Chapter 67: Teaching by Personal Example

Chapter 67: Teaching by Personal Example

All at once, the muscles in Wendel’s back fully tightened, entering a state as though they might explode at any moment.

Shock and suspicion surged through his heart, and several guesses flashed through his mind, impossible to suppress:

“Are the residents of Utopia monsters wearing human skin? Do they normally look ordinary, but once they encounter a logical blind spot, they display a side different from ordinary humans, ignoring places where obvious problems exist?

“Or did that station worker already realize I was lying, but simply did not want to deal with me, so he deliberately pretended not to see it and let me leave? But why would he do that?

“Mm. Carrying a suitcase to the station washroom can be explained as fear of losing one’s luggage, but the entire platform is covered. There was no need at all for me to take out an umbrella in advance. And besides, the rain had long since stopped…”

Wendel’s gaze instinctively turned outside the window. He saw bright sunlight shining over the current platform, where traveler after traveler waited in orderly fashion behind the safety line. It was completely different from the gloomy, dim feeling Utopia gave.

Phew… He exhaled, and his body abruptly relaxed a little.

This place is not Utopia… I have already left… Wendel muttered inwardly while raising his hand to wipe away the cold sweat that had seeped from his forehead.

When he had recalled his own oversight just now, it was as though he had fallen into a nightmare from which he could not wake no matter what.

After recovering for a while, Wendel stood and decided to go to the platform to smoke a cigarette and soothe his mood.

The tobacco calmed him well, allowing him to again review his experiences in Utopia.

During that process, an idea about what he had encountered suddenly came to him:

“Perhaps because I sincerely helped Tracy, that station worker deliberately ignored my problem and let me leave?”

Compared to the thought that every resident of Utopia was a monster wearing human skin, Wendel was more willing to accept this explanation.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the conductor speaking with a group of people in a corner.

Wendel quietly moved a few steps closer, wanting to hear what they were saying.

With his hearing, which surpassed that of normal people, he faintly heard part of their conversation from a distance that did not draw suspicion:

“We last night… station… Utopia…”

“Kingdom… doesn’t have…”

“Please keep this confidential…”

Wendel’s eyebrows moved slightly. Combining this with the description in the document he carried, he roughly understood what those people were telling the conductor.

They were saying that there was no Utopia Station at all within the kingdom, and that the steam train’s condition last night had been “missing”!

At that moment, intense lingering fear once again welled up inside Wendel. He felt that being able to leave Utopia alive was already the greatest possible fortune.

…

Alfred spent nearly a week traveling from Eskosen Harbor back to Backlund.

That was because, along the way, he had visited the families of fallen comrades, old friends, elders who were spending their holidays on their estates, and certain business partners of his family.

“This is even more exhausting than taking part in battle,” Alfred complained to his father, Earl Hall.

Earl Hall smiled and pointed toward the stairway.

“Go back to your room and rest first. We will talk in the study later.”

He was very satisfied with his second son’s mental state and the progress of his growth.

Alfred looked around, smiled, and asked,

“Where is the most dazzling gem of Backlund?”

He paused briefly, then added,

“And where is Hibbert?”

Earl Hall smiled.

“Audrey has gone to her foundation. She will only return this afternoon. She has been complaining that you could not provide a confirmed itinerary, leaving her unable to know when exactly you would…