The train journey from Elghus to Elmden was far from comfortable. As the train passed stations on the way, more and more soldiers boarded. By the end of the day, when the train finally arrived in Elmden, there was almost no room to move inside the military carriage.
Being jostled as everyone left the carriage in Elmden, Alexander felt like he could finally breath again. The station they arrived at was quite grand. Looking around he could see several other trains and loads of people walking too and from the trains. Looking up the ceiling towered over him, probably going as high as 25-30m, with glass covering parts of the ceiling allowing for natural light during the day.
In many ways this station reminded Alexander of Grand Central Terminal in New York, at least when it comes to aesthetics. From inside, at least where he was at the moment, it was rather hard to tell if the size of the station itself was similar as well. Though even if he were to take his time and look around the station to figure out its size, he didn't think he would be able to do a proper comparison since he had only been in New York twice for some conferences.
Spotting a large clock on one of the walls of the station Alexander could see that the time was around half past seven, or at least he assumed it was. Again he felt a bit confused, after all both in Tiramdal, and during his training period, glasses was used to denote hours. Now seeing an actual clock he couldn't really understand why they would not simply say hours, or specify precise times. Then again, given that the recruit company he was with came from Tiramdal, which seemed to be so far back in time, specifying time using a clock might have confused all of the recruits.
Thinking more about this he realised that he didn't know the word for clock, time or any other time related words, except glasses, in the language used in Verenden. Alexander decided that he might as well embarrass himself now rather than when he got to Fort Exor. So he went towards one of the uniformed men at the station, which he thought might be police since they carried batons.
"Excuse me sir, I just got here from Elghus, I just finished my training as a private at the garrison there and have been assigned to Fort Exor"-as he was saying this the police officer turned towards him and started studying him-"Thus I wanted to ask you what that, thing? No… Thats a bad way to describe it… The round glass counter on the wall there is called." Hearing Alexander trying to describe a clock the police officer couldn't help himself from laughing. Both he and his partner started laughing so hard that they got tears in their eyes.
Holding his stomach the police officer tried to answer Alexander "Haha.. Hah.. I'm.. Hah.. Sorry, but.. Hahhah… Are you.. Hahaha… trying to describe the clock?". He barely managed to speak those words before laughing too hard to say anything else. Alexander could fully understand why they were laughing, he would too if anyone tried to describe a clock in English the way he just had.
"Thank you, I am originally from Tiramdal, we don't have any clocks there as far as I know, so I needed to find out what it was called. Can I also just quickly clarify that the clock works with numbers starting at twelve at the highest position and six at the lowest position on the face of the clock?" At this question the police officer managed to stop laughing, and could finally start speaking properly. "Yes, it goes from twelve and the top through six at the bottom. Can you perhaps not read? Well since you mentioned you were from Tiramdal, and you are just a private, I can imagine you can't. I also assume you probably don't know that we normally say hours instead of glasses."
The police officer continued on to explain the different words used to denote time, and also how minutes and seconds worked. After he finished explaining that he asked Alexander if he knew the way from the station to Fort Exor. At this Alexander had to shake his head and ask him if he could please explain the way, and if it would be possible for him to reach the fort today. Alexander ended up being told that he shouldn't travel towards the fort today, unless he had money for a carriage, though the police officer said he doubted Alexander had money for that.
Thanking the police officer again for the help Alexander made his way out of the station and could take in the sight of Elmden. From just outside the station the city, for it had to be a city, seemed to go on and on. By looking out it seemed that it could probably compare to Manchester or Glasgow. Though he wasn't really standing at a point which would reveal the proper size of the city.
Since he didn't have any money at all he wouldn't be able to sleep in any inns or taverns. He just realised that he wouldn't be able to even eat. Oh how he regretted not trying to grab some food to pack when he had breakfast. He felt quite stupid having left in such a hurry this morning. Had he waited some of the other privates, or perhaps one of the corporals, might have mentioned grabbing some food for the journey.
However there was only so much he could do about that. If he left the city and started walking towards Fort Exor he might be lucky enough to find some fruits or berries on the way. Had he been given some ammunition he could even have done some hunting, but that was something they would be getting when they got to their new posts.
Shrugging his shoulders at his current predicament Alexander started walking, following the directions the police officer had provided. At least he had some a flask with water in his kit and a sleeping bag. Deciding that he might as well try to cover as much distance as possible before sleeping he walked.
Walking through the streets of Elmden it was quite busy still, men and women were walking around. Some seemed to be heading home, whilst others were probably on their way out to dine or drink.
At one point he almost ended up stepping on a large pile of horse manure as he paid more attention to the different items on display in some of the windows he passed. It didn't take long for him to get into a more residential area of the city. Here it seemed that there were less people about during this hour.
The further he walked the less impressive the houses started to get, though he never got to an area anyone would call a slum. The last couple of streets of what one might call the city had houses reminiscent of the back-to-back houses found around towns and cities in the UK.
Estimating the time he had been walking Alexander thought the time would probably be about one in the morning as he found a good spot to stop. The place he decided to stop and rest, perhaps even get some sleep, was along a small river that crossed the road. He walked a bit upwards the river before finding a flat spot that wasn't too easy too see from the road. It wasn't too cold outside at this time of the year so he didn't try to create any fire and just wanted to get his sleeping bag out and get some sleep.
Laying down on the ground he got to stare up at the sky. This day had been, in many ways, quite weird. He had learnt that the world wasn't as primitive as he had first believed. Having been reincarnated into an infant and left in front of a church. Then taken in by a monastery with other orphans and seen what he thought was a typical middle ages lifestyle there. For then to be left to the wilds so to speak as the monastery lost funds. Making his way with some of the other orphans to Tiramdal and seeing again something that seemed to be from the middle ages. And now, now he had seen a town and a city that was more in line with the industrial revolution or the mid 1800s.
To just think about all that was quite confusing. Why was there such a difference? Was there maybe some other country in this world that was as modern as the Earth he came from? Though if that was the case, wouldn't that nation have conquered the rest of the world by now? Thinking about all this, and again realising how he missed many of the things from his old life, he fell asleep.