Steel steam and flame

The neighbors who were supposed to say goodbye also said hello at noon, with envious looks in their eyes. Half of the members of the small town are indigenous people, and the other half came here from other places. I have also visited other cities, and most of them want to move out of small towns at some point in the future.

The station is almost the same as before, because almost no one will come back or leave now, so that the staff here didn't even shovel the snow in front of the station, they just sat in the room. The imperial realignment will arrive in more than a month, and it will take a long time to prepare.

The snow is not pure white, it feels a bit gray. As the year draws closer to the end of the year, the factories in the small town are showing more and more mismatched vitality.

After buying the tickets, Cassia and the others sat on the hard chairs and waited. There was a printed latest timetable on the billboard nearby, but the train did not arrive on time according to the time on it. More than an hour later, the train, painted all in white, slowly stopped at the edge of the platform with a rumbling sound. The locks on the iron fence are all broken, and you have to wait until the re-listing comes to replace them. Normally there is no one here.

When Cassia and the others walked over, several strong men in steward uniforms walked out of the train with iron rods, as if they were going to break the frozen ice on some parts of the train.

Most of the seats on the train are still empty, and the number of people is so sparse that you can count them at a glance. The railway line in the border area has only a few trains passing through it throughout the year. The timetable at each station is based on half a month or a month. Moreover, the trains stopping at these places are not expected to be full of passengers, and all the money to maintain their operations and maintenance comes from the empire. This may be the only thing worthy of praise about the empire. At least except for the use of airships, the Empire really made railway lines cover the entire country.

This can be regarded as Lilia's first time taking a train. When she came here a few years ago, she also took a train. But at that time, she was still held in her mother's arms, and her eyes had not been open for long.

The things around her may be very novel to her, and after the train starts moving, the scenery outside the window is also the same. He was always moving, his eyes were shining, and he was half-kneeling on the chair, holding his hands on the window to look at the rapidly passing scenery outside. A snow-white scenery, not far away you can see the smaller and smaller shadow of Lilac Peak.

The small town was quickly surrounded by the surrounding white scenery and disappeared from Cassia's sight. For some reason, he suddenly felt relieved at this moment.

Lilia looked at the unchanging scenery outside, and she was completely tired after an hour or two. Now I curled up in a ball on the chair and fell asleep. My long eyelashes fluttered from time to time. It was a quiet age where I didn’t have to think too much.

Mother was in a similar state beside her, leaning on a soft chair and resting with her eyes closed. There are always strange things on the train, which have the power to make people fall asleep.

Cassia couldn't rest and couldn't calm down. Taking out a book to read is not a good choice at this time. I brought a few books back, but they are still lying in Cassia's gift box, and not a single page has been turned by Cassia. During the days when I was waiting for the snow to stop at home, I couldn’t read a single line of words. Take out the book and open it. Your eyes are indeed transmitting the contents of the book into your brain continuously, but the meaning of those words cannot be thought out.

This state continued for Cassia until the train carried him and his mother and sister through half of the empire and arrived at a major city in a prosperous region.

The sound of the whistle woke up everyone who had fallen asleep on the train. Cassia, who was asleep, opened her eyes when the train slowed down, put down her luggage in advance, and waited for the train to stop.

A considerable flow of people could be seen outside, and lamps connected to the current were hung high above everyone's heads, emitting a cold light. There was a thin layer of steam floating on the ground, coming from under the train. The temperature here is far less cold than that in the small town, and not even a single snowflake has fallen yet.

Lilia's eyes were wide open, and the electric lamp attracted all her attention. Even though the bright light made her eyes hurt, and after looking at them for a long time, she would get a blurry glare. But for her, this may be the first time she has seen such a strange lamp. After being picked up by her mother and walking outside the station, Lilia always wanted to reach out and touch the electric light above her head, but the height difference was too much. It was not a height that she could reach with her hand. The last waving little hand could only catch the air. .

The place where Cassia got off the train can be regarded as the terminal station of this train. It is in a region called Mesalia. In terms of the prosperity of development, it is definitely not as good as Manoma and some areas along the coast of the Endless Sea, but It's only about half a level behind. And it is not known for its high degree of industrial development. The Messelia area in the main film is a vast plain, and it is rare to see a raised terrain on the horizon. Agriculture is mainly developed here, and it is one of the main producing areas of grain, vegetables and fruits in the empire. There is no cold feeling caused by metal objects, but a natural warmth. Although now Cassia only feels the bleakness of winter. However, agricultural planting technology was also vigorously developed and developed by Avalon at a certain period in the empire's history. This was roughly the time when the empire was researching tranquilizers. Many greenhouses for cultivation were built on the plains, ensuring that even in winter, the output of grain and vegetables to other areas of the empire would not drop much.

Moreover, one of the schools affiliated with the seminary, the agricultural research branch of the Imperial School of Biology, has also established a branch school here, which is considered one of the best schools in the Mesalia region. There are plans to let her sister go to this school in the future. Cassia has done some research. The Imperial Biology School is one of the few schools in the empire that has less involvement with theological schools and military schools. Other educational environments are not out of touch with the empire, and all the resources that should be available are available. In addition to these reasons, there is probably another important factor in choosing to place my mother and sister Lilia here, which is that it is much closer to Manoma. Compared with the small town, the distance is reduced by almost half.

There were many regions and cities that were considered, and Cassia finally chose a place that was more or less far away from machines.

When I walked out of the waiting room, it was only about two o'clock in the afternoon. There was a row of limousine cars pulling guests parked outside in an unobtrusive and orderly manner. After hailing a limo, Cassia put down her luggage and told the driver the destination she had researched before coming.