Luxinna watched Rem gradually woke up.

“How long have I been out?” Rem rubbed his eyes and stretched with exhaustion.

“Four hours,” beside him a goddess was reading a copy of Alchemist Today. Cytortia closed the magazine and glanced at him with concern. "Seriously Rem, your sleeping issue is getting worse."

“I will manage," Rem massaged his neck, before catching sight of the magazine his friend was holding. "So Alchemist have a magazine?"

“Heh,” Cytortia tossed the magazine to the side with distaste.

Luxinna whistled.

"It's that bad?"

“What do you expected?" Cytortia said, with disdain. "This crap publisher is licking the boot of Isle of Knowledge and Emma Enterprise for a hundred pages straight. What a bunch of sellout."

“Isle of Knowledge?” Luxinna asked.

“Of course two doesn't know them,” Cytortia rolled her eyes.

Cytortia then entered into a thirty-minutes crash course on the Isle of Knowledge. To sum it short, Isle of Knowledge was supposed to be the forefront of all research centers on Phantasia. With almost unlimited wealth and armies of researcher under their wings, Isle of Knowledge, or IK, successfully obtained a near monopoly of all patents in Phantasia. A feat Rem couldn't help but dread. Having one organization, and a ruthless one for that, hold this kind of death grip on research funding and technological progress could only spell disaster.

However, what the goddess said about Emma Enterprise was a lot more intriguing. Luxinna knew nothing about them. Rem only knew how many chunks of Earth they had been carving over and not much else.

But Cytortia was there to fix that.

“Emma Enterprises was founded by Emma Clan several generations ago," Cytortia said. "They are the clan of beastmen whose ancestor interbreed with gods. This heritage gives the clan's offspring massive magical and physical abilities. The power they used to carve out a trade and military empire that span continents."

"What do they want?" Luxinna said.

"I don't know," Cy answered, glancing longingly out into the windows. "My friend...She never told me. I don't think she even knows."

Rem nodded.

The boy was neither nobility, nor elf, nor god or beastmen with divine bloodline. He was but a simple boy who had too much time to question the insanity around him. That was why he knew the reason. Or the closest thing Emma had to one.

The reason was peace of mind. A state free from all worries; namely happiness. Every living being chase after happiness but the meaning of that so-call happiness was rarely questioned. Most believed status and wealth would fill that need, but the idea itself was suicidal. The only things such system lead to was suicide march of greed for more wealth and power to satiate an infinite void. Not to mention the wrath and savagery that was born to protect that veneer of peace. It was akin to a drug. A high they forever chase with blood from themselves and others.

But the most tragic thing about the story was the peace of mind they were chasing wasn't even real.

"Your friend is she a member of Emma's clan," Rem asked.

Cytortia nodded.

"Is she happy?" Rem said. "Is she ever at peace and satisfies?"

Silence.

"No," Cytortia said sadly. "I don't think those two words can be used to describe Aine."

The gloomy mood of the room reminded the elf girl of the insurmountable tasked she must face.

She wanted to be the greatest knight the world had ever seen. However, in that jade-color court, the ten-year-old girl was brand as a monster. Most people, like Rem, didn't care about the label but not Luxinna. The collision course was set in stone the moment she picked Satholia's side. Nothing she did can alter that. The battle between a family wanting an empire of their image and the daughter wanting to protect the powerless was inevitable.

If the elves were chain by fate, fate seemed to decide she must be the beast who destroyed everything she wanted to protect.

"Hey Rem," Luxinna said. "Why do we have to destroy one thing to save another?"

"Why do you decide to ask me that out of the blue?"

Luxinna refused to met Rem's eyes.

"I don't want to fight them," the elf replied. "I know my father is a dick. I know my sister was an idiot. But I never want to hurt them. I don't want to be a monster."

Rem looked at her. Then his body shook as he tried to stifle his laughter. Cytortia's annoyance swelled as she witnessed this unexpected tasteless behavior.

"Rem!" She yelled. Meanwhile, Za Wa the golden Octopus emerged from her handbag and leaped at Luxinna for comfort.

"Sorry!" Rem guffawed, trying to control his laughter. "But that impossible. You will always be a monster no matter what."

Luxinna shrunk with depression as Rem gradually calmed down.

"Lux, this is something you will eventually realize yourself, but before you look at your enemies, you should look at the people you saved."

And then it happened.

...

The takeover began in an instant with a cloud of smoke.

Sleeping gas filled all twenty Hyperchannel's carriage. More than half of the guard went down within the first minute. Another half managed to prepare themselves and their weapons only to fall to the surprise attack from the assailant disguised as the passenger.

Simultaneously, any passengers that remain conscious in spite of the initial assault were taken the prisoner and herded into the middle of the carriage. In less than a mere minute, half of the train was taken over.

Nobody noticed three particular passengers and the golden octopus that had escaped up their carriage's roof.

...

In one carriage, the Captain's back was against the wall, facing his final stand.

In front of him stood a bald man mountain with a sword as big as he was. The guard gulped. He had seen the force behind that muscle snapped a steel sword in half with his own eyes. However, what was scaring him were the battle scars. Many were from blades, some caused acid, and some was a burn. How could anyone receive these much injuries in his lifetime and remain standing?

The guard had no doubt this man was the terrorist's leaders. He didn't even need to wear the gear. The presence he brought already negated the need for such distinction.

Sadly, the guard was only half-correct.

The tan mass of muscle moved toward him in a split second. It was an attempt to end the battle that had gone on for too long. The guard grunted and returned fire with a wind-blast that got deflected easily in a single boom.

Before he could do anything, the massive man picked him up by the neck and slammed him into the ceiling with enough force to crack steel.

The young man dropped from the roof barely conscious. The giant grunted with impatient satisfaction and threw the man out through the carriage window.

The glass broke thunderously as the captain’s battered torso sailed out of the window. He glanced at the pristine ocean speeding below him and grasped a locket he had been holding since the attack begun with the last of his strength.

The welcoming arm of the ocean was not the last thing he saw.

A hand snatched guard's leg away from the embrace of death. Behind that arm, a sandy-hair man pulled an unconscious back to safety with all the strength he could. At his side, a little magpie chirped joyfully, cheering for the save made in the nick of time.

The sandy-hair man nested the guard on the seat and opened the locker he was holding. It contained the image of a family, a man he saved standing with a beastmen wife and a daughter holding a teddy bear.

Marley was not happy.

“One second,” Marley jabbed his finger at the two meters tall giant. “A second too late and this man will be a paste in the ocean. I will give you two seconds to give me an excuse Bruno."

“He is an enemy!” The giant yelled back.

“He got paid by the enemy,” Marley said sternly. “You are not killing a soldier on the battlefield. You are killing a father with a wife and a daughter to support for doing his job. Fighting them is inevitable, but at least put yourself in their shoes."

“But he is an enemy,” Bruno repeated, actively avoiding Marley's eyes.

Marley rolled his eyes. That was the problem with them. Too much energy and obnoxious direction, oh, they agreed the nobility had to go, but the how and why was the main issue.

“We will talk over this later,” Marley said, calming himself down. “Firstly, we must secure the train. Remember what we came here for.”

“I don’t understand this,” the Bruno replied. "What isChalivier thinking? We are already got a transporter. You!"

“Contrary to what you expect, I couldn’t be everywhere at once," Marley replied.

"Yeah, but why do we have to get the core," Bruno scratched his non-existent hair. "I mean we already have several teleporters in our group. You trained them yourself!"

"It's politic Bruno," Marley face-palmed. "You know how the alliance worked."

"Oh right," Bruno's face scrunched up with understanding. "Sorry I even ask?"

...

It was a commonly known fact that most organizations were lumbering beasts perpetually half a step away from collapsing. Such was a reason why nine in ten company imploded after the first year, while another ninety-percent of the survivor kicked the bucket by the second.

The organization known as the Liberator was one such case. A machine of many pieces from all over Phantasia fitted together in the way that couldn't possibly work but did so anyway. It was a zombified alliance of personal and paramilitary forces held together by a single glue.

To destroy the noble of Aurorin and restored freedom to the world!

Despite not even knowing what that freedom would look like, despite teeming with enough agenda to satisfied the world's salt demand, and filled with enough internal animosity the air in the Liberator HQ was practically a syrup of negativity, the organization limped on toward that romance called liberation.

Until they hit a snag; the snag called logistic.

Technically speaking, there were several S-rank in the Liberator. You could even say that the skill level in the Liberator camp tripled those in the noble's faction. However, strength breed ego and those egos breed friction. This result in internal conflict within the Liberator about who got to control what. A dispute that substantially crippled the organization for a decade.

That was until the recent activity of Tie Hua Tianshuang and her charisma changed that.

As the previously fragmented chapters of Liberator started to unite, questions such as 'How do we transport our troop around the area with the size of several planets?' and 'Can we last a prolonged war against an entire upper class that had been hoarding wealth for millennia?' was suddenly being asked openly.

That was how the Chevalier Chapter of Liberator got its new mission.

Secure a transport method for the organization.

...

"...And that is likely what is happening," the badger said as the wind blew over the group. "Marley is aiming to take this train to help the Liberator's cause."

"It is not the train," Rem said, putting on his mask. "Taking this train is unfeasible and a total waste of time and effort. If it's me, I am going to take what makes this train work. Then again, judging from what you said, the Liberator rarely run on logic."

"For simplicity sake, let assume he is after the thingy that warped the space around the train," Luxinna said buttoning up her cloak. "What is it again Cy?"

"The time stabilization core," Cytortia explained, a golden octopus sat on her head. "They already know how the train's mechanism work. Its inventor, Arden Christy, published the papers years ago. But Emma Enterprise and Isle of Knowledge have a death grip on the stabilization core patent. Liberator only chance of getting it is stealing the core and studying schematic."

The young goddess bit her laps.

"But to think that we are up against Marley the Magpie."

Luxinna frowned. Did she hear the name correctly? Who the hell called themselves the Magpie.

"Who is he?" Rem said. "And what should I be expecting?"

"He is the Space Magic specialist in the world," Scathach explained.

Rem groaned. The opening alone was bad enough.

Alas, as expected, it got worse.

“Marley’s aptitude in Teleportation spells and Space-Alteration spells was second to none," Scathach said, putting the difficulty-level up to insanity with every word. "He is master of scouting and wet work. These skills allowed him to stop an invasion by Demonic Continent single-handedly."

Not satisfied with the difficulty level the goddess pushed the mode further into the inferno.

"That campaign was so bad the Demonic Continent had an order for the army to fall back on the very sight of Marley," Cytortia said. "Not that its matter. Marley is infamous because he always remains undetected when he is sabotaging you to death. It said that by the time you notice him the battle was already lost."

Luxinna looked like she was about to roll over and emptied her lunch from stress. Rem could sympathize.

First the Paracis, and now Marley, what type of shit luck was this? Why was the world so obsess with making them suffer?

Rem gritted his teeth.

Every battle was by itself a problem that needed to be solved. In this case, said puzzle was frankly sadistic.

They had to rescue hostages from both ends of the train, secured the objective and outwitted an opponent who could mobilize instantly.

Take into account that they didn't know the resource and training the opponent had and what they got was a tight rope of disaster. Then there was the fact they were outnumbered twenty-four to four.

Being detected in this condition meant instant defeat; the stake of failing meant that their journey would get delay infinitely.

But despite the hellish difficulty, Rem always had a plan.

The Horizon Dawn stood, dressed in black. Their robes and capes fluttered behind them. It was a scene that would be called bizarre by anyone in Phantasia. The elf with gold highlight slung the sword behind her back, wishing for any cover to lay an ambush. The golden octopus wearing a shade flexed on top of the goddess who was shaking in her legs. Meanwhile, the badger glared accusingly at heaven.

Finally, the boy with near chronic insomnia put on his mask and fedora, listing the mission statement.

"Marley is the biggest problem," Rem said. "We have to find a way to delay him while cutting out his manpower at lightning speed. In this case, a simultaneous attack is the best option to divert his concentration."

"Er, Rem I have an idea," a certain cheeky elf raised her hand.