Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World

TL: Etude

Friedrich Liszt stood contentedly in front of a two-story building in the harbor district of Fort Ness. He inspected the edifice closely; this would be his place of work and living from now on.

After a clanging noise, a bilingual plaque with words in both the language of Ordo and Horn Bay was steadily hung above the main entrance— “Todd Shipping.”

Having cheerfully paid the construction workers, Liszt breathed a sigh of relief. The office he was entrusted by his boss to establish was finally in order. From now on, he would represent the shipping company in Horn Bay, and even though he wouldn’t be able to return to Northwest Bay for a long time, this was essentially a promotion.

The office had to constantly monitor the local market trends. Todd Shipping’s merchant ships sailed south from Northwest Bay loaded with goods, and after unloading in Horn Bay, they could not return empty. That’s when the office would look for business opportunities to transport goods from the south back north or to purchase profitable merchandise to carry back.

With the intensifying economic and trade ties between the two regions, Liszt believed that more and more offices established by Northwest Bay merchants would appear on Horn Bay land.

While he was envisioning the future scenarios, a cloth flew out of a second-floor window and landed squarely on his face.

A beautiful face then looked out from inside, but despite its beauty, the expression was as if Liszt owed her eight million gold coins, “Didn’t you say you were going to clean? Why are you slacking off down there?”

Liszt removed the cloth from his face with a wry smile and hastily said, “I’m coming, I’m coming. I’ll help you right away.”

“Haha, my apologies.”

The woman, Seviya Acitini, was Liszt’s newly hired assistant who possessed another identity—a witch in hiding!

Indeed, it was she who had brazenly declared war on the church near the Fort Ness Cathedral over a month ago, causing quite a stir and severely damaging the church’s reputation in Fort Ness.

Her true intention was to draw out the church’s armed guards so another group could sneak in and rescue the imprisoned sorcerer. She succeeded, giving the church a resounding slap on the face.

However, whether she was too confident or had resigned herself to a suicidal fate, she fainted on the spot after her mission was completed. Lucky for her, she was well hidden, and since the church’s armed forces hurriedly returned to support after discovering the prison break, she narrowly escaped death.

It was then Liszt, who had been apprehensively watching from the side, stumbled upon and ‘collected’ her.

It wasn’t about the antidote—as so many days had passed without incident, Liszt suspected that the witch had been bluffing him. Yet perhaps it was because of their close encounter that night that he felt compelled to save her; some invisible force seemed to drive him.

Thankfully, he had recently rented a new residence, providing a hidden place to stay. Otherwise, if he had still been at the inn, things would have been much more troublesome.

As expected, the church began an intense citywide search, inspecting passersby in the streets and forcibly closing the city along with the harbor entrances. Liszt hardly dared to go out for several days as the Purification Squads once again filled the city with grievances and complaints.

Fortunately, the newly appointed Fort Ness Archbishop Angelo managed to suppress radicals such as the Paladin Vileus, restoring order to the city. Rumors circulated that there were disagreements within the church; arguments were incessant, and the leaders of the Purification Squads were displeased with the new Archbishop’s lenient tendencies. Yet, the Archbishop had his own substantial group of supporters.

Returning to the witch Liszt had brought back, she finally woke up after being unconscious for three days and scolded her savior thoroughly.

“Who told you to save me! Fool!”

“Don’t you realize how dangerous that was? Idiot!”

Finally, with a sarcastic tone, she added, “Heh, you think you owe me something because of that night, huh? Still, just a fledgling, don’t flatter yourself!”

“Hey, hey! Don’t talk nonsense… I’m not… I didn’t…” Liszt, his face reddening, firmly retorted. “I saved you purely out of a simple sense of justice.” He earnestly defended himself.

However, she sounded ungrateful, but in fact, it was vexation and worry about involving an innocent person. This allowed Liszt to realize the witch had a cold exterior but a warm heart; it seemed he hadn’t rescued the wrong person.

Later, due to the city’s lockdown, the witch stayed at Liszt’s behest.

“So… Seeing as I did save you, how about staying to help me out a bit?”

“What?”

“I’ve been sent by my boss to establish an office here, and I need an assistant familiar with the local information. There’s not much budget, so I was looking for someone affordable. Why don’t you go ahead and lower your standards a bit… You’d just be dealing with some paperwork in the house, after all, and you’ll still have to deal with checks from the Purification Squads outside.”

“Hmph, you really aren’t afraid of trouble, are you? Alright, you don’t seem to be scared, so what can I say? I have nowhere else to go anyway.”

Though, by her expression, she probably saw him as a man seduced by infatuation.

“Friedrich Liszt, representative of Todd Shipping in Fort Ness, of Northwest Bay. Pleased to meet you!”

Liszt tried to put on a sincere face and extended his right hand, then retracted it with a blush.

“Seviya Acitini, witch of Horn Bay. Pleased to meet you.”

The witch finally responded in a normal tone, though still rather cool.

Afterward, he witnessed her astonishing skill at disguise—it was virtually like a complete transformation. No wonder she could remain undercover in Fort Ness for so long, orchestrating an attack on the church without anyone being the wiser.

Was this magic? It didn’t seem so; perhaps some mundane skills could achieve a bewilderingly effective result when mastered.

After the atmosphere in the city relaxed a bit, Liszt, with the help of his “female assistant,” began to look for an office location. Guided by a local, the issue with the property was settled in nearly a week.

And so, the opening scene of this chapter came about.

Liszt went upstairs to clean with Seviya Acitini, the witch.

While wiping windows, he tried to make conversation.

“Ah, what lovely weather today!”

“…”

“Breakfast was good, right?”

“…”

“That…”

“If you can’t hold a conversation, don’t bother!”

“Uh… sorry.”

Liszt turned back around, his face flushing, and focused intently on cleaning the windows.

Seviya glanced at Liszt behind her back with a silent stare.

When she had agreed to stay, she had resolved to make this mortal man pay dearly if he harbored any dishonorable intentions toward her; he would regret ever being born.

However, after some time together, the guy seemed to have no excessive actions, nor did he take advantage of her gratitude to make any excessive demands; apart from some clumsy conversations, he was earnest about his work.

Could it really be as he said, acting out of “a simple sense of justice”? Is there such a thing in this world?

As she pondered, a commotion came from outside the window—it seemed like a large group of people shouting something.

Seviya cautiously moved behind the curtain, then stealthily peered out.

“Angelo! Angelo!”

She exchanged a glance with Liszt; wasn’t Angelo the name of Fort Ness’s new Archbishop?

The people in the streets continued to passionately chant slogans.

“Angelo! Angelo!”

The procession kept calling.

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