Chapter 38: The Era of Hot Weapons

Iron Axe had known he was being watched since the third day.

The secured house was one of the smaller buildings in the northern cluster — stone, one room, no windows facing the street. He and the three other hunters had been told to eat there, sleep there, and not discuss with anyone why they were there. They had been paid in advance, which was unusual. The pay was good, which was more unusual. Whatever was coming required secrecy, which did not surprise him at all.

He had grown up on the edge of the Sand Nation’s territory, in the fringe settlements where humans and desert people traded and occasionally killed each other. He knew what a secret looked like. He knew what a man looked like when he was carrying one. His Highness wore his secrets the way the other nobles wore their titles — as though they were simply part of the furniture of who he was.

On the morning of the fourth day, Roland arrived with Carter and two of the locked crates from the storage cellar.

He set the crates on the table and opened them.

Inside, packed in cloth, were four objects that did not match anything Iron Axe had previously encountered. They were metal — that much was obvious — assembled from several distinct components: a long barrel, a wooden stock fitted to the underside, a complex mechanism at the rear that involved a small hinged piece of curved steel. The workmanship was fine. The objects had been made with precision, the way surgical tools were made, or measuring instruments. They did not look like weapons. They looked like something that had been designed to do something very specific and had been built accordingly.

“These weapons are called guns,” Roland said.

He spent the next hour teaching them. He explained the mechanism — the cock, the frizzen, the pan, the touch hole. He showed them how powder was measured into the barrel, how the ball was seated on the patch and rammed down, how the pan was primed and the frizzen closed. He demonstrated twice with an unloaded weapon so that every movement was clear before any powder was involved.

Iron Axe’s hands understood it faster than his mind did. There was a logic to the sequence — consistent, repeatable, no step that relied on judgment or feel. Load, prime, cock, aim, fire. In that order, exactly. He ran through it dry three times and felt the sequence settle into his hands.

“The target,” Roland said, and indicated the far wall of the secured compound.

They had set up a wooden panel at thirty feet — a section of the thick planking used in construction, the kind of board that would stop an arrow if the angle was bad. Standing beside it, Iron Axe had hit it with his hand and felt it solid.

Roland loaded one weapon, handed it to the hunter with the steadiest hands — a man called Pell, who had won the winter archery competition three years running — and told him to aim center and fire.

The sound was unlike anything that had happened in that room before. Carter, who had been present for the explosion test in the field, still flinched. The two hunters who had not been present for anything previous pressed back. Iron Axe held his position by will.

The board had a hole in it. Not a split, not a crack, not a glancing mark — a hole, punched clean through, with the wood around it compressed rather than torn. A clean entry, and when they looked at the back face, a ragged exit.

Roland pulled the board from its support and handed it around.

“Thirty feet,” Carter said. He was looking at the exit side. “Wooden plate.” He looked at the entry side. “Clean through.”

“At fifty feet the penetration is reduced,” Roland said. “At a hundred feet, against armor, it begins to vary. Against flesh at thirty feet, there is no variance.” He set the board back and looked at Iron Axe. “You’re going to need to practice the reload. The initial load takes time. With practice you can get to two shots per minute. That is the ceiling.”

Iron Axe turned the weapon over in his hands. Its weight was front-heavy, the balance different from a bow, but the logic of aim was the same — something at the rear end pointed at something downrange, and the relationship between eye, mechanism, and target was what mattered.

“Can it be improved?” he asked.

“In time. Not before the Months of the Demons.” Roland looked at the four weapons laid out on the table. “Four guns, four hunters. You’ll train until you can reload in under a minute. When the beasts come, you’ll hold the wall at the compression points and fire into the mass.”

Carter said nothing. He was looking at the guns with the expression of a man doing arithmetic.

Iron Axe knew what the arithmetic was. He had been doing it himself. Four hunters with bows could loose arrows at perhaps twelve per minute between them, at ranges up to a hundred and fifty yards, with accuracy that required clear sight lines and calm conditions. Four hunters with these weapons could produce eight shots per minute at shorter range, with a penetration that made the target’s armor meaningless.

Against demon beasts, which did not wear armor, the penetration was still meaningless. What mattered was force. He had seen what the field explosion had done to animals at fifteen paces. What a ball from this weapon would do to flesh at thirty feet was not a question that required testing.

The chief knight, he noticed, did not ask whether more could be made. He did not ask about production timelines or capacity. What he did, quietly, after another moment of looking at the four weapons, was exhale — a small, controlled sound, the kind a man makes when he has just realized something is, in fact, containable.

Carter was relieved there were only four.

Roland was watching him, and his expression said he had noticed. “We’ll train beginning tomorrow,” Roland said. He began repacking the weapons into their crates. “Four shots each per session, to conserve powder. Form first. Speed after the form is clean.”

He closed the crate and picked up both handles.

Iron Axe looked at the hole in the board, still sitting propped against the wall where Roland had replaced it. Clean entry. Ragged exit. The distance between those two faces was about two inches of solid wood.

He thought about what his grandfather had used to fight demon beasts: a spear, fire arrows, barricades made of sharpened logs. He thought about what his father had used. He thought about what the militia standing on the wall had.

Then he looked at the crates in the prince’s hands, and understood that whatever line divided the old ways from the new ways had just been crossed, quietly, in a locked room, by a man with four guns and the patience to teach people how to use them.

He helped carry the crates back to the cellar without saying any of this aloud.

There was nothing to say that the hole in the board had not already said.

Chapter 38 The Era of Hot Weapons

Iron Axe became aware of the fact that they were now under watch.

The hunters who had participated in the test explosion moved together into a two-story house near the castle. Looking through the window, he could see that the house was encircled by stone walls and guards were stationed at the entrance.

He did not mind this regulation, and the fact that His Highness only sent two guards to oversee them showed that he trusted them.

Until now, Iron Axe continued to repeat the roaring explosion within his head – until now, there was never a weapon that could bring him such a strong shock. In the extreme south of his homeland, he had seen how orange fire erupted out of the ground, and this fire could continue to burn for decades; he had seen endless storms with monstrous waves… however awfully unpredictable these powers were, they were the will of Mother Earth or the god of the sea. They were the iron whip that disciplined all living things.

But now, His Highness began to challenge the power of the gods, obtaining a power only seen during heaven’s punishment – although when compared with the real lightning and thunder, the difference was still great; reaching such a realm of power wasn’t possible for humans.

In the Sand Nation, anyone who would participate in such a demonstration or later use it would normally get their tongue cut off. Of course, this was not the safest way to keep secrets. Only the dead could keep secrets from spreading. As a foreigner? They would only see him as blasphemer, and it was forever impossible for a foreign clansman to get into the core hierarchy.

The Prince knew that Iron Axe was only a half-blood, but he still allowed him to witness the curse of fire. Even more, he also let Iron Axe be

responsible for the formation of the hunting squadron. The trust His Highness had within him was burned deep into Iron Axe’s heart.

During his time in the Sand Nation, he had experienced countless betrayals of friends or family who framed him for their wrongdoings. When he fled to the Kingdom of Graycastle’s south border, he still had to suffer discrimination because of his half Sand Nation and half Graycastle lineage. He eventually arrived in Border Town, disheartened. Here, he intended to rely on his hunting skills to spend the rest of his life in peace. However, he had never expected to meet His Royal Highness, the Prince, here. And of all things, he had never expected that the prince would even trust him.

He had no doubt that with this new weapon, the one who would win the battle for the throne would be Roland Wimbledon.

When he thought about fighting for the future king and the promising opportunities he would get, Iron Axe became wholly excited.

“Everyone, come down to gather!”

When Iron Axe heard this shout, he took a quick look through the window and saw Roland’s chief knight Carter and four other knights coming.

Iron Axe first finished dressing himself, then walked down the stairs to stand at attention in front of Carter. Since he had participated in the militia training, he knew that His Highness preferred discipline, since he would adjust them to a unitof uniformity. The other members of his hunting squad were a lot slower. It took about six to seven minutes before they lined up as a team.

“Everyone, follow me to the old place.” Carter didn’t care much about how the hunter squad lined up. Instead, he went straight to the city wall.

It was still the same place as the explosion test. But this time, His Highness didn’t set up a safety area.

In addition to Roland, there were already four knights waiting for them – they were all Carter’s subordinates. Iron Axe noted that His Highness had begun

to play with an unusually shaped iron stick while explaining something to the knights.

When Roland saw the hunting squad, he came to them and asked, “How is living at the new houses? Have you already become used to it?”

“Thank you for Your Highness’ care.” everyone bowed and stated that the new homes were comfortable.

In fact, the new houses they moved into were many times better than the old homes. At least they had no air leaks, and the roofs were also not made of translucent straw bedding, but were made of neat and tidy tiles instead.

“This is good,” Roland nodded, pleased, “The current arrangements are needed out of security reasons. But you will only need to live there until the end of the Months of the Demons, then you will be able to move back to your former living places. In addition, the salary for the first month has been paid to your families, and every weekend you will be allowed to see them face to face. Of course, you will be accompanied by guards. “

“Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness.” Said the hunter squad cheerfully.

This was really a bit surprising for Iron Axe. Leaving aside the law of Sand Nation, even the military management of Graycastle shouldn’t be this lax. Could it be that this was because of His Highness’ kindness? Iron Axe became somewhat worried, if His Highness wanted to compete for the throne, he needed to be ruthless – this he knew well from his life in Sand Nation.

However, when the 4th Prince began to talk about new weapons, based on the development of the gunpowder, he put his worries into the back of his mind. Iron Axe stared without blinking at the two iron bars which the prince had placed in front of them.

“These weapons are called ‘guns’,” Roland said, “Next, I’ll tell you how to use them. “

…..

In the next half hour, they had to learn how to use the new weapons.

Take the black powder which was the cause of the explosion and fill it into the barrel of the gun. Then, a lead ball was stuffed with a poker into the barrel, straight to the end. After that, they had to pour the gunpowder into the igniting chamber, aim, and then pull the trigger.

Iron Axe had considered himself to be a master of many weapons, whether it be swords, knives, hammers, axes or spears. He was well trained with all of them, but he had also needed long years of training and combat skills to master them. Learning how to use a new weapon in only thirty minutes, he was afraid that the speed to master this weapon could only be compared to the crossbow.

The other gun was handed to Carter.

The chief knight was also full of interest in the novelty of this weapon, and he didn’t want to put them down.

After several rounds of simulation, Roland set up two targets to let them see the power of the guns. The first target had wooden armor in front of its chest. The wooden armor was held up by two knights standing at a distance of about thirty feet away.

The Prince led Carter and Iron Axe through the shooting technique. Then, they aimed and pulled the trigger.

When they heard the loud sound of fire, every person present jumped up out of shock. Iron Axe was no exception, but soon only surprise was left on everyone’s face.

Looking at the targets’ wooden armor, they could see a small hole. The lead ball had cleanly shot through the chest armor’s thickest part.

Before shooting, Iron Axe had carefully observed this armor. It was clearly not a handicraft workshop’s inferior product built from bad materials. The

marks of the hammer and anvil on the neckline proved that this was a product of Graycastle’s blacksmith standard. The thickest part was half a finger thick and was strong enough that it could ward off a direct hit from a crossbow, fired at the closest distance. To deal with this kind of armor, a heavy crossbow or a warhammer would be a wise choice.

So comparing it with a crossbow, the difficulty to use the weapon was the same, but the power of a gun was far better than that of a crossbow. In addition, the gun’s loading speed and the loading speed of a crossbow were nearly equivalent, so… looking at the target which was thirty feet away, Iron Axe couldn’t see a problem.

“Your Highness, how many weapons do we have of this kind?” asked Carter.

“Currently, only these two and until the Months of the Demons, we can only produce two more at most.”

Iron Axe could see that hearing this, Carter was clearly relieved. He was able to guess Carter’s thoughts. If this weapon was easy to manufacture, then with only a few days of training, everyone would be able to train a large number of ‘express warriors’ who were bringing guns to battle. Then people at any age, with any strength and even any sex – even a fragile woman, could be a significant threat to the knights.

Although the shock he got from this weapon was smaller than that of the curse of fire, it still was a powerful weapon. Iron Axe thought, with this great power they could easily kill a large number of rugged-flesh demonic beasts from high up on the wall. Even if they would face a mixed species, with these firearms, maybe the outcome would be not so embarrassing.

But the real significance of such a weapon was clear to Roland.

He personally opened the door to the time of wars with hot weapons.