Lord Hypnos

Lude's lunch was lavish.

As an agent from the Obsidian Hall, Lude naturally enjoyed the finest hospitality.

In the countries within the Loselin Empire's cultural sphere, formal banquets generally served dishes in this order: cold appetizers, salad, soup, main course, pasta, and dessert. Each meal also included at least two different wines to accompany the food.

The two wines had to differ in character—one mellow, the other robust—so guests with different tastes could enjoy them.

However, at a banquet, dishes had to be served one at a time and in order, so they wouldn't cool and become hard to eat. A train naturally couldn't meet that requirement, so Vernon had even placed a candle beneath each dish.

The appetizers were smoked salmon with sour cream and chopped onions, along with Iberian ham wrapped around rosemary and mozzarella.

The vegetables were prepared in the style of the Southern Archipelago: tender dandelion leaves and plantain salad with blackberry juice.

The soup followed the Rusian Theocracy's recipe: borscht made with beef shank and red beets, seasoned with sour cream.

The main course was golden, crispy Viennese schnitzel served with buttered mashed potatoes and shredded sauerkraut.

For dessert, there was a creamy apple strudel wafting with a delicate, sweet aroma, as well as a tangy-sweet lemon tart that Lude particularly liked.

The two wines were Grüner Veltliner, with notes of lime and apple, and Lude's favorite, a smoky, citrus-scented Highland Scotch whisky. Lude was a bit of a bumpkin himself; he couldn't appreciate the sour, astringent taste of red wine tannins.

In fact, Lude's favorite drink was sweetened sherry. Unfortunately, this train didn't have any, but at least the Grüner Veltliner would do.

The meal probably cost around three marks—half a month's wages for an ordinary worker. Of course, the two fine bottles of alcohol accounted for the biggest share of the price. In any era, such drinks were the most expensive things on the table.

But just as Lude reached for his cutlery, his body suddenly shuddered against his will.

A peculiar chill had somehow slipped through the crack beneath the door and into the room, tinting everything it touched a gloomy blue-white. Flawless frost silently appeared, spreading like a spiderweb across the train window and blotting out the sunlight and scenery beyond.

The lamplight began to flicker soundlessly, and an extremely pale glow streamed down through a crack in the lampshade.

The far north's bitter winter descended upon the room in silence. The air seemed to congeal, chilling Lude's skin until it felt brittle, while the settled snow muffled every sound around him. It was as if he could hear a gravedigger's lonely dirge beside him, fading at last into silence beneath the cold earth.

Shattered frost, a deathly stillness, a soundless dirge—everything proclaimed that a true personage was about to arrive.

But Lude had no time to think about what any of it meant.

An aura of bitter cold sprang from every corner, seeping through Lude's skin and into his muscles and veins. In an instant, it penetrated to his very bones.

For a brief moment, Lude even felt as though his soul were about to freeze.

But at that very instant, as if sensing the danger, Lude's beautiful Soul Fire suddenly blazed to life!

The golden-red-and-black flame swirled like a vortex, drawing all of Lude's Psionic Energy into itself in the blink of an eye. Then a golden-red blaze burst forth like the sun in its fury, surging violently into every limb and bone in Lude's body.

In an instant, this scorching force drove out every trace of the frigid energy that had invaded Lude's body.

But like a solar flare, after purging the foreign power from Lude's body, the flame seemed to have little strength left. Still, that brief warmth was enough for him. Without hesitation, he pulled a metal case from his waist pouch.

He flipped open the lid. Three syringes lay inside, their glass tubes suffused with a golden-red glow.

They contained Wyvern Blood Essence, and Siana had thoughtfully labeled the injection order in her neat handwriting. Lude immediately reached for the syringe marked [No. 1], but an elderly hand gently stopped him halfway.

"No need, young man," said a kind, elderly voice. "I don't believe I'm your enemy."

Lude hesitated for a moment, then let out a quiet breath. With a flick of his fingers, he closed the metal case and put it back in his waist pouch. The difference in their strength was simply too great: the odds of his desperate attempt succeeding were practically zero, and his opponent had no need to deceive him.

Once he had grasped that, Lude felt considerably more at ease. He turned to look at the newcomer.

He was an elderly man with a kindly face, stooped as if by age. His complexion was frighteningly pale, as though he had suffered from consumption for years, yet his sunken eye sockets held a pair of strikingly alert ice-blue eyes.

The old man seemed like a refined gentleman. He lifted the tails of his frock coat and sat gracefully opposite Lude.

At the same time, the cold that had been swirling through the room visibly gathered back into the old man's sleeves. The frost turned into droplets of water, the lamplight grew warm again, and the gloomy blue-white tint quietly faded from view.

A few seconds later, the only proof that the cold had been real was the ice floating in the Grüner Veltliner in Lude's glass.

"Good afternoon, young sir." The old man smiled at Lude, his manner quite warm. "I apologize for interrupting your lunch, but since this train will arrive at its stop in three hours, I had no choice but to resort to this."

"I am Mourner Makito Demask Plano—but I prefer to be called Lord Hypnos."

As he spoke, he picked up a knife and fork. "Young sir, I hope you'll forgive an old man who has come from far away. He's feeling a little hungry now. If you're willing to share your lunch with him, I'm sure he'll be delighted and grateful."

"Of course," Lude replied respectfully. "Ludwig von Hastings. It's an honor to meet you, Lord Hypnos."

"Hastings?" Lord Hypnos raised an eyebrow. "An ancient surname. It reminds me of the last queen of the Plantagenet Dynasty. It seems you weren't an ordinary person in your previous life either. No wonder you managed to escape the Black Tide Society's control."

Damn it, Lude cursed inwardly. How had a name he'd made up on the spot dragged in some obscure history?

Fortunately, Lord Hypnos's next words put Lude at ease.

"But none of that matters now. You're no longer who you once were. I can see that your soul has been freed, and you now possess something far nobler than your birth and bloodline."

As he spoke, Lord Hypnos couldn't help but sigh.

"Come to think of it, I'm glad I made this trip. I was only curious because of the shifting stars about what those children in the Black Tide Society had gotten up to this time, just as I was twenty-four years ago."

"I never expected to find such a promising young man."