Terrorist Express from the Royal Capital

The platform of Central Station in the royal capital was bustling with people.

Since the train connected many important towns and cities, it was the best way of getting around in this world. In addition to the transportation of cargo, it was used by all kinds of people. This platform was probably the only place where one could regularly see so many of the Commons, Noblesse, and Faust all mingling in a crowd.

In the midst of this hustle and bustle, a single child tripped on the ground.

It was a very young girl who’d been looking around uncertainly as she walked, perhaps separated from her parents. With the shock of the fall adding to her already anxious state, her eyes began to fill with tears.

Ah, she’s going to cry.

As everyone around her thought the same thing, one lone girl knelt down and looked the child in the eyes.

“Oh dear, are you okay?”

It was a young woman around fifteen or sixteen years old with black hair.

Her timing was perfect, mere moments before the child would have started bawling. Instead, since a nice lady was talking to her, the little girl managed, just barely, to hold back her tears.

“Who are you…?”

“Hmm? Oh, I’m Akari. I’m a supernormal, ordinary person. Nothing weird here!”

Despite her claims of being “supernormal,” the girl was actually pretty enough that it was almost unusual.

Her silky hair reached down to her shoulder blades, and her dark eyes sparkled with light as she looked at the little girl. Though her face made her appear young, her body had the decidedly soft curves of a young woman. Her contrasting beauty was enough to catch plenty of attention in the crowd, but her well-made clothes helped her blend in.

Dressed lightly in loose-fitting garments to avoid drawing attention, the girl called Akari beamed at the fallen child.

“You tripped, huh? I get that. Hurts, right? That happens to me, too. But you didn’t cry, so you must be a very strong girl!”

Akari patted the child’s head as she checked her injuries. Having drawn her attention away from the pain with her sympathetic words, she pointed at the little girl’s scraped knee.

Raising the index finger of her hand as it peeked out of her wide, loose sleeve, Akari drew a circle in the air.

“Pain, pain, go away. Come again another day!”

Guiding Force: Connect—NT?i?KC, Pure Concept [Time]—Invoke [Regression]

Akari’s raised fingertip glowed ever so slightly.

The words of her little charm had activated a conjuring. The Guiding Light from her fingertip surrounded the child’s wound, erasing the scrape on her knee as if it had never been there.

“Wha—?”

The little girl’s eyes widened, almost forgetting that she was on the verge of tears as her wound disappeared like a magic trick. She looked back and forth between the spot where the pain had been and the lady who had made it go away.

The young lady with the white headband puffed up her chest, looking extremely pleased with herself.

“Heh-heh. Bet that doesn’t hurt anymore, r—?”

“Hiya!”

“OW?!”

Her triumphant face was abruptly met with a chop to the head.

Looking around in a panic for the enemy responsible, Akari discovered a pretty young woman in the garb of a priestess.

“M-Menou?! What was that for?!”

“‘What was that for?’ My foot.”

Menou’s lovely features were pulled into a tight scowl, light-chestnut ponytail whipping back and forth as she shook her head. The slit in her long skirt revealed more than a glimpse of her right thigh.

“I told you not to do anything that makes you stand out, yet as soon as I take my eyes off you, here you are…”

“I’m not standing out! Not until you chopped me on the head, anyway! That was a cruel and unusual punishment, if you ask me!”

“Wow, you have no self-awareness… I’ll have to educate you from the ground up, starting by teaching you some common sense.”

“Awww, what?”

The child watched their exchange in blank confusion.

The nice lady healed her wound with a mysterious power, but then she got hit on the head. The situation was a bit too much for a five-year-old to follow.

“I’m sorry. This lady here is a bit of a weirdo. Now, you must be confused about how your scrape disappeared, hmm? Heh, well, conjuring is amazing. Here, let me show you a little something.”

Noticing the child’s confusion, Menou put on an act like a typical traveling priestess, holding out a single coin.

Once Akari and the little girl were both focused on it with curiosity, she drew power from her soul.

Guiding Force: Connect—Five-In Coin, Crest—Invoke [Guiding Bubble]

The coin glowed faintly with Guiding Light from Menou’s power, then produced glistening bubbles.

“Ooh!”

“Whoa! Cool!”

Looking up at the floating bubbles of light, the little girl exclaimed in wonder. Akari added in an impressed exclamation, too.

“Wow! How’d you do that?! Are they bubbles?! They don’t seem to pop!”

“Heh-heh! Impressive, no? …Well, it’s really just that there’s a crest on all coins and paper money, which can be used as a medium to cast a trifling spell. I can even control the movements of the bubbles a little.”

Menou explained the trick to Akari, who was as excited as the little girl.

In this world, it was the church’s job to issue currency. Including crests on the coins and paper notes also served as a measure to prevent counterfeit money.

“Paper money and coins all bear designs featuring famous saints. The conjuring each one can invoke is related to stories of that saint.”

“Whoa! Really?! What kind of stories?”

“Well, the five-in coin is associated with the legend of Saint Marta and the moon. The bubbles are meant to represent the moon.”

Menou prodded a nearby bubble as she explained to the excited Akari.

She willed the bubbles to move into lines, circles, and a smiley face. As Akari and the little girl chattered about the bubbles, the passing crowd looked at them with warm fondness. All of them had memories of priestesses telling stories of saints while entertaining them with conjuring, as Menou was doing now.

Hopefully, that distracted her from her wound disappearing, Menou thought as she tucked away the coin.

Just in time, the little girl’s mother came over, honing in on the commotion. Like Menou and Akari, it seemed they were taking the train to Garm as well. They were in different cars, so they parted ways—the mother looking apologetic and the child happily waving.

Menou waved back at them until they were out of sight, then whirled on Akari.

“Now. I warned you, didn’t I, Akari? Don’t do anything that might draw attention. You’re being pursued, remember?”

“B-but all I did was heal a teeny little—meep?!”

“No buts.”

Menou pinched Akari’s cheek and glared into her eyes.

“We were able to gloss over it this time because it was a child. But you should know, there’s no conjuring in this world that can heal people’s wounds.”

“Huh?” Akari blinked, looking surprised. “But magic exists in this world, right?”

“Of a sort, though we call it conjuring here. But it’s not the sort of thing ordinary people can use easily, and there’s no conjuring in existence that can instantly heal an injury.”

Conjuring couldn’t be used by just anyone, although it wasn’t exclusively reserved for the church. The scene with the light bubbles stood out a little, but even if it caught some people’s attention, it was necessary camouflage to hide the fact that Akari had erased an injury.

“So be more careful.” Menou bopped Akari lightly on the head with her fist.

“Ouchie.”

“Conjuring isn’t all-powerful, you know. That’s why people are after you, Akari. Refrain from using your powers.”

“Awww. Okaaay. Whatever you say, Menou!”

“Very good.”

Akari’s response was lighthearted, but Menou nodded in satisfaction at her earnest response.

“All right, let’s get on the train. We’ll be traveling at night for part of it, but I wasn’t able to get a sleeping car, so we’ll have to make do with normal seats. Be prepared for that.”

“Uh-huh. No problem!”

Akari grinned and puffed up her chest.

They boarded the train, and before long, it departed the station without a problem. But a few hours later, as if by design, the train that carried Menou, Akari, and Momo was caught up in a terrorist attack.

The wheels of the trains that connected cities and towns across the continent were propelled by a Guiding engine.

The energy stored within the engine was expended to turn the wheels, spraying sparks of Guiding Light into the air as the train left the station. The first-class carriages near the front of the car, where the ride was the smoothest, were reserved for nobility and separated into luxurious individual rooms.

The girl in this particular first-class carriage was unmistakably a noble.

She had a shock of strawberry-blonde hair that shone in the sunlight, and eyes as blue as a clear summer sky. Her lightweight dress exposed a great deal of skin on her back and sides, flaunting her gorgeous figure.

In the seat next to her was a sword engraved with an elaborate crest.

She had no guards or attendants. Even alone, her high class was obvious. The young lady was incredibly elegant, though it was more of an overpowering superiority than a modest refinement. The confident look in her steely eyes reflected both her beauty and the strength of her will.

As she gazed out the window, she heard herself speak.

“Father has been such a fool.”

The young woman’s father was the king of this nation.

Just yesterday, the king had crossed the line by summoning Otherworlders. And now he was being branded a heretic for that transgression.

The girl guessed her father’s motives and deemed him a fool without hesitation.

The king reigns but does not govern.

That was the position of the Noblesse.

Invariably, the Faust were always above the Noblesse. While the Second Estate was in charge of unifying the Commons and presiding over the nation, the First Estate—the Faust—held the keys to all the world’s most important secrets.

Even with the titles of nobility or royalty, the Noblesse did not even have their own armed forces. Matters of law universal across continents, such as trials and the minting of currency, fell under the Faust’s domain. And the Noblesse were further restricted by the many techniques and technologies deemed taboo, and so it was virtually impossible to make any shrewd moves as a politician.

And yet, the Noblesse were considered the ruling class. It was laughable.

Thus, it was small wonder that the Noblesse occasionally delved into the forbidden and attempted to gain enough power to rebel against the Faust.

Ashuna would not censure that yearning to become stronger; however, she did not approve of the means her father had chosen.

“Otherworlders? Ha. They’ve already failed in the past.”

Long ago, there was a civilization in this world that prospered with the help of Otherworlders’ knowledge and their Pure Concepts, but they still fell to ruin.

And this time, it seemed the summoned Otherworlders had not even left corpses behind.

This was likely the work of the so-called Executioners often whispered about in rumors. As was the disappearance of that small squad of elite knights who vanished without even the slightest of successes.

However, the sin of summoning had been exposed, even though it yielded nothing of value, and so an official Holy Inquisition had begun.

Ashuna was the daughter of the king, but she had been deemed unconnected to this incident and released. As staying in the royal capital brought her nothing but unrest, the free-spirited young woman was traveling alone to the ancient capital Garm, where she planned to cross the border and leave the nation.

It was true that she was not involved in the summoning, and the church was not so cruel as to implicate someone for the mere crime of being related to the suspect.

The incident would soon reach its resolution, yet Ashuna still harbored a single doubt.

Her royal family did not have the knowledge or technology to attempt a summoning. And yet, her father succeeded so definitively that he was now on trial for heresy.

“Now then, what sort of plot was my father caught up in, and who was behind it?”

As she murmured aloud to herself, there was a flurry of footsteps outside her door.

The sound was far too boisterous to be permitted in the noble carriage. A moment later, the door to her private room burst open unceremoniously, and several armed men clustered inside.

“Beg pardon. You are Her Highness Ashuna, correct?”

The ill-mannered men surrounding her were carrying guns charged with Guiding Force. As they pointed them at the princess, Ashuna looked down the barrels with a bored expression.

“Indeed. I am Ashuna Grisarika, the youngest daughter of the king of this nation’s Noblesse.”

Despite having weapons trained on her, the young woman showed no trace of fear, and she introduced herself in spite of the sudden development. Her unshaken, even haughty attitude confused the men who were pointing their guns at her.

As their aim wavered, the young woman rested her chin on one hand and grinned ferociously.

She would never debase herself. Even though she was fully aware the Noblesse were hardly any different than a pet dog on a leash, her pride never wavered.

“Now then, who are you scoundrels with the nerve to point weapons at me?”

Ashuna Grisarika addressed the ruffians with all the dignity of a monarch.

The train had been hijacked by terrorists shortly after boarding.

“Listen up! Don’t even think about resistin’, all right? With this many hostages, we don’t give a damn if we lose one or two of ya!!”

Menou kept her eyes on the two men who were shouting threats as they roughly corralled the passengers to the back. They seemed accustomed to violence, so perhaps they were failed adventurers returning from the Wild Frontier. It was all well and good to try to strike it rich in no-man’s-land, which divided the areas inhabited by humanity, but many people fled and turned to a life of crime, unable to withstand the harsh elements.

“M-Menou…”

“It’ll be fine.”

Akari looked anxious, so Menou reassured her briefly.

The terrorists seemed to be planning to hijack the entire train. Currently, they were trying to gather all the passengers in Menou and Akari’s carriage into one place.

If they were armed and not working for the Noblesse, then they must be terrorists from the Commons, under the guise of a “citizen’s group.” Menou wasn’t sure of their motivations, but at least they didn’t seem to be after Akari.

In that case, Menou’s greatest concern became their weapons.

“These guys are scary. They’ve even got guns and stuff. Wait, I didn’t know there were guns in this world.”

“There aren’t. Well, technically there are, clearly, but they’re forbidden. No one is supposed to have them.”

“Huh? But those guys do.”

“They do indeed.”

As Akari blatantly whispered in her ear in spite of the situation, Menou responded without taking her eyes off the terrorists.

Guns were a designated taboo and thus considered heresy. Production, distribution, and possession of guns were all forbidden.

However, it was difficult to stamp them out entirely.

Even if people weren’t producing them by hand, the Mechanical Society, which ran rampant in the eastern Wild Frontier, continued pumping them out, so any person strong enough to make it back alive from that area could obtain them. Most of them were Guiding guns, not the type that used gunpowder, but both varieties were equally deadly.

The problem was that the men in front of them now didn’t look strong enough to acquire the weapons on their own.

“You can get those in the Wild Frontier, but…”

“The Wild…huh? What’s that?”

“We’re in a bit of a high-pressure situation right now, so I’ll have to teach you the basics later.”

The Wild Frontier was an area where the environment was so harsh that it had been deemed uninhabitable and abandoned by civilization at large. It was far too dangerous for anyone to make their way into the area without considerable power and ability.

So who had sold Guiding guns to these men? Menou’s thoughts raced while she whispered with Akari. One of the men stepped in front of them.

“You guys are next. Just keep your mouths shut and make your way to the back—dammit. A priestess?”

As the man started to give orders, he noticed Menou’s clothing and scowled.

“Good day, Mr. Terrorist. I am but a humble clergywoman and ally to the Commons. Is there a problem?”

“Bah. Aren’t you a cheeky one, little miss priestess?”

Her clothes were a dead giveaway.

It was common knowledge that the priestesses of the Faust were conjurers. Even without knowing that Menou was secretly an Executioner, no one would doubt the power of a priestess. Obviously, having a conjurer among their hostages would be a problem.

The man furrowed his brow in frustration at Menou’s standoffish challenge, but he simply flashed his gun at her.

“I’d go quietly if I were you, priestess. If you’re part of the Faust, you must know what this is.”

As designated taboos, Guiding guns weren’t common knowledge to everyone, but any priestess would be familiar with their power.

Nastiest of all, the man threatened Menou by pointing the barrel at the other hostages.

“…Yes, of course. I won’t put up a fight.”

Now that she had a sense of his character, Menou made a show of reluctant obedience.

“Glad to hear it. You priestesses can be tricky. I’m gonna have to keep you in my sight. Let’s start with placing your scripture on the floor and sliding it over to me. And, hmm…”

The man trailed off, his eyes wandering to Menou’s thigh where it peeked out of the slit of her skirt.

“…Heh. Guess I better have you get undressed, too. Ya might be hidin’ a weapon under there.”

“………”

It’s a good thing Momo is in a different car.

Rather than expressing disgust, Menou’s first reaction was relief.

If Momo had been present, she would have gone after the man’s life with zero regard for the safety of the hostages. And she’d use her particularly nasty methods, too.

Since Menou could envision that outcome with absolute certainty, she couldn’t help thinking it was a small mercy that Momo wasn’t present. When her assistant went on a rampage, it was extremely difficult to stop her.

“What’s wrong, girlie? You tryna refuse? A noble ally of the Commons is gonna turn her back on these hostages, huh?”

“Oh, enough already. Fine…!”

There really was a dagger strapped to the back of her thigh, so the man wasn’t off base in telling her to strip. Still, Menou had no desire to take off her clothes in front of others.

She reached down, intending to make a show of undressing so she could draw the man’s attention and then knock him out while he was distracted. But Akari stepped in front of her.

“W-wait a second!”

“Hunh? What’s this now?”

“D-don’t be mean to Menou!”

Akari was trying to bravely protect Menou, but she was obviously scared. There were tears in the girl’s eyes, and her hands were shaking.

Even so, she reached up to undo the ribbon at her breast, then opened the top button on her blouse.

“If someone has to strip, then… I-I’ll do it instead!”

“Um, what?”

“Huh?”

It was a bold but irrational declaration.

In fact, both Menou and the terrorist tilted their heads in confusion at her bizarre interference.

The man’s official reasoning was to disarm Menou, even if it was only an excuse. It made no sense for Akari to get undressed in her stead.

And yet, Akari turned to Menou with her teary eyes full of determination.

“I-it’s okay, Menou! I won’t let anything bad happen to you!”

“Sorry, Akari. You’re not making any sense, so could you be quiet for a minute, please?”

“Yeah, listen to your friend. That isn—hrmm.”

The confused man started to agree with Menou, but then his eyes fell on Akari’s chest.

Just by undoing a single button, she’d revealed a considerable amount of skin. The size of her chest was obvious even under her clothes, but her impressive cleavage was emphasized further by the way she was unconsciously pressing her shoulders inward with fear.

The man’s mouth twisted into a foul sneer.

“Heh-heh. All right. You’ll do, I—”

“Enough.”

Menou stepped in front of Akari abruptly, interrupting the man.

To gain her trust as a traveling companion, protecting Akari was the most natural course of action. However, it also happened to align with what Menou’s heart was telling her to do with mysterious and almost irresistible force.

“She’s just a normal girl. Don’t try anything funny with her. All you want is for us to cooperate, right? So here, I’ll start by giving you my scripture. Here you…GO!”

“Yea—AAH?!”

Menou distracted the man by speaking rapidly and pretending to put the scripture on the floor, then suddenly shifted gears. Moving faster than the eye could follow, she swung her arm and flung the book with all her might at the other man, who was behind them pointing his Guiding gun at the hostages.

The corner of the heavy tome struck the man squarely in the face.

“Buh?!”

The scripture was thick—easily five hundred pages. Taking such a weighty tome straight to the face was sure to do some damage.

“Aghh…”

“Why, you little… Huh?”

The man who’d been taking the hostages was knocked out immediately by the physical force of the scripture’s impact. The one who’d been accosting Menou and Akari flew into a rage when he saw his fellow go down, but Menou didn’t need any cheap tricks to incapacitate him.

The moment he glanced away, Menou bolted out of his sight to slip behind him. As he looked around in confusion, she knocked him out with a backhanded chop to the chin.

Having swiftly taken down both men, Menou dusted off her hands briskly.

“Well, that was easy.”

Borrowing a belt from one of the male passengers, Menou relieved the unconscious men of their Guiding guns and bound them so that they couldn’t move, just in case they woke up. Collecting taboo items was part of Menou’s job, but determining their punishment fell to law enforcement, so it was best to apprehend them rather than finish them off.

Akari clenched her fists with excitement and pumped them up and down after witnessing Menou’s expert movements up close.

“W-whoa! That was amazing, Menou! You’re so strong! No wonder you’re such a good ninja agent!”

“Of course. I’m a pure, proper, and powerful priestess, after all… So please stop calling me a ninja, okay?”

Gracefully accepting Akari’s praise, Menou turned toward the passengers who had been hostages just moments ago.

As they all watched her with bated breath, she gave them her biggest smile.

“Don’t be afraid. It was their misfortune to run into a priestess like me. I’ll bring down any ruffians who try to board our carriage!”

“Ooh!” The passengers cheered in amazement and relief at Menou’s performance.

That should be enough to keep the civilians calm, Menou thought, turning back to Akari.

“And, Akari, you should know better than to try to protect me. Don’t do anything dangerous like that again, all right?”

“R-right. I’m sorry…”

As Menou scolded her, Akari’s shoulders slumped. Her actions hadn’t been helpful by any stretch of the imagination.

Still, Menou softened her expression a little.

“But thank you for trying… It made me happy that you would be so brave, Akari.”

“…Hee-hee.” Akari broke into a smile again. “I love how thoughtful you are, Menou. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, I’m going to take care of the terrorists in the other cars. Be a good girl and wait here.”

“’Kay… But please be careful, okay? I don’t wanna be left behind anymore.”

“Don’t worry. And when have I ever left you behind?”

“Huh? Oh yeah. I guess you’re right. Ah-ha-ha, what am I saying?”

“All right, I’ll be back soon.”

With a little wave, Menou picked up the scripture she’d thrown at one of the hostage takers and headed toward the train car in front of theirs.

Her book glowed faintly with flickering Guiding Light.

It was the signal of an incoming long-distance communication from a linked scripture. Momo was sending her a message.

Menou confirmed the contents of the message as she stepped onto the link between the two carriages, still completely unaware of something.

She still didn’t understand the reason Momo had worried that Menou wasn’t suited to this job.

“Now, I wonder how Momo’s doing.”

It wasn’t a visible change, so she herself didn’t even notice. Thoughtful actions like comforting Akari a few moments ago weren’t actually necessary for her mission at all. In fact, it would be easier to deal with Akari if she simply scolded her and left it at that, encouraging her to be more docile—yet Menou had comforted Akari without even thinking twice about it.

In the face of Akari’s sunny smile, the line between Menou’s acting for her mission and her real feelings was starting to melt away, leaving the two to mix together.

But Menou still hadn’t realize that yet.

The second carriage was equipped with beds.

The terrorists who’d hijacked the train were trying to herd the passengers into the dining car.

Most of the passengers were ordinary Commons folk. Though they bemoaned their luck, they were frightened enough by the weapons that they quietly obeyed.

Once the five men had crowded most of the passengers from the sleeping car into the dining car, two of them went on to the third car. While those two rounded up the passengers there, the remaining three began combing through the sleeping car to ensure they hadn’t missed anyone.

Soon, they stood in front of one of the beds, exchanging looks.

“Hey.”

“Yeah? Is there a kid hiding here or something?”

The sheet over the bed was rising in an obvious lump. As if that weren’t bad enough, the lump was visibly trembling.

“I dunno if it’s a boy or a girl, but it sure is a brat. Ugh.”

“We oughtta just shoot them. If we toss the body out the window, no one’ll know.”

“Cut it out… Hey, kid. If ya come out real quiet, we won’t hurt ya.”

Judging by the size of the bulge, it couldn’t be an adult hiding in there.

The frightened child must have hidden so quickly that the men didn’t notice the first time. Hoping the kid wasn’t going to burst into tears, the men approached cautiously.

Then, suddenly, the white sheet flew upward, blocking the men’s view.

“Huh?!”

“Dammit!”

Just as the sheet obstructed their vision, the most sharp-eyed of the men noticed that the “kid” was wearing a priestess’s robes. Cursing, he opened fire immediately.

Part of the danger of a Guiding gun is that it’s easy to use even for someone unfamiliar with manipulating power. When one pulls the trigger, it automatically absorbs some of the user’s energy, hardens it, and shoots it out as a bullet.

However, the man’s attack hit only the bedsheet.

“Guh?!”

The one man who’d reacted immediately to the situation and fired let out a groan. The person who’d nimbly slipped behind the terrorists while the sheet was blocking their vision was throttling his neck with some kind of cord.

Three seconds.

The expert grip on his carotid artery brought the man down in a shockingly short time.

“Damn! A priestess?!”

The other two finally caught on and swung their barrels toward her, but they couldn’t pull the trigger. The girl’s small frame was completely obscured behind the man’s unconscious body.

Seeing the other men hesitate, the girl activated Enhancement. Then, with her boosted arm strength, she threw the man toward the other two with remarkable ease, despite their size difference.

The two men weren’t hardened enough to shoot their ally, so they were hit squarely by his full weight.

It happened too quickly for them to brace against the impact of the large-framed man. Perhaps things would have been different if they were able to use Enhancement to strengthen themselves, but these men didn’t possess such advanced abilities.

One of them stumbled back, and the other landed on his rear.

The girl closed in on them without a moment’s hesitation, punching the face of the still-standing man with a small white-gloved fist.

“Nnguah!”

She struck the man over and over with a mercilessness that was at odds with her soft pink hair and adorable features.

CRACK. The snap of a nose breaking, then a jawbone. The third strike sent a molar flying, and the man toppled over, unconscious. Her gaze swiveled to the other man.

“D-dammit!”

The man frantically raised his Guiding gun, but by then the girl was already behind him.

“Question.”

There was the crunch of metal as something wrapped around the man’s neck.

“How many of you are there, and what is your goal?”

“…Bah. You think a little rope is gonna make me talk?”

“Rope…? Oh, you can’t see it, so you’re assuming it’s rope. How cute. Unfortunately, I am not nearly that gentle.”

Now that she mentioned it, the man realized his mistake.

The sensation around his neck didn’t feel like rope or cord; there was a coolness to it that identified it as metal. But it felt far too sharp and rough to be any kind of wire.

What was it, then? The man knitted his brow, but just then the girl revealed the answer.

“It’s a coping saw.”

“Huh? Ngaah?!”

The thin metal saw pressed against the man’s neck began to slide.

Its blade dragged across his flesh dully, drawing blood immediately. The girl holding the handle had shifted it slightly in a sawing motion and stopped.

But that was enough to drain the color from the man’s face.

“A…aagh… W-wait, n-no—Stop—”

“I’m going to start sawing through your neck, one second at a time.”

“…Hgggh!”

It was as if she’d breathed ice into his ear.

The sheer coldness of the girl’s voice wasn’t a result of calmness. It was simply evidence of how little she cared for the man’s life.

“Soooo…will you tell me what I want to know, or will your head hit the flooor first?”

Despite the drawl, there was no trace of sweetness in the voice that breathed into his ear.

“I’ll saw nice and slow until one of those things happens, okaaay?”

In less than a second, the man started spilling all the information she needed.

Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 1:4—Invoke [The Lord’s will is relayed through all of heaven and earth, reigning far and wide.]

After extracting information from the terrorist and knocking him out, Momo opened to a page of the scripture and charged it with Guiding Force, invoking a conjuring. Her scripture was already linked to Menou’s, so it relayed her the information she’d gained and Momo’s next plan of action.

The terrorists’ target was the princess of this nation, who was in a first-class carriage. They intended to take her hostage to demand the release of their leader, who’d been captured by the Order of Knights.

“How very uninspired…”

This development was of little interest to Momo, but she couldn’t neglect gathering information for Menou.

Some of the terrorists had also gone to the economy cars, but there were only two of them. Menou should be able to handle them without a problem. It was strange that they were carrying taboo weapons like Guiding guns, but even then, they didn’t pose much of a threat.

The problem was the front cars.

There were three men in the engine room and eight who had infiltrated the nobles’ carriage.

Momo sighed. “It’s terribly dull to work without my darling, but… I suppose I should exterminate the pests in the engine room so she’ll praise me.”

Smiling faintly to herself, Momo reflected on the day when she first met her beloved darling.

After losing her parents, the young Momo was brought to a strange monastery.

There, she and others had undergone unbelievably difficult training, following a terribly strict schedule. Though the place was called a monastery, the unusual system showed absolutely no interest in saving anyone who couldn’t keep up with the rigors of life there. Even at her young age, little Momo could tell she’d entered a very strange place indeed.

Many times, a child who had been there the previous day would suddenly be gone the next.

Most of those who disappeared were children with unsatisfactory grades, and none of the adults would say where these children went. However, Momo could imagine how awful their fates must have been.

Momo hated that monastery.

Though they all lived together, the other children her age had no attention to spare for their peers. It was normal to try to kick one another down to get ahead; all that mattered was ensuring one’s own survival. The adult priestesses who claimed the role of teachers were cold and cruel, without a trace of empathy or compassion among them. And worst of all was the person in charge of the monastery.

That Master with the dark-red hair was the craziest of them all.

To little Momo, everyone around her was an enemy. She was convinced that she was the only sane person in the place, so she hated everyone else. She easily met and surpassed the requirements of all her training, but she never felt accomplished about any of it. Momo hated every last task that she was forced to do.

Momo was the only real “human” among them, she thought. The rest were all completely insane. She would never get used to an awful place like this, she told herself.

So she spent her days harboring hatred toward the monastery, but at the same time, she worried that it would eventually begin to influence her. The fear that she might already be going insane was always lurking in her psyche.

And so Momo cried often.

She almost felt that if she could cry, then she was still herself.

When times were tough, it was normal to cry. A child like herself ought to burst into tears when hurt or sad. Momo held on to this thought as she saw the children around her who had long since given up crying.

So when Momo felt like crying, she never held back. She wailed when she was in pain, or when she was upset, or the moment she felt unhappy.

The idea that children are pure and incapable of doing bad things is a delusion of oblivious adults who have long since forgotten the past. In truth, a group of children will immediately take out their stress on anything that seemed weaker than them.

Since Momo sobbed often, the other children saw her as below them, and they once surrounded her and laughed at her. Momo didn’t want her crying to be interrupted, so she punched them in the face to fend them off, making sure they all suffered until none of them could cry, either.

After that, nobody dared approach her when she was in tears.

She cried on her own, as much as she wanted.

Anytime bad things happened, she could at least weep about it uninterrupted. That was the one thing she could rely on.

However, one girl who apparently didn’t know about that incident approached Momo while she was crying.

The girl was only two years older than her. Whenever Momo was crying alone, this girl with the long, pale-chestnut hair would inevitably come and comfort her.

It was normal to punch someone who approached with ill intent, but otherwise, punching others wasn’t normal. So Momo refrained from hitting her, but she still thought it was cruel that this girl insisted on interrupting her little session.

Besides, her “comforting” didn’t involve kind words—or even attempts to distract her with songs and stories.

She just reached out and patted Momo’s head.

It was an incredibly awkward attempt at comfort. At times, Momo even felt she must be mocking her, so she often pushed away the girl’s hand.

Whenever Momo did so, the girl would frown in confusion, but she would still sit next to her until Momo stopped crying.

What a weirdo.

She was even stranger than the others. This one must be insane, too, Momo thought.

For one thing, she always looked calm, in spite of the hellish place where they lived. She kept on doing normal things as if it were perfectly natural. But if she were really normal, she would cry and scream in protest. Yet the girl still played at being normal, even though she must be broken inside somewhere.

The way her chestnut hair grew long and unkempt was proof that she was deficient.

Like Momo’s pink hair demonstrated, hair color in this world wasn’t determined by genetics alone. If a person’s Guiding Force surpassed a certain amount, the power produced by their soul would naturally influence the color of their hair. Since this girl’s chestnut hair was as faint as if it had been bleached, it was easy to guess that her natural color had been much more vivid.

Before she came to the monastery, something had happened to this girl to drain the color from her soul.

There was no doubt that she wasn’t a normal human.

And yet, every time Momo cried, the chestnut-haired girl approached her, undaunted, and awkwardly tried to comfort her.

Momo couldn’t help but feel a little touched.

She was strange, all right, but she wasn’t doing anything bad.

So Momo decided to allow this girl to sit by her side when she cried.

One day, Momo was crying over a painful blow she’d sustained during training.

As she cried, she suddenly couldn’t tell anymore whether the pain was actually enough to be worth crying over. She was so distracted by this thought that her head started spinning, but since she was still crying, she decided she must be all right.

As always, the chestnut-haired girl approached her.

She patted Momo’s head as usual in a vague attempt at reassurance. Momo had a sneaking suspicion this was the only method of comforting a person that the girl knew.

But for some reason, that day, she didn’t stop there.

Instead, she gleefully produced some red ribbon from her pocket and clumsily pulled Momo’s hair into pigtails.

Momo was so distracted by the girl’s puzzling behavior that she forgot about her crying and even the resultant confusion. Noticing that Momo had stopped crying, the girl held out a mirror she’d gotten from who knows where.

Then, as the mirror reflected Momo and the ribbons tying her hair into pigtails, the girl smiled proudly and spoke.

“Look how cute.”

It didn’t make any sense.

It was so bizarre that Momo repeated it without thinking.

“Cute…?”

“Uh-huh. Stylish.”

This was the girl’s idea of stylish?

“Girls should be stylish. Master taught me that today.”

It was already a well-known fact that this girl was a favorite of the red-haired Master who was in charge of the monastery. This impressive feat made her the target of much jealousy.

In this grim monastery, which left the children no energy to spare on others and no real allies to speak of, the chestnut-haired girl tied Momo’s hair into pigtails and patted her head.

“You’re cute.”

This girl really was strange.

While Momo had stopped crying, that day she allowed the girl to continue stroking her head without resisting.

She’s strange. Not normal. But maybe she’s not so bad, Momo thought.

The next day, Momo used the ribbons the girl gave her to put her hair back up in pigtails. It was just a whim, of course. Changing one’s hairstyle is a normal thing to do, so she wanted to try it. That was all.

In this institution, even having ribbons in her hair was enough to make some of the kids jealous. Momo was in an unusually good mood that day, and when one unwise soul tried to steal the ribbons from her, Momo beat the offending child into the ground and stole their clothes instead.

Momo used the nicest parts of the stolen clothes along with some pilfered thread and a needle to make a scarf ribbon.

As she held the handmade ribbon she’d made for some unknown reason and thought of that girl’s long, light-chestnut hair, Momo found herself feeling oddly restless.

That day, the Master gathered all the kids in the monastery.

“You can all leave this monastery now if you want.”

This woman was the most hellish of all the demons in this insane monastery. Her red hair was darker than blood, and her eyes blacker than night. Momo and the other children froze in shock at her declaration.

“The kids who leave get done away with.” This was the all too plausible rumor that had spread in the monastery. A powerful fear that they were about to be killed ran through the crowd of children.

“We won’t kill you or anything. I’m just saying that if you want to leave, we can transfer you to a normal monastery.”

That was highly unexpected.

Why? The question was written on everyone’s faces.

No one had ever informed them what exactly the monastery was training them for. But it was obvious they weren’t being raised to be decent members of society.

As a murmur ran through the crowd, Momo was the only one to notice.

There was one lone girl standing behind the Master.

An awkward girl with long, pale-chestnut hair.

“You can live a normal life. It’s not like you really know anything, anyway. If you lot are saved, this one’s burden becomes even heavier.”

The red-haired Master put a hand on the girl’s head, tilted back her chin, and let out a nasty guffaw.

By the end of the day, 60 percent of the kids had requested a transfer. The newer the arrival, the more likely they were to transfer. Most of the ones who decided to stay were obviously beyond help at this point.

Though the children seemed happy to be set free, not one of them said a word of thanks to the young girl who seemed to be the reason for their salvation. If anything, Momo heard more children speaking poorly of her behind her back.

She’s crazy, just like the Master. Creepy. What’s she planning? Trying to make us feel like we owe her?

Momo knocked out every last child who spoke ill of the girl, then requested a transfer.

Finally, her life could go back to normal.

Gathering what little belongings she had, Momo noticed her handmade ribbon.

I’ll give this to her before I go. It’s normal to give someone a parting gift.

So for the first time, Momo approached the chestnut-haired girl.

“Hmm? What is it? You’ve never been the one to come up to me before.”

By now, the once-expressionless girl had started to act relatively normal.

But it wasn’t her growth as a human—it was the work of the Master, like someone grafting new parts onto a nearly broken toy to make it seem more whole.

The girl was still abnormal, to an almost repulsive degree.

But Momo didn’t mind.

As the girl tilted her head, Momo showed her the scarf ribbon, then started carefully brushing back her hair.

“Here. Now you’re stylish.”

Taming the girl’s lengthy auburn mane, Momo used her handmade ribbon to tie it up in a ponytail.

“You’re…cute.”

Momo was just trying to pay her back. And to say good-bye.

She could finally go back to the normal life she yearned for. She could live among normal people.

So she would probably never see this abnormal girl again.

“…Hee-hee. Thank you.”

In that moment, Momo saw the girl smile for the first time.

She turned to face Momo with her new ponytail swaying gently, and she grinned as guilelessly as if it were the first time she had ever done so.

“That makes me so happy. Really.”

That smile was brighter than the glow of a newly born star.

It was so clear, so beautiful, so brilliant—such a normal smile, from the pure heart of an innocent girl, in spite of the terrible place they were in.

Tears welled up in Momo’s eyes.

Oh no. I can’t.

Suddenly, she couldn’t stop her tears.

Unlike the half-hearted ones she forced out when she felt she ought to cry, these were warm and infinite, and she couldn’t hold them back even if she tried. Momo cried every single day, and yet this felt like the first time she had cried in years.

The sight of the girl’s glowing smile had made her finally realize something.

Her normal self had vanished long ago. Momo hadn’t even noticed until she saw that smile.

Realizing what she was lacking, she cried real tears for the first time in a very long time.

“Oh dear.” The girl smiled gently and patted Momo’s head. “You really are a crybaby, aren’t you?”

Momo would never forget the kindness in her voice or the softness of her fingertips as she wiped away the tears.

It was love.

She loved this girl, who always comforted her when she cried. She loved the way the girl clumsily patted her head. She loved her so much that she didn’t even care anymore about losing her normalcy.

“I’m going to become a villain, but you just live a normal life, okay?”

“No, I won’t.”

It was then that Momo realized she didn’t even know the girl’s name, nor had she ever mentioned her own.

But she couldn’t bring herself to admit that now.

Thus, Momo called the girl “darling,” and she started occasionally referring to herself in the third person.

And since she loved it when the girl patted her head, she started talking to her in a sweet, imploring tone.

“Momo’s staying riiight here.”

She knew now that she could never go back to normal.

And meeting this girl was far more valuable than “normal,” anyway.

In that moment, Momo made up her mind.

Menou had chosen to kill people for the sake of an unspecified number of others.

In that case…

“Momo will kill people for you, darling.”

As she returned to reality, she murmured the vow that she had silently taken all those years ago.

Momo was willing to kill whomever she needed to.

She hated this world so much that she was sure it wasn’t worth protecting, hated the blissful ignorance of the people living normally in it so much that she could gag, and hated selfish people who devoted themselves to combat so much that she could vomit. Every last one of them might as well die, she thought from the bottom of her heart.

That was why she was willing to do whatever it took for Menou, the one person in this world whom she truly loved.

While she was reminiscing, her information had finished transmitting.

Momo closed her scripture and mentally ran through what she had to do on this train.

“Yes, this’ll be easy. Just another day of doing my best so darling will pat my heeead.”

Nodding firmly to herself, she imagined the future and felt a surge of motivation.

First, the engine room.

As far as Momo was concerned, everyone in that first-class carriage might as well die, so she had no motivation to save them. On the other hand, if there was trouble in the engine room, the entire train could be in danger. Best to secure that area first.

Momo leaned out the window, the wind whipping back her pigtails.

She checked the knots in her ribbons to make sure they wouldn’t come loose, then reached up to the roof.

After that fateful day so long ago, Momo went behind the Master’s back to investigate Menou’s history and learn where she came from.

The sole survivor of a town that was obliterated into whiteness.

Menou’s town turned white and vanished because of an Otherworlder’s Pure Concept gone out of control, and while Menou somehow survived, her memories, soul, and spirit were all wiped clean.

Since she had lost all trace of her original personality, Menou was very easily influenced by others. She absorbed all of the Master’s teachings without fail and had a tendency to be deeply affected by the emotions of those around her.

That’s why that girl is so dangerous.

Momo narrowed her eyes as the face of the black-haired, dark-eyed Otherworlder flashed across her mind.

Menou’s heart and soul were too pure to be in contact with a target for a long time, instead of killing them quickly.

Momo could easily paste on an innocent smile regardless of her innermost thoughts, but Menou would inevitably develop fondness for the target just by spending time with them. Especially when their time together was this long.

If they grew closer, she might end up feeling so conflicted that she might not be able to kill the target at all.

Combined with the guilt Menou felt toward those she had already killed, it might just break her heart.

Master would probably laugh that this was just another form of training.

But Momo would never allow it.

“I won’t let that happen. No matter what.”

She couldn’t let anything happen that would mar the smile she fell in love with.

This mission would probably be fine. With the help of the archbishop in Garm, they had a plan to kill Akari, whose Pure Concept of Time otherwise prevented her from dying.

But if a target ever appeared someday that Menou couldn’t kill, well, Momo was there to take on that burden so Menou wouldn’t have to cry.

When Momo learned about Menou’s past, she immediately enrolled in and completed the Executioner training course.

Her faith in the Lord proved to be the lowest of any ever recorded in the history of the course, but she made up for that with her incredibly high results in every other regard. Momo spared no effort to complete the course—in order to be reunited with Menou as soon as possible, as the latter had already completed her training. Her hard work was ultimately rewarded, and she was assigned as Menou’s assistant.

Ever since then, everything Momo did was for Menou’s sake.

Momo launched herself out of the window and landed on top of the train.

There were eleven terrorists left still occupying the train. She started toward the engine room to take care of three of them, but then froze.

“Oh-ho? What an unexpectedly adorable visitor.”

Someone else was on top of the train, addressing her.

A lookout for the terrorists? Momo was on guard immediately as her eyes fell on an intimidating lady in a dramatic dress.

“Hello there. I am Ashuna Grisarika, princess of the Noblesse and a proper member of the knighthood.”

Even as she stood atop the train, the woman’s menacing presence wasn’t hindered in the least by the wind whipping through her glamorous blonde hair and skimpy dress. The Guiding Light emitting from the train’s engine room even looked like a glowing halo behind her.

Carrying herself with pride as she introduced herself, the young woman smiled fearlessly.

“Now, who might you be?”

Holding the sword that had cut down the terrorists surrounding her, the Princess Knight’s grin widened.

The view below them rushed by dizzyingly.

As the vibrations from the rail shook her body in time with the moving train, Momo narrowed her eyes.

The smell of blood filled her nose.

It was coming from upwind—from the sword of this woman, Ashuna Grisarika.

“A priestess in white, eh? Those yellow lines must mean you’re independent, but that skirt length is quite innovative. I’ve never seen one above the knee… Not bad.”

Ashuna nodded at Momo’s clothes with great interest.

The color of a priestess’s clothes, especially the symbol on the chest and the color of the fabric, showed their rank in the Faust. A black habit indicated a nun, considered below the rank of the First Estate; white clothes like Momo’s implied a novice who only recently took up the cloth. Only when one donned the navy robes Menou wore was one considered an official priestess by the rest of the world.

And the yellow symbol on Momo’s robes meant that she didn’t belong to any specific parish. Somehow, Ashuna seemed to know quite a bit about the iconography of priestesses.

“Quite bold of an unaligned priestess to alter her uniform, but I do like your style. You’ve concentrated all the frills in one place to make them lighter. After all, the human body is beautiful enough on its own. Clothing ought to highlight the curves of the wearer, not disguise them. Don’t you agree?”

It was small wonder she would say something like that, given her own attire. The woman’s clothing exposed a scandalous amount of skin. While the filmy skirt looked easy to move in, the diamond shapes of the upper half of her outfit covered little more than her chest and her belly button.

Combined with her own inherent beauty, Ashuna cut an elegant figure, but that wasn’t all. In her hand, she clasped a sword engraved with a crest. The delicate engraving was so lovely that it could be mistaken for a ceremonial weapon, but this was no mere decoration. It was a formidable weapon with the ability to invoke multiple seals.

Momo put on a friendly smile.

“So you are the Princess Knight Ashuna? It’s an honor, Your Highness.”

“Oh-ho? You know of me, do you?”

“Of course. Your Highness’s fame precedes you. I am Momo, a priestess.”

Ashuna was fairly well known: Though she was a princess born into a Noblesse family, she joined the Order of Knights, the nation’s law enforcement organization, to take the safety of her land into her own hands.

“As you can see, I’m a white-robed priestess, as yet a novice. I was on my way to the ancient capital Garm as part of a pilgrimage, but then the train was attacked by terrorists. So, er…could you perhaps lower your sword?”

“Hmm? Ah yes.”

Momo attempted to show her that she wasn’t a threat, which seemed to lower Ashuna’s guard at least a little. The princess returned her sword to its sheath and approached her with a friendly expression.

“It seemed as if those terrorists were after me, but it looks like they went to the rear cars, too.”

“Yes, about five of them. I’ve knocked them out already.”

“I see. Beg pardon for the trouble. I’ve finished off the knaves who came into the royal carriage and the engine room,” Ashuna assured.

“How impressive. You certainly live up to your reputation!”

As Ashuna strode along the top of the train, she didn’t show a shred of fear.

Her level of calm was remarkable, considering the whipping winds and the unsteady footing beneath them. Her posture made evident her well-tempered muscles and the depth of her confidence and courage.

“I was quite surprised to find you up here with your sword drawn, though, Your Highness.”

“Yes, well, I was planning to go and cut down the terrorists in the rear cars, too. Besides, I was a bit taken aback, since you’re dressed like that.”

Momo smiled sheepishly, and Ashuna continued with a calm countenance, as if making casual conversation over tea.

“My father is currently on trial for heresy, albeit due to deeds that were outside my knowledge. Forgive me if I hold some mixed feelings toward the Faust at present.”

“Ah yes, I’ve heard. But the trial has only just begun, correct? His Majesty has yet to be found guilty.”

As they chatted, Ashuna casually walked closer to Momo.

Then, suddenly, her chest glowed.

It was the light emitted by Enhancement, but it was blindingly bright. At the same time as the dazzling distraction, the sword flashed out of its sheath and toward Momo’s neck.

“Oh?”

Ashuna raised an eyebrow bemusedly, surrounded by powerful Guiding Light.

“This is a surprise.”

“What…was that fooor?!” Momo’s face froze, but she didn’t lose her smile.

She was gripping her coping saw in both hands, blocking Ashuna’s sword from reaching her. The thin saw bent slightly where it met the blade of the sword, but it still held up to the strain. Momo wore white gloves for just such an occasion, to protect her hands when she needed to grip her saw.

“Oh, you know. Like I said, I have mixed feelings toward the Faust at the moment.”

“So you thought since one such member of the Faust had shown up, you might as well dispose of her nooow?”

“Heavens, of course not.”

Momo drew out her syllables, not to sound sweet like usual but to provoke her opponent. Ashuna seemed unfazed by Momo’s mocking tone, and she simply put more of her weight into her sword.

“I stopped short, you know. If I had really swung with the intention of taking off your head, a flimsy saw wouldn’t have been able to stop me, even if the metal is enhanced with Guiding Force.”

Ashuna sounded quite confident that if she had been serious, Momo would already be dead.

Slowly, Momo’s smile curled downward.

“That’s quite the ego you’ve got there. You really are as untamable as they saaay.”

“I do not underestimate my own strength. That’s all. With the crested sword of the royals in my capable hands, there is little that I cannot cut, but… I suppose I must applaud you for reacting so quickly. Quite impressive.”

Again, Momo’s taunting did nothing to dampen Ashuna’s fearless grin.

Ashuna’s sword was slowly pressing harder against the saw. Momo could tell one thing from the strength with which the blade bore down on hers: This woman produced an unbelievable amount of power.

She must be incredibly well-trained. The Princess Knight was likely just as strong as any chosen and carefully forged Executioner—perhaps even stronger.

Prodigies came in all forms, in any land and from any estate. Without a doubt, Ashuna was naturally gifted with an incredible level of energy control.

“As I said before, my father is on trial for the sin of heresy. He stands accused of Otherworlder summoning, yet there is not an Otherworlder to be found anywhere in the castle.

“Ohhh. Is that sooo?”

“Indeed. That is how they are responding to the trial at present. ‘If we truly summoned Otherworlders, then where are they?’”

“Castles are veeery big. Are you sure they aren’t just hiiiiding them? Although, I agree it might not be truuue. In which case, he’ll be acquitted. Isn’t that niiice?”

“Is it, though? For I do not think either is the case. My father certainly did call on Otherworlders, but they are no longer in his care. That is what I think. You know what that would mean, do you not?”

“Not reeeeally? Enlighten me, Princess-poo.”

“The Otherworlders were killed before the trial began.”

Ashuna pressed harder with her sword. She still seemed to have plenty of power left. Momo was nowhere near her limit, either—she raised her own Enhancement to fend off the princess.

Crunch. The metal beneath their feet caved a little.

“You must know of the Faust’s so-called Executioners?”

“Ahhh, that silly old rumor? I’ve heard of it, yeees. Aaand? What about iiit?”

“Well, when I laid eyes on you, a thought crossed my mind. If that Executioner finished their job and left the royal capital just as the Holy Inquisition was beginning—why, they might just be on this very train.”

“That’s a little too convenient, don’t you thiiink? Better not let your imagination get the best of you.”

“I wonder. I did get on this train with the same timing, after all. Besides…”

Ashuna’s eyes glittered with delight.

“I have utter faith in the strength I’ve built all my life…and I’ve never once doubted my gut.”

Guiding Force: Connect—

Part of the design on the sword glowed.

Momo’s eyes widened as she sensed the conjuring of a crest starting up close by.

Royal Sword, Crest—

It activated, causing fire to burst forth from the blade, heat licking Momo’s cheek.

It was an attack conjuring at point-blank range. But Momo couldn’t dodge. The activated crest was on the very sword that she was holding off with her coping saw. If she let up even slightly, the blade would likely come straight for her neck.

Defensive conjuring with my scripture, then—no, I won’t finish it in time. The conjuring in scriptures was powerful but complicated. Momo couldn’t manipulate Guiding Force nearly as precisely as Menou, so her speed wouldn’t be enough to outpace the crest.

Making a split-second decision, Momo charged the seal on the inside of her robes instead.

Guiding Force: Connect—Priestess Robes, Crest—

Ashuna’s conjuring was about to strike.

It was shifting from the preparatory stage to invocation. The energy of the flames rising from the sword was suddenly sucked inward.

Invoke [Flameburst]

The flames around the sword exploded outward.

And at the same time—

Invoke [Barrier]

Sonic waves shook the air next to Momo’s ears. The violent explosion of energy drove toward her, but just in time, she was able to focus the defensive barrier near her head and defend herself from the blast.

If she let the shock waves knock her aside, she would be thrown from the train. Momo used the wind blowing toward them to her advantage and jumped back, putting distance between them.

“A defense crest in your robes, eh? Heavens, but the technology of the Faust never fails to impress. So advanced in materials science and crest design. I couldn’t even tell what sort of crest it was.”

Ashuna gracefully shouldered her broadsword and looked at Momo appraisingly. Her attitude as she spoke words of admiration was as haughty as ever.

“And that was an excellent split-second judgment to protect your head first, if I may say so. You priestesses are all strong, I’ll give you that…though it seems very strange for a mere white-robe to react so quickly. I suspect you aren’t being wholly truthful by introducing yourself as a novice.”

“Oh? Whatever do you meeean? It’s common sense to protect one’s head, nooo?”

Momo tittered dismissively at her opponent’s words.

As she did so, she touched a hand to the ribbons that secured her pigtails, ensuring that her most prized possessions hadn’t been lost. Then she directed a bright smile at Ashuna.

“Can’t have my ribbons getting singed, you knooow?”

Thank goodness.

If her ribbons had been damaged, Momo wasn’t sure she could have stopped herself from killing this woman.

“Fashion is very important for girls. It’s perfectly normal to protect thaaat.”

“Ha. We are alike indeed. I enjoy dressing up as well. Perhaps we could get along after all.”

“Could you not compare my sense of style to yooours?”

Momo wouldn’t stand for this rich woman to compare her little dress-up hobby to the accessories that she’d received from the most precious person to her in all the world. Still smiling, she vented her anger verbally instead.

“In fact, aren’t you just about the same age as meee? You’re a little too strong to be a princess, nooo? How creepy. Your strength must be a turnoff to others, you knooow.”

“Heh, you’re too kind. My strength is the result of my dedication—and entirely my choice, I’ll have you know.”

Ashuna responded plainly, flexing as if to show off her muscles.

“Beauty and strength are what I like best. Every society is enamored with the beautiful. And strength is beautiful no matter the time or place. That’s why I became strong, and why I am keenly interested in the strength of others. I’m quite taken with your power as well.”

“Oh, reeeally? I couldn’t care leeess.”

Momo scowled. Ashuna’s aesthetic preferences meant nothing to her.

After she’d provoked Momo this much and even attacked her, Momo had no intention of letting her off easily.

She couldn’t have figured out that Momo was an Executioner’s assistant just from a little bit of fighting. But Momo had to keep this sharp-eyed girl from setting her sights on Menou.

“Come now, do not be cold. Besides, I wish to ask you something in regards to the incident in the royal capital that led to my father’s trial. As a related party, I’d be thrilled if you would answer me, Momo.”

“Oh, shut up…! I tooold you, it’s nothing to do with meee!”

Ashuna calling her casually by name was the last straw. Dragging out her words with increased irritation, Momo charged her coping saw with energy.

Guiding Force: Connect—Coping Saw, Crest—Double Invoke [Anchor, Oscillation]

There were two crests carved into the saw. According to the laws of materialogy, that was the limit for this weapon.

By activating both at once, Momo could set the saw to stay in a straight line and make it start oscillating like a chain saw.

“Now, let’s get back to it, shall weee?”

Momo loosely lowered her arm, pointing the blade toward the ground. The tip of the saw made contact with the roof of the train beneath her feet.

With a shrill screech, the metal of the roof began to peel off where it touched the saw.

“I wonder how long your fancy royal toooy can hold up to my little wiiire.”

Speaking over the grating sound of metal on metal, Momo smiled slyly.

“Let’s put it to the test, shall weeee?”

The sound of clashing metal came from above Menou’s head.

When she made her way past the dining car and into the nobles’ carriage, she heard violent footsteps directly overhead. The obvious clamor of battle consisted of more than the ordinary clang of sword against sword.

Instead, there was a grating noise of metal being scraped away. And shortly thereafter, an explosion. Then the fearless laughter of someone obviously enjoying themselves, countered by a syrupy voice slinging insults.

These sounds, which no mere sword duel could explain, carried on for a while with no signs of stopping.

“Honestly…”

Menou could only sigh at the fact that Momo was clearly fighting a needless battle.

She had heard most of their last exchange from below. Most likely, Momo had deliberately amped up the volume of the conversation so Menou could catch it.

It was none other than the Princess Knight Ashuna who was clashing with Menou’s dependable assistant. She was the youngest daughter of the Grisarika family, as well as a roaming knight. Since she attempted to improve the state of society wherever she went, she was popular among the people of the Commons.

There was no reason for them to fight this person. Even if she did have her eye on them, they were better off jumping from the train than engaging in battle with her for no reason. Surely with Momo’s Enhancement, she could have leaped from the moving train and landed without a scratch.

It would have been easy enough to escape and lure her away, then, but instead Momo was fighting her. She always had been quick to resort to violence.

“Well, at least she’s restraining herself, I suppose.”

From the sound of things, Momo was certainly worked up, but she wasn’t flying off the handle. If she had completely lost control, Menou doubted she would hear the sounds of Momo’s coping saw.

While Momo was keeping the Princess Knight occupied, Menou passed through the first-class section of the train.

She checked the rooms as she went, but there didn’t seem to be any problems in the nobles’ carriages.

Ashuna had certainly cut down the terrorists there, but it looked like she hadn’t taken their lives. Most of them were simply tied up and unconscious, while a few lay groaning and half-awake. She had severed the tendons of many of their limbs—mercilessly, yet precisely and effectively.

Judging by the aftermath, Menou guessed the engine room was probably taken care of as well.

The train would soon reach its next stop. Most likely, Ashuna would get off there to turn in the terrorists. Menou just had to be careful to keep the clever princess from seeing her or Akari, since she seemed to have sharp intuition.

She wasn’t worried about Momo losing, of course.

Perhaps Ashuna was a prodigy among knights, but Momo was a genius among Executioners.

She was so naturally talented that the Master who supervised their monastery had said, “There’s nothing I can teach her.” Deciding that she could safely entrust Ashuna to Momo, Menou headed for the engine room. The power source and steering system were there, so she thought it best to make sure everything was safe.

“Oh, a priestess?”

The engineers’ tense expressions relaxed when they saw Menou’s priestess robes.

Terrorists had just hijacked the train. It was natural the staff would be nervous about outsiders entering the room, but most people trusted priestesses implicitly.

Menou smiled gently to further calm the men’s nerves.

“Yes, I just happened to be on the train when this happened. Is everything all right here?”

“Yeah, the Princess Knight herself took care of things. For such a gorgeous lady, she’s really strong!”

“Yeah, that’s our princess for ya. She brought ’em all down in no time flat. You heard of her, Priestess? Her Highness Ashuna is famous for traveling around to reform the world!”

“Yes, I know of her. I’m a little disappointed that I missed the chance to meet her myself.”

The men seemed quite proud of their princess as they bragged about her exploits.

Menou responded politely as she looked over the captured terrorists. All three of them had been tied up together. The smell of the blood was likely because the tendons in their limbs had been cut, just like the men in the first-class car.

As she expected, there were no problems here. Most likely, Momo would wrap up her battle with Ashuna before they stopped at the next station. Once Menou finished talking with the engineers, she thought, she could go back to the rear cars and assure Akari that everything was fine.

And then she sensed conjuring in the air.

“Yeah, I wish you could’ve seen the princess fight, Prieste—Huh? Something the matter?”

“Not at all…”

Menou looked more closely at one of the tied-up terrorists. She had assumed all three of them were knocked out, but one of them must have been faking it.

A trace of red Guiding Light emitted from the man’s stomach.

“You there. You’re hiding something in your body, aren’t you?”

“Heh-heh… Busted, huh?”

One of the terrorists must have been a former adventurer with a basic grasp of conjuring. He’d swallowed some kind of Guiding vessel in advance, hiding it in his stomach.

And now he was about to try to activate it.

“But it’s too late now! If we don’t make it to Garm, we’re gonna get hanged anyway. Everyone on this train is goin’ straight to hell with us!”

“I won’t let— Hrmm?”

The phrasing of his threat made it seem likely that the vessel was for triggering some kind of explosive. Menou had been trying to determine the nature of the item in the man’s body since the moment she detected it, intending to suppress the explosion, but then her eyes widened.

“A Primary Red Stone?”

But that should be impossible.

Menou considered a Guiding vessel to be far more valuable than any gun. Naturally, it was a designated taboo and infinitely more difficult to acquire than the aforementioned weapons. Most of all, it required very high conjuring ability to use properly.

And if it was placed inside a person and activated, the unfortunate human serving as its fuel would meet a nasty fate.

“Hunh? I dunno what it’s called, but… Heh-heh! Goin’ by your reaction, it must be somethin’ pretty special. I swallowed it just in case the— Abuhh?”

As the man boasted, his skin suddenly sloughed off and coursed into his open mouth.

He clearly had no idea what was happening. As the outer layer of his body forced its way down his throat and into his stomach, all he could do was look blankly at the newly exposed pink of his body. His eyes were full of pure confusion.

There was no time for Menou to stop it.

The man’s body crumpled in on itself in an instant.

“What the GUHHF—?”

After the skin came the flesh. The man’s body was being pulled into the Primary Red Stone in his stomach, one layer at a time.

The unnatural power within him tore his muscle fiber, bent his bones in grotesque directions, and sent his limbs flailing all over.

His human form was able to hold out for only a few short seconds.

Then a ghastly noise filled the room.

As the suction surpassed the limits of the human body, his flesh was compressed and his bones crushed. There must have been some kind of automatic starter implanted in him. The unconscious men who were tied up with him met the same fate. Before they could even manage a scream, their skin began to peel off and rush toward the same point.

Soon, the rope that had been holding the men flopped to the floor.

Unable to stomach the grotesque scene that had just unfolded before them, the engineers vomited out the window.

Even after the terrorists’ bodies were pressed into a ball of flesh, the bizarre phenomenon showed no signs of slowing. The pulpy remains continued collapsing in on themselves to the point of liquefaction. But not a single drop of blood hit the floor—it was all sucked inward to what had once been human bodies. It had turned into an utterly unrecognizable mass.

Once the formerly solid remains were churned into a fluid, the necessary ingredients began separating themselves.

The writhing mass of liquid slowly rose and stripped away any unnecessary components. It was disposing of anything that wasn’t the required color, in accordance with the vessel that had activated.

The leftovers of the once-human corpses fell to the floor with a splat.

What was left was a truly startling scene.

The primary color red had extracted itself from the rest of the body with startling vividness.

It wasn’t just the man who had activated the vessel who met this fate. All three men were sucked into the Primary Red Stone and used as fuel for its activation. Most likely, all the other terrorists in the other cars had met the same fate.

Sure enough, more pure red began seeping in from the direction of the first-class carriage.

“Tch!”

If she crushed the Primary Red Stone now, everything red would begin functioning independently. In that case, the vessel’s power would be divided, but the passengers near the independent blobs of red would almost certainly be devoured.

It might lessen the vessel’s overall power, but if there were more individual components, it would be that much harder to deal with them all. Instead, she made the split-second decision that it was best to let all of it gather here in one place and deal with it in one fell swoop. Menou used the rest of the activation time to push the engineers out of the room.

“Get out of here! Quickly!”

“B-but we can’t leave the engine room…!”

The man was looking at the Guiding engine.

It was true that the train was still running—and about to reach a station, to boot. They couldn’t leave the engine room—and by extension, the controls and power source—unmanned.

However, this was no time to worry about that.

“It’s all right. If it comes to it, I’ll take control myself.”

“But you can’t just—”

“I can and I will!” Menou shouted at the man menacingly, then shifted to a polite smile. “Please trust me. I’m a clergywoman, an ally of the Commons, remember? Priestesses are pure, proper, and, of course, powerful.”

She spoke as reassuringly and persuasively as possible, keeping her tone bright. The men looked at one another, nodded, and scrambled out of the room.

After watching them go, Menou turned back toward her opponent.

Approximately sixteen blobs of red were converging, merging into one greater whole. Once it had extracted the red from the sixteen bodies, the combined Guiding Forces activated the taboo vessel, the Primary Red Stone.

Guiding Force: Merge Materials—Primary Red Stone, Inner Seal Conjuration—Invoke [Primary Red, Armored Knight]

Red, in this case extracted from human materials, was one of the core colors that painted the world. Now the mass of pure redness created a single conjured soldier. As it turned its sword toward Menou, it was reminiscent of a knight from a fairy tale: a sword, a shield, and nary a gap in its full plate armor. Every component of the new foe was pure, dark red.

“So it’s manifesting as a knight? Well, I suppose that’s better than an angel or a dragon.”

Menou drew her dagger from the sheath on her thigh, crouching in a battle-ready stance.

It was about what she expected from the materials of sixteen people, but it was certainly not an enemy to be taken lightly. This conjured soldier still had at least sixteen men’s worth of strength.

The red conjured soldier swung its sword.

“Ngh…!”

Menou parried the first strike with her dagger, grunting with the effort.

It was heavy.

She grimaced under the weight of the blow, which would have sent her flying if she’d taken a direct hit, but still managed to knock her opponent’s sword aside. The red conjured soldier’s physical strength was far higher than Menou’s, even with Enhancement. However, its skills left quite a bit to be desired. Still, in this cramped space, even blindly rampaging with brute strength was a threat in itself.

Each time the conjured soldier moved, it expended Guiding Force and slowed down accordingly. Normally, the best approach would be to surround it in a group and chip away at it, or to engage from a distance until it wore itself out.

A strong opponent, to be sure. Any normal priestesses would probably need a group of at least five to take it down.

But Menou, who had already gauged the conjured soldier’s abilities in an instant, simply spoke with confidence.

“Not a problem.”

The Primary Red Stone had frightening capacity for conjuring, but this artificial soldier wasn’t using that potential to the fullest.

Conjured soldiers created from a Primary Color came in a wide variety of strengths. The strongest of them would probably require the strength of an entire nation to bring it down, but this one was of much poorer quality. Most likely, the main goal of the weapon was not to create the soldier but to silence the terrorists from spilling confidential information.

Menou calmly continued to dodge the artless strikes of the soldier’s sword.

At this rate, she could probably wear it down in close combat. Other than that, all she had to worry about was making sure none of the engine room’s equipment got damaged in the fight. Menou had just settled on a strategy of buying time until the knight wore itself out when something happened.

An object fluttered in through the window.

It was Momo’s coping saw, flying into the window from where she and Ashuna were fighting on top of the train car.

The coping saw was light. Perhaps Ashuna had knocked it out of her hands, or perhaps Momo had flung it. Either way, it must have left her grasp and been carried in here by the wind.

If this were an ordinary saw, its appearance would have been harmless.

The problem was that Anchor and Oscillate were still active.

“Ah!”

She tried to knock it out of the car, but the conjured soldier managed to choose that exact moment to swing its sword at her. Menou was forced to jump back, and the coping saw landed on the engine room floor.

As soon as the rapidly oscillating saw hit the floor, it launched itself around the engine room.

“Tch!”

Menou clicked her tongue, using her dagger to repel the saw as it flew toward her.

The saw bounded around erratically, and while it hit the conjured soldier from time to time, it barely left a scratch. Menou, however, definitely preferred not to be hit by the whizzing blade if at all possible.

She assessed the Guiding Force remaining in the bouncing saw and quickly did some calculations.

About thirty seconds. In that short amount of time, Anchor and Oscillation on the saw should wear off.

The situation had taken a turn for the worse. Still, it wasn’t bad enough to put Menou in a state of despair.

She continued to fight the red conjured soldier, never taking her attention off the saw.

Just as she blocked a frontal attack from the conjured soldier’s sword, the coping saw—which tore up pieces of the floor and ceiling each time it made contact—flew toward her from behind.

Cursing her bad luck, Menou charged the seal sewn inside her priestess’s robes with energy.

Guiding Force: Connect—Priestess Robes, Crest—Invoke [Barrier]

The coping saw bounced off the defensive barrier that formed at her back. It flew toward the ceiling, still not slowing down. This time, the saw hit the conjured soldier’s head and bounced toward Menou from the front.

The saw should run out of Guiding Force any second now, she thought, dodging it.

But then the conjured soldier swung its sword in an unnecessarily dramatic follow-up attack.

As she traced its trajectory, she realized her mistake.

Menou herself wasn’t in danger. It would be simple to dodge the conjured soldier’s latest wild swing.

But the engine’s brake valve was right in the red sword’s path.

“Sh—”

Menou tried to rush forward, but she couldn’t stop it. The knight was physically stronger than her. Unless her stance was perfect, there was no way she could block the blow.

The red sword mowed straight through the brake valve of the engine room.

“You damned stupid puppet!”

Menou hurled verbal abuse at the conjured soldier without thinking.

With the engine room’s brake valve broken, the train had lost the ability to safely stop. Menou had been fighting carefully to avoid damaging the engine, but the coping saw had momentarily distracted her. And the exaggerated size of the conjured soldier’s swings had thrown off her calculations—no, she couldn’t make excuses. This was a massive failure on her part.

Clank. Too late, the coping saw finally ran out of Guiding Force and dropped to the floor.

“Ah, dammit…!”

Swallowing her frustration, Menou forced herself to think. Complaining wouldn’t fix anything. Her mental priorities shifted from the conjured soldier to the safety of the train itself, casting about for a solution.

A train that couldn’t decelerate was in a horrible predicament.

If it kept moving without slowing down, at best, it would eventually derail itself while rounding a curve too quickly, and at worst, it could even catch up with another train and crash. Either way, the passengers wouldn’t come out of either situation unharmed.

But it wasn’t too late.

First, she had to call Momo. No, at this point, they should really ask for Ashuna’s help. She no longer had the luxury of trying to hide her identity. With three skilled people, there would be plenty of options for stopping the train.

Menou continued fighting the conjured soldier as she thought up a plan, when suddenly—

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ashuna fall off the train and Momo jumping after her.

“Why…?!”

Why now of all times? Menou thought at first, but it was quite the opposite.

It had happened because Menou was fighting in the engine room. Momo must have noticed her presence and quickly kicked Ashuna off the train before the fight in the engine room could draw the princess’s attention.

It wasn’t a bad call on Momo’s part; indeed, Menou hadn’t wanted to meet Ashuna face-to-face, either. And there was no way Momo could have known that the train’s brake system was broken.

It might have been possible with both Momo’s and Ashuna’s help, but there was no way Menou could stop the train on her own.

She simply didn’t have enough Guiding Force. Menou’s internal supply was higher than average but not nearly as high as Momo’s or Ashuna’s.

Ask the engineers for help, then? No, they wouldn’t be of any use.

Or was it possible to repair the brake valve? No, not enough time. What else could she do? How could she stop the train without conjuring? Could she at least get the passengers off safely?

Analyzing each of the possibilities and ruling them out in turn, Menou was forced to reach a terrible conclusion.

It was impossible. She couldn’t stop the train. Short of a miracle occurring, the train was going to crash, and people would die.

The smile of the little girl they’d comforted back on the platform flashed across her mind.

Was that girl whom Akari healed still somewhere on this train, too?

“……”

Menou was gritting her teeth in frustration at her own powerlessness.

CLACK. There was a sound that somehow didn’t shake the air.

The sound of the world going offtrack.

“Ha-ha-ha! You’re not half-bad, Momo!”

Momo scowled at the surprised laughter that greeted her when she landed after leaping from the train.

She had sacrificed a coping saw to distract Ashuna long enough to kick her off, but Ashuna seemed to be in perfect condition. Even her clothes, while a bit dirtied, didn’t show a single tear. The Princess Knight was chuckling, still in a battle-ready stance.

“You’re unharmed after falling off a traaain? How very straaange… If only you had died.”

“Heh-heh. It will take more than a little fall to best the results of my training. The same goes for you, eh, Momo? Very impressive.”

“Don’t compare me to yooou, Princess-poo. It makes me feel so awful about myself. You’re so creepy that I’m starting to feel sick. May I leave nooow?”

There were a few nicks on Ashuna’s royal sword but certainly no major damage. Momo produced her second saw from within her miniskirt.

Suddenly, both young women shifted their attention from each other to the area around them.

“What was thaaat…?”

“…How strange.”

They were both assailed by such a powerful compulsion that it seemed more important to find the source than to continue fighting. They froze in place at the same time, then noticed that the other was experiencing the same odd sensation.

What they had felt was a bizarre shift in the senses, as if their innards had briefly floated upward.

It was like all of the space around them had lifted and then fallen exactly back into place. In that moment before everything settled where it belonged, the shift seemed to jolt their very minds. It was a bizarrely impossible sensation, difficult to describe more precisely than that. And yet, nothing in the world seemed to have changed in any obvious way.

Even the two women who had been smiling all through their mortal combat were slightly shaken.

They both murmured the same words at once.

“That was…creepy.”

The train continued down the tracks, getting farther and farther away from the pair who had paused their battle. The Guiding Light emitting from the engine sent sparks through the air.

Neither Momo nor Ashuna noticed that the traces of light it left behind were mingled with a glow slightly different from that of the train’s engine.

Menou felt the same discomfiting sensation as the pair who were no longer on the train.

“What was that…?”

She furrowed her brow even as she continued to parry the conjured soldier’s sword.

It felt as disquieting as if she had seen a normally functioning clock suddenly start to tick backward all on its own. And even if one dismantled the clock and inspected each part, there would be nothing out of order, no cause to be found. Eventually, one would assume that the feeling was simply a trick of the imagination and forget all about it.

That was what the shift felt like.

But in this case, Menou didn’t need to go looking for the cause.

“Menou!”

“Huh?”

Still feeling uneasy, Menou kept fighting the knight when she heard a voice behind her.

A lone girl was running up to her from the neighboring train car.

“Akari?! Why?!”

The black-haired girl sprinting closer, her chest heaving, was unmistakably Akari. She seemed out of breath, having apparently run all the way here from the rear cars.

Menou froze for a moment in surprise.

The conjured soldier took that moment to strike. Instead of Menou, it aimed its sword at the seemingly defenseless Akari.

“Wah?!”

“Watch out!”

Menou just barely blocked the slash of the red sword.

She jumped in front of Akari at the last second to protect her. Parrying the opponent’s powerful blow, she charged one of the crests on her dagger with power.

Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Invoke [Gale]

A gust of wind burst out of the dagger and buffeted the conjured soldier, knocking it back against the wall of the car.

Moments later, however, the knight stood back up as if it hadn’t been hurt at all. Indeed, it had taken very little damage; a conjured soldier would immediately regenerate unless its core was broken.

“Th-thank you, Menou. I’m happy you protected me. You’re so strong! But what is that red person?!”

“Forget about that! Why did you come here?! Tell me! Why?!”

Menou had no time for Akari’s silly question. Without thinking, she shouted at her angrily.

Frankly, the presence of someone with no combat abilities, like Akari, was nothing more than a hindrance. It wasn’t really a problem if she witnessed the battle, but having to protect her would slow Menou.

“I—I mean, like, the guys who were tied up suddenly got all squashed, and some slimy red stuff headed for the front of the train…!”

“Is that any reason to go chasing after it?!”

The sight of human bodies turning into red materials was certainly unusual, but it was a gutsy move to see that and decide to follow the red blob.

“I told you to behave yourself and wait, didn’t I?! Weren’t you listening? Or are you a bad girl, huh?!”

“Um, neither?! I’m a good girl who was worried about you, that’s all! If anything, shouldn’t you be impressed?!”

“Don’t be absurd!”

This one’s cheekier than I expected, Menou thought, her frustration building.

Things couldn’t be worse.

The soldier in front of them had absorbed materials from human bodies, using the accumulated power to go on a rampage. And it even had the ability to replace the energy it spent from its surroundings. The red from human bodies was one thing, but if it absorbed the Guiding Force from a Pure Concept, like from Akari, there was no telling what might occur.

If Menou was lucky, Akari’s ability might malfunction. In the best-case scenario, perhaps she wouldn’t be able to revive anymore. That would make Menou’s job simple.

But if she was unlucky, they would have to deal with a conjured killing machine imbued with the Pure Concept of Time.

“Aaargh! Seriously, why did you have to come here?!”

“I-I’m sorry! Don’t cry, Menou!”

“Oh, be quiet!”

The situation was getting so out of hand that tears welled up in Menou’s eyes, but she didn’t want to be comforted by the source of her problems. As she desperately tried to come up with a solution for the latest disaster, the conjured soldier kept attacking. Akari shrieked behind her. She had no way of stopping the train. The combination of the obvious threat and the absurdly optimistic girl proved to be too much.

Something inside Menou snapped.

“Enough already! Take this!”

In a fit of frustration, Menou flung her dagger at the conjured soldier.

Guiding Force: Connect—Dagger, Crest—Double Invoke [Guiding Thread, Gale]

Just as the dagger left her hand, she activated both of its crests. Thread formed around the dagger’s pommel, connecting it to Menou’s hand. At the same time, the force of the wind produced by the other crest sped up the blade, propelling it into and through the conjured soldier’s armor.

Now she had the route she needed.

It wasn’t the ideal method, but Akari’s sudden appearance meant that Menou could no longer afford to take her time. Menou sent her own power flowing down the thread that stretched from her dagger to her hand.

Guiding Force: Connect (via Guiding Thread)—Primary Red Stone, Armored Knight—Outside Invasion

Menou’s power flowed through the dagger, piercing the conjured soldier, forcing its way inside. The conjured soldier’s movements froze for just a moment.

But then powerful resistance sent the energy back toward her.

The soulless device had been equipped with a defensive mechanism to retaliate against the attempted intrusion. Now it was using it to deflect Menou’s Guiding Force.

She had expected some resistance, of course. If she had backup, she could have relied on them to crush the core while the conjured soldier was frozen for a moment, but of course she couldn’t ask Akari to do that. Instead, she continued to push Guiding Force against the conjured soldier while also charging her scripture.

Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 10:9—Invoke [For so long as one desires good fortune, another shall inherit thy misfortune.]

The double activation of the crests and the conjuring from the scripture combined to alter the mechanisms inside the conjured soldier.

It was a highly advanced technique, using three completely different kinds of conjuring at once. But even Menou, who boasted exceptional control over her powers, couldn’t keep it up easily.

Menou’s face was twisted in pain. Her brain was operating at maximum capacity, churning so quickly that it felt like her nerves might catch fire. Sweat poured forth from all over her body under the strain of drawing out and manipulating so much power. This sort of feat wasn’t the kind that could be sustained for long. If she kept it up, her soul and spirit would be drained dry.

Even so, Menou gritted her teeth and pressed on with laser focus.

“Huff… Nnnngh!”

Her brain tissue felt like it was burning up.

She was clashing against the torrent of power that the conjured soldier was sending back toward her. It was trying to break through the wall of friction where it met Menou’s own power. If her scripture, which was forming a protective barrier, were to fail, then the energy would flood into Menou’s body and spirit and likely destroy her.

But before that could happen, it was over.

Conjuration Alteration—Order [Self-Destruct]

Her order went through.

“Yesss!”

The violently resisting conjured soldier melted, losing its shape. Menou wasted no time in stomping on the red stone that formed its core and crushing it.

“Ahhh…!”

A perfect victory. Yet Menou didn’t celebrate—she just looked at Akari.

She’d wanted to save her energy for trying to stop the train, but because of that last power clash, Menou had drained more than half her remaining energy.

“Akari, you idiot… If you hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have had to push myself so far…!”

“S-sorry. I don’t really know what I did, but I’m sorry. I guess I kinda got in your— Oof!”

“You! Certainly! Did!”

Menou yanked on Akari’s cheeks in frustration.

“But your punishment will have to wait. I’m very busy right now.”

“Wha—?! Besides pulling my cheeks?!”

“You don’t know the half of it!”

Menou gave up on punishing Akari for the time being and turned toward the engine. Though she hated to admit it, Akari’s intervention had bought her a bit more time.

Quickly inspecting the state of the engine, Menou slumped her shoulders.

“I knew it…”

The brake valve was broken beyond any hope of repair.

Looking confused by Menou’s crestfallen state, Akari anxiously peered over her shoulder.

“Hey, Menou, is there a problem? That thing looks like it’s busted.”

“Yes, to tell the truth… Ah.”

Menou couldn’t hide it any longer. Just as she was steeling herself to tell Akari about the imminent train accident so that she could at least brace herself, she noticed something.

She raised her head and gazed intently at Akari.

“Um, what’s up, Menou? Hee-hee. Don’t stare at me like that! You’re making me blush! Am I so cute that you can’t look away? Well, um, I think you’re really pretty, too!”

Akari was evidently flustered by being stared at so directly, but that didn’t matter right now. Menou ignored her babbling and considered Akari’s special abilities.

Menou didn’t have enough power to force the train to stop…but what about an Otherworlder with exceptional conjuring aptitude?

“…Akari.”

The plan was deeply flawed.

Still, Menou hesitated for only a moment.

“Do you trust me?”

“Of course.”

The response was immediate.

Akari didn’t even question why Menou would ask her such a thing.

“That goes without saying. I believe in you, Menou!”

Akari smiled brightly, with an almost bizarre level of faith.

Standing on top of the train, Menou squinted intently at the rapidly passing scenery as her ponytail whipped behind her.

Up ahead, she could see the next stop. It was still only a speck in the distance, but they were getting closer by the second as they sped along the rails. Normally, the train would be slowing down around now to keep the service schedule on track, but this train currently couldn’t decelerate at all.

She’d asked the mechanics to stop the Guiding engine, but now that the train had picked up this much speed, it would be quite difficult to bring it to a complete halt without brakes. They hadn’t gone off the tracks yet, since there weren’t any major curves in the track so far, but because the train couldn’t adjust its speed properly, it was already starting to catch up to the train in front of it.

At this rate, they would crash into that train just as they reached the station.

The only way to get all the passengers out alive was to force the train to stop.

“M-M-M-Menou?”

As Menou stared seriously into the distance, Akari’s knees shook with fear. She was standing on top of the train, too, her hair flapping in the wind, barely holding her skirt down with one hand.

“Um, this is super scary! Why are we on top of a train?!”

Akari’s eyes were filled with tears. Menou shrugged.

“This is the easiest way to see what’s going on up ahead.”

“But, Menooou! I don’t think it’s safe to climb onto the roof of a train without railings or anything! It’s so scary!!”

“Yes. This is an emergency. I know you’re scared, but please calm down.”

“I caaan’t! And your face is scary right now, too. If you ask me, I like you even better when you smile!”

Menou couldn’t help smiling a little at Akari’s half-screamed goofiness.

“It’s fiiine. Here, hold my hand. That’s a little better, right?”

Menou smiled obligingly and held out her hand, and Akari’s face shifted from a fearful expression to a brilliant grin.

“Hee-hee, I knew it. You’re cuter when you smile, Menou!”

“Thank you, I suppose. And your smile is impressively empty-headed.”

“Huh? Was that a compliment?”

“Yes, of course.”

Akari’s mood improved instantly when they held hands, so Menou flashed her another smile and went back to looking at the train.

The train was a mass of steel that could carry hundreds of people. They had to stop it—and without anyone getting hurt.

Naturally, accomplishing this alone would be incredibly difficult. It wasn’t impossible with enough use of conjuring, but the problem was that Menou didn’t have nearly enough Guiding Force to cancel out the kinetic energy of the moving train.

That was where Akari would come in.

“So as I was saying, I’ll be borrowing your power to use conjuring to stop this train.”

“Okay.”

Menou’s idea was to draw out Akari’s powers and cover for the power she herself was lacking.

As an Otherworlder, Akari had an incredible store of energy. Its quality and quantity should be more than enough.

However, it wouldn’t be easy.

For one thing, Akari couldn’t carefully control her Guiding Force. Her use of conjuring was practically unconscious, and the only way she could control it was with her Pure Concept of Time.

So Menou would be the one to direct Akari’s conjuring. That was part of the reason she had offered to hold the girl’s hand.

“…I’m sorry. Just so you know, this might hurt quite a bit.”

This energy was produced by the soul, controlled by the will, and became one with the body.

It was relatively easy to manipulate something like the conjured soldier, which had no soul or spirit, but even then, the resistance made it much harder.

Under normal circumstances, most people weren’t compatible with someone else’s mental state. Their body, soul, and spirit would all rebel against the presence of another’s Guiding Force. Both the target and even the intruder would experience the same natural resistance.

Thus, it was normally impossible to control someone else’s Guiding Force.

The only way to achieve this would be to break the other person’s soul and spirit to reduce their resistance, or to share a strong mutual trust. With the former approach, the body’s resistance would still remain, but the latter required enough of a bond to completely entrust everything to each other.

It certainly wasn’t a recommended method for people who had met only two days prior.

But it wasn’t impossible.

Menou was placing her bets on the remarkable unearned trust that Akari showed her.

And for Menou herself, it wouldn’t be a problem.

When her entire hometown turned white and fell apart, Menou lost almost all of herself. Since the line between her own self and those around her was once blurred away to nothing, she could easily connect her energy to other people.

Akari looked a little troubled by Menou’s explanation, but she still nodded.

“I don’t wanna be in pain, but… I’m sure it’ll be fine as long as I’m with you, Menou.”

“Thank you. That’s an enormous help… Really.”

With that, Menou charged her scripture with power.

Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 1:2—Invoke [Drive the stake and make known the ground where all shall begin.]

A moment later, the power passed from the top of the train to the ground and even below, embedding a wedge of energy in the earthen vein below the tracks.

The first step was a success. Menou didn’t need to use Akari’s energy yet.

Barely sparing a moment to breathe, Menou continued to send power flowing through the scripture.

Guiding Force: Connect—Scripture, 8:12—Remote Invoke [Kneel before the gate, for it is the path to the Lord.]

A gate of light formed on the tracks behind the train, where it had already passed.

Instead of using herself as the target, Menou had activated the conjuring at the area where she had just driven the wedge into the earthen vein.

Once it rapidly formed over the rail behind the train, the gate of light slowly opened.

This created a powerful effect that seemed to pull everything in range toward the open gate.

The light gate was a kind of conjuring used for capturing things. As it attempted to draw in the train, which had been designated as the target, the power sparkled in the form of streaks of light, dragging on the train in the direction of the gate.

The pull of the light slowed the train ever so slightly. However, the effect was so minor that it could barely be felt. Menou’s remaining Guiding Force drained far faster than it could chip away at the energy of the speeding train.

But even as the energy in her soul dried up, Menou remained calm.

“It’s time, Akari.”

“…Okay!”

Akari closed her eyes, perhaps bracing for the pain.

As delicately as possible, Menou let the last dregs of her Guiding Force go into Akari through their linked hands.

Guiding Force: Connect—Akari Tokitou—

There was virtually no resistance.

Surprised by the smoothness of the connection, Menou pressed on from Akari’s spirit to her soul, then gave a shudder.

Something was there.

It was something strangely nostalgic but undeniably different. Concentrated within Akari was something vast that should be omnipresent in this world but not inside a person.

A cold shiver ran up Menou’s spine.

The unnatural “something” that was making her blood run cold was a Pure Concept. It was so vast, deep, and terrifying that even brushing against it like this made it clear that a human should never touch it.

With the caution of a tightrope walker, Menou delicately isolated the power that welled up at the surface of Akari’s body, taking care not to touch the Pure Concept in her soul.

Extract [Power]—

“…Ah!”

Akari’s shoulders twitched. Her cheeks flushed, and she let out a warm gasp.

“Ah… Menou’s… Ngh. Inside meee…”

“Would you mind not making this so weird…?”

Akari’s reactions sounded unnecessarily sexual.

As Menou continued sustaining the remote conjuring, she narrowed her eyes at Akari, whose blush only deepened.

“B-buuut…it really…tiiickles…”

“…Well, I’m glad it’s no worse than that.”

Unlike Momo’s usual calculated approach, Akari’s voice had a tint of natural seductiveness that Menou did her best to ignore.

Normally, if one attempted to control someone else’s energy, it wouldn’t be unusual for both parties to end up in extreme pain. It was a process that involved touching not only the body but the spirit, and sometimes even the soul. It was natural to react unpleasantly to being so deeply connected, so extreme reactions were normal.

While Menou was used to her own body, soul, and spirit not putting up resistance, Akari was accepting the intrusion of Menou’s power with an almost frightening lack of resistance.

It was fortunate that her reaction was nothing more than “ticklish,” but that must be due to the fact that Akari’s trust in Menou was simply that profound.

From the bottom of her heart and the depths of her soul. So much so that Menou could pass right through her body and spirit.

At that very moment, Menou could feel for herself Akari’s faith in her.

She had no idea why this girl could entrust herself to Menou so completely.

But as an Executioner, it was natural for her to make use of that trust however she could. Menou concentrated even more intently.

—via Menou—Guiding Force: Supplement—Maintain Invoke [Kneel before the gate, for it is the path to the Lord.]

The gate of light that had formed far behind them grew much larger.

It had been getting smaller as it disappeared into the distance, but now it suddenly swelled in size. The transformation was so rapid that it made it difficult to gauge the distance, but it wasn’t just the sudden growth of the gate that had changed.

The train was slowing as rapidly as if it had used emergency brakes.

The recoil flung their bodies in the opposite direction of the train’s movement. Menou quickly caught her balance and pulled Akari close to prevent the girl from falling. Of course, she did this without losing her focus or interrupting the conjuring. With the finesse of a spider weaving a delicate web, she used the power drawn from Akari to maintain it.

It was difficult to remotely maintain conjuring that had been created using the earthen vein. The conjuring had to be immense enough to cancel out the train’s kinetic energy, but also delicate enough that it didn’t send the train careening off the tracks. And the farther they were from the area where the conjuring was set up, the harder it became to keep it going.

Menou felt like her body might be torn in two. While absorbing power far beyond her level of tolerance, she controlled it more precisely than she ever had before. The tug of war between these two demands mercilessly wore down Menou’s spirit.

“Ah…nngh…”

The pressure on Menou’s will was just as strong as the force stopping the train. Even as she surpassed the limits of her ability to absorb energy, she forced her body to bear the pain.

The train was gradually losing speed. Almost there. As her consciousness threatened to tear apart, Menou looked toward the front of the train without moving anything except her eyes. The station was close. She could see the other train that was already stopped there. Menou strained her spirit and summoned even more power. They were not going to crash, no matter what it took. She clenched her jaw hard enough to crack a tooth. There was no time even to breathe. She had to keep controlling the conjuring all the way to the limit.

Slower, slower, the wheels ground to a halt—and finally, the train stopped.

The dreaded impact of a crash never came.

“Aaaah!” Menou gasped for breath.

As she released the spell, her entire body was drenched in sweat. She began breathing again, having stopped unconsciously somewhere along the way. Each time she inhaled, her lungs swelled. Her vision was flickering in and out—she must have been running low on oxygen.

As she slowly steadied her breaths, her vision returned to normal.

Menou looked ahead.

There was less than a single train car’s worth of distance between this and the next train.

Cheers erupted from inside the cars. Were they from the passengers, engineers, or everyone all together? Regardless, they had been saved, and their celebratory cries echoed.

Menou’s shoulders sagged. Released from the tension that had held her up, she slumped over and found herself being supported by someone.

It was Akari.

“You did it, Menou!”

This time, it was Akari who was holding Menou, squeezing her tightly.

“I knew you could do it. You saved eeeveryone on the train. You’re the best priestess ever!”

“If you say so.”

Absently nodding along at Akari’s excitement, Menou looked down, her expression softening. The train conductors and staff were confirming all the passengers were safe, helping them down from the train cars, and escorting them toward the station.

The little girl they’d met on the platform was among them. She somehow noticed Menou on the roof and waved with an innocent smile.

“That little girl is safe, too. It’s all thanks to you, Menou.”

“…Mm, I suppose.”

Waving back with a smile, Menou allowed a hint of shyness into her demeanor as she nodded.

“A priestess must be pure, proper, and powerful, after all.”

Even if it was only an act…Menou was happy to be able to proudly say that she had saved people.