Alice looked out the train window. "I'm suddenly full of anticipation for this journey. It'd better be a thrilling adventure."
Hobart, seated opposite her, also looked outside. "Thrilling is acceptable, but Goddess above, it'd better not be dangerous."
Then he smiled. "Within Loen, we shouldn't face much danger."
Besides Hobart, there was another demigod protecting the royal delegation: the kindly old man Hobart had met before, Leikemengte.
Their rough division of duties was that Leikemengte protected Prince Bertlem, while Hobart protected Princess Alice.
Four Sequence 5 Beyonders protected the other four royal members. Though they were princes and princesses in name, they had not been born to the Queen or royal consorts, so their status within the Royal Family was far below Alice's.
Besides those six, there were several "Middle Sequence" guards. They had no fixed protection targets and served as a mobile force.
There was also an escort of fifty guards, among whom were several Beyonders.
The rest of the delegation consisted of servants and personnel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At that moment, Alice and Hobart were chatting face-to-face in the luxurious dining room of the first-class carriage.
Alice withdrew her gaze from the window. "The 'light bulb' you invented is astonishing."
Prince Bertlem, seated nearby, smiled. "Alice described the effects of electric lights to me, but they're truly difficult to imagine."
Hobart also turned away from the window. "Your Highness should see them soon enough. Quite a few nobles have already placed orders for light bulbs with my newly established company.
"Queens will be the first to receive electricity and the first to use electric lights."
Hobart had rented another large factory building not far from Queens and planned to convert it into a small Power Plant to solve the district's electricity needs.
Since it was