A similar feeling to when I first met the chimera king embraced my soul—a deep chasm ridden with hopelessness, one that fills one’s soul before the impossible power of a foe.

The first ranked group, or, more precisely, the first ranked person, humbly named 'King'. He scored five times higher than us while being all alone; even the Great Mage Alliance, with 25 members, scored only about twice higher than us.

Even thinking about such strength made my body shiver. To achieve such a high score, he would have to defeat the chimera king without using the sun and then run around slaughtering hundreds of vampires.

Even that was a mythic feat. But that's not all, he did it in but two days.

"Jinhyung… "

"What monstrous growth… How a simple human..?"

Both of us thought of the same thing. Sometimes I was surprised at how often our thoughts overlapped.

I caught myself smiling a bit. Have I really started to change?

[What a fool this 'King' guy is.]

We immediately looked at her with wide eyes.

"What are you talking about?" we asked in unison.

[Well, such a strong being wouldn't bother talking to me... 'King' probably killed me.]

"Exactly!"

[You don't understand, he has no idea how powerful my father is.]

While she did have a point, if he had such rapid growth, he wouldn't bother returning to the ''real' cars once he earned the right to the next challenge.

[No children on this train are ready to fight him yet, even with my help. You guys have a lifetime of training before even trying to talk with him. This 'King' is no more than anothet bug.]

I couldn't read her feelings; after all, she was a book. Maybe she felt pride, sorrow, regret, or even all of them at the same time. I really couldn't tell.

I started to wonder even more: how exactly strong was her father? How terrible was his power that even someone who can destroy the entire Castle of Nightmare alone is nothing but a speck of dust?

----------------------------------------

Some passersby looked at us oddly, slightly frightened by Lillian. The people who lived for already a month on the Adventure Train got used to magic and artifacts, but they had yet to see sentient books.

This extra attention could be a problem.

[Hey, stop! What are you doing?]

II retrieved the excess of energy from Lillian and she slowly drifted down, falling asleep.

[kkk euh … ]

I stuffed her in the rags that once were my clothes.

Once I hid Lillian away, the heavy atmosphere around Jinhyung immediately subsided.

"Ahh," he sighed in relief.

"Why does she bother you so much?"

Even if Lillian shared her theories about why, I wanted to hear the reason from his mouth.

"It's nothing; I just take a long time to get used to new people."

Bullshit, he got attached to me at first sight. Maybe Lillian was right…

"Anyway, we should select a name for the ranking," I tried my best to drive off from this awkward note.

"What about 'Heavenly Sect of the All-Splitting Light?'"

I didn't really care about our group name as long as we remained anonymous, but this name was straight up awful.

"Maybe simply ‘Companions to the End'? After all, our main goal is to complete this train."

"Alright I am ok with it. How do we get our name registered?"

I brought the completion notice from the inbox, but an input field was nowhere to be found.

-Notification-

A group name is decided upon a public declaration.

How did that system have such perfect timings?

“I declare my group, ‘Companions to the End’!”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

All group members are required to agree if no leader is chosen.

Vote: 1/2

"I agree," nodded Jinhyung.

Vote: 2/2

Group name: Companions to the End

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The once joyful market now had a rather gloomy atmosphere. The remaining people were either those who fled in the face of death, or those who feared to even face it.

Some whispered trying to form parties, but not many answered and rather trembled in fear. Just how many comrades have they lost?

We passed them quickly as we sought no trouble, thankfully, not everyone was a brat like Pierre on this train.

An almost forgotten wonder came back to my mind.

"By the way, how much did you spend on the medicines?"

"1500 coins"

So much? Wasn't it two potions and some herbs?

"Oh my, do you want me to pay you back?"

"No, it's OK. You risked your life for me; it's the least I can do for you."

He lied again. We both risked our lives for each other. Although I won't complain, I had lots of stuff to buy.

The first item on my list, was of course, a new outfit! Although I had absolutely no idea what style to go for…

Of course, the special effects were important, but the look was also an undeniable characteristic.

Suits, overcoats, leather cloaks, and jackets. None of them quite suited my taste. I looked for Jinhyung, he surely had a good advice.

But he made himself known, even before I turned around.

"Look, Fred, am I not pretty in this one?"

It was another traditional outfit, habok. Or was it hanbok? Whatever. Compared to his old one, the difference was night and day, quite literally.

White silk fell right under calves held by a clean chest crossing fold, tied with a dark fabric belt decorated of blossoming golden flowers.

Such refined clothes were clearly candid of an emperor!

As he spun on himself, the vibrant whites and golds shone as brightly as an eastern dawn.

"You look great; I am sure you could seduce every lady out there."

"I doubt so, haha. I am scared of women, and I already have a companion," he said, fruitlessly trying to hide his red cheeks.

"Anyway, I don't really know what to wear. Have any ideas?"

"Hmm, look, there are nice coats. You would look like a real protagonist in them!"

Tsk, this was real life, not some of his novels.

"Yeah, but I don't really like them."

"Well, what kind of clothes do you like then?"

I always wore boring hoodies and jeans. As I never realy ever took interest in modern fashion.

"Hard to say, but those we got from Lillian were stylish."

"Fan of the Victorian mode? Let's see."

The next five minutes were filled with mindless running through an undending forest of clothing stands.

"Hey, look at that!"

Jinhyung dragged a whole stand as to not accidentally buy anything.

He then presented me a wardrobe fitting of some 200 year old vampire lord.

-Item-

Victorian white button-up with ruffles

Cost: 150 coins

Passive: Greatened magic absorption

-Item-

Steampunk high-rise pants

Cost: 150 coins

Passive: Self repair

-Item-

Steampunk tailcoat

Cost: 350 coins

Passive 1: Self Repair

Passive 2: Slight Magic resistance

-Item-

Black leather dress shoes

Cost: 150

Passive: hastened footwork

Upon closer inspection, those clothes had great quality of life passives for a reasonable price. Obviously, I hastly bought everything.

Wearing clean, new clothes definitely felt great. As for the special effects, they weren’t overwhelming but certainly welcome. Breathing got easier and my gait got a bit lighter.

"Hey Jinhyung, look, is it ok?"

"More than okay, you really look like those nobles in the movies."

Was that even a good thing? Anyway, I got new clothes that I didn't hate, all that mattered.

I smiled, I really started to enjoy those rare moments of peaceful shopping with Jinhyung. I looked back at our previous times at the market and laughed.

For the first time, I enjoyed redoing the same thing again and again. Back in my old life, I enjoyed the rare moment of novelty, but now simply being with Jinhyung felt as great. Was this how people felt with friends?

Suddenly, an unsteady magic voice scattered throughout the market, clearly breaking my moment of inner peace.

[Please help; there is a murder!]