"Your job will be to a disposable soldier"
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Exile intertwined his fingers, his unwavering and dull grey-blue eyes boring into Noel's.
"Your job, Noel, is to be a disposable soldier. I've also be lenient on you until now, but my name is Exel, not Exile. Mrs. Elias is the only individual permitted to call me by another name."
Noel's facial expressions darkened, and he shifted uncomfortably in his position as a frown etched itself upon his forehead in dark, visible lines. His focus had halted at the part of 'disposable' and 'soldier'.
"Disposable .... soldier? Can you ... further explain what you exactly mean by that?"
Thinking about Exile's words, there was clearly something wrong, almost as if something was left out. In any normal thought process, telling someone directly that you would function as a disposable soldier is akin to telling them to die for the state, or such.
Unless they were fanatics that would sacrifice their body and souls for their country, Noel was certainly not one of them.
To a normal person, it wouldn't make sense to just tell them to go die for no reason. But was Exile really a person to be measured by such, normally said, standards?
No, there was something he had forgot to consider. According to Exile, he would take Elias's job. So was her supposed job, which was addressed by the emperor himself, that of a disposable soldier?
Of course not. He would give out his liver if that was the case.
So Exile came up with this himself? Why? Did he do something that irritated him on the way that he decided to eliminate him?
Noel's fingers nervously tapped the edge of the table, as he narrowed his eyes at Exile and leaned his forehead on the cross-section between his index and thumb.
"I haven't finished my sentence yet. Don't you have any patience?"
Exile grunted, as he cast a look of disdain towards Noel, ignoring the latter's look of anxiety. He let out a heavy breath filled with disappointment, before he brought out a small, bronze-silver colored pocket-watch with a linked chain and placed it on the table near the window of the train.
For a moment, it glowed faintly in light blue, as if thin threads had appeared out of nothingness and clustered around their area as if encasing it faintly, before Noel felt a shift in atmosphere.
The chatter from the other passengers suddenly muted, as if they were an audio speaker that had just gotten turned off. Exel, as if he had finally found his peace, took off his jacket, and folded his jacket, before placing it beside him on the table.
"An artifact, one Blessed by the essence of Prana."
As if understanding the meaning behind Noel's lingering eyes of surprise on the tool, he nodded his head slightly, before taking out a map that seemed to not be made of paper, but rather of a firm yet thin material like animal skin, and spread it across the table before them, smoothing the folding marks.
"This ... is this a map of the-" Noel, his eyes widened like he had saw something he couldn't believe, asked questioningly before getting interrupted.
"Yes."
A blatant response.
Exel took out a small grey box out of his jacket, to which Noel began to suspect that he somehow had hidden pockets that held an immense capacity. He placed it on the table and opened it by flipping open the case's cap.
In Noel's eyes, they resembled the Chess pieces he had seen back in earth, but were much different in other aspects such as their size, in which they were smaller, and the thin needle that protruded from the bottom.
Stabbing a rook-looking piece into the borders of a figure, he slowly raised his eyes to Noel.
"As you can see, this is the map of the world. Or rather, this is the map of what we could map of our world. Beyond what we call the Black Atrricilic Ocean is unknown, even to us."
Slightly nodding his head, his eyes stared down at Noel, a dead man walking, dead eyes as a fish, yet God's breath blowing inside clay.
"And that, is where we currently are. We are currently standing on the borders between The Empire, our motherland, and ... between the rest of the world. Or, in essence..."
Tapping his finger down on the table, for the first time, he revealed a simple, yet erratic smile that revealed a silver-colored molar
"Our most avid enemies. For now, let us call this war, a domestic violent war between the motherland, and two fatherlands, the children running rampant. Both fighting for a warm meal of flesh-red meat, over ourest dearest nation" He said, letting out a hearty chuckle, his dull eyes not rippling with the slightest difference.
" 'Sblood! By God, and curse the nation it be, shouldn't an owner whip a wholesome fulvous hound without a semblance of ideal, knowest not it being as barbaric as the cry of a cuckold harlot in throe?"
Noel merely looked in response to Exel's speech absentmindedly, before his eyes shifted back down to the map before him, observing it.
From what he saw, the map was based on one single continent, yet the continent was much different than what he recognized of that of earth.
Though at first glance it looked similar to the European Peninsula interconnected directly with Asia, the map displayed much more than just that; it showed the presence of many different countries in the tens, with three of them dominating the map, with small countries as their proxies in between, mountain ranges in many different locations and forests.
Beyond that existed isolated archipelagos, islands, and two main oceans, with one minor ocean, being The Głubóky Ocean, where its name had no known translation, and the smaller ocean known as Móri-Maruśa, translated to The Dead Sea, in respect to the unknown and unidentified depth of the ocean and the stillness of the air, along with the lack of Prescence of the usual sealife. Though it was said that, there had been a few cases of people disproving that and raising their voices to inform the public, yet their presence did not make much a difference before they had disappeared with no trace from the eyes of the public.
To never be seen again. Not as remains either.
"As you can observe, this is our beloved Motherland, the one we are currently venturing into. We are moving through the borders between The Empire, and, The United Provinces of Great Vołostia. Though the United Provinces, or let us call it, the UPG, appears as one country, here-"
"Quick question, Teach"
Noel bit the nail of his thumb, as he quietly listened to Exel's flashy introduction on this world in a state of unrest and confusion. His thoughts were quietly following on his story, when something suddenly did not click it his mind, making him regretfully tear his teeth away from his gnawed nail, and lick his dry lips.
"I still, don't understand, why are we taking a transit through the borders instead of directly going through to the empire? From what I understood, our current goal is the Imperial capital of 'The Empire' " Noel mentioned motioning with his hand.
"In that case, wouldn't just moving through these borders give unnecessary risk? I mean, why is Elias's castl-"
"Ms. Elias"
"Yes, yes, Ms. Elias. build her castle on the borders? Isn't that basically a location asking to be shot down in the first place? Is there something I'm missing in context"
Exel who had been fervently explaining the world to Noel stared at his silently for a few moments, as he breathed in and exhaled a breath of incomprehensibility, leaning back a bit, yet not moving his eyes at all.
"... You are more of a fool than I had anticipated. Perhaps I should use you as a labour slave instead of soldier ? I reckon you wouldn't even function properly as a slave."
"Noel."
Noel held in the urge to curse in irritation, and stiffly smiled, gritting his teeth while rubbing his chin in annoyance. "Yes, Mr. Exel? Would you please enlighten me on this matter?"
"Remind me since my memory isn't up to date, how old is our cute lady, Ms. Elias again?"
As if on que to answer the question, Noel answered with a hint of annoyance seeping into his tone, and leaned back as he held back his vexation.
"800 years old"
"In this case, wouldn't that mean she built her castle long before the anonymitiy between the two states?"
'Shit'
Noel let out an exasperated breath at his clear oversight. He rubbed his forehead as he felt embarrassment at the question mocking him in every language it knew.
'How can I be so dumb as to ask such an obvious question? I guess idiocy really has no remedy, huh.'
"Please ... please go on, Mr. Exel. I apologize for my, *ahem*, for my unnecessary queustion. Thank you."
Exel stared at Noel for a few more seconds, before he gave one last gaze of disdain, and continued looking down at the map.