I pushed open the door to the red-lady’s shop, and the smell of metal filled my nose once again.
She raised her head from among a pile of random metal devices to look at me, and waved her hand casually to greet me: “You’re here, prince.”
I think the most awesome figure in the city must be her…
“Hey, uh.. Big sis!!” Just as I was to call her aunty, I saw her emit a dangerous light from her eyes so I immediately changed my choice of words. She nodded with satisfaction, folded her arms across her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and waited for me to speak. I looked at her and said: “Umm, I want to discuss my…”
“Oh, your armour, right? It’s done. That piece of armour was actually very easy to make. You just have to purify the ‘defence’ spell into pure magic and then cast it onto something else. I prepared some undergarments for you and then cast the spell onto it. I also increased the strength of the spell. Hmm… This is the one.”
She carefully took out a white undergarment that looked very normal without any decorations from a paper bag. There was just a coat of arms added to the chest region. It’s the same one as the twin-headed eagle in the palace. Perhaps the coat of arms was something that belonged to the royal family. She shook it around and then placed it on a shelf to the side. She then handed me a flintlock pistol and said: “In the past, the Earth Dragons weren’t able to defend against arrows or piercing attacks from spears due to their fragile scales. However, their reinforced silk can. A strong beast may be able to break a wooden cage, but it can’t break a net made from rope. Fire the gun at the undergarment and see for yourself.”
No matter how I looked at the undergarment, I just couldn’t see how it had any defence capabilities…
I picked up the loaded flintlock gun and pulled the trigger. An ear-piercing sound rung through the room. The smell of smoke made Nier frown and back up a few steps. I fanned the white smoke away with my hand, and walked up to the undergarment. I’ve never used a flintlock gun, but I wouldn’t miss at such a close range, right? The garment floated in the air. The red haired-lady grabbed it and lay it flat on the table.
There wasn’t so much as a mark on the garment. The red-haired lady bent over, threw a black bullet onto the table and proudly said: “See that? It’s all thanks to me adding the spell to the silk. That’s why I said that no blades could penetrate this piece of armour. However, this garment won’t reduce the impact behind a strike. It can reduce it a bit, but… In other words, if I were to fire a shot at your back, the bullet won’t pierce you, but the impact of the bullet will still thump you.”
I nodded and said: “I know.” The bullet won’t hit my flesh, but the armour can’t nullify the impact entirely. But as long as it doesn’t reach my flesh, getting hit by a flintlock gun like that would only cause me to stagger or some bruising I reckon.
“It’s just that this sort of stuff requires quite a bit of material. If we were to use Earth Dragon scales to make an Earth Dragon scale armour, then this garment could be exchanged for five Earth Dragons scales I reckon… Oh, right. There’s also this. You gave me an extra bag of scales, so I created an additional chest plate. There wasn’t enough material for anything else, so I had to go with a chest plate.”
She took out a vest which was significantly smaller than my torso. I smiled helplessly and said: “I already have this garment, so why do I still need that chest plate?”
“Because if I were to purify it, then that bag of Earth Dragon scales would be nothing more than Earth Dragon scales. You can’t complain about there being too much of this sort of stuff, right?”
She shrugged with an “I don’t care” att.i.tude. She then turned to look at Nier and said: “You can give it to your bodyguard. She’d be more at ease and safe if she couldn’t be hurt by blades, right?”
Nier paused, and then asked in a shocked tone: “HUH? I can have something like that?!”
I looked at her, scanned her, and then handed her the vest. Better weapons and better armour are forever pursued by warriors. Nier won’t be moved by diamonds and jewels, but this vest will definitely please her.
“Take it. I have the undergarment already, anyway.”
I generously handed her the vest. Nier paused. She took in a deep breath, bowed down and took it with two hands. She then said in a loud voice: “Thank you for your reward, your majesty!”
“Let’s go with that then… Wait. Don’t undress here!!”
I reached my hand out and pulled Nier’s hand away from her b.u.t.tons. I know you’re excited but could you please not undress in front of me a second time?! Nier was excited like a kid that just bought a new toy and wanted to try it on… But I wonder if the vest will fit her given her top proportion…
Stop! Stop! Stop!! What am I thinking?!
“If you want to change, go change in my room at the back.” The red-haired lady pointed to the room at the back. The possibility of me being attacked didn’t even cross her mind. She jogged over to the room. The red-haired lady sighed and rubbed her messy red hair. She then looked at me and said: “It doesn’t look like you’re about to leave. You have something else you came to see me for, right?”
I nodded and said: “Yeah. I want to see what tools you work with… I want to make a gun.”
I’ve thought about it seriously. I can’t produce an automatic gun right now. Forget guns, I can’t even produce the bullets for it. Even if I want to create a firearm, I’m limited to paper ammunition. I know how to create the ammunition itself, but I have no way of creating the sh.e.l.l. Given those restrictions, paper ammunition is the best fit.
Thus, there’s only one gun model I can create. There’s no meaning in me creating a back-loaded gun which can be produced right now. I want to make a gun that can fire consecutively, a weapon I can always carry with me. What came to mind was a revolver. Yes, the gun that has six bullets.
Of course, I can’t create it with the techniques of the modern day. I’ll consider it successful as long as it can fire successive shots. I once created a revolver during a practical one year while in school. I successfully made the revolver and the bullets using machines and materials. I successfully fired fifty-five rounds of six shots.
If a flintlock gun can be made, then I can create a revolver, even if it’s extremely basic.
And yes, that’s under the condition that I have the required tools. I don’t have spare time to go creating a lathe. If I had that much time on my hands, I’d directly use a lathe to create metal bullets… Since flintlock pistols can be made, I don’t think it can be that hard to make a revolver.
The red-haired lady didn’t entirely understand what I was getting at but she took me on a tour of her workshop nonetheless. What surprised me was that there was a lathe here. And this model was a relatively developed model. She proudly pat the lathe before me and said: “I was the one that improved this thing. Previously, I used it to control blade pieces by virtue of experience. But I can manufacture a tool of any dimension you want. Further, I have more materials here. What sort of material are you after?”
I excitedly checked out the familiar workshop. The workshop had evolved to look like more recent ones. I don’t know this red-haired lady’s background but the technology of her workshop had reached the standard of the nineteenth century already, and the first revolver happened to come about in the nineteenth century.
I think it’ll be a walk in the park for a twenty-first century light-weaponry student like me to make a gun about the same as that then.
“That’s great. Big sis, I’ll draw a picture… Umm… Don’t make this gun for anyone other than myself… It’s reserved for the royal family’s use only. Reserved for the royal family… Yeah… Something like that…”
I don’t know swordsmans.h.i.+p, nor do I know how to use magic. I’m helpless and always relying on Lucia and Nier to protect me when I’m with them. Courage is a virtue, but courage without strength is nothing more than recklessness.
My only weapons are my brain and my knowledge. I’ll have the courage to take on a group if I can make myself a revolver.
I’ve finally got the chance the show off my skills as a modern person after coming to this different world!