The Trailmarcher sped along, the sound of its many legs in operation echoing through the air as it let out a burst of steam.
Having departed Front-Edge City on the Kingdom’s Trail, the Trailmarcher continued on its way with an increase in patrol soldiers after it came to light postdeparture that a wanted criminal was onboard. A heavy air hung over the inside of the Trailmarcher, with the passengers all groaning about how they hoped the authorities would catch this wanted criminal fellow right away.
“Man, this is the furthest thing from some glamorous trip!” Watt sighed, staring up at the ceiling of the Trailmarcher.
With nowhere to stretch out his long limbs, Watt found himself in a rather tight situation with no way to relax. Anna and Meddié were there beside him, but the two of them didn’t seem to be struggling all that much with their smaller frames.
Meddié puffed out her chest, sitting atop something that clearly wasn’t a seat. “See? Told you it’d be a good idea if I came along!”
“Sure didn’t think I’d be countin’ on you this soon, though...”
“I knew we could depend on you to come through, Meddié!”
Watt could feel the rhythmic vibrations of the Trailmarcher’s legs from where he sat. There was no mistaking it: They were riding on a Trailmarcher. But Watt was a wanted man—so just how had they slipped past the soldiers’ gaze?
“Unloadin’ cargo was how I made my living, but I never thought I’d see the day when I was cargo myself!”
Indeed, thanks to the work of Socom Co., the group now found themselves not in a passenger car but a freight car along with their own cargo. Normally, people were forbidden from riding in freight cars. What they were doing was, in truth, a form of smuggling.
“Still, I just can’t help but wonder if it’s really okay to just chuck him in here,” Watt remarked.
The reason their method of choice would work was tied to the capital’s own distribution network. After all, the capital was the largest city in all of the Kingdom of Ogdenn, and the amount of goods it consumed was nothing to sneeze at. The network supporting the city was massive in its own right—so much so that checking every part of it was out of the question. That was why the usual practice was to inspect all the cargo at once after it’d been unloaded postarrival. It was hardly monitored at all along the way. Sure enough, there wasn’t so much as a hint of the patrol soldiers nearby.
Watt could feel his old sense of industry ethics whispering in his ear about how it was a problem that a wanted criminal could slip through so easily, but he decided to ignore it. They were facing an emergency now; they had to force their way through as if they were operating above the law.
“If I had to point out just a single flaw with all this, it’s the fact that cargo’s only as good as the way you haul it,” Watt said. “And I’m not getting to enjoy our kingdom’s fancy passenger cars one little bit!”
“There’s nothing else to do but deal with it!” Meddié replied. “And hey, I really could’ve gone for some of that fine cuisine myself!”
“Yeah, it’s easy enough for you two,” Watt objected. “But how am I supposed to be comfortable sitting like this?”
“The only reason we don’t have that much space is because your cargo’s absolutely huge, master,” Meddié went on. “Don’t go blaming us!”
“Dammit...”
There, taking up the majority of the space within the freight car, was Watt’s massive partner, which was sleeping away without a care in the world. At the moment, however, Watt couldn’t help but feel bitter toward the mech.
“Hee hee, there’s something novel about traveling like this, isn’t there?” Anna said. “And besides, it feels more fun somehow when we’re all together!”
“More fun than what...?” Watt groaned.
But Watt didn’t have a chance of winning against Anna’s bright, beaming smile. The way she could enjoy any sort of situation she was tossed into might’ve been a talent in its own right. With her there with him, even traveling in the cramped and crowded freight car might have just been a little bit more bearable.
✦ ✦ ✦
The capital of Ogdenn, Oldrock, was the home station of all lines of the Kingdom’s Trail. While Front-Edge City was fairly developed for a city on the frontier, even then it couldn’t even begin to compare to the capital. Oldrock was built using plenty of sturdy, high-quality stone, giving it a fundamentally different air than Front-Edge City, which made notable use of wooden buildings.
Slipping through while the cargo was being unloaded, the group descended into the capital. Their own cargo was hauled away with the help of Socom Co.
“Good thing you were the only one on that list, huh, master?”
“And to think it’d be my own disciple saying something so cruel...”
With a mustache and a hat that stretched far over his eyes, Watt had been forced into a disguise that seemed to shout that it had been thrown together on the spot. He sighed and looked up at the sky. It didn’t matter how it had come to this; since he was on the wanted list, he couldn’t afford to just walk about as he was. But at the same time, he was also the only one who’d had his portrait put on the wanted flyer, which meant that Anna and Meddié were free to walk about just as they were. Feeling like it was all absurd somehow, Watt stepped out onto the stone-paved streets of the capital.
“Ahhh, guess I wound up coming back after all.”
It had been seventeen years since Watt had left the city behind. It was nothing more than a brief moment compared to the lengths of the kingdom’s history, but in the scope of a lifetime, seventeen years was hardly short.
After all, it was long enough for my daughter to grow up so much before I even got to meet her.
Filled with all sorts of emotions, Watt looked down at the whorl of Anna’s hair as she walked beside him. She and Meddié pointed at this and that in the city as they went, completely absorbed as they talked about all sorts of things. C’mon, Meddié! Now’s not the time to be pointing out the best restaurants in the capital!
As they walked farther, the city began to take on an older air. While the station and its surroundings were bustling with new life and activity, their current surroundings seemed more mature and settled somehow.
“That’s the capital for you! No recreating this sort of atmosphere in Front-Edge City.”
“It’s the kingdom’s national pride and star city, the largest in terms of both size and population. I mean, it takes a mountain of supplies to keep it running, so take that as you will.”
Watt stroked his chin. The city consumed an enormous amount of goods day in and day out in order to preserve its splendor, with the Trails running without any break in order to sustain it. The very Trails he’d been so proud of up until now suddenly seemed tremendously pathetic.
A land takes after its leader, isn’t that what they say? Now that I think about it, His Majesty did have a fondness for showiness back when I was serving him too.
The current king had achieved tremendous feats such as opening the Kingdom’s Trail, but he also held a fondness for showing off. He grew too old before that desire could take the form of an invasion into another country; that was all that had preserved his reputation as a wise king.
“Looking at the way Legalisbelm’s unfolding, though, I don’t think deciding the next ruler’s gonna be the end of it.”
“The next ruler...” Anna said quietly.
To Anna, it was far from just someone else’s concern. After all, her stepfather was the nation’s first prince. While Anna sank into thought, Meddié spun around, scanning her surroundings.
“By the way, master, we made it here in one piece to the capital, but what’re we gonna do now? March straight into the bad guys’ base and attack?”
“Hey, hold up now! And what’s with all the violence right from the start? We’ve got to try and settle this with a discussion like civilized adults first.”
“They’re the ones who came and attacked us first, though,” she replied.
“You’re not wrong there. Well, I’ve got an idea or two about that myself,” Watt said, walking along the streets of the capital with a familiar gait. “First, we’re gonna go say hi to one of my old pals.”