The Raven Flag and the Engineer's Welcome
“Did you hear? They’ve started construction on Ironforge. Mark got thrown out of his own house, and he wouldn’t stop bellyaching about it to me. You know what he said when he looked at Blædwin?”
Hector and his merchants, stopping in at a tavern for a long-overdue drink, pricked up their ears as talk of Blædwin drifted over from the next table.
“Obvious, isn’t it? Heh. That bastard was probably three sheets to the wind and tearing him to shreds behind his back.”
“Behind his back? The man was out of his mind. The same fellow who got kicked out was grinning like an idiot, handing bread and milk to the soldiers who showed up at his door, saying he could live outside for a week—hell, a month—no problem.”
Hector and the merchants exchanged puzzled looks. That was nothing like what they’d expected.
The thoroughly drunk men kept going.
“The man they threw out did that?”
“Ha! Why do you think? Because electricity’s coming to his house, too! Before all this, he never once showed up for the territory’s education sessions. After construction started, I saw him going to the training hall every single day!”
“That stubborn mule? Heh… live long enough and you really do see everything.”
“Emilia’s wish was to live in a house with light, wasn’t it? That must’ve been what flipped him.”
“So that was it! Of course—it was for a woman.”
“Honestly, even without the woman, you’d still bow and get out of the way. Wouldn’t you? I heard the electricity bill doesn’t even run if you don’t turn the lights on. And it’s not expensive, either.”
“How much are we talking?”
“I’ve got a noble kid I know in the pilot district. His family leaves the lights on all day, every day, and their monthly bill was only one silver.”
“What? O-only one silver? They really left them on every day? You’re not lying?”
“That’s what I’m telling you! The kid has no reason to lie. If we only use them when we need them, we’ll probably pay a few coppers at most. And that’s all thanks to Young Master Robon Blædwin—he kept the rates as low as he could for the people of the territory.”
“I’ll be damned. The more you think about it, the stranger it gets. I never dreamed Young Master Robon Blædwin was this incredible!”
“Did you see them last time? The outsiders staring at us with pure envy? Man… especially those high-nosed nobles when their jaws hit the floor—the satisfaction is unreal. When else do we ever get to see faces like that?”
“True enough. Nobles in other territories don’t even have those light bulbs, and here ordinary people—not even nobles—can hang them in their homes. You know what? Thinking about it, I don’t have complaints. I ought to go thank him and offer some coin.”
At first it had sounded like discontent toward Blædwin. It was anything but.
Hector and the merchants let out quiet sighs of relief and raised their cups.
“Lately, wherever you go, all you hear is praise for Lord Robon.”
“Wouldn’t you? The people of the territory can live under bright light even at night. He built water purifiers and gave them clean water. He kept the monsters at bay with crossbows. At this point you have to say, ‘Thank you for being born in Blædwin.’”
“Exactly. Which means we’ve basically grabbed a golden rope. You lot should bow once toward the north every morning before you get up. I’ve been doing it every day lately.”
“I’ve already been doing that, actually?”
“Deputy Leader, I saw you skip it last time.”
“Ahem! I took a short break, you idiot.”
Iron Hall was changing by the day.
Yesterday the road on this side of Iron Street had been sealed off for construction; a week later it was the street over there; this time it was the buildings on this side…
People couldn’t use the areas under construction, and some even lost access to their buildings for days at a stretch.
It would have been natural for them to complain of the inconvenience and rail against their lord—yet the residents of this place were too busy praising Blædwin.
Iron Hall was in a period of transition.
A moment when vast change was only beginning. The inconvenience had swollen with it, but people endured because they were certain the end of that change would repay them with rewards far greater than the discomfort. They were already enjoying the benefits, after all.
Especially the sight of travelers and people from other regions staring, night after night, in astonishment at Iron Hall’s lights—that had become entertainment for the city’s own residents.
Streets worth showing off to outsiders appeared one by one, and bathing in those envious gazes was pure delight. Simply living in Iron Hall was enough to fill them with pride.
Vrrroooooom!!
An exhaust note that sounded faintly familiar swung every gaze toward the street.
Hector and the merchants were no exception.
“Is that a bike?”
“Doesn’t sound like just one.”
“Must be the knights coming back from a monster hunt.”
A sight you still only saw often in Iron Hall.
Knights returning from their duties on bikes and automobiles—even the residents of Iron Hall hadn’t fully adjusted to it yet.
Six bikes were climbing the main avenue from the south gate.
Thinking he might at least offer a greeting, Hector stepped outside—and froze.
Behind the column, a red banner snapped in the wind.
A flag far too familiar to him.
…Raven… Merchant Group?
Unless his eyes were lying, that was unmistakably the Raven banner.
How the hell did those bastards get here?
Goosebumps raced over his whole body; he couldn’t move. Whatever thought he’d had of greeting Blædwin’s knights vanished. His eyes locked on a single point.
A familiar figure inside the Black Terahole trailing the carriages.
Through the window, that repulsive face.
“Jackie…!”
“Deputy Leader, what was that? Jackie?”
Hearing his voice, the merchants hurried out after him.
There it was, plain as day among the procession rolling past—the Raven Merchant Group’s flag, fluttering hard.
“It’s really the Raven bastards?”
“Son of a bitch! Why the hell are the Raven dogs here?!”
“D-Deputy Leader! Aren’t they heading for Blædwin Castle right now? We have to stop them—now!”
“He’s right! I don’t know how those lunatics found this place, but we can’t get tangled up with them!”
“Those freaks actually crawled all the way out here!”
The Pacific merchants, worked into a frenzy, scrambled to gather their things.
Hector forced his hammering heart to settle and downed the beer still sitting on the table in one go.
Clack.
He set the mug down and wiped the foam from his lip with his sleeve.
The drink seemed to put a little courage back into him.
“Jackie might be here hunting us for the money we owe. So think calmly. Charging in blind won’t help.”
“And if it isn’t that? There’s no way that bastard comes here and keeps his head. If something happens to Young Master Robon…”
Hector snorted a laugh at that.
“Young Master Robon? Does he strike you as the easy type?”
Young as he was, the Robon Blædwin Hector had dealt with was nothing like the youths of his age. His manner might look light, but underneath he felt like a snake that had been coiled for decades.
He knew Jackie was not the sort of man who could get the better of him—and still, he couldn’t simply sit and watch.
“We still have to go. Jackie’s the kind whose greed seeps out of his pores. We’ll use that.”
Hector snatched up his coat.
“We’re going too. To Blædwin Castle.”
The sun had long since set, yet the interior of Blædwin Castle blazed with light.
From outside, the mansion’s rooms were so bright you could see straight into them. The people of the Raven Merchant Group and the Rodria family could only keep gasping.
“You’ve arrived, Young Master, Young Lady.”
Chief Butler Lefry came out to receive them.
“We’ll put the bikes in the garage. Show the guests in, Lefry.”
“Yes. This way, if you please.”
It was a spectacle unto itself.
From the first-floor lobby of the mansion, a massive chandelier filled the eye—so much brighter and more beautiful than anything hung with candles that they couldn’t look away.
Impossible. How is something like this even possible?
They had thought there were no shocks left for them. They had been badly mistaken.
This was a different kind of impact entirely from cultivators, bikes, or automobiles.
“You’re saying this truly isn’t a luminous stone?”
“Yes. This is a light bulb.”
Lefry continued the explanation.
“A creation of Young Master Robon Blædwin. Electricity is generated and used as energy to produce light.”
“Generate electricity? Is he a mage, then?”
“No. This is the result of pure technical skill.”
Not a flicker of excitement, not a shift of feeling—just a calm, even tone.
And precisely because of that, the Rodria trade representative felt a sudden inferiority before a butler.
The attitude that this was simply everyday life for them sparked an ugly jealousy.
As trade representative of the Rodria family—a house with a fair reputation in the southern continent—he had always carried himself with pride. He had never felt outmatched by any house, and almost nowhere had he ever needed to lower his head. Places that made him feel envy could be counted on one hand.
This was not one of them.
Not envy—deprivation.
To feel this way in a house he had dismissed as a minor family from a nation on the edge of the continent made his head run hot.
Even ordinary commoners of the territory used this light casually on the streets, and here he was, gawking at it like a marvel. His pride stung.
Bikes and automobiles were different. Those had been the exclusive toys of this nation’s powerful.
But this?
“And how much coin does this so-called light bulb devour?”
So the words came out sharper than his usual manner.
Whether Lefry sensed that or not, he answered in the same even voice.
“Quite a bit, actually. The mansion uses a great many bulbs, and the electricity bill reflects that. Roughly ten silver a month, it seems.”
For a moment he thought he’d misheard.
“You mean ten gold.”
“No. Ten silver.”
“…And that is what you call expensive? Is the Blædwin family truly that poor?”
As his tone grew more aggressive still, Selena stepped in to stop him.
“That’s enough. You’re a guest. What kind of rudeness is this?”
Only then did he realize his mistake and draw back, faltering.
“I was merely speaking in comparison to ordinary electricity rates. In a typical household in Iron Hall, the bill rarely even reaches one silver a month.”
The trade representative withdrew with a flushed face. Jackie looked at him as if he were pathetic and stepped forward.
“Truly remarkable. Using luminous stones like this would cost dozens of gold… I can hardly wait to meet Lord Robon Blædwin.”
“Please rest from your journey. We will call for you when he is ready.”
Long after the sun had slipped past the horizon, the people of the mansion still moved about with brisk purpose.
Blædwin Territory feels very different from other places.
Everyone looks so busy.
Iron Hall had been the same, and so was this place. Whatever kept them so occupied, they were still hard at work when most people would already be asleep.
Under Lefry’s guidance they were assigned rooms, took a meal, and were resting briefly when a servant came to summon them.
Word that Robon Blædwin was waiting in the reception room sent them that way.
Jackie, Selena, and the Rodria trade representative—every one of them wound tight, bracing themselves to meet the great figure known as Robon Blædwin.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
At the knock the door opened, and the members of the Blædwin family who had arrived first came into view.
And with them, a face far too familiar.
“It’s been a while, Deputy Leader Jackie.”
Hector greeted him with a mocking smile.
Jackie frowned at the sight of him.
“Hector… how are you here?”
Then—
“…Hector?”
At the faintly trembling voice, Hector’s gaze slid sideways.
“L-Leader?”
Goosebumps rose on the back of his neck. Hector’s eyes flew wide as he shot to his feet.
“Leader!”
“Hector!”
The two of them shared a tearful reunion, wrapping each other in an embrace.
Hector’s eyes had grown moist; then he looked at Selena’s face, more lined by hardship than before, and let out a sigh.
“What happened?”
“I’ll explain everything later.”
He nodded. This was no time to linger over it.
Robon, who had already heard a brief sketch of their situation, clapped his hands and drew their attention to himself.
“Please, have a seat. You said you came from the Stens Coalition?”
The four of them returned to their places and sat.
“A pleasure. I am Jackie, deputy leader of the Raven Merchant Group out of Goldhaven. It is an honor to meet such distinguished members of Blædwin.”
Selena and Hector both frowned at Jackie’s shameless face.
“I am Gilles, trade representative of the Rodria family.”
“I’m Selena. I lead the Pacific Merchant Group.”
“Robon Blædwin. Good to meet you.”
Robon took the lead with his greeting.
Jackie, Selena, and the trade representative alike drew in a quiet breath at how much younger he looked than expected.
This kid made all of those things? Is Blædwin mocking us?
Younger than I thought. Handle him right and he’ll be useful.
How on earth did a young man like that…
Robon smiled easily at the three of them in their grave expressions.
“Well then. Let’s talk.”
Whatever they were thinking didn’t matter.
“What did you bring with you?”
In this room, who held the upper hand was perfectly clear.
“For the record, I really hate people who test me.”