A family sat in their home, eating their dinner together and chatting up a storm. Today was, for better or for worse, an absolutely normal day, and nothing out of the ordinary had transpired. In a corner of the dining room there sat a small yet powerful piece of technology. A mere decade and a half ago, this piece of tech would have been deemed to be witchcraft at best, for it was something completely foreign to those who lived back then.

Now, however? Now it was a common thing, in nearly every home of any size and so cheap that you could afford to buy multiple of them for merely two weeks’ worth of full-time, minimum wage salary. This thing, this miracle of Darksolian engineering was known as a Radio, and in this household (and many others) it remained utterly silent until switched on. Well, it would normally remain silent until switched on, but occasionally a certain signal would force the device to turn itself on so that it could relay important information to the public.

And today was a day when one of those signals was sent. As the family sat together, the radio crackled to life and every ear in that house perked up and waited for the message to play. Most of the times that the radio turned itself on, the message that would play was one speaking of a new war. To be fair, the family actually were worried that a new war had been started, but today they would be receiving two welcome surprises over the airwaves.

“Citizens of the Greater Darksol Empire, hear me!”

The family felt their hearts begin to beat faster and harder. The voice that was coming to them from many miles away was that of their true ruler, Kain Anathemas Nekronus von Darksol. Almost every time that he had been on the radio, something terrible had happened or was about to happen. This was enough of a reason for the family to stop eating and silently prepare for another war.

However, Kain wasn’t going to make such an announcement.

“A few days ago, I issued a challenge to all those willing to take it up. Placed in all media was an offer, and it was one that you accepted wholeheartedly. I am here today to tell you that, as was stated in the terms of this challenge, the challenge has ended. I am here to personally announce the winners, and to tell them to expect a little something special in the coming few days.”

This was enough to stop the family from preparing for a war and instead gave them cause to return to their dining table and resume eating. The only daughter in that family had submitted an idea, and while none of them were holding out hope that it would be accepted, they still did want to hear what their current ruler was going to accept. Knowing him, the vast majority, if not all of the winners would be military in nature. Maybe something designed to do more civic work would be accepted, but they were not holding their breath.

“I will now announce the winners alongside their ideas. Please be aware that I am listing them in no particular order, as all who were selected will receive the same prize regardless. First up is Jacob Macneran and his idea for a giant mobile indestructible stone construct that only moves when non-sentients are not looking at it. While I have no intention of bringing that idea into full existence, I will be creating limited, scaled-down versions. Thank you, Jacob Macneran, for your great idea. I hope you don’t mind that it will be made a bit smaller and less dangerous than you had envisioned.”

Of course he would make the more deadly idea be the first one to announce. Kain really seemed to have a hard-on for the more.. violent things in both life and unlife.

“After that, I wish to thank Justine Santioga for her idea. I must say that I really do appreciate the design and functions that you came up with. I, myself, am actually quite miffed that I didn’t come up with something like that. Everyone already knows about the mail delivery drones, as well as the ones that deliver certain types of cargo. Justine, however, came up with the novel idea of giving certain larger drones a magical foam-producing jet nozzle so that they can be used to help deal with high-rise fires. Thank you, Justine Santioga, for your wonderful idea.”

Okay, maybe that was just a fluke. The next ones would obviously just be more defense or offense-oriented constructs.

What they didn’t expect was who would be announced as the third winner.

“Third, but just as good as the two previous ideas is one submitted by Edna Weiss. She submitted a wonderful idea for a compact powerplant that uses the ambient flow of mana in the air to provide an extra few tens f miles of movement for cars in case of emergencies or lack of fuel. Kudos to her for also adding in a remote stop system to the design, so that police won’t have to worry about a criminal driving their car even after they ran out of gas. O behalf of all those who patrol our roads and all those who have had to deal with an empty gas tank, I tip my crown to you, Enda Weiss.”

Immediately the family stopped eating and looked at each other in stunned silence. Surely Kain had not just spoken about their daughter, had he? Come to think of it, they had never learned exactly what the idea was that their daughter, who was named Edna Weiss, had submitted.

Kain continued to list names and the accompanied ideas, but that simply became background noise as each family member finished their current mouthful. Edna, the daughter of the family, then looked up, a small but growing smile forming on her face.

“I can’t believe that they accepted my idea!” she said, obviously still quite astonished that her proposal had been accepted. After all, she was still only twelve, and it was unlikely that any adult would have given her idea any weight. Well, they would not have given it any weight up until they stole the idea and passed it off as their own, that is.

The family was overjoyed at this revelation, marking an eventful end to a previously uneventful day.