Chapter 115 - Escaping from Arcanum Train (VIII)
Editor: Kitty
The setup of carriage No.11 was similar to those of carriages No.13 and No.12, and there were a lot of messy things scattered everywhere, such as fruit peels and paper sc.r.a.ps thrown around by people, clothes left arbitrarily on the sofa, and luggage stuffed on the overhead rack. The only difference was that in carriage No.11, there was a lot of “gla.s.s.”
There was not only gla.s.s on the carriage’s window.
If the mirror in the toilet and the hanging mirror in the crew’s lounge were counted as gla.s.s, then there were countless gla.s.ses in this carriage. On almost every sofa seat and table, one could see mirrors of all sizes. There were also some gla.s.s and mirror fragments on the ground, not to mention the mirrors that could be dug out from luggage or travel bags.
“Where are there so many mirrors in this carriage?”
Crow complained in annoyance as he casually found a small, round, palm-sized mirror. This mirror had suffered from rough handling and had many cracks on its surface.
This mirror looked familiar, and Crow looked at it for a long time. The mirror was broken, and his face, reflected in the mirror, was also fragmented. Crow touched his face inadvertently due to this.
“Don’t let blood stain the gla.s.s.” Owl also took a mirror to play with, and it seemed that he was mumbling that phrase once again. He repeatedly asked this question again and again: “What happens if you really stain the gla.s.s with blood?”
“Don’t bring up such a horrible idea again. Think about it; who in this carriage has blood? Of course, there are only four of us,” Crow subconsciously refuted him, but after a while, he said, “No… Maybe we can go back to the previous carriages, like carriage No.12? There’s a lot of blood there.”
Crow and Owl exchanged a look. They tacitly understood one another, and with one walking first and the other following after, they went back. But soon they discovered something terrible. The door to return to carriage No.12 was locked.
“I remember we didn’t lock the door when we came in,” Owl said.
Crow frowned: “Then it either locked automatically, or someone else has some sort of hidden agenda, so they locked it.”
After a pause, Crow said, “I remember you opened the door to carriage No.12. Where’s the key?”
Owl replied, “I left it in the keyhole.”
Both of them helplessly looked at the door connected to Carriage No.12. It seemed that the road was blocked, and they had to find another way out.
However, when they said they wanted to find another way out, they currently did not have any clue as to how to get out. With so many mirrors and gla.s.ses in Carriage No.11 shining brightly under the light, their eyes were all dazzled.
Black cat had been squatting not far from Crow and staring at him. Crow disregarded him, so he kept staring at him. But occasionally, Black cat would also curiously pick up a small mirror in his hand to mess with it for a few moments.
As for Wolf, he had been sitting on the sofa seat in the corner, keeping his eyes closed, and occasionally he would open his eyes to look out the window.
The two men Black cat and Wolf, who seemed to have no interest in escaping from the enclosed carriage, were disgusted with each other. They tried to maintain their distance from one another.
At present, they were in a horrible predicament. One of the four people was not willing to cooperate at all, and another one was the kind of person who was of little use. Moreover, the hint on the connecting door to carriage No.11 also caused people to deliberate. Who was the person harboring evil intentions? Such a question caused everyone to remain vigilant against others.
As time went by, Crow and Owl searched the entirety of carriage No.11, and in the end, they found no relevant clues. Almost as if the carriage was only covered with gla.s.s and mirror, under the dim light, the refraction of the light shone silently. When one swept one’s gaze over it, everything here appeared bedazzling.
Crow unconsciously covered a part of his eyes. The light refracted by these mirrors was so strong that he felt that it was overly bright.
Therefore, Crow asked Owl, “The light refracted by these mirrors is too strong, don’t you think?”
But Owl did not think so. He shook his head and said, “I’m not really affected by it… Erm, I even think it’s a little dim in this carriage.”
“Dim?” Crow felt incredulous. In his eyes, this carriage was much brighter than the two carriages he was in before. Especially with such a huge amount of mirrors reflecting light, it felt like the mirrors themselves had become a kind of luminous object.
“His light sense will gradually weaken because his pupils are enlarged and will lose their light sense. This only happens to the dead.” At this time, a voice suddenly sounded behind them. Crow and Owl turned their heads at the same time and found that Mr. Wolf, who had always been indifferent, moved to stand beside them.
“What do you mean?” Owl looked gloomy as he spoke.
“Oh—what do you think I mean?” Wolf laughed, but his tone was full of sarcasm: “Ah, this is really scary, but I feel it’s very interesting as well.”
“I know what you meant; you doubt me?” Owl did not evade his accusation but boldly retorted. It seemed that he did not want to give Wolf the impression that he was weak.
But what Owl did not expect was that Wolf did not play according to the rules. Suddenly, he took action. With his hand holding the broken broom with a tip on one end, he straightforwardly stabbed towards Owl. At such a close distance, he suddenly acted so that even Crow, who was standing nearest to them, had no time to stop his actions.
But Owl dodged it.
With a mere side-step, he breezily avoided the attack.
“Your reflexes don’t look like what a normal human being might have,” Wolf sneered.
“You motherf*cker, you’re looking for death!” It may have been because there were no legal or moral restrictions in the enclosed s.p.a.ce, so Owl could not help but counterattack. He was already harboring a deep resentment towards Wolf. Once the other party makes a move, Owl could not help fighting back. Thus, a second fierce fight in this carriage broke out.
Fortunately, the fighting capabilities of Owl were comparable to that of Wolf’s. Although they inevitably destroyed some public infrastructures in their fight, both of them were at a stalemate.
Crow thought that his fighting capabilities were not particularly good, so he consciously withdrew from the battle arena, and Black cat, standing at a side, also followed him to watch the bustle. The two protagonists of the fight again carried out different degrees of damage to the enclosed carriage No.11, and shining and bright fragments were strewn all around the floor. The refracted light was so strong that it almost blinded his eyes.
Crow looked thoughtfully at the glittering debris, and shortly after, he glanced at the ceiling lamp hanging on the ceiling of the carriage.
He muttered to himself, “Where might the power switch be located?”
“I know where it is.” Black cat stood next to him and suddenly said, “In the crew’s lounge.”
Crow heard Black cat’s voice, so he subconsciously turned his head to look at him. Black cat’s eyes were a hue of dark gray, and when he stared straight at him, his eyes carried a form of indescribable sadness.
Crow suddenly felt that he remembered something, but he only felt that way for a moment. Similar to a flash of light that dispersed quickly, Crow could not catch the light’s tail and watched it slip away. Although Crow felt familiar with Black cat in front of him, he could not remember anything.
Crow hesitated for a moment and turned to look at the battle arena. This time, Owl had taken out his weapon, the knife that Crow had given him before. Although the knife was very short, its sharpness was superior.
Moreover, it was obvious that his weapon possessed some advantages. Wolf’s moves were very powerful. However, because he held a broken broomstick and because Owl was very flexible and quick, he was not able to hit him. On the contrary, Owl could do a lot of damage to Wolf with his small and sharp knife.
“If it goes on like this, someone will die.” Crow was worried. He did not want to see them fighting and getting hurt, but he did not know how to stop the fight between the two people. After all, when one fought, their fists and legs had no eyes, so in the end, he could not possibly leave them be in case they really got hurt.
So Crow’s eyes turned nimbly to take a look at Black cat beside him. He requested, “Can you stop them?”
Black cat did not speak. He looked at Crow, then at that evil Wolf who was still fighting. He did not have a good expression on his face.
Before Black cat could answer, Crow shook his head again and said, “Forget it; let’s think of some other methods. It’d be very dangerous for you to rush in like this…”
So Crow put forward a new plan. He said to Black cat, “Since you know where the power switch is, would you please go there and turn off the light? I’ll stay here to keep an eye on them, and perhaps, in pa.s.sing I may be able to find a way to get out of this train car.”
Black cat obediently heeded Crow’s words. He eyed Crow for a moment and went to look for the switch. Crow watched him enter the crew’s lounge, which was located in another corner. Then he turned back to keep an eye on the two people fighting here. Suddenly, he called out Owl’s name.
Owl’s attention was drawn away for a moment, and the lights in the train car dimmed.
Outside of the train car, everything was pitch dark, and the light came entirely from the ceiling lamp inside the train car. Once the only light source was turned off, the train car descended into darkness, and it became so dark that one was unable to see their own fingers.
But when this happened, something mystifying occurred.
Since there were so many mirrors in the train car and so much broken gla.s.s on the ground, with the unexpected arrival of darkness, the gla.s.s and mirror fragments gradually began to reflect faint light, subtly but obviously. Moreover, with so many of these fragments emitting faint light, these light sources started to slowly illuminate the whole train car!
“It’s fluorescent powder,” Crow uttered after a slight pause.
With the light was turned off, the fight between Owl and Mr. Wolf stopped because of the temporary darkness. Owl’s face was a little twisted, and his hand covered his abdomen unnaturally. At that particular moment when the light was turned off, Crow had called out to him. He got distracted and did not notice Wolf’s attack. Therefore, he was accidentally stabbed by Wolf with the tip of his broomstick. Although he quickly dodged, it was hard for him to avoid suffering a little injury.
Under the illumination of a large amount of fluorescent powder, even if the lights were turned off, the place was lit up as bright as day. Crow noticed Owl’s discomfort and began to apologize: “Sorry. I just wanted both of you to stop fighting.”
Owl did not reply but gazed at Crow silently for a long time.