Chapter 179
Chapter 179
Flight Hell
I was suffering from a long-overdue threat to my survival.
“Uwaaaaaa….”
The raging wind carried extreme cold. The horribly thin air density tightened around my throat. The only small mercy was that, because the air was so thin, the level at which the chill was transmitted was also different from usual.
However, that was hardly any real comfort in front of Kairus’s flight, which boasted speeds of hundreds of kilometers per hour.
I could feel death. I even regretted not listening more carefully to Irena’s advice.
Flying in the sky was cool. But flight only looked impressive when viewed from the ground.
“I think I’m gonna die.”
Looking down during flight was a luxury. I had admired it for a brief moment, but now I didn’t have the leisure to care about the ground or whatever the hell was down there.
‘Hell is up in the sky.’
This place right here was hell. Above the heads of the people walking on the ground, such a horrific environment had been formed.
There was no reason for hell to exist underground. The sinful among the dead could simply be sent up into this sky. They wouldn’t last long, and before long they would repent for the sins they had committed.
This sky itself. This empty void boasting such a brutal environment—if there were a god, this would be the execution chamber he had prepared for sinners.
I trembled as I struggled to keep breathing.
“Endure it. We’re almost there.”
“…That’s too much.”
The voice of Kairus, who was leading the flight, was cold. This wasn’t a situation that could be solved with a single warm word. No matter how warm the words were, in this hellishly cold void, they would freeze instantly and turn frigid.
The only thing he could say was advice to hold on.
Even Kairus’s words that we were almost there sounded like lies to me.
After all, I had already heard the same thing several times.
“Hang in there.”
Irena encouraged my first flight in a faint, barely audible voice. Of course, since she had to keep breathing, her voice was small and short.
In truth, it wasn’t easy to look after someone else when you were the one about to die.
‘This time, it was real.’
Even Kairus, who had said we were almost there, had meant it this time. The destination had come close enough to be confirmed with his eyes. I could see the camp of those who had finished preparing to overturn the train according to Kairus’s instructions.
Now, it was time to gradually lower our altitude. Kairus began to descend.
“Finally.”
Irena shouted in a voice filled with joy. And that sound was clearly delivered to me as well.
When someone with experience felt relieved, it was very good news for someone without it. It was a sign that this hellish time was coming to an end.
However, landing took quite a while. It was an unavoidable choice in order to land safely.
“Wh-why is this taking so long!”
Of course, the one who had to endure it—me—was starting to suspect that Kairus was deliberately screwing with me.
“Have some patience. You don’t want to crash straight into the ground, do you?”
“I’m fine with that!”
Crashing into the ground didn’t sound so bad. I genuinely thought so. I had now realized just how blessed a situation it was to have both feet planted on the ground.
“We’re here.”
“Quick, quick!”
As if there were springs inside my bag, I popped out with a bounce and stood there, my lips blue as I trembled all over.
“That’s why I told you.”
“I’m sorry, unniii… I’ll listen to you from now on.”
Even to Kairus, the sight of me tearfully confessing my fault to Irena looked quite pitiful.
So pitiful that he couldn’t bring himself to say that we would be flying again when we returned after finishing the job.
‘There’s no other way.’
This was a wide plain where trains ran at full power. There was nothing here but railroad tracks and an empty park. If we wanted to quickly return to Bennett City and continue the job, we would have to fly again.
I was probably instinctively aware of it too. That my dreadful first flight would soon be followed by a second.
“It’s a freight train heading to Sellington.”
“They said the loading’s finished. It’s transporting lumber and sand to mix with cement, and we replaced some of the cement sacks with the item you mentioned.”
As soon as Kairus landed from the sky, the people who had been waiting immediately began their report.
“It’s refined opium. The color’s a bit different, but we loaded it without any major issues.”
Opium paste. It was refined for smoking with a special pipe. The departure station of the freight train Kairus planned to overturn was in Jericho’s district.
“Good. You’ve worked hard.”
If a large quantity of opium paste were discovered in the overturned freight train, the Prosecutor’s Office would check the train’s departure point and then withdraw from the investigation, while reporters would go crazy and cling to the story to cover it.
‘And I might even toss a few more logs onto the fire.’
After organizing the plans he had laid out in his head, Kairus spoke to the men who were on standby.
“Now pack up and head back.”
The cargo train was scheduled to arrive in about an hour.
“Uh, um….”
It seemed the guys who had endured the tough camping had something they wanted from Kairus.
“What, you bastards. I said go. You want to go to hell instead of Bennett City?”
And Kairus had no intention of granting whatever they were hoping for. A wish-granting fairy was bound to be fickle. Today, he had no intention of being a fairy to anyone present.
At Kairus’s cold threat, the men who had been on standby read his intentions and began packing their things with tired, exhausted movements. They were probably hoping to squeeze out at least a little sympathy.
If Kairus had possessed a soft enough heart to pity others for their hardship, he would have gone to a monastery and become an investigator instead of returning to Bennett City the moment he got out of the Labor Correctional Facility.
“Look at these sons of bitches dragging their feet.”
When Kairus flicked his sword, a gust of wind burst forth and knocked several of them to the ground.
“You really wanna die, is that it? There’s nothing around here anyway—should I make a nice little cemetery for you?”
Only then did the sluggish movements of the men gain speed. In truth, if you want a horse to run faster, the whip matters more than the carrot. Otherwise, jockeys at racetracks would be swinging carrots instead of whips.
Once they finished packing and withdrew, the vast plain was left with nothing but the railroad tracks and the three of us, including Kairus.
“We’re taking the train back, right?”
“….”
“Why aren’t you answering, oppa. We’re taking the train, right?”
I forced myself to ask Kairus something I already suspected the answer to, desperately hoping he would give me a different reply.
And Kairus chose silence rather than planting false hope in me.
Sometimes, not speaking was the greater comfort.
“The train will arrive soon. Take your positions and focus.”
There was a reason he had brought Irena and me along despite knowing how hard flying with others was.
‘It has to be done quickly, in one go.’
The engineer driving the freight train wasn’t blind. If he noticed something strange about the tracks, he would stop first and take the necessary measures.
We had to throw the engineer into confusion. That was my job.
While the engineer was distracted, Kairus had to quickly destroy the tracks.
A train heavily loaded with cargo was extremely heavy. Damaging the tracks alone wouldn’t make it overturn. The locomotive might flip, but it was hard to expect the cargo cars to go down with it.
‘The car loaded with the drugs is close to the locomotive.’
The moment it derailed, Irena would use Swift Blade to topple the target cargo car as well.
If a powerful wind struck while it still had sideways momentum, that would be enough force. In the meantime, Kairus would have to deal with the locomotive crew or the engineer who survived the crash.
I had never once thought it was too cruel to kill those who barely survived.
‘If that thought ever crossed my mind, I shouldn’t be thinking about overturning a freight train in the first place.’
Kairus was committing a crime right now.
I had never once entertained the insane idea of committing a crime without killing anyone.
If Kairus didn’t want to create innocent victims, then he would have to give up his revenge as well. The road to taking the Emperor’s head would surely be paved like a carpet with the blood of the innocent.
The point was that people were needed, and the three of us here were enough.
“It should be coming soon. Nora, go to your position.”
Having shaken off the shock of the flight, I gave a crisp wave and headed far down along the railroad.
Using the teleportation of the long-named kitchen knife, I would easily be able to board the moving train and wreck the brakes.
“Don’t use a weapon.”
It had to be disguised as an accident. If there were knife marks on the brakes, that would be troublesome. I didn’t know how competent the Aylan Republic Police Department was, but they would certainly be able to distinguish between something sliced by a blade and something that wasn’t.
“Aren’t you worried about a girl like me jumping onto a moving train?”
That wasn’t something a human weapon wearing the form of a girl should say.
“I’m worried about the train.”
Once I was completely out of sight, Kairus and Irena also waited at their designated spots for their roles.
Kairus pressed his ear against the rail.
‘I hear it.’
The vibration traveling through the steel faintly yet distinctly brushed against his eardrum. The train was coming. If it wasn’t the freight train, I would send a signal.
And our poor engineer knew nothing of the arrangements Kairus had made and was simply staring straight ahead.
“Uwaaaah.”
While he opened his mouth wide in a yawn, I settled inside the locomotive through teleportation. There was no noise at all, and he wouldn’t find any trace.
“…?”
As he yawned, the state of the tracks came into view. Unless his eyes were deceiving him, they were clearly bent.
The engineer’s dazed expression instantly hardened with tension as he forcefully pulled the connected cord and shouted,
“We’re stopping! Emergency situation, we’re stopping!”
“We’re stopping!”
As if rehearsed, one of the crewmen who heard the engineer shouted the same words loudly. The others who heard him echoed it as well.
The engineer looked around to grab the large stick connected to the brakes.
What entered his sight was a bent brake lever. Even if he pulled it, it wouldn’t function properly—the lever was severely warped.
“Huh?! What? Fuck, why is this—!”
Perhaps this was exactly the kind of moment people meant when they said it was ghostly.
It was my handiwork. The instant he shouted that we were stopping, I had wrecked the brake lever.
The one who had done it had already gotten off the train using the teleportation of the 563rd kitchen knife.
“Y-you fucking… damn it!”
He grabbed the brake lever with both hands and pulled with all his strength, breaking out in a cold sweat, but the already smashed lever didn’t budge.
The iron horse kept running. It charged at full speed toward the twisted tracks.
With a grotesque sound, the locomotive derailed and was flung off.
Still gripping the brake with both hands, the engineer slammed into the wall of the locomotive. If he were lucky, his injuries would end with broken arms or legs.
Crack!
He wasn’t lucky. It was a fracture, yes—but the part that broke was his neck.