“Alright, boys and girls. We are here.“

  On the sixteenth day since the party left Abaskan, Octavia raised her triumphant tone as her directional skill was proven to be true.

  Meanwhile, Foreigner ran in a circle away from Pafnuty holding a venomous snake in his hand. Although the idea of eating a snake for dinner rather than the nasty soup of Octavia was appealing, having it shoved right into the mouth was too much for her to bear. But all of those miscellaneous concerns vanished all at once when she saw the astonishing scenery Octavia searched for the past few days, with her directional skills having been questioned a few times in the process.

  A grand building with a fabulous historical aesthetic comprising ivory marble stood high in the middle of the forest. The staircase leading to the gigantic door that was about three times bigger than Foreigner drew a clear boundary between the wilderness and civilization, and the walls of the building without a window glittered brilliantly under the reflected sunlight. The steps of the staircase were missing a single speck of dust to create friction on top of the overly silky texture, yet it was only Foreigner who almost tripped when Octavia and Pafnuty walked up without a problem.

  As Octavia grabbed the handle of the door decorated with various colored gems, she turned around to check on Pafnuty. Only once she saw two thumbs being raised, she pulled the heavy gate that lightly trembled the floor as it turned, and the icy wind blasted out from the inside. She took her hat off as she stepped in to cool her head under the cold air, while Foreigner shivered a bit and Pafnuty seemed uncomfortable under the artificial frost.

  “We are here. Merv Station.“ The voice of Octavia echoed in the vast area that was mostly empty. “Where the empire burns its money for meaningless extravagance.“

  Foreigner understood what Octavia meant at first sight. The interior of the building was marvelous, as was its exterior. The ceiling was far above her head, filled with a collection of artworks which seemed to illustrate the triumphant life of a single man who looked far different from Demerii or Aranaim, or herself. The floor made out of marble demonstrated how a perfect reflection without a dent would look, while the hallway was filled with glass containers housing what seemed to be ancient relics from various parts of the world.

  If Foreigner hadn’t been informed that they were heading to a train station, she would have mistaken it for a museum. But one thing that was truly uncanny was that they were the only people in this enormous space. All that luxury for no one to enjoy.

  On the side of the hallway, she spotted a neatly organized collection of pamphlets about the empire that built this station. She grabbed one of them, but it was in a language she couldn’t read. As she struggled to make any sense out of what seemed to be gibberish in her eyes, Octavia’s hand popped out in front of her.

  “Here. This one’s in Glotholic.“

  She took the proper pamphlet from Octavia while scratching the back of her head with an embarrassed smile. On the opposite side of Octavia, she saw Pafnuty grabbing one in a language unknown to her and then immediately throwing it away.

  “Wow, this thing is full of bullshit.“ Octavia said as she opened the first page of the pamphlet and threw it into the same trash can as Pafnuty did.

  Foreigner could understand why they acted in that way as soon as she read the first line of the introduction that started by praising how great the Emperor was. Even though the paper consisting of the pamphlet had a soft texture that made her wish to touch more, it was yet another total waste that only served the purpose of being propaganda for the empire. Still, she thought it would have useful information to get a grasp of what kind of empire she was entering, at least to a certain degree.

  Vaznakar. Empire of Vaz. Occupying the second largest territory on the continent, it was an empire built on top of the blood of subjugators and subjugated. With Emperor Cyrus as a supreme figure, it engulfed the nearby nations in flame and chaos, annexing them through violence and terror. It only stopped the expansion once it reached the lands of Shakh Sah and Horaidian, being halted by the fearful resistance from the locals. Now, the uneasy peace was keeping the balance of the lands, waiting for one side to cross the line and start the massacre of innocents once again.

  But to be brutally honest, Foreigner couldn’t care too much about the empire itself. Instead, her attention turned to the map of the continent. Obviously, they would have drawn the map of Vaznakar bigger than reality, but that wasn’t something she was interested in. But she couldn’t find what she was looking for, so she turned to Octavia walking away from her spot.

  “Octavia, where is the land of Demerii, the, what was it, Sanctorium?“

  Foreigner innocently asked while pointing at the map with her finger. Octavia smiled as if she saw something cute, making Foreigner tilt her head in puzzle.

  “Nowhere. Actually, no. It’s not on the map because it’s impossible to know exactly where it is. That floating island of theirs is hidden for millennia, so the first thing we need to do is to even know where we can start our search.”

  Octavia made a clicking noise from her mouth while firing a finger gun at Foreigner as she left. Foreigner stood there and stared at the map, wondering what kind of journey she threw herself into.

  “Hey, come here and check this out. This glittering trash always makes me laugh when I see it. Talk about the ego.“

  At the calling, Foreigner threw away the pamphlet and headed to Octavia at the center of the hallway. What she saw there was a golden statue of the Vaz, with a luxurious-looking outfit, a crown on his head, and an avaricious face overflowing with fat covering the entirety of his body. If there was anyone who could be called the Emperor, this must be him, Foreigner thought to herself.

  Thanks to the lively detail of the statue, it wasn’t hard to imagine how Vaz would look. A giant easily double the size of Foreigner. Their whole bodies were vigorous with muscle, and their hands were big enough to crush her skull by squeezing it like an egg. They were covered in skin that looked dry and resistant without a single hair on any part. Despite their large bodies, the eyes and nose were small with ears that were two small holes at the side of their head, but the mouth was wide, with each end hanging at the edge of their face.

  As Foreigner observed the statue closely, Octavia headed towards the ticketing office in the corner of the hallway. Behind the clear security window sat a female Vaz, polishing her nails with a grumpy face while not giving a single instance of attention to Octavia. It was only after Octavia knocked on the window that the Vaz opened the small section at the bottom of the window, as she rolled her eyes and released an audible sigh.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Khorasan Express to Pasargadae. Three adults. Cabin.“ Octavia slid money through a hole under the thick glass.

  The ticketing officer glanced at Octavia with a visibly annoyed expression. She eyed at Foreigner, who came to the side of Octavia just a moment ago, then Pafnuty before speaking in an irritated voice.

  “Document.“ She pointed her finger at Pafnuty, making Foreigner uncomfortable even though she wasn’t the one being pointed at.

  Octavia looked to the side of the ticketing office to see a paper attached to the wall with the official symbol of the Emperor. Foreigner couldn’t read what the letters were saying, but judging from Octavia’s face hardening for every sentence she processed, she could tell that it wasn’t a hopeful message.

  “Right.“ Octavia placed her hand back into the pocket and brought out more cash to slide it through the security window while clenching her teeth enough to make a cracking noise.

  The ticketing officer glanced at the extra money on her side and slowly pocketed the cash, ensuring that no one was aware of this transaction except for the involved parties. She pulled out three tickets and stamped on top of them, two with the same color and one with the other. She slid them toward Octavia as her eyes went back to her nails, and in light of the hospitality she was receiving, Octavia snatched three tickets on her side and turned around without a farewell. Foreigner could see the fury growing at the back of Octavia’s eyes, so she started a casual conversation in an attempt to ease her mood.

  “So, Pasargadae. We are heading to the empire’s capital?“

  “Yup.“

  “To earn money?“

  “Yup. That’s the plan. We go there, earn some cash, and leave as soon as possible.“

  Foreigner wished to continue the chit-chat further, but she couldn’t as she was afraid of an angry Octavia.

  “Octavia, my ticket, please.“

  It was Pafnuty who had the courage to approach the mad dog. Octavia looked at him and made a regretful face as she handed him the ticket with a special stamp. Once he took it, he entered through the door on the wall with a signboard written in the language of Aranaim.

  “Let’s go.”

  Octavia handed one of the tickets to Foreigner and passed through the ticket gate with her own. Foreigner did the same, but her eyes were fixed on the door Pafnuty entered through.

  “What about Pafnuty?“

  At a simple yet obvious question, Octavia stared at Foreigner with deep thought and then scratched her head fiercely.

  “Agh! This pisses me off!“

  She trudged to the nearby bench and threw herself onto it. Foreigner followed her while fidgeting with her fingers and sat quietly next to Octavia. After a brief moment of silence that felt like an eternity, Octavia opened her mouth.

  “I suppose you should know about this.“

  She sighed and pointed at the ceiling with a finger gun. Foreigner followed the aim, and there was yet another set of grand illustrations of the Emperor.

  “It’s part of the empire’s system. This empire is stupidly big. The Emperor needed some kind of way to rule the land while sticking his ass on the throne, and it was simply impossible to do so with just an iron fist. One terrible factor about authoritarianism is that when something goes wrong, everyone blames the one with the power. Just one spark of anger can fuel the rage among people, and boom, your nation is gone and you are lucky to be alive. That’s what it means to have the power.”

  Octavia crossed her legs and swayed her foot at a constant rhythm.

  “So, they came up with a plan. What if people could blame all of their problems on something disposable? What followed was propaganda against Aranaim, that all problems stemmed from them. At first, people did not buy it. But they flooded the media with their conspiracy theories, brainwashed children with their lies at school, and socially exiled the people who spoke against the Emperor. In the end, there were only the mindless simpletons left on the street, repeating the propaganda that they’ve been eating day and night. The result was massive discrimination against Aranaims, and Pafnuty is going through one right now with the so-called extra security screening.“

  Octavia pulled the trigger of her finger gun. She made a firing sound with her mouth, but nothing came out of her hand.

  “Just look at this station. Nobody uses it, yet they spent their treasury on this mind-boggling business. Just to show the local Aranaims who the boss is.“

  As she pulled her hat down from her head to cover her face, Octavia finished her monologue.

  “I should have said no when Pafnuty suggested this godforsaken land as our next destination.“

  After that, total silence fell on the train station. Octavia tried to take a nap that she very much needed, and Foreigner wasn’t sure what she could do or should say. But both were going through the same storm in their minds. All they could do right now was to pray that Pafnuty would show up unscratched.

  Such a state lasted until the shortest hand of the clock made a full cycle, and a door on the side opened up. Pafnuty walked out of it and took a deep breath before looking around. Once he found Foreigner waving her hand at him, he walked to the two waiting for him.

  “Apologies for the wait. Shall we take our leave?“

  Octavia properly wore her hat and gave out a loud yawn even though she hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. “What time is it?“ She asked while rubbing her face with her dry hands.

  “Umm…it seems like we have seven minutes left, so we are good?“ Foreigner said as she looked at the clock on a pole and double checking her ticket for the time.

  “What? Shit! We are late! Move, people!“

  As soon as Foreigner ended her sentence, Octavia sprinted out of her seat. Foreigner panicked for a second at the sudden action but followed right behind Octavia, and Pafnuty was four steps behind as he rushed with his heavy bag on his fragile body.

  Soon, Foreigner could understand why Octavia got urgent; this station was so massive. The way to the train platform was far longer than she thought, but it was yet another waste of space filled with restaurants and shops that had no one stationed in them. And once she learned about the reasoning behind such unnecessary elegance, it did not look gorgeous anymore but detestable.

  The platform section was an even bigger mess, with twelve train lanes in total, but only one of them had a train stationed with a gigantic name on the side, ‘Khorasan Express’. The torrent of emotion overflowed in Foreigner’s heart, to the point where she felt disgusted at herself for being excited when she heard that their next destination was the great empire.

  By the time she arrived at the platform, Octavia was already on the train. Soon, the train made a loud departing signal through its horn and started to move slowly with the doors closing automatically.

  “Quick! Run like your life depends! The next train is two weeks from now!” Octavia yelled as she held the door open with force.

  Foreigner was about to board, but she realized Pafnuty was still behind with his breath heavy and wouldn’t be able to make it at this pace. Instead of jumping for the opening Octavia held on to, she ran backwards to grab Pafnuty’s hand and ran with him at full force, almost dragging him on the floor in the process. By the time the two were running alongside the car with the only open door, Pafnuty was too exhausted to even lift a foot and hissed out something unintelligible. The train was continuing to accelerate, Octavia was sweating a rain while fighting against the automatic system, and Foreigner had a choice to make.

  “I’m sorry, Pafnuty!“

  She yelled and grabbed onto Pafnuty as if he were a sack of meat, then threw him at the train. With a loud thud, he collided with the inner wall of the train, and Foreigner jumped onto the train right before Octavia ran out of energy. The door shut violently, and the three were on the train with unending huff in the silent hallway. And yet, no one came to assist or check the situation. As she was releasing a heavy breath, Foreigner thought it was odd for no one to be onboard, but then she realized no one was needed to be on the train when the train station itself was nothing but a hoax. This gave another reason to hate the empire.

  “Alright, looks like we are good. Now, where’s our room.“ Octavia stood up while supporting herself on one knee.

  “There…there it is…“ Pafnuty raised his finger and his ticket and pointed at a door in his vision, with a dying breath.

  “I’m so exhausted…I’m gonna crash soon…“

  Foreigner cried out as her lungs slowly came back to the ordinary business. She stood up with the last remaining strength and raised Pafnuty up, who was shaking his entire body from the sudden exercise that he desperately needed.

  “Well, at least we’ll be able to rest on a proper bed this tim—“

  Octavia opened the door to the cabin, only to freeze in place with a disapproving face. Foreigner wondered what was going on, then she heard a voice coming out of the cabin.

  “Oh, my. What a handsome roommate I got.“