[ Have a Happy Journey! ]
Looking up at the incongruous phrase beneath the old signpost, Leonardo narrowed his eyes.
This place was hard to find any human presence in, aside from the two station attendants inside the station building in charge of issuing tickets and verifying transit permits. All the nearby store signs were turned off, and notices stating that the stores would be closed for several months due to the upcoming rainy season were sparsely posted.
It looked like an abandoned station where footsteps had ceased long ago. The word "journey" in such a place was contradictory enough to make his detention at the checkpoint seem reasonable.
The place was so quiet that even a small word echoed through the indoor hall you passed through before going outside. Thanks to that, unlike the crowded train interior, it was immediately apparent whether he was being followed or not.
'Right, hiding in a crowd makes it difficult to notice when you're being followed.'
Leonardo sighed silently as he roughly brushed back his hair.
'...Even so. Am I living well these days? I've gotten damn lax.'
It was self-reproach for not noticing the follower on the train. He found it ridiculous that he hadn’t been tense at all despite clearly sensing a presence recently, and wondered what had happened to his mental faculties.
He should have been suspicious when he went out to smoke, but being with the greenhorn seemed to have made his intuition as green as hers. The incident he’d dismissed as a one-time thing—Signe’s prank of pretending to be a surveillance officer when entering the supply shop—had only added to his complacency.
'Which organization do they belong to? The military surveillance network? It wouldn't be the Council. ...No, it could be the Council. They might have narrowed down the investigation network regarding the explosion incident.'
However, according to the newspaper he’d bought on the train, the Council had already completed the final briefing and concluded the incident as an accident. Though the public announcement and reality could differ, having seen the top of the Deputy Commander’s head bowing in apology several times, it didn’t seem like they would run false articles while enduring criticism and threats.
If so, it didn’t make contextual sense for the follower to be from the Council, and the act of the Commander’s knight informing him about the follower’s existence was nonsensical in itself. As subordinates of the Commander, they should be considered to share the same position as the Council. If they had approached him with some intention, they wouldn’t have deliberately leaked fragmentary information to give him an excuse to escape.
Leonardo organized his thoughts while looking at the clock inside the station building with his hands in his pockets. Then, suddenly, he turned his eyes to Signe, who was with the station attendant in the distance.
She and the station attendant seemed to know each other, exchanging all kinds of conversation while passing the military gear back and forth. The way they patted each other’s shoulders and backs suggested they had a fairly intimate relationship. Given that it was already a sparsely populated area, and she had mentioned coming here often with her family, they might have become close in various ways.
"...It can't be her."
Leonardo quietly observed her face, smiling brightly.
He kept questioning whether the knights had told him about the "follower" to test him, or whether Signe, who had been sticking with him all along, really was a surveillance officer from the military. However, he concluded that all the earlier assumptions were wrong.
To assume Signe was a surveillance officer, the details about her family history and interests she had shared—details that could have sounded awkward if mishandled—were too specific. If all of that was made up, it would mean even the station attendant now in view had been bribed, and it didn’t seem like she would play at being a guide with that much dedication. Moreover, judging by the traces of life in her physique and gestures, she seemed more like an energetic woman his age who enjoyed eating than a highly trained follower.
'Then... could it be them?'
Leonardo touched his lips and quickly thought of another possibility. In fact, followers were an inseparable element in his life since leaving the military.
They were desperate to recruit, oppress, or possess him from everywhere. So it wasn’t surprising that there was a follower. The problem was that he couldn’t tell where today’s tail had attached itself.
Gaps inevitably appear during periods of high activity. Recently, he had been running around looking for a substitute for etaide, and had also stirred up the snow-covered mountains to catch a dragon as a gift for His Grace. Moreover, since leaving Riverside, he had only been concerned about drawing attention from his surroundings, not paying any attention to people moving in the same direction.
In other words, if someone was determined to follow him, it was possible from anywhere. The fortunate thing was that the tail that had been following him had now detached with the train as it headed toward the destination in the memo.
"Teo! I've left the luggage. Let's go now."
Just then, Signe, who had handed over her military gear, came out of the station office with light steps. Leonardo gave a small nod of greeting as she approached.
There was nothing he could be certain of, no matter how deeply he thought about it. Leonardo suppressed a sigh and decided to focus on the situation at hand for now.
The two walked out together into the brightly lit exterior of the station building. The surroundings were much brighter than when they had gotten off the train. Even so, the sun itself couldn’t be found in the sky.
*****
Between Westforce and the central region: a peaceful natural area, with fields embracing a lake and mountains lined up beyond. The Bermuda Station, which he had only ever heard about, was a flower paradise that would have seemed simply quiet and beautiful if one didn’t know it was called by that name. Even the wooden piles of old buildings no longer in use were covered with blooming daisies and cosmos, becoming part of the landscape.
It had the image of a land of rest and tranquility that had come after human civilization had receded. Perhaps because of that, it was deeply imbued with the unique loneliness and haziness felt in places that had endured alone for a long time.
On the small signposts he had occasionally seen while riding the train, there were markings like 'Station No. 41, Waypoint 41'. For a moment, remembering the note left by Alec, he asked Signe what '41' meant. She explained that it was a number taken from a stable that had existed even before the railway tracks were laid.
"The railway tracks crossing Westforce were mostly laid along major roads where many people passed. Now there are means of transportation like trains or trams, but in the past, if you couldn't use magic, the only thing to ride was a horse. So hundreds of years ago, instead of train stations, there were stables where horses and riders could rest throughout Westforce. This was the forty-first stable at the gateway connecting Westforce and the central region."
Leonardo, listening, nodded.
"So that's why it's 41 Aldenon Street..."
He looked at the memo with the destination address once more. No wonder no clues had emerged even after visiting all the 41 addresses. It definitely wasn’t a simple address.
The hint left by Alec Siles was something only those who had lived in Westforce for a very long time—or elderly people of considerable age—would know. It might be an interesting topic for someone like an archaeologist, but for him, far from history, it was a puzzle no less mysterious than the secrets of the peninsula.
"Then is the word 'Romance' also related to this place?"
He asked Signe, who was crossing a stone bridge over a stream ahead of him. She stopped in the middle of the rather wide stream and turned around precariously.
"Hmm... I wonder? In the first place, they wouldn't use the expression 'Romance' here. That's used in the east, isn't it? Like Bellenor or Agrizendro territory."
"...That's true."
Leonardo, agreeing, waved his hand as if telling her to hurry. Her legs were trembling, and it seemed like she might fall into the water if she wasn’t careful. Of course, that wouldn’t happen with him there, but the stone bridge, artificially paved, was quite slippery with moss.
Fortunately, Signe, who had been making the observer anxious, safely crossed the stream and climbed the hill covered with green grass. Leonardo followed her up to the high ground. Then the foggy area he had briefly heard about on the train came into view.
"It's over there."
The old castle said to be in the barren field—it would probably be somewhere in that fog. Signe pointed to the whitish mountainside with her fingertip and added:
"Compasses don't work well on the way there. No matter how much you go straight, the distance doesn't narrow."
Leonardo raised one eyebrow.
"Then how do you get there?"
"There's a marker that only my sister and I know, and if you follow it, you can get there. It's a bit of a detour, but we can arrive in about three hours."
"Three hours?"
It would be quick if he could fly or use teleportation, but he didn’t have the leisure to spend three hours after arriving at the station. Despite Leonardo’s reluctant reaction, Signe continued unconcerned:
"They say the sun used to shine well there too. But after the innkeeper touched the treasure, it was suddenly covered in fog, I heard. Believe it or not."
"Is it really a treasure? Not a cursed item?"
"I wouldn't know."
"Are you sure it's okay for you to go there? It might be dangerous. I can go alone."
"Did you properly listen to what I said? Compasses don't work, and only I know the way."
Whether it was a soldier’s mission or something else, Signe didn’t seem to have the slightest intention of letting him go alone from the beginning. Leonardo was a bit perplexed, but he had no choice but to accompany her for now.
If he encountered Alec Siles in front of the old castle, he could just knock her out briefly then.
The two continued across the field. In the midst of it, he suddenly realized the clouds adorning the sky above didn’t move, as if taxidermied. Leonardo occasionally looked back at the strange scenery and sky.
Like what he had felt at Fortress 118, an unpleasant sense of déjà vu circled the surroundings. Though it shouldn’t be possible, it felt like he had been here ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ before.
