Rail-road ahead

It was a warm, lazy summer morning. I pulled my blanket over my head, ignoring the warm rays of sunlight coming through the window. If no one had woken me up yet, it meant that it wasn’t yet 7AM, so I could enjoy this for a while longer.

The pillow smelled of fresh linen, and my pyjamas were surprisingly comfy.

“Chiyo, are you awake?” A voice came from beside the bed.

I mumbled something that sounded very far from the intended ‘just a few more minutes’.

The door to the bedroom burst open, and I dragged my pillow over my head.

“Kaito, go away,” I mumbled at my cousin.

“Who’s Kaito?” A girl’s voice came in reply.

It took me a second to collect my thoughts, then I suddenly jerked up, remembering everything.

Around me, the simple wooden room spun as blood rushed to my brain from the sudden movement.

Danayr was sitting on the ground, a book folded open over his leg. Giselle had been the one I’d mistaken for my cousin. She closed the door behind her and sat on the edge of my bed.

“You have been passed out for a full day,” Danyar explained, before closing his book. “Thankfully, we found you before the Frjin-Marteese soldiers arrived.”

I looked at my companions closely. Both had changed into fresh clothes: brown trousers, a half-corset, and a blue shirt for Danyar, and an ankle-length baby-blue frizzly lace dress for Giselle. Half her hair was braided, and the other half simply pulled up in a bun. It seemed she’d gotten distracted in the middle of styling it.

“It was such a mess … It still is, really. It will take the people here months to rebuild,” Giselled spoke. “I had to pay triple the normal price for this room, so you better pay me back.”

“Sure -” My throat was much drier than I’d expected, and I broke out into a cough.

“Here, drink this.” Danayr got up and handed me a glass from the nightstand.

I gulped the water down, coughed one last time for good measure, before asking:

“Did it work? Did we win?”

“Win is a big word,” Danyar returned to his spot on the carpeted floor. “Hundreds have died. The wave of blighted didn’t stop after you took down the mille pattes. Two hours in, the Frjin-Marteese troupes arrived, and it went uphill from there.”

Both Danayr and Giselle avoided eye contact.

“Did you retreat?”

Giselle nodded.

“But you did kill the blighted abomination,” Danayr added.

“What then? Did that snake man, Bakhyt, find you? What did he say?”

Giselle shook her head and looked towards the door.

“Are we still waiting for him? Oh - what of your brother?”

“Bakhyt got captured. The Bastt guards arranged a truce once they realised he was working with us. Some adventurers joined in. But when the Frjin-Marteese soldiers arrived, they broke it off and captured whoever didn’t stand down or run away in time. Human or demon, they didn’t care.”

It was clear from Danayr’s tone that he would have spat on the ground had he not been indoors. The hatred and anger in his voice were tangible.

“Huh …”

“I was asking around earlier, and several adventurers and caravan guards have spotted my brother. He is alive.”

“You don’t sound too happy.”

I scooched closer to Giselle to make out her expression. She looked beat down.

“It’s because he joined those bastards,” Danayr replied in her stead. He made an audible effort to contain his anger, not wanting to hit a sore spot.

“That’s not true! We don’t know that for sure!” Giselle argued. “All we know is that he was seen wearing a green and silver uniform.”

Danayr turned towards me, looking at me as if I should be able to draw the conclusion myself.

“Of the Frjin-Marteese soldiers?” I tentatively asked.

Danyar nodded.

“He wouldn’t join them … He’s not like that. He’d rather cut off his hand than serve the Empire. He was offered multiple times to join them back home, I’ve told you already, and he refused them all. He was out here looking for the source of the blight, not doing whatever they are doing.”

“Hey, it’s alright, maybe those people were mistaken. You can ask him for his reasons if they were right tough.” I wrapped a hand around Giselle’s shoulders. “Is he also resting at this inn?”

Giselle shook her head, and I realised she was looking away to avoid crying.

“The troupes left in early afternoon. They were headed south, but I couldn’t investigate further for obvious reasons.” Danayr shrugged and swept his tail across the floor behind him to demonstrate his point.

“He’s alive and well, and that’s the most important part.”

I tilted my head, perplexed. Unkempt black locks fell over my eyes.

“You don’t sound like you’re going to continue chasing after him.”

“Well, I was actually hoping…” Giselled quickly wiped her eyes before turning to face me. “I was actually hoping I could continue travelling with the two of you.”

“Why?”

She was so decisively against it before.

“Because of the EXP.” Danayr scoffed.

“No,” Giselled crossed her arms over her chest. “Alright, yes. You saw yourself that I’m not all that good at killing the big ones, so being in a party with two damage dealers is great. But that’s not the only reason.”

Danayr rolled his eyes.

“I realised something back then, right after we split up, and before I passed out from mana exhaustion-”

“Oh no, are you alright?” I interrupted, suddenly worried.

“Thanks to Danayr,” Giselle nodded at him with a grateful smile. “He gave you several potions when he found you, too. But that’s not what I wanted to say. What I realised is that those people who were running away, those people that we were protecting, they’re also someone’s brothers, sisters, parents, children. I’m not the only one who’s at risk of losing someone,” She tapped her chest, “I have the power to make a difference, and it seems where you two are going, you’re going to make a difference too.”

Danayr smirked and nodded, and I smiled brightly.

“I’m glad you’ve decided this.”

“And also you haven’t been weird about me being an Aller heir,” She twirled with one of her loose braids, suddenly looking shy.

“Chiyo has a good reason for that,” Danayr chuckled, before getting up. “As for myself, I have never heard of your family before, but I presume they are rather important if even the King’s lieutenants recognise you on sight.”

“Do you mean Bakhyt?”

Danyar nodded before adding:

“All of them, I reckon, otherwise why would the handsome one ask them to stand down?”

“The handsome one?” I teased. I was glad the atmosphere was becoming lighter. I needed this breath of freshness after everything that’d happened. “What about my train?” The realisation suddenly hit me. “We won’t get far without it.”

“It wasn’t there when we found you. I don’t know too much about summoner magic, but shouldn’t you be able to just call it to you again?”

Giselle had a good point.

“Alright,” I hopped out of bed. My pyjamas morphed into a shirt, shorts, and leather gloves. I opted for leather boots instead of the plate-armoured ones for a change.

“Whoa, I didn’t know summoners could summon their clothes too. I guess it makes sense.”

“I’ll have to explain a few things to you,” I awkwardly scratched the back of my neck. My stomach gurgled. “Okay, train, breakfast, then we hit the road.”

“Dinner,” Danayr corrected.

“I didn’t buy us any food, because I think these people need it more than we do, but I have some thyme crackers we can share.”

Giselle reached into her pocket and handed us each three rather crumbly crackers wrapped in handkerchiefs.

—-

I checked my mana, which was fully restored, as we reached the edge of the town. Evening was starting to fall, and we hastily jogged away from the people moving rubble and monster corpses at the edge of town.

Nothing happened when I thought about summoning my train.

“Train,” I said, extending a hand forward, hoping that it’d work the same as it had when I first made it appear.

Instead of my locomotive and its three wagons, a notification appeared.

< Unable to summon ‘train’. Summoners exceeding level 50 must name all summons of equivalent level or higher.>

< Name ‘train’.>

“It’s asking me to name my train…” I repeated the message, perplexed.

Danayr chuckled.

“That doesn’t sound unreasonable. Did you have anything in mind?”

I thought about it. I could probably come up with just about anything, for the sake of summoning it and getting back on the road, but I wanted it to be meaningful.

“Big spear.” Giselle suggested.

“Sunset path.”

Both their lips had moved out of sync, and I realised my skill had translated for me once more.

“Big spear is terrible, I’m sorry, Giselle,” I gave her an apologetic smile. “But I like ‘sunset path’ … maybe … Oh, I know! Yoake!”

“You have a skill for understanding languages, don’t you…” Danayr awkwardly scratched his arm.

“More importantly, what does Yoake mean?”

“Dawn,” I replied. “I think it’s fitting.” I grinned.

< ‘Train’ renamed to ‘Yoake’.>

< Summon requirements met.>

She appeared before us in all her glory, stirring up a thin cloud of sand as she landed onto the rails. The three carts must have been destroyed in the fight, but the locomotive had gained a brand new coat of silver paint. Green highlights ran along its edges, giving it a much more dignified look. A metal cowcatcher jutted proudly in front, over an additional set of pilot wheels.

A tableau with ‘Yoake’ written on it in neat dark-green kanji was now placed over the windshield of the locomotive, and a stylised logo had been drawn in matching topography over the side of the locomotive.

“This is much less discreet,” Danyar remarked, though his voice betrayed his awe.

I wonder if the inside is different too.

I ran up, and into the cab.

The red throttle was still there, but the dials and switches had been replaced with a flat 21st-century panel. On it lay an operations manual.

I shook my palms in the air, too excited, and entered the living area. All the furniture had been replaced with slick start-of-the-century equivalents. This area now looked like a designer first-class cabin for two.

“Whoa, what is all this?” Giselle pushed past me, toward the commode where her bags had been put.

“Ah, sorry,” Danayr knocked over the manual as he entered. He put it back, and neither he nor I spotted the signature ‘Paul du Virage’ on the last page.

“Well, should we get going?” I was practically jumping from excitement.

The cab was a little tight for the three of us, but I paid it no mind. I pushed on the throttle. The second I did so, a pull lever dropped down from the ceiling. I shook my hand before grabbing it.

A loud horn noise came from outside. Giselle covered her ears, and Danayar jerked away.

“Do you want to try it?” I excitedly asked.

Slowly, he reached out for it and pulled on the horn again. Giselle took hold of the doorframe, preparing for the speed-up, and said:

“Let’s go stop the blight!”

I nodded, and with a grin on my lips, said:

“Full speed ahead, Yoake!”