Steel steam and flame

Cassia arrived at the semi-abandoned supply station half an hour later. There was no one, but the lights were on and not turned off. Instead of walking down the road, Cassia dragged her luggage in to rest. She sat by the window, wiped away the fog that had gathered on the window with her hand, and looked at both sides of the mainland, waiting for the arrival of the vehicle.

It was a dark world outside, and Cassia felt a full breath in her chest. I stayed in the military school for several months without coming out. When I came into contact with such scenery again, I always felt like I was looking at abstract paintings that I had never understood. The eyes definitely saw it, but the various senses of the body did not have corresponding real feelings.

There was a slight sound when the snowflakes hit the glass. Cassia was fascinated by the snowflakes while waiting. When a limousine actually arrived, he looked at his watch and saw that it was already noon. The sky outside was getting brighter at this time, but the snow was still not getting lighter. Instead, the light was getting brighter and brighter. It became a little bigger.

"It's been raining for several days. If it weren't for the strong wind, the road would have been piled with snow and it would be impossible to get out. I heard that there was a delay at the train station, and a lot of people were crowded there." The driver's age was in He is middle-aged, wearing thick clothes, and the hot air is on in the car, but he keeps talking about being cold. But Cassia didn't feel any of this, and nodded in agreement with a straight face.

When we arrived at the train station, the situation was not much different from what the driver said, only slightly better. A bunch of people were crowded in the waiting hall to avoid the severe cold outside. The air became extremely dull, and the fresh air delivered by the purification system could not circulate the air at all.

Cassia went to buy a ticket and wanted to find a corner to stand and read for a while, but the environment in the waiting hall could not be described as chaotic. Even Manoma, as the center of the empire, had its train station designed to handle extremely high numbers of people, but it ultimately failed in the face of the now gathered numbers.

The ears were filled with noisy sounds. There are people talking to each other without scruples, there are unbridled laughter, there are children crying, and there are scoldings where you can feel the spit flying in the air. The sound of coughing was also mixed in, and Cassia, who was sitting on her own salute, suddenly regained her original feelings about the scene in front of her. This is a sight and sound that I have never seen and heard in school again. I had these images in my head, but the memory didn't seem to last as long as I imagined. In less than a year, even though these things have been with me for more than ten years, they still quickly disappeared without a trace under the erosion of the environment.

On the contrary, the models of various firearms, as well as their corresponding bullet caliber, power, magazine capacity and rate of fire, etc., became more and more clear in my mind. Looking at the faces of ordinary people, I no longer feel any sense of intimacy, and of course there is no such thing as strangeness. Completely isolated from everyone in the waiting room, even though the air he breathed was the same, the smell and the temperature he felt were already two different values.

"It will definitely be different, no matter whether it is the military school or the Imperial Heavy Industry that I entered." Cassia thought like this until she got in the car. The surroundings were the most realistic living environment in the empire, but Cassia also discovered a fact that he could not deny. He could no longer find the feeling of his true existence.

Sitting on the soft seats, the light from the overhead lamps is very soft and there is no glare. The temperature is just right due to the adjustment of the air circulation system, and it even has a pleasant aroma. The floor under your feet is made of wood, and it makes a refreshing "dong-dong" sound when you step on it, but it won't be considered an annoying noise to your ears. These are the feelings that nature gives Cassia, and these feelings are far more real than the feelings that other people around him give him.

I never had this illusory feeling when I went out to perform tasks before. Was it because I knew that there would be so-called "similar" things around me from time to time? The answer is unknown, but at least that's what Cassia thinks now. He knew that was a sign of peace of mind, but now he felt that he was an abandoned thing, farther and farther away from the place where he should belong.

In the military school, it was always believed that it was meaningless to take what Delya gave him. But now, he had to admit this. Only the things in the black box could give him the feeling of real existence in a certain sense.

In my head, I should have been filled with the joy of finally being able to break away from the military school for a while and then return to my own normal life. But now, Cassia only feels that she is moving forward in the fog of unknown direction.

His mind was occupied with other things. Thinking about the hard glass on the window next to him, he could easily break it with his elbow. I thought that even if the train was moving at high speed, I would jump off like this and rely on my body's coordination and agility to roll on the ground dozens of times at most, and then stand up unscathed. Thinking that even if the flight attendant had a pistol hanging from his waist, he could easily break their neck just by relying on the strength of his fingers. He thought that as long as he had the need, in a few minutes, he could start from the front of the car and clean everyone on the entire train without missing a beat.

I don't know when these thoughts started to take up residence in his own head.

From this moment on, Cassia became mentally unstable. Cassia knew that something was wrong with her situation and she had to adjust immediately. But there is no way to alleviate this situation. It is not a warning that life is threatened, but a wonderful feeling like a lone wolf being thrown into a world with only white sheep.

He wanted to relieve his mental instability by falling asleep, but the surgeon's abnormal physique and his always energetic spirit became more and more powerful at this time. To reach the small town at the foot of Lilac Peak, even a high-speed train would take eight days of continuous travel. It was not as frequent as the bus stop, but it was only ten days before we actually arrived at the small town. During this period, Cassia only fell asleep on the seventh day because the mental pressure exceeded the limit. At other times, even if she closed her eyes, her other sharp senses could still make the surrounding scenery clear. The ground reflected in his head.

In the afternoon, Cassia felt that the train was slowing down. Through the blurry glass covered with ice, one could still see a cluster of low buildings not far away. There should be no wind, as several thick black smoke columns were rising vertically into the sky. Cassia felt her nose move, as if she smelled the strong smell of soot again.

When it arrived at the station, the train hurriedly vomited Cassia, the only person on the tattered platform, and hurriedly left here as if running away.

One person dragged two items to salute, and Cassia walked towards her home along the buildings and streets that were completely unchanged from her memory. The pace unknowingly accelerated, and the white breath he exhaled became more rapid as the distance got closer and closer.

My chest was overflowing with joy. There were not many people on the street. They were probably rushing to give birth. After all, the imperial rearrangement was coming soon.

Turning the corner, it was the street where my house was. Cassia's excellent eyesight allowed her to quickly find the house where she had lived for several years. The old wooden doors have been replaced and the house has been repainted.

He quickened his pace and walked over. Less than fifty or sixty meters away, the door suddenly opened with a "click" sound. A little girl, no bigger than Cassia's waist, stuck her head out from inside, as if to see if the snow that had been falling outside had stopped.

Wearing light red cotton clothes, her hair was spread around her head, as if she had just woken up. His eyes glanced around outside the door, and his hazy eyes exuded a bright look after seeing Cassia.

"Brother!" Lilia ran out, jumping up and down.

Cassia put down the salute in her hand, took a few steps forward, picked up Lilia who was running over, and raised it above her head.

Just as he was about to speak, he heard a cry coming into his ears, and then cold drops of water fell on his face. It was Lilia who was crying.

"Brother doesn't love Lilia anymore..." Lilia's little hands were desperately wiping her tears, and her voice became blurry after that.

Cassia's hand froze there for a few seconds, and the circuits in her head were all disconnected there. When thinking returned, my heart was filled with only one voice.

"You don't belong here anymore."