Chapter 14
AFTER STAYING THE NIGHT at Holy Gate, Mira rose early and looked around the station for souvenirs as she waited for her noon departure.
Even the station maintained the signature look of Alisfarius—everything was pure white, with furniture reminiscent of a temple. Yet the station was just as bustling as any other. It overflowed with passengers even in the early morning.
The shrill sound of a bell filled the air, followed by an announcement about the train schedule. It was a Counterclockwise Loop announcement. Mira had taken the Counterclockwise Loop before, but to head back towards Grimdart, she’d need to find the platforms for Clockwise Loop.
Mira listened to the musical trio of the ground rumbling, the bell, and the steam whistle as she watched a wave of passengers roll through the station to catch the Counterclockwise train.
Once they’d departed, things were much quieter. Mira took the opportunity to continue searching the shops. The souvenir store here was quite unlike the one in Silverside. It was full of holy books, holy symbols, and holy everything else.
“Can you even call this a souvenir?” Mira muttered, picking up a statue modeled after the Alisfarian goddess.
The figurine had long pink hair spilling over layered angelic robes. It wore a benevolent smile. Mira could see it was intricately made, with the artisan’s skill plain in many places. A wonderful figure, indeed.
“This is…I see. Now this makes sense,” Mira muttered as she saw the artist’s name engraved on the goddess’s robes. It was Tomoki—the former player she’d met in the Forest of the Devout. He’d mentioned that he carved religious figures, but Mira was amazed by the quality. Before putting it back, she tilted the figure up just slightly and muttered, “White, huh?” before heading towards the food displays.
Snow-white peaches were a famous specialty of this country, so the stores here had plenty of peach-flavored candies and drinks to choose from.
What should I buy?
Mira thought of the people who’d worked to make her technomancy robes and bought all kinds of white peach cookies, jam, and juices for them. She also picked out souvenirs for Mariana, Cleos, Luna, Solomon, Luminaria, and herself. 80,000 ducats of damage.
Having fulfilled her obligations, Mira indulged in some personal shopping. She looked into the bookstores and reached up to the highest shelves when people weren’t looking. She bought the next volumes of all the manga she enjoyed and made the most of her time waiting.
***
More passengers came in as Mira shopped, and soon there was an announcement that the Clockwise Loop train would arrive in an hour. Taking that as her signal, Mira headed to the section bustling with restaurants.
“Very…white.”
It seemed the Alisfarian aesthetic extended even to food. Mira bought a fresh spring roll bento and 300 ducats worth of tea.
Prepared for her journey, she made for the platform. Then she stopped in her tracks. She’d been so focused on choosing souvenirs that she’d forgotten to buy tickets.
“Right, right. Tickets.”
After opening her System Menu and checking the time, Mira searched for the ticket counter. She queued up at a window manned by a kind-looking lady. When her turn came, she opened her pouch as she spoke to the woman.
“I’d like to buy tickets.” Mira peeked over the counter. She must have resembled a child on an errand, and the woman looked at her sweetly.
“We have tickets for economy, premium, and first class. Which would you like today?”
“I would like first—” Mira began to reach for 100,000 ducats, but her hand froze in place. Her funds were…lacking.
Argh. I splurged too much!
She pursed her lip in frustration as she looked into her depleted wallet. First-class travel, trading cards, and souvenirs ran through her mind.
“Ehh… Five economy tickets, please.”
“Certainly, young lady. That will be 15,000 ducats.”
Best to take the cheap seats now and be able to afford a room at an inn when she arrived at her destination.
***
“Continental railroad service status announcement. The Clockwise Loop train will soon arrive at the station. It will depart one hour after its arrival. Again…”
The crowds within the station began to flow onto the platform. Mira slipped into the crowd and was swept along towards her train.
So, this is economy class?
It was entirely different from first class. The layout was clearly designed to handle the flood of people, making the process nearly automated. People formed queues, and deeper in, dozens of pillars divided the crowd before allowing them onto the platform proper.
The platform was much larger than the first-class platform, if nowhere near as posh. Its walls, ceiling, and floor were covered in white stone tiles. Unsure where to stand, Mira found herself herded into one of the naturally forming lines. People crowded around on all sides, and she could barely see a few meters in any direction.
Mira walked on uncertainly, feeling like a new student in her first-period class, waiting for the teacher. After ten or so minutes of waiting in line, she spotted passengers feeding their tickets into ticket gates. Grasping the process, she breathed a sigh of relief and retrieved a ticket from her waist pouch.
It’s just like a turnstile.
The automation reminded her of her old world—so much so that she realized it had to have been designed with that in mind.
The line moved and Mira’s turn finally came. She simply did what she saw the others doing. Feeding her ticket through the slightly-too-high-for-her slot, the machine lit up and a pattern like a magic circle was stamped on the ticket.
Hm. I wonder what this means?
She looked at the ticket, glowing faintly with mana, before being almost pushed onto the platform by the flood behind her.
The economy platform was made from exposed stone and was nearly four hundred meters long—far, far longer than the first class platform. Employees held a rope in place to divide the platform in two, almost perfectly cutting across the white queue lines.
How lively.
Between the ropes was a large space next to the tracks where several thousand people could fit at once. No doubt this was a traffic control measure for when the train arrived.
The station staff shouted instructions to the crowd, and Mira obediently lined up inside the white lines, stifling under the body heat of the people all around her. After a short while, the crowd could hear the steam whistle approaching. First, it was like the buzz of tinnitus—but each whistle grew louder than the last until the air itself shook with the sound.
The steam engine appeared before them like a manifestation of raw power. As it decelerated, the shrill grinding of its brakes echoed through the platform, fanfare for a returning steel king.
Passenger cars followed, their black forms rising intimidatingly from the tracks. Though they seemed to move sluggishly, they stirred powerful winds that whipped through the hair and clothes of people who stood too close. As the train came to a stop, the swirling air around it seemed to whisper hoarsely.
“It’s…huge,” Mira muttered to herself, astounded by the never-ending train. It was like mobile castle walls.
There were ten cars in total. The first was first class, the next two were premium, the next five were economy, and the final two were for luggage.
Soon passengers flooded out of the train and onto the platform. With the floor divided by the ropes like two ocean currents, the people leaving the train streamed through the ticket gates. With so many people aboard, disembarking took over twenty minutes. The crowd was overwhelming, but Mira certainly preferred this noise to the shrill grind of the train’s brakes.
Finally, an employee called, “Please follow the attendants’ directions. Walk—don’t run!—onto the train!” The place had the energy of an event venue as Mira and the others followed the shouted instructions.
The two doors on each of the economy cars were wide enough to fit three people at once with ease. Mira found herself flowing with the crowd into the first door of the fifth car.
Welcomed by a warm scent of wood and steel, Mira found a staircase right in front of the entrance. It seemed the economy cars were split into four levels. Assuming the higher levels would have a better view, she ascended like rising smoke to the fourth level.
There she found window seats that sat two people each, with three-person benches in the center. Hallways split off to the sides here and there. The layout was reminiscent of a passenger plane, but the mix of wood, leather, and metal finishes gave it the look and feel of an old-timey train.
The seats were already filling on this level, but Mira managed to slip in and secure a window seat for herself.
***
Ten to twenty minutes passed. As the seats filled, Mira sat with her chin in hand and watched the flow of people. She started slightly when a blonde woman stood in her periphery and asked, “May I sit next to you?”
She looked to be around twenty, and wore a blue-and-white pinafore dress with a white cape atop it. Mira thought she looked as though she ought to be following a white rabbit around.
“Sure. Feel free.” She leaned against the window, making a bit more space for the girl—though there was already plenty.
“Thanks!” She looked at Mira with bright eyes and gently lowered herself into the seat next to her. As she did, a sweet, almost fruity scent rose from her clothes.
“You’re really cute!” the woman said. With a big, friendly smile, she peeked over at Mira.
“Thanks, I know.” Confident in her masterpiece, Mira grinned broadly back.
She found herself drawn in by the woman’s eyes, which glittered like jewels in the light from the window. Her golden hair seemed to have sunlight woven into it.
“Ah ha ha! Funny, too. My name’s Theresa, what’s yours?”
“Mira.”
“Mira, huh? Oh, can I snap a pic?” Theresa grinned innocently and grabbed a boxy black object from her shoulder bag. It had a protrusion in the center. When Theresa removed the cap from it, Mira saw that it had a lens.
“Ah! Is that a camera?”
“Yep! Whaddya say?”
“Well, I don’t mind,” Mira agreed. She had seen photographs earlier on her journey, but now she finally got a look at a camera in this world.
“Say cheese!”
Mira struck a refined pose, as she did during her days as Danblf.
“Oh, umm, just pose normal.” Theresa frowned slightly.
“Nrgh…” Mira ended up with a rather grumpy look on her face.
“This is a great picture. Thanks!” Theresa beamed, as if she was truly happy to have taken it. “Y’see, I’m doing publicity work for the Magical Knights. We have an exhibition soon, so you should totally come!”
After putting the camera back in her bag, Theresa set the bag on her lap and grinned at Mira with a slight cock of the head.
“Magical Knights? Strange. That seems vaguely familiar…?” Mira muttered as she looked back out the window, sifting through her memories.
“Well, we sell clothes like this—magical girl style,” Theresa explained, opening her arms to show off her outfit. “We’re the most popular clothing boutique on the continent right now.”
Mira looked at it, and indeed, it was a design that she had seen many times in her travels.
I see. So this is where they come from?
Though she still wasn’t about the boutique’s name, she had to admit that she was impressed.
“Your outfit is super similar, right? Is it original? When I saw it, I was just drawn to you!”
“Yes, it is actually.” It seems the maids were on the cutting edge of fashion.
The two chatted, and eventually, a bell chimed, followed by a departure announcement.
“Clockwise Loop will now depart. Please hold on to a handrail if necessary. Again…”
Unlike first class, economy was noisy and full of adventurers. Many cheered as the train started moving, as if it was their first time riding. The acceleration pressed Mira back slightly in her seat as she listened to the commotion.
The two continued to talk about fashion as the train started moving. Or rather, Theresa talked endlessly while eating a station-purchased bento of her own. The conversation was surprisingly engaging, since Mira knew nothing of how magical girl style had evolved in this world.
Once Theresa ran out of steam, Mira whipped out her lunch.
“That looks tasty.” Theresa eyed the food greedily.
“It’s mine.” Mira angled her small body away to hide the food and started stuffing her mouth.
Theresa poked at the corner of her empty box dejectedly. Mira could practically see her drooping ears; she looked for all the world like a puppy licking its empty plate.
“Good grief. Here, take this.” Mira offered one of the muscat cookies she‘d bought earlier on her journey.
“Thank yooou!” Theresa joyfully accepted the cookie, like a little dog that finally got its treat.
***
How serene.
The window commanded a view of endless green forests. In contrast, the inside of the train was in an uproar, and it now stunk of alcohol.
“Did you hear? Fuzzy Dice showed up in Grimdart!”
Mira caught a familiar name amid the cacophony of voices. Thinking, she reached into her pouch and produced the Fuzzy Dice card.
“By the way, do you know this man?” Mira asked, showing Theresa the card as the latter munched on her cookie.
Theresa nodded, still chewing, and began to fish around in her bag. She swallowed. “Of course I do! Fuzzy Dice is super popular. Actually, he hosted a big event a while back.”
She took out an album to show Mira a photo. A group of ten men and women wearing the same clothes and holding masquerade masks stood together. They looked like a cosplay group.
“Now this is…interesting?” The woman looking out from the middle of the group was unmistakably Theresa. Mira furrowed her brow and stared at the group. “Well, er, I see. But who is he, exactly?”
“You really don’t know, Mira?”
Theresa began to explain. Fuzzy Dice was simultaneously a household name and a man of mystery. That was part of his popularity. Though Teresa’s stories were full of guesses and fantasies, Mira gathered that Fuzzy Dice was some sort of chivalrous thief.
“Robs from the rich and gives to the poor, hrmm? Quite the whimsical fellow.”
“I hear he donates to orphanages. Isn’t that great?!” Theresa fidgeted and swung her legs like a little girl. Mira side-eyed her companion and went back to staring at the card.
The train continued on as the two chatted about nothing in particular. As the sun set and darkness crept into the train, they arrived at the Eastballad.
Mira said her goodbyes to Theresa and fished into her wallet to check her remaining funds. Her budget for an inn this evening would be 10,000 ducats. She’d have to slum it.
Thankfully, she was used to searching for lodgings by now, and soon found herself at the Driftsong Inn. While she ate in the restaurant downstairs, she listened to a minstrel’s ballad before turning in for the night.
***
An hour before the train’s departure the next morning, Mira wandered among the station stalls in search of breakfast. Her cheap inn hadn’t offered any.
Many inns crowding the front of the station were low-priced lodgings for adventurers. Typically, they offered communal cooking areas instead of meals, since most adventurers had ingredients on hand.
Mira had none.
The station stalls were fast food for ill-stocked adventurers like Mira and passengers who simply wanted something quick and convenient.
“Ooh! Lots of good options!” she chirped happily. Mira surveyed the stalls and gravitated toward one in particular. Her stomach growled at the savory aroma of broth, and she noted the contents of the specially shaped pot in the small kitchen. She had found the coveted oden stall.
A man wearing a deep-green tabard cut in front of her just as she stepped up to the stall, handing over five copper coins and saying, “I’ll have the 500-ducat special.”
“Thank you very much,” the shopkeeper responded.
Feeling a strange sense of defeat at having been beaten to the counter, Mira gazed restlessly at the noodles cooking and the ingredients being stirred.
“Okay, here you are. Thanks for waiting!” The bowl full of stewed oden passed through Mira’s line of sight as the shopkeeper handed it over.
Without bothering to watch the man leave, Mira immediately turned back to the stand and held out her hand clenched around five copper coins. “Shopkeeper! I would like the 500-ducat special, too!”
“You sound like you know what’s good, Missy. Thanks!” The shopkeeper accepted her coins, grinned, and began dishing up her oden.
Mira listened to the conversation behind her.
“Oden again, Captain? How about we trade: your eggs for my fried fish?”
“As if. Try again when you’ve got muscat beef, at least.”
Mira turned around and saw the man in the green tabard with a group of similarly attired people. They all had the same swords hanging from their hips, too. Matching clothes, matching weapons…such a unified group must either be a guild or a group of knights.
As Mira observed them curiously, the man at the stall asked, “What’s the matter, Missy?”
“It’s nothing… I was just wondering who that group is.” She said, turning back to gesture at the green-clad gang.
“Oh? Those guys are the Monster Investigation Team,” the shopkeeper said, as if everyone had heard of them.
When Mira replied that she certainly hadn’t, he filled her in. They were an organization who investigated monster and fiend distribution, trends, and habitats all over the known world.
The results of their investigations were used to predict monster outbreaks, defend nature from invasive species, adjust caravan routes, and much more. There were apparently twenty such teams, and the team commanded by the oden-devouring man was one of them.
“How interesting,” Mira murmured in admiration.
The shopkeeper furrowed his brow. “Still, it’s a little weird…”
Each region was usually investigated once every six months, and the results of the survey published at the Mages’ Guild. This team’s investigation should have ended a month ago. Rumor had it that other investigation teams were arriving in the area as well.
“It’s been four years since something like this happened. Back then, some merchant was talking about how he’d seen monsters. In the end, it was a subspecies of Dead Emperor. Maybe they’re tracking another new subspecies this time.” The shopkeeper smiled and added, “But who knows?”
***
“Ho ho. Is this a monster distribution map? Incredible.”
After thoroughly enjoying her 500 ducats of oden, Mira wandered over the Mages’ Guild to satisfy her curiosity. She stood admiring the survey board until the warning bell sounded a final boarding call for her train.
She ran back to the station in a panic.
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