Wisteria still had that standard polite smile on his face as he bowed slightly and said, “It was nothing, Miss Lora. Please do not give it another thought.”
“I still have some train business to attend to, so I will not disturb your rest any longer.”
Seeing him turn to leave, Bai Ci quickly called out to him, “Mr. Wisteria, wait a moment.”
Wisteria stopped in his tracks, slowly turned around, and spoke in his usual respectful tone, “Do you have any other instructions, Miss Lora?”
“The conductor announced not long ago that the train was trapped by a mudslide, communication is cut off, and the food is only enough to last for a day.” Bai Ci frowned slightly, her tone laced with worry and anxiety.
“With the situation being so urgent, I wonder if the train crew has any contingency plans? Being trapped like this indefinitely will make everyone very uneasy...”
Wisteria's smile remained unchanged. “Miss Lora, there is no need to worry. Please remain in your carriage and attend to your own affairs. The train crew has its own arrangements.”
With that, he lingered no longer. He pulled open the carriage door, and his figure quickly vanished into the shadows of the corridor.
Violita coughed softly twice, breaking the brief silence in the carriage.
He tilted his chin toward Marg and ordered, “Bring over the ointment box marked with the square.”
Marg immediately complied, quickly walking over to the luggage trunk in the corner of the carriage. He bent down to open it and retrieved a small, dark tin box with a red square pattern marked on its lid.
Holding the tin box with both hands, he presented it to Violita.
Violita took it and casually tossed it to Bai Ci. “This is a soothing ointment. It can relieve eye fatigue and minor inflammation, though it might not be effective for her condition.”
“After all, the power in that eye of hers is not something an ordinary person should possess.”
He pointed this out bluntly, yet he did not look at Arbiter. Instead, his eyes were on Bai Ci, watching to see how she would react.
Bai Ci instinctively shielded Arbiter behind her, a look of bewilderment appearing on her face. “Mr. Violita, what... what are you talking about?”
She seemed caught off guard by Violita's sudden remark. Her voice carried a trace of panic, as if a secret she had discovered was about to be exposed by someone else, though she quickly suppressed it to project an air of calm.
Bai Ci did not know how Arbiter would react to this, so she simply played her emotions according to Lora's persona.
Given Lora's sharp perception, which allowed her to notice all the anomalies on the train, she must have already realized that Arbiter was no ordinary person.
Yet out of trust, rather than seeking the truth, she would instinctively protect Arbiter first.
Arbiter, who was keeping her eyes closed while enduring the stinging pain, slowly opened her uninjured red eye upon hearing this and poked her head out from behind Bai Ci.
“My eye is the power of judgment bestowed upon me by the gods, the mark of my mission granted by the abyss.”
“As strange calamities run rampant upon this train, trapping all living souls in disaster, I have descended here to tear through the falsehoods, sever the evils, rescue these fallen masses, and fulfill my destined duty.”
She made no attempt to hide her anomaly, and the conviction and pride in her voice did not waver in the slightest, as if possessing such power was the most natural thing in the world.
It wasn't that a magical girl was supposed to have this kind of resolve; rather, it was because she possessed this resolve that Arbiter could become a magical girl.
A belief-based power, whose foundation lies in staying true to one's original aspiration.
Violita watched her, fell silent for a moment, and then suddenly chuckled softly. His laugh was very light, free of mockery, carrying only a trace of complexity.
Laughing too quickly triggered another brief coughing fit. Once he recovered, he spoke in a flat tone.
“I have lived for a long time and seen all kinds of people, hearing all manner of lies and delusions. Yet, I have never heard of a god who would place such a trial upon a young girl.”
“What a benevolent yet cruel god that must be.”
He paused, turning his gaze to Bai Ci. “But I must commend you, Miss Lora, for finding such a unique friend.”
“If it were anyone else hearing her speak like this, they would only think she has a screw loose or is mentally unstable.”
“Why should those mediocre fools understand?” Arbiter slightly raised her chin, showing she did not care in the least about others' opinions.
“The common herd is short-sighted, trapped by the illusions before them. How could they comprehend my power and destiny? And how could I be someone that ordinary people can casually converse with or disturb?”
Having gone through so many instances, Arbiter no longer felt embarrassed by her chuunibyou speeches.
Besides, when a person has nothing but delusions, talking about the abyss or destiny is chuunibyou.
But what if that person actually possesses that power?
Then it isn't chuunibyou; it's simply stating facts.
Arbiter had long since come to terms with her class.
“It's not just that I'm willing to believe Arbiter. Mr. Violita, the fact that you're saying all this means you actually agree with her in your heart, don't you?”
“Otherwise, you could have easily pretended to know nothing. Why go out of your way to sound so cold, like a detached villain?”
Bai Ci smiled helplessly, chiming in to ease the tension.
Furthermore, her words weren't entirely baseless.
She still remembered Violita's initial frail and gentle demeanor. Being able to treat Arbiter with a more genuine attitude—how could that not be considered a form of trust?
“Besides, in a situation like this, with the train trapped, the crew acting strangely, and unknown dangers lurking outside, we should work together to find a way out of this deadlock, shouldn't we?”
As she spoke, she suddenly remembered Violita saying earlier that he would get off at the next station to avoid danger.
Indeed, flags really shouldn't be raised so carelessly.
Who would have thought that before they could even reach the next station, an emergency would strike, trapping the train in the mountains due to a mudslide? Now, even if he wanted to get off, he had no opportunity to do so.
“Miss Lora, you are very sincere in this regard, but that makes you rather unlovely,” Violita commented.
He withdrew his gaze and slowly nodded. “You are right. In times like these, cooperation indeed makes more sense.”
“Then let us talk business.” Violita leaned back in his wheelchair, coughing softly twice, and shifted his gaze to the curtain of rain outside the window.
“Judging from the current situation, the crew's objective is very clear: they want to trigger panic among the passengers, inciting infighting and mutual suspicion.”
“But why are they doing this? Is it simply to watch us slaughter each other for their amusement? Or is there a more secretive purpose behind it?”
He paused, turning his head to look at Bai Ci and Arbiter, his tone carrying a hint of decisiveness. “Instead of wasting time guessing blindly here, why don't we capture Vigi from the dining car and question him?”
“I am not a man who is particularly squeamish about methods. If you cannot bring yourselves to do it, you can leave it to me. He is the former deputy trainmaster; he definitely knows something.”
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