The System Alert

Mattheus immediately turned around and ran.

Everyone had thankfully been mostly sitting in this coach car—also why he was able to see Benjamin Michaels in the first place—so he only needed to hop over random luggage before reaching the car door again.

He opened the door and saw in the corner of his eyes they were giving chase. There was a slight headstart since the group had at been at the front and he had discovered them less than halfway through the coach car.

Mattheus cursed as he dashed out. He vaulted over the guardrails without hesitation. Opening the door to the last coach car that he walked through once already.

"Out of the way!" he warned as he moved as fast as he could down the aisle.

What could he do? They were trapped in a moving train and he was going to quickly run out of train cars to chase through, already being near the end of the train. Excluding Michaels, there were at least five very built men that could probably break him like a twig.

Were they going to reach the next stop soon?

But Mattheus already knew the answer to that question. He had only spent ten minutes at most on the train, so had at least another 15 minutes to go. Fifteen minutes of trying to dodge six or more men sounded almost impossible in the cramped confines of the moving vehicle.

"Climb up!" Brunilda suddenly yelled.

Mattheus had just entered another car which was stupidly cramped this time. "What?" he exclaimed incredulously as he picked up the child at the aisle and put him on the nearest lap. It was probably not the kid's father but as long as there was no risk of running a child over, the young man couldn't care that much under the circumstance.

"The next car is the last!"

"Hey! Sir, there was no need to—" one of the passengers looked indignant.

There was a fifty percent chance she was the mother of the child that had been running up and down the aisle.

"No time!" he almost yelled at the woman who reminded him of Theo's mother with the self-righteous nagging.

He might have snapped at her a little, considering he was a bit preoccupied with being chased and had no fucks to give. Lecture Mattheus about bodily moving a little boy running down the aisle of a moving car? He would have been the one giving the lecture of leaving one's kid doing something pretty dangerous if he had the time.

Time.

Mattheus was quickly running out of time. The remaining time he left was about the same amount as train cars left hooked up.

Harried and highly skeptical, Mattheus didn't exactly have many more options but to listen to Brunilda's direction. He honestly didn't even have the time to ask why as he ran straight for the door and then searched for a ladder up.

He found a ladder on the last car, so he jumped over before he moved Brunilda to cling to his shoulders. With both hands now free, he climbed the ladder as fast as he could.

The door opened when he had been pulling his legs over.

Mattheus had apparently not been fast enough.

The strong wind blew and he struggled a bit to stand before he started treading carefully toward the middle.

"What now!" he asked in a loud volume considering the vicious winds that sent his clothes flapping.

Turning to look back, he grimaced as he saw a head of one of Michaels's cohorts pop up over the edge. Clearly, he hadn't been able to avoid them noticing where he went.

Would he die if he jumped off the train at these speeds?

And then, Mattheus felt something terrible. The clawed hold of Brunilda at his shoulder disappeared. "Brue!"

His heart went to his throat. The winds were whipping his coat around but Brunilda was a lot lighter than Mattheus. Was she torn off his shoulder and flew right off the—

"Take out a weapon to defend yourself and stay back." Brunilda's reassuring voice sounded relaxed.

At the same time, Mattheus spun around just in time to see Brunilda land right on the roof. And stay on the roof despite now being such a small animal.

"What the devil—" Benjamin Michaels exclaimed in surprise as it had been his turn to come up the ladder.

From the angle Mattheus had been at, he had a perfect view of the tiny pinpricks as Brunilda walked toward the group. Silver eyes were wide as he realized those were marks from her claws.

Her claws punctured metal.

He almost forgot to take out something to defend himself with when he saw her hop straight for the closest thug (or foreign soldier) and landing a solid hit on the scruffy man's chest. It was either the momentum or something else, but that single move was enough to make the thug lose balance.

Mattheus pulled the first thing he saw he could potentially use as a weapon. That was, something that would not get him in the same trouble as what happened to that man just now.

A broom. It had a long reach that would be advantageous in overbalancing the thugs and Michaels. A broom was also something he was much more familiar with using than the weapons Brunilda kept in her Inventory. Finding a weapon in her Inventory would take too long, in any case.

There was a beep.

[Get rid of Benjamin Michaels and his allies on the train.]

A small out-of-the-way window popped up of its own volition.

Mattheus was simultaneously alarmed and confused. The only time something like this happened was when the Host had an immediate threat to their safety. On the other hand, the youngest Crown was fairly sure now that Brunilda had asked him to get up to the roof of the train car so she could act without witnesses.

So why…?

He looked at Brunilda acting similar to a greyish-blue pinball knocking the enemies about. There were only three left, not including Michaels, so one of them already must have fallen off.

And then Mattheus realized the discrepancy in numbers. He turned around just in time to see one of Michaels' group get to a standing position from the end of the train after climbing up. The thug must have gone through the last train to cut Mattheus off.

A curse escaped his mouth again as he watched the man slowly come over. Considering just standing was a lot of effort for Mattheus, he really did not want to have the thug come close enough.

So, in actuality, it only made sense that the nineteen-year-old would throw the broom toward the crony horizontally. At least, that would be Mattheus's defense if Brunilda asked. It wasn't a panicked, instinctive reaction at all.

The broom was caught but the force was a flat whump. There was enough momentum to cause the man to fall backward.

Mattheus glanced back, saw Brunilda was demolishing her opponents, before grimacing as he stared back at the man he lobbed the broom to.

He probably received the System quest message because this man witnessed him use the Inventory, which would endanger Mattheus's continued existence. Either from a foreign country or even domestic.

It meant Mattheus had to get rid of their memories somehow.

"Brue! I got an alert!"

At that, Brunilda's next landing brought a splatter of blood. A second later, another man got launched off the train itself. It left only Michaels, who was already heading to the ladder again in an attempt to escape.

There was a loud scream that immediately turned low volumed behind him. He spun around just to see the top of the train missing the thug that came up from the opposite side to pen him in.

Mattheus wasn't sure how but the only remaining threat was now Benjamin Michaels.

Said spy got dragged back by something wrapped around him. Michaels had screamed shrilly.

Brunilda had been using her weapons Ma'at and Isfet as claw caps or just to coat her claws—he wasn't sure which—and used a third skill on Benjamin Michaels.

"Benjamin Michaels, you will now be Judged."