Flashia In A New World

And to Push Forward (Ësterland)

Scharna, Esterria, 15/7/1702
Lieutenant Vincent van Kuik is walking down the streets of Scharna, he is there to inspect the Commonwealth troops garrisoned there to ensure they are capable of defending the city and well-prepared for future operations, which are awaiting to be greenlighted by Einskirka.

Vehicles go past the roads every now and then, and it's not just the civilian horse-drawn carriages that are cruising down the street, there are also military self-propelled vehicles, both wheeled and tracked, armed and unarmed. Soldiers with rifles on their hand or slung behind their back are also seen patrolling.

For this seasoned veteran ranking lieutenant, it did took awhile to get used with the sight of soldiers in green instead of the old sky blue with rifles in black in lieu of the wooden and metal musket along with the fact that self-propelled carriages are now the ones cruising down the roads in the Royal Army.

He continued down the street with his cadres accompanying him in this inspection. As he continued down the roads of the city, he then smelled something strange yet somewhat familiar. He turned to the source of the smell and it turns out a soldier to his left were smoking a cigar but not really. This 'cigar' seems to be smaller and more simpler with rolled up paper (that is burned) while the light brown part is sandwiched between his lips.

Vincent had seen something like these before, and he sure is familiar with cigars. But cigars are often associated with nobility so seeing soldiers of civilian, peasant background smoking something similar was a jarring scenery for this noble lieutenant. He turns to the smoking soldier.

"Would you mind telling me what are you smoking at this moment?"

The soldier then looked at him, taking the smaller version of cigar out of his mouth.

"Oh, this?" he said "This is a cigarette, they're basically small cigar if you know what I mean"

"Oh I see then..." said the lieutenant. Vincent had heard that products of Flash import made their way into the markets of Esterria. Some of these made the lives of normal people easier, while some are just for the sakes of leisure, including some that is reported to be a cheaper version of nobility products. And it seems cigarette is one of these cases.

"Hey would you mind if I have one?" said the Esterrian lieutenant.

"Not at all" as the soldier takes out a pack "Here, you can have one" the soldier then took out one fresh cigarette out of the pack gave it to the lieutenant.

The lieutenant then puts the light brown part on his mouth while the soldier pulled out a metal box, flipped it open and lit a small flame which is then used to burn the paper at the end, and then shut it close, the small fire presumably extinguished. This particular metal box is another of those that intrigued Vincent.

"What is this box that could make controlled fire appear and disappear?"

"It's called a lighter, very useful for lighting up logs and burning other stuff"

The lieutenant nodded, acknowledging what he said. With a lit cigarette on his mouth, Vincent inhales in, then takes the cigarette out and let out a white smoke.

"It certainly has been awhile since I have smoked" the lieutenant commented

"How so?"

"Kingdoms Union Gestrae will not let the good things go through our port"

The soldier chuckled at his superior's answer.

"Well, now we have Flashia on our side, they got more than what we wanted at first"

"You are correct, Flash products have exceeded our expectations in ways I wouldn't have imagined. Anyways what are we going to do again?" said the lieutenant.