19 – Lone Wolf
There are different types of begging.
There are strategies that reveal the destitute living conditions without reservation, sometimes exaggerating to evoke sympathy from passersby.
And there are also strategies that showcase various tricks to gather people.
The absolute majority adopts the electronic method.
Talents capable of drawing crowds through skills like singing, musical performance, acrobatics, and the like are not given to just anyone. Moreover, there is no leisure to acquire such skills.
I was no exception.
Except for luckily picking up a magic book, I was an ordinary guy with nothing outstanding.
I had tried practicing a trick once.
It must have been about three years since I started living under the bridge.
Hungry and desperate, I tried every possible hustle. Among them, I practiced juggling to the point where I could hear compliments about it.
In the Empire, juggling seemed to be worth less than a coin and ultimately didn’t contribute to any profit. But now things were different.
This is the Federated States of Prouvia.
And I became Benjamin’s disciple from the beggar under the bridge.
It means I don’t have to hide my most confident skill, magic, anymore.
Swish― Swish― Swish―
Balls of four different colors soar into the sky along a precarious trajectory, as if about to fall or speak.
Suddenly, around ten people, including a blonde girl, surrounded the area.
Following Benjamin’s confident laughter, I increased the speed even more.
Perhaps because of that, one ball bounced forward.
“Hey, hey!”
“It’s falling!”
The young audience reacted positively.
The rest probably also have similar thoughts, but they just didn’t say them out loud. I want to make their jaws drop.
[Yeomdong (move)], I recited the activation phrase in my mind.
The black ball, tracing an inevitable trajectory, bounced off an invisible wall and returned to my grasp as if it had collided with it.
“Huh? What’s this?”
All the spectators opened their eyes wide in unison.
They say that expectations have the greatest effect when they betray you in a good way.
Indeed, it seemed to be the case.
Now it’s time for me to show that I’m more than just a simple juggler.
I took out two more balls from my pocket.
Some people might be able to juggle with six balls, but it’s a level of skill that is impossible for me, at least.
Therefore, I had to “levitate” the balls while juggling.
That became an even more impressive spectacle than juggling with six balls alone.
“Magic? Is it magic?”
“Wow….”
“Is it a Level 1 spell [Yeomdong]? Even if it is, can someone handle it so quickly and delicately?”
Indeed, it must be the heartland of magic, the Federation.
Even the general public seemed to have basic knowledge of magic, quickly discerning the nature of the trick.
It was actually a good thing.
The deeper their understanding of magic, the more they would appreciate the difficulty of manipulating the trajectories of six balls simultaneously.
The commotion attracted more spectators, and more spectators brought about more commotion.
Just as the crowd closed in, surrounding me and obscuring my view.
I lowered my arms.
Six balls soared into the sky, circling around the train station, and after a few rounds of addition and subtraction, they formed a straight line and flew back towards me.
And then.
“Snap.”
Thunk!
Without a single error, all six balls landed perfectly inside the bag I was holding.
After closing the bag, I had two tasks to complete.
First, to greet in the most comically absurd manner based on the etiquette I had learned from an encyclopedia.
And second, to welcome applause and the baptism of coins.
*
After about fifteen minutes had passed and people had dispersed, I briefly stepped outside the train station.
I took off my mask and adjusted my hat, which had been covering all of my hair.
When I stepped back inside the station, no one recognized me.
It is true that gray hair is prevalent among the people of the Empire, but not all individuals with gray hair are from the Empire.
To label all gray-haired individuals as imperial or to blindly hate them is highly dangerous.
Hatred or discrimination is a means to belittle others and elevate oneself.
Although it is easy for emotions to become entangled, it is difficult to actively engage in such baseless acts.
Perhaps the reason why people from the Federation hesitate to make eye contact with those with gray hair is also a result of this passive aversion.
It’s not a very important story.
After all, it doesn’t do any harm.
Compared to what happened near the Leman army camp, I could easily brush this off as insignificant.
What’s important now is that they don’t recognize me.
I casually headed towards the ticket booth.
“Hello.”
“Oh, yes.”
The ticket booth employee let out a sigh as if to say, “Here comes the guy with no money again.”
But if they think that the me from two hours ago and the me now are the same, they are sorely mistaken.
The employee reluctantly opened their mouth.
“The train will arrive in an hour. No excess baggage, and you can’t ride in the cargo car. Of course, fare evasion is not allowed.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Pardon?”
“This is a ticket booth, isn’t it? I came to buy a ticket.”
Clang!
In front of the employee, I neatly stacked the coins and placed them all at once.
There were quite a variety of them.
From pence coins to shilling coins, and even pound coins.
The employee, with an expression of disbelief, counted the coins, and after thirty seconds, had to let out a hearty laugh.
“Fifteen pounds. It’s just right.”
“Give me a third-class ticket.”
“hahahaha… Here you go.”
He received the ticket.
“Have a pleasant journey.”
After lightly nodding in response, he turned away.
“Wow.”
Only now could he be genuinely surprised.
A moment ago, the settlement was as follows.
Six masks and six balls, totaling three pounds.
The final profit contained in the iron chest, twenty-four pounds.
“Wow…”
It was a substantial profit.
Although he had expected good results by investing all the remaining money, he hadn’t anticipated such a successful outcome.
Has he ever touched such a large sum at once in his life?
Even after buying tickets, he still had four pounds left.
Hmm.
“Oh, this isn’t right.”
He quickly suppressed his conscience.
Was it because he successfully resolved the resentment of his past life as a businessperson under his feet that he achieved such success?
In an instant, I found myself seriously contemplating, ‘Could I keep making money with this?’
Let’s not be confused. My dream is still to become a wizard….
It might sound like a half-joke, but there was a separate reason why I couldn’t continue this juggling performance.
Sustainability was lacking.
About half of the audience were those who had booked train tickets, but the other half were either railway station staff or people who had come to see someone off.
If we continued causing a ruckus every day at the station, not only would the employees dislike it, but people’s interest would also diminish.
Unless you exclude the initial astonishment and performance, the combination of juggling and magic reveals itself as a simple spectacle.
I had to take the train.
It was when I firmly reached this conclusion again.
People who had been sharing stories and passing the time one by one began to stand up and move towards the railway track.
There were no signals or sounds.
What were they feeling?
I found out when I followed them and approached the vicinity of the tracks.
Thump. Thump.
Vibration.
The vibration, transmitting from the soles of my feet, signaled the approach of a massive entity in the distance.
Soon after, sounds began to be audible.
This time, it was sound.
Chiiing―
A sound I had never heard before. According to the encyclopedia, it should be the sound of steam, but the size and magnitude were so vast that it didn’t feel real.
The memories of the days when I first saw the flagship come to mind.
I was amazed by its development, far beyond the design of the flagship I saw in the book.
Will it be the same this time?
A little later, the train started coming in from a distance.
Kugugung. Kugung.
From Noble mtl dot com
Chiiyik―!
The oppressive feeling of heavy steel and the smell of coal. Rising white steam.
The volume that fills the once empty tracks.
Until the train came to a stop, I stared at it, almost forgetting to breathe.
Suddenly, a sense of betrayal crept in.
“…Benjamin. They said it’s doubled in size and ten times longer.”
Unlike length, area must be measured in square units.
Volume, moreover, is cubic.
The train in front of me looked about four times what I had seen in the encyclopedia, and if you include the length, it seemed to be about twenty times.
*
After presenting the ticket, I boarded the train.
Contrary to the majesty of its appearance, even inside the train, I didn’t feel any more amazed.
“….”
Is this where people live?
Perhaps it’s because of the third-class seat, but the decadence and extravagance revealed in people’s faces brought me back to reality, shaking off the enchantment I had been under.
Fortunately, I was able to secure a seat by the window.
“What kind of jobs are available near Leslie Station?” I had pondered when and to whom I should pose this question, but now it seemed like a question that didn’t need to be asked.
Like a densely packed third-class seat, the conversations of passengers resonated vividly, and, more than anything, it could be inferred that quite a few people with rough fingertips were noticeable.
Leslie Station.
In other words, there is a mine in Leslie Province of Oslovya.
