A door on the top carriage opened. The figure of Alicia came out and looked at the surroundings. No activities were seen in this sedate aisle. With Orb, Alicia then sought a way to find the Grand Magus Haddock.
The time was three o'clock. The midday sun's heat began to weaken when its rays entered the carriage windows. Alicia just now remembered that she had skipped lunch. She only ate various kinds of snacks and cakes that were provided in the chiller, thinking that at twelve there would be a lunch invitation for train passengers. She had not seen Haddock or anyone else when they left her in her room alone. Alicia was eager to report what she learned and consulted the Grand Magus.
She took only two steps towards the door, suddenly the bespectacled girl had another thought. Sometimes she sniffed out her curiosity in the wrong place. Alicia said to Orb, "Shall we wander for a bit? I want to see what's inside the carriages behind us before moving on to the front ones."
Orb agreed to her friend's solicitation. Alicia turned around and opened the door to the rear carriage. Nothing conspicuous at the first three carriages she went throughโonly a few doors led to a room downstairs, only smaller than Alicia's own chamber. She kept walking to the next carriage.
The fourth carriage was no less boring. It contained a cleaning equipment room and several janitors who had just left for routine maintenance. Alicia did not know anything, greeting them as she passed by.
"Hold on there, Young Lady! Where are you going?" said one of the janitors.
Alicia turned and greeted him gently. "Good afternoon, good sir. Just wanted to take a tour around the train."
"You're part of the Magisterium? I've never seen you before."
"I'm sorry, sir, this is my first time here."
"Well, your tour is over. Now turn around and play somewhere else!"
"B-butโฆ I haven't seen ๐บ๐ฐ๐ฏ carriage," Alicia's index finger aimed at the round glass door that disclosed the wagon behind it.
The janitor seemed indifferent to who and what the status of the young lady was. He replied to the girl's answer with his tone rising an octave, "Young Lady! If I told you to turn around, wouldn't it be obvious that the carriage was not for anyone to enter? Do you even have permission from the conductor?"
Forbidden carriage! The teenage girl's curiosity was even more sparked! That spirit of adventure was back! What was this janitor hiding? What was hidden in this train? Did this also involve Magisterium mages? Alicia's brain begins to connect imaginary dots to draw conclusions about imaginary conspiracies.
"Miss! Oi, Miss!"
The Orb sent a jolt signal to Alicia's quill from the backpack. Alicia was shocked and her spirit returned to the world of the living.
"S-sorry, Sir! I-I'm going back to my carriage." After that, Alicia walked quickly towards the door. "What was that?" whispered the girl to the Arcane orb stuck in hee leather bag.
๐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต, ๐๐ช๐ด๐ด.
"M-Missโwhat? Don't imitate that person's speech...!"
Little did the girl realise that the group of officers could hear her whispers as she walked by. They knew something was wrong with this girl, but in order not to offend anyone, they only talked to each other. "Typical wizard, poor thing. She'll have to find a real person to talk to," said one to another.
Alicia was still curious about the Mysterious Carriage. She felt a little peek should not hurt. Then the girl decided to wait behind the bedroom door while spying on the cleaners. After they went to the next carriage, Alicia opened the door slowly, then darted into the Carriage of Secrecy.
The girl had reached the back of the last carriage. It seemed that there was a sticker that read "No Entry for Unauthorized Personnel" on the front door. Ignoring the message, the girl made an entry.
Too bad, it was locked.
Hearing Alicia's inner call, Orb complied and came out of its hiding place. But before sharing its power, Orb first commented to the girl, ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต.
Alicia replied, "Come on, Orb. We have to know if there's any danger in this train. Think of it as an inspection of black magic!"
๐๐ฉ, ๐ด๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ'๐ณ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ต ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฆ๐น๐ค๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ, ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ?
"Ah, Orb, you make me feel bad!"
๐ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฎ๐ข๐จ๐ช๐ค ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ง ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต? ๐๐ณ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด?
"If there's nothing out of the ordinary, we'll head right out and put the key back in as usual. I won't touch anything! Come on, please?"
Orb allowed her access to Arcane might. Alicia used the telekinesis ability to unlock the door, and they enter the secret carriage. The room was full of dim green light from small lamps and had no light ventilation. Unlike the others, the carriages were not partitioned into floor levels. In front of them, both were greeted by a staircase leading downstairs. The engine's sound became louder as Alicia descended the stairs. Her feeling uttered that they were in the engine room, but it felt peculiar for this coach to be the engine room, since it was only proper for such a section to be at the front of the locomotive. But with the room getting darker the more they pushed in, that was still a mere assumption.
Her feet did not stop walking until they reached another doorwayโa giant, circular steel door. There were several key combinations that must be solved in order to reveal the contents behind it. There must have been something big inside because there was no reason for the train designers to install metal vaults in the room full of roaring gears.
"The big iron door," said the Crimsonmane girl. "You think there's a threat of black magic here?"
Orb reconfirmed that there was nothing behind itโat least related to Protos particles.
The combination lock clicked correctly, and the giant hatch turned on its own. The vault door was successfully pulled out. This new room has more light, although the stuffy atmosphere is still noticeable. The walls were full of pipes that seemed to be used for air circulation and temperature control. Alicia's gaze was fixed on a glass room that looked like a cage. There was no need to question the reason why, because someone was inside it.
The white-haired prisoner turned his body backward while sitting huddled. There was a faint sound that Alicia could not fathom, implying that the one in this prison was still alive. The prisoner suddenly let out a loud voice.
"Again, again, again. I hope you stop being an imbecile and just kill me. No need to scare me with the latest intel-gathering method. You know it won't work. It will never work, man."
How gasped Alicia heard a familiar voice to the point that she slipped a sound.
"Huh?" The man felt something was wrong with that feminine voice. "You mean to seduce me through women? Shit, why didn't you sayโ"
He turned his head. Not an ordinary woman he received. He got a bigger prize. As if meeting a long-lost relative, the man showed a broad grin.
"Well, well, well. As expected, our destiny is always intertwined," said the man.
"A-Agosh Grendi! What are you doing here?" Alicia was on standby, getting into a fighting stance with Orb. The white plasma inside Orb also swelled; just in case Agosh Grendi wanted to do undesirable deeds.
Agosh, who was originally sitting facing the wall, then stood up and turned around. "Darling, darling, darling, calm down," he coaxed. Agosh spread his both hands. "As you can see, I am unarmed. I am but a humble prisoner, awaiting final judgment and execution in the Eternal Empire."
The necromancer did look harmless. All of his clothes were plain white, there were no pockets, let alone weapons hidden in them. The only thing that was the same about him was the mask with the red visor, the sharp nose, and his disturbing grin from ear to ear. He was trapped in a glass aquarium with magic runes on all four sides, preventing him from casting magic even if he could. Alicia approached him slowly, though full of doubts. []