Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Incident on the Train
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In a train with few passengers, the group boarding en masse naturally drew attention.
The clothes they wore resembled some sort of uniform, but something was off about them.
Uniforms typically bore rank insignia or symbols or medals that indicated status. Yet there were no such markings anywhere on them.
That was not the only suspicious detail.
They had only passed by briefly, but Juliet noticed something strange.
As they brushed past her side, she caught sight of a medium-length sword concealed inside the fluttering black cloak.
Juliet, who had spent seven years growing overly familiar with the duke's knights, could not possibly have failed to recognize it.
Weapons were prohibited on the train in principle.
Should she alert the crew? But she worried that might spark an even bigger commotion.
‘……I hope it’s nothing serious.’
Juliet glanced toward the direction in which the sword-hiding men had vanished.
But the truly bizarre event occurred when the train stopped at the next station. Another horde of suspicious figures boarded in a rush.
They did not appear to carry swords, but their physiques were extraordinary even from afar.
‘They’re really huge.’
Juliet, her eyes wide in admiration, briefly locked gazes with who seemed to be the leader of the group—a middle-aged man.
He was a ferocious brute whose height neared two meters.
‘He looks even bigger than Sir Kane.’
Juliet pretended to calmly sip her tea as she recalled her former bodyguard knight, Kane.
But this man appeared even larger than Kane, the ex-mercenary captain.
To the point where he looked exactly like a bear anthropomorphized.
Unlike the earlier group that had boarded with large luggage, these people did not seem to be hiding swords.
But each one had such a burly build that they hardly needed weapons.
Intuitively speaking, if they clashed with those earlier men who had boarded concealing swords, this side would hold the advantage.
“…It’s certain. Lord Roy is definitely on this train.”
“Spread out as quietly as possible and search.”
Lord Roy?
Juliet had not intentionally eavesdropped on the suspicious conversation.
It seemed they were looking for someone.
As the train set off again, the dubious group soon crossed into another car.
Juliet thought it best to return to her cabin before getting dragged into something troublesome.
The black-clad men hiding swords earlier troubled her as well, and having spotted two suspicious groups, trouble was inevitable.
‘……But what about the scones?’
Juliet felt a pang of regret but decided she should head back to her cabin for now. Her teacup was empty anyway. However, just before she could rise from her seat, Eng returned with the tray, and Juliet smoothly settled back down.
‘Having tea and scones for lunch before returning to the cabin isn’t a bad idea. I can eat quickly and go.’
“You’ve been waiting! I’ll hand them out one by one.”
The aroma of freshly baked scones filled the dining car passengers, who had been eating primly, with eager anticipation.
The people sat obediently like well-behaved children, waiting their turns.
It was just then, as Eng with the tray reached right in front of Juliet.
“Aaagh!”
A faint scream echoed from afar.
The dining car door burst open.
“Everyone, don’t move!”
And sure enough.
Thugs in black uniforms burst in, drawing their swords with clichéd lines as they threatened the dining car passengers.
The only difference from moments ago was that they now wore black hoods concealing their lower faces.
Screams!
The people shrieked and cowered in their seats.
The thugs swiftly scanned the passengers with their eyes, then shoved or menaced them while brandishing blades with strangely curved edges—jambiyas.
Crash!
In the chaos, Eng was shoved aside and dropped the tray onto the floor.
With a deafening clatter, the metal tray overturned, spilling its load of scones everywhere.
Amid the panicked screams, only Juliet remained calmly seated in place.
Her gaze, while holding a small dessert plate, fixed on the overturned scone tray on the floor.
It had all happened in an instant.
“S-Sir. Put the sword away first and let’s talk…”
“Shut up!”
The thug who had suddenly charged in grabbed a hostage to control the passengers—the one who looked easiest to subdue.
He pressed the blade to the hostage’s throat and shouted with smug confidence.
“If you don’t want to see this woman’s head fly off, it’d be best not to move!”
The thug clearly had no idea what mistake he had just made.
Unfortunately for him, the hostage he had chosen was Juliet.
**
“!”
“Aaagh, aaagh!”
The innocent passengers knelt obediently with their backs turned, as the hostage-takers had ordered.
In the suffocating tension, the passengers squeezed their eyes shut at the horrific screams suddenly erupting from behind.
They assumed the poor woman taken hostage had resisted and been killed.
Villains who deserve divine retribution!
The terrified passengers trembled uniformly, inwardly lamenting the criminals’ brutality.
They prayed that the可怜 woman taken hostage had met a death with as little suffering as possible.
But in the next moment, what scrambled desperately into their view was a single masked hostage-taker.
“Sp-Spare… me…!”
The hostage-taker flailed on the floor in terror, as if he had witnessed something horrific, before passing out.
‘……Huh?’
The train car passengers, who cautiously glanced back, grew even more baffled.
What they saw were the black-uniformed thugs collapsed on the floor.
And standing there unharmed was a single slender woman who looked utterly non-threatening.
However, Juliet offered no explanation to the bewildered passengers.
Tsk.
She cast a briefly regretful glance toward the floor—but truly just briefly.
Juliet promptly cracked open the door leading to the forward car and peered through the gap to check the situation outside.
As expected, the area beyond was a melee of sword-wielding men tangled with the earlier group in utter pandemonium.
Juliet released four or five butterflies through the door crack.
“Huh?”
“Again?”
“What is this… Aaagh!”
She left the delighted butterflies to rampage through the train interior.
The butterflies swarmed the thugs slashing indiscriminately, inflicting nightmares upon them and devouring their fear.
Murderous plunderers brimming with malice—what a banquet for the butterflies that grew stronger by consuming emotions.
It would probably take them quite some time just to circle the train once.
Leaving the horrific screams behind, Juliet calmly shut the door again.
The situation needed sorting out, Juliet thought intuitively.
These were no mere train robbers.
The chaos engulfing the train stemmed from two main groups.
One was the attackers who had boarded later. They were searching for something.
“Search everywhere!”
“Lord!”
“Lord Roy! Where are you!”
Juliet surmised that the person they sought must be someone of high status.
The other group was the ones who had just taken Juliet hostage.
The black-hooded thugs appeared to be the kidnappers who had brought “Lord Roy” aboard.
Attackers and kidnappers.
Juliet pondered calmly.
It had nothing to do with her either way.
But the train failing to reach its destination properly was a major concern.
Juliet thought it might be better to quickly hand the kidnapped party over to those attackers and resolve the crisis.
But how?
How?
Pondering briefly, Juliet suddenly recalled that the rear of the dining car was the baggage compartment.
She also remembered that the black-hooded group had definitely loaded something large into this baggage car before boarding.
Just what could be worth all that?
“Urgh…”
The black-hooded man on the floor writhed, still unconscious.
Out of sheer annoyance, Juliet stomped firmly on the back of his hand once more before flinging open the door to the baggage car.
Slide.
The door opened easily, but the interior was darker than expected, so nothing was immediately visible.
She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, but aside from the iron bars, nothing special came into view…
Wait—iron bars?
Juliet’s eyes widened.
It was only natural that no other luggage was visible.
Filling the entire baggage car was a massive iron-barred cage, the sort used to transport ferocious carnivores.
Clank. The heavy clash of iron chains rang out.
Something stirred beyond the bars in the darkness. The next instant, Juliet flinched in surprise.
A pair of massive beast’s golden eyes glared piercingly at her from the shadows.
“…A wolf?”