“All right.” Octavia wasn’t used to such refined exchanges, but she smoothly accepted Raven’s invitation. I suppose this is what people mean by “smart.” Octavia took a first sip of her cocktail, which was sweet, sour, and delicious.
“Are there a lot of men like you in the royal capital?”
“If by that you mean aristocrats, then I suppose so.”
“What a fearful place. Is everyone there a con artist?”
“I feel you may have hit the nail on the head, but for now, I’d just like for you to enjoy yourself. Let’s see—look, over there.” With his gaze, Raven indicated a spot above the entrance to the dining car. Putting down her cocktail glass and following his gaze, Octavia suddenly froze.
“That is a treasured possession of the railway baron, said to be an heirloom passed down from the United Empire.” Raven spoke of an antique map. The map, drawn on paper worn by the passage of many years, was framed in silver. But to Octavia, there was no mistaking it.
“A piece of the map is displayed on each of the railway baron’s trains. Apparently, this segment is supposed to be special even amongst these prized heirlooms, since it depicts the capital of the now fallen United Empire.”
“The map.”
“Octavia?” At the sound of Raven’s voice, Octavia came back to her senses.
“Octavia, for now, just stay calm and sit down.”
Cautioned by Hat as well, Octavia returned to her seat. She had not even realized that she had stood up.
Raven peered back at her with a look of concern. “Is something the matter?”
“I-It’s nothing. I was just a bit surprised to hear that it’s an heirloom of the United Empire. I mean, those are dangerous, aren’t they? The Imperial Heirlooms are also called Demonic Heirlooms...”
“True. But right now, this one has the queen’s seal placed upon it. That means it’s safe.”
“Is that right?” she asked slowly.
“In celebration of the opening of this overnight train, Her Majesty made a gift of the map to the railway baron.”
Hat glared at the item displayed above him and said bitterly, “It’s no good. There’s no response. It looks like it really has been sealed.”
“It’s possible that the frame around it would currently fetch a higher price than the map, actually.” Hearing Raven’s explanation, Octavia looked up at the map once more. He went on, “I’ve heard that Her Majesty the Queen imbued that frame with magic power personally. It is that frame which keeps the Imperial Heirloom sealed away, preventing it from running amok and becoming a Demonic Heirloom.”
“A-Are there many such things in the Royal Capital?”
“I suppose so. Enough for the Phantom Thief to bother showing his face.”
“Ph-Phantom Thief?” This abrupt combination of words wrested back Octavia’s attention, which along with Hat’s, had been firmly fixated on the contents of the picture frame.
Raven gave Octavia a comically exaggerated look of surprise. “Haven’t you heard of him? He’s rather famous in the capital. Crow, the Phantom Thief.”
“Th-This is the first I’ve heard of him.”
“He’s the great villain of this century, who seeks to steal Imperial Heirlooms right out from under Her Majesty’s nose.” The last light of day that broke in through the window cast Raven’s face in a dark shadow. Why? With her attention fixed on Raven’s face—which wore an expression she couldn’t read—she was slow to respond.
“Excuse me.”
She quickly corrected her posture. A waiter in a black suit was standing beside her. In his hand, which seemed to be concealed by the napkin resting on his arm, was a gun. The barrel of that gun was pointed at Octavia’s head.
“Octavia?” Raven, seated in the opposite chair, probably couldn’t see the gun.
Softly, in a manner that was appropriate for a waiter delivering a message to a lady, the black-suited man bent forward and whispered in her ear, “Come with me, Lady Octavia de Reine.” Somehow, it seemed that her true identity had been discovered.
Is it just this man right here? If so, she should’ve been able to handle him by herself. On the other hand, it might’ve been a good idea to get him to tell her what he was after, first. Then Octavia noticed the gun barrel move minutely in Raven’s direction, so she stood up. Feeling Raven’s gaze on her, she smiled broadly. “Excuse me. I’m just getting up for a moment. I’ll be right black.”
“I see.” Octavia waited to see Raven nod in response, then moved away from her seat. At that moment, Raven kicked over the table and landed a precise blow to the man’s solar plexus, which sank in deeply.
“Gah!”
“R-Raven, you...”
“There’s more than one of them! Run!” Throwing his jacket over Octavia and pushing her forward with her head down, Raven ran. He barrelled past the sounds of screams and clattering dinner plates, causing a woman to tumble to the floor as he pushed past. In the blink of an eye, a wave of confusion spread through the crowd; Raven wove deftly through it.
“Stop right there, you two!” Out of the corner of her eye, Octavia saw a man throw down his serving tray and point a gun at the exit to the dining car. She gasped, and then the gun’s report echoed through the carriage. This was only a warning shot. Although there were screams, it didn’t look like anyone had been shot.
“All right, everyone, stand still!”
However, his warning shot happened to land directly on the picture frame hanging above the exit. With one of its four corners now missing, the frame creaked and came apart.
Hat cried out, “Octavia, this is bad! If that was really the seal placed upon it, then that map is about to run amok!”
“We’re only after that woman! The rest of you can—” The man’s warning stopped at that point. Fear darted across his eyes, and he aimed his gun a second time.
With Raven still hanging onto her, Octavia cried, “Don’t shoot! If the frame is damaged any more than this—!”
“U-Uwaaaaah!” After several more gunshots, the frame and the glass inside it were shot to pieces, and its contents fell to the ground. A moment later, black tendrils seized the man holding the gun, strangling him and then swallowing him whole. Who was it who had called the heirloom of the former United Empire a Demonic Heirloom, and when?
“Run away!”
“We’ll be killed!” No matter how quickly they ran, the magic was faster. The black orb that had just swallowed a man whole released black waves of magic in all directions. In another moment, it would swallow the entire dining car. There was a shrill, metallic ringing sound, and the train began to shake violently.
“Hey, get the map!” cried Hat, and then: “It’s no use, the train’s about to be taken over!”
“Raven!” Octavia tried to yell at Raven, to tell him to run—knowing there was probably no use in doing so—then broke off. She was too late. Raven shook violently, then keeled over. It wasn’t just him. Everyone around them was affected in the same way. Supporting Raven’s body, which had gone limp, Octavia fell to the ground.
Looking around, Octavia saw she was the only one still awake. The orb that had swallowed the man was nowhere to be seen. As if the commotion earlier had been a fantasy, her surroundings were deathly silent.
“Octavia. If this goes on, the train will be pulled to the other side, along with everyone on it.”
“I know. The map,” she said haltingly, “will be at the head of the train, right?”
A tool never forgets its purpose, and a map’s purpose is to guide people. Octavia was sure that it would be trying to guide this train to the other world, where the empire, along with its god, was sealed away.
It was Octavia’s duty to stop that from happening. She went to stand up, but suddenly the sight of Raven caught her attention. She placed her hand on her own shoulder, and the words naturally came out. “Thank you.”
“What’s the matter?” asked Hat.
“Nothing.” Octavia shook her head and stood up. But in truth, she felt she had witnessed something she should never forget. As everyone around him had fled in a frenzy, Raven, up until the very last moment, had held Octavia’s shoulder tightly, trying to protect her.
“Hat, have we any weapons?”
“As you very well know, there’s only the gun. Until I’ve registered the tools Granny collected in my index, which are currently in her mansion in the Royal Capital, we won’t be able to use them. Besides that—we have a land mine. What’s that doing in there?”
That’s right, thought Octavia as she opened the door to the dining car and returned to the first-class carriage. “Remember? We found it buried at the beach on holiday that one time. It was the first tool I ever registered. How nostalgic...”
“Ah, that’s right. I found it so lamentable that your first registration should be a land mine, of all things, that my mind chose to forget...”
Still making light conversation, they walked cautiously through the first-class carriage. To their disappointment, it was silent throughout.
“Why aren’t they coming out to bother us?” Nothing suggested the presence of those enemies that always appeared when an Imperial Heirloom ran amok and tried to draw the world, along with its inhabitants, to the other side. Where were the living dead?
Octavia glanced out a window, but it was pitch black—a lightless void. The train was moving through a space of complete nothingness. In other words, this couldn’t be the mortal realm.