Free Web Novel"Don't come out until I figure out how they were turned into zombies."
"Zombies?"
Paqina still couldn't quite understand what had happened; these things were a bit beyond her comprehension.
"Wounds…"
Orianna moved among the zombies. She wasn't alive, and these zombies acted as if they couldn't see her. From this Loren could tell the zombies were not locking onto enemies through sight.
At the same time Loren searched the zombies for wounds. More or less, they all bore injuries, mostly in obvious places—bite marks and scratches.
"It seems the transmission method matches the zombies I remember…"
Just as this thought formed, Loren spotted a zombie without any wounds. Aside from completely white eyes, his appearance was no different from a normal person.
Orianna precisely sliced off his head, then found a train ticket in his pocket. He had boarded at the capital of the Canaan Kingdom, the same place where the train had stopped earlier.
It was also the first station after the train hit the corpses.
"Could the people from the Canaan Kingdom have used this as an opportunity to silence them?"
That possibility was high. But if they were only afraid of exposure of previous events, they wouldn't necessarily go this far.
Orianna pressed on to the next carriage. The situation there was similar to the previous carriage, perhaps even more tragic.
At the door Loren found many bloody handprints. Beneath them lay a corpse whose torso had been half eaten. In his last moments he had desperately tried to leave, but the carriage door had been firmly locked.
Loren didn't find any unwounded zombies here, but one zombie's injuries were clearly different from the others—blunt-force wounds from fists and feet. He was likely the infection source.
Sure enough, Loren found a ticket in his pocket showing the origin as the Canaan Kingdom.
"They really came to silence people, and they might've been conducting experiments at the same time."
If that was the case, then there were surely their people still on the train.
But Orianna carried the Hermit card effect, so even if she walked over their faces no one would notice, meaning they didn't need to be overly cautious.
Loren never took the zombies seriously. Their destructive power was limited; bluntly put, they only had a stronger infection ability.
People usually find zombie films terrifying because the protagonists are ordinary people. Put Loren in charge, and horror games would turn into mowing-down exercises.
Orianna used Blood Moon Condensed Light to cut open the corpse's abdomen. It matched what Paqina had seen earlier: the stomach wasn't completely empty—there were some half-digested intestines and shredded flesh.
The organs should have been his own.
Orianna casually snapped a rod off the train's luggage rack and swung it at a nearby zombie.
The blow crushed the zombie's skull, while the rod only ended up slightly bent and dented.
"The physical durability of zombies is not much different from ordinary people, maybe even weaker in places…"
Orianna had swung the rod to test the zombies' strength. Her own strength was enormous; whether mage or ordinary person, she'd pulverize them with a single punch.
Zombies were not powerful in combat, but any injury could spread infection, so the threat remained significant.
That threat, however, was mainly to ordinary people. It posed little menace to mages; even low-tier mages could easily crush this horde. In a Western-fantasy world, this level of biohazard hardly qualified as a true crisis.
Mages also rode trains. Even if there happened to be no wild mages aboard this car, there were the few Bountiful Mages who had followed Loren—the current situation was therefore unreasonable.
Orianna continued toward the rear carriages, and knowing the logic of zombie-virus transmission, Loren stepped out of the carriage as well.
"Let's check the cab. If the driver is dead, we'll have to jump from the train."
Jumping from a train wasn't difficult; the problem was getting to the next destination. They were in the wilderness here—there wasn't even a carriage to be had.
"Okay."
They followed Loren out of the carriage and immediately saw a train attendant dead at the doorway.
"Ugh…"
At the sight of the corpse, Paqina gagged. Previously she had only glimpsed such things, but this was her first close look at a body, especially since Orianna had cut open the attendant's head.
"Paqina, use Return to Earth to clear the bodies along the track."
Loren issued the order. He wanted to use this opportunity to train Paqina. If the sight of the dead disrupted her actions, it would only lead to greater danger.
"Yes…"
Paqina was a little timid. She raised her hand, magic gathering in it. The corpses slowly dissolved until there was no trace left.
"Your casting speed is much slower."
"I…"
Hearing Loren's words, Paqina panicked. She forced herself to steady, but the fear in her heart wasn't easily dispelled. Still, she was more afraid of disappointing Loren.
"Never mind, don't rush to adapt. For now I can cover you."
Seeing Paqina's strained state, Loren stroked her hair to comfort her.
He had not been forcing her; he only wanted her to start adjusting.
Their carriage was at the very front, not far from the cab.
The cab door was locked, but this was not a puzzle game—opening it required no decoding. Loren sliced the door open with a single cut, not even bothering with the lock.
No zombies charged in after the door opened. Loren saw the driver's corpse and shattered glass. At high speed, wind rushed in through the broken window.
"Someone came into the cab, killed the driver, and escaped through this window."
Loren moved the driver's body aside and saw a damaged control panel. The brakes had been completely destroyed.
"It looks like they were determined to destroy this train as well… So, the zombie matter must be very important to them… to the point they'd kill anyone who could leak even the slightest information."
Completely wrecking a train wasn't small. Even in this information-poor era, news of it would spread across the continent.
...
"One last time, tell me why you came here. Why did people from the Bountiful Church go to the Kingdom of Anselm?"
Only one living captive remained among the mages protecting Loren. Before him stood three Robed Figures and a floor covered with zombie corpses, plants growing all over them—undoubtedly killed by Bountiful Magic.
"We were escorting the Master Mentor. He's in the carriage at the very front! If we don't kill him, he'll uncover all your secrets. I can cover you!"
"What?"
Hearing that name, the Robed Figure immediately broke into cold sweat. He had considered many possibilities, but never that Loren would show up.
Suddenly a sense of crisis gripped him, but when he looked back, there was nothing.
"Looks like I don't have to worry about rescuing you while hiding myself anymore."
Orianna's mechanical voice echoed in their ears.
