She is not an investigator.

Upon hearing Cecilia's words, Igris promptly placed her fork on the table and pushed the plate in front of her toward Cecilia.

You eat first.

Cecilia took the plate without a second thought and picked up the knife and fork in front of Igris.

"I still hope you can trust me a little more... but never mind."

Cecilia cut off a piece of the meat in front of her and, under Igris's watchful gaze, slowly put it into her mouth.

"..."

"How does it taste?"

Cecilia slowly put down her knife and fork and forced a smile.

"not bad."

"Your expression doesn't look like it."

Igris was skeptical, but Cecilia touched her pocket and poured a white powder that looked like spice onto it, then cut off another piece and put it in her mouth.

Cecilia chewed the piece of meat in her mouth and nodded in satisfaction.

"It's much better now, why don't you try some?"

"I did want to, but it seems you used my cutlery."

Igris crossed her arms and looked at Cecilia, who was holding her own knife and fork, and sighed silently.

Indeed, communicating with most people is a rather tiring experience.

I thought you wouldn't dislike me.

Despite saying that, Cecilia still placed a brand new knife and fork in front of Igris, seemingly looking forward to her tasting the food on her plate.

Under Cecilia's expectant gaze, Igris hesitated before cutting off the mushy chunk of meat and bringing it to her mouth.

"..."

"..."

Igris eventually put the piece of meat in her mouth and closed her eyes.

I was prepared to spit out what was in my mouth if I felt anything was wrong.

Surprisingly, Igris didn't detect any particularly unpleasant odor; on the contrary, it seemed quite ordinary.

It's over.

"...It doesn't taste good."

But it certainly wasn't bad.

Compared to most of the meat Igris had eaten, this piece was too soft and mushy, with a strange texture and almost no flavor, only a very faint, barely perceptible red wine taste.

It's likely that red wine was used during the preparation. However, this level is clearly too mild and cannot be considered seasoning at all.

And most obviously, the sweetness on the surface of this piece of meat.

The only possibility Igris could think of was that Cecilia had just sprinkled sugar on it.

Although this method often ruins the taste of a dish, it must be said that... without this sweetness, Igris would really consider spitting it out.

Therefore, the only assessment Igris could give of this piece of meat was probably...

"It tastes better than my boss's."

After all, Olivia's cooking skills had reached a level that even she herself dared not try.

The Gods' Fools - The Northern Train: Chapter Sixteen, The Wilderness Crowd

The leisurely mealtime was interrupted by a somewhat chaotic noise.

Igris put down her knife and fork, and before she could stand up, the train conductor came over.

He glanced at Igris, who was sitting opposite Cecilia, and then turned to look at Cecilia.

"Train conductor, we seem to have encountered some trouble."

"What kind of trouble could make you come all the way here to have me solve it?"

Cecilia didn't seem to care much, probably because she trusted her train conductor to handle most things.

However, it seems that what happened this time was only a small part of the majority.

"Someone wants to get on the bus, so they're outside."

Are you sure it's a person?

The train conductor shrugged, and Cecilia, for the first time in a long time, showed a somewhat embarrassed expression.

The fact that people suddenly appear in such a place, regardless of whether they are actually human, is suspicious enough just because they appear out of thin air in the icy wilderness where there are almost no buildings or human settlements, and next to the railway tracks.

"What do you think?"

Ultimately, this seemingly irresponsible train conductor shifted the blame to Igris, who remained uninvolved.

Igris didn't answer, but conveyed a message through her eyes.

Isn't this your car?

Faced with Igris's undisguised gaze, Cecilia sighed and stood up from her chair.

"Alvin, come with us out for a bit, let's see if we can bring back some new food for your pets."

clang--!

The chef, named Alvin, slammed his cleaver into the cutting board and followed Cecilia and the train conductor without saying a word.

He didn't seem to like talking much.

Igris silently picked up her fork again, put it in her mouth, and began to think about how to trick her taste buds into swallowing it while pretending that the food was delicious.

However, Cecilia did not give her that chance.

"Igris, aren't you coming with me?"

Why should I go with you?

If she were asked to come and help, then Igris would definitely charge her, since she wouldn't work for someone for free, nor would she be taken advantage of simply because she seemed to be her type.

Seeing that Igris didn't seem to intend to move, Cecilia stopped calling her.

After all, she didn't really need her help; she was just calling out to her out of the blue.

Watching the three leave the carriage, Igris, unable to contain her curiosity, finally picked up the plate and headed towards the train's aisle.

The three of them got off the train in the second carriage. Igris, carrying the plate, knelt down in a seat near the window and looked out the window with some curiosity.

This position wasn't very comfortable, but it did allow her to maintain this posture and see clearly what the people outside were doing, without interrupting her eating.

Looking out the car window, the outside world had almost turned white. Three figures got out of the car and walked towards the dense crowd.

Igris was probably the first to use the word "densely packed" to describe these people appearing in the wilderness.

"There are so many people, even if they all came up, we wouldn't be able to fit them all."

Igris was simply talking to herself, not expecting anyone to answer her questions, and casually tossed a piece of meat from the plate into her mouth and swallowed it.

They didn't even chew it.

"More than anything, aren't you curious about where these people came from?"

An aged voice suddenly rang out beside Igris, causing her to turn her head and look at the somewhat presumptuous man who had answered her soliloquy.

Anfer, that mysterious old man who walks without making a sound, who seems to have retired from some battlefield.

"You seem to have some opinions of your own?"

Anfer smiled, glancing at the crowd outside the window as he pondered.

"There's hardly any housing around here. In this weather, how could such a large group of people appear here? I can't think of any other way for them to come, but why did they choose to walk here?"

"Because this is the only train we're on here."

"No, no, you didn't understand what I meant."

Anfer shook his head and pointed to the layer of white snow covering the outside.

"In this kind of weather, they would rather walk to a place like this. Don't you think that's a big problem?"

"Of course, if they don't have some tradition of migrating south in large numbers during the winter, then it is indeed very large."

"Hahaha...you're more humorous than I imagined."

Anfer laughed genuinely this time, and Igris also felt that her sense of humor had probably improved to some extent since she had been sick.

This is probably because she suffers from depression? No wonder so many comedians suffer from depression.

"But then again, do you think the train conductor will let these people board the train?"

Anfer looked at Igris with interest, but Igris simply shrugged.

“You know this train conductor better than I do; you certainly know better than I do what she’s going to do.”

"Come on, tell me, I'm curious about your opinion of her."

Anfer seemed genuinely interested in what Igris was thinking, probably because Cecilia seemed quite willing to befriend her.

"I guess so?"

"So in your eyes, this train conductor must be a kind-hearted person who likes to help others and can't stand seeing others suffer?"

No, of course not.

That's not what Iglise wanted to say. While the train conductor was indeed quite noble in some ways, Iglise wanted to talk about something else entirely.

"She'll probably let these people on board and charge each of them a ticket, even if the four-car train probably can't hold that many people. She'll just make them squeeze in instead of considering the experience of other passengers."

"Oh my God."

Anfer hadn't thought of that, and when he heard the answer from Igris, he was surprised to find it quite reasonable.

Iglesias seemed to know the train conductor better than he had imagined.

After all, she is capable of doing such things, able to gain more benefits by exploiting others without sacrificing her own interests, and thereby satisfying her lofty morals.

No one would refuse her; after all, protesting at a time like this would be tantamount to suggesting a plan to leave that group of people to freeze to death in the freezing cold.