Chapter 70 – Planning previous world knowledge cheat countermeasures – Part 1
I thought I might as well take the opportunity to gather everyone in the courtyard.
While I had Melby get everyone, I used [Earth Spirit Magic] to create a few pots as shooting targets.
“That’s amazing! If glazed and baked, those would be good enough to sell even,” Alfred-tousan said in an impressed tone while looking at the pots.
Oh, I guess we can make money with something simple like that too.
When everyone arrived, I created an approximately two meter tall and three meter wide earthen wall on one side of the courtyard, made a few pedestals in front of it in certain intervals, then placed the pots on top of them.
“This will make a lot of noise. Won’t that bother the neighbors?”
“I don’t know about being a bother for the neighbors, but if strange sounds start coming from the lord’s house, then the knight guards will most likely come running.”
“In that case, I will use [Wind Magic] to muffle the noise.”
Julia-kaasan used [Wind Magic] to cover the courtyard.
Hmm, so you can prevent sounds from escaping like that. I’ll need to remember that.
“Then, I’ll start now.”
After saying that, I took a stance with the pistol about ten meters away from the targets, aimed at a pot, and pulled the trigger. At the sound of discharge the pot broke into pieces.
Without pause, I fired a second then third round, each breaking another pot.
“――like that. This is how a weapon called a firearm works,” I said as I turned to look at everyone, finding grim or dazed looks on all of them as they looked back and forth between the firearm and the broken pieces of the pots.
“Hey, you said that firearms shoot a ball of lead, right? However, I haven’t been able to see anything like it at all,” Moria-san asked.
Apparently Moria-san with [Discern] couldn’t see the bullet, yet I could just barely see an afterimage.
Moria-san’s [Discern] Skill level is 3, and mine is level 5. That means that to see an incoming bullet the [Discern] Skill level needs to be at least 4, but to reliably see it, it would need to be at least 5 if possible.
“There is no need to place an arrow before firing, like with a bow, either. All Ed did was point it and pull that hook like part with his index finger. That mechanism resembles the crossbow, but with the crossbow it takes quite a bit of time and strength to replace the arrow,” Chester-niisan said this time.
“Nii-san, want to try shooting it?”
“Can I?”
After I offered, nii-san cautiously accepted the pistol. He then proceeded to aim at a pot target and took a stance with it. He must’ve observed my stance just now, since even though this is the first time he touched a firearm, the stance he took was pretty well done.
Then Chester-niisan pulled the trigger. BAMM, the pistol fire sounded out, and nearly at the same time the noise of a pot breaking could be heard. Nii-san kept smoothly moving the sight to the side without pause, targeting the next pot every time he fired. As expected of someone who had a good affinity for sharpshooting, he hit the next pots perfectly too.
“This is… a terrifying weapon…” Nii-san whispered with a grim look as he watched the gunpowder smoke rise from the gun.
“Those sharpshooters you mentioned before, do they use the same kind of weapon as this?”
“No. Snipers use much more accurate weapons. That pistol doesn’t have that much range.”
“You mean this range is considered short…? I should be able to hit a target five times farther than this even.”
I’m not exactly knowledgeable about this, but fifty meters should be just inside effective range for a pistol. That would mean Chester-niisan was able to pinpoint the gun’s effective range at first sight.
“Snipers can apparently shoot a target accurately from 200 meters or more. Nii-san who has good eyes and good affinity might be able to do that from even further away.”
To realize how amazing that is in this world, all I have to do is to think back to Ranzrack Fortress.
That would mean he could have very likely shot Goreth, the leader of the Black Wolf Fang mercenaries right from the top of the fortress’ wall. Of course, there is HP in this world, so taking Goreth out with one shot might’ve been too tall an order. Even so, it would’ve been possible to deny Goreth the time to throw his spears and one-sidedly harass him to death.
While I was lost in thought, Alfred-tousan was handed the pistol from Chester-niisan and test-fired it.
Alfred-tousan who was bad with projectile weapons missed one of the two shots, but he still managed to experience the utility of a firearm.
“This is indeed a very frightening weapon. It’s of course effective against monsters too, but first and foremost it’s brutal against human enemies. So you think the enemy side may create weapons like this too… I see it now, no wonder Ed is worried about it. So, what do you intend to do in case the enemy side manages to get weapons like this, Ed? It’s not just doing the same on our end and competing on direct numbers, right?” Dad asked.
“In the worst case it might come to that in the end, but before that I want to set up a system to watch for irregularities on the distribution of materials that are needed for the production of firearms and gunpowder, and investigate it immediately if any is found.”
“Is it possible that this reincarnator called Kizaki didn’t even reincarnate into Santamana?”
“Yeah… That’s why I want to create an intelligence network that covers the movement of goods, if not on the entire continent, but at least in all the major cities. In any case, mass producing weapons like firearms needs a sizable economical and manufacturing power, so it should be fine to watch over only the larger cities.”
“But we can’t discount the possibility that even without mass production the reincarnator would be able to outfit people close to him at least, right?”
“Speaking of that, we may be able to create a small elite squad armed with my previous world’s knowledge too.”
“Chester being the first one of them?”
“I guess, yeah? Sorry about that, nii-san. For getting you caught up in something weird.”
“No, I don’t mind at all. If anything, this is much better than keeping something important like this a secret, only for us to find out once we can’t do anything about it anymore,” Chester nii-san said to me as I was bowing my head.
“In addition to nii-san, I want to create a special squad by gathering up other trustworthy knights who have a good affinity for ranged weapons and outfit them with firearms. Not just to directly oppose the enemy’s otherworldly knowledge, but also to hash out possible problems and weaknesses coming from using firearms. With the concepts of Skills and Status existing in this world, it may be possible to find countermeasures against weapons that originate from my previous world.”
Julia-kaasan reacted to my words.
“Eh, wait a minute, Edgar-kun. Does that mean that Status and Skills did not exist in your previous world?”
“Yeah. Nothing like that existed there. Isn’t those existing at all strange by itself? In this world it was the Benevolent Gods that put that system in place only to oppose the Evil God, apparently.”
“I see~. So that’s how it is.”
Everyone was just as surprised and astonished as Julia-kaasan by this fact. For the people of this world, magic, Skills, and Statuses are something that simply exist, they can’t even imagine a world without them.
“That’s why I think magic in particular will be the key. Even if it’s not possible to deflect high speed incoming bullets by using wind, like with arrows, it should be possible to create a thick wall in their way, or evaporate them with high temperature flames, or perhaps use a membrane of water to slow them down.”
“Indeed… Those methods you just mentioned would take a lot of MP~,” Julia-kaasan said with a frown and kept pondering.
“A comparatively simple but effective solution is to dig a trench.”
“Ah, you mentioned that when we were talking about teaching magic to knights too.”
“That’s because trenches were originally first employed on battlefields where both sides had access to firearms.”
“I see. The counter magic group tactics may very well be valid countermeasures for fighting against firearms as well.”
“Dad, can you introduce me to a trustworthy smith who would keep the production methods of firearms secret?”
“A smith, huh… There is someone I know at the capital. However, we will be only staying at the capital while I finish my report to His Majesty the King, so it might be difficult to arrange for the long term.”
“Even so, I want to learn about this world’s metalworking techniques. They might be different from my previous world’s.”
Since there is magic in this world, it’s not entirely certain that the production methods of this world are that inferior. If magic or Skills can be used to work the metals, then learning those myself would be useful. If there was a magic similar to Alchemy, which could create and process metals directly, then that would be even more convenient.
“In that case, I will introduce you. ――Hoh, it’s already this late.”
I followed Alfred-tousan’s gaze and saw Beck sitting on a courtyard bench, dozing off.
“Is there something else you want to talk about, Ed?”
“Ah, yes. Just one more thing. Well… I would like to make Steph strong.”
