How to Live as a Knight After the Ending - Chapter 42
Only Noblemtl
Episode 42. Failed Request (2)
Ki-ki-ki-ki-ki!
A sound ripped through my ears and raced through my mind. It was the sound of a running train suddenly stopping and rubbing against the tracks.
The bodies of people swept up in the great inertia were thrown forward, and screams and curses erupted from all directions.
“What the heck! What is this!”
“Everyone, wake up!”
The North Blinders Mafia either banged their heads on the front seats or slumped forward.
In the midst of all this chaos, Ossian was sitting glued to his chair as if defying the laws of physics.
When the train came to a complete stop and the commotion died down, the mafia moved in unison and assessed the situation.
“Check the headcount!”
“This is not an external raid! There will be no follow-up attacks!”
“I’m sure no kid got hurt by something like this!”
As if they weren’t an organization that had uniform attire for nothing, they quickly shook off the confusion.
Ossian also sensed the current situation.
‘They didn’t attack the train directly, but rather the tracks.’
The train stopped with a loud explosion. That means someone had intentionally destroyed the tracks.
Fortunately, the train did not derail, but it was a pretty big problem that it had to stop running.
If we continue like this, we won’t be able to reach our destination city.
Boohoo!
At that moment, a loud noise was heard from outside.
The noise created when hot air collides with the atmosphere.
Everyone’s eyes were turned towards the translucent window.
“Kyaho!”
“Goodbye, you idiots!”
The ones shouting and quickly passing outside were the same bikers I had seen before boarding the train.
Funky style with colorful hair, tattoos and leather materials.
They were a gang of scrap metal junkies in the late 40s.
‘What is that?’
Ossian stared at the machine they were riding in as if it was a wonder.
It was a motorcycle with a unique design that looked like a giant hamster wheel.
It was a monowheel bike where the person riding inside was fixed and only the large wheel spun quickly.
Boohoo!
The monowheel bike spewed out a plume of black smoke through the exhaust ports protruding on both sides.
About 10 motorcycles, each with two riders, rode past the stopped train as if mocking it.
“These fucking scrap heap kids!”
“You planned it in advance and destroyed the tracks?”
These guys prepared their bikes as if they knew something like this would happen.
It was obvious who had caused this explosion.
‘I thought they all got on the seats closest to the cargo area. Maybe they had prepared for this in advance.’
Ossian recalled that before boarding the train, the bikers had loaded something wrapped in a large bundle into the luggage compartment.
It seemed that it was the monowheel bike he was riding right now.
It was clear that they had prepared their own ride in advance and were planning to leave the others stranded in this remote place.
At that moment, the door to the first-class compartment opened and Balud, dressed in a white suit, came in.
“Brother! We’re in big trouble!”
“Didn’t you tell me to call you ‘Director’ outside?”
When Balud glared at him with a sharp look as if he was displeased, the organization member who realized his mistake quickly apologized.
“I’m sorry, sir!”
“How are things going?”
“The scrap metal guys destroyed the tracks and got away first. They must have been very determined, judging by the fact that they even brought a monowheel with them.”
“Tsk. Since you can’t fight openly, you’re going to resort to trickery.”
It wasn’t a good situation, but there was only a hint of annoyance in Balud’s voice.
‘What’s there?’
At that moment, Balud snapped his fingers and gave instructions to his team members.
“Take out what you have prepared.”
“yes!”
Balud’s men quickly disembarked from the train.
Ossian also came out because he couldn’t just sit still on the stopped train.
And then I witnessed an interesting sight.
Balud’s men went to the first-class car at the front of the train and, in unison, pushed aside one wall.
The wall of the first-class compartment opened as easily as a sliding door, revealing the contents inside to the world.
‘vehicle?’
It wasn’t just any vehicle, it was a large military jeep that could seat several men.
There were four such vehicles, two in each first-class compartment.
They secretly loaded the vehicle into the first-class compartment, where it costs a lot of money to just fit one person on board.
It was a ridiculous amount of money that was hard to believe even after seeing it.
‘Did you prepare for this situation from the beginning?’
First class cars are usually where valuable guests ride, so they are built quite sturdily to protect against outside attacks.
Of course, even if you apply that much force, the outer wall won’t open easily.
‘They remodeled the front car of the train itself.’
At least as far as Ossian knows, Tirna’s trains are managed by the ‘Railway Management Committee’.
The Railway Management Committee was a public institution recognized by the city in name only.
The fact that the trains under that committee were remodeled, especially the first-class cars carrying valuable passengers, was probably the result of extensive lobbying by the relevant agency.
As its name suggests, Tirna is the city of gold, so there was little that money could not do.
‘Even the fact that you prepared something like that means you vaguely expected things to turn out like this.’
At that moment, three shadows passed across the sky above Ossian’s head.
Then, an artificial strong wind blew in like an aftershock.
‘Even wizards.’
One of the three wizards created a wind and flew through the air like a bird.
At that speed, you’ll arrive at your destination in no time.
‘Does everyone move in their own way?’
Ossian realized that those involved in this matter were different from the city’s troubleshooters he had seen so far.
Just look at what the bikers from the scrap heap are doing right now.
The tracks were destroyed.
These are the guys who would have destroyed the train if there weren’t other members on board.
“Let’s go!”
“Let’s catch up with those scrap heap bastards!”
At that moment, Balud’s men also finished boarding the vehicle, and it soon took off with a roaring engine sound.
The railway was destroyed and the train stopped, and it happened less than five minutes later.
Ossian realized something new at the sight.
Doing something in a city like Tirna means having to be prepared for everything.
‘I see. Up until now, I’ve solved everything by force alone.’
In reality, problem solvers are a profession that relies heavily on force.
Ossian’s physical prowess and his skills as a knight were unparalleled in the industry.
But there were times when brute force alone was not enough.
For example, like now, when you find yourself unintentionally drifting far from the city.
Now I think I understand why Ronan had such a strange reaction when I entrusted him with this task.
‘I still have a long way to go.’
Ossian shook his head.
Since the incident has already happened, I decided not to blame myself too much for my complacency.
The important thing is not to make the same mistake next time. And what is needed now is how to overcome this situation.
‘It’s been quite some time since I left the city and started running. In that situation, if I stop here, it means that the distance to my destination is exactly in the middle.’
A remote place with few vehicles driving around.
It is an ambiguous position where it is difficult to proceed or return to Tirna.
That’s probably what he was aiming for.
People who had been in second class also came out one by one and began to assess the situation.
They looked at the broken tracks with serious faces and exchanged opinions.
“What should I do? If things are like this, I should actually stop here.”
“It’ll take half a day just to send someone from the city. It’ll take several days to fix it.”
“What if we just somehow move the front of the locomotive to the other side of the tracks? If we all work together, won’t that work out?”
Although they were competitors, they did not hesitate to share their opinions with each other in this situation.
If there is any possibility, it would be to move the lead locomotive separately.
There are even enhanced humans, so it’s not completely impossible.
“Hey! Brother, you should come too! Since it’s come to this, shouldn’t we hold hands?”
One of the sharp-eyed troubleshooters approached Ossian and asked.
“No. Okay. I’ll walk.”
“Oh, oh? Okay.”
The attitude was so firm that the problem solver found himself nodding his head without realizing it.
He lightly ran his eyes over Ossian’s attire.
I didn’t think it would be of much help even if we did it together.
‘It’s one thing to walk, but what’s with the sword on your waist? A sword.’
What the hell is wrong with his head?
I was about to step back with that thought, but then I looked back because I thought it would be better to encourage him one more time.
What bothered him was that his senses were strangely focused on Ossian.
“… … What? Where did you go?”
Ossian, who had been wandering around just a moment ago, was nowhere to be seen.
It disappeared in the brief moment when I looked elsewhere.
Did I see things?
The man’s face turned blank, as if he had seen a ghost.
*
Several vehicles raced along the long plain along the railroad tracks.
“Sir! I see those scrap metal guys over there!”
The monowheel bikes of the reckless drivers leading the way became close enough to be easily visible to the naked eye.
The monowheel bike was certainly fast, but it was no match for the jeep prepared by the North Blinders.
The fumes their vehicles emit are completely white.
It was a vehicle that evaporated ether water and used it as fuel.
On the other hand, the smoke from the monowheel bike is a black color that is suffocating to look at.
It meant incomplete combustion.
This was the result of using low-grade fuel mixed with a small amount of ether water and several reagents.
Naturally, such fuel was not suitable for long-distance travel.
“Sir, what should we do?”
The member of the organization sitting in the passenger seat looked back and asked.
Balud, who was occupying the back seat of the lead car alone, spoke coldly with his arms crossed.
“Show us an example. What happens if you mess with us?”
The members of the organization laughed at those words and stepped hard on the accelerator.
The distance between the two groups quickly became shorter, and soon the lead vehicle caught up with the monowheel bike at the rear.
Kwajik!
A jeep rear-ends a monowheel bike.
The bike, having lost its balance, swayed precariously, then fell sideways and bounced backwards.
The fate of the bikers who rode there was the same.
“Those kids are already following me!”
“Take out what you prepared!”
The bikers at the scrapyard weren’t the only ones suffering.
Some picked up bombs and threw them, while others pulled out guns and aimed for the wheels of the vehicles and shot them.
But the specially modified Jeep didn’t even flinch when the bomb exploded.
Since it was specially manufactured for military use, it could practically be considered an armored vehicle.
Members of the North Blinders also fought back.
A member of the organization poked his head through an opening in the roof of the jeep and fired a Tommy gun.
The monowheel bike that had been coming closer with a loud noise and sparks flying flew away like a flock of dragonflies.
The bikers changed their methods.
Using the maneuverability of their monowheel bikes to switch to a hit-and-run style of attack, they were quick to notice and keep their distance before attacking.
However, whenever there was an opening, he would come and shoot.
“Those little bug-like bastards.”
The bikers hurled all sorts of insults and taunts at the jeep.
Even if they were a criminal organization, there was a hierarchy, but they had none of that.
It was truly utterly low-class.
The Blinders member, gritting his teeth at the sight, loaded the magazine of his Tommy gun.
As I rolled my eyes, thinking of giving him a bullet as he approached me to attack me, something surprising caught my eye in the corner of my vision.
“what.”
It was a person.
The sight of it running across the ground on two legs was clearly that of a human.
Clearly, he is running on two legs, and what seemed like a distant figure appears closer in an instant.
And then he easily passed a running jeep and a monowheel bike.
“Is this a dream?”
My head feels dizzy.
It was such an unrealistic sight that reason could not accept it.
A person can catch up with a speeding car on two legs? Does that make sense?
But it wasn’t a dream.
The expressions on the bikers’ faces were also filled with shock, as if they had seen something unbelievable.
The gunshots that had been exchanged as if keeping each other in check did not ring out even once.