The old man in outdated clothes vanished from the platform like a shadow dissolving in sunlight, yet the coin in his palm still held lingering warmth. The young man blinked, taking several seconds to finally recover from his shock.
He subconsciously rubbed the coin in his hand before slipping it into his pocket. Payment for giving directions was already quite generous, and in terms of purchasing power, it even exceeded what he had earned back when he sold "information" to adventurers as a street thug in the towns—at that thought, the young man could not help smacking his lips.
Adventurers, "information," giving directions, payment of a single coin... Thinking about it carefully, this really did feel a little like going back to the old days.
He curled one corner of his mouth and stretched his legs, which had grown sore from wandering around the platform for too long, then followed the already thinning crowd toward the exit. Not far away, a freight train far more rugged in design than an ordinary passenger train stood beside a cargo platform. The large sliding doors on its carriages had opened to the side, and the waiting loaders moved forward under their foreman's command, transferring the cargo-filled supplies onto trailers.
The bearded foreman stood beside the loading area, directing the work while glancing at the standardized wooden crates. The seals on the sides of the crates clearly bore the emblem of the Commonwealth Alliance.
At the Northport dock district, Duchess Victoria of the Northern Territory stood on a platform. Drizzle was swept toward it by the breeze, only to have its course altered by an invisible force before it could draw near. Only the chilly wind swirled around the Duchess. She raised her head and gazed toward the vast, gently rolling sea surface beyond