Dorothy’s Forbidden Grimoire

After a brief rest at the station, the Desert Arrow train once again set off. Accompanied by the start-up of the steam engine at its head, thick smoke gushed from the chimney as the entire train rumbled forward, plunging into the vast darkness of the night.

Speeding through the deep of night in order to reach its scheduled destination by morning, most of the train's compartments—except for the engine room and driver's cab—were already immersed in slumber, with only a few vigilant individuals still awake.

Around dawn, in one of the empty, unoccupied compartments, the carriage door suddenly opened. A man dressed in a crew uniform stepped inside. After entering, he looked around briefly before turning to quietly close the door behind him.

Once the door was shut, the crew member looked up at the ceiling of the carriage. He reached into his clothes and retrieved several items: first, a mask, which he put on his face; then a small block of solid incense, a box of matches, and finally a screwdriver.

He placed the incense and matches on the table inside the carriage. Climbing onto a nearby seat with the screwdriver in hand, he carefully inspected the ceiling corner where the ventilation shaft was located. Finding the vent, he used the screwdriver to remove the metal grate. His movements were so light they barely made a sound. Once the grate was removed, he gently set it on the table.

Then, taking the block of incense and matches, he placed the incense into the ventilation duct and struck a match to ignite it. Smoke slowly wafted from the solid block.

Seeing the smoke rising, the crew member crouched again to pick up the vent cover and carefully reattached it. Then he searched his clothing again, pulling out a small silver coin and a sigil.

Using the spirituality stored in the coin, he activated the sigil, creating a faint breeze that he directed into the vent. The breeze pushed the incense smoke further down into the ducts.

Carried by this breeze, the thin smoke traveled deeper into the ventilation system, and eventually began to leak out through other vents along the train. One of those vents led directly into the compartment of the train's most "distinguished" passenger—Sister Vania.

Having finished all this, the crew member climbed down, carefully erased all traces of the scene, adjusted his hat, opened the carriage door, and left the compartment.

Thus, the Desert Arrow continued steadily forward in the darkness, as though nothing had happened, moving toward the final stop of its journey.

…

As the moon set and the stars faded, dawn began to rise. A full night quickly passed, and with the first rays of sunlight in the east, Kankdal Port welcomed a new day.

By midmorning, Kankdal's train station was bustling with activity. All unrelated personnel had been cleared out, and police and city guards were stationed in key locations. Along the broad platform stood a large group of people: a ready orchestra, expectant journalists, and, most notably, spectators from all walks of life in Kankdal.

This was the welcome ceremony arranged to greet the returning delegation. Personally planned and hosted by Kankdal's mayor, Robert, the event was elaborate, with a crowd exceeding a thousand. Nearly every inch of the platform was filled with people. Not only did Robert himself attend, but he also invited notable figures from every sector of Kankdal to join. By early morning, those important figures began arriving, some of whom were rather unexpected.

"Uwahhh... Why haven't they arrived yet?"

At the front of the crowd, in the area reserved for aristocrats and notable guests, a plump young man in a traditional North Ufigan noble robe, draped in gold jewelry and wearing a turban, yawned and grumbled while staring at the empty railway in the distance. Upon hearing him, a servant beside him dressed in servant's attire said.

"Please wait just a bit longer, Prince Mazarr. According to the schedule, the train should arrive in about twenty minutes…"

"Twenty minutes? That long? Why couldn't they have told us when exactly it would arrive so we didn't have to stand around like this?" the man—Mazarr—complained again, and the servant quickly added.

"Your Highness, we're waiting for Sister Vania's special train. She is the church's appointed envoy sent to deal with matters in our nation. We must show her proper respect. When she departed for Yadith, even Prince Ma'ad personally came to see her off…"

"Sister Vania... That little nun, aside from being pretty, doesn't seem like much… People at the banquet said she's just a pretty ornament. She didn't accomplish anything in Yadith and came back empty-handed. And my uncle—why does he value that flower vase so much? He insisted I come be the face of the royal family for the welcome. If not for this stupid ceremony, I'd still be in Yanmeng's bed at the Nightingale Theater right now…hic…"

Mazarr let out a drunken hiccup, reeking of alcohol. Hearing his words, the servant panicked and quickly whispered.

"Shh… Prince, please mind your words. This is a public place. You are a prince of Baruch—please don't say such things aloud…"

As some nearby nobles began casting glances their way, the servant nervously tried to intervene. Mazarr, however, seemed entirely unconcerned and continued.

"Baruch prince? What prince? Baruch's dead, isn't it? Prince of what? That uncle Ma'ad and his lot are still daydreaming about restoring the country. We brought out enough treasure to keep us fed for generations—why bother trying to bring the country back? Just let Addus be that punk Shadi's. I say we live in luxury here in Kankdal forever. To be honest, Kankdal's way more fun than Yadith. Women from every country—you can have 'em all. Why bother going back?"

Mazarr's unfiltered speech drew strange looks from those who understood North Ufigan language, while his servant desperately tried to silence him, utterly helpless.

As each second ticked by, nearly twenty minutes later, a long whistle finally echoed from the far end of the railway. Everyone turned to look, and they saw a column of smoke slowly approaching—beneath the smoke was a train engine gradually slowing down.

At that moment, atop a certain building outside the station, a figure in a traditional Northern Ufigan robe, headscarf, and face veil stood gazing at the slowing train not far off. Her eyes were fixed on a specific car of the long train.

As she watched the train pull into the station, the woman atop the roof slowly sat down and closed her eyes. Then, under the influence of a strange power, a spirit—an ethereal soul identical in appearance to the woman—emerged from her body and swiftly floated toward the distant train. Though the station was guarded by city guards with mystical defenses, no one noticed the spirit as it silently slipped into the train and phased into one of its compartments.

Once inside, the spirit saw the peacefully sleeping Vania still lying in bed. At that moment, the door of Vania's compartment was being knocked on loudly, with an urgent voice calling from the outside.

"Sister Vania! Sister Vania! Are you in there? Please come out quickly and get ready! We're arriving at the station soon—there's a welcome ceremony outside! Please open the door!"

The knocking and shouting grew increasingly urgent, but Vania remained utterly motionless, deeply asleep, as though she hadn't heard a thing.

Seeing this scene, the spirit within the compartment smiled faintly, then lowered itself and entered Vania's body. Moments later, Vania opened her eyes. She sat up in bed and looked toward the door with an unfamiliar, emotionless expression that had never before appeared on her face.

"Vania" then immediately got out of bed. After briefly searching the room, she found her neatly folded white nun's robes, quickly changed out of her sleepwear, and put on the uniform. After tidying her appearance slightly in the mirror, she walked to the door and opened it.

Standing outside was a visibly anxious crew member. He was momentarily startled upon seeing her but quickly spoke.

"Ah… Sister Vania, you're finally awake. Please hurry and get ready—we're pulling into the station now. There's a welcome ceremony awaiting you."

As he spoke, he glanced through a window in the corridor behind him. Outside, the platform was already crowded with people, and the band had begun playing cheerful music. The festive atmosphere was spreading.

"I understand. You may go—I'll be out shortly."

"Vania" replied calmly. The crew member nodded quickly, then paused briefly before speaking again casually.

"Oh, I'll be waiting for you by Car No. 7 then. By the way, is there anything you'd like me to prepare for you?"

"Vania" hesitated slightly, then replied.

"Then… please prepare some toiletries for me."

"Understood, Sister Vania."

The crew member responded. He handed her a box labeled "toiletries" before quickly leaving. After receiving it, "Vania" opened the box and found inside… a handgun.

…

That same morning, in one of the cars of the Desert Arrow, Dorothy, who had been sound asleep in bed, was suddenly roused by a loud and festive tune playing outside. Rubbing her eyes and yawning, she sat up, her long hair messily draped down her back, looking groggy and disoriented.

"Uwahh… What's with all that noise outside?"

Still half-asleep, Dorothy turned to the window beside her and pulled the curtain open a crack to peek outside. What met her eyes was a bustling platform crowded with people and a large orchestra playing lively music—the source of all the sound.

"Is that… the station? Is this Kankdal Station? Is that a welcome orchestra? So we've arrived in Kankdal already?"

Seeing the scene outside, Dorothy quickly pieced together the situation. They had reached the station. This was the welcome ceremony at Kankdal.

Although she had known she was supposed to arrive in Kankdal that morning, she couldn't help but scratch her head in confusion at the current situation.

"Why are we here already? Weren't we scheduled to arrive at eight-thirty in the morning? Did I really oversleep that much?"

As the thought struck her, Dorothy pulled out her pocket watch and checked the time—it was exactly 8:30 AM. She had, in fact, slept through everything.

"Damn… I actually overslept? How did that happen? I don't usually sleep this late…"

Seeing the situation before her, Dorothy felt a surge of confusion. Maintaining a lucid dream state consumes mental energy, and staying in a lucid state without fully sleeping leads to a sharp decline in mental condition the next day. Because of this, she had switched to full sleep in the latter half of the night and hadn't stayed on full night watch—so she wasn't aware of what happened outside the train. Even so, she shouldn't have woken up this late.

"Hmm… If I remember correctly, I usually wake up earlier than this. Right… it's because Vania does her morning prayers at exactly 7 AM every day. I usually hear her and wake up then too. If I need to get up, I do, and if not, I block it out and go back to sleep… but today… Vania didn't do her morning prayer?"

That was Dorothy's thought. Unlike Dorothy, who had a more relaxed schedule, Vania—being a devout believer—was extremely disciplined. Her meal times, prayers, bedtime, and waking hours were all fixed. She never needed an alarm to wake up. Dorothy typically relied on Vania's prayers to track time each day, so missing morning prayer today had caused her to oversleep.

Realizing that something was off with Vania's routine, Dorothy instantly snapped awake, her drowsiness gone in a flash. While missing a prayer once might seem trivial, after her encounter with the Blackdream Hunting Pack in Navaha, Dorothy could no longer take such details lightly—it could very well indicate that Vania had been interfered with by some unknown power and had lost her sense of self!

With this in mind, Dorothy immediately used the information channel to link into Vania's senses to check if she had been forced into deep sleep like last time.

After linking into Vania's perception, Dorothy began to see through her current field of vision. She saw Vania standing at the train door, and outside the window was the slowly passing platform scenery, with many people gathered there for the welcome ceremony.

Vania appeared to be preparing to disembark as soon as the train stopped, seemingly just having gotten up normally. There were no signs of deep sleep—it looked like she simply forgot to do her morning prayer.

From Vania's perspective, Dorothy couldn't detect any obvious abnormalities. But there were still things that felt off—like how Vania was currently surrounded only by train staff. Not a single envoy guard accompanied her. While most of them had been heavily injured, a few could still walk. None of them showing up for the ceremony was extremely suspicious.

Spotting this strange detail, Dorothy immediately sensed something was wrong. She quickly activated several of the miniature corpse marionettes she had hidden aboard the train, intending to observe Vania from other angles.