2
“…He sure is taking a while.” Iska stifled a yawn.
He’d been waiting for his master a whole hour now. They’d long since left the terminal station, and the window now showed a view of the vast wilder lands.
“Oh, I know what happened.”
After coming up with a possibility, Iska leaped from his seat.
“He must be trying to make me worry on purpose. So, where could he be hiding?”
He was used to his teacher creating problems for him to solve on a whim. This had to be another one. He probably hadn’t shown up because this was his way of telling Iska to go find him.
“Seriously…Master, there’s no use hiding. There aren’t a lot of places to hide on this train, anyway!”
He set out walking. He headed through the cars with free seating, then to the reserved seats, checking the riders’ faces as he wandered deeper into the locomotive.
In that moment, golden strands of hair flitted right by Iska’s nose.
They’d passed by each other.
“…”
When Iska turned around, he found a girl with brilliant golden hair standing right in front of him. She seemed to be eleven years old—or she might have been twelve.
So she was around his age. She had a charming and shapely face like a beautifully constructed doll, and the clothes she wore seemed tidy and of high quality. She wasn’t like him, with his rumpled clothes that had been reworn many times over and were losing their shape.
That girl had stopped the moment they’d passed by each other and was now looking straight at him.
They stared at each other in silence for a while.
He wondered who she was.
Maybe she thought he was suspicious? Perhaps she was staring at him because he looked too poor to afford a ticket in the reserved section, which was unofficially closed to those without the appropriate one.
He needed to leave before she called in the conductor.
After coming to that conclusion, Iska turned his back to her and began to walk away. He needed to find his master, after all.
The black-haired boy turned his back to her. He walked off, heading farther into the train before she could even address him. He’d passed by her initially, so he likely was heading off to another train car with a purpose.
“…He left.”
She watched him until his back disappeared from view and she heard a set of footsteps behind her.
“Lady Alice.”
“…”
“Lady Alice, you cannot continue to do this. Please do not leave your seat on your own.”
“Listen, listen, Lenlen!”
Alice turned around abruptly and latched onto the adult she’d called Lenlen. They weren’t mother and daughter. Rather, the woman was her attendant. Alice was a princess of the Nebulis Sovereignty, the Paradise of Witches, and the woman was serving as her guard.
“Lady Alice, I was worried about you.”
As the girl hugged her, Lenlen stroked Alice’s hair. The woman was wearing glasses as part of her disguise, and she had on a thick winter coat to conceal the weapons in her clothes.
“My, Lady Alice, you always wander off the moment I take my eyes off of you.”
“Lenlen, listen! This is more important!”
Alice herself seemed to pay no mind to Lenlen’s words. It seemed her great “discovery” was taking up all her attention.
“There was a boy!”
“Excuse me?”
“He was the same age as me. He passed right by me!”
“I see… So that is what you mean.”
As Alice became worked up, the guard’s face softened, and her lips curled into a smile.
Aliceliese Lou Nebulis IX had no boys her age around her. All of the other children she knew were girls. As she also had a private tutor and did not attend school, she had no opportunities to speak to boys like normal girls her age. Running into a boy her age was a special occasion for her.
“Um, so, Lenlen, I was being really sneaky when I was looking at him. But then he turned around and looked back at me!”
“That must be because you are so pretty, Lady Alice.”
“…Maybe I should have said something to him.”
“I am not sure I can approve of that. Now, Lady Alice, this way.”
The guard motioned for Alice to follow her with her hand.
All the seats around them were empty, but this was because Lenlen had bought them.
“If by some chance, anyone learns of your identity, we will have quite the commotion on our hands,” Lenlen whispered. “We are currently on a trip because of a situation that came up, and I am your only guard, so we must avoid the danger of any Imperial forces finding us.”
The train was headed to Vale Republic. Though the neutral country had no ties to the Empire, it was a fact that the forces had intelligence operations stationed all throughout the world.
“You wouldn’t want to be chased through the streets as people call you a witch, now would you, Lady Alice?”
“It’ll be fine, Lenlen. My astral power is amazing!” Alice cast Lenlen’s worries aside as she proudly puffed out her chest. “I could take care of the Imperial forces with one shot of my powers. Even Mother says they’re incredible.”
“Yes. However, Her Majesty also said that you shouldn’t use your powers yet. At least not until you have full control over them.”
“…She did say that.”
“It is nothing to be embarrassed about. That only serves as greater evidence that your powers are strong, and you need time to learn how to control them.”
Though it was true that Princess Alice had formidable astral power, she had trouble keeping it under control. If worst came to worst and she had to fight an Imperial soldier, there was a chance she would end up freezing not only the soldier with her powers, but also buildings and innocent bystanders.
“Though it is not anywhere near how Imperials view us, there are some people in the neutral countries who fear astral mages. And if you hurt them with your powers…”
“…They would be scared of me?”
“Yes. And that would isolate us from the other countries in the world. We are forbidden from using our powers outside of the battlefield, especially within cities.”
“…I understand.” Alice was deeply aware that her abilities were a double-edged sword.
As soon as she first learned how to use them, she had innocently attempted to sneakily freeze a bit of the ground and ended up turning the palace’s vast inner courtyard into an ice sculpture. She’d even caught an entire van and motorcycle that had been parked in the garden. Luckily, no one had been hurt, but the fear Alice had felt that day taught her that astral powers weren’t simply a convenient skill to have.
“…Should I read a book until the train arrives?”
“I think that would be for the best.”
“…Can I walk around the train every once in a while?”
“Please refrain from doing that, if you would. I understand you’re curious about other kids your age after passing by that boy, but you should not.” After she chided Alice, Lenlen broke out into an abrupt smile. “Then again, you really should have some kids your age as playmates. A boy might be an issue, but I see nothing wrong with befriending a girl.”
“…Like who?”
“I have a niece who is just a year off from your age. Her name is Rin, and she’s dedicated herself to her studies since she was young to serve the Lou family.”
“Rin?”
“Yes. She is hoping to finish her training early and is looking forward to serving you, Lady Alice—” But Lenlen’s voice was drowned out. A shrill siren had begun to go off within the entire train. “Huh? What’s going on?!”
Lenlen stood up from her seat. She had her hand within her clothes, likely so she could produce her hidden weapons at any time.
There was a commotion. The passengers sitting a way off from Alice and Lenlen had begun to feel uneasy about the sudden alarm and were beginning to stand up from their seats as well.
“Lenlen, I’ve heard this sound in the palace, too.”
“Yes, Lady Alice. But the ones you’ve heard there are for disaster drills in case the Imperial forces invade. This is certainly a real alarm.”
“…Is it the Imperial forces?”
“No. I doubt it.”
Had the forces attacked in order to target Alice?
That was unlikely. The continental railroad was a demilitarized zone through a worldwide arrangement. The forces were unlikely to break the agreement so easily.
In which case, what had triggered this alarm?
“To the Vale Republic-bound passengers of car number three, this is an emergency alert. This train is presently traveling due east through the Galato Plains—”
The PA system had turned on. All the passengers, including Alice and Lenlen, had gone quiet.
“A pack of large predators known as rexes are approaching us. We believe the pack traveled from the far south of the plains to the north.”
“…Rexes?!” someone shouted.
Large predators hailing from unexplored parts of the world were generally called wilderbeasts, and rexes were a classic example of such monsters. These beasts inhabited the vast continent and were both ferocious and belligerent. They tended to attack anything in front of their eyes that moved.
And it seemed that they were after the train.
“But please rest assured that some excellent hunters are riding on this train today. Everyone, please remain cal—”
But a roar drowned out the announcement.
The windowpanes audibly cracked. Alice felt a shock wave run through the train as though something rammed itself into them. Then, finally, she heard the war cry of a ferocious beast.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login