The good news was that sunlight did not count as "firelight."
This actually made very little sense. In Angel's understanding, the Sun's light and heat came from the energy produced by nuclear fusion constantly occurring within the star. What humans saw was the visible light it emitted, while the heat they felt was infrared radiation—both essentially forms of "light" in the broad sense. If that was the case, then under the negative effects of the Magician Pocket Watch, she should have feared daylight as well.
Yet now, standing at the entrance of Blackthorn Security Company, with the morning sunlight shining on her face, she felt neither dread nor fear.
The bad news was that a gas lamp was lit in the stairwell leading from the security company's entrance to the second floor.
How did these people dare light a gas lamp? Wasn't fire humanity's greatest threat in this world?
If gas leaked and was ignited by the flame, the blaze would surge back into the gas pipes, and the entire building—the entire neighborhood—would be blown apart...
Angel wanted to pull out her revolver and shoot down the gas lamp that might burn down the whole building, but then she remembered that igniting gunpowder would produce sparks when the bullet left the barrel. After hesitating for a long while, she still did not dare fire.
"Good morning, Miss Angel. I didn't expect you to be back from Enmat Harbor so soon. Why are you standing at the entrance instead of going in?"
Klein, who had stayed up too late the previous night and had nearly been late as a result, stepped off the Public Carriage and arrived at the entrance of Blackthorn Security Company. Just as he was about to head upstairs, he spotted Angel standing by the roadside, pacing