The Steam Age: Gears and Bones

Chapter 53

Ludwig personally beheaded several of the Romulus infected that were blocking the middle of the post road.

He fell his sword without hesitation, but after each strike, he would wipe the blade with a cloth, wiping it more vigorously than usual.

Subsequent clusters of infected individuals no longer consisted only of soldiers.

While crossing a low-lying valley, they encountered a sizable group of infected, including those in Ross uniforms, Romulus uniforms, and civilian clothes—men, women, the elderly, and even a few infected who were only waist-high to adults. They were swept up in the horde of corpses and surged forward with the large group of infected until they were smashed to pieces by the Steam Knights.

After clearing out this wave of infected, Ludwig found a corpse dressed in Romulus noble hunting attire next to an overturned carriage at the edge of the valley.

Those weren't soldiers; the insignia on their shoulder straps didn't belong to any unit, but were a family crest—a winter wolf perched on an oak branch. He recognized the crest.

Baron Novak, an old friend of his father, was an old nobleman who enjoyed demonstrating rapid-fire techniques with a pistol at high-society parties.

Why was he here? After a moment of confusion, Ludwig figured it out—Baron Novak's hunting grounds were near the Northern Legion's garrison area, so he must have been traveling with the Northern Legion, perhaps as a reserve officer, or perhaps simply as an old nobleman who didn't want to flee alone.

He lay beside the overturned carriage, the barrel of his hunting rifle bent, and several empty gunpowder barrels lay scattered around him, frozen in congealed black blood.

Ludwig knelt on one knee before the corpse, took the crooked family crest from Baron Novak's chest and put it in his pocket, then whispered a farewell in Romulus, before standing up and continuing on his way without looking back.

When the group briefly set up camp at the foot of a sheltered hill, the exhaust sound of the steam rider changed from the familiar low hum to intermittent panting.

After Belfast repelled two waves of zombies, the compressed smokeless coal in the furnace burned out. She retreated to the rear of the group, tapped her breastplate with the blade of her sword, and simply summoned Allen and Morris.

The two alchemists immediately stopped organizing the medicine boxes they were working on and quickly walked towards the Steam Knight.

Allen took a block of compressed anthracite from the supply box. It was spare fuel that Perfit had hastily made after the breakout. Each block was wrapped in oil paper and stacked in a tin box.

Morris first inspected the inner wall of the steam core furnace to make sure there were no cracks caused by continuous high-power operation. Then he opened the furnace door and carefully scooped out the burnt coal ash into an iron bucket, as if cleaning a precision instrument.

Allen filled the furnace with new coal, closed the furnace door, locked the seal, and then gently tapped the start valve with the end of the Philosopher's Stone. The Philosopher's Stone fragment flashed red, and the muffled sound of burning resumed in the furnace. Two plumes of white mist shot out from the exhaust grille, and the sound of the steam core running returned to normal.

The two did not leave immediately after closing the access hatch.

They glanced at each other, then simultaneously looked at Perfit, who was still fast asleep in the carriage.

Morris crouched down and examined the several pieces of coal cinder that had just been cut down and cooled down to a normal touch. He estimated the number of spare coal pieces remaining and then said to Allen, "At the current rate of consumption, the remaining coal pieces are enough for a few more replacements. But the reserve coal stockpile won't last much longer."

Allen did not answer.

He simply closed and locked the lid of the tin box again, silently calculating the fuel consumption in his mind—after breaking through, Perfit had used the gravel he collected along the way to quickly make a batch of compressed smokeless coal, enough for several days' consumption, but the attacks by the infected were becoming more and more frequent, and the fuel consumption of the steam knights under high-intensity combat far exceeded that of regular marches, and more than half of the reserve coal had already been used up.

They had to find a safe place to stop and wake Perfit before they ran out of fuel.

Otherwise, when the Steam Knights' furnaces cool down completely, the team will lose its only steel guardian.

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As night fell, Chertzov ordered the troops to set up camp.

The campsite was chosen at the foot of a sheltered cliff. The cliff wasn't high, but it was enough to block the cold wind blowing from the north. At the bottom of the scree slope was a small, relatively flat patch of gravel, just big enough for a horse-drawn carriage and a cannon to park side by side.

The knights built a low wall, about half a person's height, on the outside of the cliff using rubble. It wasn't to defend against the infected's onslaught—that height wouldn't stop anything—but rather to provide cover for the soldiers on night watch to shoot from.

The smokeless stove was dug into the pile of rubble at the base of the cliff, with the stove opening facing the inside of the cliff. The smoke climbed up the rock face and was so faint that it could not be seen by the time it reached the top of the cliff.

Perfit's carriage was parked at the deepest part of the cliff. Belfast stood beside the carriage, and the exhaust of the steam knight armor, which was in standby mode, sounded deep and steady in the night.

Alan and Morris had just replaced her coal with a new piece of compressed anthracite half an hour ago. The burning sound in the furnace was even and continuous. The white mist sprayed from the exhaust grille condensed into a thin white line in the cold air, rising straight up before being dispersed by the turbulence at the top of the cliff.

Inside the carriage, Perfit was still fast asleep.

Her breathing was slightly more even than during the day, but the wet cloth on her forehead was changed three times. Each time, a cold cloth was used, which was warmed up by her body temperature in less than fifteen minutes.

The military doctor checked her pupils and pulse again, wrote down a few numbers in his notebook, then closed the notebook and gently shook his head at the flag captain.

Below the cliff, Chertzov, Ludwig, Shabel, and the flag captain sat around a windproof oil lamp whose light was mostly blocked by a canvas.

The oil lamp was dim, only enough to illuminate the faces of the four people and the map spread out in the middle.

The edges of the map, repeatedly rubbed by fingers, had become rough, and the valley marked by Ludwig remained a blank contour line, with no new markings to fill in.

Chernzov spoke first.

His voice was hoarser than during the day, but his tone remained steady: "Our fuel is only enough for the Steam Knights to sustain themselves for a limited time, and that's assuming there's no high-intensity combat."

The remaining amount of compressed anthracite is running low. If we encounter another zombie horde of the same size in the next few days, the Steam Knight's furnace will not last until we reach our destination.

But more than that, I'm worried about Perfitcot. If she doesn't wake up, the further we go, the more dangerous it will become.

Ludwig sat opposite him, the scratches on his grey armor appearing particularly deep in the lamplight.

His sword rested on his knee, the hilt pointing in the direction of Perfitt's carriage.

"Then we should keep going." His voice was not loud, but firm. "Miss Perfit's last order before she fell into a coma was for us to advance toward the location of my father's army."

She knew her situation better than any of us at the time, and if she thought stopping was the better option, she would have given that order.

But she didn't. She wanted us to continue towards Romulus.

Even if not to join up with my father’s Northern Legion—I admit the chances are slim—we should head towards Stokana.

Our agreed rendezvous point with the cruiser is Stokana. Once we get there, whether we retreat to Viktoria or resupply and make other plans, it's a better chance than being stuck on this frozen wasteland.