Without hesitation, Esperanza ran over and threw her arms around his neck. The discarded gun rolled on the floor. Esperanza, who had tightly embraced Cider's neck, took a deep breath.
"Do you know how worried I was?"
"Is that so?"
"You should have stayed quietly in the compartnt! Really, we don't even have a communicator and it was so scary! I was worried you might get hurt or sothing might go wrong..."
"It's not fully resolved yet, so try a bit more."
"What did I do wrong? It's the fault of that thing appearing in your likeness."
"So, you couldn't tell the difference?"
"Not exactly."
Actually, she had been sowhat entranced.
In the ga, it was called an incubus for convenience, but that monster wasn't actually a succubus.
'Even if sothing like a succubus appeared from a dungeon, it wouldn't be very threatening.'
If anything, it was a monster that seduced with honeyed words and devoured when the mind was addled, but its appearance rate was so low that this was Esperanza's first ti seeing one.
Since she knew it would appear, she was ntally prepared. It's just that when she first saw it, it appeared in such a familiar form that she was slightly swept away. Esperanza lightly grasped Cider's hair with her fingertips. It was exactly the sa color as if it had been copied by sight.
"It's not that I didn't know, but timing the attack wasn't easy. I had to block ntal attacks too. So I just used a trick."
Even if she had never faced one directly, she wasn't ignorant of the strategy. Acting identically, following like a mirror image. She didn't know what human had experinted with such behavior against monsters, but thanks to that, she wasn't completely entranced.
"Is that so?"
Was his anger not fully resolved? Of course, if Cider had been in that state, Esperanza would have torn him apart murderously too. She understood, but... Right. She understood.
Esperanza raised her hand and soothingly stroked the back of Cider's neck. Their eyes t. As she slowly tilted her head, a smile returned to Cider's lips. He too bent down slightly. Just as that monster had done.
The difference was that his kiss was sothing Esperanza wouldn't refuse.
Their toes touched lightly. She seed to feel his curled toes through his gentleman's shoes. The shadow completely covered Esperanza's body and stretched long. At another ti, she would have taken more leisure to enjoy this feeling, but since it was a disaster situation, she couldn't.
Cider lightly pressed and released his lips against Esperanza's lips.
"Let's pay the remaining debt after we get out, Countess. We have work to do."
"Of course."
Since they hadn't completely conquered the dungeon yet. She thought so and nodded, but what Cider said was completely different.
"Monsters appearing in the passenger cars isn't a problem. But what about the locomotive side?"
Ah, wait a minute.
Cider bent down to pick up Esperanza's gun and added:
"There's no engineer on this train right now."
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
When Esperanza learned about Sylvia Humphrey's fiancé, Cider was pressing a gun barrel against the assassin's arm.
"Brightning Field?"
"...That's all I know."
The assassin, gasping for breath with bullets lodged in both arms, barely opened his mouth. Blood from the torn wounds soaked the carpet. Even if he received treatnt, whether he could use his arms properly was uncertain. No, could he even receive treatnt? Tears stread down the assassin's eyes.
Regardless, Cider pressed the gun barrel firmly against the assassin's shoulder as he lay on the floor.
Brightning Field. He clicked his tongue lightly as he repeated it in his mouth. This is the problem with upstart financial companies. It wasn't even their fault that the contract terms they offered were bad, and trying to kill people over re magic stones.
"Is the client the president? Or soone else?"
"I don't know!"
"How rude."
Bang. At the short gunshot, the assassin's body jerked. The magic bullet that squeezed between his armpit and arm scraped flesh and burned hot. The assassin, who had been certain the heart was being aid at, trembled.
If it had missed even slightly, it would have pierced the heart imdiately. He wanted to run away imdiately, but all he could do was drag his bound legs and tear at the carpet. However, when the Count stepped on his clothes with his shoe, even that beca impossible.
The assassin looked up at his target with shaking eyes.
The client who commissioned him to assassinate the Count and Countess of Avondale had said nothing about the Count's shooting skills. He had only said to be careful because the Countess was serving as the Prince's shooting instructor. So he hadn't worried about the Count, who he assud just sat around twirling pens.
But now he was pinned under that desk jockey's gun barrel, having to pray that the bastard's shooting skills were excellent!
"Nothing more to say then. So what should we do now?"
The Count, frowning his sculptural face, tapped the assassin's heart with the gun barrel. He raised his tattered wrist to push away the gun barrel, but it didn't budge. The Count's hand clicked the trigger as if counting seconds. To the assassin's ears, that sound was like the ticking of a second hand counting his remaining ti.
"I really don't know anything..."
He pleaded with a face covered in tears and snot. He didn't want to die.
The gun barrel moved away from over his heart. It was a mont when he might have had hope. Cider Claiborne took out his pocket watch. Opening the cover to look inside, he sighed.
"Of all tis."
Coming out of the compartnt, he confird that nothing had happened yet and dragged the assassin out by his clothes. His bound feet dragged along.
Let's organize the situation. Esperanza was now in the dining car, and he was in a compartnt. It would be best if they could quickly reunite, but...
This was inside a train.
Cider thought of that fact first. Monsters could appear anywhere inside the dungeon. Then what was the place that should be protected with highest priority?
The answer ca simply.
'The locomotive.'
If sothing went wrong with the locomotive, if the train derailed, it would be useless no matter how successfully they conquered the dungeon.
There was no ti to wait for Esperanza. He had to go to the locomotive imdiately.
The mont he thought that, a monster appeared behind him. Cider fired wildly at the monster's legs. Several shots hit vital points precisely.
While the monster hesitated, the next magic bullet hit between the assassin's feet. When his tightly bound feet ca loose, the assassin blinked with a bewildered expression.
"You should be able to take care of your own life."
He wasn't generous enough to save the life of soone who had co to kill him. If he was lucky, he would survive.
Cider even took out another gun from his bag. He didn't place it in his hands. The guy might shoot at him if he did that. After placing the gun at an appropriate distance, he left without hesitation, leaving behind the monster that wasn't even dead yet and the assassin, heading for the locomotive.
He encountered two battles on the way to the locomotive, but fortunately they weren't too difficult.
"Don't go! If you go now, we might all die!"
"Well, if I don't go now, we'll certainly die."
There were people crying and clinging to him, but the mont he turned around, they disappeared from his mind.
The locomotive he arrived at. It was the mont he opened the door.
The collapsed engineer. His eyes t with a monster stuck to the wall. Cider raised his cane gun and shot at the monster's eyes. Inside the narrow locomotive. The struggling monster's feet wildly trampled the complex control panel. A lever caught by its foot clicked down.
Damn it. Cider replaced the magic stone and raised the output to maximum. Whether the control panel broke or not, that wasn't what mattered now.
Crouching low, he looked through the scope. Pipes that would clearly be dangerous if they burst filled the wall. And above them, a lizard-shaped monster with blood flowing from one eye showed off its long tongue with a fierce face. As if knowing his hesitation, its torn mouth was unpleasant.
He wasn't inclined to take risks. If it were just his life alone, maybe, but if this train overturned, Esperanza wouldn't be safe either.
Learning fear was never a pleasant thing. However... sotis it beca the driving force to do things beyond one's abilities.
As his lips dried, his eyes seed to beco clearer. The swift monster mockingly moved between the pipes. Cider was still aiming at the sa point. With a sharp cry that seed to co through its teeth, the monster flicked its blood-stained tongue.
And the mont the monster's body leaped far beyond the aiming point.
Bang!
A magic bullet burst from the gun barrel that was swiftly raised in a straight line. It was precisely a vital spot. The monster that had leaped fell powerlessly with a thud.
Cider aid between the monster's head and torso and shot once more. With a bang and explosion, the monster's corpse was torn to shreds. The ground was stained with yellow fluid. Cider roughly rubbed the sole of his shoe on the floor to clean it and approached the engineer.
The engineer was still breathing. Although his organs were torn up. To give first aid, he would need to return to the dining car and get bandages.
Turning his head, Cider checked the straight railroad tracks and the instrunt panel that was completely incomprehensible, then raised the lever that the monster had lowered.
"That's how it happened."
He said as he opened the door leading to the locomotive. Since Esperanza was there, there was no need to bring bandages.
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