Chapter 70
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: The Train and the Mage (3)
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"It's 'common sense' that accidents happen when you ride a train."
"..."
A heavy silence settled over the compartment.
Raymond Cloud, the department head, had just been about to summon a spirit and deploy defensive magic. His mouth hung open as he stared at Lunaris Evermoon.
Common sense?
He couldn't comprehend what she was saying at all.
Raymond's mind began to tangle in confusion.
Logically speaking, predicting this train terrorist attack was next to impossible.
The risks were enormous compared to the returns.
From the terrorists' perspective, it was an assault with no motive or payoff.
Honestly, even Raymond—who also served as an elder of the Mage Tower—thought the magitech train was pretty (no, extremely) inefficient as a mode of transport.
Was there really any reason to attack it? Leaving it alone would cause more long-term damage, wouldn't it?
Just to make a show of force?
To spread fear?
Or to send some kind of message?
If the goal was simply to inflict casualties, wouldn't occupying a poorly defended frontier village be far more efficient?
'Or... are they targeting the mages on this train?'
That would make a bit more sense.
The train's enclosed structure made it vulnerable to terrorism.
And it wasn't just ordinary mages aboard.
It offered a chance to take down two archmages.
Seen in that light, the strategic value was surprisingly substantial.
If they viewed Lunaris as a quasi-archmage who had just reached the pinnacle of upper mage, they might want to eliminate her before she grew further.
Rushing into this terrorist act wasn't entirely incomprehensible.
The problem was that Lunaris's talent exceeded anything they could have imagined.
'But how did they know Lunaris and I would be on this train?'
Information must have leaked somewhere.
Did they intercept the message sent to the Mage Tower?
Or... could there be a spy inside the academy?
Raymond furrowed his brow, retracing his recent actions.
-Starting next semester, we'll have two archmages at Elterion Academy!
-What? The title hasn't even been bestowed yet, has it? That's why I'm heading to the Mage Tower tomorrow! Ohohoho!!
"..."
Ah. Upon reflection, there were far too many suspects.
He suddenly regretted bragging to everyone he met on campus.
He'd even kindly announced the departure date.
'If I'd known, I would've kept my mouth shut.'
Raymond smacked his lips with his palm needlessly.
But there was something even stranger.
Fine, he had leaked the info, allowing the terrorists to plan.
'...But how did Lunaris know?'
There were too many inconsistencies to dismiss as mere intuition.
She seemed to know exactly that an explosion would hit this train at this precise time and place.
As if she'd seen the future.
"...No way?!"
A sudden hypothesis sent cold sweat trickling down the department head's back.
She looked at Lunaris again.
Lunaris casually twirled her fingers with a composed expression.
-Crunch! Cr-r-runch!
With each gesture, a wyvern crumpled like a wad of paper. The grotesque sight was beyond words.
Her magic even seemed optimized to minimize explosion damage from the terrorist attack.
Before the blasts could occur, she compressed space itself, trapping the energy in spatial rifts.
'Did she really foresee the future...?'
Several odd details came to mind.
Her unusual reluctance to ride the magitech train.
When the wyverns shattered the windows in a deafening explosion, she hadn't panicked—instead, she'd reacted calmly with a "Finally here?"
Until now, Raymond had believed Lunaris's signature magic originated from 'space.'
Her telekinesis magic, her power to warp space.
Her ability to construct her own world was essentially authority over space.
But now...
Perhaps she was proficient not just in space, but in 'time' as well.
After all, a world was a fusion of space-time.
This realization sent a shiver down his spine.
Lunaris might possess far greater potential than even he imagined.
Furthermore...
'Lunaris's laziness...'
It might stem from the ennui inevitably felt by one who unconsciously glimpses the future.
Why bother struggling against fate when you know what's coming?
'To her, this world must be like a novel with a predetermined ending...'
Of course, Raymond's reasoning contained a massive flaw.
From the perspective of one who knew all truths, it was remarkably close to Lunaris's true nature.
"H-huh, ugh... D-Dean Raymond, sir. What the hell is that...?"
At that moment, Benjamin muttered in a trembling voice from where he sat slumped on the floor.
"Crushing wyverns whole like that... What kind of magic is that?!"
His face was drained white with terror.
Ironic, since his fear targeted not the wyverns, but Lunaris.
"..."
Raymond swallowed hard without a word.
Truth be told, he was just as shocked.
"Honestly, even I was startled the first time I saw her magic."
Unlike usual, Raymond responded calmly and earnestly.
"In terms of talent alone, she's surpassed me long ago."
At this point, boasting felt pointless.
"Don't tell me... she's manipulating air with telekinesis?"
"That's what I thought at first, but it's not mere telekinesis."
Raymond slowly shook his head.
"I'll explain in more detail during the archmage evaluation, but Lunaris's magic originates from altering the world itself."
Going beyond simply changing the world.
Benjamin unwittingly sucked in a breath at the notion of defining nature's laws by her will.
Meanwhile, Lunaris was wrapping things up.
Just a few months ago, in the forest facing a wyvern pack, she'd nearly collapsed from mana exhaustion.
Now, a few gestures effortlessly dispatched them.
She even contained the exploding magic stones.
One semester at Elterion Academy.
Lunaris had achieved explosive growth without realizing it.
"Hmm..."
Lunaris flung all the wyverns out the window.
She dusted off her spotless clothes and scanned the first-class compartment.
A tense silence blanketed the room.
Yet the magitech train chugged along the tracks as if nothing had happened.
"If we were attacked, shouldn't the train have stopped...?"
Lunaris muttered to herself.
"VIP first-class passengers get assaulted, and no one shows up? That doesn't make sense..."
They couldn't possibly be unaware.
"The engineer, the crew... they must be unable to come."
Threatened, dead, or accomplices.
"Whatever, not my problem..."
Lunaris's azure eyes swept over the first-class passengers one by one.
Like a predator selecting prey.
Or an inspector culling defective goods from a display.
Arrogant mages and greedy merchants alike.
The moment their eyes met hers, they hurriedly looked away.
The image of her crushing monsters with a single finger was still fresh.
Soon, her gaze locked on a man huddled in the corner.
Clutching his bag, trembling.
An ordinary, timid-looking middle-aged man utterly out of place in first class.
"...Huh? Wh-what?!"
As Lunaris reached out, the man's body floated into the air.
"Y-you're insane! Let me go! H-help!"
The airborne man bellowed indignantly.
His desperate flailing broke the silence; passengers began murmuring.
"Sh-shouldn't we stop your student, sir?"
Benjamin whispered anxiously to Raymond.
"Just wait. It's Lunaris—she wouldn't act without reason."
She's not one to stir up trouble needlessly, the department head replied, shaking his head.
Truthfully, few understood her as well as he did.
"Mister."
"L-let me down first! Do you know who I am?"
"Shut up. You're giving me a headache."
Lunaris lazily picked at her ear with her pinky.
"And drop the act. I'm interrogating you because I already know everything."
"Wh-what do you...?"
"The mana wavelength from the self-destruct magic stones embedded in the wyverns matches the one coming from you."
"...What?"
The man's face hardened instantly.
Raymond and the others gasped involuntarily.
Analyzing mana wavelengths amid that chaos?
Lunaris twitched her finger.
A red magic stone tumbled from the man's pocket.
Identical to those in the wyverns' hides.
"N-no! I don't know anything! Why is this on me... Aaaagh!"
Before he could protest, his right arm twisted at an unnatural angle.
"Sigh..."
Lunaris caught the red stone, plopped into a seat, and crossed her legs.
"I don't know if you're an accomplice or a victim, but you definitely contacted the 'real' culprit."
"...!"
"So spill everything. Appearance, what they said—anything relevant."
Her voice was flat.
All the more chilling for it.
"Keep bullshitting, and I'll rip your arm off."
"U-ugh..."
Pained, terrified groans escaped the man.
Her emotionless demeanor made him question if they were even the same species.
"I-I'm really innocent! They just... paid me big to deliver this stone to the Mage Tower...!"
"Who?"
"I don't know! They gave me a first-class ticket and a fat deposit! If I'd known, I never would've...!"
Just a courier, then.
Lunaris clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"Description? Even roughly."
"Face... couldn't see it. Black hood... but a beard... Gahk!"
Suddenly, the man's eyes rolled back.
Foam bubbled from his mouth.
"Grrk-! Gr-r-rk...!"
He convulsed midair, then went limp.
Black smoke poured from his mouth and nose; his skin charred black.
"Aaaah!"
"What the hell?!"
Lunaris tapped the red stone in her hand and sighed.
"Looks like I got tangled with some annoying bastard."
She flung the stone out the window.
Boom—it exploded distantly.
Lunaris dusted her hands and returned to her seat.
She unpacked her lunch again.
"Handle the aftermath, Dean. Nyaam—"
Raymond gaped as she bit into a sausage like nothing happened.
"Aftermath? What do you mean?"
"You know, reports, cleanup—all that."
"Of course I'd..."
"But the attack isn't over yet."
"...Pardon?"
"Doesn't the train still moving feel off?"
"...!"
Noticing grim omens never fails.
As the train entered a sharp curve hugging the mountainside...
-Rumble-rumble-ruuuuumble!!
The steep cliff above the tracks collapsed entirely.
"A landslide...!"
The timing was impeccable.
As if they knew the train would pass here exactly now.
"Those crazy bastards...!"
"Dean, you're in charge now. I used too much mana earlier..."
"What are you talking about? You're perfectly fine!"
"Well... I did use a lot."
Anyway, good luck.
She gave a small, encouraging fist pump before leaning back comfortably.
Infuriatingly punchable.
Raymond seethed, but had no retort.
She'd handled everything so far alone.
His dignity as dean was in tatters.
"Damn it...!"
With Raymond's irritated shout, an earth spirit materialized.
"Whoever you are, you won't get away!"
Formulas and magic circles filled the cramped car; the ground outside began to quake.