Chapter 11

"Hehe, Alice is a senior now! Ahem!"

There's a blonde girl who doesn't know the world and is jumping up and down like a child.

"...."

The other two, who look like they've just walked into a funeral parlor, keep their mouths shut and run the gamut of awkwardness.

Aria and Jeanne weren't exactly looking for a friendly chat, so I turned my head as if to say, "I don't want to talk to you."

As I peered through the car window, the light dusk meshed with the violet night sky like cogs in a wheel.

Inside the cabin car of a train traveling across the Breton Empire, as the train glided along the railroad tracks, I tried to keep my eyes on the rapidly passing landscape.

-Bang!

The carriage lurched with an unexpected jolt and the train slammed to a halt with an abrupt brake.

"Boom!"

Alice's upper body jerked forward and she slammed her head into the chair in the compartment. Aria stretches out her arms to Alice, who is wiping away tears.

"Ouch, ouch...."

"Alice. Does it hurt much?"

"Hmph, I got thumped, ouch."

"Oh no, that's bad. You better be careful."

Seeing Aria anxiously inquire about Alice's condition, Jeanne's heart sank.

She looked like she was watching monsters play. It's not like she doesn't understand.

"What happened?"

"Apparently, the tunnel entrance to the Rocky Mountains has collapsed."

Aria replied. With black bandages covering her pupils, she gazed out over the landscape beyond, a landscape impossible to see even if you could float.

Just as we were about to enter the rocky tunnel, the entrance collapsed and a tidal wave of rocks blocked the railroad tracks, forcing the train to stop and clear the obstacle.

The timing seems so coincidental in more ways than one.

"Have they noticed that the Holy maiden is on board?"

"!"

"No, not the pursuer."

Jeanne swallowed hard, embarrassed, and Aria shook her head. All the while, she gently stroked Alice's injured head.

"It's just, you know, a little unlucky."

It didn't take me long to realize what that meant.

It wasn't long before the screams and commotion from the car in front of us, the chattering of the passengers over the noise, revealed the identity of the unlucky perpetrators.

"Everybody move!"

"Don't think about it!"

Like a herd of cattle, the group herded the passengers from the front to the last car.

"This is the territory of the Knights of Lockwood, led by the proud Knight of the Rocky Mountain, Lord Lockhart!"

It turns out they're a gang of train robbers who call themselves knights.

"You dare to pass through Lord Lockhart's lands without paying taxes, you deserve to die!"

The men, armed with tomahawk axes, bellowed, displaying their blades menacingly.

Several passengers dropped to the ground in fear before the pale glowing chains.

Just then, a man stepped through the crowd of men.

Armed in heavy armor of unbreakable steel, he carried two longswords and a small sword crossed at his sword belt.

"Those who pay the toll will be spared."

The man with the figure was a medieval knight of old said but he was no knight, just a robber.

"If your life is not worthless," he said, "you'd better pay up and pass."

In a world of railroad tracks, steam-powered trains, and tales of sword and sorcery, he strode around in his flimsy medieval armor.

"Did you hear Lord Lockhart's merciful words?"

"What are you doing, spitting out what you have!"

"This is what happens when you get caught trying to save a few bucks!"

As he spoke, one of the bandits held up something. At the sight of it, a deafening scream rang out among the passengers.

"Bandits!"

Jeanne scrambled to her feet, unable to bear the injustice any longer.

"What are you going to do?"

I asked, stopping her in her tracks.

"What do you mean?"

"I've heard that the holy maiden never kills anyone."."

"─Yes."

Jeanne replied, "It is true."

The holy maiden takes up her sword only to slay demons, not to harm people. That's how it's supposed to be, and that's how it is.

That was her unwritten rule of non-killing, and it had led to her refusal to become a soldier of the Holy Kingdom and the consequences she now faced.

"I intend to subdue, not kill."

I scoffed again at the words, lost for words in the absurd innocence she displayed.

"Why not kill them?"

"What?"

"Do you think they're worth keeping alive?"

Jeanne shouted at my question.

"That's not for us to decide!"

With those words, I realized: her faith and will hadn't changed one bit.

She was still the same unquestioning holy maiden.

"You are right. It is as Miss Jeanne said."

At the same time, as if to interrupt me, Aria opened her mouth.

"That's not for her or me to decide."

The blind woman, her eyes covered with black bandages, said.

"It's only for you to decide."

"─"

"Who to kill, who not to kill, what to do, what not to do, what to think, what not to think."

I don't see anything. I don't need to see anything.

"Our job is simply to obey your orders."

As she says this, Aria of the Black Sword speaks up.

"Now, you two, what were you doing there?"

The robbers' attention is now on us, and Aria remains seated, calmly carrying on her conversation. The rest of the group was no different.

It's as if we don't even realize the bandits are there.

"Sir, please give me orders."

"Don't be ridiculous!"

Jeanne shouted at Aria's words.

"I am not a puppet to do his bidding!"

"Are you not?"

Aria repeated, cocking her head, as if genuinely puzzled.

"I, I am."

Jeanne swallowed hard at the question.

"Isn't that how you've lived your entire life, Miss Jeanne?"

"!"

"I like Miss Jeanne, and the way she has lived her whole life."

Aria smiles as she says that. It was a dark, cold smile that gave me goosebumps.

"That's enough, Aria."

I cut her off and without another word, I stretched out my arm.

-Fazizik!

I stretched out my arm without a second glance, and a jolt of electricity shot through the air from my fingertips.

It was the same lightning spell I had unleashed on me earlier at the Imperial Hotel but the blue sparks, which did nothing for me, enveloped the bandits.

There was no pain, no screams, no shuddering or foaming as one might imagine from an electric shock.

There was just a lump of charcoal: a charred, shapeless mass that barely resembled a human form.

"A Mage!"

"That was not an average skill!"

"!"

With that, Jeanne's expression froze. It was that of a commoner, terrified at the sight of a corpse, despite all the prestige that had once adorned her.

The passengers there were no different.

It's not right to treat life so casually, no matter how villainous, no matter how deserving of death, because that's the normal way of thinking.

─That was not us here.

It wasn't me.

That day, I remembered the first time I killed a person in this world. It was only a few months ago, and now it seems so distant and hazy that I can barely remember it.

That's why, having slain one bandit, I turned to the others and said, "Let's go."

No, I commanded.

"Kill them."

A violet glow rose along the back of my hand, and the crest glowed.

The slave submission magic, carved to bend and manipulate the holy maiden to my will.

"Mu, what did you do!"

"Alas, Master. You are too kind."

Aria smiled at the violet glow that radiated from Jeanne's body. She was right. This was the least I could do for her.

"Be yourself, Miss Jeanne. You have nothing to fear."

Aria stroked the nape of her neck as she curled her arms around her back, desperately trying to resist.

"This is not your will."

With that, Jeanne drew the sword that hung from her belt but the action was not of her own volition.

"Miss Jeanne didn't do anything wrong, did she?"

"Yes, she didn't. It's not her fault!"

Aria whispered in her ear while Alice giggled and nodded.

"!"

As she realized that, the puppet that bore her name moved under a slave submission magic that even she could not resist, only to do my bidding.

The sword of the holy maiden was swung; it was the sword of her first kill.