Hexagram Station luggage check-in.
A young woman with delicate features wore a polite smile: "Hello, how may I help you?"
"I have a suitcase I'd like to leave here. I'll pick it up when I return from Allenti." Ramiro's relaxed smile carried a faint scent of mint.
It was a specialty tobacco from the Brina Kingdom called "Mint Fragrance" — not meant to be smoked, but sun-dried using a secret method and chewed directly. It refreshed the mind and produced a pleasant, cigarette-like euphoria.
The young woman smiled. "For how many days? Are you a mage?" As an ordinary woman in Lontar, landing such a well-paying yet relatively easy job was entirely thanks to having listened to the "Voice of Mystery," which had dispelled her prejudice against mages and given her the courage to apply — allowing her to stand out among a very small pool of competitors. As a result, she felt nothing but goodwill toward mages.
"I'm just an ordinary mage. Hmm, let's deposit it for three days — actually, never mind, I'll pay for seven days upfront. Can we settle the difference when I come back?" Ramiro said unhurriedly, without the slightest hint of being pressed for time.
The young woman smiled in understanding. "No problem. Let me inspect the package first."
After listening to the "Voice of Mystery" and starting work at the Hexagram Station, she'd learned that mages weren't nearly as wealthy as people imagined. Plenty of them could barely make ends meet, pouring everything into improving their power and conducting arcane research.
Ramiro behaved like any ordinary traveler, handing over a black suitcase.
The staff member didn't let her guard down. Following her training protocol, she placed the suitcase into the Magic Circle housed within the large alchemical apparatus behind her, then pressed a switch to activate it with electrical energy.
It was a simplified alchemical product developed by the "Elemental Gift" company, designed specifically for inspecting luggage and packages. Once simplified, it could be powered by electricity, making it usable by ordinary people — and so it had been adopted at magic steam train stations, Nexster Palace, the manors and estates of great nobles, concert halls, opera houses, city halls, and beyond.
After the inspection confirmed there were no curses or dangerous items inside, the young woman opened the suitcase and gave it a visual once-over. She found that most of the contents were ordinary clothing, with some Brina tobacco, and a pale black chunk of meat wrapped in a dusty cloth.
"Specialty beef?" she asked out of curiosity.
Ramiro's lips twitched. "Mm."
"One silver nall per day, seven total." The young woman closed the suitcase, affixed a label, and placed it on the corresponding luggage rack in the storeroom behind her.
When she returned, Ramiro produced seven gleaming silver coins and let them drop one by one through his fingers onto the counter, squinting as he listened to the crisp clinking.
"Here's your receipt — please keep it safe. We'll settle based on the actual number of days." The staff member respectfully handed Ramiro a stamped receipt — the seal was made with a special alchemical ink that only a formal mage could forge, but none of them would bother doing so for such a trivial amount.
Ramiro picked up the receipt and glanced at it, continuing to chew his tobacco. He nodded slightly. "Thank you."
Then, with both hands tucked into the pockets of his long frock coat, he walked toward the platform where the magic steam train was boarding. As he neared a silver-black trash can, his right hand suddenly emerged and dropped a piece of carbonized paper into it.
The black paper drifted slowly downward and, at the slightest touch of air pressure, shattered into countless tiny fragments, vanishing without a trace.
After completing all of this, Ramiro ducked into the restroom. He appeared casual but thoroughly checked his surroundings, and only once he was certain there was no surveillance or other people did he pinch his face before the mirror. His entire body suddenly squirmed grotesquely, like a mud elemental, and in just a few seconds he transformed into a beautiful young woman with a curvaceous figure. His black double-breasted frock coat morphed into a light purple tiered skirt dress, with flowing ruffled lace at the collar and cuffs.
Meeting the gaze of those captivating deep blue eyes in the mirror, Ramiro smiled at "her": "Evelina, it's been a while. You know, sometimes I find being a girl far more entertaining than being a man."
"Evelina," naturally, could not answer him.
He straightened his — her — outfit, then conjured a wide-brimmed hat with pretty long ribbons seemingly from thin air and placed it atop his head. Ramiro strode out of the restroom with an elegant, poised gait and boarded the magic steam train that had just arrived.
"Evelina, you're back from Brina?" A young man rose from his seat in delighted surprise.
Ramiro smiled radiantly. "Yes. Arcane development in Allenti has been progressing too rapidly lately — staying in Brina any longer would mean falling behind the times, so I came back."
"That's wonderful news! What about your boyfriend, Loforov?" The young man gallantly gestured for "Evelina" to sit.
Ramiro put on a melancholy expression. "We've separated."
"Oh?" The young man struggled to suppress his joy, forcing a look of sympathetic heartache as he offered comfort. "It's alright. Someone better is waiting out there for you."
Ramiro gazed "wistfully" at the platform slowly receding outside, listening to the long whistle and the clack-clack-clack of iron wheels against the rails, silently cursing to himself:
*Who the hell is this guy?*
The memories the real Evelina had shared after being captured certainly didn't include anyone like…
That "quiet melancholy" intoxicated the young man, rendering him speechless. Time passed quickly as the magic steam train gradually gained altitude, heading toward Allenti.