"I...I won't sit down anymore..."
The fear did not come suddenly. Uriel heard his own voice, but it seemed to come from someone else's mouth. His body was as stiff as firewood, and his tongue naturally didn't work very well. Since his back was to the train, the apprentice could only see the door gradually opening behind him through the glass of the stop sign, which intensified the panic.
Something is wrong. Nothing is right. He didn't understand why he answered. Who am I talking to? But it’s true that the other party speaks Common Language... The situation seems to be developing in an unimaginable direction. The apprentice thought, what will happen next?
The worst outcome seems to be death. Instead of being taken away from the world by hunger and cold, dying unexpectedly made him feel a little calmer. Uriel swallowed, and strange thoughts that were sometimes bold and sometimes pessimistic were running through his mind. He knew he should concentrate, but he was scared, so scared that he couldn't think straight.
"Gaia will guard those who do good, and use the heart of atonement as the source of faith..."
Maybe praying to Gaia would help you escape. Uriel thought about this after reciting the gospel silently. My actions were completely instinctive. Who can say that I don’t have a pious heart to atone? But he racked his brains and couldn't think of what the next sentence would be. Uriel grew up in a monastery, and logically he should not have forgotten the gospel so quickly. Why didn’t I memorize the whole book?
"It's useless for you to memorize it. Gaia is already dead." The other party said angrily, "Why don't you come up? Do you plan to freeze to death at the station?"
At this moment, Uriel saw the reflection in the glass.
A girl in a dark blue plaid skirt uniform, white gloves and a small beret stood on the platform. Her hat tilted to the left, her bangs were thick on the right and sparse on the left, and her eyebrows were knitted angrily. One corner of her blouse was tucked into her belt, half-buttoned (only this was excusable due to her size), and her silk scarf rumpled across her chest.
She wears a frayed badge on her collar, and even the letters on the badge are sloppy. You have to tilt your head sixty degrees to read it clearly.
"Floating Cloud Train Ticket Inspector: DD"
"Are you human?" Uriel asked tentatively. Perhaps because the girl didn't show any scary posture, her speech and behavior were very similar to those of young girls that can be seen everywhere, so people couldn't think of being wary. She even seemed familiar to the apprentice.
"Me? I'm a ticket collector, not a human being." As a result, the ticket collector lady seemed to not understand the meaning of this sentence at all, and said with an impatient attitude.
She raised her chin, the pearl pendants on her ears shook, and the ends of her light brown hair were tangled on them. "Can you get in the car? If you don't get in the car, you will die."
Wait, this is the first time I heard that humans are a profession... Uriel was confused by this unconventional answer and repeated rhetorical questions. For a moment, he could only stand there at a loss. But anyway, he'd be crazy to get on a suspicious ghost train.
After all, who knows where it will drive, it can’t be Nancheng, right? When he was seven years old, Uriel would believe in fairy tales. When he was seventeen years old, he would rather tell others fairy tales. At least he might still make money this way.
"Nancheng? So close?" The ticket inspector's eyes widened in disbelief. Only then did Uriel notice that her pupils were very light blue. "It's only three miles. You can walk back from this distance! Why are you working so hard? Haven't the School of Silence taught you to choose an efficient method? I dare say, Della, this is much easier to use than your divination... "
Uriel turned his head and looked at her blankly. He didn't know why Nancheng was only three kilometers away from Sombigrad, and he didn't know what the Silent School and Deira were, but he wasn't afraid at all.
Miss DD was still chattering there.
Is there some terrifying being who disguises himself as a harmless girl, wears a weird uniform, and vents his bitterness to strangers on the platform?
Uriel swore that it was impossible to find a similar description of the evil god in any gospel published by a serious publisher. Eastman believes in the goddess Gaia, who is a solemn and solemn deity, and the corresponding demons are ferocious and crazy degenerates.
The painting styles of the two were too different and they were forced to overlap, which really troubled him.
But there must be a reason for this strange train to stop here. Even if it may have nothing to do with him, he might as well make an assumption. So the apprentice boldly interrupted the other party's strange words: "You...can you take me home?"
"Dreaming! I'm a ticket collector, not a train driver. Aren't you afraid that I'll drive into the flower bed?" Debra refused righteously.
... Uriel glanced at the fountain not far away and decided to accept the explanation that "the fountain is not a flower bed."
"Then, then why did you..." Uriel racked his brains and couldn't find the right words to describe the situation he was facing now. He pointed at the ghostly train and then at Debra - only to be slapped on the back of the hand by the girl: "Impolite guy!"
The apprentice felt very innocent.
"Get on the bus. It's not okay to stay at the same station for too long. The flight attendant will explain it to you after you get on the bus. Don't waste time here. Aren't you cold?" Debra waved her hand.
"But, this is not the bus to Nancheng -"
"It's true that it's not a bus, but it can take you to Nancheng no problem."
The ticket inspector grabbed the apprentice's wrist and half-forced him into the car. Uriel was so frightened that he struggled desperately, but found that the opponent's slender fingers were actually stronger than iron pliers: "What...? Wait! You can't... Don’t… help me!”
While twisting and refusing to cooperate, the apprentice inadvertently saw the bell tower. The night became clear after the snow stopped, and the starlight shrouded the twelve-scale chassis.
His eyes suddenly solidified.
It was midnight when the train stopped;
He exchanged a few words with Debra, and after lingering for a while, it was still midnight.
...the clock stopped.
In this moment of confusion, Uriel was dragged into the car. He watched in despair as the dusty car door closed and he was roughly pressed into the chair by the ticket inspector. She pulled on his shoulder, the seat squeaked, and a rope with a leather buckle came out. "This is a 'seat belt'."
The seats on the train were the kind of soft leather chairs that Uriel had seen in the Kingdom Train brochure. However, that train has been suspended because the tunnel in the Morris Mountains collapsed, causing the only railway in the Eastman Kingdom to be temporarily out of service.
But the apprentice didn't feel at ease at all sitting on it. Debra tied him to a chair, but he wasn't actually immobile. In that case, what's the use of the rope? What was even more embarrassing was that the plaid uniform made his eyes dizzy.
Don't ever look over again, Uriel thought. He quickly turned around and looked around at this section of the carriage.
Neat seats were arranged on both sides of the wall, with a large gap in the middle; the floor was covered with a layer of carpet, which was covered with snowy footprints by two people, making him involuntarily feel ashamed; the interior of the silver-gray car body It was a smooth iron wall, and it seemed that the workers had forgotten to paint it with anti-rust white paint.
In addition to the doors that exist on both sides of the car body, there are also large pieces of glass embedded in the iron walls. They are brighter and cleaner than store windows. The scenery outside was covered by the bright scenery inside the car, but the apprentice carefully looked around but could not find the lighting bulb.
The light in the station. The apprentice thought. I'm pretty sure the light box went out at that point. He couldn't help but swallow his saliva.
Uriel believes that no laundry apprentice has ever had such an experience - it is true that the Eastman Kingdom worships the goddess, but people are very sensible and regard it as a pure belief rather than a fact. Demons are illusory and gods do not exist in the material world.
The former may appear in someone's heart, secretly tempting him to fall, and then the accumulated darkness will eventually lead to evil consequences - this is human malice.
The latter are the incarnations of virtues and good deeds that people love. When a person worships them devoutly, he will naturally gain happiness and peace.
And a translucent train that can drive on the road and shuttle through the city at midnight? There is no record in the gospels, and Uriel has not heard of similar urban legends.
It is like a mystery that is unknowable to humans, a phantom vehicle that never stops when everything is sleeping at night. In any case, Uriel felt that he shouldn't be sitting here, but he couldn't say no. He suspected that he was being seduced by some mysterious force, but could not provide any solid evidence. What a hell. To be honest, he was both afraid and looking forward to it, as if his destiny was leading to an unknown direction. No one can tell whether it is good or bad.
Didi——
"Welcome to the Fuyun Train, please pass through the corresponding door."
"The train is about to start."
The sweet sound echoed in the car, making it impossible to identify the source. If the speakers are not placed inside the wall, then the only explanation is the same as the lights. God knows the explanation. Maybe the train is like this?
Uriel had never taken any trains. Eastman's railroad seemed to have been built not long ago, and he vaguely remembered a photo of a locomotive spraying white gas posted in the newspaper. That was a few months ago?
However, except for the leather seats, this train seems to have no resemblance to the Kingdom train. First of all, it doesn't need a track; secondly, it can penetrate the statue in the fountain... Wait, is there any connection between the two? causation? The apprentice is thinking wildly.
"Okay." At this moment, Debra finally fastened her seat belt. She seemed to feel a strange sense of contentment as she straightened her back and sat down directly opposite the apprentice. Uriel noticed that she had not fastened her 'seat belt'.
"We have three miles to go next," said the ticket collector.
Three miles and seven stops. The apprentice suddenly realized that the other party might be referring to the straight-line distance...
His heart suddenly beat faster.
...Then, as if the handle was pushed to the bottom, completely different from the gradual slowdown when stopping, the front wheel started to rotate crazily - the train rushed out of the station like an arrow breaking off a bowstring.
The pushing feeling on the back almost made the tight seat belt loosen.
Uriel let out a scream. He has never had such a thrilling feeling, because no bus dares to transport passengers at such an outrageous speed in the city, but tonight he experienced it - this kind of unimaginable, and he may be hit to death at any time. What crazy speed on obstacles!
Fortunately, this car can pass through matter... The apprentice immediately realized this after the first uncontrollable scream. He closed his mouth under the mocking eyes of the ticket inspector, but his head was still pounding.
However, suddenly, at the moment when the train’s possible engine roared——
Uriel's eyes widened as he watched the seats in front of him become illusory without warning, followed by the table and wall. As for when the glass as a car window disappeared, the poor apprentice had no idea.
The train disappeared.
And he hit the fountain sculpture at the corner of the street.
It's hard to say how anyone could remain calm at this moment. Uriel heard himself screaming and saw his hands and feet struggling in the air. However, before he could recover, the sculpture suddenly disappeared; and when the sound bounced off the car wall, Uriel had already passed through countless walls and a bunch of shadowy things in a strange suspended state. .
He just screamed all the way across the three miles from Sonbigler to Nancheng, and then fell heavily to the ground. The seat belt had been broken off, and the laundry apprentice fell to the ground in a daze, his mind buzzing.
The short journey was also short-lived, and before Uriel had time to react, the train had stopped.
Then the dazed apprentice felt a kick on his waist. "Have you seen enough?"
After receiving such a drink from Leng Buding, Uriel got rid of the stimulation of hitting the wall repeatedly. He blinked his sore eyes unconsciously, coughing and gasping for air. The world in front of him was blurry, and he shook his head, trying to wake himself up.
Debra waited until the car door opened and kicked on his shoulder. Her high heels stung, and the apprentice groaned in protest. "Discourteous person." The ticket inspector was dissatisfied. She took off her shoes, pushed the apprentice out with the same strength as she dragged him into the carriage, then picked up her shoes and jumped back to her seat.
Uriel lay dizzy on the stone steps. After a few minutes of this, he felt pain in his back, but more of a burning sensation.
The summer sun shone on his face.
