Jens pressed his ear against the door. No presence could be sensed. After a moment’s hesitation, he pressed his body against the wall and slowly opened the door.

“…”

The moment he opened it, bright red sticky liquid seeped out like something crawling. Jens stared at it quietly, then carefully stepped into the next car, avoiding the blood.

Sure enough, a man lay collapsed near the entrance, bleeding from his neck. Around his neck were marks where a short dagger had been inserted and removed.

Judging from the amount of blood loss that the man was already dead, Jens stepped around the blood. Then he noticed something glittering.

“This is…”

Upon picking it up, he found it was a ring with a round blue gemstone. After staring at it intently, Jens stuffed it into the pocket that didn’t contain the revolver and continued forward.

Perhaps because of the gun in his pocket, Jens kept feeling mentally hazy despite needing to stay clearheaded in this situation.

Was it fear? His rational thinking, which he had never abandoned throughout his life, kept breaking off like a dotted line.

As a soldier, he had traversed countless battlefields. Being an officer who operated ships, devised strategies, and directed artillery fire, he had experienced relatively few direct hand-to-hand combats.

But he was familiar with scenes like this—managing damaged ships after bombardment, tending to injured sailors, or facing attacks that tore through the bridge.

The blood splattered everywhere suggesting knife combat, the windowsill full of marks where the blood’s owner had been pushed out of the train, and the corpse with traces of strangulation from behind.

‘At least three.’

The marks left on the neck of the person who died from suffocation weren’t from an ordinary string.

The deep impression of a cord in the center and the faint wrinkles around it.

This should have been a familiar, unremarkable scene to him, but thinking about who created this horrific spectacle sent chills down his spine.

What was it? Why would you go this far?

“Y-you are…”

Through fragments of thought, a voice reached him. A woman trembling in the compartment called out to him. Jens asked without thinking:

“Where is the Sini daughter?”

“Ah… Did you do this?”

About to reflexively deny it, Jens swallowed his response. Taking his silence as confirmation, the woman answered while trembling:

“Th-thank you for saving us. I-I’m Ranier Lüse. That…”

Jens examined the three women huddled in the corner of the compartment. None of them appeared to be the Sini daughter who was the terrorists’ target.

Several passengers crammed into other compartments peeked out but quickly retreated, shuddering at the gruesome scene.

“Where is the Sini daughter?”

Seemingly emboldened by his polite question, the woman who first spoke raised her head and said with a blank expression:

“You’re… Jens Will?”

“Must I ask three times?”

“Ah.”

The woman swallowed hard several times and stammered:

“They burst in, immediately checked faces, and their leader took her away. I think they went to another car…”

“Understood. Please stay inside.”

Jens replied curtly and turned sharply. The woman tried desperately to grab him but merely waved her hand in the air.

He hurried forward. With a feeling like one part of him was numb, he opened the front door.

Swish!

With a sound of air being sliced, a glittering silver line was drawn. Before the afterimage of the silver line disappeared, red liquid sprayed into the air. Beyond it, purple eyes widened.

“Jens…!”

Barely dodging the strike aimed at his vital point by leaning back, Jens grabbed the thin wrist of the girl holding the knife, ignoring the stream of blood running down his face.

Clatter, clatter.

The noise was loud outside. Jens reached back to slam the door shut, then lowered his head toward the girl and growled:

“What are you doing?”

It was quite a sight. The torn dress hung in tatters below her waist, and blood spattered across her face had already dried. Her hair, arms, and legs were covered in black smudges, perhaps from crawling around or from the train’s smoke.

But despite him speaking close to her ear, the girl seemed not to hear him and stammered, turning pale:

“W-wait. Blood. Jens. You’re bleeding.”

“Just answer my question. Why didn’t you escape? Why are you here doing this?”

“I’ll stop the bleeding, just let go of my hand.”

“Cadet. I told you to answer.”

At being called “cadet,” the girl finally flinched and stopped struggling.

“That…”

“Ignoring orders and acting on your own.”

Jens had closed one eye due to the blood flowing from his forehead down his face, but with the other eye, he coldly glared at Aira.

“Why? Did you think you could save me with your power?”

“I… No, I mean—”

“Consider yourself lucky you’re still just a cadet. If you were my subordinate, you’d be dismissed immediately for disobeying orders.”

“…”

“No. I wonder if you should even remain in the military.”

Aira bit her lip hard.

“What if you died? Is it so difficult to remember that you only have one life?”

Aira suddenly raised her head. Beneath his eyes, cold with anger, an unfamiliar emotion had settled.

That emotion, like water flowing under cracked ice…

But I really don’t mind dying. If I died despite my efforts, I could just go back in time and not board the train with him. My life isn’t just one.

“I suppose your promise to me wasn’t much of a promise.”

“Promise?”

“Didn’t you promise not to commit suicide?”

Aira’s eyes widened.

“This isn’t suicide, though.”

His grip loosened, seemingly not expecting that answer. He soon examined Aira’s wrist with a resigned expression. But apart from minor scratches, Jens’s injury was more severe, with blood streaming down his face from his cut forehead.

“A young woman taking on terrorists alone. That’s nothing but throwing your life away.”

Jens sighed and took off his coat, draping it over Aira’s disheveled head. She blinked in surprise.

“The leader of these terrorists is still in the engine room. He’s probably holding the Sini daughter hostage. We need to capture him too…”

But Jens ignored Aira’s protest and naturally took the short dagger from her grip, tossing it out of the train with apparent disgust.

“Good heavens! Lieutenant Commander?!”

“The little one doesn’t need to get involved.”

“What?”

“Look.”

Jens moved his body aside and nodded slightly toward the outside.

“Ah.”

Numerous steam automobiles were approaching. Though automobiles couldn’t match a train’s speed, they were catching up. No, the train they were on had already begun to slow down.

“Huh?!”

Bang, bang, bang.

Someone in the engine room beyond the tender car was firing a machine gun at the automobiles. But the automobiles dodged with ease and drew close to the nearly stopped train.

“Stay back! Unless you want to see this girl’s head blown off!”

Thud.

“Kyaah!”

The scream of the woman taken hostage rang out. But a sniper leaning out from one of the automobiles accurately shot through the criminal holding the hostage.

The train had stopped.

Automobiles surrounded the train, and armed individuals disembarked. Several of them approached Jens and Aira.

“Lieutenant Commander Jens Will. Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Not at all. Grand-Duke.”

Jens pushed Aira behind him and briefly saluted the man who had spoken.

The man returned the salute, but his hand gesture was subtly different. His combat uniform was also different from the navy’s…

‘Investigator?’

After greeting Jens, they turned their attention to Aira. Jens moved to shield her further and casually said:

“Is there a vehicle I can use? My companion seems to be in shock.”

“Ah, we’ll arrange one.”

“You’ll secure statements as needed, and I’ll send you a report separately.”

“Thank you.”

Though the investigator continued to glance at Aira while talking with Jens, as soon as the conversation ended, Jens wrapped her tightly in his coat from head to toe and lifted her up, seemingly determined not to expose her.

“Huh?!”

“Stay still. You’re injured.”

“What?”

Aira, who had been dazed by the hand supporting her back, struggled in surprise. He was the one who was injured!

But Jens held her tighter, signaling her to stay still, and walked toward where the investigator was guiding them.

Over Jens’s shoulder, Aira could see terrorists being dragged out of the train in succession. Unable to grasp the situation, she just stared blankly at Jens’s white chin.

* * *

The nearest city was Posier. Jens declined the investigators’ offer to escort them separately.

He secured a hotel in Posier and had a staff member arrange clothes for Aira.

Aira quickly requested a first aid kit as well, and the hotel staff, who had been stealing glances at Jens’s blood-covered face, brought one.

As soon as they reached the room, Aira sat him down, stood in front of him, and began cleaning the blood and disinfecting the wound. Fortunately, it was a shallow cut that didn’t require stitches.

Probably because Jens had dodged well and the knife was already dull.

Jens frowned, apparently finding the disinfection stinging.

Focusing on the treatment, Aira asked what she had been wondering about:

“How did the investigators get there?”

She couldn’t understand how they had reached the train.

“How? It’s only natural…”

“Pardon?”

Aira inadvertently touched his eyelid while wiping away blood that had flowed down from the wound on his forehead.

Jens reflexively pushed her hand away, but when the startled Aira withdrew her hand, he looked up at her.

“Investigators handle crimes that occur on land.”