Amid the shrill whistle, at Tobesk train station at the end of the snow-laden Month of Rain Prayer, Iluna stepped out of the carriage with a broad smile and immediately saw her teammates from Blackstone Security Company waiting for her:
"Welcome back, Beias."
"Good morning, Iluna. Would you like to get breakfast now?"
"Miss Beias, today is monday. Since you're back, I'm afraid you'll need to visit the church first."
The greetings from the captain and her teammates made Iluna feel that she had returned to the familiar rhythm of her life.
She looked up at the heavy snow above the railway tracks, reminded the Ring Arcanists from the Sun Church who had come to meet the train not to forget her luggage, and then left the train station with the crowd, chatting and laughing with her teammates. Captain Moody Robinson mentioned that while Iluna had been away from Tobesk City, the security company's workload seemed to have dropped considerably. Famir, the Sorceress with purple-painted lips, said that the team needed to throw Iluna a belated birthday party.
The group left the train station like that. Iluna was speaking cheerfully with her teammates when she looked up and suddenly saw a blond man in a white robe standing in the center of the exit, watching her.
The surging crowd leaving the station automatically parted around him, making him seem like a massive reef in a stream. Yet even Iluna's teammates failed to notice him.
The man held a rolled-up parchment scroll in his hand. As he gave Iluna a slight nod, he wore that inscrutable expression of someone who would definitely speak only half of what he knew.
Compared to the attire of the travelers around him, he looked as though he had just taken a train from the distant