184 – Free Ride
The soft moonlight illuminates the dark night.
A huge iron structure that soars high into the sky.
In front of him, a blonde woman was sitting at her table, sipping her tea.
She stands with her eyes closed and hums her pleasant tune. Except for the fact that it was in the middle of the night, it would have looked like a picturesque tea time scene.
However, if there is one more disparate element in the landscape.
You cannot miss the brilliant crystal ball placed next to the teacup on the table.
The Witch of Prophecy took her tea and glanced at her beads once in a while, then smiled with satisfaction.
For a while, someone came over to the empty chair on the other side and sat down naturally.
She was a beauty with wavy red hair who was not at all inferior to the blonde woman drinking tea.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been to this country.”
“Why don’t you come out and enjoy your leisure time instead of always confined to that stuffy store? We have very little time left, so we have to enjoy it to the fullest.”
As soon as she arrived, the witch let out a sigh at the constant nagging.
The witch of prophecy laughed as if the reaction was amusing, then opened her eyes and said.
“You are good at lying.”
“What?”
“Are you going to pretend? You tricked him into not knowing about the society.”
The witch didn’t answer and sipped her tea in front of her own.
It was as the witch of prophecy said.
She knows where the Magic Engineering Society is. She was the one who introduced her in the first place and offered her membership.
“There is no other way.”
“I am not blaming you either. Rather, I want to commend you for making a good choice.”
Despite her kind words, her witch’s expression was quite dark. As if she was regretting her own choice.
The Witch of Prophecy set down the teacup and muttered as she reached for her crystal ball.
“This is the beginning. Will Mr. Kaido be able to change his fate? Or will we eventually meet the end as prophesied?”
“·······.”
“What do you think? Witch of the End.”
A red-haired woman with her eyes down.
The Witch of the End could not come up with any answer.
***
She recklessly went all the way to the magic engineering station.
The problem is that there are no tickets in hand. Until now, I had paid for it at the witch’s shop, but today, for some reason, the door was closed and I was away.
‘Is something going on…?’
I’ve never seen her close her shop before. She disappeared without even writing down a specific reason, which made her a little worried.
But it’s probably not a big deal. Isn’t she a witch, not an ordinary person? Nothing could be more ridiculous than me worrying about her well-being.
Rather than that, it was a difficult situation to focus on. She could get her ticket without the witch’s help so she could get on the train, but she was stuck with the slightest problem that she didn’t know how to do it.
No, isn’t it common sense that there should be a ticket office at the station?
Even when I looked around with a sense of resentment, the vast station was empty except for the benches.
With a sigh, I looked at the only structure, the train route map.
It is a route that travels all over Europe, transcending national borders.
From noble mtl dot com.
But now it was nothing more than a meaningless spectacle.
Should I rather take a free ride? It was a rather absurd plan, but the more I thought about it, the more plausible it felt.
Anyway, the last time I looked at it, the train didn’t have a separate crew, and it was a mechanism that opened the train door only by using a ticket, but that’s it, I could easily get over it by using my magic.
Even if the free ride becomes a problem, it might be possible to use it as an opportunity to meet with the society by taking advantage of it. It’s the price of the ticket, so it’s enough to pay for it later.
“Are you really okay?”
It’s not a decent level, but right now, it didn’t seem like there was a better way.
I think it’s a bit drastic, but originally, innovation requires bold decisions.
Okay. Let’s do it.
After making that conclusion, I waited for the train to enter the station.
After a while, I noticed a magic engineering train coming this way from a far away tunnel.
It was a very attractive design. In particular, the magic circle on top of the spring, which symbolizes magical engineering, is admirable every time I see it.
The train, which was slowly slowing down, came to a complete stop in front of the station. Again, like the last time, the door didn’t seem to open until I put the ticket in the ticket gate.
“Hmm…”
I looked at it for a while and then used the magic I had prepared in advance.
I didn’t expect this to be used here. As the magical power drained from my body and the magic was cast, my body slowly became thinner as if I had been pressed down with a pressure machine.
After a while, I looked down with satisfaction at my appearance, which had completely changed into a 2D paper doll.
This is the thief’s trick.
I looked at the crack in the train door for a while and carefully inserted my arm first. Even though it was paper-thin, it was tight enough to feel cramped, but not so tight that I couldn’t get in.
“It’s done…!”
In the end, I succeeded in getting a free ride safely.
I wasn’t sure if I should be proud of this or if I should feel remorse, but I decided to let go of such a trivial matter.
As expected, the inside of the train was empty. If there were customers inside and watched what I was doing in real time, it would have been quite embarrassing. It was a terrifying sight to think about.
Since there are no tickets, of course there are no assigned seats. The only thing left anyway was a seat, so I sat down on a window seat nearby and stretched out.
[How shameless. To commit a crime without hesitation.]
“To begin with, being a thief is a crime, right?”
[Hmm. I can’t resist.]
Of course I can’t. Because it’s true.
In the first place, from the moment the goddess first proposed the crime, there was no cause for her to comment on my actions.
The first stage has passed safely, but it is not over yet. Rather, from now on, you should see it as a really hopeless step.
You must meet a cowboy with an unforgettable and unusual appearance. But you never know when and where he will board. Even if I wait all day today, there will be a much greater chance that I will not meet you.
Of course, other passengers might be on board, so it would be much better to try this than to do nothing. By all means, you should meet someone who knows a lot about the society.
If things go well and you somehow get in touch with the society, what should you do after that?
In addition, there was no guarantee that the negotiation process to obtain the means of transportation I wanted would not end there either.
It’s a mountain beyond a mountain. At the moment when I felt helpless and let out a deep sigh, the scenery outside the window was full of refreshingness that allowed me to wash away those thoughts even for a moment.
The blue sky and the endless blue horizon. I stared blankly out the window with a small admiration at the beauty that made it hard to even confuse where the sky was and where the sea was.
Already crossed the coastline of Britain and tried to cross the sea toward the kingdom of the Franks.
I’ve been to Frank’s Paris, but I haven’t been to more than that, so I felt my heart pounding as if I was traveling for the first time in a long time.
By the way, where was the last stop of this train? I tried to recall the route map I had seen at the station earlier, but at that time I was just passing the time blankly without thinking, so my memory was fuzzy.
Isn’t there a route map on the train? I got up and looked around to find a route map.
“Getting up on a moving train might be dangerous.”
“Ugh!”
I was startled by the sudden voice from the side and swallowed my screams.
I was not joking, I really thought my heart was falling.
Since when have you been sitting there? I couldn’t help but doubt my eyes when I saw the man sitting across from me and reading the newspaper leisurely.
Because there was a man wearing a cowboy costume and mask that I was looking for.
“It’s been a while. How have you been?”
“Yes. Seeing that you’re the same as last time, it looks like you’re doing well.”
“Well, you can see that.”
Looking at it now, he was a man full of doubts and an enigma. He had no idea what the hell he was doing. More than that, the most important thing right now was this.
“Since when have you been there? I’m sure it wasn’t there at first…”
“Oops. I think your question is a bit misleading.”
Wrong question? As I tilted my head, wondering what that meant, the cowboy folded the newspaper and began to stare at me.
“You should have asked why you are here, not how long you have been here.”
“…Yes? . . Why are you here?”
When I asked the question awkwardly, feeling somehow ominous, he answered with a low smile.
“Well, didn’t you get a free ride?”