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.”
“Likewise.”
Stearina seemed busy, so she said:
“Well then, I’ll be looking forward to seeing you in the afternoon.”
And then left the dining hall.
The participants would be introduced in the afternoon.
Each participant was assigned to their own exhibition area -which would be more appropriate to call ‘booths’- but even if those aren’t appealing enough to those attending, some participant has a designated time to make a special presentation at a special stage.
There also were huge Magic Screens installed everywhere around the hall for those who would be too far from the stage to see well enough. Of course, there also were loudspeakers prepared on every corner to ensure everyone could hear what was going on stage clearly.
The ones who could actually use this system for special presentations were about a third of all participating Magi Craftsmen. Those participants without achievements could not enjoy such benefits.
Of course, Jin was one of the participants who could use the special stage. And since he had come from another country in order to participate, Jin’s designated time to use it was one of the first ones on schedule.
＊ ＊ ＊
Noon came and the Expo was opened to the public.
Jin was standing at his own booth.
“Let’s see, my presentation will be the third one. Look after my booth while I’m gone.”
“Yes, leave it to me.”
Edgar nodded. Elsa had brought Edgar along as one of her works.
“…That concludes my presentation.”
The first on-stage presentation had finished.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Jin gave the things for the presentation to Reiko and both left the booth.
The second presentation was Stearina’s.
“Next is the Magi Craftsman from Celuroa Kingdom, Stearina Beta.”
The appearance of such a beautiful participant caused a conspicuously big round of applause.
“This is my Crystal Golem, Selene.”
There was a loud cheer after Stearina’s golem appeared on stage.
It was a golem made out of a blue-ish crystal. It seemed to be more complete than ‘Ceres’, which Jin had seen in Egelia Kingdom.
“Hmm, that blue hue can’t be crystal, right?”
Jin secretly used Analyze Magic in order to ascertain the material properties of the golem while looking at the stage.
“Ah, so it’s blue topaz, huh?”
Topaz is a mineral even harder than crystal. It’s rare and expensive, especially the yellow ones, which are called “Imperial Topaz”.
In addition to the yellow ones, these gems can also be colorless, pink, brown, or blue.
Selene was a golem made from blue topaz.
It’s movements were smoother, too. It could be seen clearly that this was a more complete work than her previous one, Celes.
And she could even sing, too. Her voice was superior to Celes’s.
“But topaz may break more easily than crystal, though…”
Jin had such strange worries while a unanimous round of applause echoed through the hall.
At number three, Jin’s turn was finally up.
He got on stage after Reiko handed him the box she had been holding.
“Next is the Honorary Magi Craftsman from Egelia Kingdom, Jin Nidou.”
Another round of applause went on after his introduction. It seemed that Jin was considerably well known.
“Here’s what I came to show you today.”
Jin lifted the cover on a tray that Reiko was holding. On it there were ten golems, approximately ten centimeters each.
“?”
The reaction from the audience was poor. They looked like dolls when seen from a distance. However, once Jin began giving them instructions, that reaction turned into surprise.
“Mini-Smiths, show us your moves.”
“Yes, Master.”
As commanded by Jin, the Mini-Smiths replied in a high-pitched voice and began to climb on Reiko’s body.
They were all over her arms, shoulders, and head. Everyone looking at the Mini-Smiths were surprised.
Anyone who knew at least a bit of Magi Craft knew that building such tiny golems was not the norm. Even more, they were fully autonomous, and could even speak.
And those who knew nothing about Magi Craft were completely drawn in by such creations they had never seen before.
Then, Jin began his explanation.
“I call these mini golems ‘Mini-Smiths’. A Magi Craftsman can use them as assistants. You may wonder ‘How exactly?’. Well, I could go on and explain with words, but it will be better if I just show you. Shall we?”
Jin then produced several small pieces of brass he had already prepared and gave it to the Mini-Smiths.
“When it comes to precise processing, our own hands and eyes may be too rough for the job. But these little guys, on the other hand…”
After Jin said that, the Mini-Smiths all used Engineering Magic at the same time. A special magic circle appeared, and the pieces of brass started changing shape.
They had been turned into precisely carved medals. After doing the same thing 3 more times, Jin ended up producing a total of forty brass medals, and ordered Reiko and the Mini-Smiths distribute them to the audience.
Reiko walked towards the audience with her tray in hand, and the Mini-Smiths who were standing on top of that tray started handing out the brass medal to the surprised spectators.
When they ran out of medals to pass along, each Mini-Smiths would get another piece of brass and quickly produce more medals to hand out.
Through this demonstration, every single member of the audience could see the Mini-Smiths up close and their powerful processing capabilities.