Chapter 95: Chapter 95

"Your Highness Prince Veric. The chief steward asked me to deliver this...."

Irene, who had brought the letter laced with personal feelings, cut herself off at the icy atmosphere inside the carriage.

After Yaan had cut Veric's words short, an awkward silence had lingered in the train for a while.

Paying no heed to Irene, who was clearly on edge, Yaan let the rattling train rock him as he turned his gaze away from Prince Veric-lost in thought-and watched the scenery outside the window change.

The golden wheat fields that had filled the view had already turned into lush green plains.

While thinking how much land there still was, Yaan frowned at a strange sound coming from far away.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-!

The noise had been growing ever since they reached the plains. The sound of something heading this way.

Footsteps-countless footsteps-unlike any engine or mana core of a colossus, were drawing nearer.

Yaan's eyes narrowed as he stared out the window.

"We found him! The Sixth Prince!"

"Increase speed! This time we take him for sure!"

Kicking up a cloud of dust as they galloped toward the train were dozens of horses-and on them....

"I see it too. That's... the Rubra Liberation Army!"

Bullets shattered the windows the moment Veric finished speaking.

"Enemy assault! Enemy assault!"

At the lookout's shout, the company members aboard the train grabbed their weapons as one.

Meanwhile, hundreds of rounds poured into the carriage, and the soldiers dived under the seats at the sudden attack.

"It's a machine gun! We can't respond !"

While they kept their heads down, one of the raiders up front leveled his rifle at Prince Veric, who had taken cover.

"Death to Vailsar! Glory to Rubra!"

"Irene! Rifle! Hurry!"

The instant Yaan barked, the rifle flew to him; he leaned out the window and took aim.

[Trajectory predicted. Aim correction.]

A single shot fired without zeroing or aligning the sights. Yet the bullet drilled cleanly through the rider's forehead and toppled him from the saddle.

"He hit him in that split second?!"

The moment the voice-module in his left eye picked up the Liberation Army's startled cries, Yaan drew the pistol from his holster without wasting a second.

[Continuous firing angle calculated. Target acquired.]

As Nill's voice echoed in his head, Yaan fired four shots in rapid succession with the pistol in one hand.

Near-automatic speed.

A wild spray from an unsteady stance, yet guided by Glaepnir's auto-aim, the rounds once again pierced four foreheads.

"The vanguard's down!"

"Damn it, what is this guy?!"

In the moment Yaan bought them, the Greyhound company members, each now behind cover, opened up with rifles out the windows.

"Aim for the horses! Bring them down!"

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-!

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-!

Unlike Yaan's single-shot rifle, every Greyhound rifle boasted a rate of fire near that of a machine gun, thanks to dwarf tech.

The moment black muzzles flared, the Liberation riders galloping alongside the train collapsed in heaps.

"They've boarded the rear cars!"

"Irene! Get to the engine and guard the chief steward!"

The momentary opening was all Irene needed; she sprinted straight for the front car.

Twenty soldiers were currently aboard the train.

While they fought the flanking enemies, more Liberation forces kept boarding and tightening the noose.

"All reserves are in the rear! We're running low on remaining rounds!"

"Then guard His Highness. I'll open the way."

With that, Yaan sprayed pistol rounds toward the door.

Using Nill's aim-correction-already scanned from the train's layout-he dropped two more coming through the wall, and the enemy ducked for cover.

"Your Highness. Are you unharmed?"

"Worry about the train, not me! They plan to detach the rear cars and make off with the colossus and the supplies!"

'Buying time by taking cover, huh?'

Yaan swapped magazines, then checked the positions of the hidden foes.

"Two left, third window. One right, sixth window. Two right, twelfth window. Prepare to fire."

At Yaan's command, three company members took positions on either side of the door and leveled rifles.

The instant Yaan kicked the bottom of the door for a firing angle-

"Eat this, you Vailsar bastards...!"

The soldiers' rifles found the foreheads of the Liberation troops who had popped out.

"Yaan, how do you know exactly where the ambushers are?"

"Call it instinct. Just leave it at that."

Veric's eyes widened at the sight of Yaan tagging targets through walls and predicting positions, but Yaan brushed him off and advanced slowly toward the rear cars.

[Switching to infrared. Multiple hostiles. Some units working.]

His left eye's vision inverted, and multicolored silhouettes appeared.

After confirming their positions, Yaan reached out and took the offered rifle.

It was an anti-materiel rifle twice the size of a standard one.

A single round punched through a wooden wall and three chairs, devouring two Liberation soldiers.

"They've shot through to here?! Too fast!"

The Liberation troops cursed while hurrying to uncouple the rear cars.

But now that Yaan had reached them, their plan was doomed.

[Pilot proximity confirmed. Remote authorization complete. Glaepnir, system start.]

At Yaan's signal, Glaepnir rose to its waist aboard the moving train.

"Wh-what?! There was a knight inside?!"

"The colossus is awakening! Run!"

Seeing Glaepnir stand with red eyes blazing, the Liberation troops dropped their tools and leapt from the train.

"You stupid bastards!"

"Just board it and kill the pilot inside...!"

A high-caliber round from Yaan's rifle blew the head off the soldier trying to climb onto Glaepnir.

Leaving the corpse behind, Yaan kept signaling the artificial module in his left eye-Nill.

"Nill. Analyze the ones outside."

[Analyzing... outfit data matches the "cowboys" of the pioneering era. Related footage confirms Clint Eastwood's...]

"Not that, enemy numbers and weapons!"

Damn, a tin can that can't understand unless you speak properly.

[Analysis complete. Seventy additional hostile lifeforms confirmed moving behind the train. Armed with lever-action rifles, revolvers, etc.]

"Right, that's what I mean."

Saying so, Yaan smiled as he looked toward the rear car of the train.

Fortunately all the troopers are gathered in this car right now, and the only thing the enemy's close to is the reserve ammo and shells.

"They're this desperate-means no more reinforcements for them."

With that thought Yaan opened his mouth while looking at Glaepnir loaded in the freight car.

"Load machine-gun rounds. Decouple the train and grind those bastards together with it."

The moment Yaan's brief order came, Glaepnir's arm turned toward them.

The coupling pin between train cars snapped, and the derailed carriage crushed the pursuing Liberation Army in an instant.

"That crazy bastard derailed the train!"

And the instant he confirmed it-

"Everybody! Cover your ears!"

Together with Yaan's roar, the machine gun mounted on Glaepnir's arm blazed toward the derailed train.

With a metallic shriek the train bucked violently, then the scattered ammo at the impact site ignited and a massive explosion followed.

"Serves them right, you bastards!"

A battle finished in an instant on a speeding train.

And the huge explosion that came with the victory report drove the troopers wild.

"Ha, hahaha! Hwahahaha!"

Hearing Prince Veric's hearty laugh, Yaan turned his head toward him.

"Rebuilding that railroad's going to give my aide a headache! Hahahaha!"

Prince Veric laughed with the troopers, but Yaan's eyes darkened as he watched.

'The Liberation Army said they'd kill him for good this time. Which means he's been threatened more than once...'

Ever since leaving the city the prince's life had been threatened, yet he'd come to his own territory with nothing but stewards-no escort?

Across these vast plains?

Watching Prince Veric chuckle, Yaan soon let out a small sigh as he looked at the buildings appearing beyond the horizon.

"Company commander! Target in sight! It's Runes!"

Irene, who'd been protecting the chief steward while he worried about the gunfight on the train, stuck out her head and shouted toward them.

The great city of Rubra, Runes, built in the middle of the plains, began to show itself.

"G-Governor-General Veric!"

"You're not hurt anywhere, are you?! Really!"

Twenty troopers led by Dandel disembarked with Prince Veric, while six including Yaan and Ren, still in disguise, would get off at the next station.

"All right. Let's go."

At Yaan's single line, the eight-man recon team stepped down and their eyes lit up as they surveyed the colony's streets.

"Going by size, it's bigger than Capital Vailsar, isn't it?"

Runes, a metropolis rivaling Capital Vailsar of the Empire.

Seeing the station packed with people, the recon team's heads spun on the spot.

"The city's about the same size, but the population density is more than triple."

While staring at the densely packed people, Ren continued her explanation.

Ren's hair, dyed the same black as Yaan's while she gripped his arm, reminded him of the troopers' shock at her instant dye job.

He gave a wry smile recalling how they'd freaked.

"Amazing. Until a moment ago it was all wheat fields..."

"With few settlements, the population clusters in a few cities. Among them, Runes is the only city the Empire can't touch."

"Which means it's the only place colonists can live like human beings."

Yaan and Ren answered Irene's questions in turn.

For colonists suffering under Imperial exploitation, simply living here was huge comfort.

"The city's structure is unusual."

A city stretching beyond the human sea.

Looking at the wall surrounding the whole metropolis, Yaan narrowed his eyes.

"The colonists' last bastion... closer to a fortress than a city. Troop deployments-"

He muttered, impressed by the familiar layout he'd seen in the Kelt Holy See.

A small boy bumped his shoulder into Yaan's waist.

A hood covering his whole face, the boy bowed quickly and disappeared.

One of the troopers called after him the moment he saw.

Watching the boy vanish into the crowd, Yaan tilted his head.

When Yaan spoke, one trooper sighed and opened his mouth.

Marek, the rookie who'd just joined the unit.

"Company commander, your wallet just got lifted."

Yaan frowned at that, but when Marek pulled something out, he could only laugh in defeat.

At that moment the boy who'd fled at Yaan's voice checked his haul with a snicker, but then tilted his head in puzzlement.

Gone. The wallet he'd definitely slipped into his pocket had vanished in the blink of an eye.

Behind him, Yaan waved an old wallet and spoke.