Chapter 87: Train Journey?

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The blue sky was clear, making it a perfect day for an outing combined with the cool spring breeze feeling like a blessing, wrapping around all living things.

On such a day, Sugar lazily sank into the sofa in the train’s cabin. Staring blankly out the window, the landscape sped by like a blur.

Inside the shaking train, this world had magic engineering, which made many aspects of life more convenient. For Sugar, who had memories of enjoying scientific civilization, it was a world worth living in.

What she particularly liked was the cleanliness. The bathing facilities and bath products, not to mention the bathrooms.

The train cabin itself was tidy. The wooden interior showed some signs of age, but it was well-maintained.

In other words, she could lie down without worry. Using her cloak as a blanket, Sugar thought back to the conversation from the day before departure.

*********************

“What? A two-day trip, just the two of us—”

“It’s not a trip.”

“A two-day trip, isn’t it?”

“It’s not a trip, I said.”

Sugar’s unusually stiff response had startled Ian. Leon, who was standing next to him, had silently sent a pleading look that seemed to say, “Please don’t leave me alone with this person,” though she didn’t mind at all.

**********************

Sugar turned her gaze forward.

Riley was reading a book. His eyes were lowered, completely focused on the pages.

Heh. Sugar snickered, then turned her back to him.

“… Why are you in a bad mood all of a sudden?”

“What?”

That was the first conversation of the day. Until getting on the train, they hadn’t spoken at all. Even when Riley tried talking to her, she’d just nodded absently without responding.

“You’ve been quiet the whole time. Your lips are sticking out like a duck’s.”

“No, it’s a small and cute mouth.”

“Ha.”

Riley closed the book he had been reading.

“What’s bothering you? Tell me.”

“I’m not bothered.”

That wasn’t true. In this space with only the two of them, Sugar, who would have normally clung to Riley, was now deliberately staying apart and grumbling.

“… I understand you don’t want to go. I didn’t want to bring you either. But it’s better to do it for sure.”

“I get it. I understand your feelings, and I’m not angry at all.”

She had heard enough of the explanation. They had been asked to visit a branch of the Inquisition due to traces of the Shadow Cult. So they were heading there now.

The Shadow Cult. It was a name she hadn’t heard in a long time, the ones Riley had been purposely avoiding mentioning.

Sugar didn’t particularly mind. Since she had left the temple, she had expected to run into them again eventually.

She hadn’t studied magic for nothing. She hadn’t let Riley go for so long for nothing.

She knew everything.

So, it wasn’t that she was annoyed.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go to the Inquisition. If she was needed, she was happy to help with catching those people.

But for some reason, she couldn’t figure out why she felt so irritated. It was something she didn’t even understand herself.

‘Could it be that I’m scared? Did my childhood memories become PTSD?’

Even as an adult, she occasionally had dreams of that winter mountain. But whenever she was about to cry from the pain, Riley would appear, and she never felt like the pain was overwhelming. Instead, she felt comforted by his presence.

So why?

Why did she feel so uneasy?

It couldn’t be that the destination for their first-ever train journey together was related to a cursed cult. No way. She wouldn’t be mad over something like that. If they needed her, she’d go anywhere.

Sugar fiddled with her thigh and gave a slight smile. Her eyes, however, were cold and expressionless.

“Clearly, you’re mad…”

“No, I’m not.”

Riley sighed as he saw her insistence. No matter how he looked at it, she was clearly irritated, but she kept denying it. She was always like this.

But he couldn’t treat her carelessly. He didn’t feel like he’d done anything right today, he truly didn’t want to bring Sugar. Thinking of her past, he knew she would find it unbearable yet he had made her face it. It was only guilt that filled him.

Actually, Sugar’s anger wasn’t really about that but Riley didn’t know that.

He pulled something from his pocket and offered it to her.

“What’s this? Why do you have candy?”

The candy was a cute, translucent pink lollipop in the shape of a ball. He thought it might be soothing for her if she had something to suck on. It felt childish, but Sugar took it without hesitation.

“Who gave this to you?”

“Who gave it to you? Who gave you this cute little pink strawberry lollipop, huh?”

As Sugar’s eyes grew sharper, Riley answered quietly.

“Professor Hubert. The old man who teaches advanced magic manipulation. He eats it instead of coffee since it upsets his stomach.”

“…”

Sugar silently peeled the candy wrapper off and stuck out her tongue to lick it.

She stared at Riley intently as she leisurely licked the candy. Moving her small red tongue over the entire lollipop before licking the tip like she was poking it. The movement of her tongue was strangely attention-grabbing.

Then, she bit the candy with her lips, making a quiet smacking sound that filled the cabin.

Riley, watching her intensely lick the candy with an angry face, was about to say something but he held back and closed his eyes to avoid her gaze.

Just as he was about to enter a meditative state…

“Open your mouth.”

“What? Why?”

Startled by the sudden sweetness on his tongue, Riley’s eyes widened.

Looking at Sugar, he realized the lollipop she had been sucking on was nowhere to be seen.

It was now in Riley’s mouth. As he said “why” and opened his mouth, Sugar had pushed the candy into it.

“Hey… you… seriously…!”

While feeling the sweetness of the candy, Riley clenched his teeth, and Sugar responded with a playful tone, “Why? You should taste it too.” Her words sounded as though she was teasing him, her usual sweet demeanor now replaced by something darker.

It was just a provocation, it wouldn’t be wise to fall for it. If anything happened with that angry woman, things could get out of hand.

‘I’ll just let it go…’

Mature Riley cracked the candy and swallowed it in one go before pulling the stick out of his mouth.

Sugar stared at it, her lips slightly pouting as if she was disappointed or displeased with the man’s reaction.

“I’m going to sleep.”

She muttered that and then lay down on the sofa in the guest room.

Ignoring the slight disappointment in her heart, she closed her eyes.

*********************

After running around from early morning till noon, they arrived at the station. Compared to the massive station near Steele, this one seemed rather shabby. Of course, it was a fairly prosperous area in this vicinity because there was a station here.

While stretching her stiff body as she looked around the building made of red bricks, a familiar man approached.

“It’s been a while.”

“Master.”

As Riley and Cedric asked how each other had been, Sugar silently looked up at the two of them.

“Huh? What’s up with her eyes? Have you been well? How’s life outside?”

“Things don’t always go the way I want.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just… it is what it is.”

“Alright. Let’s go with that.”

Cedric, brushing off Sugar’s nonsense smoothly, led the way.

“Let’s have lunch first. Then we’ll go to the scene of the incident and look around. Are you two tired? If you are, we can go to the interrogation room to rest first, just let me know.”

“How could I get tired just being on the train?”

“Well… there are two of you. It might happen.”

“What did you say?”

“Let’s go.”

With a somewhat annoyed expression, Riley followed behind Cedric, extending a hand to Sugar.

“…”

“What are you doing? Not holding my hand?”

As Sugar silently stared at him, Riley grabbed her hand.

Turning her eyes away, Sugar walked along, following Riley’s lead.

*********************

“We’ve arrived. From here, we have to walk.”

After lunch, as they got out of the car Cedric was driving they saw knights standing at the entrance of the forest.

Behind them, a wooden fence blocked the path, preventing anyone from entering freely.

“You’re here.”

“From now on, we’re going to check the inside with these two, so unless I call for you, don’t come in no matter what happens outside.”

“We will follow your orders.”

Cedric told the knights at the entrance and led the way.

The forest was quiet, with no bird sounds, and a sticky wind blew. Bloodstains were visible here and there. The corpses had all been removed, but the traces were still clearly there.

After walking for a few minutes, a structure made of crystal appeared in the distance. The atmosphere was ominous at first glance.

“It’s exactly the same as what we saw before. Why is it here…?”

Riley recalled the events just before meeting Sugar. It was the tower they found while chasing after the pagan group that had resumed their activities. The unpleasant sight that covered his whole body as soon as he saw it.

“Isn’t that why you asked to bring that girl here? That thing… there’s more than one strange thing about it. Before we explain, Sugar, do you feel anything unusual? Say whatever comes to mind.”

Sugar looked up at the tower.

It was quite tall. The colorless, transparent crystals appeared to have grown haphazardly, but that itself made Sugar wonder if it was artificially arranged. Inside, there was a black aura swirling as if swimming freely.

“It’s strange.”

“What’s strange about it?”

“That’s clearly the evil god’s magic inside. But I don’t feel it. Well, strictly speaking, I do feel it… but it shouldn’t be this weak.”

They should have turned this whole forest white by now.

They should have coveted the color of living things, swallowed them whole, and made them Their own.

But in the end, it would only be black. The more colors mix, the murkier they become, losing their original brilliance. Yet the god never stops consuming.

The fact that such a presence was quietly contained inside the crystal was truly odd.

“Yeah. You’re right. Let me explain a little. This is the work of the cultists who have started up again recently, that much is clear. But the goal is unknown. We’re researching what they intended by building it, and how they built it. We can’t destroy it carelessly. If we do, everything around it will be wiped out.”

“What’s the material of this crystal?”

“Ah, we put a lot of effort into sampling it. Everyone was trembling with hammers and chisels, so I said I’d do it myself, but they all insisted on doing it themselves.”

“If you did it, the pillar would snap in two. It would be a disaster. Don’t ever do that.”

“I ended up not doing it. But does this look like ordinary crystal to you? In the end, I didn’t manage it, but that’s how I got the answer. Regular blows don’t work. Magic doesn’t work either. It even blocks some of the dark god’s influence. There aren’t many materials like this in the world.”

Sugar tilted her head. Riley already frowned as if he had an idea.

Sugar also thought for a while and eventually came to a conclusion. The study she did to go to Steele wasn’t in vain.

“… Are you saying the Gem Dragon has joined the Shadow Cult?”

“It’s one of the possibilities. A hypothesis.”

The Lord of the Moon.

The Lord of the Wunhei Mountain Range.

The Lord of the Broken Land.

The three dragons that exist in this world. One of them.

The crystal tower before them resembled a part of the Gem Dragon’s body in an eerie way.