After Ronald was interrogated.
The Investigative Bureau agents left with a meaningful glance, swiftly departing.
The situation developed as Ronald anticipated.
— These people were in the dark about what happened at the station.
Or rather, they knew only of a mystical event that had taken place at the train station.
The investigators who entered the area of influence first were tossed about by the power of the original text and were thrown out as broken corpses before they could conduct their investigation.
As for the investigators stationed outside on guard, who did not even enter, they naturally didn’t know that the accident had been triggered by the original text going berserk.
Otherwise, the appearance of an original text.
The Investigative Bureau would certainly have sent more than just these few people to scout the situation.
Moreover, according to the information Ronald received after he emerged,
while time within the station interiors kept looping, barely two hours had passed in the outside world.
In those two hours, ordinary people who walked into the station remained unaware of the distortion of time.
And for those on the mystical side who intended to come in to check the problems, the ’car accident’ at the station entrance was their fate.
Therefore, only Ronald and Patricia, two mystical party members who had been enveloped by the power of the original text from the start, were free to move around in this area.
This further served as their natural cover.
With completely asymmetrical information and the original text having been recovered by Ronald first,
to the agents of the Investigative Bureau, the undertone of this incident looked :
— Unknown individuals arrived at the Greenwich train station and arranged a spell that enveloped the entire station for two hours.
— Such an act must have been deliberate and planned.
— Yet, in those two hours, there were no casualties or property losses inside the station; instead, it was the investigating agents who died tragically upon entering from the outside.
— The perpetrator likely arrived at Greenwich on a train and, during the brief stopover, rapidly set everything up using spells. Finally, the person who took action probably already left swiftly by train by now.
The most likely result emerged.
It was an operation targeted at the Investigative Bureau.
Most likely it was a demonstration by some emerging mystical sect.
The Investigative Bureau, as a super organization that intimidates the entire nation’s mystical side, encounters provocateurs from cults whose minds have been addled by mystical knowledge and who refuse governmental control every few years.
Under such circumstances, even if the Investigative Bureau had further investigations on local mystical persons, Ronald wasn’t worried.
As long as he insisted the incident wasn’t instigated by him and he hadn’t attacked anyone,
For Ronald, the matter was more or less concluded.
However, this wasn’t to blame the Investigative Bureau’s agents for their lack of exceptional capabilities.
According to what Yarida had said before, the original text was an extremely rare and difficult-to-identify item. Without knowing the existence of the original text, even if its abilities were not activated, professionals might mistake it in its various forms.
He had indeed benefited greatly.
Thinking so, Ronald returned to his office, hung up his coat, and leisurely sat back down in his chair.
The original text he acquired this time was quite a subtle item.
It also greatly broadened his horizons.
It indeed related to time and space, but it was completely different from what Ronald had envisioned.
It was neither a hymn praising deities nor a clear and systematic research paper.
Instead, it was an original text closely related to the train station.
— Bradshaw’s Railway Guide
First published in 1839 and not discontinued until 1961, it was the world’s first series of train travel guides, complete with precise train timetables and introductions to travel destinations.
Its outburst caused a station-scale temporal-spatial upheaval.
After obtaining this original text, Ronald flipped through it and acquired the rights to use it.
This also refreshed his understanding of the original texts.
Unlike Divine Comedy and Rain Mist Divine Hammer, Bradshaw’s Railway Guide, when used under normal circumstances, provided two completely different abilities.
—— If there is a railway at the location, the holder will be able to know the name of the place.
—— The holder can know the current time, and it is not influenced by any time-related abilities.
Two intriguing abilities.
Normally, this would be considered a rather impractical original tome.
But upon closer inspection, "not influenced by any time-related abilities" could be quite interesting.
Not to mention that this is, after all, a travel guide!
The previous "Divine Comedy," "Rain Mist Divine Hammer," even the "Human Body Construction" from Alida’s school of study.
These Magic Books have been works of deep influence in human history.
But a travel guide? What’s that about?
Simply because it’s the world’s first travel guide?
And then by that alone, it’s considered an original in this world?
Could it be that in the future I’ll run into something like "the world’s first comic weekly"?
That would be truly amusing!
The relaxing work hours gradually passed by.
As the sun set in the far-off cityscape, Ronald wound up the clock in front of him once more.
After checking for errors, he put on the overcoat he had hung up earlier, rolled up the newspaper he brought in the morning, and then left the office.
The train station operation was around the clock; in about a quarter of an hour, the person taking over his shift would arrive here.
Tightening the buttons on his coat, Ronald walked toward the exit of the station.
Near the entrance, he noticed someone sitting by the roadside garden, bundled up in a thick fleece coat.
Ronald recognized him.
This was one of the staff members at the registration desk.
After the investigators had left, the two of them were probably ordered to take turns keeping watch, anticipating any trouble that might arise.
Ronald glanced downward.
With his back to the sunset, he could faintly see his breath misting in the frigid air.
The increasingly cold weather in Greenwich was not pleasant, and these two would probably have a tough time in the coming days.
Shaking his head in sympathy, Ronald walked towards the apartment he was boarding at.
Away from the train station, Greenwich was still the same old Greenwich.
Apart from the decreased number of pedestrians due to the cold weather, everything around was still silent and serene.
He made it back to his apartment without incident, as usual, and entered.
"Mrs. Hudson, I’ve placed the newspaper I took this morning on the table."
The landlady’s voice came down immediately from above:
"In a few days, a new tenant will move in; I’m tidying the room upstairs, so I won’t come down. Your dinner is in your room, and if you want porridge, there is some beside the fireplace."
Ronald asked casually while going upstairs:
"Is it okay for you to clean up alone, or do you need my help?"
The landlady’s voice came immediately:
"No trouble at all, you just tend to your own things."
After exchanging pleasantries with the landlady, Ronald sat down in his room.
Quietly enjoying a delicious dinner.
Today was coming to an end.