Chapter 𝟠

The First Meeting

The day finally arrived when I’d be dragged off to Kratie Academy—that is, I would start attending as a student.

My mother took my hands and refused to let go for a long time.

“Send a messenger bird the moment something happens. I put in plenty of money for you, so contact us if you run out.”

“Don’t worry, Mother. I’m no child.”

“Why does the academy accept noble scions but does not allow a single knight to accompany them for protection? The area around Kratie is infested with monsters.”

Kratie Academy was open to cadets, and only to cadets. No guards, servants, or maids could accompany them.

“I’ve been losing sleep at night because of you.”

My mother dabbed at her eyes, apparently very anxious to be sending her daughter all alone to a strange place.

“Dear, please calm down. Kratie has a magical barrier that makes it the next safest place after the imperial palace.”

My father hadn’t even been able to climb into the carriage that would take him and me to Bourke Station—he was still trying to soothe my mother.

Franz was red in the nose and sniffling too.

“Kyla, send me back if it gets too tough. I’ve gotten used to wielding Schitzuro now, and I’m confident I’ll be able to fight back if more bullies come at me.”

Even though I’d said over and over again that I wanted to be a knight, apparently Franz had concluded I was somehow making a sacrifice for his sake.

“You focus on your life. Don’t make our parents worry,” I said, tapping him on the cheek with the palm of my hand.

“All right, Kyla. Don’t you fret about me.”

Some thought I was stealing an opportunity from Franz—others believed I was making a sacrifice for him.

Both were wrong.

I was doing this for my own survival, though it would benefit Franz in the process. He would actually get to do whatever he liked with his life and avoid certain pain. What could be better?

The carriage raced toward Bourke Station, carrying me and my father. I could see Franz waving outside the window and my mother standing next to him. He was crinkling his nose, as if he was about to cry.

My mother wrapped her arm around his back and soothed him, and he buried his face in her shoulder.

I felt strange watching them.

A certain poor child I remembered had always been cautious about doing anything... even shedding tears. I’d been the only family he had, and he’d never been able to act his age—not even once. He’d never even been able to tell anybody what happened to him at school.

The memory left a bitter taste in my mouth.

***

It was around a two-hour ride from the Vesta mansion to Bourke Station. The road was well paved with stone, and thankfully, the trip had not involved any queasiness.

After we got out of the carriage, my father seemed worried. He followed me into the station and meddled in various ways.

“Do you have your transfer form with you? What about the train ticket?”

“They’re all in this bag. I’m fine, Father.”

I raised my small handbag and smiled. He sighed.

“I’m still not sure if we’re doing the right thing.”

He followed the horseman and servants with his eyes as they moved my things. The luggage would be taken separately on a freight train, which left earlier than my passenger train.

“I’ll be off, Father.”

I turned away from him and walked onward. I felt pretty calm.

Nobody would believe me if I told them what I knew about the future. There was no need to force them to understand. This was a universal truth I’d learned in my previous life.

If nothing else, the fact that Franz now had Schitzuro was a huge deal. Everything would be different from here onward.

Daring to hope in the future I would change, I headed for my platform. It was accessible only to those with a ticket, so it was less crowded than the station building.

There were two types of trains available here at Bourke Station. One of them was the steam-powered train, and the other was one powered by magic stones.

The latter provided a sort of warp service that could reach any location within five minutes, but tickets were around a hundred times more expensive than those for the steam trains. As a result, not even the nobles could take them too often.

I could see many other nobles around me—all of us were waiting for the steam train. Train stations like this were probably the only place where commoners could be seen standing with nobles.

An exclamation came forth from the crowd on the platform.

“Look! A magic train!”

“I’ve never seen one in person before.”

“Father, look! Look! That’s a magic train!”

When I glanced over to where everyone was looking, I saw a glittering locomotive. The rails for this train headed straight up off the ground and then they abruptly disappeared.

I grew curious about how the train managed to travel through the sky. As if on cue, the train began to race along the rails, scattering bits of sparkling light everywhere.

“It’s moving through the sky!”

“Amazing!”

The train seemed to fly straight into the air even after the rails ended. Then, it vanished without a trace. The glitter the train had given off as it moved still filled the air.

“Oh... It’s gone now.”

“I hear it only takes five minutes to get to another country from here.”

“I’d love to ride it just once.”

Even distant countries could be reached in around five minutes. Steam engines, powered by physical forces, could never catch up to the magic train, no matter how far technology progressed.

If one compared cost to efficiency, perhaps the price of a ticket on the magic train was on the cheap side.

With the magic train gone, the platform now contained only watching passengers and security guards in uniforms. Given how efficacious these trains were, they were sometimes used for escape by criminals. As such, the imperial palace made sure to carefully vet all passengers.

That’s probably why these guards in black are here.

As the passengers slowly moved from platform to platform, waiting for their train to arrive, I discovered a girl slumped on a bench. She seemed to be a little younger than I was. Her hair was concealed in a black hood, but her face was so beautiful that I found myself staring at her.

Small droplets of sweat coated her white face, and her pink lips, shaking and pale, almost looked purple. However, this sickly pallor didn’t detract any from her plaintive beauty.

It must be nice to be her.

Her blue-violet dress was also made of glossy velvet, so it was easy to see that she was from some very rich family.

“Lady Astelle, are you all right?”

“Please have some water. The cold water will make you feel better.”

The girl seemed to be faring poorly since she only took a few sips before pushing the bottle away.

“Do you have a headache?”

“Do you feel unable to walk?”

The girls around her must’ve been her maids, and they were fanning eagerly at her face. She seemed to dislike the soft breeze the fans generated and waved them off. The maids folded their fans, put them away, and then dabbed at the girl’s sweat with a handkerchief.

Maybe she can’t talk?

Oddly enough, she never spoke, but always issued commands through head shakes or hand gestures. Despite this fact, the maids seemed to understand her very well.

She appears to be a lady of very high rank, but she can’t be a princess. Is she the daughter of a grand duke, perhaps?

Her entourage was also dressed well, which suggested that her family was no ordinary one.

If she was so rich, why hadn’t she gotten on the magic train?

Her purple eyes traveled over to me, perhaps noticing my gaze. I was unable to look away, mesmerized by the amethyst-like eyes.

She gave me a dark smile, wetting her lips with a red tongue.

The expression was so beautiful. I kept on staring even as I wondered who she was. I thought she was like a siren who lured sailors into the sea and drowned them.

The girl turned her face toward me fully, and I saw pink hair flutter out from under her black hood. She flinched and then pulled the hood lower over her face.

She seems averse to showing any hair at all.

Only then did the odd exchange of looks between us come to an end.

Huh? Strange. Why do I get a sense of déjà vu?

I’d never seen this girl in my life, but somehow, she seemed strangely familiar. This world belonged inside a comic, but all the objects, creatures, and people I saw were real.

That was why I hadn’t realized at first that I’d entered the world of The Mirage of Magic. Even recognizing the major characters had been tough.

I couldn’t seem to remember which of the characters that girl was.

The Mirage of Magic was a gay comic with very few female characters. The only ones that had any part in the story were Kyla—who was killed midway through the plot—and Marian Demiroph, Franz’s fiancée, who might as well have not existed since she barely got any attention.

I’d met Marian at my brother’s engagement ceremony last summer. She’d been pretty, but this girl was not Marian.

Who could it be? Was it some other lady that I’d encountered during a high society meet? Why did she seem so familiar?

I felt strangely concerned.

***

About forty minutes remained until the train bound for Kratie arrived.

The platform had a shop, as well as a small store that sold souvenirs and the like.

A duty-free shop that sells luxury items for cheaper than the usual retail value—like the ones that had existed in my past life—would do very well here.

Now that there were magic trains that could take me overseas, it occurred to me that I could seize the opportunity and start a business. But I soon recalled something that needed doing and gave up on the idea.

This was no time for pointless flights of fancy.

Utilizing the steward, I’d made sure that Franz and Ritaus could not contact each other, but this blockage was temporary. It wouldn’t do if Ritaus went to see Franz while I was gone.

Just because Franz now owned Schitzuro and had stopped attending Kratie didn’t mean everything was fixed. I needed a place to hide Franz from the world until he could become a master of Shitzuro.

What would be a suitable place? It had to be somewhere people didn’t frequent, a place where I could easily contact him, and somewhere free of boys.

“Perhaps a place filled with only girls would be safe.”

It was an incredible idea. But suddenly, my thoughts were shattered by the sound of a loud crash, like that of rock colliding with a metal surface.