Chapter 46: Came Fast, Ended Even Faster~
The midday sunlight of Alos City dispelled much of the chill and brought more pedestrians onto the streets.
Workers who had a two-hour lunch break strolled out in groups of twos and threes after finishing their meal at the factory canteen.
Mitia had not yet shouted the slogan of the eight-hour workday, because that was unrealistic.
But she could still afford to give a lunch break.
If all the workers were kept working without pause, then who would consume the goods she produced?
The teahouses along the street near the train station welcomed their peak of customers.
In one of them, the cheerful owner greeted the incoming crowd while staff dressed as servers busily served hot tea and snacks.
Although most customers only ordered a cup of tea to warm themselves and then gathered to chat, that still brought in some income.
In past years, there were hardly any customers at noon, but now, with business booming like this, he was more than satisfied.
Yet amidst the bustling noise, panicked screams and gunfire suddenly came from outside the street.
The owner, who was welcoming guests at the door, saw a group of men kill the guards stationed at the entrance of the train station before rushing inside to exchange fire with the station police, sparking massive chaos among the passengers.
Terrified civilians, desperate to flee the dangerous place, crowded at the main gates, blocking the patrolling troops who had rushed over at the sound of gunfire from getting inside.
Just as Mitia got off the train at the Alos territory station, the two groups who had been secretly observing inside the station successfully confirmed their target.
Anna and Mitia whispered to each other, their attention not on the surroundings.
But the ten-man guard detail responsible for their protection noticed dozens of strangers moving against the flow of the crowd, closing in on them.
“Stop! Halt immediately! All unrelated personnel, leave at once!!!”
Hearing the guards’ stern shout, Anna instantly pulled Mitia behind her and drew a short, neat vertical double-barreled flintlock from the special holster at her thigh.
Gunfire erupted instantly inside the train station.
Passengers who had already been dazed by the shouting now panicked, running in all directions, shoving each other in terror.
Mitia watched with wide eyes as a baby, cradled in its mother’s arms, was knocked loose by a passerby and fell.
Fortunately, she quickly used magic to draw the child through the air and catch it in her own arms.
Meanwhile, the quadruple-mounted Maxim gun tower—installed on the train to defend against monster attacks along the route—was being adjusted downward from its upward aim by soldiers controlling it.
But in the very next moment, a figure in the panicked crowd suddenly stopped, stomped the ground, and burst into magical radiance as he leapt into the air, swiftly assaulting the gun tower guards.
Though he could not harm the soldiers shielded behind thick steel plates, he sliced off all the extended barrels with his longsword imbued with magic, rendering the machine gun useless.
Dozens of the infiltrators also erupted with dazzling magical light.
The aura of their leader instantly soared to the same ninth-tier level as Mitia herself.
Half of his men broke off and charged toward various carriages of the train, trying to eliminate the carriage guards and divide the main force’s attention.
Meanwhile, the leader, together with over twenty men wielding glowing longswords, charged directly at Mitia’s position.
The ninth-tier mage leading the charge cast a disdainful glance at the guards’ black gun barrels.
With his shield, even taking a full volley head-on wouldn’t pose much of a problem, let alone with his eighth-tier companions backing him.
He failed to notice how vastly different these firearms were from the guns he had tested before, nor the intrigued gleam in Mitia’s eyes as she held the crying child.
“Bang bang bang bang bang....”
A storm of deafening gunfire erupted.
In an instant, more than half of the assassins fell riddled with holes, while the rest were quickly cut down one after another.
Unlike what they expected—that the guards would need to reload after a single shot—their weapons spewed endless, furious firepower as if they had no limit.
The ninth-tier mage barely forced his way through with his shield and reached one of the guards, swinging his sword to carve open a gap.
But Mitia thrust her spear with one hand, diverting his attack off course.
“A perfect opportunity... too bad you failed to seize it~”
A soft, alluring voice, accompanied by a pleasant fragrance carried on the air, did nothing to soothe the shock and fear welling up in his heart.
The guard he had almost cut down earlier hadn’t even bothered to dodge.
He didn’t pause the rhythm of loading bullets into the chamber, still carrying out his duty and firing at him relentlessly.
By now, his comrades had all been slain.
More and more barrels were aimed at him.
Desperately maintaining his shield, he tried to flee.
But Mitia’s spear, crackling with blinding violet lightning, pierced through his overstressed shield and pinned him firmly against a station pillar.
Mitia wrinkled her delicate nose at the dying leader.
“Didn’t think there’d really be idiots dumb enough to charge straight into bullets.
I wonder which fool sent these morons.”
The assassin leader spat a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his organs at her words, then went limp, dead.
Meanwhile, the other assassins in the train carriages were also wiped out.
Apart from a few caught off guard, most were killed by guards newly equipped with the upgraded firearms.
Mitia glanced at Anna, who was methodically reloading her pistol, and felt quite satisfied with the weapon’s performance.
The firearm, modeled after the Henry M1860, had truly given her a pleasant surprise today.
Though, to accommodate the lever-action reloading system, it could only use round-nosed bullets, and the barrel had to remain smoothbore, slightly reducing its firepower—
Its tubular magazine beneath the barrel could hold 15 rounds, plus one in the chamber, making 16 in total.
The lever action allowed reloading, ejecting, and firing within a few hundred milliseconds.
With fast hands, one could fire three shots per second, emptying all 16 rounds in just a few seconds.
At close range, such a furious rate of fire could obliterate any opposition.
Ten guards firing together meant they could unleash 160 bullets in mere seconds.
For those assassins to charge head-on was truly courting death.
Still, a ninth-tier really could take punishment.
If Mitia hadn’t delivered the final blow, that one might have actually escaped alive.
“Waaah!!!”
A shrill cry yanked Mitia back to reality.
She hurriedly rocked the baby in her arms.
“Shhh, don’t cry, don’t cry...”
But the more she soothed, the louder the wailing grew.
She sniffed faintly, then exclaimed in shock: “Ah! She pooped!!!”
She quickly tugged off the baby’s cloth wrap, holding the child aloft as she called to Anna: “Nana, do you have paper? Cloth will do too...”
Anna, with her head bowed and busy stuffing bullets into her gun, suddenly felt warmth dripping onto her hat, water streaming down her brim.
“What did you say? Eh! Why’s this rainwater warm....”
She looked up blankly, just in time to see the shadow overhead vanish, while Mitia, clutching the bare-bottomed little one, rushed toward the train carriage, leaving only her retreating back.