Chapter 139: Celebration Part 2
Dinner quickly settled into the comfortable rhythm Ernest had almost forgotten existed.
Servants moved quietly around the table, replacing empty dishes with fresh ones while conversations flowed naturally from one topic to another. Unlike the meetings he attended almost every day, there were no ledgers spread across polished wood, no engineering drawings waiting to be approved, and certainly no ministers debating budgets measured in hundreds of millions of riels.
For one evening, everyone had agreed without saying so aloud that business would remain outside the dining hall.
Anna was the first to break the silence after everyone had finished their soup.
"So..."
She looked directly at Ernest.
"Tell us honestly."
Ernest smiled.
"About what?"
"Were you nervous today?"
That question caught him slightly off guard.
"Nervous?"
"Standing before the king, the prime minister, and the entire Royal Council."
Victor chuckled.
"I’d be terrified."
"So would I," Hollen admitted. "Those ministers can make a grown merchant question every decision he’s ever made."
Ernest laughed softly before taking another sip of wine.
"I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous."
Anna looked surprised.
"Really?"
"Of course."
He leaned back slightly in his chair.
"They weren’t questioning my ideas anymore."
"They were questioning whether the kingdom should spend six billion riels."
The room grew noticeably quieter.
Victor slowly shook his head.
"I still can’t believe that number."
"Neither can I," Anna admitted.
She looked toward Hollen.
"Can you?"
The older man laughed.
"Absolutely not."
He picked up his wine glass before continuing.
"You know what I kept thinking while Ernest was speaking?"
"What?" Victor asked.
"I remembered our first soap workshop."
Everyone smiled.
It was impossible not to.
Hollen continued.
"The roof leaked."
Victor immediately nodded.
"I remember."
"The mixing vats first prototype was a mess."
"They were."
"The shelves barely held together."
Anna laughed.
"And we thought it looked wonderful."
"It did look wonderful," Ernest replied.
"It was ours."
That simple sentence made everyone smile.
Hollen slowly nodded.
"That’s true."
He looked toward Ernest.
"We were excited because we’d sold our first batch of soap."
He shook his head with a laugh.
"Today we’re discussing rebuilding an entire capital. I never imagined life would become this ridiculous."
Victor raised his glass.
"I’ll drink to that."
The others did the same.
Glasses touched lightly before everyone drank.
For a few moments, they simply enjoyed the meal.
The roasted lamb disappeared surprisingly quickly, followed by fresh bread that Anna insisted everyone take another serving of.
Eventually Victor wiped his hands before leaning back comfortably. Then Anna spoke
"You know..."
Everyone looked toward her.
"I still remember the first time Ernest came home talking about soap. He wouldn’t stop talking. He talked through dinner. Taught me how to do it."
Anna looked toward Ernest.
"I didn’t know you were making an amazing invention back then."
Everyone laughed.
Victor chimed in.
"I thought it was just another childhood obsession."
"So did I," Anna admitted.
"Children imagine strange things."
She smiled warmly.
"I simply didn’t realize my son would actually build them."
Ernest looked down at his plate for a moment.
"I couldn’t have done any of it alone."
Victor immediately disagreed.
"Maybe not alone."
He looked toward Hollen.
"But none of us would’ve even known where to begin."
Hollen nodded.
"He’s right."
The older merchant rested both forearms on the table.
"When I met Ernest, I thought I was hiring an unusually intelligent boy."
He smiled.
"I wasn’t."
Everyone looked toward him.
"I was hiring the future."
The room became quiet.
Anna reached across the table and gently patted Ernest’s hand.
"I don’t really understand electricity."
She looked around the room.
"I don’t understand steam engines."
She smiled apologetically.
"I barely understand the telegraph."
Everyone chuckled.
"But I do understand one thing."
She looked directly into Ernest’s eyes.
"You always wanted to make people’s lives better."
Ernest remained silent.
"When you first made soap..."
She laughed softly.
"...you weren’t talking about profits."
"You kept saying people deserved to be clean."
She continued.
"When you built heating..."
"You said people shouldn’t spend winter freezing."
"When you built plumbing..."
"You said carrying buckets every day was unnecessary."
Her smile became even gentler.
"And now..."
She glanced toward the windows where electric light spilled across the gardens.
"...you’re rebuilding a city."
She squeezed his hand once.
"You’ve never changed."
Those words affected Ernest more than he expected.
Perhaps because they were true.
The inventions had grown larger.
The factories had become enormous.
The contracts had reached billions.
But the reason behind them...
It remained exactly the same.
Dinner gradually came to an end as servants cleared away the last of the plates before replacing them with coffee, tea, and several desserts prepared by the kitchen staff.
No one seemed eager to leave the table.
It was Victor who finally stood first.
"Come."
He looked toward the others.
"The weather’s pleasant tonight."
Anna smiled immediately.
"The gardens."
"The gardens."
A few minutes later they stepped outside together.
Cool evening air greeted them as they walked onto the stone terrace overlooking Oriel.
Immediately beyond the manor, rows of electric lamps illuminated winding garden paths bordered by carefully trimmed hedges and flowering shrubs. Beyond those, the lights continued outward through Beryl before disappearing toward Apex and Arcada.
From this elevation, Oriel looked almost magical.
Not because of the technology.
Because of the life beneath it.
Families walked together after sunset.
Children still played in small groups.
Carriages continued moving through streets that would once have been nearly empty at this hour.
Restaurants remained open.
Music drifted faintly from somewhere in the distance.
The district refused to sleep simply because the sun had set.
Victor rested both hands against the stone railing.
"I’ve never grown tired of this view."
"Neither have I," Anna admitted.
Hollen stood beside Ernest, quietly studying the lights stretching toward the horizon.
"You know..."
He smiled.
"I finally understand something."
"What?"
"The king wasn’t impressed because the lamps were bright."
Ernest nodded slowly.
"No."
"He was impressed because people forgot they were there."
"Exactly."
The older man laughed.
"I think that’s the highest compliment an engineer can receive."
"It is."
They stood together for several quiet moments.
Finally Victor spoke again.
"When I worked at the forge..."
His voice was calm.
"I used to wonder whether I’d earn enough to give you a comfortable life."
Ernest looked toward his father.
"I wasn’t thinking about estates. I certainly wasn’t thinking about titles."
He smiled faintly.
"I simply wanted my family to have an easier life than I did. But it was hard...it would be really amazing if your siblings are still here."
He turned toward the glowing community below.
"Come on father, no pressure on you okay. I understand what you were going through at that time and were a bit ill-tempered. But still, you worked for us. And for that thank you."