June 20th. It was the day of the summer solstice.
The location was the city of Koju, in the Shouro Empire. It was a city close to the capital city of Roizart, and with a well-developed water transportation system thanks to its waterways which draw in from Lake Tosmo.
In recent years, it has developed substantially thanks to its good geographical advantage, and it was expected to soon become a satellite city to Roizart.
A multipurpose facility had been built in a recently opened port. It had large buildings and open spaces.
This year, the 10th Technology Expo would be held in this facility’s largest buildings: the Central Building and its adjacent East Building.
“…I am pleased to welcome this many participants and visitors on this beautiful day to this 10th Technology Expo.”
Empress Gelhart Hilde Von Rubis Shouro opened the event with that statement in the Central Building’s main hall.
Next there would be a speech by the Minister of Magical Technology, Degauss Furt Von Manishlas, who would be acting as a consultant. Finally, Christoph Barde Von Tarnet, Secretary of the Ministry of Magical Technology, acting as the Expo’s executive committee member, would introduce the participants.
“Ah, he was one of the witnesses at Reinahardt’s wedding.”
Jin, who was in the last row of participants, remembered seeing Christoph’s face before.
A number of people left the hall when the time came for introducing the participants. Perhaps they needed to go to the restroom, or they had some preparations to take care of?
Jin quietly slipped out of the room as well. He wasn’t fond of such lengthy ceremonies. Besides, he had a lot of preparations to make.
“Should I connect this now, Father?”
“Ah, sure. Please make sure to connect it firmly.”
Reiko and Steward were helping Jin assemble a magic tool. It looked like some sort of a small compressor.
“What is that, Jin?”
Reinhardt had escaped from the room as well and had come along with Jin.
“Haha, it’s a secret for now. Look forward to it, will you? It’s going to be amazing.”
It was rare to hear Jin say something like that, especially since he usually hated standing out. Reinhardt stood there half-astonished, looking at Jin’s face.
“…Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”
After their conversation, Reinhardt decided to go check on his own stand.
Aside from the special tools that Jin was putting together, everything had already been assembled the day before. After that it was just a matter of checking everything was alright and then open the doors of the Expo to the public.
Needless to say, Elsa’s, who had been regarded as Jin’s assistant, had her exhibit already prepared in advance as well.
The completion of the magic tool was left to Steward. And Lily, one of the ‘SP’ was left in charge of taking care of the carriage.
The preparations went by and lunchtime was drawing near.
The Expo would start exactly at noon. Jin went to the great dining hall along with Reiko in order to make sure he had eaten lunch properly before that.
Participants were allowed to have free lunch at that place between 10 AM and 3 PM.
Jin took a seat and called one of the waitresses. He couldn’t see Reinhardt nor Saki nearby, so either they were still setting things up, or they had already eaten.
As he thought that…
“Hey, Jin! So here’s where you were, huh?”
Saki showed up at that exact moment.
“Hey Saki. Is everything done on your end?”
“Yeah, I already did all I had to do for now. All that’s left to do is wait for the results.”
Saki sat down at Jin’s table and placed her order as well. Then another voice was heard.
“Ah, is that you, Jin?”
“Oh, long time no see!”
“It really has been a long time. Are you well? You really helped me back then.”
It was Stearina, the Magi Craftsman from Celuroa Kingdom. However, Saki didn’t know how she was, so she was a bit confused.
“Who is this, Jin?”
“Ah, this is Stearina Gamma. She’s a Magi Craftsman from Celuroa Kingdom.”
After Jin introduced her, Stearina giggled and corrected him.
“Well, I’m not Gamma anymore. It’s Beta. Stearina Beta.”
The highest-ranked person in the crafting field in the Celuroa Kingdom was the Unifiers’ No. 2, Donald Carou Alpha. However, since he went missing after Unifiers’ destruction, Stearina ended up going up in rank.
“You’ve become Beta! Congratulations!”
“Thank you. But you know, I’m not that happy since it’s not like I’ve gained new abilities or anything like that, I was merely promoted.”
Stearina smiled bitterly. Having been promoted simply due to there being a vacancy was no reason for joy to her.
“I’m Saki. Saki Eschenbach. I’m an alchemist.”
“Pleased to meet you, Saki.”
