The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

It was supposed to arrive at the station at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, but the steam train that started again at 2:30 did not show any signs of arriving at the station until nightfall. The mechanical clock in the waiting room of the station just struck 20 times, which means it was already night It's eight o'clock.

Just now, the waiter in the waiting room of the station came to inform the station master, saying that the train should arrive at the station in half an hour, and informed the reason for the serious delay of the train for the third time.

It turned out that in the small hilly area of ​​Gayley in the south, a sudden heavy rain caused a mudslide. Several sections of the railroad track were covered by the mudslide, which required a lot of manual cleaning, so there was such a serious delay.

Fortunately, all blocked road sections have passed, and the train will arrive at the station soon.

When it came time to buy the tickets, Nelson took advantage of his newly acquired jazz privileges and purchased four VIP carriage tickets.

According to the conferring ceremony, Nelson must take the conferring letter and register at the House of Nobles in the Port of Sete, and then go through some cumbersome conferring ceremonies before he can be officially conferred, but the conferring certificate can also be regarded as a knighthood to some extent Certificate, you can get some noble privileges of Jazz in advance.

With the VIP compartment tickets, a group of four people naturally waited in the comfortable VIP waiting room. Although the late train still makes people feel annoying, compared with the people waiting in the ordinary waiting room and waiting hall, this place is simply paradise .

Not only are there drinks, melons and fruits available, but also the band plays some soothing music. In the evening, bathrooms are arranged so that people in the VIP waiting room can freshen up and relieve some anxious emotions with hot water.

Leo also washed up a bit, cleaning off the industrial dust sticking to his body during the day, and after returning to the VIP waiting room, he asked the waiter for a few copies of today's newspapers and began to read them.

Soon Leo saw two items of interest. The first one was the intensification of the war between the Kingdom of England and the Empire of France, and a state of anxiety was formed in the Bretui region. There were signs that the troops directly under the Duke of Devin had taken control The front-line troops of the French Empire were sent out, and the reason was to jointly resist the invasion of enemy countries.

Seeing this news, Leo couldn't help but rejoice that he didn't foolishly retreat to the occupied area of ​​the Kingdom of England in the south, otherwise, he would definitely be sent to the battlefield again now, and it would be impossible for him to gain as much as he has now.

Another piece of news is from a local newspaper in Lanxi. The content is that the local business federation has reached a series of agreements with the workers' mutual aid association, including reducing the daily working hours from 15 hours to ten hours in Eastern Europe, and four hours a month. One-day rest, a 10% salary increase, and inclusion of work-related injury compensation in labor contracts and other agreements that benefit workers.

Because of the successful negotiation of these important agreements, Martin Luther, the president of the Workers' Mutual Aid Association, gained great prestige, and was elected to the board of directors by the directors of the Chamber of Commerce, and was elected by more than half of the members of the Lanxi City Council. Entering Parliament, one can imagine a rising political star.

"What is this? Did the shark run into the aquarium?" Leo couldn't help mocking after reading the news carefully.

Although Leo didn't know how capable these board members and members of parliament were, he knew Martin's ability very well, so it was not difficult to deduce what Martin Luther would do after entering these places. Martin Luther will definitely not be a rising star like the newspapers said. It is very likely that a man-eating shark is wandering and devouring it. It is conceivable that Lanxi in the future, or various cities in mainland France will be lively .

"Woo~!" With the sound of a whistle, a blade-shaped locomotive slowly entered the station, and a large amount of steam was released from the vents beside the car, covering the entire station. The special boarding guide in the VIP room came. At the door, the people leading the VIP waiting room entered the boarding area of ​​the VIP car through the dedicated passage, and after checking the tickets one by one, the stewards on the car helped the guests carry them to salute and guide them to the corresponding car.

The luggage of other people is not heavy, and there are quite a lot of luggage that no one needs to carry like Leo, but Jason's salute is all heavy flintlock hand cannons, and it took three flight attendants to carry them into the car. This naturally cost Jason a lot of tips.

Although the tickets bought by the four people are consecutive numbers, they are not arranged in the same car. For example, Leo was arranged in Room 5 of Car No. 37, while Jason, Nelson and Catherine arranged In the No. 38 carriage. But they are not bad, because the station sold too many tickets, the passengers with the latter numbers can only be arranged in the steward's room, and they will be arranged to stay after the compartments are vacated.

After arriving at the room, there was no one in the other bunk in the room, but the luggage was already placed on the luggage rack, and the coffee in the cup on the table was still warm. It should be time to take a walk while the car is parked, exercise your muscles, or buy some local The specialties went.

Leo just observed instinctively and made an analysis, and he didn't pay attention to these things anymore. He put his luggage on the luggage rack, and then took out the bilingual dictionary of Old French and English that Catherine bought for him at the station bookstore and a collection of folk novels written by French children's writers in Old French , lying on the bunk, quietly looking at the book, and quickly recorded the pronunciation, words and grammar of Old French.

Although both Modern Francophone and Old Francophone were the official languages ​​of the Francophone Empire, the two are not closely related.

Modern French evolved from Beirut, adding some pronunciations of Old French in phonetics, and later mixed with a little English, and finally formed the current French.

However, Old French is derived from the Ska language in the ancient Velen language family. It is one of the oldest languages. Its pronunciation is soft and changeable. It sounds like reading poetry aloud. Therefore, some people think that Old French is an aristocratic language. , and modern Francophone is the slang of the lower classes.

This theory of noble and humble languages ​​has been widely spread, and many people have been affected, so that the nobles, scholars and other people of considerable status in the French Empire, whether it is letters or books, mostly like to write in ancient French. Modern French is more used for conversations among ordinary people and government documents.

Just when the steam train blew its horn to remind driving, the door of the room was opened, and a handsome young man with a mustache and single-frame eyes walked in.

I saw that this person was wearing lace-trimmed clothing and long boots, which are very popular among the Fran people. His behaviors such as walking and sitting down seemed feminine to Leo, but they seemed aristocratic in Fran.

"Leo Dodd, I should be your roommate these two days." Leo greeted him proactively, using the old French that he had just learned.

Hearing Leo's very blunt and weird-sounding Old French, Mustache smiled, then seemed to think of something, and froze for a moment, his eyes swept over Leo, and saw Leo hanging on the bed The few Panier battle axes on the head hook that could be picked up at hand, couldn't help but startled, his eyes narrowed slightly, and then looked at Leo with a scrutinizing gaze.

"We know each other?" Leo easily sensed the abnormality in the other party's sight, so he closed the dictionary in his hand, looked at the Panier battle ax that caught the mustache's attention before, and asked the mustache.

"I don't know." Mustache said in a nice voice, but he didn't speak French or Old French, but English.

Hearing what the other party said, Leo sat up from the bunk, folded his hands on his chest, tilted his head slightly, looked at the other party, and said: "It seems that we should know each other, but I can be sure that I don't know you, not even I’ve met you, but you know me. Let me guess how you know me.” Then, he pondered for a moment, and said: “My experience in other places has nothing to say, and it’s impossible to be known , so you can only know that there is someone like me in one place, Rabbit Skin Town, right?"

Hearing this, Mustache had a surprised expression on his face, obviously Leo's words stunned him.

Leo looked at the mustache and continued, "Let me guess who you are again?"

Then, he was silent for a while, and said: "I went directly through the Black Forest to Lanxi, so it took a very short time, and since you know what happened in Rabbit Skin Town, then you should leave according to the latest Counting, it should be about the same as me. If you can catch up with us who are crossing the Black Forest in such a short period of time, then you must have taken the continental train and detoured from the south. People who can take the continental train are very Wealth is expensive, and you are forced to get on the bus, your identity must be unusual, and you appeared in Rabbitskin Town at such a specific time, so I guess you must be Baron de Maupassant, right?"

Although Leo's reasoning ability seems to be bluffing, it is actually the result of data collection and analysis by the sub-brain system, and the really crucial clue is that when the mustache enters the door, a nobleman's cuff is exposed. coat of arms. This double-headed sparrow coat of arms is famous not only in the French Empire, but also in other empires, because most of the people who own this coat of arms are world-renowned artists, and this coat of arms represents Baron de Maupassant.

"I should really send those intelligence collectors to Katya's mine, and let them reflect on themselves." It was obvious that the Baron de Maupassant in front of him was completely intimidated by Leo, his face was full of surprise, he was used to Sexually rubbed the mustache at the corner of his mouth, sat on the opposite bunk, looked at Leo with a smile, and said: "Leo Dodd, twenty-five years old, the owner of the Dodd blacksmith shop in Yorkshire, England , It's a pity that the management is not good, and I have signed a lot of debts, and I have to join the army to pay off the debts. I have to say, Mr. Dodd, you are really good at disguising. From your information, it is impossible to see that you are such a Excellent people."

"You can find out so clearly?" Leo said slightly surprised.

"If you want to find out, there is naturally a way to find out." Baron Maupassant smiled slightly, "And after you fled the battlefield, there are too many clues left behind. The military uniforms by the river are marked with your name and the troops you belong to. Well, the owner of the herbal shop in Tupi Town has never been a hard-talking person."

Leo didn't show any strange expression, just chuckled and said, "Your Excellency, is a big guy like you interested in a little guy like me?"

"You are not a small person." Baron de Maupassant raised his eyebrows and said, "If you can suppress the old hunter of Rabbitskin Town, Bobur, who dare not even take revenge, your reputation will spread throughout the whole black world in a short time. The area around the forest." Then, he looked at the Paneer battle ax hanging above the bed, and said, "It seems that those guys chasing after you have been dealt with by you."

"Your weapon is very useful, but the bullets are a little short." Leo lifted the windbreaker around his waist, patted the bullet bag hanging on the belt around his waist, and said.

Leo's slightly provocative behavior made Baron Maupassant's breathing a little heavy, and a trace of displeasure appeared on his face, but while he was cursing Leo's rudeness in his heart, he might be more blaming the old hunter Bober of incompetence.

The atmosphere in the room also became a little dull at this time.

At this time, a driving siren sounded, and a large amount of steam drifted past the window, preventing the people inside from seeing the outside situation, and also preventing the outside people from seeing the inside things. Following the train slowly advancing, the steel The sound of clashing and friction sounded, covering up all the surrounding sounds.

At this moment, Leo suddenly jumped up from the bunk and rushed in front of Baron de Maupassant. Baron de Maupassant didn't move too slowly, he pulled out the pistol from his waist with a very fast drawing technique, and pointed it at Leo's head. .

It's just that Baron de Maupassant didn't shoot, because he saw that Leo's eyes were not on him at all, and he reached out to grab Baron de Maupassant's side at a very fast speed, and then saw him casually throw a bullet on him. He got out of Baron de Maupassant's bed and sat back on his own.

It wasn't until this moment that Baron de Maupassant saw that there was an extra bullet hole on the car window. Although the glass around the bullet hole was full of cracks, it hadn't completely shattered. It seemed that the speed of the bullet should be extremely fast. To penetrate the glass without destroying the glass.

Looking at the thin and long bullet that was thrown on the bed, Baron de Maupassant was terrified. Although this bullet might not be fatal to him, it was enough to seriously injure him. The task is impossible to complete.

"Thank you." It is very rare to say thank you from Baron de Maupassant's mouth. If someone who knows him is by his side, he will definitely be very surprised.

Leo lay on the bunk again, picked up the book, flipped through it, and said in a flat tone: "You're welcome, I'm just saving myself! After all, you died here, and I'm the only one here. Explain clearly."

Hearing Leo's words, Baron de Maupassant raised his eyebrows habitually. If someone who knew him saw him like this, he must know that he was in a bad mood at the moment.

After a while, after the speed of the steam train began to stabilize, Baron de Maupassant stood up, opened the door, and walked out of the room.

"Damn! Why are you so unlucky? It seems that there is trouble." Leo put down the book in his hand, looked at the door, frowned, and said to himself.