Chapter 2182 – 2182. Dark Moon
A water train.
It’s an ancient relic train that runs on water. When I say water, that naturally includes the sea.
Its speed is also much faster than ordinary trains, allowing it to circumnavigate the world in ten days. As such, tickets for the water train are quite expensive. For the common people, it’s a price they can’t even dream of affording.
I handed these tickets to Orsia and Invisible Blade. They examined the tickets with an air of curiosity.
‘Looking at it like this, the members are quite interesting.’
Orsia and Invisible Blade concealed their true identities. In Orsia’s case, she merely covered the Hytel crest on her clothes, but that alone was enough to hide her identity. As the successor of the Hytel School, she didn’t often appear in public.
What’s surprising is Invisible Blade. She took off her mask and wore a Victorian dress, commonly seen in Neo London, instead of her cyber suit. She covered what needed to be covered, but her figure was so good and her face so pretty that she drew attention.
‘It’s a relief she’s not in her ninja outfit… but it’s a bit of a shame.’
The cyber ninja suit was a bit embarrassing, being so tight, but it was visually appealing.
Orsia and Invisible Blade then looked at each other.
“I apologize for the late introduction. I am Orsia Hytel. I am a space mage.”
“Another rare mage. I’m Haga Shizuka. My way of speaking is like this… please understand. It’s because I’m a mercenary. I’ll say this in advance, don’t disclose any information about me to others.”
“Yes. I ask the same of you.”
Invisible Blade’s attitude doesn’t change even after hearing the name Hytel. There’s no way a citizen of Neo London wouldn’t know the Hytel School… She was a woman of strong character in many ways.
“So, how are we supposed to use these tickets? There’s no beach here, not even a river.”
Invisible Blade shook the red ticket. We were currently in my study at my mansion. Not exactly the right place to board a water train.
Before I could answer, Orsia spoke first.
“The ticket itself is an excellent artifact. It’s imbued with high-dimensional space magic. The spell formula looks old at first glance, but it’s definitely a remarkable item.”
“As expected of Ms. Orsia. You saw it right away. The tickets are said to be generated by a special magical tool of the water train. The Valier family, the owners of the water train, take all the profits. Anyway, the method of use is simple. If you tear the ticket, a space teleportation spell will automatically activate and transport us to the nearest station.”
“Can we tear it now?”
“There’s an hour before the water train arrives at the station. We need to check our preparations before that.”
I looked at Invisible Blade with suspicious eyes. She only had a light bag in her hand.
“Ha, this is a designer bag with space expansion magic, okay? I’ve packed everything I need, so don’t worry. Or do you want to forcibly check a woman’s bag?”
I shook my head. Even if she’s not trustworthy, she’s a skilled mercenary, so she must have packed the necessary items herself.
Orsia? She’s a 7th-grade space mage. She handles more than one subspace herself, so what’s there to worry about? She probably carries all sorts of things in one of her subspaces.
We drank tea and talked about ancient ruins before tearing the tickets.
A spell formula seeped out from the torn tickets and enveloped our bodies. I stared intently at the formula. Something was different. I could understand most spell formulas just by looking at them… but this was a bit different.
“It’s a traditional teleportation spell. A space teleportation spell that activates by twisting the formula with a relay. Personally, I think it’s inefficient, but it’s amazing in that it can be used by ordinary people.”
“This spell formula deployment is too slow, isn’t it? And the formula is so weak it could break if you just touch it. You could interfere with it just by slightly raising your mana.”
I thought about it for combat use, like Invisible Blade. The result was negative. It was too weak and took too long to be used for combat.
‘It takes about 3 minutes to cast. Too long.’
Three minutes later, we teleported to the water train station.
There was a unique, slightly bitter smell of the sea. Looking around, we were at a train station in the middle of the sea. It was just a station standing alone without any tracks. Outside the small station, waves crashed, and the sunlight was dazzling.
‘A barrier is blocking the waves trying to enter the station.’
Thanks to that, the inside of the train station was relatively pleasant despite being in the middle of the sea. Since there were only three of us as passengers, we comfortably sat on a bench and waited.
“The breeze is nice, it’s not bad.”
Orsia sat quietly on the bench, enjoying the breeze. Even at this moment, she was keeping her distance from me. On the contrary, Invisible Blade sat next to me without hesitation.
Shouldn’t she be more wary of me? She was forcibly violated by me before. But she’s acting as if nothing happened that day, treating me comfortably.
Screeeeeech.
A train was approaching from afar. The water train, slightly floating above the sea surface, was coming closer, creating a spray of water. As it approached the station, its speed gradually decreased and it came to a stop. The doors opened automatically. Inside the train, a tin can golem in uniform greeted us.
“You are three, correct? Please come in. The train will depart in 10 minutes.”
We boarded the train. The air was pleasant. The space was also a bit wider than it appeared from the outside.
“I am Mor, the conductor of the water train. You may disembark when you reach your destination. Meals are provided three times a day, and snacks such as beer, cookies, and fruits are also sold at the train’s shop.”
“Nice to meet you, Mor. Are there any empty cabins on the train? I’d like to travel comfortably.”
“There are many empty cabins. However, there is a fee for using the cabins. Is that alright with you?”
“If I can go comfortably, money is no object.”
I took out my card and handed it over. Mor swiped the card smoothly on a machine attached to his right arm.
“Payment complete. Here are the cabin keys. Rooms 206, 207, and 208. The cabin section is in front, so please check it out. Well then, if you need anything, please call.”
Mor left, and we immediately moved to our cabins. I was in 208, Invisible Blade in 207, and Orsia in 206.
The cabins were quite large and satisfactory. I also liked that they had attached bathrooms.
The train departed. The train running on the sea was more amazing than I had imagined.
• • •
Life on the train was boring.
There were other passengers, but not many. We mostly spent our time in our individual cabins, except for meal times. Oh, and Orsia and I had lessons in my room in the morning. She became my teacher and taught me the basics of space magic.
“Other schools often view time and space together as spacetime. In our Hytel School, we view time and space separately. Space is just space. Of course, there are also quite a few Hytel School mages who study time and space together.”
“Then how do you think about time?”
“Well, I haven’t thought about it deeply, so I can’t explain it in detail, but in my opinion, time is just a matter of perception. For example, subspace magic. The inside of a subspace is basically where time has stopped. Do you know what happens if you put a clock in a subspace?”
“…Does it stop?”
“No. It moves. A clock is just an object set to change numbers. Even if time stops, the machine doesn’t stop.”
“…Doesn’t time stopping mean space stopping?”
“Yes. That’s usually how it’s thought. But the clock moves inside the subspace. However, if you put food in, it doesn’t spoil. If you put in cold food, it stays cold. The same goes for warm food. Therefore, we have defined that time inside the subspace does not stop. We judged that the fact that the items inside don’t change is a characteristic of the subspace. Then, what happens if you put a living thing or a spirit-like entity with a mind into a subspace?”
Basically, you can’t put living things into a subspace. But are mages the kind of people who just give up when something is impossible? They slightly twisted subspace magic to make it possible to put living things in. Of course, this also belongs to secret magic, so it’s a bit different from ordinary subspace magic.
“Are you saying that time moved inside the subspace?”
“Yes. The temperature of the food changed and it started to rot. In other words, the result is that time exists through perception… but that’s when the special nature of the subspace is not considered. Only God fully understands the concept of time and space. This is just a hypothesis of the Hytel School.”
“For a mage, nothing is as important as a hypothesis. Because magic is about twisting the laws of physics based on hypotheses.”
“That’s right. You are excellent as expected. Don’t think about space too difficultly. The range you perceive is your space.”
Orsia left. I spent my time reading the book she had given me before.
• • •
9 PM.
There was nothing much to do, so I turned off the lights and lay down on the bed. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep… but I felt a presence seeping into my room.
Someone had entered my territory. Just as I was about to open my astral, someone climbed onto my stomach at an incredible speed.
Fzzzt.
Sparks flew, illuminating the dark interior of the cabin. The one who had climbed on top of me was Invisible Blade. With a bewitching smile, she pointed a short dagger at my neck.
‘I trusted her because of Rose’s assurances… I can’t believe she would betray me in just two days.’
I was careless.
Above all, I didn’t expect her to deceive my senses even for a moment. Indeed, a ninja is a ninja, I suppose. She seemed much stronger than when I saw her before.
“…Are you going to kill me? That’s a bit unexpected. To move before even starting the exploration of the ancient ruins. Aren’t you tempted by the treasures of the ancient ruins?”
“Kill you? What nonsense are you talking about. I didn’t come to kill you. I came to get revenge for what happened back then. Heh, heh heh.”
Revenge?
I realized that Invisible Blade’s cheeks were red and her breathing was rough. She looked like a person who was horny to the core.
‘This crazy bitch, no way.’
No way is a dangerous thing. She was pointing a dagger at my neck and, with one hand, she started to take off her clothes.
Thump.
Her large breasts moved dynamically.
I gave up resisting. There was nothing I could do with a dagger pointed at my neck. The moment I tried to resist even a little, the dagger would pierce my neck.
In less than 10 seconds, Invisible Blade, who was naked, grabbed my hair and lifted me up before forcibly kissing me. A peach-scented tongue rampaged in my mouth. She sucked me dry without letting a single drop of saliva fall, then pulled away with a satisfied smile.
“Ughh… Puhah… Heh heh. Do you know how long I’ve waited for this day? No, you wouldn’t know.”
“No, calm down first…”
Her butt landed on my face.
“Forget it, suck my pussy.”
