Chapter 33: Seeds of Doubt
The crowds of students gathered around the seaport filled the surrounding area. The instructors were guiding their own students properly into lines.
Alden stood among the crowd, feeling immensely confused, as he could not see any cruise ship or boat that would help them cross the massive sea.
’Are they using a teleportation gate? No, Professor Carasina said it would be impossible... So are we going to fly through the sky in order to cross the sea? Sigh... Whatever. Let’s just wait and see.’
Just as Alden was waiting for something to happen, he suddenly felt an immense mana fluctuation coming from behind him. He looked back. Splitting through the air, a long train was approaching the sea coast. It looked similar to the modern trains Alden used to see in his past world, but the only difference was that this train ran purely on mana instead of electricity. It didn’t even need a railway track to run on; it simply hovered over the empty ground, traveling in a separated space where normal people were not allowed to walk.
The long train started to slow down with ease as it neared the docks. It slid a few meters and stopped right in front of them.
’What the hell? Is this train seriously going to travel on the water?! How is that even possible?’
As he tried to decipher the mystery behind the bizarre train, the instructors stepped out.
"Students, take your room keys from your guide professors and go to your designated rooms. The train is going to depart strictly within ten minutes, so there is no time to waste."
As the instructors clapped their hands, the students started to swarm around their guide professors to get their room keys.
Alden waited for the crowd to clear up as he waited to get his key.
Since he was the last one remaining, he finally walked toward Professor Carasina seeking his key.
"Professor, my room key?"
Carasina looked at Alden. She immediately recognized him, as he was at the number one spot on her targeted list.
She then looked into her bag, which was empty. She felt surprised at seeing no keys left inside.
"How could this be possible?"
She immediately summoned her student register from her storage ring to check. But to her surprise, Alden’s name was not even written on it.
"Wait a second..."
She looked at him, feeling a little sorry for him.
"It seems it was a mistake made by the academy staff. They forgot to include your name in the list, it seems."
Alden looked at the now nearly empty dock and gestured at himself.
"Why only me?"
Carasina just shrugged her shoulders as she looked at him.
"It seems it is your bad luck."
He snorted, thinking of his ’bad luck’, which was always the thing making him face trouble in such situations.
"Then what now? Where should I go? On top of the train roof?"
Carasina didn’t reply directly. She just looked around to see if she could find some other student. She noticed Edwin walking along with his friends.
"Hey, Student Edwin, come here."
Edwin noticed the professor calling. He waved his hand at his friends and walked toward her. He noticed Alden standing there calmly with his arms crossed.
"Yes, Professor. Is something wrong?"
He asked her politely, showing full respect.
Carasina nodded as she replied,
"You and Alden are going to share a room."
Edwin’s eyes widened at her words. He quickly glanced at Alden, who stared right back at him blankly. Edwin quickly looked away without meeting his eyes again.
"Okay, Professor."
Alden looked at her and asked,
"Isn’t there any extra room available in such a big train?"
Carasina shook her head.
"No. Only the exact required amount of compartments were added to the train according to the number of students... But it seems you were not on the list... So there is no place for you unless someone shares their room with you... So, are you going with him, or should we find someone else?"
"Fine..."
Alden sighed, shaking his head, as he had no other choice but to share a room with that annoying guy.
Carasina smiled, nodded, and then walked away.
Edwin looked at him, feeling embarrassed, and scratched the back of his neck.
"So, shall we go?"
Alden turned toward him and nodded. Edwin turned around and started to lead him toward the room. The walk was quiet. They entered their designated section, walking through different compartments. Since the compartments were joined together, one could easily cross into another compartment without any trouble.
Edwin paused as he checked the room number against his keycard, and then opened the door with a quick swipe of the card beside the lock.
As the door opened, he entered.
The room was quite small. It had only one single small bed along with a small couch.
Alden didn’t wait. He walked straight toward the sofa, as he preferred not to have any mood for fighting with this guy or fouling his own mouth.
He pulled his jacket off and sank onto the sofa, placing his legs on top of the small table, taking off his shoes as well.
Edwin noticed his actions, but he didn’t say anything. He silently walked toward the bed and kept his luggage beside it. He then sat on the bed with an awkward expression. He was thinking of something and then looked at Alden.
"You can take the bed, I will sleep on the sofa," he said, trying to be polite.
"No need. I prefer the sofa."
Alden replied flatly, leaving no room for an argument.
Edwin just nodded silently, still feeling a bit uncomfortable.
With a sudden stir of movement, the train started to descend slightly. Alden looked out of the window and realized the train was moving directly toward the sea.
As the train finally reached the sea, it started to travel right on the surface of the water like a floating balloon. It pierced through the heavy ocean waves as it fully entered the sea and picked up its speed. It traveled exactly like how a regular train should, the only difference being that it was traveling across the open sea instead of a track.
Alden looked at the scene with a calm expression, even though internally he was still feeling surprised by the magic of this world.
Edwin looked at him looking out the window.
"Hey, I didn’t properly introduce myself. I am Edwin von Leonhart, I am—"
"No need to brag about yourself. I already know who you are."
Edwin pursed his lips while looking at him, waiting for him to introduce himself. But Alden remained silent. He wasn’t interested in introducing himself. But as he noticed Edwin’s constant expectant look, he sighed and replied.
"I am Alden, the exiled son of the Astra family. A low-born person with no special talent, and... the very last rank in the entire academy... Anything else you want to know?"
Alden tilted his head calmly.
Edwin looked embarrassed at his introduction. He hadn’t asked him with any bad intentions.
"Oh... So Alden... Can I ask you something?"
Alden sighed, closing his eyes.
"Spill it."
Edwin looked at him curiously, remembering something important that he had to find out.
"Are you and Alicia dating each other?"
Alden’s eyes snapped open at his words as he looked at him blankly.
"Where did this come from?"
"Well... I noticed you two were quite close together... Sarah also said she saw you in the girls’ dormitory last time... And I also saw you two walking like you were going on a date, holding hands today in the city."
Alden stared at him blankly.
’Who the f*ck is this guy? Is he a stalker or something? How did he know that we were together? I always looked around to make sure no other students were there, but out of nowhere, only he found out. What a terrible luck I have... Well, I can’t blame it on anything else.’
"Nope, we are not dating. She just wanted me to tag along with her because everyone else had gone and she didn’t want to explore the city alone."
Edwin looked at him and said,
"Then... Does it mean Alicia might like you?"
"Shut up! Don’t involve her in this topic. We were just wandering around, nothing else."
"But I—"
Alden stood up from the sofa and took his jacket, wear his shoe and started to leave the room. He didn’t want to punch this guy, he wasn’t in a good mood right now. He knew that if he didn’t calm down and leave, he was guaranteed to get into a fight with him.
"Hey, wait, I am sorry! You—"
*Thud!*
The door shut behind Alden as he walked down the corridor of the train, heading near the outer door.
The outer door of the train was open. The burst of sea waves could be seen below, and the air was fresh with a salty ocean smell.
Alden sat on the floor of the train near the open door, looking outside toward the ongoing water waves.
’That f*cking annoying guy, how dare he meddle in our business... Besides, Alicia had already told me that she wanted to make friends with me. That must have been the reason she was being close to me.’
’But... Why me? Why did she only want to be friends with me? What did she see in me? From day one, she was trying to get closer to me. Something is definitely wrong.’
’I don’t even remember meeting her in the past Alden’s memories... Does she have some ulterior motive? Could it be true what Edwin said, that she actually likes me? But how is that even possible?’
As he looked out at the sea, he felt several complex emotions welling up inside him. He couldn’t comprehend who was right or wrong, as the seed of doubt had already formed deep in his mind.
...
[A/N: Sorry for the late update—no excuses, it’s completely my fault. I’ll do my best to upload Chapters regularly from now on. You can also join my Discord for further updates and information.]
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