183 Consideration (1/2)

Chapter 183: Consideration

Translator: Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion

Spacious, light yellow cars, soft dark red seats, clean magic glass, and the two beautiful young girls wearing light blue dresses—this was Lucien's first impression of this magic train, and this first impression was pretty good.

”Welcome aboard Kloss. We'll be traveling past seven stations on our way today, and arrive in Allyn three hours later.” The two beautiful grils from the crew bowed to Lucien politely, ”If you need anything, sir, please press the button on the table.”

As a guest, Lucien only smiled and nodded, letting Lazar arrange the rest of the stuff.

After taking out his pocket watch and giving it a quick glance, Lazar said to Lucien, ”It's one in the afternoon right now, and we have plenty of time to arrive in Allyn before the people in the congress finish working today. Wait… I bet all of you haven't had lunch yet. No worries. This train is equipped with the best chefs from all over the continent, and all of your first trip to Allyn is paid by the congress. Of course, you gotta pay for your future trips, and it's one Thale per ticket.”

”That's pricy…” Even Lucien felt a bit surprised, not to mention the apprentices. After all, a common person with middle-level earning could only make seven to eight Thales a year. This train was way more expensive than the flights that Lucien had taken in his own world.

Seeing their facial expression, Lazar grinned, ”Actually, the idea of magic train was already put forward by some arcanists many years ago. They were inspired by the equipment used in mining industry. At that time, the train was fuelled by magic circles and alchemy lives, hence why the train was very expensive to run. Besides, most sorcerers above middle rank can fly. So you can see… The train was quite impractical.”

”What about this one?” asked Lucien.

”Mr. Kloss later improved the train by combining magic and machine together, and started using steam as the major power for the train, which greatly reduced the cost.” Lazar continued, ”The train is way faster than a middle-rank sorcerer flying on his own, even faster than magic brooms, not to mention that a train can carry way more people at the same time. Therefore, the congress puts much emphasis on the planning of the railways, and now we have four routes. The one we're taking now is the first settled route, from Patray to Allyn.”

As Lazar was introducing the details, he made Lucien and the apprentices order their food.

”Then why this train's still this expensive, Mr. Lazar?” asked Sprint curiously. Among all the apprentices, he was the most active one.

”Let's sit down first.” Lazar and Lucien sat down on the soft seats on both sides of the table. ”Because Kloss is a luxury train. That's why.” After all of them sat down, Lazar continued, ”For other trains, you are looking at around thirty Nars. I mean… it's still not cheap, but the cost of building new railways comes from income of the tickets and the funding of the congress. We don't trust those greedy bankers to do this.”

After satisfying the apprentices' curiosity, Lazar grinned to Lucien, ”I'm pretty sure that the price will drop someday, with the fast development of other transportation methods. Evans, you come to the congress in the best time, and you have to seize this moment, when all kinds of great ideas about magic are thriving. Work hard on arcana, and become a worthy sorcerer!”

Without doubt, Lazar was a very delightful and optimistic young man, or he would not be chosen to be the one greeting the newcomers.

”In fact, I already started learning basic arcana in Mr. Astar's place, and I have three apprentices studying after me.” Lucien smiled and nodded, and then placed Amboula and Alert in the designated area beside his seat.

In the past more-than-one-month studying, both Annick and Layria had become real magic apprentices before they arrived in Holm, and Heidi was almost there as well.

”That's great.” Lazar nodded.

Then with a loud steam whistle, the train started moving.

”Wow…” Sprint half stood up from his seat and stared at the outside of the window. Then so did Annick and Olmos.

The surprised and excited apprentices started discussing with each other.

Lucien reached forward for the water in front of him, without taking a glance at what was happening outside.

”You look pretty calm, Evans,” said Lazar in a favorable way.

Of course Lucien could not tell Lazar that he had seen this countless times in his original world, so he found an excuse, ”I think I'm more interested in the mechanics of this machine. Lazar, may I visit the operation room?”

Lazar laughed, ”Evans, I totally understand your curiosity, but what you're interested in is confidential. If you really want to find out how it works, the only way you can do it is to use your arcana points to exchange the materials with the congress.”

Surprisingly, as the train ran faster and faster, the noises produced by the train gradually disappeared. Lucien was guessing that it was because of the magic circles cast on the train.