Chapter 17

1

The train passed through several big cities, and from the sky, I saw places where Wenxin and her family had once traveled to, as well as places where we had once wandered. Comparing the time spent sitting on the long throne, those moments felt insignificant but suddenly felt more joyful. I remembered the kind uncle I had met during my wandering days. Since he handed me over to Wenxin's parents, I had not heard from him again. Perhaps he had been taken away by the envoys of the underworld, or maybe he was actually someone arranged by my father. Who knows? But whenever he spoke of his past, his profound sadness seemed like something only a person who had experienced it could express.

"I've always felt that the compartment behind us is dangerous."

"If they don't provoke me, there's no need to pay them any attention." I looked at Nana, who finally stopped fussing over the shield issue because she had found something new to focus on.

"There's a strange energy forming since we got on the train."

"It's probably some kind of device or Magic formation." Perra unsheathed her sword, ready to separate the rear wall.

"Hey, calm down. Don't provoke them. If I'm not mistaken, they're planning to hijack the train. If we anger them, the entire train will fall from the sky."

"Hijack? Why? What's the point of hijacking a sightseeing train?"

"They're hijacking the people on board. They probably want to negotiate with the Emperor of the Empire."

Nofice drew a Magic formation outside the door, its purpose was simply to conceal us.

"Hmm..." After a short while, the train suddenly shook violently and stopped at a height of about eight hundred meters. From the outside, it appeared to be held by red chains.

"It seems that we won't be arriving on time tonight."

"Attention, everyone on the train. You are now hostages. We're not after money. We need the Emperor of the Empire to make a promise! Any resistance and we can't guarantee your safety." The announcement of the hijackers played on a loop.

A promise? Indeed, they're not after money. In a few more hours, we would have arrived back at the imperial capital. In the sparsely populated northern region, with the mountains and the remote location of the Emperor, even the imperial army might not be able to arrive in time to stop the hijacking. But these people didn't seem interested in that.

"They are forcing the Emperor. What has happened in the past two years?"

"The Othrie Empire has been in conflict with the southeastern island countries in the past two years. The wars in the west have frightened the rulers of those countries, but the resistance from civilian organizations has been increasing." Nana had been a military officer in the border city for two years; she would certainly know some things.

"How dare they call themselves rulers when they can't even control their own people!"

There was a tumultuous noise coming from outside the compartment. It seemed that the hijackers were planning to drag us out one by one.

"Bang!" The door was opened, and a masked man with an eerie style peeked in. There was a suspicion of foreign influence in the design of his mask.

This man glanced around the room and left as if nothing had happened. He didn't close the door, and behind him were the hostages who had been sealed by Magic. They didn't appear to have the abilities of a semi-saint, but it couldn't be ruled out that there were semi-saints or above among the hostages. It was necessary to seal them off.

On the other hand, the hijackers held mass-produced magic guns that were the size of regular guns but converted Magic energy into bullets. However, they lacked the spirituality, destructive power, and special effects of magic guns. But they also followed the international regulations and did not install the ability to resist powerful destructive magic barriers. In other words, they were just ordinary guns that anyone could use. The military wouldn't have any use for such things. With their uniform weapons and strange masks, could they be part of some evil organization?

Evil? Could there be anyone more evil than the Demon Dragon? In reality, I had just been too indulgent!

Finally, I saw him...how could he be here? I finally understood the reason for hijacking the train! It was because of him.

"That person..." Nana apparently already saw him.

"Hush! Just wait."

"Who did you see?" Or maybe it was only QiQi who hadn't seen him.

"He's surnamed Zi, the Emperor of the Empire."

"He's in disguise, they haven't recognized him yet, but it's only a matter of time before they find out."

2

In less than ten minutes, there seemed to be a large number of people gathering about a kilometer away, probably the rescuers.

"I'll go take a look." I covered my hands with my shirt, pretending to be blocked.

Leaving the room and walking towards the front train car, the easiest place to accommodate and monitor so many people was the location of the dining car, where there were no obstructions to easily observe the hostages.

"Hmm?" As soon as I walked in, two magic guns were aimed at my head.

"Guard the entrances one by one." Standing in front of me on the left was a tall man wearing a mask with the sun on his forehead and alternating red and blue on his cheeks. Only the masks with the sun on their foreheads had their eyes enhanced with magic to resist illusions, not everyone had it.

I was casually thrown into a corner, don't they think I'm a threat? Well, good, I'll take a look at their masks again. There were three types of masks present, although the ways they were colored were different, there was something the same, the symbol of the sun and moon would appear repeatedly on each mask. It was probably a hierarchical division of an organization, and the sun had control over the sun and moon. It seems that the leaders of the hijackers were the sun, but there were three of them, is the hijacking led by three individuals?

Finally, I saw the Emperor of the Empire and quietly walked over to him, crouching down next to him.

"What promises do they need from you?"

The Emperor was on guard like a hedgehog, holding a defensive weapon in his hand. If discovered, he would attack immediately!

"I'm also a hostage, don't be too nervous."

"Who are you?"

Your son-in-law, dummy. "They said I'm a hostage too."

"A hostage? I don't think they can easily capture you."

"Yes, I did it on purpose. When I saw you, I was curious. As a...that, you were able to come without anyone."

"Northern Avalanche, I went to solve the problem, not for show."

"But..."

"My journey from the north has been more than two weeks now. It has always been kept secret and I have always been safe. And I trust my army."

"The army arrived two minutes ago."

We exchanged whispers, but the ears of the hijackers were quite sensitive.

"What are you talking about?!" The one who came over had the symbol of the sun, trying his best to see through us. He wanted to use the magic enhanced in their eyes to see through us.

He quickly walked up to us, staring without blinking as if he had really seen something.

The Emperor tightened his grip on what he held in his hand, ready to resist at any moment. The young Emperor was also very combative, becoming calmer and less likely to act after taking the throne. He wouldn't easily make a move unless it was necessary.

"This person wasn't blocked!" The masked person used the gun to poke at my clothes and said.

"So you weren't blocked?" The Emperor looked at me, curious after seeing me being blocked.

"It doesn't matter if I'm blocked or not," I requested to cover my clothes again, then let him look inside, "it can't block magic at all." I easily removed the block from my hand in front of the Emperor.

"The block can't use magic, are you a Divine Rank? Then why..."

"So I was just curious, and they couldn't see through your disguise because of me."

"Just now..." the emperor realized, the reason his disguise remained undetected by the mask man even when he tried his best.

"Tell me, what promise?"

"A promise to give up the territory!"