Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The old men looked at Charles, astonished.
The engineers from all over the world had never seen anyone who could build things at such a speed. Even for an alchemist, it would take days to build it, but now, in just a few seconds, the design on the paper was turned into finished products for them to inspect.
As Charles waved his hand, a lead rod ruptured soundlessly, and a column one-centimeter in length fell into Charles’ hand. A piece of an iron sheet was cut from the window frame and wrapped around the lead column as a thin shell for it. Then, several dozen iron sand was put into it. Thus, the packaging was finished. An iron rod of the length of half a cigarette was held between Charles’s fingers.
“Shall we begin?” Charles asked the old men who were transfixed.
“You may begin, Charles.” The old man wearing a coat by the stove in the corner raised his eyes. “I cannot wait to see it.”
“Ok. Mr. Gaius.” With a smile, Charles pulled the mechanism at the grip of the iron barrel and put the iron rod into it. Then he aimed the barrel at the wall. After a little hesitation, he looked back and said, feeling a little embarrassed, “Could you please cover your ears? This might be a little loud.”
Gauis put down his water cup and plugged his ears. Seeing this, Charles turned back and raised the barrel at the wall again. Then a sharp blast almost shattered everyone’s eardrum. It was like thunder. What they saw was only super-hot fire, and light blasted out of the iron barrel and everything was finished. The wall was no longer intact. There were numerous big holes as if someone had made them with invisible knives and axes, then burned them with fire so that the holes had become black and seemingly melting.
The iron barrel, burned by the thunder-like blast, had become red. As the blast produced enormous power, the iron barrel was under huge pressure at the moment of firing. Charles’s arm was completely destroyed; bones piercing out of his flesh and his skin cracking into pieces. But Charles seemed not to care at all and smiled happily. “Wow. What they recorded in the ancient books was real!” He muttered, “It was only a replica of the original mechanism based on my estimations. I never expected it to be so powerful! I am so lucky.”
As if time went backward, Charles’ blood returned into his body, the peeled off skin healed quickly, and the bones recovered too, leaving no trace of injury at all. Even the blood-stained sleeves were clean. It was as if nothing had happened. And this all happened in a split second.
The old men, almost having lost their sense of hearing to the big boom, recovered from the shock. Figuring out what had happened, they looked at the strange iron barrel with terror and astonishment.
They all knew what had happened.
The principle was simple: melting lead reacting with aether in a closed space. Then, the reaction generated a huge amount of gas and heat which propelled the iron sand out of the iron barrel, causing the damage they had seen. However, no one had ever thought of applying this new alloy in this way.
“This was inspired by a story told to me by my friend.” Scratching head, Charles said, “In the story, there was a musician named Rain Artist. This reminded me of something recorded in some ancient book. I’ve always wanted to try it, but I had no chance until just now. Now that you have seen it yourself, it was really great! Do you think it will work? I think there should be no problem with it, right?”
The old men looked at each other. They were the best mechanical engineers from all over the world, renowned in their respective fields. They didn’t need to think to make a conclusion. They’d know if something would work by a simple glance at it. But when they saw this thing, they were shocked by the terrible power generated by such a simple mechanism. However, its flaws were as obvious as its advantages.
“We’ve seen similar things in the research institutions of the Asgardians. They powered their crossbow cannons with steam pressure to provide the initial speed for the crossbow arrows. But it was too costly to make steel that could take such high pressure. The budget of the mechanism was totally out of control; it became a decoration rather than a useful design. So, they dropped it at last.”
After a short discussion, one of the old men said, “With all due respect, it’s much too difficult to mass produce the machine in your hand. If we make it manually by alchemists, the cost would be too high due to the requirements of the steel material and the long time needed for production. According to our estimations, it would be as expensive as a guided cannon. It’s too luxurious for us.”
“We can use other materials. Use wood for the grip, and ordinary steel for the non-essential parts.” Charles said, “It doesn’t need alchemy metrics as it relies on pure aether reaction and mechanical engineering. According to my calculations, the cost will be lowered by 90 percent if we produce it in an assembly line.”
“Then, there’s no way to guarantee its safety.” Engineer Maksim said, “I am an apprentice musician, though not as skilled as you are. I can do the math. It is okay to do the trials in the white area, but if we use it outside of the white area, the aether fluctuation caused by the noise will damage the thing itself and may even compromise the safety of the user. That will be suicide for the soldiers.”
“We can reduce the amount of the melting lead by half,” Charles said immediately. “Though it may be less powerful, it will still work.”
Maksim, taking paper and a pen out of his pocket, shook his head and said, “No use. The pressure is still too high. The pressure inside will destroy the barrel. And the barrel will be damaged completely after shooting only once, unable to be used again.”
“Then don’t reuse it.” Shaking his head, Charles said, “We can use the cheapest iron sand to make the barrel. The reaction will take place in the barrel, and we can use disposable barrels which will be scrapped after one use and replaced with a new one. The reaction takes only one second. The barrel made of iron sand will collapse after that and became fine sand. With protective goggles, protective masks, and thick protective clothing, the user will be safe. This way, the production cost will be reduced by 20 percent. Bowmen usually take their shots in a three-row formation. While the first row of bowmen is shooting, the second row will get ready to shoot, and the third may rest, which is a perfect cycle. We may imitate that when using this device.”
“How do we train the shooters? It’ll cost a lot to train even an apprentice musician.”
“No need for training. Just teach them how to inject aether into the sealed chamber with the alchemy device and they will be ready to use this. We may even seal the aether inside when we produce the barrels. The aether can be isolated with the lead with a simple insert mechanism. It is simple, isn’t it?”
Maksim said nothing. After a long while, he put down his pen and heaved a sigh. “You had me convinced.” Lowering his head, he said, “I am sorry that I underestimated your engineering skills. I’m honored to join this project. According to your concept, we’ll finish the design. With enough supplies, we can equip the soldiers on a small scale within a month.”
“Can I be of any help?” Charles asked.
Maksim nodded.
“That’s perfect.” Charles smiled. “Finally, I can make myself useful.”
…
With Charles gone, the whole room fell into silence.
“Go back to do your work, everyone. Please keep what happened here tonight secret.” Gauis said, “As usual, everyone will be inspected for related matters. Thank you for your cooperation. Maksim, please stay a little longer.”
Pretty soon, guided by porters, the old men left, leaving only Maksim and Gauis in the room.
Maksim was a little nervous. “Mr. Gauis, is there anything else?”
“I felt that you had something to say just now.” Wrapping himself tightly with his coat and getting closer to the stove for the warmth, Gauis said, “Now no one is here. You were the first engineer in the Revolutionary Army. You may say what you want.”
After a moment of silence, Maksim said with a hoarse voice, “I’m not sure if it is right or wrong for us to do this.”
“Why?”
“It will change a war, sir.” Maksim answered, “Not only one war, perhaps. You can see that, right, sir? Once deployed, this will change wars into utter slaughter. The whole world will be shocked. The way of fighting wars will be completely changed. We are to be cursed by what we start.”
“Cursed? By whom? Victory?” Gazing at the fire in the stove, Gauis said casually, “Humans should take care of their own business and God will decide who will ascend to heaven and who should burn in hell.”
Maksim smiled bitterly and lowered his head, looking at the holy emblem passed down from his ancestors that hung on his neck. It was tied to a thin rope, shining silver.
“God?” Shaking his head, he heaved a sigh. “Who knows where this sort of thing is.”
Gauis laughed. He stood up and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t be silly. He was standing right in front of you just now, wasn’t he?”
…
Back in his room, Charles saw Wolf Flute drinking wine by the stove. Wolf Flute lifted his legs up to the fire to warm his feet, which filled the room with their stinky smell.
“You came back at the perfect time. I’ve just put on the fire. It must be deadly cold out. Get yourself warm.”
Charles smiled and got himself a stool to sit on. He pulled up his cotton coat and took off his heavy boots. The air quality in the room deteriorated instantly. In no time, Wolf Flute’s face turned purple as he could not bear with the smell in the room anymore. “Let’s open one window,” he suggested.
“All right.” Too lazy to get up, Charles raised his feet and kicked the frozen window beside him open. Freezing wind whirled in. The life of a mouse which was almost suffocated by the foul air in the room was thus saved.
“You scared the hell out of that bunch of old men.” Wolf Flute said, “That thing of yours, is there really no problem with it? It could destroy a wall with one shot…”
“Problem?” Charles looked at him absent-mindedly. “Is there any problem?”
“You must have considered the consequences of what you are doing, Charles?” Wolf Flute said, “I don’t know much about mechanical engineering, but I can see by the drawings of that thing that it has been carefully designed and is in no way something that popped out of your head on the spot. You finished the design a long time ago, right? You are not the sort of nerd who knows only research but nothing about application. You know the consequences of using this thing, don’t you?”
“Yes, I know it perfectly well.” Charles nodded and lowered his eyes. “Maybe a lot of people will die because of it. There will be more to die, thanks to me. I’m fully prepared for that.”
Wolf Flute withdrew his gaze from Charles.
“Don’t worry. This is the choice I’ve made myself.” Charles shrugged, smiling. “The only benefit of being the Holy Son is that there is no one calling tp convict me, right?”
Wolf Flute didn’t reply, but lied on the chair, looking at the snow flying in through the window. A long while later, he suddenly asked, “That thing you designed, have you named it?”
Charles thought about it for a while and answered, with a smile, “I’ll name it ‘Redemption’.”
