Chapter 477: Observation
Under the dazzling sunlight, a vast desert was enveloped in swirling yellow sand. A steam locomotive, belching thick smoke, pulled a long train down the tracks, racing toward the horizon at the far end of the railway.
In the luxurious carriage at the front of the train, Sister Vania, dressed in a white nun’s habit, sat in her seat, eyes closed in silent prayer, beseeching for an unclear future.
Suddenly, the praying nun’s form stiffened slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes. Having just received the familiar voice from her heart, she couldn’t help but murmur.
“Miss Dorothy… may I look outside the window?”
Murmuring, Vania turned her head to look out the window on her right. There, on a small stone hill in the distance, she noticed a small glint. Using her ability to take a closer look, she discerned the specific details of the glint.
‘That over there… looks just like an ordinary local person. Though they are watching the train through binoculars, there seems to be no unusual behavior. They are dressed rather raggedly, not much different from the locals living outside the foreigner district in Kankdar…’
After confirming the distant glint, Vania thought to herself and continued to observe the local person watching their train until it traveled far enough away that the person faded from sight, noticing no unusual movements from them.
‘No unusual behavior from them… seems they are just an ordinary curious local…’
Thinking this, Vania closed her eyes again and prayed to Akka, sending the information she had gathered to Dorothy, who was also on the same train.
…
‘Just a local person casually observing with binoculars, huh?’
In her compartment, Dorothy, seated by the window, pondered upon receiving Vania’s message. Initially, she thought it might be a sniper with a sniper rifle perched somewhere, the glint being a reflection from the scope. To her surprise, it turned out to be just a local with binoculars.
‘They haven’t shown any unusual movements all along… just watching? They don’t seem to be hostile at all… Did I overthink it? But binoculars are rather expensive in this era. The economy in Northern Ufeiga is nowhere near that of the Main Continent nations. Can an ordinary local person really afford something like a binocular?’
Dorothy contemplated this, knowing the economic conditions of the locals after spending several days in Kankdar.
Kankdar, outside the foreigner districts, was practically a slum, filled with many locals from Northern Ufeiga. Most of them were in dire poverty, engaging in backbreaking labor, providing cheap labor for Kankdar, which connected the Main Continent and Northern Ufeiga. Their greatest hope was to find a decent job serving wealthy foreigners in the well-appointed areas.
Such a crowd using binoculars? Although this world has entered the industrial age, it hasn’t reached the second industrial revolution level. Many goods are still not produced on a large scale. Items like binoculars are clearly still handcrafted by various specialty workshops, and for the impoverished locals, they are quite expensive—although not entirely beyond their means, they really have no necessity for binoculars. Except for exploration, navigation, and warfare, binoculars aren’t a must-have.
Hence, a seemingly ordinary local from Northern Ufeiga possessing an expensive pair of binoculars raised a flicker of doubt in Dorothy’s mind, but it was not substantial. After all, the person might have acquired the binoculars through some fortuitous circumstance and just took a look when they saw the train passing through the wilderness.
‘This small doubt about the binoculars I might have overlooked in normal times, but given the special envoy situation now… it’s better to be cautious…’
Dorothy mused, and based on considerations of the special circumstances, she carefully relayed a message back to Vania, asking her to inform her bodyguards to be more vigilant about the environment on both sides of the train. If they noticed anything unusual, they were to use the Navigation of the Literary Sea to inform her, and if the situation was urgent, they were to send a prayer through Akka immediately.
After sending the message, Dorothy temporarily dismissed the Zombie Bird in the sky, then lay down on the bed in the carriage, planning to take a nap.
After napping for a while, Dorothy slowly opened her eyes in the gently swaying carriage. After scratching her head, she sat up in bed to gaze out the window, which showed the same desolate scenery as before.
Upon finishing her nap, Dorothy looked at her pocket watch, confirming she had been asleep for about two hours. Rubbing her eyes, she stretched, then returned to her seat next to the window. Here, she took out her Navigation of the Literary Sea to see if Vania had discovered anything. Opening the contact page with Vania’s notes, Dorothy indeed saw Vania’s handwriting.
“Miss Dorothy, I’ve instructed the guards sent by the church to pay more attention to the surroundings of the train as you requested. As I write this at three in the afternoon, neither I nor the guards have noticed any major anomalies.
“While there haven’t been major anomalies, there are some minor points of concern, such as that local person observing us. After that, two or three more appeared, using binoculars to watch us from a distance. Some were alone while others were in pairs, all dressed like locals. One even had a pocket watch, looking at both the train and the watch, which feels somewhat suspicious.
“My guards have been watching these locals who have been observing us from afar, but so far, they’ve behaved just like before, merely looking from a distance, without any intent to act. Once our train passed by, they didn’t try to follow, so we did not respond.”
Vania’s words appeared on the pages of the Navigation of the Literary Sea, provoking a moment of deep thought in Dorothy.
‘Indeed, there seems to be something going on. There isn’t just one person doing this covert watching; every so often, a couple more appear. This clearly suggests it’s not mere curiosity but a conscious effort to spy, and it’s not one person but a group…’
Rubbing her chin, Dorothy mused internally. What she most wanted to understand was the group’s purpose.
‘Whatever they are thinking, it’s clear they aren’t just there to watch the train run; they’re not children. But if they have ulterior motives, they have not displayed any dangerous actions during the entire time, merely observing silently without showing any sign of taking action.’
Dorothy continued her internal contemplation. Although she found the group suspicious, she couldn’t take action solely on suspicion. The entire train was moving forward, and she had no time to track them and discern their intentions. However, if she completely ignored them, her inner peace would be disrupted.
‘Sigh… Upon careful reflection, these guys check on the train every so often… what do they actually want? If they intend to gather intelligence on the envoy group, they’re at too great a distance. From that point, they can only see a train passing; they clearly cannot discern what’s inside the carriages—gathering intel would be impossible.
‘Unless they possess some extraordinary ability or item unknown to me, enabling them to glean information from such a distance. But if they truly have such abilities or tools… it means there are likely many who can use them, as they appear every so often, meaning they all possess this capability?
‘Or am I overthinking this? They may not have any extraordinary abilities at all, simply needing to gather information by watching the train pass from a distance multiple times.’
Leaning back in her chair, Dorothy gazed at the fleeting scenery outside the window, deep in thought. The more she pondered, the more convinced she became of her latter theory—that these suspicious individuals sought minimal information, merely needing to catch distant glimpses of the train periodically.
So, what kind of information fits the bill? What could be discerned at a glance?
With her thoughts clarified, Dorothy quickly continued to explore this line of reasoning. Before long, she arrived at a possibility.
Dorothy’s gaze shifted to the table in the carriage, where lay a thin booklet. The cover bore a stylized image of a locomotive, with a title scripted in Faraluo.
“Desert Arrow Visitor Guide”
Picking up the booklet, Dorothy casually flipped it open, discovering it to be a promotional pamphlet detailing the luxurious train Desert Arrow—precisely the one she was currently onboard.
The Desert Arrow was a luxurious train funded by the Kankdar Railway Company, specifically constructed for elite persons traveling from the Main Continent. It was a renowned project of the Kankdar company, given to the envoy group to ensure they could travel to Adis in utmost comfort as a gesture of goodwill.
This brochure outlined various pieces of information about the Desert Arrow, from locomotive model and production year to average speed… to descriptions of the various recreational offerings within the carriages, scenery along the route, and precise travel times between stops—everything was clearly documented. Nearly all crucial details about the Desert Arrow could be found in this brochure, which was not unique; there was a copy in every compartment.
Being promotional material, this booklet contained entirely public information. Anyone interested could easily find it without requiring the approaches of covert observation. If those suspicious locals genuinely wanted to learn basic information about the Desert Arrow, they could find it easily, without resorting to spying every few sections of the track.
Their choice to observe directly, rather than derive information from public sources, meant that the public information was of no use to them. The reason was simple: the Desert Arrow had been reorganized.
At Vania’s behest, the original luxury express train had been restructured. Many entertainment carriages were removed, and more freight carriages were added to transport substantial relief supplies for the ordinary citizens of Adis, meaning… the parameters of the reorganized Desert Arrow were entirely different from those of the original train. The speed had undoubtedly changed significantly.
‘Those suspicious folks are presumably positioning observers at intervals to calculate our speed. By arranging observers at various points, they can record the time Desert Arrow passes those points, from which they can calculate the train’s speed. The more points they have, the better they can reduce errors and achieve a more accurate figure.’
‘Normally, data on the speeds of running trains are publicly available, including that of the Desert Arrow. This information is easily accessible; there’s no need to measure it manually. But the current Desert Arrow is different. The original was a luxury passenger express, while this one is a mixed freight and passenger train. With many freight cars added, the speed of the Desert Arrow is bound to decrease heavily. What was once projected to take two days to reach Adis may now be delayed by a day or two due to the added weight.
‘So, will it be delayed by one day or two days? No one knows that for certain. The Desert Arrow hasn’t run with this much cargo before; all materials were hastily gathered from Kankdar and loaded without weighing them. Thus, how long the Desert Arrow will take to reach Adis, carrying this hefty load is uncertain—there are no other trains running on the rail to Adus right now due to the conflict, leaving the Desert Arrow with no timetable.
‘Thus, in such circumstances, knowing the Desert Arrow’s speed can only be assessed on location.’
‘Due to this being a special train for the church envoy, and with no other trains on this route, all train stations along the way, no matter who controls them, are strictly locked down, serving only this train. Hence, those folks can only find places to observe from afar as the train passes.’
Gazing at the rapidly passing scenery outside, Dorothy’s heart formed a comprehensive thought to explain the actions of those suspicious locals.
‘Due to Vania’s suggestion, the Desert Arrow was temporarily reorganized. As a result of this reorganization and the addition of extensive cargo, the speed of the Desert Arrow has significantly decreased, extending the estimated arrival time by at least a day or two. Some individuals are likely uncomfortable with such a significant discrepancy, thus necessitating on-site speed measurements to ascertain the train’s average speed, aiming to determine the approximate time of arrival at specific locations, minimizing the potential variations of over a day.
‘What do those people intend to do with that information?’
Dorothy continued her thoughts, silently directing her gaze back to the table and studying the simplified map of Northern Ufeiga depicted in the train manual, particularly looking at the border of the Kingdom of Adus.
At that moment, a certain place name from her previous life surfaced in her memory: “Huanggutun.”
