Prelude to a New Era

The cigar between Edwin Howard's fingers had burned down to the end, its gray-white ash on the verge of falling, yet he remained completely unaware.

He had previously tried cultivating the power systems mastered by his counterparts in other worlds, but lacking the corresponding key elements, he naturally had been unable to replicate them.

Now, he had finally found the answer.

The supernatural power of this world was tightly sealed within a kind of potion known as "potions," and those potions were controlled by the churches.

The Kingdom of Loen was a nation where multiple faiths coexisted, but only three truly stood at the pinnacle: the Church of the Evernight Goddess, the Church of the Lord of Storms, and—the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery.

Edwin's knuckles silently tapped against the expensive solid-wood desk, producing dull thuds.

If his fellow countryman had not lied, then the properties of those potions were likely closely tied to these gods' names and authorities.

Evernight, storms—those were still within the realm of comprehension.

But steam and machinery? Could those become supernatural abilities too?

An absurd yet utterly reasonable thought took shape in his mind.

If steam and machinery could also produce a god, then the reason electricity had yet to see widespread application in this world was probably far more complicated than mere technical costs—

This world's foundations in electromagnetism were not weak. Even telegraphs had already been put into use, becoming an important tool for long-distance communication.

Yet electric lighting, which could take entire cities out of the dim yellow glow of gas lamps, had not become widespread.

At first, he had thought it was simply because the technology was not yet mature and no one had promoted it on a large scale.

But once supernatural factors were taken into account,