Charlotte happily got off work after lunch.
Strasbourg had just seen rain, and the roads were extremely muddy. After all, this was not Earth—even the imperial palace did not have paved roads everywhere, much less the streets!
These road conditions were unsuitable for a date. Miss Anne was an aristocratic girl, after all, and should not have to touch the filth on the ground.
Charlotte planned to head straight home and continue studying his diary.
He no longer felt the excitement he had when he first bought the carriage. On the way back to Champs-Élysées Avenue Number 58, he did not admire the scenery at all, merely dozing off for a while.
Suddenly, the Bloody Vortex between Charlotte's brows trembled, and Insight activated automatically. He "saw" a familiar fat man several dozen paces away. The man's oversized military uniform was stretched round over his enormous belly and was somewhat tattered. His face was filled with fury. He held his left arm up horizontally before his chest, braced a Thunderclap Blunderbuss against it with his right hand, and aimed at "him," ready to fire.
"Damn it!"
"Magru Teller? How did he get out?"
The former warden of Kilmainham Prison should have been locked in a cell, not moonlighting as an assassin here.
Charlotte had no time to think. He shoved open the carriage door, hooked the upper edge of the carriage, and flipped himself onto its roof as nimbly as a cat.
He took out the Anti-Space Long-Range Rifle from his Alchemy Staff, tossed the staff down, pinned it beneath his foot to keep it from falling off the carriage, dropped to one knee, and assumed a standard firing stance. At the same time, he loaded a Demon-Breaking Armor-Piercing Bullet. With the Agility Technique he had only mastered yesterday, he completed