Arthur wanted to unbuckle his seatbelt and look for another seat but a quick desperate scan of the cabin he was in was enough to tell him all seats were occupied.
There was a chance that there was no other seat on the R-train or that the next free seat would be very far from him.
In the next seconds, the RuneTrain started moving.
Arthur forced himself to calm down. His seatbelt was on, right… What was the worst that could happen without the Gravity Emulator turned on?
Looking to his left, he noticed the porcelain doll of a girl seated near him holding the 'book' had a pair of round white objects fitted into her ears no doubt blocking all the sounds that could break her concentration from what she was reading.
The man closest to the window was sound asleep and the others that were in his line of sight were either doing something to keep themselves distracted or openly snickering at him:
'What an idiot!' 'Do you think he's got some kind of death wish?' 'Maybe he thinks he's being cool.' 'Who knows, maybe he could pull off something crazy.' 'Doesn't matter if he can. We get to watch one hell of a show either way.'
Arthur's sensitive ears were even more alert in this situation and they picked up on almost every whisper that was made of him. Much as most of them were insulting, they were right.
He was screwed. The prince felt his stomach turn. Just what was going to happen to him?
Arthur didn't have time to think this through as the RuneTrain shot through the tunnels, gliding along the path that had been built for it and diving into the darkness of the underground tunnels that ran underneath the city.
These tunnels were built under the whole of Alcove and could get to almost any place in the prosperous human city.
Barthlorn School of Supernaturals, however, wasn't built within Alcove. Arthur tried to remember if there had ever been tunnels like this in other places but his knowledge of the life within the Wall was limited.
As far as he was concerned, he could hold on while they were still in Alcove.
The RuneTrain started to shift and pitch.
Its front was suddenly tilting upwards. The prince found himself holding onto the bottom of his chair as hard as he could just to keep himself from dangling. The seatbelt he was wearing could keep him from going too far out of his seat, but then, he would be dangling like a ragdoll and Arthur didn't want that.
A few of the students that were only now noticing his precarious situation started giving him curious looks, wondering what the boy was up to.
Arthur was about to plead his case when a scattering of light streamed through the windows, banishing the darkness of the tunnels. The students were blinded for a moment before opening their eyes and taking in the scene around them.
Gasps of shock and surprise could be heard throughout the RuneTrain as they witnessed further capabilities of the RuneTrain.
The strange was now flying vertically upwards, snaking through to the sky, gaining more and more altitude. Oddly enough, Arthur was only now noticing something wrong with the train's sense of direction.
'Why don't they give these damned trains backwards and forwards orientations?' the prince mentally screamed. 'Talk of lazy engineering.'
His hands were starting to scream in pain as he held his body to the chair to keep himself from falling forward.
After heading up for a few seconds, Arthur's managed to calm himself down. Unlike the rest of the passengers, he couldn't simply turn his body to take in the scenery. Sitting alone was a chore for him now.
Still, though, he was curious to see what made everyone so amazed. Gritting his teeth, he turned to the window and witnessed Alcove. The city was already far below them and the train continued to leave it behind.
Alcove was a beautiful city, full of life and flooding with prosperity.
It was the perfect amalgamation of magic and technology, RuneTech.
RuneTech filled the city with LED posters, automobiles, RuneTrains and so much more. The prince even spotted a few flying cars as well, covered in a smaller version of the magic circles that coiled around the RuneTrain.
Buildings that went as high as the eye could see, some with holograms floating on top of them like great magic banners. It was the epitome of human development. With the help of magic, there was no limit to human ingenuity.
'Sometimes I'm glad the humans are a part of the Light Pact Alliance,' the prince thought to himself. Then again, there were a lot of enemies the Light Pact Alliance was afraid of. For now, there was a balance.
The RuneTrain had been designed to be able to move normally in both directions with the seats designed to face each other in sets of three or two.
This meant that depending on the seat chosen, they were bound to either face forward or backwards during the journey. And in this journey, everything was backward for Arthur.
Watching everything zoom past them and continue to get further away was dizzying in its own right but having to watch all that while being supported by a leather seatbelt and struggling to keep from dangling out of your seat was another matter.
This was the use of the Gravity Emulator. It kept everyone in their seats no matter what direction the RuneTrain was facing.
The runes outside the train shimmered a bright neon green as the vehicle increased its speed even further breaking through the white clouds that settled above Alcove. The sun filtered into the RuneTrain as it slowed down and settled to a horizontal glide…
…upside down.
'Damn these drivers! Does having a G-Emulator make them think driving upside down is a cool thing,' Arthur cursed through gritted teeth. He gripped the sides of his seat for dear life, trying to keep from falling to the roof of the RuneTrain.
The journey continued this way for a while and soon enough, his hands began to burn from having to carry his weight. He had already tried to steady himself during the outburst at the start of the journey, adding this neverending pull-up to his journey was asking too much of him.
His fingers began to give and he felt them slipping. 'This is not how my journey to the Sorting was supposed to go.'
Arthur looked up(or down) to the ceiling which had now turned transparent to give a view of the world below. If it wasn't for the lack of wind and slight refraction the roof gave off, he would have been fooled into thinking he would fall through.
The roof wasn't that far. He surely wouldn't hurt himself, however, without a seatbelt, he would be prone to severe injuries once the RuneTrain made its descent.
Falling to the roof was one thing, but once he was out of the safety of his seat, he could only imagine the numerous ways he could hurt himself in this omnidirectional vehicle.
The prince's fingers started to go numb and his biceps screamed for relief. 'Just a little longer…' he mentally screamed. There were limits to what even he was capable of. And slowly but surely, his grip on the seat loosened, his fingers growing numb before completely letting go.
For a moment, he was falling…
Only to slam right back into his seat, his hair falling to his side and his mind performing a dizzying one-eighty as his entire perception of up and down was flipped.
The prince's left hand quickly rushed to his head, rubbing away a forming headache that had started to form from the sudden re-orientation.
'Finally! About time they started driving normally.'
He settled into his chair comfortably and looked out the window.
Everything else was upside down and not him. The RuneTrain had not been corrected… and yet he was now fine. His eyes darted to the Gravity Rune on his seatbelt.
It wasn't glowing.
As he lifted his right hand to check on the seatbelt, he felt a resistance holding his hand down. This realisation came along with a cold sensation on his hand and not the kind one got from touching cold metal.
The silver-haired girl seating next to him had finally looked away from her book. Just like her hair, her eyes were silver and entrancing. In contrast to the warm act of kindness she had just done, her eyes were cold and expressionless.
She didn't say anything and turned her eyes back to the book she was reading, making sure to keep her hand on his.
'Huh, I'm holding hands with a beautiful silver-haired girl. What a way to start the school year!' Arthur mentally sighed.
He looked around and noticed the mischievous stares he'd been receiving earlier had now turned to envious glares.
'If looks could kill...'