Appendixes: All the Dark Places

Appendixes ③: All the Dark Places

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind.

—Sam Ullman

"Listen! Listen closely!"

The heavy iron chain hooks clamped together, suddenly pulling the carriage as the train headed off toward the distant mountains between the lava lakes.

BOSS took off his top hat. He had just sent away a large crowd and finished a meeting about the final battle with key members of the Cabinet think tank and the Council of Elders.

"Listen closely."

Ming De stood at the lectern, his little fist clenched with a solemn air.

The people listening to the boss sat casually around the fireplace, sprawled across the rugs without a trace of formality.

Whether mortal or psychic, these high-ranking, powerful social elites, the governors of the various subterranean provinces and administrative districts, and the key figures in economic and political centers—all of them were forever just children waiting for the good kitty to tell them a story.

"The trains are running now. Eureka Volcano City's shipping capacity is nearly saturated. Its weekly freight throughput should be around three hundred and sixty thousand tons. We don't have better ships or a more advanced maritime communications system. We don't have Beidou satellites; we rely on bells to send and receive messages."

"But it's enough. It's enough."

BOSS nodded firmly—

"—It's enough. Every one of our cities, every dark place, has lit the candle of civilization."

"For the soldiers on the front lines, this level of transport capacity is already enough."

"It's enough to kill Judas for good, too."

A weekly freight capacity of three hundred and sixty thousand tons—setting aside gross weight, net weight, the effects of wind and waves, and losses during transport—meant that every day, the four main ports of the Abyssal Railway could