— — — — — —
Meanwhile, at the next station...
"Kageyama still isn't here? How long till the next train arrives?"
The man known as Death God—Erigor—had already taken control of the station with his men. For some reason, an uneasy feeling was gnawing at him.
Years of living as an assassin had honed his instincts to a terrifying degree. Even without knowing anything concrete, his gut was screaming at him.
But then he mistook that strange omen for excitement—anticipation for the assassination of those old guild masters.
"Boss, almost time. About ten minutes and the train will be here."
One of his men checked the time, then used Eagle Eye magic to scout from a high point. Soon, the approaching train came into view.
"Good. Get ready. Stick to the plan."
Erigor rose into the air with Wind Magic, magic gathering around him as he prepared to conjure a wind barrier to seal off the station.
---
Inside the train—
"Found them. They're already in the station. Perfect, I don't even have to waste time hunting them down one by one. I'll just wipe them out."
The moment Kazuma said that, before he could do anything, Lucy threw herself at him and clung on like her life depended on it.
"Kazuma-sama, Kazuma-nii, future guild master, Onii-chan, please calm down! Don't do anything crazy! There are innocent civilians around the station!"
"You absolutely cannot start bombing! If you fire even one shot, sure, the enemy dies—but we'll be thrown in jail right after!"
Lucy remembered their very first mission—Kazuma was about to blast that ship to pieces without a second thought.
Now seeing that smile on his face, a dreadful feeling washed over her.
She was still young! She had a bright future ahead! She had no plans of going to prison this early in life!
"Umm... Lucy has a point. Leave this to me. I'll go in and slaughter them!"
Erza spoke calmly, a longsword materializing in her hand as dense killing intent rolled off her like a storm.
People who casually murdered the innocent—she loathed them the most.
"Erza-neesan, Queen-sama, Onee-chan please don't! Let's stay calm! Please!"
Lucy grabbed Kazuma with one hand and Erza with the other. For a moment, she genuinely felt like kneeling to both of them.
Can't we solve this in a reasonable way? Like, I don't know—just taking out their leader or something?!
"Erza, don't be stupid. You know they're all gathered there, and you still want to charge straight in and get surrounded? That's just asking to die."
"Even Lucy knows that's a dumb move. You're a veteran member of the guild—don't make rookie mistakes."
"And you, Lucy, relax. If I bomb them now, sure, it won't hit civilians. I have restraint."
Kazuma snapped his fingers—and in an instant, the carriage filled with dense, shadowy figures.
"Each of you take a set of magic bombs. When we move in, if you see an enemy—you bomb them. Aim and detonate on sight."
He pulled out a pile of high-yield magic explosive devices from his treasury, handing them out to the shadow ninjas—ten each.
Even if they couldn't overpower the enemy mages in combat, blowing them up would get the job done just fine.
This—this was the true use of the Ninja Shadowkhan.
"Ma-Magic bombs?! Wait—!"
Even Erza couldn't help speaking up now. As the name suggests, magic bombs were designed to trigger and detonate magic power on impact.
Put it this way—a single blast could knock someone like Natsu out cold. Ten could probably kill him outright.
And these weren't ordinary magic bombs either. One look and you could tell Kazuma's stash was premium-grade, far more lethal.
There were at least a few dozen shadow soldiers in the carriage, each now armed with ten bombs. That was hundreds of bombs in total.
They might as well just shell the place—this amount of firepower could start a small war.
But by the time Erza opened her mouth to stop them, the shadow soldiers had already melted into the darkness, moving toward the station at terrifying speed.
"It's fine. It'll be fine."
Kazuma sat back down and poured himself a glass of juice, completely at ease. Everything would be resolved smoothly.
After all, no matter the problem, as long as your firepower is overwhelming, it can be solved. And if it can't… you just don't have enough firepower.
"Fine my ass!" x2
Lucy and Erza both screamed internally, staring at the station ahead and praying things wouldn't escalate too badly.
---
Meanwhile, back at the council where Makarov was in a meeting—
"Aah—achoo!"
Makarov sneezed, a chill running down his spine. Please don't tell me those brats were causing trouble again.
"Makarov, you caught a cold? Even so, you still need to deal with your work. Those little gremlins in your guild cause incidents every single day."
"Here. This is your guild's compensation list for the month. Settle it quickly."
A stack of papers was handed to him.
"Ah… good, good. They've grown so much. Only a dozen pages this month…"
He let out a breath of relief. Usually, it was an entire book's worth.
"Heh. That's just the summary. The full documents were too heavy to carry. You'll fetch them yourself later." The man let out a cold laugh.
"...."
"...."
"I wanna retire! Someone else can be guild master, I'm done!"
— — —
Back at the station controlled by Eisenwald—many guards had already been slaughtered outside.
"Boss, those guards were clueless. Charging in without knowing magic? They were just asking to die."
"Yeah, but hey, I killed six just now. My magic feels stronger already!"
"Six? Please. I took down over ten. Did you hear me bragging?"
The members of Eisenwald chatted casually, treating human lives like nothing more than trophies to boast about.
"Shut your mouths!"
Erigor stared at the rapidly approaching train. That ominous feeling in his chest grew heavier.
He glanced at his people… then made a decision.
"You lot stay here and hold position. I'll go scout outside."
His assassin's instincts told him: when uneasy, you disappear. He didn't care in the slightest what happened to the others.
"Yes, boss!"
"Boss, you're overthinking it. It's just some guards. Maybe a couple mages at most. They're no match for us."
"We'll wipe them out easy!"
The Eisenwald members felt no impending danger at all. But the moment Erigor slipped away—
—Countless shadows seeped into the darkness of the station.
A massacre had begun.
.
.
.