Chapter 98: A Thunderlike Roar
“D…don’t move! Human!”
“I’m staying still.”
“D…don’t talk back!”
Hwee Ravina Muel noticed that the Astacidea holding her hostage was trembling. She knew because as the Astacidea’s large claws were grabbing onto her neck, his antennae were wildly shaking. And he was also stuttering.
‘How did this happen?’
Ravina, Rumf, and the other officers of the technology department got off the ship once they arrived at Sashian. Rumf, the officers, and other workers were busy unloading wares, so Ravina thought to take a look around the village in the meantime.
Despite her young age, Ravina had traveled to many cities and villages on the third continent, but she had never actually visited the ordinary village in Black Scale that she was born in. It wasn’t all about her curiosity though.
Settlements often formed according to the topography, and it was highly likely that places like villages and cities would emerge where settlements had been in ancient times. In fact, there were cases where the settlement itself was an ancient ruin or an ancient relic, like Automation. As there were scholars in Black Scale, Ravina didn’t expect much left to be discovered, but she thought it would be good if there were at least an ancient monument left.
But what Ravina encountered was not an ancient monument, but a pirate who had escaped from prison.
“Godan? Did you say your name was Godan? Anyway, calm down!”
The one shouting this seemed to be a policeman who had lost Godan. Four policemen surrounded Godan so that they could catch him once there was an opening, but the Astacidea was able to see in all directions with the eyes that stuck out from his head.
“Calm down? I was tricked by Vasen! He said he would consider showing us mercy, but suddenly they were going to cut our throats!”
Godan shook Ravina by her neck.
“Kugh.”
The policemen took a step back.
Godan became a little more agitated and shouted, “Bring Vasen to me, now! I won’t let this woman go until I get to talk to him!”
Ravina had a rough idea why the Astacidea was so angry. Someone had promised the pirate that they would take care of them, but the promise was broken.
However…
“Hey! With what dignity is a pirate going around stealing and terrorizing others justified to care so much about a promise?”
.
After saying so, she thought that the prefect was the most at fault for imprisoning the Astacidea without taking any other action.
However, as Godan’s logic didn’t work, he let out his anger.
“But, a promise…is a promise! …Human! Didn’t I tell you to stay still?”
“I…”
As her voice was hoarse, she cleared her throat.
“I didn’t move, you grabbed my neck and shook me.”
“...Did I? I’m sorry. Anyway, you people, don’t move unless you want to see this woman’s neck get cut off!”
Ravina thought that the worst situation could come to be if Godan became more nervous and squeezed his claw with a little more force, but she believed the possibility of that was low. Godan was nervous and agitated, yet he wasn’t choking her but simply holding onto her neck. And judging by the way he glanced at Ravina time to time, it seemed that he was paying lots of attention to the safety of the hostage. If he really was ready to kill her, he would have ignored the hostage’s feelings. And there was another reason.
-You look like you’re having fun.
‘No way.’
-Then why don’t you just put a stop to this and get out? The Dwarf named Rumf would be finished with his work by now.
Ravina had antlers just like her mother, her other ancestors, and Hwee-Kyung. And inside the antler was a spirit of Demonic Magic that could manipulate probability.
‘Even though you're a spirit of Demonic Magic, it would be difficult for you to save me from this situation.’
Ravina’s antlers were able to manipulate probability. However, in order for that to happen, there needed to be a number of variables that the spirit of Demonic Magic could manipulate. In Ravina’s view, the current situation seemed to involve only two possibilities: Godan tightening his grip, or not tightening his grip.
-You’re wrong.
‘Then how are you going to save me?’
-You just need to walk out.
‘But this crawfish would break my neck.’
-But he had been putting too much strength into his hands. A muscle cramp could occur at any time. Then he would scream and open his right claw and won’t even pay attention to you.
Ravina always thought the spirit’s power was incredible. Her life had been saved numerous times because of the power.
‘That means you can save me at any time. Then I want to stay a bit longer.’
-Why?
‘It's not common to be taken hostage, is it?’
-It’s not something one must go through in the world.
‘All experience is practice for the next experience. You never know when it will become useful.’
-You remind me of Hwee-Kyung.
That piqued Ravina’s interest. She was going to ask further, but it was getting difficult to keep talking to her inner self. There had been a change to the hostage situation.
“You were calling for me from afar, Godan.”
It was a Lizardman with black scales.
Due to Godan’s reaction, Ravina could immediately recognize that the Lizardman was Vasen Lak Orazen.
“Vasen! You…you broke your promise.”
Vasen furrowed his eyebrows and pondered. He knew what promise Godan was talking about, but he never considered it to be important. Regardless, Vasen hadn’t completely forgotten about it.
Vasen had certainly told the prefect that Godan was from the recently rising pirate group, so he should be kept alive so that they could get more information out of him. However, the prefect seemed to have let Vasen’s words go in one ear and spill from the other. Vasen was partly at fault for not fulfilling the promise he made, but it was kind of an accident that they had gotten to the situation where Godan shouted about things being unfair.
‘Would he understand if I say this?’
But Vasen was tired of talking for a long time, so he said concisely, “Godan, you broke the laws.”
“.....”
“If you kill that Human, I will kill you on the spot. I’ll make some room for conversation if you surrender easily.”
Vasen meant it. Even though Godan had escaped from prison, it seemed that he hadn’t caused any harm to any other person apart from holding one hostage.
Godan hesitated and said, “Where’s the guarantee that I will survive after letting this Human go?”
“There’s no such thing. But I swear on Night Sky that I will surely kill you if you kill that Human.”
Even though he had drunk wine, Vasen spoke more solemnly than anyone else there.
Ravina felt the grip around her neck weakening.
“C…can you help me not die?”
“Like we talked about earlier, Night Sky and the White Spider God are the same God. Night Sky loves those who are useful in his plans. If you want to live, prove that you are useful.”
“...How?”
“Listen to me.”
Ravina didn’t think Godan would be persuaded by what sounded like empty platitudes, but to her surprise, Godan did let Ravina go and pushed her in the back.
“Go, Human. I will surrender.”
As he said so, the policemen rushed to Godan, tightly tied him up again, and escorted him back to prison. They seemed to have belatedly recovered their courage.
Seeing Ravina rubbing her neck, Vasen went up to her.
“Are you okay?”
“That’s unexpected.”
“What do you mean?”
“I thought a Lizardman would trust their strength and charge at him.”
Vasen looked at Ravina with interest. She didn’t have the attitude of a person who was just held hostage.
“It’s the wisdom of Lakrak, the founder of our nation.”
“To try and deal with things through conversation when possible?”
“When possible? No. To try and talk things out first, and then use your fist if that doesn’t work.”
Ravina realized that Vasen wasn’t simply trying to resolve the situation through negotiation; he meant every word he said. It would be good if Godan let the hostage go, but he really would make Godan suffer the same fate if the hostage died.
“You didn’t consider the safety of the hostage, did you?”
“Then things would become complicated.”
“Complicated?”
“What else would I have been able to do for you in that situation? I would feel uneasy if I worried about you. So I just disregard the unnecessary things.”
The antlers spoke.
-Plain and simple.?
Then someone holding a black lump of iron came running from the alley. It was Rumf.
***
“Thank goodness! How lucky you were to have the prince nearby!”
“...Was I lucky?”
“How couldn’t you have been?”
When Rumf came running, he and Vasen had recognized each other.
They weren’t close by any means, but their relationship wasn’t simply that of a minister and a royal. This was because they had met each other through Kyle.
Ravina and Vasen were led by Rumf to a big house on the outskirts of the village. On the outside, it seemed like a noble’s mansion rather than a government office, but inside there were engineers coming and going with their faces and hands stained with black.
Vasen then said, “Anyway, what is the black lump of iron you brought with you?”
“Ah, this is the weapon I brought to save Ravina.”
“A weapon? Can I take a look?”
At Vasen’s request, Rumf gladly handed it to him.
Vasen had to control his expressions because it was much heavier than it seemed. He gave the lump of iron a good look.
“It’s very heavy. And it’s also too big. Is this hole made to reduce the weight? Hm. Well, this definitely will crush a Astacidea's head if you drop it on one, but…”
“It’s actually not supposed to be used that way.”
“Then?”
Ravina replied from their side, “Rumf, wouldn’t it be better to give him a demonstration?”
“Oh, sure. Let’s go to the backyard.”
In the backyard, messily broken wooden shards could be seen scattering on the ground.
Rumf said something to one of the engineers, and the engineer disappeared behind the building before reappearing with a wide wooden board.
“That will be the target.”
“Target? Are you saying it’s a weapon used from afar?”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t look like that at all.”
A bow was the representative long-range weapon in Vasen’s mind, and other than that, he could think of a stone-throwing tool with a leather strap that launched and spun a rock, as well as an atlatl used to throw short spears.
“It’s a gunpowder weapon.”
“Gunpowder?”
“It was made by the alchemists.”
Seemingly coming to a belated realization, Vasen said to Ravina, “Come to think of it, you have antlers on your head. Humans usually don’t have antlers, right?”
“You noticed very quickly.”
Rumf placed the lump of iron on top of a wood table and said, “Gunpowder explodes when set on fire. We first tried to make the weapon with wood or bamboo, but it was too weak and wouldn’t hold out. And even clay broke quickly.”
“What if you reduced the amount of gunpowder?”
“Then it would be difficult to use as a weapon. That’s why we have come to use steel, which is tough and tenacious… This is gunpowder.”
After Rumf pulled out black powder from his inner pocket and showed it to Vasen, he carefully poured the powder into the hole in the lump of iron. Then he picked up a stone that had been carved into a round shape.
“This is the shell. This bounces forward and shoots out.”
“Hm. Isn’t that too small to hurt someone?”
“If a person were to throw it, yes. And this is the smallest cannon we have made until now.”
“So you call it a cannon. Keep going.”
Rumf did something to the bore before lighting the fuse on the other end of the cannon.
The bore was aimed at the target.
“We should stand back now. Once the fuse burns to the end, it’ll fire.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“We have made it to be as safe as we can…but it will be loud.”
Vasen didn’t seem willing to stand back, but when he saw that Ravina, who knew much more about the cannon than he did, had run away to the back of the backyard, he meekly stepped back.
The moment the fuse burned all the way, the shell was fired from the cannon.
Boom!
The noise was loud enough to make the atmosphere shudder, and the shell broke not only the target, but also the fence circling the backyard.
A thick smoke then rose out from the bore. And through the smoke, Rumf walked back to Vasen.
“What do you think?”
Standing still in awe, Vasen voiced his admiration.
“It’s amazing! Doesn’t it sound like the thunderbolt of Night Sky?”
Ravina dropped the hands covering her ears and walked up to them.
“It’s great. It would be a great weapon for war.”
“A weapon for war?” asked Vasen.
Ravina replied, “You came here on The Humiliation of Pirates, right? And you ended up having to anchor here for something onboard your ship, which wasn’t a part of your plans?”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s because of this.”
Ravina then continued while fanning the smoke away with her hand, “This cannon. It’s a weapon that will be used to deal with pirates.”
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