Chapter 3: 2 – Glynn and the train [2]

Glynn.

The name that sent shivers down Glenn's spine every time he heard it. Lately, Ava hadn't mentioned that name much so he was very close to forgetting about it. Emphasis on close.

"I'm just kidding. I know how uncomfortable you feel with Glynn." Ava laughed as she walked into the compartment and sat down on her seat. 

Glenn sighed and soon glared at Ava. "Then why did you mention 'her' in the first place?"

"Just because." Ava shrugged.

Sighing once more, Glenn took off his newsie beret, coat, and cane and put them in the luggage compartment above the seats. Then, he heard the loud sound of steam being released.

"Oh, the train finally departed."

Fumbling through his pocket and taking out the train ticket, he inspected its content again just to be sure.

"Number 57..." Glenn muttered as he drifted his eyes toward the seat, which happened to be right next to Ava's. "Fuck!"

"Hehe, guess you're sitting beside me now." 

But Glenn wasn't having any of it! He turned his gaze toward the remaining 2 seats separated from Ava's by a small wooden table.

"Hey, don't you even think about it!" Said Ava as she forcibly pulled Glenn down to his correct seat. "You'll definitely get thrown in jail if you do what you're about to do and the ticket inspector finds out about it."

"Huh? Since when was that a thing?" Glenn was genuinely confused.

Ava sighed. "That's why you need to read the newspaper more. You can be tried for suspected identity theft and treason now if you took the wrong seat. Everything's indeed going pretty bad ever since Joseph Persuv Cetial became the alliance's leader."

"...And here I thought food prices going up is our only problem."

"Believe me, things are only going to get worse from now on."

For the sake of his mental health, Glenn decided to give up on understanding politics and instead opted to rest his eyes. However, Ava's babbling didn't allow him to do so. Nevertheless, he still tried to rest in such harsh conditions. That was, until...

"....I'm excited! Though dad is probably crying at home right now and it isn't because he misses us. I bet that he's sadder that he had to spend all his life savings to send us to Kevlas."

Upon hearing this, Glenn finally opened his eyes and sighed. "You're right. If he hadn't taken me in, maybe when would have had some money left—"

"Hey!" Ava chopped the middle of Glenn's head. "Stop with that attitude!"

After massaging his head in pain for a few seconds, Glenn tilted his head in confusion at Ava. "But it's the truth!"

"That may be the case." Ava sighed. Then, she leaned back in her seat and stared at Glenn's bright-red eyes with those violet eyes of hers. "But him spending all of his money on us is exactly the reason why we should do our best and get to the top, not be depressed! If you really feel bad about it, become a professional Delver and earn enough money to pay him back! Or you can even conquer the Abyss! Who knows what might happen?”

"..."

"J-Just—" Ava stuttered as she gave Glenn a smile. "—Don't be so down, okay? Dad and... I will be sad if you do."

"Yea..." Glenn scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "...I guess you're right."

"Glad you got it!"

Seeing his sister's happy smile, Glenn couldn't help but grovel in guilt. ‘Sorry, but I can’t stand out too much. Those bastards would definitely come looking for me if I did.’

Before guilt could eat him up any further, Glenn suddenly heard a loud sob coming from the compartment door.

"Hic... That's right. Become a Delver and make your dad proud."

Both Glenn and Ava flinched in surprise. They then immediately turned toward the source of the sob, only to find a burly man with dark-brown hair and eyes wiping his tears with the hems of his coat.

""Who are you?"" Glenn and Ava simultaneously asked. However, their expressions were completely opposite of each other.

While Ava was flushing in embarrassment that someone had heard the cheesy line she had just said, Glenn was cautious, exceptionally so. With a cold face, he continued before Ava could.

"Don't let me ask again. Who are you?"

Wiping his tears one last time, he reached into his pocket and took out a train ticket. "My sister and I are staying in the same compartment as yours."

He then placed his briefcase inside the luggage compartment. After doing that, he sat down at the seat near the window, opposite Ava, and extended his hand out to Glenn. "Nice to meet you, I'm Hugh Anderson."

Glenn coldly glared at Hugh's hand before reluctantly shaking it. "Glenn Claidart."

Hugh smiled, turned toward Ava, and similarly extended his hand. "And you?"

Slowly reaching out to Hugh's hand, Ava shook it and stuttered. "A- Ava, same last name."

Hugh retracted his hand before placing both of them on the small wooden table and interlocking his fingers together. "So, I'm sorry to have intruded upon your conversation... But it wasn't exactly my fault when you left the door open."

As Glenn was going to sprout some rude words, Ava quickly covered his mouth and spoke, "A-Ah, don't worry. It's fine. Now if you excuse me, I'll have a small talk with my brother."

Hugh nodded in understanding and stood up again. "I understand. I have to go get my sister too so I'll be back later." Then, he left the compartment.

Now alone with Glenn, Ava removed her hand and glared at him. "Why are you acting so rude? What happened to your vow to 'be kind'?"

"Being kind doesn't mean acting all comfortable and close with strangers. And no, I'm the one who's supposed to ask questions. Why are you not wary of him?" Glenn glared back.

Still maintaining eye contact, Ava spoke, "Is it because of what happened 4 years ago?"

Though surprised that his sister's guess with correct, Glenn still maintained his composure. "And what if that's the case."

"So you're still hung up on that..." Ava sighed. She then softly placed her hand on his head and spoke, "I don't blame you then. But please, don't be so cold and rude to every stranger you meet. Otherwise, you won't make any friends."

Glenn similarly sighed as he reluctantly nodded. "I'll try... But I don't need fr—"

But a loud sob interrupted him once more.

"Hic... this is depressing... someone like him not having any friends aside from his own sister... this world is too cruel!"

Of course, the sob belonged to Hugh. Just like before, he was sobbing while standing right outside the compartment's door. 

As Glenn was about to sprout profanities at him, Ava squeezed his hand and mouthed, 'don't be rude' to him. With his sister basically begging him with puppy eyes, Glenn decided to just keep his mouth shut and close his eyes and rest after much deliberation. 

Oblivious to this little interaction, Hugh finished sobbing and made his way toward his seat once more. However, there was someone following right behind him this time. 

"This is my sister, Annie," Hugh said as he pointed toward the girl who had the same hair and eye colors as him. "Say hello, Annie."

"H- Hello..." said Annie as she timidly extended her hand to Ava.

Ava smiled and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ava Claidart." 

Annie heaved a sigh of relief upon seeing how amicable Ava was acting. She stopped trembling, and she seemed to be comfortable with Ava.

Ava's smiling face soon turned into a frown, however, as she realized that her brother was trying to sleep through all of this. Giving him a light jab to the arm, she whispered.

"Even if you don't want to get close to them, you should at the very least greet them!"

Hearing this, Glenn slowly opened his eyes and stared straight at Annie. Deliberately feigning ignorance to the fact that he was making her tremble again just from his gaze alone, Glenn spoke, "Glenn, Glenn Claidart."

Then, he closed his eyes once more and leaned back in his seat.

"It's good enough, I guess..." Ava muttered. She then turned back toward Annie and Hugh with an apologetic gaze. "I apologize for my brother's behavior. He's not good with strangers."

"It's fine." Hugh laughed. "My sister is like that too, though the way she copes with it is very different from him. She always cowers like a small animal whenever she meets strangers. In fact, it's a bit strange that she doesn't faint from nervousness when she shook hands with you."

"I guess I'm that good at making friends then," Ava smirked.

"Not as much as me!"

After laughing together for a few seconds, Hugh suddenly asked Ava, "So, where are you guys going?"

"Asward. We're going to try our luck with Kevlas academy."

"Ah, then your conversation about being a Delver earlier makes sense." Hugh nodded. "What a coincidence though, we're going to Kevlas too."

"Really?" Ava widened her eyes in surprise. "Are you applying too?"

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"No. I'm already a Kevlas student. Although I don't look like it, I'm only 19 and on my 2nd year of the Delver course." 

"How cool!" Ava's eyes sparkled.

Chuckling, Hugh continued as he patted his sister's head. "Annie's going to apply for Kevlas though. I guess that she's the same age as you guys."

Nodding, Ava spoke, "So, would you be so generous as to give us some tips, senior, same-compartment-buddy, or whatever title you want me to call you by?"

"Haha, no need to call me senior or such. I'm more than happy to help anyone. But... I can't help you here. The test is different every year."

"I see... that's a bit disappointing though."

"By the way, I've wanted to ask this question for a while..."

"Go ahead."

"You two are the same age, correct?"

Ava briefly glanced at Glenn before nodding. "Yes. We're both 18."

"I see... That's a bit strange. I thought that you guys are twins, but you don't look alike at all..."

"Ah, we're not twins. He's actually adopte—"

But before Ava could finish her sentence, the speaker of the compartment suddenly activated.

["The time is 7:58 AM. Please prepare for the Flagest ceremony. I repeat. The time is 7:58 AM. Pleasure prepare for the Flagest ceremony."]

Glenn groaned as he got up from his seat just like Ava, Hugh, and Annie did, "Fuck me, just as I was about to sleep."

"Then you shouldn't have tried to sleep before the ceremony in the first place." Ava said as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

"Yeah yeah, my bad." Glenn yawned as he clenched his right hand into a fist and brought it to the left side of his chest. "I still hate doing this. The ceremony only got worse when the Arline, Swissler, and Karast empires joined the alliance. Now we have to sit through an extra 2 minutes."

"T-Technically, it's an extra 135 seconds, m- making the ceremony last 540 seconds in total. B-Because each anthem is p-precisely 45 seconds long." Annie suddenly spoke up.

Glenn only narrowed his eyes at her without saying anything. Before long, he heard the speaker activate again.

["The time is 8:00AM. Please salute and stay completely still. Playing: Ivlas empire's anthem...♪"]

Although the speaker ordered everyone to stay completely still and silent, Glenn could still hear Ava humming along to the anthem.

"...♪..♪"

'She's going to get thrown into jail one of these days if she continues to do this. Seriously, what is she thinking, disrespecting the ceremony in front of strangers like this...'

But he soon discarded such thoughts from his mind. If these strangers named Hugh and Annie even had the slightest intention of reporting this to the officials, he just had to make sure to silence them once and for all. His vow to be kind mattered not if the lives of his loved ones are involved.

["Playing: Manos union's anthem...♪]"

...

After exactly 495 more seconds...

["This is the end of the ceremony. Thank you for your cooperation and glory to the Kilvilaine alliance."]

"Thank god it's over." Glenn heaved a sigh of relief. "My legs feel like they're going to brea—"

But his sentence was cut short by a loud explosion followed by the compartment he was staying in shaking violently. Then, it felt as if the train leaned to the side. Everyone, including the burly Hugh, fell to the ground. 

Glenn quickly grabbed the seat's handle to balance his body. He then quickly looked out of the window to see what was going on. "We're at the Gyerdash mountain range already?" No, rather than such irrelevant details, Glenn soon noticed that the train was indeed still running at full speed while tilting to the side. However, it hadn't plunged into the deep cliffs below thanks to some kind of Ice walls keeping it on the railway tracks.

'Looks like this train has multiple engines, or the explosion was caused by a bomb. But... Ice walls? Now that I think about it, I think I saw someone with an Ice mage military uniform getting on the locomotive.'

It was then that Ava, Hugh, and Annie slowly got up. Similarly grabbing the seats' handles to balance themselves, they looked around confusedly. Then, Hugh spoke, "Wh- What happened? Did the train engine explode?"

As if answering his question, loud screams along with gunshots could be heard.

'This... Even if it was an engine explosion, I don't think it was caused by simple human error.'

It seemed that Hugh had come to the same conclusion as Glenn's too, as he soon pulled Annie closer to him and uttered, "This is bad... Those gunshots, this is definitely a train raid."

"...But it might not be as bad as you might think," Glenn suddenly interjected. "The fact that they're using guns means that they're weak. However, to cause an explosion when there are dozens of Water mages on the train... it seems that there's someone strong working with the train raiders."

"I see..." Hugh nodded. "...Most likely, their strategy is for the strong person to occupy the mages, while the others slaughter and rob everything they can."

He then clenched his fists in anger. "Unforgivable! I'll stop them. Annie, follow me!" Hugh reached into his briefcase and searched for something. However, he soon frowned. "Wh- What? I don't have my weapons with me... oh no..."

Seeing this, Glenn reached into the luggage compartment and took out his cane. He then tapped Hugh's shoulder and gave the cane to him.

"Use this. It's made of hardwood."

Hugh received the cane with widened eyes. "B- But won't you be defenseless if—"

"No need to worry. I don't use canes." 

"Then why did you bring one in the first place?"

"...It looked cool."

Hugh laughed in understanding.

Seeing this, Glenn smiled. "Now go and defeat them all... Just remember to share a bit of the reward for stopping raiders with me later, okay?"

Hugh laughed and exited the compartment with Annie. 

Now left alone, Glenn quickly put on his coat again. Sighing, he turned toward Ava.

"Ava, I'll—

"Fight the raiders too?"

At this point, Glenn wasn't even surprised that Ava knew what he was thinking anymore. "Yes... We'll get awarded when the officials arrive if I manage to kill some raiders. And I'm pretty sure this is considered a kind act."

"Can't you just stay? This compartment is protected by magic, you know? Only a 3rd-tier awakened and above can break into this room."

"Don't worry." Glenn chuckled as he patted Ava's head. "I'll be fine. Didn't you hear me before? They're weak. Besides, having a compartment as secure as this is exactly the reason why I can leave without worrying. You'll be safe here."

As Glenn was about to exit the compartment, Ava called out to him again.

"Glenn! Turn into Glynn!"

Glenn frowned as he snapped his head back toward Ava with a glare. "Seriously? This is not time for jokes."

"N-No! I'm not messing with you! Are you really going to use ACL here?"

Glenn thought about it for a while, before shaking his head. "No. I won't use my ACL. Even me with my pitiful amount of Mana can take care of some raiders."

"That's not the point. Are you really going to use Fire magic inside the train?"

"Right..." Glenn pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

After a few seconds of weighing his options, he reluctantly agreed with Ava's words. "Alright fine, Glynn it is."

[Artificial unique trait]: Bender

After reading the translucent screen that only he could see, Glenn extended his hand out to Ava. 

As if on cue, Ava handed him a mirror from her purse.

After confirming that his appearance and gender had changed, Glen— no, Glynn heaved a sigh of frustration and muttered with that soft feminine voice of hers.

"Let's get this over with and turn back. I hate being Glynn..."

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