CHAPTER 345: CHAPTER 345

Boom! Boom!

Two blasts occurred one after another, shaking the entire area.

Although the blasts didn’t damage the train, they stopped before reaching the area. The distance was sufficient to prevent damage to the train, but the shockwaves still affected it.

The passengers inside felt the waves.

"What the fuck was that?" Aaron cursed as he picked himself up.

He was lying asleep in his cabin when the incident took place—for him, the days had been too stressful, with all the spies that were observing him for days.

First, the ruins, and immediately, so many people were spying on him. It was too much stress for him. The journey felt peaceful. For the last day, ever since he boarded the train, he felt no spy.

He was finally able to rest without any worry, but the sleep was disturbed by new elements that had recently entered the story.

He opened the window to see what was happening, and when he saw what was happening, he couldn’t help but curse.

There was a group of people wearing black garments and masks that covered every part of their bodies. There was no indication of who they were, not even their gender.

Everyone appeared similar, except one, their leader. He has a red mark on his forehead part of the mask.

"Damn cultists", Aaron cursed.

He knew who these were.

This group emerged recently, when it was thought that the war would soon come to an end.

The monsters retreated, and there are a lot of cultists dying every now and then. Many of the cult’s strongholds were dismantled.

So, it was believed that the war would soon end, with even the end of a few cults, but then the surprise came. A new group appeared.

Many believed that this was a new cult that was waiting for the alliance to become weak before showing itself.

The timing of their appearance said so, but what most people don’t know is that there was only one Cult that acted as cults to make the people fear and put less trust in the Alliance, which the Alliance used to create credit for themselves among the public, by eliminating the pockets of the Cult that appeared as more minor cults.

The higher-ups believed that this new faction was some new way of the Cult, a possible trump card of the Cult to drag the Alliance down with them. It was why they were very careful whenever this new unit appeared.

Of course, that doesn’t mean they let them run as they liked. They hunted them down, trying to destroy whatever the Cult had prepared for them.

This was not known to the public. So, they believed that it was a new cult and acted as such. Many cursed them because all knew that the Alliance had become weak after the long war that still continued with the cult.

It was what Aaron believed, too.

He didn’t have connections in the Alliance, no true connection. So, he was in the dark about the fact that this was not a new cult.

---

"Damn it. I thought that this journey would be stress-free, and once I reach the academy, I can level up without much issue, but it seems I was wrong", Aaron cursed.

He looked around to see what other passengers were doing.

Then an announcement came from the train drivers.

"Passengers, please remain in your seat and make sure you lock your windows and the doors of our coaches and compartments. The train remained damage-free from the blasts. The defence is still up, and help would soon be here. So, please don’t leave your rooms. Make sure to lock them up".

Hearing those words, everyone scrambled to return to their rooms and lock behind. Not many paid if the doors of the compartments were locked. A few did and checked, made sure everything was locked, before returning to their cabins or seats.

Aaron too locked his cabin’s door. He was the only one currently occupying the cabin. The co-passenger has got off in the last station.

Suddenly, one of the coach’s doors opened. In fact, it didn’t just open. It was thrown out, blasted outward, and a masked individual exited the door and waved at the group.

Aaron, who was keeping an eye on what was happening, frowned when he sensed the door being blasted away.

"It looks like they had someone on the inside. Now that there was a breach, this is going to be a problem. Maybe I need to act quickly, or else it might turn into a problem", Aaron muttered to himself as he started to think of a way to solve the issue without getting dragged into the pit.

Before Aaron decided on how to make a move, a fireball appeared out of nowhere and smashed the attackers.

It damaged more than what the previous detonations did.

Aaron turned around to see who did that, and so did every other passenger present in the train.

They could see a man flying high in the air, with his red robes fluttering in the wind. He held a staff with a red crystal as its crown.

"That’s the Red Mage", the crowd shouted, clearly relieved.

Red Mage was a moniker given to one of the strongest Fire Mages of the World. There was no one in the Alliance, not even in the entire world, who could use Fire like him. He was the best in business.

He is said to be at the Peak of Rank-9. If not for his S-rank profession, he might have even become the Sixth human god.

Aaron breathed a sigh of relief when he saw who it was. He didn’t recognise him, but when he heard the moniker Red Mage, relief washed over him.

It was not as if he was afraid of fighting the cultists, but he may have revealed to the world a lot of what he had kept secret.

"Keeping a secret is truly stressful. If only I were the strongest present, then I wouldn’t need to worry about anything", Aaron muttered to himself.

He decided to concentrate fully on reaching Rank-7, maybe ranks even above them, as soon as possible. The sooner he could do so, the more freedom he could enjoy.