Chapter 617 : Helena
Chapter 617: Helena
Nini happily swayed her tail, exchanged a few words with the station staff, and the switchman then shunted over a train that had passenger carriages attached to a freight consist.
“Let’s go. This train is hauling copper ore. It just happens to carry passengers along the way, so the ride might not be particularly comfortable.”
The priests of the Silent Sanctum naturally had no objections. When they had evacuated from the White Raven Principality before, they had ridden in horse-drawn carriages—carriages without suspension and without rubber tires. No matter how many cushions were piled inside, it made no difference, and given the Sanctum’s usual style, they would never add any soft furnishings anyway.
On that kind of carriage, half an hour of riding was enough to shake even bladder stones loose.
By comparison, the train running on iron rails made the sense of jolting almost negligible.
Moreover, unlike subway seating, the seats on this train were actually padded. Sitting down, one’s whole body relaxed considerably.
“I’ve heard the new-style seats can adjust the backrest angle, but for now we don’t have those conditions yet.” Nini skillfully flipped over a row of seats. This carriage didn’t have a skylight, but its height was already more than generous, enough for even a Banshee to ride comfortably.
Even so, Nini thoughtfully slid open a nearby window and gestured politely toward Nora, who was holding Gwen.
Gwen froze for a moment before realizing what she meant. Just as she subconsciously lowered her head to look toward Nora, Nora had already leaned in and bitten down.
“Ahhh, Lady Nora, I haven’t done anything yet!!!”
The experienced Nora was no longer so easily fooled. If she didn’t bite now, then later, when Gwen lifted her up, she would only be biting at empty air.
Nini revealed a satisfied smile, stretched her tail, and climbed up onto the overhead luggage rack, leisurely lying down.
The only limitation in the carriage was height; space for lying down was absolutely sufficient.
While things were lively on this side, the priests of the Sanctum were meanwhile staring at those padded seats as if facing a formidable enemy.
“Such soft seats are far too extravagant.”
“Wake up. They’re just ordinary padded seats. It’s not as if the Sanctum doesn’t have better ones.”
“But this is during travel. Can you carry an armchair with you on a journey? Or do you prefer sitting in that damned carriage?”
“Castel has truly fallen into decadence.”
The priests quietly criticized Castel’s extravagance even as they happily wriggled around in their seats, adjusting their sitting positions.
On the other side, far away in his office, Hughes could not help but laugh and cry at the same time. He hadn’t expected these priests to give such high praise to the seats.
Indeed, the seats had been specially designed to better fit the body and provide support, making long journeys less uncomfortable.
He just hadn’t anticipated such an intense reaction.
In truth, it was mainly because Hughes himself had little experience with travel in this world.
Without modern means of transportation, long-distance travel was nothing short of top-tier torment. Even these priests of the Silent Sanctum, as Transcendents with powerful physiques, could not endure the jolting of a carriage.
“It seems the appeal of trains to people of this world has still been underestimated.”
Hughes narrowed his eyes.
The priests of the Silent Sanctum did not have long to savor the comfort of the train before they reached their destination.
The entire island of Castel was not very large. After only a little more than ten minutes, the train began to slow, and before long it came to a stop again.
After their initial astonishment, the priests quickly shifted their attention from the carriage interior to the buildings outside.
“Patriarch, these buildings—”
Ignati slowly nodded and looked toward Nini. “If I’m not mistaken, they’re all built of concrete, right?”
“Of course. But the grade used here is higher. You can understand it as having better concrete strength.”
Higher strength!?
For a moment, none of the priests of the Silent Sanctum spoke. They stared in disbelief at the rows upon rows of fortifications outside.
Their Stone Sanctum was already renowned for its sturdiness. They had assumed this concrete was at best comparable. Now they were being told it was even stronger?
“The outer hospital actually counts as a civilian building. This area is already military fortifications. The Castel Cathedral has its own hospital, which will be moved here during wartime.”
Nini cheerfully delivered the final blow.
The White Raven Principality practiced a unity of church and state, and the Sanctum naturally bore military responsibilities as well. After all, they Burials were meant to go to war.
And after all that comparison, the hospital’s concrete turned out to be civilian-use?
What exactly did ‘civilian buildings’ mean in the Northlands?
Houses built of stone and wood, covered with a layer of straw? More often, houses were simply plastered together with mud. In any case, after the White Calamity, everything would rot away. It was better to build something easy and quick. When the heavy snows came and the house could no longer withstand them, people would just move into the church.
Helena pushed her glasses up her nose, looking at the rows of concrete fortifications outside, and could not help revealing a look of longing.
Unlike Nora, she was a veteran Burial who had spent many years in the Northlands and seen far too much wind and frost.
Whenever blizzards struck, the Sanctum would be packed with people. If, back then, they had possessed houses built of this concrete, perhaps things would not have been so dire.
The doors of the Sanctum opened inward. After a storm, opening the doors revealed an entire wall of snow piled up against them. One first had to take a shovel and clear away the snow burying the entrance before stepping outside.
As for the believers’ homes, no one knew in which storm they had already collapsed.
People would dig out their fallen houses, salvage whatever could still be used, and then build new homes atop the ruins.
The children of the White Raven had long since grown accustomed to such suffering. They simply labored in silence.
If only—
Helena shook her head with a bitter smile. Castel had solid houses, but it did not have the wind and frost of the Northlands. Its harbor never froze over. It simply did not have these hardships.
Growing older made one prone to idle thoughts. Too many memories, too heavy.
An exclamation from her companions snapped Helena back. She hurriedly adjusted her glasses and looked out the window.
Then she too fell into a daze.
What towering fortresses.
Helena had fought many battles. At a glance, she could tell the design intent behind these fortresses. The sloped faces and tangent lines were clearly deliberate, specifically meant to withstand sieges. With ballistae and trebuchets deployed atop them, even the fiercest enemy could only sigh in despair.
Wait—what exactly was deployed up there?
Helena narrowed her eyes. On the fortress tops, she only recognized a bell tower. The remaining thick black pipes were completely unfamiliar to her. And why was there even a stele erected on the roof?
Fortunately, today was not some kind of festival. Otherwise, she might have seen Chloe standing atop that stele.
“Everyone, we’ve arrived. Up ahead is the Castel Cathedral.” Nini’s voice came from the luggage rack above.
Helena stood up, preparing to disembark, but suddenly felt something was off.
Wasn’t that a fortress outside? Where was the cathedral?
(One more chapter remains)