Hearing Mulan call him his friend moved Farolynch somewhat. After the train came to a complete stop, he even showed a rare burst of enthusiasm and offered to help Mulan with his suitcase. Of course, he only picked it up and handed it over.
Outside Sorens Railway Station, someone had been keeping watch on arrivals from the South. When Mulan and Farolynch appeared, a man who had been waiting for several days immediately perked up. He hurried over to his companion and nudged him in the back with his elbow.
"Hm? What is it?"
His companion, who was smoking, turned around, and the younger man pointed in a direction with his chin.
"They're here. Come on, hurry."
"They really came!"
His companion quickly threw his cigarette butt onto the ground and stamped it out with his leather shoe. Then the two hurried toward Mulan, though they did not approach him immediately. After walking a short distance, they turned off onto another path.
Mulan was carrying his suitcase out of the arrivals area with Farolynch, planning to hire a carriage outside the station and find somewhere to stay.
Sorens was a large northern city, and its station was sizable as well. Plenty of carriages for hire always waited for customers near the exit. The quality of their carriages divided the drivers into different ranks. They were all coachmen, yet those with better carriages and more beautifully groomed horses tended to be rather aloof. They rarely spoke to the ordinary drivers and were not especially eager to solicit customers, either, because they knew respectable passengers would always choose them.
Mulan and Farolynch were not so particular. Any reasonably decent carriage would do. They left the station with a group of other passengers, and before Mulan could head toward the carriage stand ahead,