Volume 4 Chapter 8 The One Who Wasn't Even Invited, Came with an Intensity That Blows Away the Smell of Coal
The next day, Aine came pushing into my home, urging us, and we 3──Aine, Lene, and I──visited a certain facility at the port.
Seriously, knocking on the door right after sunrise was too much.
Is this scholar a rooster or something?
So, what is this facility?
It's a warehouse.
But unlike other warehouses at the port, this one holds items brought back from another continent and is strictly managed.
"So, where is the coal?!"
"...Lene, could you quiet her down for a bit?"
"Got it."
Just then, I heard Lene walking behind me, followed by a loud thud.
Glancing back, I saw Aine crouched down, holding her head, while Lene stood behind her, smiling with a stick in her hands.
My wife is ruthless.
"That hurt, LenLen! What if all my coal knowledge flies away?!"
"...So that's how it is."
Aine pouted angrily, while Lene gave her a slightly unfazed look.
Aine used to live in our house 4 years ago, but since then, Lene has been pretty harsh on this scholar.
They were in sync when they first met, so it's not like they clash.
"How many times do I have to tell you to calm down, Aine? I'll file a complaint with the academic guild!"
As I sighed and warned her, Aine's mouth twisted into a strange smile.
For Aine, who had fled from Goldmont, being expelled from the academic guild in Beistein Kingdom would mean losing her place completely.
"Ugh... this is so unfair... using noble status like that..."
Aine mumbled something, but it had nothing to do with being a noble.
Even if I were a commoner, I would act the same way!
"Aine is so noisy. Just show me what we need. Um... oh, this box?"
I stopped in front of a wooden box, 50 centimeters square, marked with "stone like coal" in chalk.
The reason it said "stone like coal" instead of "coal" was that no one on the ship understood the language of the new continent, and no one had seen real coal before.
Feeling Aine's impatient energy from behind, I opened the box.
Inside was a black stone that looked similar to the coal shown by the scholar before, but it sparkled with a bright light.
"This is a 'mineral thought to be coal.' It looks a bit different from the coal I saw before, but it turns my hands black and smells similar, so it might be coal──"
"Oh my gosh! This is... anthracite... no, it's smokeless coal, isn't it!?"
Before I could finish my explanation, Aine leaned in and peered into the box.
She quickly touched the shiny black stone, sniffed it, and nodded enthusiastically.
"Anthracite? Smokeless coal?"
"Yes! It's not anthracite, it's smokeless coal! This is amazing!"
Aine, excited and leaning toward Lene, was eager, but neither my wife nor I understood the meaning of the words.
"You good with this? Coal's got different types, like big brown coal, bituminous coal, and smokeless coal! There's also peat, the lowest quality, but it's so different in nature and use that I won't get into it here."
Ah, looks like she started explaining even though I wasn't asked.
I felt like this was going to get long, but I decided to just listen quietly.
Might as well know it properly, after all.
"So, I always thought coal was just burning rocks. What's it used for? Iron-making, right?"
"Good question, LenLen!"
"Bish," Aine points sharply at Lene, the sound almost audible.
Both my wife and I send warm glances her way, she's so lively.
Then Aine's explanation went on and on.
I got a temporary-like lecture, but to sum it up, coal is fuel for melting various metals because it burns hot.
Bituminous and smokeless coal, they're high quality and seem to burn even hotter.
But smokeless coal, it's tricky to light and handle, apparently.
"However, if we can get smokeless coal, that means we can get loads of bituminous coal too! You found a good spot in the west, didn't you? Please take me there too!"
"Well, that's a bit too much on my own say-so. But, using bituminous coal for iron-making..."
Shaken up by Aine, I pondered the usefulness of coal.
From what I heard, bituminous and smokeless coal have a lot of the same stuff as charcoal.
I know that using charcoal for iron-making gets you a stronger metal, steel, but it seems Goldmont is researching mass production with coal."
If that's the case, Beistein Kingdom, with its access to more asphalt coal, might be able to surpass Goldmont, right?
"This needs to be discussed with Lord Reichner and His Majesty."
If we can produce stronger metals at a lower cost, we can't ignore this opportunity.
We need to settle this before the next ship returns to port.
"Hey, you! You can't enter here──"
As I peeled Aine off me, lost in thought, I noticed a commotion at the warehouse entrance. My attention shifted that way.
It was a guard's voice, but──
"...What's going on?"
The voice stopped, and I was puzzled, but soon my puzzlement turned to caution.
"...I smell blood."
"...Me too."
I agreed with Lene, whose sense of smell is sharp.
Fresh blood wafted from the warehouse entrance.
Something must've happened to the guard.
As Lene and I stood ready with our staffs, the figure appeared casually from the right side of the entrance in just a few seconds.
Its gaze was fixed on me.
"Ah, there you are, Count Huntwerker."
The middle-aged man, clad in black armor splattered with blood from neck to toe, smirked in satisfaction as he confirmed my face.
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