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One Year Later
Thirty Fifth Floor
Private Train for regulars
Destination: Train City
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"Attention to all passengers. Starting tomorrow, the famous D- rank regular idol Yura Ha's concert will be held at the central hall. And three days from now, the D- rank regular train aka the Hell Train will depart. We hope many regulars would participate."
Borowas a silver haired man with wavy hair with a scar on the bottom left of hischin. He was a fair skinned D- regular and while riding on this Hell Train, he had gotten himself another two disciples.
This day was supposed to be another ordinary day for him until a regular recognized that he was one of the ticket holders and fought with him. The regular ended up being sliced into half by him.
Boro wondered how the regular was able to figure out that he was one of the ticket holders. When he saw the regular's phone was lying on the ground, he noticed an application named Emily. Curious, he wanted to take a look and had himself surprised as it turned out, this application was the one who told the regular about his identity as a ticket holder. This Emily even mentioned his seat.
As if what just happened wasn't surprising enough, he encountered with two strange regulars who claimed themselves to be twins.
Well, they did look similar. They had brown hair, golden eyes and adorable childlike faces, yeah, they were twins.
The boy asked him and his disciples to join him for the tournament tomorrow. He told them that something big was going to happen to the Hell Train and this Emily, the one Boro was holding, was being used by someone to gather all the ticket holders to seize their tickets. They were planning to take over the train.
Boro found that absurd.
"Well, even if that's true" he said to the two of them. "But you kept saying 'they'. Who do you mean? Who would come up with such a crazy plan...."
The boy looked at his own phone, "The one behind Emily...the girl who pushed me while working with FUG. My long time friend who may now become my enemy...her name is Rachel."
Boro had never heard the name Rachel before. Knowing that she was just an E- regular who has just recently ascended into a D- regular, it was impossible for her to take over the train. But when he knew that FUG was behind her, then there might be a chance her plan will work.
He didn't like the FUG from the beginning. He wanted to know why those bastards were on the train again this time.
Boro looked around. The people who survived and were still standing there without a scratch were quite less. There were six people in the team. The numbers of people there were enough for them to be a team.
"I'm curious....how did you find out about Emily and the tournament? And how do you know what kind of relationship Rachel had with FUG?"
"Well, truthfully...a member in my team is from FUG" the boy answered.
"A member in your team?"
The boy glanced at his younger twin who noticed his glance and smiled back at him while fanning herself.
Earlier, Bam and Charlotte were told by Hwaryun to make another team. The team that they were going to make wasn't the team that they would defend until the end, but the team that they could leave whenever they were in danger.
"Hwaryun, if you ask us to make new friends who we could defend until the end, then it's something easy as we won't fail on it" Charlotte said as she shut her fan. "But you ask us to find a team that we could leave whenever we are in danger, then we have failed before trying it."
She shook her head while opening her fan again to fan herself.
"Why so?" Bam asked at her.
"Because my brother..." she said and closed her fan again and tapped Bam's shoulder. "With your personality, the percentage of you making that kind of team is very, very, very low. We are doomed to fail on this own."
Bam frowned, "I won't fail!"
"You will."
"I won't!"
"Then why don't we bet?" Charlotte asked. "If you win, you have to treat me food but if you lose, you have to treat me food."
"What kind of bet is that? You are obviously trying to take advantage of me again" he said to her as he pinched her cheek. "I won't fall for it twice."
"Argh, brother! Mercy! Mercy!"
Watching how these two bickers, they didn't look like slayer candidates at all. They looked like an ordinary pair of siblings who didn't know that their trip this time was very dangerous. Hwaryun just smiled on her chair and shook her head.
This wasn't the first time for her to witness this kind of scene.
Charlotte who has been quiet rubbed her cheek as she remembered the pain earlier. Her brother didn't seem to hold himself back when he was pinching her. But then again, if her brother didn't hold himself back, then her cheek wouldn't be just red. It will end up worse.
As they were walking, they encountered one of Boro's disciple, a tan skinned woman with short black hair and a pair of green eyes. The woman was currently being beaten up by two regulars who were the survivors and they happened to have two tickets.
Two tickets....Boro got a nice idea.
He told his disciple to go and try to take the tickets on his own but less then ten seconds, his disciple ended up being beaten and bullied by those two regulars.
Charlotte smiled awkwardly when she noticed that. She and Bam sweated dropped while Boro can't believe that he was affiliated with someone as weak as him.
"Hey, he is going to die!" the pink haired girl with blue eyes said to them, only to be ignored.
"Will it be okay?" Boro asked. "He is so weak."
"It will be okay" Bam answered. "All I need is to fill up the number of teammates that I need. Just take care of the other regulars."
"What a confidence" he said.
To have that kind of confidence, his abilities and skills must not be weak.
"Alright, then let's go to the Train City."
Charlotte looked at her brother and covered the lower part of her face with her fan. Without a doubt, her brother was indeed behaving weird.
≪ ◦ ❖ ◦ ≫
Felix woke up faster than everyone else thought.
When she woke up, Felix was confused as she saw the twins and a train crew, the pink haired girl earlier or Hana Yu, were with them. In the middle of her confusion, she looked Boro and asked, "What's going on here.....teacher...?"
Boro had to explain everything to her again.
"So...anyways, the twins over here, Bam and Charlotte...they told us about what they knew and we decided to participate on the tournament. But since you are injured, we are not counting you in, Felix."
Felix was disappointed to hear that but what could she do? She was attacked by a ticket hunter earlier and she was still hurt. If she participated, then she will surely endanger herself and became the burden for the others. She understood it and decided to miss this tournament.
"But don't worry Ms. Felix!" Hana Yu said to her. "If we manage to get more tickets, one of them will be yours, of course!"
"Thank you....."
"Well, to be honest.....I think it will be hard for you to protect your own ticket" Boro honestly said to her.
"Hey, rude!" Hana Yu said towards Boro. "I'm also a D- rank regular, you know!"
Charlotte who sat next to Bam smiled and shut her fan when she saw Hana Yu. She asked her, "What's your name?"
"Hana Yu" she answered. "My name is Hana Yu."
"Hana Yu?" Charlotte echoed before she smiled. "Your name sounds pleasant to hear."
Her smile grew wider when she heard that, "Really?"
Charlotte nodded her head and then asked, "What's your dream?"
"My dream? I want to be an idol singer" Hana Yu answered again.
"You want to be an idol singer?" The fat man or Boro's disciple named Hanwool.
"Oh....yes..." she answered with blush. "It's a bit embarrassing but....I have always dreamed to be someone famous. That's why I came into this tower."
"But I don't think you have the face to be--"
"Shut up!" Hana Yu cut his words off with a vein bulging. "I know that I have a common face!"
"Who says so?" Charlotte disagreed with Boro. For her, Hana Yu didn't look bad at all.
Her face may be a common face but she was quite pretty in Charlotte's eyes. Compared to someone with freckles and ugly from outside and inside, Hana Yu was a million times better.
She leaned forward and put her fan on Hana Yu's chin and looked at her face before she lowered her fan, "I don't think it's that bad."
Boro smiled awkwardly and blurted out, "I don't know that you have such a low--"
Before he could finish his words, killing intent was emitted from Bam who smiled at Boro politely and courteously.
"Pardon me, Mr. Boro?"
"....never mind" Boro said and looked away.
The older brother was seriously protective of his twin that he didn't allow anyone to talk bad things about her, even when it was actually the truth. And from the corner of his eyes, Boro was able to tell that Charlotte's smile was growing wider. What did she mean by that smile?
Hana Yu's dream was to be famous, to be someone who stood before the crowd, to be an idol who sparkled, just like Yura Ha.
Yura Ha was also a D- rank regular like them and she was a famous idol. According from Hana Yu, she made a successful debut out of nowhere. She was also a very skillful Light Bearer. Apparently the two of her fans were both Hana Yu and Felix who quickly be friends with each other because of her.
'What a strange alliance' Boro thought.
Hana Yu lent Charlotte the picture of Yura Ha that she carried all these times with her. When she looked at her picture, just like in the Manhwa, she had blue hair and eyes. The blue color on her made her remembered of someone else when the two of them were completely different.
The person who she remembered also had blue hair and eyes. But his blue hair and eyes were clearly different than this Yura Ha. Their genders were also different, so as their personalities, their level of intelligence, their tastes, their goals, their backgrounds and etc.
Without her realizing, she started to compare them and recalled everything that she knew about the person who had just come to her mind.
Yura Ha was indeed beautiful. But compared to her, Charlotte preferred the person's blue hair and eyes instead as she believed that he was even more beautiful that the person in the picture. His blue hair....if she wasn't wrong, was the color called as aquamarine? And were the color of his eyes were called electric blue or cobalt blue? Despite of admiring him for a long time, she can't seem to tell the color of his hair and eyes specifically. Well, it wasn't her fault that she wasn't good in arts.
His appearance was better than this Yura Ha, his taste was better, his personality was better...in short, Charlotte thought that he was better in lots of aspects than this Yura Ha. She was sure that he was plenty of times better than Yura Ha in being Light Bearer.
Without any interest, she returned the picture to Hana Yu. Now that she remembered about this person, she also remembered about the others and started to miss them. She thought and thought about them until she lazily rested her head and Bam's shoulder. Bam glanced at her without any problem and even patted her head as well.
"Well, in order to see that idol or whatever, we've got to make it to the Train City safely first" Boro said to them, trying to ignore the twins and their sudden behavior.
"Safely?" Bam echoed. "Aren't we supposed to be arriving at the Train City soon?"
"Well, we are but.....to arrive, we have to get through the last barrier that's waiting for us" he replied.
Bam and Charlotte looked at each other in confusion before looking at Boro as they repeated in sync, "One last barrier?"
"Well, it's not difficult...but still....you have to be prepared for it. One of us might get killed."
After he said so, there was another voice speaking on the train.
"Attention all regulars. Thank you for using our train. The train will soon approach the Train City Station. The Train will soon approach the Train City Station."
"Oh, we're here" Boro calmly said.
The train suddenly stopped, nearly making some of them fell down. After that, the door was opened by itself and they walked out from the train and found an elevator.
The elevator will lead them to where their destinations. Whether they were going to restaurant, residence or stadium, they just need to press the button and the elevator would lead them.
The tournament won't be starting any time soon, so they didn't have to go to the stadium first. The entrance wasn't the right choice either as Boro said that there will be guardians guarding that place. The guardian will not leave his place until tomorrow. After pondering for awhile, they decided to look for the twins' teammates first.
After going this far to reach the Train City, Charlotte realized that even though they hadn't reach the Hell Train yet, but the paths toward it were bloody. One just need to show his ticket and they would kill each other, even when they were in the Private Train. It was already tough in the Private Train, not to mention the tournament and the Hell Train later on.
The elevator moved quite slow. As what Boro said, there will always be delays whenever it moved to the next floor. Hanwool who has been carrying Felix started to sweat while Felix, her condition was getting worse and worse. Charlotte who knew about this tried so hard not to groan and helplessly squatted down on the floor.
The moment when she squatted down was the moment when the elevator started to move from first floor to another. Seeing how slow it moved, again, she tried so hard not to sigh but her expression was filled with annoyance already.
Boro looked at Bam. He didn't seem to mind how slow the elevator moved, unlike his twin who kept opening and closing her fan repeatedly. Boro wondered why would his friends who had escaped from FUG start another problem with FUG and involve himself with them. They had just escaped from the tiger cave yet they went back there stirring up troubles.
Bam solemnly replied that there was something that his friends needed to do. He earnestly wished so that in this Hell Train, everything would be resolved.
When Charlotte heard that her brother wished that everything would be resolved in this Hell Train, she shook her head and silently pitied her brother. The Hell Train would be nothing but a small journey in his life. As an irregular, his journey would not be ordinary like any other regulars.
After waiting it for quite awhile, the door of the elevator was finally opened. Charlotte stood up in happiness when the door of the elevator opened.
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Train City
Stadium Area
Second Floor: Residence
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The first thing that Charlotte took notice was the amount of regulars there. There were around a hundred regulars there or maybe more. Just like Hana Yu who was surprised, she was also surprised.
Boro said that those people didn't have any tickets. In order to enter the residence, they needed the tickets and so, those people were patiently waiting for a ticket holder to reveal himself. Some would fight the ticket holder and to steal their tickets; some will be their subordinates to get to the train.
Bam glanced at his pocket, wondering whether his friends had arrived on the residence or not.
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Come to Room Fifty Two
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Knowing that his friends had arrived, they decided to go together.
"Hi there" a regular appeared out of nowhere near Hana Yu.
The regular was a blue-skinned man with dark grey hair, grey-blue eyes, and two silver studs above his left eyebrow. He wore dark clothing and carried around a dark-coloured staff.
When he appeared before Hana Yu in all sudden, Charlotte pulled Hana Yu backward and extended her arm in defense. His smile really made Charlotte felt uneasy as she wasn't sure whether this man came with good intentions or bad intentions.
"Who are you?" She asked with frown.
Instead of answering, the man asked, "Do you have ticket? If you aren't main participants, what about pledging your allegiance to Sir Aka. If you pledge your allegiance to Sir Aka, he may take you to the Hell Train."
Charlotte frowned even deeper when she heard that.
First thing first, she won't be a subordinate of a stranger who she hadn't met. Second, even if she should pledge her allegiance to that Sir Aka, then she would rather give up the idea of riding the Hell Train. The strange regular who approached her didn't even made her felt convinced that being Sir Aka's subordinate will bring her to the Hell Train and instead, she made her felt uneasy and alerted. Was it because that he appeared out of nowhere and pop out from the ground? Third, she will go to the Hell Train with her friends.
"...Hey" Boro glanced at the regular who approached his new teammates. "You must be the subordinate of Aka Williams. Stop pestering my teammates and get lost."
"Oh, my bad. Is that you, Mr. Boro?" the regular asked. "I didn't see you standing behind them. I'm sorry."
The regular seemed to know Boro and immediately left them the moment he saw him. But before he left, he paused and glanced at Boro, "I see you're participating from the beginning again. Then I will see you in the tournament, Mr. Boro's teammates, I hope that all of you will get to your room safely."
Charlotte was unsure whether he really wished for them to go to their rooms safely considering his tone and her first impression about this regular.
It didn't take long for her before she remembered the regular's identity. Moontari, the loyal subordinate of Aka Williams who was an old friend to Boro. Boro and Aka also had three other friends who were still alive and breathing.
If her memories weren't wrong, then this Moontari will die in the Hell Train for this year.
"Charlotte." Bam's voice distracted her as she looked at her brother again. "What are you thinking?"
She closed her eyes and smiled, putting her right palm behind her head, "Nothing, I just recalled something insignificant."
Bam, "Something insignificant?"
She nodded her head and then opened her fan, "I miss the dessert that Celeste once brought for me. Mm...they are delicious."
Bam sweated dropped when he heard that. And there he thought that Charlotte was thinking about something serious considering her expression before. Maybe he over thought it....or she was hiding it.
"Come on, brother" Charlotte said and held his hand. Her innocent and bright smile didn't leave her face as she added, "Let's go."
Bam smiled and nodded his head while walking together with Charlotte, heading towards their room.
They all headed to the Room Fifty Two where in order for them to get in, they should scan their tickets there or call their teammates who were inside to get out. But before that, Boro glanced at the regulars behind them. All those regulars were holding their weapons and preparing themselves to fight with them.
Charlotte heard that earlier, Boro said that if those hungry wolves thought that their opponents were stronger than them, then they would pledge their allegiance and be their subordinates to get in the Hell Train, even though that they couldn't be the "main participants". What does main participants mean? Charlotte wasn't sure about it yet.
If they were going to be the subordinates of the strong ones, then when they drew their weapons and pointed their weapons towards them, could Charlotte interpret it as they were looking down on them?
Bam was about to step forward when Charlotte held his hand tighter. She opened her fan to cover the lower part of her expression.
"This one....it's better if you leave them for me."
Bam heard her words and then looked at the regulars before them, contemplating whether it was a right decision to let Charlotte go and fight with those people on her own.
"If I'm in danger or if I get hurt badly because of these people, then I will retreat on my own and let you fight" she assured him. "I'm not that stupid to fight and exhaust myself to death."
Bam knew that it wasn't right to stop her sister from fighting. Altaira had told him that if he kept trying to protect Charlotte, to kept her safe by trying not to let her meddle or participate in something, it will only break her heart and hurt her pride. Whenever Charlotte wanted to fight someone or something, he always thought about these words before making his decisions.
And this time, his decision was to let Charlotte to fight on her own first.
He let go of her hand and once he let her hand go, she stepped forward. She shut her fan and put it next to her face, smiling friendly at them and asked, "So....who wants to go first?"
≪ ◦ ❖ ◦ ≫
Like what Bam expected, those regulars weren't strong.
Some regulars who approached his sister were all defeated by her without scratching herself. She was still standing on her ground, smiling and fanning herself.
Seeing how the young girl managed to defeat those regulars on her own, they concluded that she wasn't weak at all and contemplate their decisions again whether to fight her or not.
Charlotte was rather chill. To her, this fight was nothing more but an exercise. So she just covered the lower part of her face and friendly asked them, "Who wants to go next?"
None of them dared.
The door behind them was then opened. Charlotte noticed that and glanced backwards.
"Fighting people is indeed your hobby" a male voice said. "Do you really wish to fight with people every single day?"
Another male voice scoffed, "You're so late. And you brought some troublesome guests with you as well."
"He is always...too soft-hearted."
From the room, they all could see a giant crocodile with red spear on his hand as he rested the red spear on the back of his neck. He also came with a red haired and white haired lady, along with a blue haired man.
"Welcome back, black turtles."
When Charlotte saw both Celeste and Altaira, she smiled happily and ran towards them. Altaira opened his arms and thought that she was looking for him and he was ready to greet him.
But who would have guessed that not only his arm was hit away, the young lass didn't even glance at him and rushed straight to Celeste. She ran towards Celeste and then hugged her.
"Celeste, do you have more sweets with you?"
Celeste who hugged her sweated dropped, "So you look for me because I always carry some sweets with me?"
"It's also because our Celeste is so pretty" Charlotte said and broke the hug. "I can't help but to run towards you because of your prettiness."
Celeste tapped her nose, "What a sweet tongue you had."
Charlotte just laugh nervously when she heard that.
Meanwhile, seeing how Altaira was completely rejected made Bam felt better. He even chuckled at his pain and embarrassment, earning a glare from the blue haired male who stepped on his foot on purpose when he lowered down his guard.
Boro and Hwaryun sighed as he watched how the two young males were glaring to each other and were ready to beat each other to death.