The pirate was now banging on all of the guest room doors, hollering for everyone to come out immediately. Zoe kept her attention mostly on the gunslinger and the staff, however.

The bartender was now slumped over one of the chairs. She was clearly still alive and probably unhurt, but perhaps unconscious. Or maybe she didn’t know what else to do other than lay low and play dead.

Zoe couldn’t help but be amazed at the turn of events. Just what exactly are these people? Pirates? God-damned sky pirate? This world just kept getting crazier and crazier.

Reflexively holding her breath, Zoe waited for Andric and Lily to come out. She briefly considered revealing herself. After all, wouldn’t it be potentially pretty bad if they discovered her hiding under the table like this? Maybe they would think she was preparing to ambush her or something like that.

But she soon discounted the idea. After all, maybe having the element of surprise would come in handy — she didn’t actually know what they were going to do with the passengers. Yeah, it’s definitely best to keep hidden here.

As she forced herself to quietly exhale, she also studied the man who had stepped out of the staff quarters. He wore a dark, buttoned coat and a visor cap. She couldn’t tell what color it was because of the extremely dim lighting, but she suspected it was the same blue as the others.

His whole outfit looked fancier, however. Was he the conductor? Captain? Zoe wasn’t sure what you would call that position in this particular instance.

Passengers began to file out of the rooms, looking a mixture of confused and fearful. Most appeared to be dressed in nightclothes. But where were Lily and Andric?

Finally, Zoe saw them. They didn’t actually stand out in the crowd, looking much like all the others. Zoe wondered if they were planning to do anything about the whole situation.

“Hey Rory, we got two awakened!” The fencer called back over her shoulder. “What do you want me to do with them?”

“Just keep ’em occupied and calm while I take care of the vault.”

Turning back to face the passengers, the fencer beckoned with a curl of her finger, and Lily and Andric stepped forward without hesitation. “You two.” The fencer pointed with her rapier. “Don’t start any trouble, and we won’t either. No one has to get hurt, right?”

Lily nodded. Andric remained completely expressionless.

“Right. The rest of you.” The woman swept her sword over the heads of the rest of the passengers. “No need to worry. We’re just looking for someone, and I can tell you right now it’s not one of you.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Several people shuffled, but they all stayed remarkably calm. Zoe wondered if this sort of thing was common in this world, or if this calmness was just typical behavior for people. After all, she had seen plenty of movies, but she had never experienced anything at all like this in real life. At least back on Earth.

“Who are you looking for?” Andric asked.

“Logan Greensworth —”

“Don’t fucking answer that!” The gunslinger shouted, just slightly too late.

Andric and Lily shared a glance. Zoe squinted — there was something seriously significant passing between them. Unfortunately, she was having trouble parsing their expressions. Do they know this person?

Unfortunately, the fencer seemed to pick up on it as well. “Find that interesting, you two?”

Zoe quickly glanced back at the gunslinger, only to see that he and the staff had left. Going to the vault, I suppose.

“Actually, I should say we do,” Andric said without a hint of nervousness in his voice. “You see, we’re after him as well.”

Zoe blinked. They were? But who would they be — Oh.

The other worldwalker. Zoe furrowed her brow. That had to be it, right? But what would these pirates want with him? Wasn’t the reason that her new friends were after him because they wanted revenge for the thing with the auction?

Too many unknowns. Realizing she didn’t have enough information to put it all together yet, Zoe continued to watch.

In any case, that had caught the fencer’s attention. “Oh, well that’s interesting indeed. Tell me, alchemist, what do you want with the merchant king? Ripped you off on a glassware trade, did he?”

“Our reasons are our own,” Lily interjected.

“So be it. But either way, you’re coming with us.”

The two shared a glance, and Zoe’s blood ran cold. Shit shit shit! What could she do? She couldn’t let them leave without her. But did they want to leave? Or were they going to put up a fight?

“And why do you think we’d have any inclination of allowing that?” Andric asked.

Crawling out from under the table, Zoe rose up into a crouch and crept closer. She had a strong feeling that shit was about to go down.

“Because otherwise, things might get messy,” the pirate drawled. “Maybe not for you, but things have a habit of getting broken during awakened fights.” She gestured at the assembled passengers with her free hand.

As Zoe crept closer, she wondered if that ever worked. This seemed like a pretty violent, dog eat dog world, and she wouldn’t be surprised if most awakened wouldn’t give a shit about random strangers.

She had to admit in this situation, she certainly wouldn’t.

Not with her own life at stake.

And it seemed the other two were of the same opinion. A wall of ice spikes erupted in front of the crowd of passengers, and at the same time, Andric dodged to the side while also throwing one of his knifes.

The fencer flicked it away with her rapier — but then Zoe tackled her from the side.

“Zoe!”

“Shit!”

“Arghhh!”

Zoe immediately realized she was leaking quite a bit of blood from a sudden and unexpected gash on her side, but that could be remedied shortly. In the corner of her vision, she saw swirling blood rushing overhead before it impaled the pirate with sharp, crimson spikes.

She screamed.

Zoe bit down.

{+401 Mana}

{You have leveled up! You are now level 23.}

Zoe leaned back, and Lily helped her to her feet. “Well that was pretty fucking quick,” Andric muttered.

A gunshot rang out, and Zoe doubled over in pain once more.