By Zephyria Signe, having obtained several cigars from Leonardo, leaned against the railing as if accustomed to it, putting the end in her mouth. Taking out a Zippo lighter from her pocket, opening the lid, and shielding the wind with her hand as she lit it, further confirmed her as a smoker. Somehow, she didn’t seem bothered by the harsh smoke. The faded surface of the lighter suggested she was quite the aficionado.
Her grumbling continued as the sunset raced along the railway tracks. She said that if she looked like him, she would walk around with her head held high. She also gave him jealous jabs, asking how a man could have such long eyelashes.
Eventually, it led to regret over not bringing the camera she occasionally carried. She said that if she took his picture and displayed it on a stall for sale, she might earn as much money as the posters of famous actors. As she recited her concrete plans, she seemed utterly consumed by greed, as if she were the shop owner’s own daughter.
“How about an 8-to-2 split of the profits? Of course, you get 8, and I get 2.”
Leonardo, standing next to her, indifferently puffed on his cigar with a nonchalant expression. He didn’t usually enjoy idle chatter, but it was a good way to pass the time, so he let her indulge in whatever flights of fancy she wanted.
On the other hand, he was struck by the realization that his face wasn’t widely known to the public. He had heard that the Council had confiscated all photos related to ‘Leonardo Blaine,’ but the fact that a woman of an age when she would be interested in such things didn’t recognize his face gave him hope that he could now walk around without a hat and mask.
Afterward, she kept pressing him about the reason for concealing his face, but he didn’t answer. She also indirectly asked about his profession, but that was something he couldn’t answer either. Then, Signe seemed to conclude on her own that he was an unknown rookie actor or model from some theater company. She said she understood now and that she was glad she had gotten to know him before he became more famous, acting all friendly as a bonus.
“So, that’s why you were so wary of the people next to us? You were worried they’d recognize you.”
Leonardo, who was putting out his cigarette in the ashtray installed on the deck, turned around with a puzzled look.
“…You knew? That I was being conscious of the people next to me.”
“I can tell at a glance. I’ve been told I have good instincts. You get like this when you live with a scary older sister.”
Signe, puffed up with pride over something trivial, continued.
“When I went to the bathroom for a moment, did you get caught eating a sandwich or something? They were subtly staring over there.”
Leonardo, who was about to say no, trailed off and vaguely concluded, “I’m not sure.” His face hadn’t been exposed to the knights next to him, but he couldn’t explain the specific reason why he was avoiding them. Following the home invasion and the explosion, it was too much to tell a stranger he had just met. He simply glossed over it with the reason that ‘people kept staring at his face,’ as she thought.
Then, Signe put one hand on her hip and puffed out her chest and shoulders, as if she were a bodyguard.
“This Signe will protect you, so stick close to me. I was thinking of taking on bodyguard requests as a side job later, but I guess this will be good practice.”
“…Hey, being a bodyguard isn’t a game. It’s something people who are in real danger ask for with the desperation of grasping at straws. And practice? Someone’s being serious here.”
“I’m serious too, you know? Believe it or not, I used to be called the sheriff of Riverside…”
As he listened to her unbelievable tall tales for a while, he occasionally felt a presence flickering and disappearing beyond the door in the back. He hadn’t paid much attention to it because he had been distracted by Signe in another sense. However, as the same phenomenon repeated several times, he worried that they had occupied this space for too long.
Come to think of it, there were so many passengers, but not all of them would be smoking only inside the cabins. As Leonardo turned his head and glanced behind him, Signe, who had almost finished her fourth cigar, put it out first and dusted off her hands.
“It looks like we’re almost there, should we head inside?”
Then, looking down at the military watch on her wrist, she said.
“Let’s go back to our seats, pack our things, and sit for a bit, and we’ll arrive soon.”
“Arrive soon?”
Leonardo, who had put out his cigarette following her, asked back in surprise. He hadn’t realized that so much time had already passed.
The sky, which had been setting, maintained a mysterious light and seemed to have stopped, making it particularly difficult to grasp. The train was heading towards Central, so it wasn’t in a region where he could see the midnight sun due to the latitude. As Leonardo stared blankly up at the sky, Signe stood in front of the entrance and added an explanation.
“Oh, right, the Station of Beginning and End has another interesting thing about it. It’s like time flows backward, and the day and night are reversed compared to the surrounding area. It’ll probably be bright there soon. See, it’s not dark now, is it?”
“…Is that possible? The sun rising only in a specific area?”
“It’s not that the sun rises, but the sky is just bright. You’ll understand what I mean when you see it in person. Ugh, I’m cold from being out here for so long. Let’s go inside now.”
Signe shivered and pulled the door open with force. The steam that had been inside rushed out, brushing against Leonardo’s cheeks and hair. Beyond the blurred vision, he saw the door to the opposite passage firmly closed.
‘People must have been coming and going frequently.’
Otherwise, there would be no reason for steam to be filling the passage between the tail car and the door. However, it was still strange that not a single person had come out to the deck. Usually, if someone came all the way here to smoke, they would have opened the door at least once.
‘Can you tell if there’s someone inside?’
He tilted his head, but seeing Signe’s hands, which had turned reddish from the cold wind, he didn’t dwell on it for long. Leonardo immediately followed her inside.
He had just thought she was talkative, but now he realized that she knew he was uncomfortable with the group next to him and had deliberately spent time with him. At first, she was just an annoying guide, but the more he saw her, the better she seemed. He had never seen someone who claimed to have good instincts actually be a good person, but… she wasn’t too bad, so she would be well-loved by her comrades and seniors even after enlisting.
Leonardo put his mask back on, pulled down his hat, and patted the back of his neck. Thinking that he should give the chick some pocket money before they parted ways, he deliberately created a gust of hot air to surround himself.
When he arrived back at his seat after traversing the long train car, the inside was quite quiet. It wasn’t that there were no people. It was almost midnight in terms of time, so most of them were leaning back in their seats, exhausted and asleep. Everyone in the next seat, except for the watchman, also had their arms crossed and their eyes closed. As expected of those people’s knights, Agrizendro’s posture was similar when he took a nap in the Peninsula.
There were more fields than cities between large regions, so there were few people getting off, and the conductor’s voice announcing the arrival station was not heard for a while. Because of that, Leonardo helped Signe pack her things while minimizing the rustling sounds.
“Give me the patrol pack. I’ll carry it for you instead.”
“Ooh, what’s this? Suddenly being nice?”
“I was always nice.”
Signe unfastened the leather buckle and handed Leonardo one of the separated modular bags. Leonardo took it and naturally slung it over one shoulder, estimating the weight by supporting Signe’s military pack with his palm.
Occasionally, one of the knights in the next seat glanced at them, but he deliberately didn’t look in that direction. Instead, he stared at the gradually brightening scenery outside, as Signe had said.
He had often seen day and night change as he crossed regions, but there were hardly any cases where a special phenomenon occurred only near one station. He could understand if the climate was different, but it didn’t make sense that time flowed differently in the immediately neighboring region. Unless it was a situation where the Council’s legion commanders cast the Pentagon to generate strong gravity just before eliminating the core.
Occasionally, signs passed by outside the window. He couldn’t see the contents of the small ones that quickly flashed by, but the letters on the old platform set far away were clearly visible.
[ Exordium et Exitus ]
Birth and death. A phrase befitting the station name, Beginning and End. He didn’t know who had carved it, but it was an old sign, worn and missing pieces, giving it a sense of age. Just in time, the train slowed down, and the letters formed an even clearer image.
The two, having roughly tidied up their seats, folded the table they had set up and tried to move to the end of the train car where the exit was. Signe took the lead, and Leonardo, who was following, glanced at the next seat one last time.
Since returning to their seats, the knights hadn’t paid him the same attention as before. He was relieved, but then one of the knights sitting motionless slowly opened his eyes. He opened his mouth with a locked voice, keeping his gaze fixed on the front.
“Hey.”
Leonardo, momentarily startled, turned his gaze to him. He wondered if he was calling him, but the knight didn’t look this way.
He was about to pass by, feeling embarrassed for making a fuss on his own, when it happened. The knight pressed something into his outstretched hand. A dry and rustling texture, but not paper.
The conscious eyelids moved slightly.
“Check it when you get off.”
“……”
Leonardo reflexively gripped what had come into his hand. Then, when he sent a callous gaze, the knight closed his eyes again as if nothing had happened.
Only the watchman sitting across from him stared up at Leonardo, gesturing with his chin as if to tell him to hurry up.
Leonardo lightly scanned them and turned to follow Signe. His expression was calm, but his inner self was quite flustered. The pace of his steps quickened. The corners of his mouth, hidden beneath the mask, were stiff.
‘What is it?’
He didn’t know what the intention was, but it felt like a neatly folded napkin. The edges had frayed threads, as if a piece of cloth had been torn. It seemed like something was written on it, since he was told to check it when he got off, but he couldn’t guess what it was about.
Did they somehow realize his identity? Did they secretly approach him to deliver the Captain’s message? If so, since when had they known? Thoughts chased each other’s tails.
Nevertheless, Leonardo faithfully carried out the knight’s instructions. Until the train stopped, he simply stood with Signe in front of the disembarkation stairs, exchanging short stories, but he never once looked into his hand. His mind was elsewhere, so he didn’t even hear the contents of the conversation.
A moment later, as the train entered the platform, the scenery flashing before his eyes noticeably slowed down. Outside the window, a boarding platform much smaller than Riverside Station unfolded. There were only two boarding gates going in different directions, and there was no spacious waiting room or bustling crowd.
The first impression was that it was a quiet and small rural station. Soon, the train, spewing steam, came to a complete stop.
Signe grabbed the handle on the exit door and manually opened it.
“Let’s get off.”
She took a deep breath of the cool air that came in through the open door, rotated her stiff shoulders, and stepped down the stairs with large strides. Leonardo also hurried to step out. There were no passengers who got off the train other than the two of them.
Only the crew member who came out to check the number of disembarking passengers confirmed the two people standing in the middle of the empty platform and then boarded the train again.
“Wow, the air is already so good. The weather is clear, so the scenery near the lake will be amazing.”
Signe, who hadn’t visited this place in quite a while since her sister had become busy, seemed more excited than before. She seemed to be on a picnic rather than coming as a guide.
“Let’s just leave our luggage inside the station for a moment before we go. The road isn’t well-paved, so it’ll be cumbersome to walk around like this. And I can’t keep asking you to carry it… Theo?”
When she didn’t hear a response, she turned around and saw Leonardo with a serious expression on his face. He was intently looking at something in his hand. The pupils in his ambiguous eyes, whether gold or brown, were contracted, and the area under his eyes was trembling slightly. Signe stared blankly and asked.
“What are you looking at?”
Taking a step forward, she peered around Leonardo. However, it was not clearly visible because it was hidden by his long fingers. She only recognized that what he was holding was the napkin she had seen in the train earlier.
Leonardo unknowingly swallowed hard. The note he had unfolded as soon as he got off read:
You’re being followed.
The beating of his heart grew louder and louder, ringing in his ears like a drumbeat. Countless questions arose in his mind.
‘Who? Since when?’
He immediately turned around. Just in time, the train’s exit door closed, and a figure was faintly visible through it. But it was too fleeting to grasp the exact appearance.
The train gave a long horn again and began to head towards the next station, cutting through the steam. The windows, which were densely packed, were covered with curtains, so he could no longer see inside. He couldn’t tell if the person behind him was a follower or a crew member trying to close the door.
Leonardo stood in place for a while until the outline of the iron horse disappeared. His eyes, which had become noticeably sharper, aimlessly followed the end of the empty platform with confusion.