikini armor would earn more tips?”
“Okay, sorry for being so rude, Lord Ayato, my Prince Charming. In your great wisdom, do you perhaps have an idea of how we can escape this crisis? Ugh, if you would lend me just a taste of your towering intellect, that would be more than this rustic noblewoman could possibly understand after wasting all her brain space on how to fight!!”
She truly was desperate. She leaned out over the table and clung tearfully to that sketchy guy she barely knew. The butlers and maids of her family home would have fainted had they seen it.
Meanwhile, there was something odd about Ayato.
He had a thin and androgynous face that looked young for his age, but there was a striking difference between his expression compared to Henrietta’s. He did not seem remotely worried despite the dire straits they found themselves in.
“Miss Henrietta, you can start by wiping away those tears. Blow your nose too if you can. Then can you listen calmly to what I have to say?”
“Yesh, sniff, yessss.”
“Listen, Miss Knight.” He casually pointed his thumb toward the adjacent car. “This train has a casino.”
Henrietta felt dizzy and came to a stop as soon as she set foot in the casino car.
“What’s wrong, Miss Henrietta? You’re blocking the entrance.”
“But, um…I…”
The Striker could only tremble while trying to say something, but her mind was swept away by a deluge of sound and voices.
“I’m the shooter now. Hand over those dice.”
“No more bets. The board remains as is, got that?”
“Raise. I still have a chance, so I raise!”
The classy clientele here was not speaking all that loud. In fact, the music and the sound of collapsing stacks of chips were louder. But take Henrietta’s mental state into consideration. This was like a storm. She had been adrift in a small boat for three days and now a gargantuan storm was blowing in. If she raised the sail, she might be blown back to land all at once, but she had no idea which direction was right.
So in the end, the straitlaced Striker looked up at Ayato with the eyes of a puppy dog in the rain and pleaded him with a tremor in her voice.
“I-I don’t think I can do this. I can’t make heads or tails of anything they’re saying! How am I supposed to win when I don’t even know the rules!? This get-rich-quick scheme will never wor-”
“Oh? Well, if you say so. Then you should probably start checking out the sample costumes they have on display. Oh, look. They’ve made a micro version of the traditional bikini armor. Hm? And it seems to have a special opening right here, Miss Henrietta. Ha ha ha. That extra ventilation should come in handy on a hot and sticky summer day.”
“Can we please discuss whose side you are even on, dangerous individual? I will do anything, so please stay on my side here!!”
“Then I would recommend a game that does not require competing against another player. Then you can use math to calculate out your odds of winning. There are no guarantees in gambling, but some strategies are better than others.”
“R-roulette? Hyah!”
Henrietta straightened her back and shrieked because Ayato had moved up behind her while she hesitantly approached the table. He almost looked like a boyfriend giving his girlfriend a hands-on lesson on how to play the game. Of course, this was a casino, so if two acquaintances were standing so close for any other reason, they would gather attention as possible cheaters.
The straitlaced Striker blushed and shrank down from the ticklish breath on her neck as she quietly protested.
“M-must you take advantage of the situation, dangerous individual?”
“I believe you were the one who asked me for help. Or do you want to give it a whirl on your own?”
“Please…”
“I can’t hear you.”
“I said please help me. But don’t think I’m going to forget this!”
“You say you will do anything and you also promise to never forget it? I am very excited to see where this is headed.”
Ayato was not cruel enough to immediately convert their limited remaining funds into chips and seat Miss Straitlaced down at the table. He had her start by watching a few rounds of the game from a short distance away.
“Now, I should probably explain the rules.”
“I have no idea what to make of all those numbers on the table.”
“You’ll get used to it. For this version of roulette, the wheel is divided into the numbers 0-36 and you want to predict which one the ball lands in. The payout is based on the odds of that particular result. So betting on red or black and even or odd pays back double, betting on the front, middle, or back sections containing a third of the 36 numbers pays back triple, and guessing the exact number pays back 36 times your bet.”
The dealer called out “no more bets”, the wheel slowed down, and the ball fell into a pocket.
This time, it was red 17.
“But guessing it exactly right like that pretty much never happens, so the normal way to play is to bet on multiple things at once during a single round. Like betting on 4 or 5 spots.”
“O-okay, I think I get it. So to go for a solid victory, I should bet on red or black or even or odd. That seems like the easiest to get right.”
“Don’t be dumb. Those only pay back double your bet when you win. When betting on 4 or 5 spots, you need to make back at least 4 or 5 times your bet to just break even.”
“Ugh…”
“The front, middle, and back sections won’t work for the same reason. Tripling your bet won’t make back what you paid out. By the way, you might try to win three bets at once by betting on red, odd, and 1-12, but those don’t all align as often as you would think. Going for that will only have you slowly losing money. Although you’ll feel kind of happy about it since you will be winning some here and there.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“The standard strategy is to go for the individual numbers. You bet on 4 or 5 of them at once. If any of them win, that’s 36 times the bet, giving you plenty to make up for all 4 or 5 bets.”
“B-but! Don’t I lose it all if none of them are right?”
“Of course.” Ayato whispered in her ear. He claimed to be helping her, but he was acting a lot more like a demon corrupting a virtuous person. “Don’t even think about trying to win every single round. This is all about statistics, so you want to lay out a barrage of bets. You might lose the first or second round, but that doesn’t matter as long as you average out in the positive after 10 rounds. A single win pays back 36 times the bet. Even when making multiple bets per round, you’re making money as long as you win by the 35th bet.”
“Eh? What? It’s that easy to win!?”
“It is. That’s why it’s such a popular strategy.”
“Then what was I so worried about? This is nothing more than a game, so maybe I should have tried to stayed calm.”
Now.
Nothing he had said was strictly wrong, but if there was such a surefire way of always winning in the end, every casino on the continent would have gone out of business ages go. But Ayato decide there was no good reason to tell her that part. There was one factor you should never get wrong while discussing probability and statistics. He had mentioned the odds of winning after 10 rounds, but that denominator was important. And doubling the value was a very different thing from squaring it.
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? And how long do you plan on holding onto my hips like that? It’s rude! Excuse me, dealer, is that seat open?”
Henrietta remained oblivious to that mathematical pitfall as she cheerfully took a seat at the table with her ponytail-like blonde braid swaying behind her. Ayato simply watched from behind. The straitlaced Striker was a good listener at least because she did exactly as he had told her.
“Hm, hm, hmm. I want to bet on 5 numbers at once, so…black 12, red 15, black 21, black 24, and red 36 should do it.”
“No more bets. …Red 19.”
He could have sworn he heard a cracking sound come from her smiling face.
The smile remained as sweat began to pour down her brow.
“Ha…ha ha ha. Not to worry. This is about probability and I am laying out a barrage of bets, so each individual round is of little consequence. As long as my 10-round average comes out on top, I have nothing at all to worry about, so I just need to keep it up.”
“No more bets. Black 8.”
The smile was now permanently frozen to her face as she looked down at the table to watch the chips vanishing before her eyes. She began to tremble. Was she picturing that bikini armor in her mind’s eye?
(Now, then.)
Meanwhile, Ayato viewed the rest of the casino from directly behind Henrietta – which also placed him in a blind spot for the most annoying watchdog here.
Meanwhile, the third round came to an end.
“Black 21!? I bet on that one last round, so why does it have to land there now!?”
Henrietta’s mind was boiling over now and tears were welling up in her eyes, so Ayato approached from behind in his blue blazer and whispered to her.
“Black 14.”
“?”
“I won’t say it again. Bet on that and all the numbers around it for good measure.”
Fortunately, she was not dumb enough to look back at him. He could sense an aura of distrust radiating from her back, but she did ultimately bet on black 14 while also going for a few of the numbers immediately preceding and following it.
“No more bets,” called the solemn dealer. And, “Black 14. Again, that’s black 14. Congratulations.”
“~ ~ ~☆♪○＊％〒~ ~ ~!!!???”
She leaped to her feet and shouted something that did not even qualify as language, but black-haired Ayato grabbed her slender shoulders and pushed her back into her seat.
“Henrietta-kun, you should understand the basics now.”
“Eh? What? I won, didn’t I? I won, so aren’t I done?”
“A single win is nowhere near enough to procure the funds we need. If you keep it up at this rate, you’re going to want…yes, about 5 wins. Remember, this is a luxury train, so if all four of us want to make it safely to our destination, we will need around 30 gold[1].”
“Hgeeee!!” she cried from the bottom of her gut now that she knew she could not leave the roulette table quite yet. Spectators were gradually gathering around, perhaps hoping to absorb some of the winning player’s luck.
(This place isn’t like a normal casino. There’s no such thing as a fair game when the train is shaking so much.)
Just once, the boy glanced over at the needleless record player that used light to read the disk.
The needleless variety had been chosen so the shaking would not cause the needle to scratch up the disk. And once the spectators formed enough of a wall, he slipped away from Henrietta.
(That means I only have to use some Sorcery Hacking to get the train to shake just like it did for that black 14. That should make the spinning ball hop and bounce in exactly the same way. Now, the trick is to give her a mix of wins and losses that won’t look suspicious.)
He did not want her interfering with his Forward bounty hunting work, so he had needed to tie her down somewhere.
With that done, it was time to get down to business.
He slipped out of the casino car and back into the 2nd class car. Unlike the city trains, the aisle was along the right wall instead of down the center. Why he had returned here went without saying. They had a large private room on the train and being surrounded by walls was perfect for doing a little hacking.
He placed the “do not disturb” card on the outside doorknob and slipped inside.
“Coach.”
The Dark Elf named Mamilis awaited him in the private room. She wore a faded leather vest and tight pants, along with a large leather belt floating around her like a planetary ring, perhaps to make her waist look skinnier. The belt was a type of sorcery fashion known as Expansion Armor. Her chest was small for her height and her overall build was slender. Her long, straight silver hair and healthy brown skin stood out, but her most noticeable feature, the long ears, were cleverly hidden by the magic in her earrings. Those were a Mimic Option that demons would use to blend into human society.
“We’re ready to go. Miss Henrietta is busy in the casino as planned.”
“I feel kind of bad doing that to her.”
“I wasn’t lying about us being in dire straits. Did you want to try working as a bunny girl or dancer, Miss Mamilis? If not, you’ll need to pay your way by working as a Forward.”
What they had to do was simple enough.
The boy opened the window that slid up and down and then he climbed on out. He wanted to reach the roof of that passenger car.
“Coach, that’s dangerous.”
“Which is why I’m going first. Give me your hand, Miss Mamilis.”
“Nh.”
Once on the roof, he got down on his stomach and reached down to help her up from the window. He pulled the nervous Dark Elf up onto the roof with him.
They could not let their guard down here.
The sea breeze blew up at them and the smoke blowing back from the spirit engine out front contained a faint bluish-green phosphorescence. If they got careless and let the summer sun up above the cumulonimbus clouds dazzle them, they would plunge into the ocean 50 esoule[2] below. They were still on the train, but this was a deadly zone where the passengers’ safety was not guaranteed. He more or less held the brown girl in his arms to support her.
“Coach.” She twisted her body ticklishly. “Are we going with the front or the back?”
“That is a very philosophical way of putting that, Miss Mamilis. Especially when whispered so warmly into my ear by the lovely young lady I am holding in my arms.”
“?”
“And the correct answer is the very back. Once you stand up, make sure only to move while the train is going straight. If it curves in the slightest, crouch back down and wait. Feeling silly is always better than then being flung off to your doom. Got that?”
“Yes.”
“We will be facing to the back of the train, so do not forget to check behind you to see when a curve is coming up.”
“Got it. I will do anything you tell me to, coach.”
This student had a way of inspiring philosophical thoughts in him. If his brain expanded any further, he was certain he would see the unifying theory at the center of the world.
Ayato slowly stood up while making sure the wind and shaking did not affect him too much. Then he drew the double-edged crystal sword from the hip of his blue blazer. That Linkage Plug was the representative tool of a Sorcery Hacker and it worked alongside the crystal tarot Linkage Monitor he scattered in the air where the cards remained floating near his face.
Meanwhile, the Dark Elf raised the mana-conducting silver she wore with a sling belt. That sorcery gun was a full-auto shotgun model that had its ammo supply increased with a drum magazine.
“Rookie, you can’t aim well with that scattershot weapon since it self-replicates the magic and spreads it in a fan shape, so make sure you don’t panic and shoot me in the back.”
“Then I should be in front.”
The way she made no promises was due to her reluctance to show affection. Or so he hoped. Really, the unwavering lack of emotion on her face made his balls shrivel up.
He remained crouching to keep his center of gravity low and walked along the shaking train’s roof with Mamilis following after. Whenever they reached the connection between two passenger cars, he would stab his drawn blade into it and pull the trigger to release just the 0.5 esoule[3] blade.
“Coach, does that really build up your level much?”
“That one got me up to about Level 30, I think.” He replied nonchalantly while pulling out a new blade that was compressed in the hilt. “I already needed to shake the entire train to keep Miss Henrietta in the casino, so I had torn away the wall in our bedroom to stick this thing into a bunch of stuff there. The higher the level the better after all.”
While they discussed that, they arrived at the rearmost four cars – which made up the back third of the train’s 12 non-engine cars.
“Is it really this hard to get into the 3rd class cars in the back?”
“The ordinary route was not an option. Didn’t you find it odd, Miss Mamilis? This is a luxury spirit engine train and we are very clearly short on money, so why were we placed in a 2nd class car? If not us, then who is in the 3rd class cars? Surely the conductor and engineer cabins don’t fill up all this space, right?”
He lay down on the roof and peeked inside a window below him, but it was covered by a thick metal mesh. No one could get inside or out and no one could see in. He had been right to stab his Linkage Plug into so many sorcery devices and resonate with their processing space to build up such a high level. He stabbed his sword into the roof and moved the floating crystal tarot cards with his fingers, causing a square metal door on the roof to spring up. It must have originally been an emergency exit in case the train fell into the water.
An almost sticky darkness lurked below.
“The 3rd class cars look even worse than I’d heard.”
Something was wrong with the world here.
He sensed an unpleasant level of heat and an oppressively powerful stench that may have been cooled and oxidized sweat.
“As a gentleman, I must warn you, Miss Mamilis. There is no need for you to follow me inside here.”
“Hurry it up or I’ll shoot you in the ass, coach.”
Now her reluctance to show affection was taking a violent turn. Or was the violent threat a sign of affection in and of itself? Ayato decided he needed to ponder these philosophical issues more once he had time, but for now he hopped down into that hellmouth.
Everything changed.
It was midday, but the blocked windows did not let in much light and the simple lights swaying at the ceiling were much like those used in mines. The pale orange light illuminated small rooms separated out by metal bars. Instead of beds, they were all laid out with smelly hay.
The jangling of thick chains was impossible to miss.
When Dark Elf Mamilis jumped down after him, she held a hand over her mouth, probably more due to the stench than the visual.
“This is unbelievable, Coach.”
“Yeah, business being booming isn’t always a good thing. Especially for doctors, executioners, and Forwards.”
The train had 1st class, 2nd class, and 3rd class cars.
The people thrown behind these bars and curled up on the damp hay appeared to be girls Ayato’s age or a little younger. There had to be 20 or 30 of them in this car alone. One was a Harpy with falcon wings in place of arms, one was a Cat Sith with feline ears poking up from her head, and one was a Dryad who wore tons of acorn accessories, but not one of them appeared to be a pure human girl.
“This is a luxury train and it’s crammed full of all the entertainment the wealthy might want: a pool, a casino, a dance hall, etc.” Ayato spoke like he was reciting a creepy nursery rhyme. “But people like that always want poor people most of all. The greatest entertainment for the rich is the social stratification that allows them to legally look down on the poor from a position of absolute safety. And if they can feel superior about their species while they do it, all the better. It unfortunately does not matter what the demons say when the authorities don’t recognize their rights.”
“…”
Mamilis looked unsure what to say. Dark Elves were officially classified as demons too. That was why she used a Mimic Option to hide her long ears in front of others. The girls here had lost all their possessions at the casino, so their Mimic Option had been taken from them and their secret had been revealed.
The new money rich on this train did nothing to them.
Because giving into desire and having their way with one of the girls would hurt her value as a product. They would keep their distance as if that preserved their own purity and they would laugh together as they looked down on that minority. Those behind the bars would be mocked and mocked and mocked some more until their dignity was reduced to tatters without anyone laying a finger on them. The people doing that to them made Ayato sick.
As a Forward, he would receive a quest completion reward if he freed those girls.
But he had to make a quick detour first.
He walked down the narrow aisle, checked inside each cage, and finally put on a cruel smile.
“Imagine finding you here, Miss Teleria.”
“Gulp!?”
“I am glad to see you are feeling well enough to actually say the word ‘gulp’ out loud. But you certainly do have bad luck. This wasn’t one of those fitting rooms where young women go missing, you know? What did you get mistaken for to get captured like this? I mean, everyone else in these cages is a demon of some sort.”
“Oh, no, no. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. I’m a normal human! Y-you know that, don’t you!?”
The person tearfully holding her own body while seated on the hay beyond the metal bars was a girl with fluffy blonde hair, a blue blazer uniform similar to Ayato’s but with a pleated miniskirt, and black tights over her legs. As Expansion Armor over the miniskirt, she also had a princess-like long skirt floating in a C-shape around her hips. She pressed her lightly-clenched fists against her mouth and had tears in the corners of her eyes while she gave him the puppiest puppy dog eyes anyone had ever seen and she also had an unbelievably large chest for her short height. As a girl appraisal specialist, Ayato rated her a perfect 100 with no room for criticism whatsoever.
Incidentally…
“…”
Right next to the skinny boy, Dark Elf Mamilis formed a small triangle with her mouth while she stared strangely into the cage, but did Ayato even notice that?
While sinking down into the hay, the tearful blonde girl gave the slender brown girl an overly obvious series of winks to make eye contract.
“(I-I couldn’t help it. I can’t tell Ayato I’m a mermaid hiding my fish part with a Mimic Option! Eek, stop giving me that cold look, like I’m a liar! It makes me feel even guiltier!!)”
“(Hmm, I could really go for a tomato and cheese pizza today.)”
Their failure to communicate was honestly impressive.
Oblivious to that secret conversation(?), black-haired Ayato looked all around the dimly-lit passenger car.
“Miss Teleria, do you remember the original job the client gave us?”
“Um…investigate the ‘noble entertainment’ running rampant on this ocean railroad, rescue any prisoners, and eliminate any enemy forces for an extra bonus.”
“I have a feeling that ultra-militaristic client would rank those in the opposite order, but by those rules, we can complete the job by detaching these four 3rd class cars.”
“Wait!! You aren’t going to rescue me from this cage!?”
“Coach, wouldn’t that also leave Henrietta behind?”
“Exactly right. Which means, Miss Teleria, we need as many fighters capable of wielding sorcery guns as we can get. Are you willing to rejoin the fight?”
“Ummm, my guns are in that metal box in the aisle.”
Throwing the guns out the window into the ocean would have been safer, but knowing how nasty the rich could be, they had probably wanted to see their poor victim desperately reach through the bars to try to reach them despite knowing they were too far away.
“But, Coach, the box and her cage are locked.”
“Not a problem assuming these aren’t nonmagical artisan locks. I can force them open with my Sorcery Hacking.”
It was as easy as lopping off a fish’s head on the chopping block. He stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the center of the metal box that came up to his hip height and the easily-unlocked lid popped up.
He pulled out two handguns, some blue glowing ammo, and a holster meant to be worn around the hip. Then he tossed them into the cage. The guns had a suppressor built in, a dot sight, a guide laser below the barrel, and a longish magazine that all made the weapons swell out like a snowman. Ayato watched through the bars as the blonde girl grabbed them.
“Miss Teleria, you were captured due to a baffling misunderstanding and we snuck across the roof to rescue you. If we had tried to force our way in directly, the military-equipped engineers would have repelled us.”
“Um.”
“Specifically, they use submachineguns, which are perfect for this narrow space. The power of each magic blast is reduced from normal, but the mobility and rapid-fire more than make up for that. The low range and accuracy are of no consequence on a train, after all. They can simply fire their magic blindly to keep us pinned behind cover while another group circles behind us to cut off our escape.”
“Coach, we have full-auto weapons too.”
“Not good enough. I refuse to accept odds of only 50/50. I will not allow any of you to lose your lives to such ridiculous scum during such a backwater case. Listen, I will not allow them to even scratch you.”
“Oh, come on,” grumbled Teleria behind the bars.
Did the boy notice the way she was looking at him or not?
He acted above it all and claimed he could not survive without rationally analyzing even the unwanted factors around him, but the boy in the blue blazer could be frighteningly cold when it came to such things.
“Thus, we must be stealthy about it. Miss Teleria, I will open your cage now, but do not make a fuss. We will use the roof to reach the casino car, open the ceiling emergency exit, snag Miss Henrietta with a wire to pull her up, and then release the rear four cars to escape safely.”
“Um, what is our role in that plan?”
“Miss Mamilis, you specialize in fire, so select Primary Flash. When I open the ‘lid’ above the casino, fire a bunch of nonlethal flashes to sow confusion. Miss Teleria, you specialize in water, so do you have any magic that can play the role of the wire?”
“Um, wouldn’t metal things like that be earth magic?”
“I thought you could maybe use a vine or something…but okay. If you can’t do it, you can’t do it. So with water, select Secondary Splash.”
“Hm? You fire that against the floor or ground to create a giant pillar of water. I thought it was used to deter enemies and destroy barricades.”
“Fire it at the floor below Miss Henrietta’s chair while the roulette wheel has her dizzy. The world’s largest bidet toilet will lift up her triumphant rear to instantly launch her to the roof.”
“Bff! U-um, Ayato, has no one ever explained the concept of dignity to you!? That knight treasures her honor, so she might refuse to ever get out of bed again if you do that to her!!”
“Miss Teleria, I will only accept complaints that are accompanied by an alternative plan. If you do not have one, then we continue with mine. Now, come with me.”
After the boy stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the cage’s lock, a loud click came from it and the door slid to the side. A stir ran through the oppressive space, but they could not give those girls the freedom they desired quite yet. Stealth was key at the moment. They could never complete their job if they opened the rest of the cells now.
As they left, Mamilis and Teleria whispered toward those other cells.
“(Don’t worry. My coach will never abandon us.)”
“(Trust us.)”
Once they got started, the job did not take long.
They climbed onto the roof, walked to the casino car, and rescued Henrietta.
“………………………………………………………I have been defiled…………………………………………………………………”
“See, what did I tell you? That’s one of the things you should never make a girl say!”
“I will admit it was my plan, but you were the one who actually did it, Miss Teleria.”
“Hgh!? Wh-wh-what ever are you talking about!? Now, we have work to do, so let’s head on back and release the 3rd class cars to rescue everyone!”
“Also, that was a serious disappointment, Miss Henrietta. I was expecting a cute ‘kyah’ or ‘hyah’, but all you gave me was a ‘nwohhhh!!’ I get that you knights prize strength, but you went a little overboard there.”
For once, the combat-focused Striker was hunkered down and covering her face with her hands (with one part of her body soaking wet). The Dark Elf supported her shoulders from behind and asked an emotionless question.
“Coach, they have figured out where the Primary Flashes are coming from. There are more military-equipped conductors than I expected. And didn’t you say they have submachineguns, so we will only get repelled in a direct fight?”
“I did say that, yes.”
In the blowing wind of the roof, Ayato slid his floating crystal tarot cards in midair, causing a large tremor to run through the train itself. No, it was accelerating. The bluish-green phosphorescent smoke coming from the front had grown denser.
“Wh-what have you done now, dangerous individual!?”
“Level 55. That’s enough to hack the very spirit engine pulling the passenger cars along. They should be freaking out over the abnormal internal pressure in the engine right about now. And they won’t locate us right away since I’m remotely controlling it all. The conductors and engineers will gather at the front while we move to the back. Then we only have to release the four 3rd class cars. The soldiers left on the accelerating train won’t be able to pursue us while we vanish into the distance.”
Ayato explained his plans while casually making his way back along the cars. With the glaring exception of how he treated his female companions, he was pulling this job off flawlessly. Everything was following the initial timetable with no delays. He had the odd ability to make it feel like the situation was progressing as if he were running his finger along a map.
Or it should have worked that way.
Until, that is, they were caught in an explosion from directly below them.
Henrietta immediately drew the large-caliber bolt-action carbine from her hip while Ayato reached an arm each around Teleria and Mamilis’s hips to get them down on the roof. Someone would have been vaporized otherwise. That was just the type of magic it was.
Right next to them, in the position they had just vacated, the roof was torn up and blown away, leaving jagged edges.
“What was that, dangerous individual!? It most certainly was not a submachinegun that holds people in place by firing intentionally weakened magic at a higher rate! The power was obviously amplified, suggesting either an anti-materiel rifle or a magnum!”
“…”
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Ayato always had an answer ready to go, so his silence seemed unnatural.
“Ayato…this isn’t that magnum, is it?” asked Teleria.
“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”
He was not the only one acting weird. Teleria was pale and trembling while lying collapsed on the roof.
What did the two of them have in common?
The blue blazer.
The Academy Towers.
The boy was now a Sorcery Hacker who wielded a Linkage Plug and Linkage Monitor, but he had once been an incredibly skilled Forward. If the rumors were to be believed, he had been known as the Hexajinx because he would complete any job in 6 shots or less, so no one had ever seen him reload.
“I got rid of it. I dismantled that revolver and smashed, crushed, or otherwise destroyed each piece in turn. And I threw the wreckage into the furnace in the gem science tower.”
He could not believe what he was seeing.
He could not believe what weapon their enemy was wielding here.
“So how did the Queen Astaroth Revolver come back!?”
Another blinding light and deafening boom blasted the world up from below. The train’s roof might as well have been made of thin wet paper for all the protection it provided. A single hit would end it all, so Ayato’s group had no choice but to jump to the next train back.
“Are they using Primary Sting!?”
“Primary?”
“Yes, Miss Mamilis. Of the same fire element you use! Normally, it only provides enough force to open a fingertip-sized hole in an outdoor grilling panel.”
They heard the sound of creaking and straining metal. The monstrous revolver had blown a massive hole in the roof and someone was grabbing onto the jagged edges to climb up.
Ayato did not recognize the boy.
But the thick magnum was a different story.
To use both his hands to climb, the boy was holding the giant revolver in his mouth. After climbing up, he coated it with his sticky saliva as if trying to lick off the silver luster and he moved the gun to his right hand, holding the black grip tight.
He wore a distinctive blue blazer, but the jacket was tied around his waist.
He was someone from the Academy Towers, just like Ayato and Teleria.
He was a lot bigger and more muscular than Sorcery Hacker Ayato. His red hair was disheveled, but not necessarily because of the wind.
His identity and objective were unknown. He may or may not have had anything to do with what was happening on this sleeper train. Ayato only knew he was trying to take their lives. And while it was speculative, he was pretty sure the boy must know that he was the Hexajinx who had originally wielded that gun.
“That was two shots.” Ayato held his left arm out to protect Mamilis and raised his sword in his right hand. “Four to go!!”
“Wait, wait, wait. Are you hoping to attack while I reload?” The boy snorted with laughter. “Do you really think you can survive another four shots from firepower this deliciously great? Well, do you!?”
The boy’s right hand shot up.
Ayato immediately stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into the floor and the centipede-like train shook violently on its many legs.
When the boy pulled the trigger, a sinister red muzzle flash burst from the magnum. Mana shot through the center of the orderly sparks, forming supernatural magic.
The Primary Sting magic had been brutally enhanced, but the boy’s aim had been thrown off enough for the white light to pass right next to Ayato’s group. However, that trick would not work again.
“How many more tricks you got up your sleeve!? Answer me, buddy!!”
“You want to hit me? Then I recommend taking careful aim right here.”
Ayato pointed his thumb at the center of his chest.
The large boy unnaturally narrowed his eyes at a bright green light, but did he even realize Ayato had used a floating crystal tarot card to reflect the pale phosphorescence floating back from the spirit engine?
Ayato used that opening to get flat down on the roof. Behind him, Teleria held her twin handguns and Mamilis held her full-auto shotgun.
“I’m counting on you,” whispered the Sorcery Hacker.
The suppressor-equipped handguns and the ear-splitting shotgun produced a storm of fire and water magic that rushed toward the boy wielding the large revolver. The used red shotgun shells and the empty blue cartridges were ejected from the side of the firearms, but their colors faded even as they fell.
However…
“You’re nothing but small fries!!”
A single roar of Primary Sting was all it took to sweep aside the barrage and push back to attack the girls instead. Still down on the roof, Ayato spun around as if breakdancing to sweep Teleria and Mamilis’s feet out from under them, getting them out of the line of fire.
“And a school of small fries isn’t enough to trick the shark’s eyes. It’ll just tear through the school like it’s nothing. Don’t you know that!?”
“Miss Teleria, prepare Secondary Splash.”
Ayato had no intention of killing this fool who did not even know sharks searched out their prey using their sense of smell and electrolocation. But allowing the girls to come to harm was even less of an option.
With a muffled gunshot, a pillar of water burst violently up alongside them. The attacker’s revolver gave a roar at the same time. The barrier in between diverted the attack off course, but the boy did not seem to care.
“You’re running out of tricks up your sleeve, buddy. And once you’re out, you can kiss your ass goodbye. Can’t you hear the grim reaper creeping ever closer?”
“Two to go,” muttered Ayato.
“Why even bother keeping count!?” roared the large boy. “You’re gonna die helplessly either way!!”
“Wait, you fool! Stop firing!!”
“Why the hell should I listen to you!? Because you can’t stop me much longer, is that it!? I’m the legend now, cause I’m the one with the demonic revolver! So quit acting like you’re better than me!!” It was too late.
Another two blasts erupted out.
The fool must not have even been keeping count because he pulled the trigger again, producing an empty click.
The gunfire had stopped, but Ayato still cried out in despair.
“That gun requires a contract with that demoness, Queen Astaroth! If you haven’t killed your initial target after using up all 6 shots, then the wielder’s soul is devoured as payment!!”
The boy actually looked puzzled.
He must have never even considered the possibility that such great power came with a price. Or maybe it did not seem real even after it was explained to him.
But the result did not wait for him to catch up.
“Ugh.”
Several reddish-black lines extended from the revolver in his right hand and raced up toward his heart as if following the paths of his thick blood vessels.
He had entirely misinterpreted Ayato’s countdown.
Ayato had not been counting down until he could defeat his opponent. He had wanted to prevent this. His efforts had been in vain, though.
“Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”
“Miss Teleria, select Secondary Taboo Sleep! Top priority!!”
“Eh? But that’s a forbidden cold sleep spell.”
“He’ll die if you don’t! So fire!!”
The magic gunshot surged forth. It hit the attacker’s chest before the contract’s punishment could reach there and something like transparent spikes exploded out in all directions, but they did not stab into him. They formed a block of ice resembling a giant snow crystal or the tetrapods used for breakwaters, and they instantly swallowed up the attacker’s body.
“Gh…kh.”
He must have finally realized he was freezing over and could not move like he wanted.
Only his head was still sticking out of the countless growing legs of ice and he shook that while groaning.
Each piece of the complex crystal sculpture branched out like ice covering a tree.
But those would shatter themselves as they continued to change form. The number of angles gradually reduced to simplify the shape in what seemed like a countdown.
“Dammit, they never told me about this. Was I just another pawn to them?”
But the boy still managed to raise his discolored right hand and aim the empty silver revolver at Ayato. That revolver would take something from its contracted user. Was that what had made this boy so unreliable?
The countdown of the giant crystal’s simplification was not done yet.
“The Academy Towers are watching you, buddy.”
“…”
“Because you’ve decided to start sniffing around where you aren’t wanted. That incident is over. Dig it back up and this is what you get. Sure, you survived today. But what about tomorrow? Or the day after that? Or the day after that? You will rue the day you made that foolish choice.”
“Who are the ‘them’ you mentioned earlier? And what incident do you mean? Since you mentioned the Academy Towers, do you mean the hostage situation I resolved in one of the towers there? Do you – and whoever you’re working for – know what else is lurking beyond that incident?”
He had already looked into that. When he had found nothing at the Academy Towers, he had figured someone might have pressured them into it and had started journeying around the world.
He heard a gasp from the blonde girl who was always with him.
“Wait, you can’t do this, Ayato! Digging too far into my stepbrother’s case will only land you in a bottomless bog!”
“Ha ha. She’s right, you know? You’ve already stepped one foot into it and you might think you’re still fine and can keep digging further, but you can never lift that foot back up again. It’s only gonna sink further and further!!”
“What the hell do you know!?”
“Heh. We’re both nothing but pawns. We’re just two guys who were both taken in by the same demoness. I’ll be waiting for you down in hell, buddy.”
With an ear-splitting sound, the rectangular ice coffin closed around the attacker.
The crystal structure’s simplification was complete.
The oblong block now fully contained his body from head to toe, effectively stopping time for him.
Ayato could not move for a while afterwards.
The demonic revolver had fallen to the boy’s feet, but the train was shaking too much and it slid off the edge and vanished into the ocean below. But what did that matter? He had dismantled it, smashed each part with a hammer, and chucked it into a furnace, yet it had found him again here. It would appear before him again this time too. In the hands of a new wielder. That much he knew for certain.
Ayato said nothing and Teleria remained silent.
Dark Elf Mamilis hesitantly spoke up.
“What…do we do now, coach?”
“Good question. First, we need to complete our initial job. Let’s detach the 3rd class cars to free those girls from those new money bastards.”
“Was that guy really working alone? I don’t want to find he has any accomplices hidden around here.”
Henrietta’s question was an obvious one. Anyone would want to avoid a surprise attack from such a powerful gun.
“Which is why we aren’t going to bother with any of that. Once we split the train in two, we can remain on the rear four cars. I doubt such a powerful attacker would simply have his sorcery gun confiscated and be thrown in jail and since we don’t know how much danger remains on the front nine cars, we can just let them continue on without us.”
“I more or less agree with that,” said Teleria after a moment of thought. “But.”
“Yes,” agreed Ayato. “This is enough for the client to pay us, but how this ends could still leave a bad taste in our mouth. If you want to make those people pay, we can always rig the spirit engine to run haywire, have the train derail going around a curve, and send it plunging right into the ocean.”
He received no response.
Evidently, no one here wanted to go that far.
Henrietta sighed half in exasperation, as if to say there was no end to trouble while traveling with Ayato.
“But, dangerous individual, the cars can’t move once they are separated from the engine. I resent that you hid this from me, but I can gather that you are working to rescue some harmless demons who have no intention of attacking anyone. …But this is an intercontinental ocean railroad. What are we or the rescued demons supposed to do once we are stranded out here? Did you give this no thought whatsoever?”
“It’s true the railroad crosses the ocean, but that ocean isn’t just an empty expanse of water. The railroad bridges generally run from island to island. And fortune would have it, the closest island is well within walking distance. We can wait on that island for another train to come by and ride that back to the Static Continent. The demons can choose what to do for themselves.”
“Hm, and what island might that be? No, wait…”
Teleria looked like she had just realized something she very much did not want to have realized.
Something leaped up above the ocean water in the far distance. The silhouette was reminiscent of a dolphin, but something was not quite right. She had the upper body of a human, but her lower body was formed by a large fish tail.
And she was not alone.
Oblivious to what was happening onboard, several forms were innocently matching the train’s speed to swim alongside it and occasionally jumping up either as a greeting or to show off.
Speaking of oblivious, Ayato failed to notice all the blood draining from Teleria’s face.
“Laguntreat, the island of mermaids and decursing. Thanks to its distance from the continent, it’s a rare place where humans and mermaids – in other words, demons – can coexist.”
“Ha, ah ha ha. A-are you sure that’s where we should go? I mean, um, there are plenty of fish in the sea, or islands in this case, so why not chose somewhere with better food, right!?”
“This is the island of mermaids and decursing, Miss Teleria.” Ayato placed emphasis on the one word. With the sun shining on his distinctive blue blazer, the boy pointed an annoyed thumb at the pillar of ice. “I want to learn everything this frozen fool knows, but the revolver’s punishment will kill him if we remove the cold sleep. We need to have the curse purified at Laguntreat before we can thaw him from that coffin. That is a must. No other island will do.”
“U-umm…”
Tears were welling up in Teleria’s eyes now. Meanwhile, brown-skinned Mamilis lightly elbowed Henrietta in the side.
“(Is Laguntreat a well-known place?)”
“Hm? In the medical and health fields, yes. Especially for their purification methods using water. You can forget your worries and relax there, so it also ranks highly as a tourist destination and a location for villas. In fact, it is favored by the Fifth Prince of the Static Kingdom’s Combined Royal Family. That is something of an open secret, but try not to mention it too openly.”
He would likely travel there on a royal cruiser instead of a luxury sleeper train. That would be above Level 2000 as a sorcery device, so the boat itself would qualify as a villa.
That said, Dark Elf Mamilis had trouble imagining much about the top of the human power structure, nor was she really all that interested in doing so. The real problem was what Henrietta said next.
“Also, I have heard it is the home of all mermaids. Of course, research on demons as a whole is not exactly a high priority, so that could only be a baseless legend.”
“(It’s true. It’s the home of all mermaids,)” added Teleria.
“Hey, what are you all whispering about?” asked Ayato. “You can talk more openly, you know?”
He did not know why they would be keeping secrets, so he was not going to play along.
“(I see.)” Mamilis placed a hand on her chin. “(An unexpected visit home, huh? That might present some challenges when it comes to hiding your identity.)”
(*I know it is old-fashioned, but I will be gathering my information in a lockable journal since an analog format should be the best way of defending against a Sorcery Hacking specialist. It also reminds me of my late father who adored pocket watches and bottle ships.)
I do not know much about Sorcery Hacking, but based on what I have seen while traveling with Ayato Criminaltrophy, the items he uses are not all that unusual. To my chagrin, it seems they do sell fancier tools at sketchy shops on the surface.
His sword is known as a Linkage Plug and he uses that to hack into mist mana lines and the gemboards of sorcery devices.
His crystal tarot cards are known as a Linkage Monitor. They use the arcana to visualize the manaflow, allowing him to view stolen information and manipulate devices.
However, the shape and format used for these things varies from hacker to hacker. Some Plugs are launched using a slingshot and some Monitors are round horoscopes. A sword and tarot cards is the most popular combination, much like the umbrellas cheaply sold at the front of general stores.
My Striker instincts tell me this is the caution of a criminal. A crime committed with an ordinary kitchen knife found in any home makes it hard to trace the culprit using the weapon. And if the criminal’s tool is unexpectedly damaged or lost, they can easily acquire a new one. I imagine he also has his own unique logic behind the choice, but this means that dangerous individual has intentionally chosen to use an entry level product anyone can easily acquire.
He stabs the blade into a sorcery device and releases it from the grip so it can act as an antenna (according to him). More blades are supplied from within the grip, but that requires leaving the blades behind at the scene. That means he cannot use anything that could be traceable back to him.
The negative possibilities presented by Sorcery Hackers are incalculable.
They might begin by hacking a Level 1 alarm clock, but they will not stop there. That dangerous individual will go on to increase the upper level of sorcery device he can hack. By building up his level using the simple growth of “1+1=2”, “2+2=4”, etc., he could ultimately take control of a warship or fortress cannon.
As a Striker it is my duty to preserve the peace, so I must keep an eye on him.
The truly baffling part is how his blatant violations of the law have a strange way of bringing smiles to people’s faces, protecting people’s lives, and earning him the thanks of the villagers.
