Chapter 34

Thirty-Four Fires

As the sun set behind the mountains, night approached gradually.

With the gradual descent of night, Igewent began to light up with scattered lamps, starting its nightly bustling time. In the outskirts far from the main urban area, darkness still descended on schedule.

The sky had not yet fully darkened; dimness enveloped the wilderness in the western suburbs of Igewent. On a suburban road, there were three carriages traveling one after another. The coachmen drove the horses forward, and the surroundings were silent, only the sound of hooves and wheels could be heard.

In each carriage ahead and behind sat an adult man wearing a cloak. Their eyes were focused on the middle two carriages. Inside the middle carriage, Dorothy was sitting quietly, reading a thick book by the gas lamp inside the carriage. At least on the surface, she appeared very engrossed…

‘Indeed… It’s not the way to the city… And it’s getting farther away…’

Inside the carriage, Dorothy, pretending to read, clearly knew she was in danger. However, she also knew that showing this would only provoke the enemy, thus losing the initiative.

‘The carriage in front… The carriage behind… They have been traveling together since just now, without leaving. They are most likely accomplices. By taking me this way, they probably don’t want to cause too much commotion…’

While flipping through the pages of her book, Dorothy analyzed silently in her heart, her expression unchanging. To the coachmen, she seemed completely unaware that she had been kidnapped.

‘This method of targeting me must be from the Crimson Eucharist. They haven’t given up on capturing me. And they somehow obtained information about my arrival in Igewent, even knowing I entered St. Amanda School, so they have taken action again?’

‘Heh… If that’s true, their intelligence network is indeed quite advanced…’

She sneered inwardly, turned the page, and continued reading by the light of the lamp.

‘I guess I’m being taken to their hideout now. Although I don’t know their exact purpose, I absolutely can’t let them take me there. Although I made some preparations at the school before, there hasn’t been any reaction yet. It seems I’ll have to rely on myself this time…’

‘We can’t go any further; otherwise, meeting more allies will make things even harder to handle. I have to act now…’

‘There’s one coachman and one passenger in each of the front and back carriages, plus the coachman in mine, making five people in total. They’re probably all armed, which makes it difficult to deal with. I need to strike first…’

Thinking while turning the page, what appeared wasn’t dense text but a revolver lying quietly in place.

The thick book Dorothy held had complete pages at the beginning, but the rest of the pages were only kept at the edges, with the center hollowed out to form a paper recess. Inside this recess, Dorothy placed a pistol. Yes, it was the revolver she got from Edric when she first arrived.

Knowing she was being watched by the cult, Dorothy always carried important items with her, even during school hours.

‘It’s quite thrilling to bring a g*n to class… But now it comes in handy.’

Thinking, Dorothy took out the pistol, gripped it tightly with both hands, and aimed through the front glass of the carriage at the coachman driving the carriage in front of her.

Then, after taking a deep breath, she pulled the trigger.

“Bang!”

Accompanied by a loud gunshot, the b*llet shot out of the muzzle in a flame, shattering the glass and striking the coachman’s head from behind, piercing his skull. Due to the close distance, Dorothy easily achieved a headshot.

The intense gunshot not only shocked the coachmen in the front and back carriages but also startled the horses. The horses of the carriage Dorothy was riding instantly lost control. At this moment, Dorothy immediately activated the zombie puppet ring, transforming the coachman who was about to be thrown off the carriage into a zombie puppet.

Nurtured by the spirituality of the Cup, the coachman who died from the headshot started moving. He grabbed the handrail beside him and steadied himself on the carriage, then tried to pull the reins to control the out-of-control horse, but with little effect.

‘Oh no… I can’t drive…’

Seeing this situation, Dorothy, hiding in the carriage, thought anxiously. Although she could control the zombie puppet, she couldn’t do anything that the puppet couldn’t do, even if he was once a coachman.

Facing such a situation, Dorothy came up with a plan quickly.

Dorothy controlled the coachman in front, drew her revolver from his waist, and aimed it at the out-of-control horse ahead. She fired three shots at close range.

Then, with a mournful cry, the horse hit by the bullets lost consciousness and was about to fall to the ground. At this moment, Dorothy’s zombie puppet ring activated again, infusing the lifeless horse with the spirituality of the Cup. Under the control of the Cup, the horse’s limbs reactivated, freeing themselves from the brain’s control. Its strong hooves struck the ground, stabilizing its falling posture, and then it completely followed Dorothy’s command, turning around and running the carriage back towards the return journey, passing by the carriage behind it… Dorothy decided to turn the horse into a zombie puppet since she couldn’t drive.

“What happened, Thomas?!” she exclaimed!

“Come back, Thomas! Where are you going?!”

Seeing their companion’s carriage suddenly turn around and run in the opposite direction after a few unexpected gunshots, the coachmen in the other two carriages shouted loudly. When they received no response, they each pulled on the reins and chased after the front carriage.

Thus, Dorothy controlled the coachman and the horse in her carriage to run ahead, while the other carriages pursued behind. A chase scene began in the dim countryside.

Looking at the vehicles of her companions racing ahead, the hatches on the roofs of the two rear carriages opened, and the passengers inside stood up. They pulled out their pistols from their waists and pointed them at the high-speed carriage in front, shouting loudly.

“Stop, Thomas! Otherwise, we’ll sh**t!”

Clearly, their warning received no response. Seeing their warnings ineffective, the two passengers inside the carriage directly pulled the triggers, aiming at the front vehicle and shooting bullets.

Due to the swaying of the vehicle and the movement of the target, these bullets were not easy to hit, but one did hit the carriage, the b*llet whizzing past Dorothy’s ear.

‘cr*p… I can’t stay in the carriage…’

Thinking, Dorothy wrapped her hand with her sleeve and then forcefully smashed the thick book against the front glass of the carriage. The glass, already pierced by bullets, shattered easily. Then, Dorothy wrapped her hands with her sleeves and crawled from the front window to the driver’s seat, which was slightly safer than inside the carriage.

Then, Dorothy controlled the coachman named Thomas, holding her pistol as she crawled backward onto the roof of the carriage. One hand stabilized her position by grabbing a protruding decoration on the roof, while the other held the g*n and fired back at the pursuing carriage.

For a while, gunshots echoed on the dim road, turning the chase scene into a g*n battle.