Mystic Overlord: Reading Gives Strength
Chapter 32 The train is delayed

Chapter 32: Chapter 32 The train is delayed

"Nasos, are you sure you didn’t get the time wrong?"

"Probably... probably not..."

Under a night sky completely different from his memory, Ronald looked at his companion with skeptical, puzzled eyes as the latter offered an awkward smile.

In the evening, Nasos had spotted a gap in the forest from the treetops.

After more than half an hour’s trek, they had even arrived here before sunset.

The result was correct; a well-structured railway lay on the ground.

Following the path through the woods, they even came upon a temporary camp set up by a railway maintenance crew.

And then...

Then there was no more ’then.’

From the moment the sun dipped behind the hillside until the stars filled the night sky.

At the railway end, they hadn’t seen a steam train, let alone a ghostly figure; they only encountered the occasional nocturnal animal passing by.

"Um..."

"I couldn’t have remembered it wrong, could I?"

Facing Ronald’s interrogation, Nasos could only nod meekly as he began to explain while trying hard to recall his memory.

"Hold on, let me calculate the time."

"The train left from Wolfman, and its departure time was today at four-thirty in the afternoon."

"The direct line distance from Wolfman to our location is one hundred seventy kilometers."

"So, after roughly two hours and forty-eight..."

"Even if it’s three hours, the train should have arrived here."

"We’ve been waiting since before sunset; there’s no way we could be wrong!"

His initially hesitant tone gradually became resolute.

Finally, Nasos jumped up from the solid round log stool and confidently declared to Ronald:

"In this season, the sun normally sets around 7 p.m."

"The train doesn’t have wings, we couldn’t have possibly missed it!"

Silently watching Nasos, Ronald pointed to the star-filled sky and asked a very simple question:

"Then where is the train?"

"Where did it go?"

The confidence that had just emanated from Nasos.

His face instantly darkened.

The air was quiet for a long time until the call of an owl from afar allowed Nasos to reluctantly find an excuse:

"This... maybe the train is delayed?"

"Anyway, I couldn’t possibly have remembered the date and time wrong."

After pondering for a moment, Ronald continued to inquire:

"You just said that the train’s station of origin was Wolfman, and that it left this afternoon, right?"

"Are there any stops in between?"

Nasos shook his head decisively:

"Yizi Forest is not a place where humans can survive."

"From Wolfman, after this train crosses the great forest, it will gradually reach the various stations and make stops."

"This train..."

"It can’t be delayed for several hours at its station of origin, right?"

The night breeze swept across the land, bringing with it the moist air of the forest.

In the gradually cooling autumn night.

Ronald and Nasos exchanged glances.

Neither could guess why the steam train had still not appeared.

It’s not like the times they rushed in carriages to do business as merchants.

Surely it wasn’t that some primitives popped out of the primeval forest and, wielding clubs, hijacked the train, was it?

In the silence, nearly a quarter of an hour passed again.

Watching Nasos pacing back and forth and unable to figure out the key point,

Ronald spoke:

"We’ll take turns keeping watch; you go rest first."

"The situation is uncertain; we might have to hold out for quite some time,"

"You’ve been leading the way during the day, using up energy hunting and such."

"If there’s any movement, I’ll wake you up."

"Alright." Hearing Ronald’s suggestion, Nade didn’t hesitate much before crawling into the camp left by the railway maintenance workers, "Make sure to wake me up if anything happens!"

"Get some rest."

"Yeah."

Soon, beneath the starry night sky, Ronald was left sitting alone.

The stool beneath him was a tree stump cut directly by the railway maintenance staff, and it felt very uncomfortable to sit on.

However, even so, he didn’t focus his attention on that.

Under the breeze of the autumn wind, his thoughts gradually drifted away—

It’s been almost a week...

Since arriving in this world and passing the trial of illusions, to running into a caravan and charging into Black Mountain.

Just five short days.

Among them were brilliant deductions of secrets and mysteries that are still beyond understanding.

But overall, he had experienced something entirely different from his past life.

Sometimes Ronald wondered if all this was just a big dream after being buried in ruins, with his colleagues contacting various parties to rescue him.

But such fantasies, after all, couldn’t convince himself.

The cold wind blowing gently in the night sky, Nade resting in the camp behind him, even the two original tomes of the Magic Book hidden on his person.

Everything was reminding Ronald.

This is reality!

"Whew—"

He exhaled deeply, rubbed his somewhat cold hands together, and then added more firewood to the campfire.

Looking up, unlike the previous days of overcast skies,

Stars glittered in the distant sky.

Equally dazzling, but he couldn’t find the familiar constellations.

Here, he gazed upon the starry sky that had captivated the humans of this other world for thousands of years; back home, who else was gazing upon that magnificent cosmos?

A loneliness of being in a foreign land rose within him.

"Stars, are you also the origin of the civilization of this world...?"

Ronald, a man of letters, always liked a certain idea.

A romantic yet highly possible idea.

—that human civilization originated from the stars hanging in the sky.

Not some absurd theory about extraterrestrial origins, but pointing to the origin and cornerstone of civilization.

—Language.

Bearing knowledge, responsible for cultural transmission, composing the structure of civilization—the language.

When he crossed over, the earliest discovered writings on Earth from archaeological activities came from the ancient civilizations of the Tigris-Euphrates river valleys.

And in those findings,

The most frequently appearing symbols on those tablets were ’star’ and ’god.’

Why were these two words?

Because 6000 years ago, the Supernova X in the constellation of Sails exploded.

This was the largest astronomical event in human history that could be remembered, far surpassing any celestial event observable today.

In that ancient era, the sudden burst of light from the exploding supernova could reach Earth, with brightness during the day comparable to the sun and at night eclipsing the moonshine!

What did such an unimaginable natural phenomenon mean for the people of that time?

Confusion, perplexity, terror, reverence.

The deep-seated unknown carved into their brains!

Ultimately, humanity’s incomprehension and veneration of the supernova evolved into myth and religion; to record the greatness of this star, language was also created based on the words ’star’ and ’god.’

The civilization of humanity in this world, could it also be like this...

Woo—

Whoo-whoo—

Suddenly, Ronald was pulled out of his thoughts by a faint sound coming from a distance.

Although it was mingled with the night wind, from the forest and the cleared train passage, he could indeed distinguish some faint noises!

"The train..."

"The train is coming!"

"Nade, get up quickly!"