Weren’t they supposed to be broken up?

Aira twisted her lips, finding her strange feelings even more perplexing.

Of course, this was just to escape their current situation and protect her hiding place, but what was this peculiar feeling?

The terrorists hesitated, seemingly believing his words.

“Wife?”

“…I heard that Jens Will was engaged to someone from the Schedel family.”

“Why else would I board this train without putting my name on the passenger list?”

Jens calmly spoke while moving closer to Schedel. Then he lightly tapped under the table.

Was he telling her not to worry and wait? Schedel seemed to understand as she tightly clutched Jens’s arm.

“…Meeting your fiancée alone… What a refined approach.”

“So would you mind overlooking my woman? I’ll stay quiet as you asked.”

“…”

Aira could sense their bewilderment in that silence. His attitude was completely different from what was portrayed in the media, so their reaction was understandable.

Though Aira knew he was acting, she somehow felt solidarity with the criminals. A hero who only cared about his lover’s safety while disregarding others? Hmm.

‘This won’t work.’

Although he was trying to protect her and Schedel, that kind of attitude might make the terrorists lose respect for Jens and change their minds. Aira concentrated.

Two months since entering the military academy.

The Empire was still dealing with civil unrest and defeat by the Republic, so they hadn’t made any significant moves yet, but soon the 3rd Prince, Jorge, would act.

Aira had prepared for that moment.

With materials Jens had saved for her before she died, her own efforts, and the education she’d received in the Empire since childhood, Aira’s magic skills were considerable. Additionally, she had intensively practiced this one technique for two months.

Swish.

Perhaps because everyone had fallen silent, all eyes turned toward the small sudden sound. Schedel quickly grabbed her shawl as it started to slip from her knees.

“I-I’m sorry. It was slipping down.”

“Hands up!”

Tension filled the air. Giorr, holding the gun, alternately pointed it at Jens and Schedel while slowly entering. Then he flipped the table upward.

“Ugh…”

But under the table was only the billowing fabric of a woman’s dress. Giorr glared at the lavender dress hem and gestured with his gun still pointed at Schedel.

“Lift it.”

“What?”

“I want to see what you’re hiding under your skirt. Lift it up.”

“Trying to look under a woman’s skirt. What a scoundrel.”

Giorr shifted his gun to Jens, who had muttered in an indifferent voice.

“I may respect you, but I won’t tolerate interference. Don’t move.”

“Hmm.”

Jens shrugged with his hands still raised. Schedel looked at him with a distressed expression, wondering what to do, but Jens remained calm.

With no choice, Schedel slightly lifted the hem of her dress. But Giorr glared at her, indicating she should lift it higher while keeping his gun pointed at Jens.

As Schedel hesitantly lifted her skirt higher, Giorr’s eyes widened.

“What… ugh.”

The moment Giorr tried to turn his gun from Jens to Schedel, she raised her knee and struck his chin upward.

Then she snatched the rifle from the staggering man and struck the back of his head with the butt of the gun.

“What’s happening?!”

Sieron, who had been standing at the entrance, immediately threw down the passenger list and pulled out a pistol from inside his jacket. At that moment.

Thwack!

Schedel tore off the table top that Giorr had lifted and smashed it into Sieron. It was a heavy wooden board.

“How dare you try to look under a woman’s skirt!”

“Oh.”

While Jens was expressing admiration, Sieron collapsed forward without even a scream, knocked unconscious. Then the remaining terrorist who had boarded this car, hearing the commotion, came running in.

“What’s going on… ugh!”

Schedel threw the table top she was holding at the approaching man. As he barely managed to dodge to the side and tried to aim his gun—

Bang!

In the brief moment after throwing the board, Schedel had drawn a small revolver from the garter belt under her dress and shot the man. He collapsed with a bullet in his shoulder.

Jens kicked away the rifle the man had dropped as he writhed in pain, and muttered:

“You could enlist right away with those skills.”

“Shut up. What are we going to do now?!”

Schedel glared at him, grinding her teeth.

* * *

“Ugh.”

Aira quickly activated magic in both arms to grab onto anything nearby and ducked her body.

The wind pressure had already blown away her shoes, and her hair and dress were flapping wildly as her body felt like it might fly away, but she managed to hold on.

Confirming that no patterns had appeared on her arms where the magic was active, Aira smiled slightly.

Practice makes perfect. She had failed several times during practice, but succeeded when it really mattered.

Magic involved engraving formulas representing the laws of the world onto one’s body and activating them using magical power. Consequently, these magical formulas would appear on the body whenever magic was activated.

There was no particular reason to hide this, and it also inspired awe toward the royal family who used magic, so no one gave much thought to the formulas themselves.

But Aira couldn’t let anyone know she could use magic now. So she layered another spell over her skin whenever she activated magic. To make it invisible.

This was a reckless act that could drain her lifespan twice as quickly since each spell required double the magical power, but Aira’s magic was frozen. It didn’t matter how much she used.

This was her first attempt in a real situation, but it worked. She activated magic invisibly and moved onto the top of the train. She would need to come up with an explanation for Jens later, but for now, she had to move. She briefly worried about the compartment she’d left—hopefully there wouldn’t be any trouble now that she was gone. But there was no time to dwell on it.

Aira pushed the ring she’d been wearing into her chest, took off the fabric decorative corset that was tightly cinching her waist, and held it in her mouth. Then she drew a short dagger from her thigh—something she had purchased after leaving the academy before arriving at the station.

Aira silently apologized to Sharne who had lent her the dress, and placed the knife against the dress skirt. The strong wind tore the skirt apart without much effort. Fortunately, she was wearing short pants underneath.

She had brought the knife just in case, but never expected to use it like this.

Aira smiled wryly, rolled up the torn skirt, tied one end with a ribbon string pulled from the corset, and tucked it at her side. Then she crawled toward the front of the train.

‘But I don’t know the train’s structure…’

Aira raised her head slightly to look ahead.

The car she had been riding in was first class, so it was near the front. There appeared to be one more car in front of the one she was currently on, and in front of that was the tender car loaded with fist-sized black lumps of coal occasionally gleaming with gold.

The locomotive was at the very front.

‘The hostages including Sini’s daughter must be in the car ahead. They must have seized the engine room too, judging by the earlier shaking. And there must be more of them in the regular seats in the rear cars. I wonder if Jens is okay.’

Aira crawled across the train roof without stopping until she reached the point where she could see down to the connection to the next car.

One of the terrorists was guarding the door with a bored expression.

‘I’ll take care of him first.’

Aira tied the string of the dress bundle at her side to a pipe protruding from the ceiling. Then she threw it in the direction the guard was looking.

“What’s that?!”

Thud.

While his attention was diverted, she jumped down behind him. Without a moment’s hesitation, she plunged her knife into his waist.

“Ugh.”

The terrorist, caught by surprise, tried to turn his gun around. But Aira quickly pulled out the knife and kicked him off the train, using leg strength enhanced by her concealed magic.

Whoooo-!

The train continued on indifferently, blowing its whistle.

‘One down.’

* * *

After roughly tying up the three terrorists with torn curtains, treating their wounds, and shoving them into an empty compartment, Jens dusted off his hands and asked Schedel:

“Would you prefer the rifle or that revolver?”

“Obviously I prefer what I’m used to… Wait a minute. Listen, I’m not shooting anyone else. You’re the soldier here—do something.”

“I’ll do what I can, but I need your help. You use that revolver for now…”

Jens looked at the two rifles and pistol taken from the terrorists, then at the attendants and passengers who were cautiously emerging.

“I need your cooperation. You, the attendant with green hair, and you with brown hair. And you there. Step forward.”

“W-what?”

“Pardon?”

“Each of you take a weapon and you two go to the back door. They’ll notice something’s wrong soon and come running. Wait on either side of the door and catch anyone who comes in. The terrain gives us an advantage, so just deal with whoever comes. No need to cross over deliberately.”

“U-us?”

“How?”

Jens nodded at the three confused individuals.

“And the brown-haired attendant and Ms. Schedel, please follow me.”

Schedel shrieked at Jens who was pointing at her.

“I won’t do it! Don’t you see how I’m dressed? How am I supposed to catch armed terrorists?!”

Jens alternately looked at the table top Schedel had thrown and the terrorist who was groaning after being shot. Schedel’s face turned bright red.

“That was a coincidence!”

“That was impressive physical prowess. I’m not sure whether Admiral Schedel would be proud or dismayed.”

He was asking why she hadn’t become a soldier despite her military training. Schedel, having no retort, flushed red and blue before exclaiming:

“You’ll protect my life, right?”

Jens shrugged.

“On the contrary, you need to protect mine.”

At his ridiculous wordplay, Schedel let out an incredulous laugh.