December's damp, cold wind swept across the Kingdom of Bernia's largest Metal Smelting and Processing Center in the West Blue.
Towering chimneys stood silent beneath the lead-gray sky, and the air was filled with the distinctive smell of metal and coke.
This was the beating heart of the Steel Heavy Industry Consortium, forging the sinews of the kingdom's rise day and night without rest.
"By the way, weren't we going to the Flower Country?"
Robin hopped lightly out of Boer's arms, her boot heels clicking crisply against the solid, level concrete.
Today, she had traded her usual scholarly dresses for a practical adventuring outfit:
Fitted dark blue jeans perfectly outlined her long, straight legs, while brown, flat-soled leather boots hugged her calves all the way to just below her knees, keeping her warm without restricting movement.
On top, she wore a simple cream turtleneck beneath a waist-length, pale purple suede jacket, with a thin leather belt loosely fastened around her waist. She had gathered her cascading black hair into a simple high ponytail, revealing her smooth forehead and the graceful curve of her neck. She looked fresh, capable, and a little dashing.
A bulging travel backpack hung casually from her shoulder, holding notebooks, drawing tools, emergency medicines, and lighting equipment.
Standing in the smelting center's open raw-material storage yard, she looked around curiously. Huge metal ingots were stacked like mountains, while unprocessed crude steel and copper gleamed coldly in the overcast light.
The distant rumble of blast furnaces could faintly be heard. Closer by, workers in thick work clothes, their faces dusty, were busy working or hauling materials.
Yet whenever their eyes happened to pass over the tall, silver-haired figure beside Robin, almost all of them instinctively held their breath, quickly lowered their heads, and hurried on, silently and respectfully