Chapter 3
“Did you hear the news?”
Late spring, with summer approaching and the heat beginning to build.
The Empire was always full of baseless rumors, and such stories passed from the mouths of idle gossips and merchants to adventurers and commoners alike.
The hottest topic among them was,
“They say the Count Enersis territory is holding one heck of a festival!”
The Count Enersis family, descendants of the great mage Elena Enersis, had declared that they would brightly illuminate the night.
To prove it, they had spread rumors far and wide that they would hold a festival.
“What nonsense is that?”
Jackson Cullid, the legitimate heir of a swordsmanship family. He was accustomed to his academy classmate’s fussing and let it go in one ear and out the other.
“Hey! Jack! Have I ever lied to you?”
“No. Dorn, you just exaggerate everything.”
“Tsk! When did I ever?!”
His classmate Dorn had a drinking habit of embellishing his experiences whenever alcohol entered his system.
Jackson pretended to listen with half an ear, assuming this was the same as always.
“Who am I? I’m the businessman who secured a deal to supply magical materials to the Count Enersis family!”
“Here we go again.”
“And I’ve brought information that’ll make us a fortune, but now I’m hurt and don’t feel like telling you any more!”
Of course, it was certain that his experiences were based in fact.
So, if you stripped away the fluff… his information was the real deal.
“Bartender. Bring me a bottle of Philokis.”
“Yes, Lord Jackson.”
“Hehehe! Now we’re talking!”
It ought to be worth the price of an expensive bottle of liquor.
Thanks to his perceptive friend, Dorn was treated to a good drink. Before long, he was hiccupping as he spilled the story.
“I, hic! Was on my way to Enersis with this shipment, hic! And it was evening, you see….”
Once Dorn’s flowery language and exaggerations were stripped away, a few substantial words emerged.
‘Incandescent bulbs. Streetlamps.’
The useless youngest young master of the Count Enersis family, Akion Enersis, had been revealed to be a genius alchemist.
And Akion had developed a new mana lamp that overwhelmed existing mana lamps… one worthy of being called an artifact. With it, he had brightly illuminated the mansion in the middle of the night.
“Hah, an artifact-grade lamp? Say something that makes sense!”
Artifacts were magical tools made using ancient technology forgotten thousands of years ago.
Those mysterious tools, which operated by consuming mana, were said to work miracles. That was why they were called artifacts.
Countless mages had tried to create artifacts, and every one of them had failed. Even if he was a genius alchemist, could he possibly do it?
“What, you mean it’s several times brighter than existing mana lamps, yet consumes barely any mana?”
“Did you use mind-reading on me or something?”
“What?”
But Dorn’s mouth produced an affirmative answer.
What was more, he was glaring with wide-open eyes, as if he had never been drunk.
“It’s certainly something you’d think impossible. But! I saw it clearly with these two eyes!”
“Uh, uh….”
“And the reason I’m telling you this is because I trust your tight lips… and because I want to meet your second-oldest brother.”
“My second-oldest brother….”
Jackson’s second-oldest brother was the man in charge of the family’s merchant guild. He was a merchant trusted throughout the Empire.
“This is something I’ll get in trouble for keeping to myself. We need to sign a contract with Enersis before any other merchant guild in the Empire!”
The fact that Dorn had put off his beloved liquor to bring this up meant….
“……If you mean my brother, he’ll probably arrive around dawn tomorrow. I’ll tell the head butler to prepare a guest room for him.”
“Phew! Thank you.”
That artifact-grade mana lamp─the incandescent bulb─was real.
Jackson, like Dorn, began to grow anxious. He was afraid someone else would buy that thing called an incandescent bulb first.
*
“It works.”
Two months.
In just two months, Akion had erected streetlamps throughout the commercial city of Lidacid.
Impossible?
According to a professor from Akion’s previous life, “Impossible” was something uttered by people who had failed.
“Y-young master. Is it really finished now…?”
Dozens of mages belonging to the family, along with countless blacksmiths, carpenters, metalworkers, and so on….
With all that manpower and all those resources, and money poured over everything, it had worked out in two months. From improving the incandescent bulbs to installing the streetlamps.
“Yes. Once we hold the lighting ceremony this evening, it’ll be done… You can just go home now. I already fixed any problematic parts in advance.”
“Hooray! We’re off work!”
“At last, at last, I can go home! Waaah!”
As a result, the family mages developed Akion phobia, but the streets of Enersis’s commercial city─Lidacid─became a work of art.
After sending everyone home, Akion walked with Goldie along the road lined with streetlamps leading to the clock tower.
The residents of Lidacid had hung all sorts of ornaments there, praying for a bountiful harvest and peace.
“Young master, you really seemed like a vicious slave driver.”
“What was vicious about it? It worked when we did it, didn’t it?”
“That’s exactly what made it vicious! What if someone had died…?!”
“No. It wasn’t enough to kill anyone. I tried it, and it worked.”
“Eek.”
It really was beautiful.
Beautiful enough to contain the screams of the project participants.
“Enough with the boring talk. Oof.”
As they chatted with Goldie, the two of them soon reached Lidacid’s largest clock tower.
“Please, go inside.”
“Thank you. Come on, Goldie.”
“Yes! But what are you going to show me?”
The clock tower keeper, who had been waiting for them, opened the door, and Akion took Goldie all the way to the top floor.
“The young master who developed the incandescent bulbs should attend the lighting ceremony, but….”
“Father is the one who should attend such an honorable public occasion. Rather─”
- Clatter!
The moment he opened the door in the wall, a gentle breeze wafted in.
By the time Akion leaned against the balcony railing, the sun was sinking beneath the distant ridge.
“Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!”
“Looks like it’s about to start!”
Below the clock tower, they could see the streets of Lidacid sinking into darkness.
“Six! Five! Four! Three!”
“Aww, the head maid said she’d make something delicious today….”
“I’ll buy you dinner, so stop looking so disappointed. Take a look.”
As if they had nothing to fear from the approaching night, the citizens of Lidacid counted down with sparkling eyes.
“Two! One!”
- Vroooom!
- Bong bong bong!
The instant the countdown ended, a flash of light burst across the streets of Lidacid.
“Eek! It’s dazzling!!”
And by the time Goldie opened her eyes….
“Whoa…….”
The streets of Enersis were shining brightly despite it being night.
Streetlamps glittering in the warm color of sunlight.
Their light reflected off the windows of the luxurious buildings along the main avenue, making them sparkle even more.
The combined light created a nightscape rarely seen in this world.
“It’s beautiful….”
“Right?”
From this far away, the light was so beautiful that he wanted to pluck each little glow and collect it in a jewelry box.
Goldie’s golden eyes sparkled, too, amid the densely packed pale-orange jewels.
“Goldie, I heard it’s your birthday today.”
“Pardon?”
And Akion also revealed why he had brought her all the way here.
“You seemed to like things like this, so I wanted to show you.”
“……….”
Since she had viewed the incandescent bulb like a beautiful work of art, he figured she would surely like a nightscape.
That was the reason. Since Goldie had been the first to show reverence for his incandescent bulb, Akion had wanted to show her this nightscape in particular.
It was also a convenient coincidence that the festival’s opening day was Goldie’s birthday. Anyway.
“It isn’t something material, but… what do you think?”
“……It’s really beautiful.”
Yet when Akion saw Goldie smiling quietly, unlike usual… he wondered if she did not like it very much.
In the past, she would have made a huge fuss, going, “Whoa-aaah!”
“A nightscape like this ought to make money, too. We could sell tickets to the clock tower to nobles.”
Feeling awkward, Akion immediately changed the subject.
Feeling too embarrassed to talk about her birthday any longer, he planned to wrap things up quickly, buy her some delicious food, and keep her company while she did the shopping she loved so much.
“But, young master.”
“Yes?”
“You could just fly up here with flight magic, couldn’t you?”
“Ah…….”
But Goldie’s cool-headed assessment immediately shot him down.
Why did he have to lack magical talent?! Akion gazed at the sky and let out a heavy sigh.
“Sigh. Let’s go down. We’ll get your present while we’re out for dinner.”
He felt even more embarrassed. In his haste to go down, his eyes caught….
“Hehe. This is more than enough.”
Goldie’s cheeks looked slightly flushed.
“Hardly. Your eyebrows started bouncing the moment I mentioned a present.”
“Huh?!”
It must have been because of the streetlamp’s light.
Akion assumed as much and opened the door at the top.
And when they came down,
[Delford Enersis is riding inside!]
“Akion! My proud son!”
“Pfft!”
Delford was proudly stepping down from the carriage, with a sign bearing those words attached to the back.
“Hmm? Young master, what’s so funny?”
“Nothing.”
Akion suppressed the urge to tell the coachman to drive carefully.
*
And so, after the festival that had been named the Lumina Festival ended,
just as Delford was letting out cries of joy at the flood of contract offers,
“Aaargh.”
“Waaaah….”
summer began to descend.
In the sweltering heat, Akion and Goldie wilted.
“Goldie. Use a little more ice magic….”
“Huff, pant, Goldie’s used all her mana, so she can’t do any more….”
“Aaargh….”
Nobles who were wealthy or mages endured the summer with basic ice magic.
Even children could do it if they had Enersis blood. In other words, Akion was the only one who could not.
Because of this, Goldie had been saddled with the entire burden of the magic.
“I’ll go call another attendant….”
“No. Don’t bring one. That would waste the budget.”
“Then you want us to stay hot like this?! Waaaah! Goldie’s going to turn into a soggy doggy!”
There were at least a few things to be thankful for.
First, the summers here were not as brutally hot as the killer heat of South Korea.
It was bearable as long as they stayed in the shade, and places like valleys were not merely cool but even slightly chilly.
“Goldie’s going to melt to death… Young master, can’t you make a cool artifact with that engineering of yours? One that can be distributed to the common people, too!”
“Goldie, why are your demands so specific….”
Second, there was no need for air conditioning.
It was a bearable temperature even with nothing but fanning. They did not need air conditioning right away.
Even so, why did he deliberately intend to postpone developing air conditioning?
“There are too many things that go into an air conditioner, so it would be difficult right now….”
To make an air conditioner, they needed a motor, compressor, refrigerant, heat exchanger, expansion valve, and more… There were too many components to develop. It was being pushed down the priority list.
Of course, he would make one someday, but for now, using just one of those components would be enough.
“Then let’s make a motor, and use it to make a fan.”
“A mo…tor? A fan? What are those?”
“Basically, it’s a principle where rotating blades push air away─.”
The motor, or electric motor, was known as the muscle of every engineering machine.
“Then… could you make it small enough to carry around, like an incandescent bulb? Then even farmers could keep cool in the middle of the day. Mana stones are cheap, after all.”
“Oh, that sounds good. We could even make it hang around the neck─.”
Akion planned to make a portable fan as well.