Elsa, as ever, sat quietly at her side.

  Aurora and Betty sat opposite them. Both were stiff, their bodies tense as they stared out the window at the impenetrable white fog. Arthur and his men were in the next compartment. The walls were thin, offering virtually no soundproofing. They could faintly hear the hushed, fragmented conversation leaking from the other side.

  Just as everyone had more or less settled in, CLANG!

  With a dull, heavy thud of metal, the carriage’s solid door automatically locked shut.

  And in that same instant, a figure appeared without warning in the passageway outside their compartment door.

  It was the conductor.

  He wore a deep blue uniform, cut with impeccable precision. On his head was a matching blue, flat-topped cap. And on his face… was a smooth, white porcelain mask, completely devoid of features.

  He slowly walked the length of the narrow corridor.

  His voice, devoid of emotion yet perfectly clear, sounded directly beside their ears. It seemed not to travel through the air, but to resonate on a spiritual level.

  “Welcome aboard the ‘Train.’”

  “To ensure the safety and stability of your journey, all passengers must keep their external compartment curtains closed for the duration of the train’s operation.”

  “If this rule is not followed, the Train will not be held responsible for any and all consequences that may occur.”

  Pandora was puzzled by the rule, which seemed rather innocuous. But when the conductor’s emotionless, recorder-like reminder sounded a second time in her ear, she chose to obey.

  She rose from her seat, walked to the window, and pulled the thick velvet curtain shut, blocking the view outside.

  The compartment was instantly plunged into a dim twilight.

  But, almost at the precise moment Pandora returned to her seat, the train car lurched violently.

  A strong, strange… pulling sensation came from all directions.

  It felt less like the train was moving forward, and more like the entire space, along with all of them, was being brutally extracted from their world by an invisible hand!

  WHUMP!

  Pandora was thrown, by that irresistible force, heavily, back into the soft cushions of her seat.

  What was happening?

  Before she could even process it, that intense, bizarre feeling, as if her very soul was being torn from her body, vanished in an instant.

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  She took a heavy breath, leaning back against the soft chairback, trying to calm her hammering heart. She guessed that this strange train was, perhaps… about to officially begin its journey?

  She was about to open her mouth, to make a light-hearted comment to Aurora and Betty, but then, an incredibly casual sight in the corner of her eye froze her in place.

  What was this?!

  She had, just moments ago, personally pulled that heavy velvet curtain shut…

  And now… it was wide open!

  She clearly remembered the sensation of pulling the slightly heavy cord, the subtle feel of the mechanical pulley turning. She clearly remembered the visual change, the light in the compartment dimming as the thick fabric fell.

  Pandora rose from her seat again, almost instinctively wanting to pull the disobedient curtain closed again. However, her actions froze once more.

  What froze her this time, was the view outside the window.

  Though still shrouded in fog, the distant, hazy silhouette had completely changed! It was no longer the manor house, with its thin, low profile. Instead, there were towering, complexly outlined… skyscrapers!

  Amidst that hazy urban silhouette, Pandora saw a flicker of familiarity, a sense of a modern city from another world, buried deep within her sealed-off memories.

  But… how could this be possible?!

  Pandora couldn't believe it.

  She snapped her head around to look at Elsa beside her, about to ask a question, but then, she saw Aurora and Betty opposite her, whispering to each other, their expressions a mix of tension and excitement.

  “We’re here…”

  “It’s been more than a day. We’re finally here…”

  Before Pandora could process the keywords in that absurd conversation, the conductor’s voice, behind its porcelain mask, sounded in her ear again. Devoid of any emotion, like an announcer reading a predetermined fact.

  “This train has arrived at its destination. All passengers departing for ‘the Corpse-Plague Furnace, Platform 7,’ please prepare to disembark.”

  They had arrived?!!

  How was that possible?!

  An intense, almost surreal sense of unreality washed over Pandora. What had she just done? She had just sat down. How could they have “arrived”? Could this bizarre train… teleport them?

  No, that wasn't right. If it were instant teleportation, what did Aurora and Betty mean by “more than a day”?

  Pandora tried to find a thread of logic in the tangled mess. “We… didn't we just leave?” she asked.

  Aurora looked at her, confused. “My lady?”

  “From the moment you woke up, you’ve been reading that book for hours. We’re here.”

  Reading?

  Pandora was completely stunned. She subconsciously looked down, and then, she saw, in her own hands… she was, in fact, holding a book!—the “one item” she had chosen to bring, the heavy, thick tome on the art of Alchemy.

  She had originally planned to use this book to pass the time on the train, but… she hadn't read it yet, had she?

  Huh?

  Just then, Pandora felt a wave of intense dizziness and a headache.

  A string of “seamless,” unassailable memories was, as if by brute force, crammed into her mind!

  …The conductor’s reminder led her to pull the curtain shut. Then, the conductor left. Before he left, the voice from behind the porcelain mask repeated the prohibition three times. After that, the train ran smoothly. No one in the compartment felt much like talking. She took a nap first. When she woke up and saw the train was still moving, she started reading the alchemy tome on her own.

  Time, in the turning of the pages, slipped by quietly. She had even made a special trip to the washroom. During the trip, she clearly remembered feeding a weakened Elsa with her own blood. Later, after resting, she continued to read. Then, the conductor’s voice sounded, announcing their imminent arrival. She pulled back the curtain and saw… the same skyline of towering buildings she had just seen out the window. She even exchanged a few words with a surprised Aurora and Betty.

  This memory, this string of memories spanning more than a day, was so… real. So real that every detail was crystal clear, as if it were yesterday. She could even recall a few specific lines from the book, the very sentences about “Alchemical Principles” that had left an impression on her.

  To the point that… that previous, intense, real feeling, that “the curtain was obviously closed,” instantly became fuzzy, distant, as if it were just an absurd, illogical delusion…