Chapter 20
Just as they had taken a carriage to Kapsen Street, they caught another one for the return journey to the train station. This time it was an ordinary carriage, not one powered by black star fragments, so Regina was able to lean back comfortably against the carriage wall. As she silently mused that familiar things were indeed better, her gaze fell on Noah, who had taken out his pocket watch and was staring at it.
“Does that watch tell you where the black fairies are located?” she asked curiously, leaning slightly towards the timepiece in Noah’s hand. Seeing her expression, Noah looked down at Regina with an amused “Oh, really?” expression.
Does she think that if she figures out how I track the black fairies, she can escape from me? Noah chuckled inwardly, having a pretty good idea of what was going through that little head of hers.
“That’s right,” he replied. Might as well show her. Noah held out the pocket watch to her, allowing her to examine it more closely.
“If you look carefully, you’ll see that while the internal gears are moving, the hour and minute hands remain still. When a black fairy is far away, the minute hand points in its general direction. When it’s within a certain range, the hour hand moves once. If it moves away or disappears, the hands return to their original position.”
As Regina took the watch and examined the hands as he explained, she suddenly felt a sharp prick on her right fingertip.
“Ouch!”
Startled, she looked down to see a small drop of blood forming on her finger. Puzzled, she turned the watch over but couldn’t find any sharp edges. Suddenly, Noah’s hand reached out and lifted the watch chain. Regina watched the timepiece rise with his hand and asked with a confused expression:
“I think I pricked myself on something?”
“Yes, I just fed your blood to the watch. Now it will tell me wherever you go.”
“…!”
Regina’s mouth fell open slightly as she belatedly realized she had been tricked. Amused by her dumbfounded expression, Noah smiled one of his rare smiles and continued:
“Now you’ll be caught quickly even if you try to run away.”
As he snapped the watch closed and hummed softly to himself, Regina bit her lip in frustration, but there was nothing she could do about it.
“How could you do something like that? Deceiving a lady – how despicable!”
“No need to be so upset. Even without the watch, there’s no way you could escape as long as I’m alive. You’re getting ambitious even though you haven’t even shed your skin yet.”
Before Regina could act on her impulse to throw her luggage at Noah out of irritation at his mockery, the carriage fortunately arrived at their destination. As soon as Noah opened the door and stepped out, a boy who ran errands buying train tickets came rushing up to the carriage. Noah told him their destination and handed over some coins, and the boy nodded and ran off immediately.
“Ah, I’m going to mail a letter quickly,” Regina said.
“A letter?”
“Yes, a letter. I suppose you can let me go without worry since you can find me with that watch even if I try to run away.”
Noah shrugged at her sharp tone and waved his hand dismissively, as if to say “Go ahead.” Still fuming, Regina stomped into the train station. She found the counter for mailing letters and paid with the money she had on hand. The clerk took Regina’s letter and handed her a receipt.
“Are all three letters to be delivered to the Evelyn estate? Please confirm the delivery address once more.”
“Yes, that’s correct. How long will it take?”
“Deliveries from the capital are expedited threefold. It should be delivered in at least 2 days. Would you like to receive any replies? We can hold received replies for up to a month, at double the cost of sending.”
“Uh…”
Regina hesitated at the mention of replies, having only thought about sending the letter. Would there even be a reply? The letter was ostensibly a friendly note sent under the name of “Regina’s friend,” but in reality, it was essentially her last will and testament.
‘I just wanted to tell them not to be too sad…’
A reply?
“Will you be receiving replies?” the clerk prompted again when Regina was slow to answer.
“Ah, yes! Please accept replies!”
Regina blurted out hastily, immediately regretting it afterwards. Agreeing to receive replies that would never come – wasn’t this just a waste of money?
“That will be two silver coins.”
“Yes, of course!”
But before she could cancel, she had already paid the fee. As Regina turned away, her eyes were rimmed with red.
‘If by some chance a reply does come, what am I supposed to say? And if no reply comes…’
She might end up crying all night again. But there was nothing she could do about it now. Regina walked, almost running, towards Noah who was waiting for her in the distance. Noah, who had been standing reading a newspaper, looked curiously at Regina’s face as she came running up, but then turned and handed their tickets to the station attendant.
Regina boarded the train, relieved by his indifference.
* * *
Please don’t worry about whether this letter is real or not. Don’t concern yourself with who wrote it or for what purpose. This is simply a letter from Regina Evelyn’s closest friend, who shares all of her memories.
I love you. Thank you for raising me with such care. You must miss me. To be honest, I miss you too right now. Please don’t hurt too much. Please don’t be too sad.
When the grief suddenly hits you and your heart feels like it’s melting, even though it didn’t feel real before – in those moments, please try to forget for a while. Just miss me a little, and only remember me occasionally, once in a while. Please think of it as if I’ve just gone on a long journey. Even though you can’t see my face or hear my voice, please believe that I’m missing you just as much from far away.
…I hope you can be happy, even without me.
I love you. I wish I could send you all the beautiful words and sparkling things in the world, but I regret that I can’t. …I love you, truly.
– With all my heart, from Regina Evelyn’s dearest friend.
* * *
The train was still fascinating, but once evening fell and the windows could no longer show the outside world, it became boring. Leaning her forehead against the gently rattling glass window, Regina felt the cold seeping through, reminding her that they were already nearing the end of autumn.
“How long will it take to reach Epola County?”
“We’ll arrive in two days.”
“Do you always travel by train like this?”
The window, now pitch black with the evening, reflected only Regina’s face. She gazed absently at her reflection, chin propped on one hand, as she asked the question. Noah, still leafing through his newspaper without looking at Regina, answered disinterestedly. He didn’t seem pleased with the newspaper he had bought at the train station.
“Well, generally, yes.”
“But what exactly are black fairies? Are they the opposite of light fairies or something like that?”
“Well, I suppose so.”
“But the opposite of light is darkness, isn’t it? Why are they called black fairies instead of dark fairies?”
Rustle. Finally folding his newspaper in response to her continued questions, Noah sighed lightly.
“I don’t know either. Look, if you’re bored, why don’t you try sleeping?”
“I’m not really sleepy. Oh, if you’re done with that newspaper, can I take a look?”
“Go ahead.”
Regina turned away from Noah’s reflection in the window and held out her hand to him. He passed her the folded newspaper, then crossed his arms and closed his eyes.
“Thank you.”
Regina, who usually avoided reading, skimmed through the newspaper focusing mainly on the photos rather than the tiny print. She stopped at one particular image. It showed an oval-shaped object floating in the air, appearing dozens of times larger than a person. Wide-eyed, she quickly read the text below the photo. It described the successful launch of an airship using black star fragments.
“An airship? You mean people can fly through the sky in this? Like birds? Wow, that’s incredible! Noah, did you see this article?”
Regina pointed at the photo in the newspaper with her index finger and showed it to Noah. He replied with his eyes still closed, reclining his body at an angle:
“Yes.”
“It says the technology was developed by the royal research institute ‘Arme’! How could they develop a technology that allows people to fly? I can’t believe it. There’s going to be a test flight next month? It says the general public can attend too!”
“You don’t need to read it all out to me. I already know the contents. And I’d recommend you stay away from the royal research institute.”
Noah spoke while recalling the black fairies he had seen contained in glass tubes, still alive. If she were to be captured by Ezra, it was obvious she would receive treatment not much different from those black fairies. However, Regina, unaware of this, pursed her lips behind the newspaper she held up to cover her face.
What an utterly unromantic man, she grumbled inwardly. She roughly flipped through the newspaper, but finding no other interesting photos, she gave up on reading the other pages. As expected, text-heavy content was not to her taste.
“…?”
As Regina lowered the newspaper that had been covering her face, she caught sight of something outside the dark window and paused. Instinctively glancing sideways at the sudden oddity, Regina’s eyes met those of a face outside the window. A white face with pitch-black eyes was pressed against the window, looking inside. Its eyes rolled as it spotted Regina.
“Ugh, kyaaaah!”
CRASH!
Just as Regina screamed, the window shattered into pieces. The unknown entity had thrown itself from outside towards the inside. Glass shards scattered everywhere with a loud shattering sound. Seeing the sharp fragments showering down towards Regina’s head, Noah quickly wrapped her head with the window curtain and pulled her inwards.
“Mmph! Uwaaah!”
“Stay still!”
BANG! BANG!
Startled by her vision suddenly being obscured by the curtain, Regina flailed about. Noah tore the curtain, bundled Regina up in it, and tossed her onto the seat he had been occupying. He then aimed his gun in the opposite direction and pulled the trigger.
