Today was the second Friday of Frost-Snow Month.
The na ca from the fact that the first snowfall of the year would descend upon the continent during this month.
At the sa ti—
It was also Ronald’s first month imrsing himself in work at Berengaria Train Station.
Sitting in the office assigned to him, Ronald, with his hands crossed under his chin, let his gaze sweep back and forth over the "Coastline Daily" on his desk.
Although it was produced by relatively backward printing technology,
The text was clear and even ca with halftone photographs.
"Famous Actress Miss Alida’s Performance Concludes, Golden Theater Staff in Awe!"
"Red Robe Priest Morten Establishes Church Orphanage, Officially Opens This Afternoon in Pading District!"
"Berengaria Receives Model City for Public Security Award, Warden Speaks Out."
"Virginia’s Private Collection Exhibition!"
...
His eyes rested on the black-and-white newspaper, Ronald’s expression sowhat blank.
Don’t get it wrong, he wasn’t pondering anything related to magical tos or the like.
All he was thinking about was what to have for dinner tonight...
The landlady at Ronald’s residence was quite skilled in cooking; the boarding house provided a nice al every day.
Outside of work, this was almost Ronald’s greatest pleasure.
Helplessly, it wasn’t that he lacked ambition.
He had gone through the original texts so thoroughly that they were imprinted in his mind, and he didn’t have any sick desire to test the power of spells on just anyone.
Now, working just a few minutes a day, he received a quite substantial inco, and multiplying his salary by four, he could instantly join the ranks of the city’s middle class.
A comfortable life dulls the spirit!
Besides, the life of an ordinary person in this alternate world hardly touched the mysterious side.
Just as Ronald had previously learned, due to the alienation of magical knowledge from the world, these things were completely inaccessible to the common folk; he couldn’t possibly be running to Swift’s detective agency every day!
Whether they were there or not was another matter.
As for Alida...
The actress had already finished her schedule in Berengaria last week.
She had naturally left Berengaria by now.
For Alida, the ultimate goal was next fall’s activities in Springs,
After all, that’s where the capital of Graid was.
"Hmm—"
Yawning wearily, Ronald’s unfocused eyes drifted over the clock in front of him.
Tick-tock, tick-tock—
Each pointer turned in circles honestly, according to their own rhythm.
He wound up the new train titable this morning and also took care of the clockwork for each.
For a certain period to co, there was no need to bother with these guys.
With the assurance of the internal Tourbillon, the pointers would chanically and faithfully finish their task.
"...."
"Let’s go for a walk."
He was, after all, a privileged employee; no one had the leisure to think about ousting Ronald from his position.
To him, work was freedom!
Just then, Ronald picked up his newly purchased coat from a chair nearby.
He left his office with a leisurely pace.
He had taken a month to recover, and the soft tissue injury had mostly healed; now, unless he engaged in high-intensity exercise, there was no problem.
Whoo—
A gust of cold wind blew into the train station’s office building on the second floor.
Feeling the temperature drop by the day, Ronald couldn’t help but tighten his coat buttons.
Autumn had ended altogether, and winter descended not only upon nature but also unavoidably affected the train station.
Especially in this single-sided office building, walking down the hallway, one could feel the icy slap of the cold wind on one’s body.
He had only taken two steps out when Ronald spotted a colleague’s delicate and graceful figure.
"Good afternoon, Martina."
This was the conference room one had to pass by when leaving the office building.
At the mont, the station’s higher-ups were in a eting there, sounding like they were discussing railway maintenance issues after the onset of winter—since it involved so disputes of interest, the atmosphere was quite heated.
And as a mber of the secretary team for the boss, Miss Martina was currently standing at the door of the conference room.
She had to stand guard here.
Just to wait for a potential call from her boss.
Which ant she had to endure the cold in the hallway, wearing clothes the boss considered nice but were actually too thin against the chilly wind.
When she saw Ronald coming this way, she naturally didn’t mind making small talk to pass the ti.
So, Martina winked at Ronald with a smile and greeted him in a low voice,
"Hey, it’s Ronald."
"Why aren’t you winding up that damn clock in your little cabin?"
"Wandering around outside idle, be careful they dock your pay."
Ronald, avoiding the gazes from inside the conference room, said,
"Ha-ha, these guys wouldn’t dare ss with Alida."
"With my dear starlet vouching for , life is pretty swell!"
"Why didn’t I rescue so big shot when I was a kid?"
After rolling her eyes at Ronald and making idle chat, Martina’s expression changed as if she suddenly rembered sothing,
"Oh, right!"
"Ronald, you ca here on the Dongfeng train originally, didn’t you?"
"The one that the murder case happened on."
"That’s right." Ronald nodded. "Any problem?"
Martina imdiately answered,
"After the train was fixed, it made a few rounds and today it’s back at our station again."
"If you’re interested, you could go down and have a look later."
"Since I see you’ve got so ti on your hands."
"Heh, I’m not really all that idle, though."
Scratching his head with an awkward smile, Ronald waved goodbye to Martina and left the second floor, heading down to the train station.
Down in the lobby—
The receptionist at the front desk was still receiving guests with a smile, and all the familiar patrolling staff had already grown accustod to Ronald’s comings and goings.
Just like wandering in his own backyard, Ronald took the staff passage to the train platform.
Just as Martina described.
The Dongfeng train, absent for a month, once again stood on the platform.
The original murder case had a terrifying impact and inevitably made the newspapers.
According to local dia reports from Coastline Daily, it was said to be a gang from a border town, one connected to the local paper industry, that sent an assassin to kill a military officer.
Gang assassination of a military officer...
Honestly, that was far-fetched.
But even more absurd was the cause of it all.
It was rely an accidental conflict, supposedly because the gang leader’s son was humiliated by that officer, then the hot-headed young gang lord ordered the hit!
Now, everything has settled.
The military lost face, and the gang suffered heavy losses.
However, the Dongfeng train, after the murder case, was unscathed.
The steel beast speeding on the tracks didn’t care at all about what had happened.
Woo-woo!
Clang-clang—
Right in front of Ronald.
After a period of resupplying, the train’s engine began to roar, getting ready to leave the station.
"Ha-ha—"
He laughed aninglessly and prepared to head back.
Ti to sit and rest in the office for a while.
Indeed, people grow during tis of slacking off...
Woo-woo-woo—
He had only taken a couple of steps when Ronald’s expression suddenly changed.
Because right behind him, the rumbling sound of the train that had just left returned.
Exactly the sa as before!
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