A few moments later…

A young girl approaches the speeding metal beast, staring at it with curious eyes as it zaps past her.

「Ah!…」

Straf exclaims while peeking his head out of its side, passing by her at a high speed while the ground rumbles. It follows the path underneath itself then makes a turn, and speeds right back.

Thonk-thonk. Thonk-thonk. Thonk-thonk…

「…Painting girl!…」

He continues speaking, his voice stretching and shifting as he once again races away on the metal beast.

Thonk-thonk. Thonk-thonk. Thonk-thonk…

「…What's up? Haven't seen you in a while.」

Thud.

On the metal beast's next lap at the flat field, Straf jumps out and lands right next to her.

「I was painting the landscape, but then I heard a loud noise and came to investigate…」

Thonk-thonk. Thonk-thonk. Thonk-thonk…

The two watch the metal hulk rumble the ground as it speeds away down the field again.

「…What is that?」

Olivia asks, pointing at it.

「A train. Specifically, its engine. Specifically, it's a cool piece of mechanical art from the times of Art Deco that even someone who's not obsessively into trains can appreciate…」

Straf replies, pointing his hand at the sleek, famous, speeding Art Deco train with a smug smirk on his face.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

「…Art Deco?」

She tilts her head at the train as it rumbles past, the air current makes her hair flutter for a few seconds.

「…Yup. You're doing landscape now, huh? What were you up to these last two months? My favorite artists did landscapes too. Did you get rejected from an art school as well?」

Straf nods, grinning at Olivia with his fists on his hips while the train returns to the field for another loop along its track.

「Huh? I've never heard of any art schools… But then again, I never asked any professionals.」

She shrugs her shoulders in response, watching the sleek metal train speed towards them again.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk….

「…I see. Well, if you do get rejected from one like my favorite artist, let me know if you hold any strong opinions about anyone… You just might be onto something!」

He snaps his fingers, pointing at her with an amused grin on his face. Olivia's face gains a faint blush.

「…Strong opinions? Like what?… About who?」

She asks while tapping her fingers together with her gaze turned aside.

「Y'know… A certain and very tiny group of people with way more control than it is reasonable over banking, politics, media… Wait…」

《…That sounds like me.》

Straf furrows his brows, then begins rubbing his chin in deep thought.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

「Huh?」

Olivia looks at Straf, but her attention is quickly stolen by the oncoming beast of steel behind him. Peeking over his shoulder, he watches it turn and pass by them.

「…Am I the bad guy?」

He asks idly with his brows heavily furrowed, shrugging his hand as he turns his baffled face back to her.

[Contextual Time Perception] activates as her small, paint-stained hands reach for his in front of her. Straf's brow raises slightly, but he allows it.

Clap.

「I don't think so!…」

Olivia says in a raised, decisive voice as she grabs onto his hand, staring into Straf's eyes with a faint blush on her cheeks.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

Still looking at him with a tight-lipped grimace and his hand clasped between hers, she waits for the train to speed past them again before continuing.

「…I don't think so. I think you're a very kind and generous person to be able to get angry for someone else's sake. You have a deep appreciation for art!…」

Quieting down, Olivia continues while Straf stares back at her with a tight-lipped grimace.

「…You… You understand the essence of an artist… I don't know what happened, but please don't call yourself a bad person.」

She lets go of his hand as she loses her vocal impetus, briefly becoming quieter and bashfully turning her eyes away.

「…Right. Sorry for interrupting your painting with the sound of the industrial revolution, but I'm running a magic experiment.」

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

Straf calmly explains as he places his now-freed hand on his hip in a fist. The train speed past again.

「No, I have to wait for the layers to dry anyway… A magic experiment?…」

Olivia side-glances at him, still lightly blushing.

「Yeah. It's-」

「Straf!」

Cycelia's shout from the gates cuts into his reply, waving her arm towards him as she approaches.

「Ah! Good afternoon, Lia!…」

He waves back, and the train speeds past the two again.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

「Straf… Sir Vinis is looking for you. Something about steel…」

Cycelia says when she walks up, but the sound of the train distracts her.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

「…What is that?」

She asks, pointing at the speeding train as it does another high-speed loop on its closed track.

「That's Mercury train, Lia. You can think of it as a caravan of wagons or carriages that can only follow a constructed road and not one step off of it…」

Straf explains, pointing his hand at the train tracks.

「…But on the flipside, it can do so really, really fast. Imagine horses that can gallop and never get tired.」

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

He adds, shrugging his shoulders as he returns his fist back to his hip while the train rumbles past the three.

「Good afternoon, your majesty.」

Olivia bows towards Cycelia. She awkwardly smiles back at the young girl, lightly waving her hands.

「Hello… There's no need to bow…」

Cycelia replies, and she straightens out. They watch the train speed towards them again.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

「…A caravan of wagons? It's true that it's fast, but… I think a caravan of a few wagons would fit more people than this.」

Furrowing her brows and only mildly impressed, Cycelia tilts her chestnut head as the train speeds off. The ground shakes.

「By itself, yeah…」

Straf nods along in agreement while the train turns in the distance.

「…But the thing is, you'd need a lot of horses and a lot of wagons for that. Meanwhile, you could just connect a passenger car to this thing.」

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

He nods his head towards the train as it rolls past, then away again.

「A passenger car?… You mean it's more like a horse, and not like a wagon itself?」

Snap!

「Yup! Exactly, Lia! It's called mechanical horsepower for a reason, and its horsepower rating is shitton. You can think of it as a whole horde of horses running wild.」

Straf grins at Cycelia as he snaps his fingers, pointing at her. While he explains, he once more points his hand at the speeding Art Deco train when it rumbles past them.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

「…That's amazing! Is that what all that steel was for? This will revolutionize everything for the citizens! People will be-」「No it won't.」

Cycelia clasps her hands, smiling ear to ear when she fully grasps the importance of the train. Straf quickly cuts in, interrupting her with a tight-lipped grimace.

「Eh? W- Why? Why not? Is it too expensive?…」

Her emerald eyes turn to Straf's face as he's scrunching his mouth to the side. She blinks, confused.

「Noooo… We can afford it easily… Financially speaking. The problem isn't whether we have the money for it or not, Lia. It's whether society can afford it.」

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

Straf shrugs his shoulder while all three watch the rampaging beast of the industrial revolution madly gallop along its strict path.

「S- So why? I don't quite follow…」

Cycelia finally manages to peel her confused emerald eyes away from the speeding steel hulk, and furrow her brows at Straf.

「Well, y'see, Lia… You're right, it would revolutionize and progress everything, but the question is… Should it? Sometimes too much progress can be bad for you. Like sugar.」

With his index finger extended and his other hand in a fist on his hip, Straf asks Cycelia a philosophical question, then shrugs once more.

「Huh? I still don't…」

《…It's like he's again speaking entirely in his foreign language now.》

Only further confused, Cycelia begins fidgeting with her medallion as her voice trails off, lowering her gaze.

「Sugar is tasty, so it makes you think it's good for you. Then you realize sugar isn't enough anymore, and you're guzzling corn syrup…」

Straf sighs and spreads his hands as he starts explaining.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

「…Then you have to go to the hospital and the next thing you know, you're just outright shooting up glucose right into your bloodstream, screaming at doc to give you more…」

「Huh? Glucose? Hospital?…」

She blinks at Straf as he's nonchalantly motioning injecting a syringe into his muscular forearm.

「…And then you need insulin for life. Diabetes, Lia. I may be exaggerating a little, but plenty of people eat sugar until their teeth rot away to dust.」

He concludes by throwing his hands up with a helpless shrug of his shoulders, then places his hands in his pockets.

「R- Right…」

Cycelia nods along, grinning awkwardly as she pretends to understand.

「With efficient transport, that means goods and people can get exactly where they have to be. That includes soldiers and war material…」

Straf glances up at the lightly cloudy sky, grimacing while he continues.

「…If you thought grenades were bad, you're not ready for the insidious killer that is logistics. Millions can ride by rail into death without even knowing it…」

He adds as his eyes drop down from the sky to Cycelia's confused face. She quickly begins nodding her chestnut head, once again pretending to understand.

「…Now, if you insist that you want the industrial revolution, I can give it to you, Lia… But I can't exactly take away its consequences, y'know?…」

Straf shrugs again as he explains his position on the matter, walking just beside the train tracks while looking at the distant train.

「Right…」

Cycelia continues nodding along with awkward smile on her face. Olivia furrows her brows and tilts her head, not following the topic at all.

「…Nothing in life is free except death, and even that costs you your life. So, what do you want to do?」

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

Straf asks, turning to face Cycelia. The agent of the industrial revolution rolls precariously close to his back while he's casually standing by the tracks with his hands in his pockets.

「Ah? Um…」

Cycelia's head perks up in surprise, and she blankly blinks at Straf for a few seconds.

Pat.

「…Let's avoid diabetes!」

With a wide smile befitting a kind queen, she makes a lofty proclamation as she hammers her fist onto her waiting palm. She gains a tight-lipped grimace as Straf's brows slowly rise.

Snap.

「Nice, Lia. Don't let them eat cake, they'll thank you for it. If she went with a health-conscious approach too, maybe she'd avoid the guillotine.」

He grins as he snaps his fingers and points at her awkwardly smiling face.

「…Guillotine? Who?」

Cycelia asks as her awkward smile turns nervous.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

「A victim of the times, Lia. She let them have cakes, and the people put her through a guillotine for it.」

He nonchalantly shrugs with a light grimace, then turns to face the train. Cycelia places her dainty hands on her rosy cheeks in wide-eyed shock. Olivia stares in disbelief.

《…They executed a woman for feeding people cakes!? What kind of a lawless tyranny did Straf live under!?》

With her jaw dropped, her emerald eyes stare at Straf's broad back.

「…By the way, if you're not going to use this… Train, what is it for?」

Cycelia shakes her head, getting over her shock as she points at the incoming train.

「Ah… It's an experiment to see if things in my inventory retain their velocity. I was thinking about flinging a bunch of shitty swords in there for later…」

He briefly glances over his shoulder at Cycelia, then shrugs his shoulders while he waits.

「…Know your place, mongrel!…」

Going as far as gaining a nasty, disdainful scowl on his face, Straf quotes someone in his best attempt at imitation, although it's not certain who exactly.

「…Who are you talking to?」

Olivia tilts her head, puzzled as she stares at the empty field and the train tracks in front of Straf. When the train draws near, he disappears from their sight.

Thonk-thonk thonk-thonk thonk-thonk…

「Eh?」「Huh?」

Cycelia and Olivia both look around, their heads swiveling while they search for him.

「Ah.」「How did he do that?…」

They look at the train, and notice Straf is sticking his head out of its side.

Choooooooo!… Chooooooo!…

White smoke begins to billow out of its chimney once again, and the distant train makes a loud whistling sound.

「Ah! There's that sound again!」

Olivia exclaims as she points at the incoming train. It appears to be accelerating and very quickly gaining speed.

Thonk-thonk! Thonk-thonk! Thonk-thonk! Thonk-thonk!…

The sleek train furiously rolls past the two. It rides away, takes the distant turn, then begins speeding their way once more, faster and faster.

Just before the turn near them, a large whirling vortex appears on the train tracks. Inside the train, Straf pulls the whistle's cord.

Chooooo-!

He activates [Contextual Time Perception] and casually exits the driver's cab. With the speeding train nearly motionless in front of his [Portable Storage], he casually dismounts as if the train was completely stationary. With his hands in his pockets, he calmly walks back to Cycelia and Olivia. He turns to look at the rail, then disables his ability.

…oooooo-!

The train slides right into the purple vortex, its ear-piercing whistle abruptly cuts off into silence, and the ground's rumbling stops just as quick.

「Eh?」「How did you do that?…」

Both Cycelia and Olivia realize Straf is standing beside them again. The vortex closes, disappearing, and only its tracks remain. Straf glances at Olivia and nonchalantly shrugs.

「Huh? Where did that thing go? Shouldn't it do another loop around?…」

Olivia asks, furrowing her brows as she looks all around the track.

「Straf can put things into his whirly thing for later. It can even hold things like ice cream!」

Cycelia leans past him, explaining [Portable Storage] with a smile.

「Ah! That's right! You pulled money out of that!… And put that tiny violin in there! It can hold stuff that big!?」

Olivia's head perks up as she remembers the sight of Straf digging around his whirly thing in front of her once.

「Yeah.」

「What's the limit? How big can it get?」

She asks, tilting her head, blinking her massively curious eyes up at his bored, handsome face.

「Hmmm… Kraken-sized?」

Straf shrugs, glancing back at her. Her head tilts further.

「Kraken-sized?… How big is that?」

She asks, but Cycelia immediately jumps in while waving her arms.

「Don't ask him to show you! It's big! Very big!」

She exclaims with a nervous grin. Straf is rubbing his chin with a troubled grimace on his face.

「Straf? What's wrong?…」

Cycelia asks, gently furrowing her brows in light worry.

「Tsk… I just realized that I don't really have a lot of things I could test my train on… Man…」

His shoulders slump as he lets out an exasperated sigh.

「…All that work to replace the steam power with magic while keeping the whistle, and I can't even try it out. It'd be a waste if I'd just dump it on the open field.」

Frustrated, Straf rubs the back of his neck, grumbling.

「Whatever… I'll just try swords in that case…」

He turns towards the city gate, shaking his head as his hands return to his pockets.

「…See you later, painter girl. Paint Lia sometime.」

Straf bids Olivia farewell, glancing at her over his shoulder with a slanted mouth. Cycelia politely bows her chestnut head towards her and rushes up to his side.

「Sure thing! Maybe when I get a little better! Bye!…」

The young painter waves her paint-stained hand high over her head as she walks back to her canvas on an easel sitting on a nearby hill…