Reunion on the Rails
I woke to the rhythmic clatter of the train. Clack-clack—clack-clack—
I was seated in a private compartment. Crimson seats with a subtle antique air caught my eye. Perched atop one was Baengnae, clutching a doll that resembled Owl.
A doll…?
“Baengnae, what’s that?”
“Don’t know.”
Baengnae poked at the doll’s head, squeezed its body, and yanked its beak. Then she delivered her verdict.
“Owl. Dead.”
At her words, Owl’s consciousness answered.
[No! I told you I’d wait outside! I nearly got pulled into the story. I barely managed to create a symbolic object and extract my consciousness. Aigoo, my fate…]
Seemed like quite a bit had happened. Not my concern. At any rate, the whole party had successfully entered the story. Now it was time to gather information.
First, I should check the civilization level.
Mixed with the rumble of wheels came the hiss of steam. It looked like they were using steam engines. I turned my gaze out the window. Brick windmills, sprawling farms, wooden fences—the era was very close to the modern age.
In stories set in this period, alchemical monsters usually took center stage. It was the age when science began spreading to the public, carrying both its utility and its terror. All sorts of horrors nonexistent in reality had been born then.
Well… maybe werewolves will show up?
The text had made me expect ghosts everywhere, but this was surprisingly scientific. In a setting like this, there were no spiritual entities. Human strength and terror were emphasized, along with the dangers of biotechnology.
Shall we move, then?
That was all the clues I could gather for now. The rest I would have to learn through direct exploration.
Click—
I opened the compartment door and stepped into the corridor. A sign indicated that left led to the general seating cars, while right led to the upper-class cabins.
If there’s a protagonist, they’d be in first class, right?
As I headed toward the premium cabins, a conductor in navy uniform blocked my path. He raised his palm in warning.
“Lower-class passengers may not proceed to the upper cars. Return to your seat.”
His tone was subtly unpleasant. The look in his eyes said, Know your place and don’t even think about going forward.
I tilted my head at the sudden rudeness.
Huh? I’m still a customer, aren’t I?
Then I remembered—this was an age when nobility still existed. I couldn’t expect the same status as a twenty-first-century passenger. For now, I let it slide in consideration of the era.
“I got turned around.”
“Of course you did. Heh.”
He’s really pushing it.
Normally, begging to be turned into a corpse like that would warrant a response, but I was a life-respecting Zombie Summoner. I decided to overlook it one more time. Causing a scene and failing to find the protagonist was the last thing I wanted.
I ignored the conductor and walked toward the general seating cars. The moment I grabbed the handle to the general compartment, the man screamed.
“Aaaagh! Urgh!”
I turned with an irritated expression.
“What the—huh?”
The rude conductor was being devoured by larvae all over his body. Owl’s doing.
I immediately demanded an explanation.
“I was holding back because of the protagonist. What the hell are you doing? Are you insane?”
But Owl was unapologetic.
[What? You don’t know how this works?]
“What do you mean?”
[Haha! Acting all high and mighty like you knew everything! You’re a total newbie! That’s not how it’s done!]
I swallowed my rising anger.
“Explain properly.”
[Every story needs an inciting incident. I don’t know the genre, but there has to be some commotion before the protagonist or the villain appears.]
I understood. Some event was bound to happen anyway, so there was no need to wait for it. The method was to create the incident ourselves and summon the main players.
“Fine. We’ll use elimination. Instead of searching for the protagonist, we kill everyone who doesn’t seem like one!”
[Correct!]
“You thought I’d say that, didn’t you!”
I hurled the Owl doll to the floor. It rolled across the ground with a squeak. Of course, there was some truth to Owl’s words. Doing it that way would definitely let us find both the protagonist and the villain quickly. But it would also ruin the story.
My mistake for taking an idiot seriously.
Owl—or rather, the former users—were like this. Their previous generation’s world wasn’t an advanced civilization; it was pure wilderness. A world where the biggest and strongest simply smashed everything. Since brutality was a virtue, such destructive acts were accepted as correct answers.
Meanwhile, humanity had used technology and intellect to reach the top of Earth’s food chain. There was bound to be a difference in basic delicacy and precision. And in matters like carving out a direction, meticulousness mattered more than speed.
Is that why even the mediocre ones transcended, yet the actual level of those guys was all low?
I couldn’t be certain yet—I hadn’t met that many former users. But at least that was my current assessment.
“Owl, don’t cause trouble until I tell you to step in. If you pull another useless stunt, I’m leaving you behind.”
[…]
I tossed the conductor’s corpse out the window and instructed Baengnae to keep Owl at a reasonable distance while following me. Since things had come to this, I was heading for the first-class cabins.
Click—creak—
When I opened the wooden door, I tilted my head. The scene inside was quite different from what I had expected.
The moment I opened the door, ten pairs of eyes turned to me at once. Four people sat bound by ropes on the floor, while six others aimed guns at them.
Come to think of it, firearms existed in the modern era.
I raised both hands above my head. Until I confirmed whether the protagonist was among them, I couldn’t kill anyone recklessly.
One of the gunmen barked,
“Who the hell are you? Where’s the guy guarding the door?”
“Uh… he went to the bathroom.”
“The bathroom? Then who are you?”
“I came looking for the bathroom.”
“What kind of bullshit is that? Are you an idiot?”
During that brief exchange, I quickly determined none of them were the protagonist. First off, they were all ugly. There were ugly protagonists, of course, but those were completely ugly. These guys were only ambiguously ugly.
“You’re the idiot here.”
“What?”
Zombies burst from their backs in an instant and tore into their heads.
Crunch—crunch—
The gunmen collapsed without even putting up a fight. I approached one of the bound prisoners.
“What are you doing here, kid?”
The one I called “kid” looked at me with utter confusion. Then he untied himself and stood up.
“It’s been a long time since I last saw you… yet you haven’t changed at all. Honestly, it feels very strange.”
“People don’t age much.”
“Haha…”
He pulled a badge from his pocket and pinned it to his chest. Then he looked at me with a wrinkled face.
“I searched for you for thirty years. After that day… I went through hell to become a secret police officer. Hundreds of missions that crossed the line between life and death. But no matter how hard I dug, I couldn’t even find your shadow.”
He methodically untied the others as well, his eyes never leaving me.
“I rose quite high in rank before I learned the truth. You weren’t a secret police officer. In fact, you didn’t exist at all. It was… very confusing. But I was grateful. And then…”
He drew his gun in a flash and aimed it at me.
“I met you again during the most dangerous mission of my life. I sincerely hope you aren’t the mastermind behind all of this.”
What was this guy’s name again? At any rate, the secret police officer seemed to be under some massive misunderstanding. But this was good news too. If he had come here on a mission as a secret police officer, he would have plenty of information about what was about to happen. He would have clues about the protagonist.
“First, calm down and lower the gun. That toy won’t do anything to me even if you shoot. I don’t particularly want to hurt you either.”
He flinched. Yet he didn’t move the barrel.
Come to think of it, this guy had quite a temper.
He was the type who spat on corpses and cursed. He didn’t look like he would back down easily.
“Ha… how am I supposed to explain this? It’s a real pain. Usually, the one making the accusation has to prove it, but somehow the burden of proof always falls on the accused… tsk.”
The secret police officer’s eyes wavered. He seemed to think I had a point.
“Then let me ask just one question. Why do you suspect me? Like you said, I saved you.”
“It’s… too coincidental. We were deployed to protect the Prime Minister after hearing that western forces had seized this train. And then you appear in a place like that. I can’t help but suspect that someone who knows me is approaching to gain my favor.”
Ah, so that’s the setting.
I roughly understood. This was a world where eastern and western factions were fighting. And this guy was an eastern secret police officer.
This won’t work.
In a world of endless mutual suspicion, there was practically no way for someone with no origin to avoid suspicion. Especially on a train in such an urgent situation. I chose the simpler, faster method.
“I’ve got good news and bad news.”
“I’d like to hear the good news first.”
“If the Prime Minister is still alive by the time I arrive, he probably won’t die. I can guarantee that much.”
“I’m not sure if that counts as good news… Then what’s the bad news?”
The moment he finished speaking, an arm sprouted from below his elbow and forced the gun barrel upward. Zombies summoned from all directions slammed him to the floor.
Thud—
I looked down at him.
“The bad news is that I can’t clear your suspicions. I don’t have time. So take a nap.”
One of the zombies with a sleeping-gas skill pumped vapor into the man’s respiratory system. The guy whose name I’d forgotten fell asleep. I put the other former prisoners to sleep as well and left them scattered around the compartment.
Shall we head to the heart of the story, then?
Someone of the Prime Minister’s stature would definitely have key story figures around them. Let’s go rescue them—and find the protagonist while we’re at it.