Ah. We're Plummeting.
Ah. We're Plummeting.
A train crashed.
The cause was simple.
—A fuel defect in the manastones.
Manastones, by their nature, are not uniform in quality.
When a stone with excessively coarse mana is fed in as fuel, it causes failures in mana-engineering equipment.
So, strictly speaking, the fault lay not with the stones themselves, but with the refinement process that turned them into fuel, and with the operators who dismissed the minor hazard warnings.
However.
Three things made the continent erupt over the 「Manastone Train Derailment Incident」.
First: Most people perceived manastones as a perfect power source.
A manastone was, after all, fuel that harnessed mana. To the average person, it looked no different from a mage wielding mysterious powers. Thus, the public image of anything manastone-powered was that it was sophisticated, mystical, and flawless.
That image had shattered.
Second: That train was the dream of every commoner.
The 「Northern Mountain Range Cross-Continental Train」.
A train threading a precarious path between sheer cliffs. To savor the breathtaking scenery of the northern mountains from the security of a cutting-edge mana-engineering train, surrounded by family or parents—that was the dream of every successful commoner.
To afford a single passenger cabin, some would save most of their labor income. Others plunged into stock speculation and gambling.
Their dream had crashed.
And lastly, the third reason.
—Isn't there a mage on board?! This is an emergency, an emergency!
—The manastone engine isn't responding! The stones, the stones...! Please help...! Aaaagh! We're falling!
—A thunderous boom—!
By chance, a journalist of exceptional professional resolve was aboard. His camera was destroyed, but the magical film inside survived intact.
The footage captured the moment the train plunged from the cliff. The engineer's voice was preserved with horrifying clarity.
[The stones, the stones...!]
That desperate cry
was more than enough to run as the headline of every newspaper.
◆
—A piercing shriek!
The train began to slide backward, a hideous grinding noise filling the air.
The newspaper headline surfaced in Ian's mind.
'But according to the original story, where the heroines take on the request and go, I shouldn't be on this train.'
That was the very reason he had failed to predict the unfolding event.
He understood instantly.
'Ah.'
The departure had been relatively early.
It was because he had drawn the Crown Princess's immediate attention.
Or perhaps
"Wh-What in the world is going on?!"
it had something to do with the journalist beside him who was kicking up a fuss while still grabbing his camera.
Whatever the case...
"Goddamn butterfly effect."
Ian stopped thinking about the cause.
Naturally, finding a solution was the priority.
Or simply hoping that this feeling of déjà vu was his imagination.
As if to forbid even that vain hope, the front door connected to the engineer's cabin flew open.
"I-Is there, by any chance, a mage among the passengers?! This is an emergency, an emergency!"
The engineer, his face white as a sheet, cried out desperately.
Ian could already guess what the man was about to say next.
"The manastone engine isn't responding!"
He turned his head. Schwab had already raised his camera. Ever the consummate professional, he was snapping photos of the engineer's face.
Right. This part would be the headline, so he'd better get a good shot.
"Th-The stones...! Please, help...!"
The only people here were Ian's party and the journalist.
Ian, having confirmed that Schwab had even loaded a fresh film reel, asked a question.
"If we keep going like this, what happens?"
"We are executing the emergency stop protocol at maximum capacity, but th-there isn't much time! If the braking system fails, we will keep accelerating along the track. And of all places, to be this close!"
The path they had climbed was dreadfully distant through the window.
"And then?"
"The attitude-control mana-engineering system will also fail, so a derailment is... is inevitable!"
"What about an evacuation?"
"One side is blocked by the mountain; the doors won't even open. And the other side, as you can plainly see..."
Everyone glanced to the side.
A cliff veiled in cloud-like mist, its bottom invisible.
Ian didn't bother to look down.
—Aaaagh! We're falling!
—A thunderous boom—!
The future was obvious if things proceeded like this.
"Do you have any guesses as to what the problem is?"
"Most likely the fuel..."
"How far to the summit?"
"A thousand feet. We only need to advance a thousand more feet to reach the summit."
About three hundred meters.
That meant if they could just drag the train that far, it would be resolved.
The question was, how?
"We have to minimize the weight."
Danya murmured.
Ian nodded.
"We abandon the rear car."
"Along with all the commoners? Urk—!"
At the engineer's words, Ian found himself looking at the man as if he were a bug.
Letting out a small sigh, he gave a command to Karen.
"Karen! Move all civilians to this car."
"Understood."
"And Danya! Come out to the fuel bay with me. Rina, stand by for now."
"Okay!"
◆
The manastones were loaded atop each car.
That meant inspecting them required stepping outside the train and climbing up the exterior ladder.
—Clank. Clank.
"The door seems broken, nya."
With the mana supply cut, even the doors wouldn't operate properly.
Ian carefully applied force to the hinge.
With a wobble, the detached door tumbled down the cliff.
—Thud. Thud. Thu-ump—
No sound of impact rose; the bottom was unknowably far.
—A howling rush!
In its place, a knifelike wind surged, sharp enough to lacerate the skin.
Ian clung to the exterior maintenance ladder.
'...Hoo.'
He exhaled a deep breath despite himself as he glanced behind.
An abyss so distant the eye could not find its end.
Fall from here, and they'd be lucky to find even a fragment of the body.
"Ian, over here!"
Danya, who had leaped up first, waved her hand.
When it came to agility, she was peerless.
"As expected, the manastones are in terrible shape."
He concentrated his mana detection and let it spread; the remaining stones' mana felt coarse and of abysmal quality.
Normally, the mana ratio in fuel-grade manastones was nine to ten percent.
But the remaining stones barely had half that concentration, and he could feel a mass of other impurities.
"Hmm."
He fed a stone—extracted and purified of contaminants—into the inlet.
It went in smoothly.
"Ooh!"
But this was a drop in the ocean.
One fist-sized manastone at a time, it might be feasible. But he couldn't align multiple stones with synchronized output ratios simultaneously.
'I'm a human, not a machine.'
That was when—
—Jolt!
The train lurched heavily.
"...Ian."
A nameless feeling of foreboding crept in.
—Screech.
The train's descent began to accelerate.
"—Aaaah! The brakes!"
The scream from the car below belonged to the engineer.
The train had begun to pick up speed, dragged down by gravity.
◆
'So this is where I die.'
Schwab the journalist squeezed his eyes shut.
At the very least, he resolved to preserve the magical film, wrapping it tightly in layers of clothing... when—
—A thunderous groan!
Following Rina and Karen, he scrambled out of the passenger car.
He climbed the ladder onto the top of the train and was greeted by an astonishing sight.
"Wh-What in... what is..."
An immense wall was blocking the train's movement.
Schwab, stunned, rubbed his eyes once before raising his camera.
Rina and Karen were just as shocked as he was, for the same reason.
"Eh? Did—Did you summon that, Ian?"
"What are you..."
Ian calmly turned to Karen and asked,
"What's the status of the passenger car?"
"...All civilians have been relocated."
"Surprisingly deft at handling people, I see."
"No. I knocked them all unconscious."
"...?"
But that exchange was brief.
—Crack.
Fissures began to spread across the wall.
"It will crumble soon. At that moment, Karen, detach the last car."
As Ian had predicted, the wall collapsed.
Karen flashed her dagger. With a jolt, the rearmost car began to slide backward first.
Derailed at the same instant, the passenger car tumbled down the cliff.
No sound of it striking the bottom was heard.
—Boom!
Another wall Ian had summoned blocked the train's tail once more.
"Losing one car has reduced the weight, but we can't keep stopping it like this."
"Mana isn't infinite."
"We have to find a way to pull the train forward somehow."
Ian's party racked their brains for a solution.
Schwab swallowed nervously but kept his camera rolling.
Stopping a train weighing dozens of tons clearly had its limits. Dragging it forward on an incline would be even harder.
He was no expert in this field, but it was common sense.
The mana of a handful of mages alone couldn't propel this massive train forward. And physically pushing it up the track was impossible in a space that was barely wide enough for the rails to begin with.
Something that should have been impossible.
'...But somehow, if it's him, I feel like he might pull it off.'
Watching Ian stirred a strange sense of anticipation.
And sure enough, he opened his mouth.
"Interaction."
'...Interaction?'
Schwab frowned at the unfamiliar term but did not let his hands leave the camera.
"Danya. Remember the germination back then? When we made the seed and broke through Yulan's barrier."
"Y-Yeah!"
"We're going to make that seed as big as possible. And it needs to be tough. Affix it to the rear of the train."
"I'll do my best!"
Ian immediately turned his body toward Karen.
"Lady Karen."
"Yes."
"When Danya creates the seed, pour water into it. Ideally in the form of steam."
"Understood."
Next was Rina.
"Rina."
"Yeah!"
"Slowly heat the seed."
An enormous seed latched onto the back of the train.
A bubbling, boiling sound came from within it.
'...What's he trying to do?'
A brief pause, as Schwab's question hung in the air.
Ian coated the seed in a thin layer of metal.
Thick on the side attached to the train, thin on the opposite.
—Grrrrrrrrrgle!
The bizarre seed began to emit increasingly grotesque sounds.
"I-Isn't that going to explode, nya?"
Danya whispered.
"Exactly. Hold on tight!"
The moment Ian yelled, he snatched the back of Schwab's neck.
KABOOOOOOOOOOM—!
In an instant, the train rocketed forward.
"Th-Thank you—"
"Just like that, one more time!"
KABOOM—!
A staggering surge of acceleration.
Half out of his mind, Schwab clicked away on instinct alone.
Someone shouted.
"A-A curve up ahead!"
True to the warning, a section that bent sharply to the left hurtled toward them.
A derailment at this speed looked certain.
Ian barked a hasty order.
"Karen! Push all the civilians below to the left side!"
"Got it!"
At the same instant, Ian summoned a wall on the train's left.
The train tilted precariously, as if about to tip over.
—A harrowing grind!
It barely made the turn.
And soon after, the mountain summit came into view.
Forgetting all dignity, Schwab threw up a triumphant cheer.
"Aaaahh, we're alive...!"
The scenery captured at the summit was terrifyingly beautiful.
◆
"Phew."
Ian let out a small sigh.
An explosion that utilized a linked interaction of Grass-Earth-Water-Fire. It had been half a gamble, but it worked out more cleanly than expected.
"Waaaaah!"
"I thought we were done for, nya..."
"Hm."
Everyone was celebrating and expressing relief in their own ways.
The sight of them reassuring each other made them seem like something of a team now.
Though most of it was praise directed at Ian, of course.
At that moment,
Rina raised her hand with a bright smile.
"But there's something I'm curious about."
All eyes gathered on her.
"What do we do about the downhill?"
An innocent question.
—Crack.
Right on cue, the train, having reached the end of the short plateau at the summit, tilted, pitching forward.
"Excellent point, Rina."
That day, Schwab, journalist for the Imperial Times, ultimately passed out.