Hearing the call behind her, Dorothea turned around in some surprise.
She looked at the girl beaming before her and raised an eyebrow. "You're-Eleanor?"
"Yes! You still remember me! Hehe-"
The Medical School Dorothea attended had a program a year longer than the History Department's. Although Eleanor had already graduated, she was still Dorothea's junior.
As Eleanor spoke, she struggled to drag her suitcase onto the steamship's broad deck.
This was a passenger ship bound for Imperial Capital Saint Clair.
The Night Watch Bureau certainly had considerable authority, but not enough to charter an entire ship for a Detective Assistant. It had merely secured her a ticket for an immediate departure.
The Miskatonic River wound southward before finally emptying into the Sea of Mists, and Imperial Capital Saint Clair stood right at its mouth.
The two places were quite far apart. Reportedly, the imperial family was spending a fortune to build a railway that would greatly shorten the journey once completed.
For now, however, traveling by ship remained the most convenient form of transport inland. These river-going steamships were spared the ravages of storms and well supplied, making the voyage fairly comfortable.
With some curiosity, Eleanor stepped onto the solid deck, feeling the faint vibrations from the steam engine beneath her feet-not bad, it hardly rocked at all.
Her gaze soon settled on Dorothea and her companions.
"Are you-" After a brief look, understanding appeared on Eleanor's face.
"Out doing fieldwork?"
Dorothea wore a somewhat worn cloak, with Miskatonic University's badge pinned to her chest.
The badge still carried some weight within the Empire. At the very least, hospitals would provide treatment upon seeing it, rather than simply giving up because no one was paying.
For registered students, the university would cover medical expenses in advance, even allowing those unable