Faletis Royal Capital, Beckler.
The sky was as gloomy as ever, the air lingering with the indelible black-gray smoke, dusty haze, and faintly pungent odor left by burning coal.
This scene had practically become the calling card of Beckler, the center of Steam Industry.
Inside Her Majesty the Queen's magnificent bedchamber.
"I'm in love, so very happy. I know not love's troubles."
A gentle, melodious female voice flowed from a custom record player of walnut wood inlaid with gold. It was The Abduction from the Seraglio, a work by the Tulip Great Musician Wolfgang Amadeus.
The record player produced by Tlaloc Electric Company had signed an exclusive buyout agreement with him. This union of giants had become wildly popular in the social circles of upper-middle-class ladies and noblewomen across the nations.
Clearly, this love song was also one of Livina's favorites.
Her Majesty the Queen, wearing a pair of golden slippers, had gathered her cloudlike, fluffy hair with an emerald hairpin. Dressed only in a snow-white lace-trimmed petticoat, she quietly gazed at the somewhat gray and hazy royal capital beyond the French windows.
Though she was a powerful Titled Knight who had already nurtured a Titled Saint Artifact and had nearly reached the Mortal Limit, even the worst air pollution would not affect Livina in the slightest.
Compared to this place, she still preferred her room in White Swan Castle.
Though it was far less spacious than St. James's Palace, it was more pleasing to the eye, more relaxed and comfortable, and had more of the feeling of "home."
It put her at ease.
It was only because her previous expedition deep behind the "door" with her team had taken more than half a month.
She had no choice but to personally return to the homeland through the permanent Teleportation