Chapter 401

Raising the curtain on the Technology Expo

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 s.p.a.ces .

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 partic.i.p.ants 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 partic.i.p.ants .

“Ah, he was one of the witnesses at Reinahardt’s wedding . ”

Jin, who was in the last row of partic.i.p.ants, remembered seeing Christoph’s face before .

A number of people left the hall when the time came for introducing the partic.i.p.ants . 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 a.s.semble 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 a.s.sembled 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 a.s.sistant, 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 .

Partic.i.p.ants 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 . ”