The weather was getting colder day by day, and Roland was waking up later and later.
As the ruling class, he certainly had the right to sleep late. Especially with his large bed and three layers of velvet blankets, his whole body would fall into the soft encirclement when lying down. This made it much harder for him to get up early.
After washing up, Roland stepped into his office and found Nightingale had been waiting there for a long time.
"Well, here is your breakfast. I ate half when it was hot, but now it's cold," she said, with her lips protruding. She nodded her head in the direction of the remaining bread on the table, as if she was the lord of the domain
"Hasn't anyone taught you to be humble before the prince?" asked Roland, as he pushed away the plates and sat at the desk. "I remember you were very polite at first."
He sighed inwardly. He had not realized that she made friends instantly, and she would always be accompanying Anna or him. She had kept hidden at first, but now as long as there was no outsider present, she would stroll around his office and not even wearing a hood.
"Like this?" She jumped off the table and bowed in the style and etiquette of a flawless noble. "You've been getting up later and later recently. Since the breakfast remained unconsumed, I wanted to do you a favor by helping myself to some of it, Your Highness." She walked toward Roland and said, "You don't care, do you? I can see that you don't like the tedious etiquette."
"Did she have a third eye?" Roland wondered silently. "She could see even this."
He sighed. "As you like, but you'd better finish the breakfast once you start it in the future. I'll order another portion if I want to eat it."
"Yes, Your Highness!" She smiled and picked up the plate, moving quickly to one side.
Roland rolled out a blank parchment. He was ready to complete the design drawing, left unfinished from yesterday.
If he wanted to defend Border Town, he should not pursue a win with an almost equal loss in the first battle of winter. Since a corp that had not experienced war was not a qualified one, Roland feared that if there was any major loss, his soldiers who had only been trained for a short time, would not have the courage to stand on the city wall.
He needed epochal weapons in order to have an absolute advantage over the demonic beasts.
There was no doubt that he needed the flintlock.
The era was equipped with all the conditions for the emergence of the flintlock. The alchemists often produced something they called snow powder for palace celebrations. It was essentially gunpowder but with the wrong formula and could burn slowly. When put into the copper tube, it mostly just made a small sound.
In about one century, the prototype of the flintlock, the harquebus, would appear. The firearm had a complicated operation, which relied on the cooperation of two people doing the loading and shooting. In general, it could only be used as a single-shot weapon. As for its speed and power, it was no match for a trained archer.
Roland, of course, was not interested in repeating history. It was better to make use of the witch's ability and create a flintlock with practical value, just like he had created the steam engine.
"I had looked at the order on the table before you came," Nightingale swallowed the last piece of bread and asked casually, "What are you going to do with so many ices? It's winter now, and if you want to drink cold ale, why not directly put it outside for one night?"
The noble liked to use ice during summer, namely, the ice made of saltpeter. Then they could cool their milk, wine or juice for enjoyment. Thanks to winter's blessing, the current purchasing price for saltpeter was very low.
"To make iced cheese, the temperature is not low enough yet. It doesn't work well without freezing," Roland replied precariously.
Although the woman in front of him was not his enemy, he did not know her as well as he knew Anna. Unlike the steam engine, there were not so many technical barriers to the flintlock. Once it became popular, it would obviously be unfavorable to his farming project. Until he learned more about her, it was better to keep some things from her. Thinking of this, he tentatively asked, "Does the Witch Cooperation Association help to train killers in addition to searching for Holy Mountain?"
"No, they're only a group of poor people coming together for a dream," Nightingale waved and said, "and I joined the Witch Cooperation Association only two years ago."
"In other words, you were working for someone else?" She could not have gained such perfect dagger-throwing skills without someone's guidance or years of hard work. Roland was pretty sure about it. "Other than me, is there anyone else willing to take in a witch?"
"Take in?" Nightingale looked a bit strange. "How could it be. If he had known that I would become a witch, he wouldn't have even let me through his door. As for later on, if I had not proved my usefulness to him, I'd have been secretly killed."
"Oh? Can you elaborate?"
Nightingale shook her head with a smile, which contained slightly inexpressible moods this time. "Your Highness, I'll let you know when the time is right. I know what you're worried about. Please rest assured that I have been free for the last five years, and no longer work for others."
Negotiations failed, it seemed that he was not charming enough... However, her answer indirectly confirmed his speculations. At least five years ago, she had secretly done something for someone. Fortunately, the person had only used Nightingale by chance, instead of recruiting large numbers of witches like he intended to.
Roland did not ask more. He bowed his head and went on with the drawings.
To his surprise, Nightingale, who had always liked being around him, became quiet, only leaving the sound of furnace fire burning in the room. When Roland lifted his head to stretch his limp, numb neck, she had left the office.
"She didn't say goodbye," he muttered, folding the parchment and putting it into the inner pocket of his underclothes.
He worked for a few days. He finished all the work, including the drawings, and the designs of the weapons, or the copies.
He was planning to make the famous flintlock, which was time-tested and similar to the harquebus in terms of the technique level, with the ignition charge loaded into the rear, and the lead ball loaded into the front. Its rate could be nearly three shots per minute. So more than sufficiently, it could be used to cope with the unintelligent mutant beasts.
Most animals would not be able to climb the wall, so the shooting distance was approximately equal to the distance from the top of the city wall to the ground, approximately four meters. Within this distance, it was hard to miss the target and the initial speed of the bullet would hardly decrease. As long as the demonic beasts had not evolved with a skin harder than steel, they could basically be killed in one shot.
The disadvantage of the flintlock was its long production time. At first, like the harquebus, it was made by craftsmen's repeated beats with a hammer. From the barrel to the trigger, it took about three months to make the whole gun. Among all the parts, the barrel was the most time-consuming. The craftsman had to beat the iron sheet into a thin and cylindrical shape, seal it with iron powder, and then engrave the rifling. Although there was no need for precise instruments, the craftsman must be skilled in order to make qualified barrels.
This was why Roland had produced the steam engine first.
With the steam engine available, he could directly drill a barrel into a solid iron bar with the steel drill. So, the production speed would be greatly improved, without any more reliance on the operation by the skilled craftsmen. The only thing he needed would be a table on which he could fix the iron bar.
