Riat, where the grand library was located, was a small village west of the Academy.
It was about three hours away by train.
Trine could not feel at ease at all.
Putting everything else aside, he did not have a single male friend with him.
That was why Trine stayed quiet without joining the conversation between Princess Sia and the female students.
"Riat is famous for being quite a pretty village, isn't it?"
"They say it has completely become a tourist destination thanks to the grand library."
"Come to think of it, Princess Sia, you are on good terms with the director of the grand library, aren't you?"
"Ah, you mean Lord Benheim? Rather than being on good terms, we have simply known each other for a long time."
"There was even a rumor before that the two of you were dating."
"Lord Benheim is merely the one who keeps making advances. Right now, I have only Trine."
"Oh~ Good for you, class representative. Princess Sia has finally accepted your unrequited love."
"For that, Trine's reaction somehow seems too cold, doesn't it?"
"Trine is shy."
At those words, Trine smiled falsely.
The one Trine liked was not Princess Sia.
But the circumstances were complicated, so he was keeping it a secret.
At least until Princess Sia's curse was broken, he had decided to maintain this false relationship.
Even so, being made a topic of conversation like this was extremely uncomfortable.
"I need to use the bathroom for a moment."
In the end, unable to adapt to the atmosphere, Trine quietly left the passenger compartment.
For a moment, he decided to stand alone in the open space between the train cars and get some cold night air.
"I'm itching to move... They'd scold me if I swung a sword on the train, right?"
The sun had already set outside, so it was quite dark.
The scenery outside, rushing past quickly,
Made him feel as though he were gradually moving farther away from Yuril, and it was unpleasant.
Just then, Lizbette followed him out of the train car.
"I somehow feel sorry. Because of me, your team ended up with only women."
"Tell me about it."
"Take these as gifts for winning the sports festival and for your engagement."
Lizbette handed Trine three mana potions.
"I am grateful, but aren't these a little random as an engagement gift?"
"Did you not know some nobles use mana potions as aphrodisiacs?"
"Now I suddenly want to refuse them."
"In any case, do not drink them all at once this time. Divide them properly."
"Yeah. Thanks."
Lizbette leaned against the railing and looked up at the sky.
"Still, to think the woman you liked was Princess Sia of all people."
"Why? Do you have a problem with that?"
"No. If her position had been lower than mine, I was thinking of trying my luck."
"What a funny joke."
"Indeed. In a way, it is a relief that I can end it as a joke."
"...That was a joke, right?"
At that, Lizbette laughed loudly once and said,
"Let us make sure we save Princess Sia together."
"Yeah. We have to."
Just then, the train's speed began gradually slowing down.
At the same time, an announcement came over the train.
"A herd of cattle is currently crossing the tracks, so we will stop briefly."
At that, Trine narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"A herd of cattle?"
"It is common around here."
"Surely this isn't terrorism aimed at Princess Sia?"
"Hahaha. There is no way. State-run trains are famous for their thorough security."
Trine leaned forward and looked ahead.
There really were several dozen water buffalo crossing the tracks.
Just as he felt a little relieved...
Suddenly, a female student with a perilla-leaf hairstyle came out of the train car.
It was Barbara, a noble female student.
Ignoring Trine and Lizbette, she suddenly jumped off the train.
Lizbette shouted in surprise.
"Barbara! Where are you going?!"
There was no answer.
Barbara simply began running at full speed toward somewhere.
"Let's chase her!"
When Lizbette jumped off the train, Trine reluctantly followed after her.
"Barbara! Stop for a moment!"
However, Barbara ignored Lizbette's shout for a while and simply kept running.
She ran so fast that even chasing her was difficult.
In the end, Barbara only stopped after running into the forest for more than ten minutes.
Lizbette barely caught up to Barbara, grabbed her shoulder, and asked,
"Lizbette! What in the world is going on?"
Barbara asked back with a blank expression, as if she had just woken up.
"Hm? What do you mean? And where is this?"
"Are you all right? Don't you remember jumping off the train?"
"I jumped off? Why?"
Just then, Trine took out his self-defense pistol and carefully said to the two female students,
"Everyone, draw your weapons. We're surrounded by monsters."
At those words, Lizbette immediately drew her greatsword and took her stance.
Barbara was a little flustered too, but she soon regained her senses and took out her crossbow.
Growling could be heard here and there.
Because it was dark, the monsters hiding around them were hard to see.
Barbara carefully looked around and said,
"Wolf-type monsters. Five of them. There may be a larger pack behind them."
Lizbette tensed her body and said to Trine,
"Class representative, give us orders."
"Let's run to the tracks. Lizbette in the lead, Barbara in the middle, and me at the rear."
Fortunately, he had heard there was a barrier around the tracks that prevented monsters from approaching, so they only had to escape that far.
In a voice low enough that only the two female students could hear, Trine counted.
"Three... two... one... run!"
Lizbette took the lead and began running toward the tracks.
Barbara and Trine followed behind her.
At that, the wolves barked and burst out from all directions.
"Out of the way!"
Lizbette swung her greatsword wide as she ran.
The wolves attacking from the front were easily cut down and vanished into ash.
"They're coming from the side too!"
Barbara dealt with the wolves charging from the flanks one by one with her crossbow.
Her bizarre feat of hitting every shot while running was clearly not something anyone could easily imitate.
"Keep running like this!"
At a glance, they were far weaker than the wolves Trine had fought back in his hometown.
However, there were too many of them, and they ran quickly.
At this rate, they would definitely be caught.
"Kyaaak!"
In the end, Barbara tripped over a tree root and fell.
When one wolf charged at Barbara's defenseless back,
Trine quickly kicked the wolf away.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, thank you!"
Barbara hurriedly got to her feet.
But in that brief opening, the wolves had already drawn close.
Trine hurriedly took out the grimoire 'The Bremen Town Musicians' from inside his clothes and opened it.
"Will this work on monsters too?!"
A rooster sprang out of the book and crowed loudly.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo~!"
At that, the wolves hesitated, unable to charge recklessly.
"Do not stop! Keep running!"
...In the end, the three of them barely managed to reach the tracks.
As each of them sank to the ground and gasped for breath,
Barbara clutched her own head and murmured,
"What in the world is this mess...?"
Lizbette asked Barbara,
"You really do not remember anything?"
"No... I think some old woman spoke to me while I was on my way to the bathroom on the train."
"Was it hypnosis? I have heard stories of some elves being able to use magic like that."
"But I do not think that the old woman's ears were pointed. Could she even use shapeshifting magic?"
After catching his breath once, Trine said,
"The biggest problem right now is that the enemy's goal isn't simply to assassinate Barbara."
If that had been the case, they would have chosen a more reasonable time and method.
The fact that they had gone through all this trouble using disguise magic and even hypnosis meant they must have another goal.
Barbara murmured with a grave expression,
"Then could they be targeting Princess Sia?"
Just then, Lizbette's expression stiffened.
"If the enemy can use shapeshifting magic too, they may be trying to disguise themselves as Barbara."
"Come on, surely even so..."
"There is more than enough possibility. Killing a noble and disguising themselves as that person is a tactic unique to the elves."
Lizbette summoned a blue, translucent bird above her palm with magic.
"We can use this to send a message to the others."
At that, Trine replied,
"If there really is a fake Barbara, we must not let them realize yet that the real Barbara is alive."
"Then what should we do?"
After thinking for a moment, Trine answered,
"Then let us send the message like this."
***
A blue, translucent bird passed through the train car window and entered the passenger compartment.
The bird landed on the shoulder of the female student across from Princess Sia.
Then it chirped to everyone, imitating Lizbette's voice.
"Trine and I accidentally got off the train and missed it. We will take the next train, so do not worry and go on ahead."
At that, every student around them dropped their jaws.
"Seriously?! Are they idiots?"
"Trine, fine, but even Lizbette..."
"What do they think they're doing?"
Princess Sia smiled without realizing it and said,
"As expected, Trine is someone who makes my heart race wondering what accident he will cause next."
Just then, the blue bird opened its mouth again.
"Trine has to make a regular report to Instructor Eloy, so check who is on your side and let us know."
With those words, the bird vanished.
At that, the female students began chatting among themselves.
"Come to think of it, they said we had to contact them every day."
"Are the others probably traveling by airship around now?"
"Should we tattle and tell them Trine caused an accident?"
In the middle of that, only Princess Sia narrowed her eyes slightly.
'Why did Trine ask us to check who was here at this time?'
Princess Sia had experienced so many kidnapping and assassination attempts that her instincts were extremely sharp about matters like this.
'If he is trying to indirectly grasp the situation on this side, that may mean there is a spy.'
Fortunately, if that was the right word,
No one besides Princess Sia seemed particularly suspicious.
One of the female students summoned a bird that looked exactly like the one from earlier and said,
"It is me, Lilian, Narsha, Barbara, and Princess Sia here."
Just before Lilian sent the bird away,
Princess Sia stopped her and said,
"One moment. Please pass along one message from me to Trine as well."
"Yes. What should I say?"
"Tell him I will ask the conductor to stop the train, so he should follow us immediately."
"What? No matter what, that would be too much of a nuisance."
"As a princess, I ought to provide this much help for all of you. Besides, I dislike the thought of my fiancé being alone with another woman."
***
About thirty minutes had passed since the train came to a stop.
Lizbette hurriedly entered the train.
Judging by how hard she was gasping for breath, it seemed she had run quite desperately.
"Trine says he will sit separately in the front car. He says he wants to hide because he is embarrassed."
Princess Sia rose from her seat and said,
"Then I will go see Trine's face while telling the conductor to depart."
When Princess Sia moved to the front car, Trine was sitting in an empty seat there, gasping for breath.
Beside him sat someone with their face hidden by a cloak.
Princess Sia naturally sat across from Trine and spoke.
"Trine, your prank was far too mischievous."
After confirming that no one had followed her, Trine said to her,
"The Barbara who was with you, Princess Sia, is a fake."
"Then the one beside you right now must be Barbara."
At that, the cloak shifted once in affirmation.
Trine narrowed his eyes once and said,
"You understand things unnecessarily quickly."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"Should we ambush the fake Barbara now and interrogate her?"
"No. If we do that and she kills herself on her own, we may never learn what her goal is."
"Even so, we cannot just leave her alone. What will we do if the enemy's goal is your assassination, Princess?"
At that, Princess Sia laughed lightly, as if joking.
"There is no way. I will die in a year anyway if they leave me alone, so why would they go out of their way to assassinate me?"
Trine clicked his tongue.
He wanted to say something about that unpleasant attitude, but this was not the time.
Whatever the case, leaving the fake Barbara alone like this was out of the question.
There was no telling what she would do immediately after they arrived at Riat Village.
There were two things they had to do now.
Separate the fake Barbara from Princess Sia and the other students.
And determine the enemy's identity and objective.
After thinking for a moment, Trine said to Princess Sia,
"I have a good idea, so cooperate with me."