Gungnir

A train made close to the founding of Edelweiss School of Magic.

When Edelweiss was founded, the founders were met with a huge problem.

Every year, more than a few students died on their way to Edelweiss. So, how were they going to solve this problem?

Luckily, earlier that year a genius magical engineer came up with the first prototype of what they called a ‘train’. Water and fire magic were used to create steam to move the mechanical parts of the train, and wind magic was introduced to cut through the air and reduce drag.

It was a genius invention that only required the use of simple water, fire, and wind spells, thus being able to be run by magic tools. Though, now the Gungnir is run by just lightning and wind spells.

This is exactly what Edelweiss School of Magic needed. They could send the train to pick up the students from the edges of the country, and bring them to the much more dangerous central region where Edelweiss School of Magic was located.

However, there was one problem.

The train needed to travel on rails.

The price of creating a whole rail line to the four edges of the country was astronomical, but thinking of the safety of the students, Edelweiss dug into his treasury and financed the project.

Thus, four trains were made, and they were named Gungnir. Each one heads out multiple times a year to bring back supplies to Edelweiss. But, their main purpose is to pick up students, and then drop them off at the end of each school year.

Each Gungnir has a letter after its name to signify which cardinal direction it travels to.

And Art was currently aboard Gungnir ‘N’.

—

After a minute of sitting alone in the compartment, Art suddenly heard a knock at the door.

Surprised by the sudden sound, Art jumped a little.

“Coming in!”

A voice rang out before the door slid open revealing a boy with short red hair and brown eyes.

The boy casually walked into the compartment and looked at Art.

“Ohh! Somebody’s already in here, nice. I didn’t want to be in here all by myself.” The boy seemed to be relieved that there was someone to talk to.

“I’m Jamie, nice to meet you!”

The boy stuck his hand out.

Art stared at Jamie’s hand for a moment before accepting his greeting.

“Greetings, my name is Art. It’s nice to meet you, Jamie.”

Art shook his hand quickly before retreating it.

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Jamie then turned around to place his luggage in the overhead storage, but realizing it was a bit too high for him to reach, he just threw it up there.

Jamie took a seat in the booth seat opposing Art. As he sat down, Jamie let out a sigh.

“Haa… can you believe it? We’re actually headed off to the Edelweiss.”

Jamie wasn’t wrong. It was the dream of most children to attend Edelweiss School of Magic. While there might be multiple magic schools in the country, none held the prestige of Edelweiss.

A few seconds later the door to the compartment swung open again.

A boy with combed back light blue hair, and gray eyes adorned by a pair of glasses walked through the door.

He silently walked into the compartment. Before putting his bag out of the overhead storage he pulled out a book, and without a word sat down next to Jamie and started reading.

Seeing his actions, Art felt a little saddened. In his rush to leave his house he forgot to bring a book to read.

Once he sat down, without skipping a beat, Jamie greeted the new arrival.

“Hey, I’m Jamie, nice to meet you.” Jamie stuck his hand out to the boy with a big smile on his face.

Taking a glance at Jamie’s hand the boy went back to reading.

“Jean.”

Taken aback by Jean’s actions, Jamie retreated his hand and gave an awkward laugh.

“Nice to meet you, Jean.” Although a bit disturbed, Jamie still maintained a smile.

Although Jamie tried his best, the compartment was filled with an awkward air.

Soon the silence was broken by the sound of a loud bell.

Art, Jamie, and Jean simultaneously looked out the window. It seemed the train would start moving soon.

As the clanging of the bell came to an end the train began to move.

Picking up speed, Gungnir ‘N’ quickly left the terminal.

Staring out the window, Art took in the view of buildings passing by. Once the train left the bounds of Blackbird, Art was able to see a large forest in the distance.

That forest surrounded the Sophos estate. Knowing he wouldn’t return for a whole ten months. He thought about his family and the servants of the estate. He would miss them.

Art shook his head. He had already decided to go to Edelweiss. Thinking about his goal, he shook off any melancholy.

The scenery passed by very quickly, but it was nice. Art had spent most of his life in the forest, mostly by his own volition, so most of this was new to him even though it was quite close to his house.

After taking a few minutes to stare out the window, Jamie spoke up.

“Hey, Art. Did you know?” Jamie seemed eager to share his knowledge.

Posed with a very ambiguous question, Art simply shook his head.

“Did you know that the Gungnir can travel from the north of the country, all the way to the south in a little over twelve hours?”

Art had known that the Gungnir was fast, but he didn’t know it was that fast.

Before Jamie could speak again, Jean interjected.

“It would be nine hours if the Gungnir went top speed, however it rarely does to save on mana.”

Jean spoke up and corrected Jamie all without picking up his head from his book.

Either ignoring or not noticing Jean’s attitude, Jamie responded enthusiastically.

“Really? I didn’t know that the Gungnir could go that fast! You must be really smart, Jean!”

Jean snorted at Jamie’s compliment as it was obvious.

It might not seem like much, but it was the difference between going 100 mph and 140 mph. (161 and 225 km/h respectively for our metric system friends.)

“Though it seems like some magic engineers are working on making the Gungnir go even faster. However, they’ve reported no success so far. They said they would have to change how the Gungnir works.” Jean said matter of factly.

Art was intrigued by what Jean said, and wondered if such a thing would happen during his time in school.

“Wow, they want to make the Gungnir go even faster! I thought the Gungnir was plenty fast already.”

Jamie was amazed by Jean’s piece of trivia.

Jean went back to reading his book, and Jamie started to talk to himself thinking about how the engineers could make the Gungnir go faster.

As the Gungnir continued its journey to Edelweiss School of Magic, Art with nothing to do and no book to read, Art stared out the window to pass the time.