Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Some soldiers possessed specific skills, such as carpentry or masonry, which allowed them to avoid heavy labor and receive higher wages than ordinary soldiers.

Therefore, at any time, skilled individuals are more valuable, even within the army.

When Winters approached, the armory's gunsmith immediately took out a strange-looking short blunderbuss from the cabinet and reverently handed it over with both hands, "Commander, I have modified the gun you requested."

The exquisite wheel-lock pistol Antonio had given Winters, along with Winters's armor and sidearm, had all fallen to the bottom of Red Sulfur Bay before they ever saw combat.

After Winters and his party returned, he hired several people to dive and salvage them. However, his luck was not as good as before, as the skilled divers found nothing after a day underwater.

The beautiful and opulent wheel-lock pistol was lost for good, which pained Winters whenever he thought about it. After hearing about the incident, Antonio gave Winters the other pistol from the pair of wheel-locks.

But Winters had a new idea, one that was even more convenient than the wheel-lock pistol.

He took the short blunderbuss, which looked like an ordinary short gun, but there was nothing next to the flash hole—no matchcord lever and no wheel-lock mechanism.

Bare, with only the flash hole and the powder chamber.

This was the inspiration Winters got from the battle with the man suspected to be a court mage.

The reason he was "suspected" was that nothing could prove the man's identity. Winters was convinced that the masked man who chanted in Ancient Empire language must be a magician, very likely one of the legendary court mages.

However, after inspecting a charred corpse for several minutes, Antonio and Winters realized the burned body proved nothing.

There were no tokens, marks, or distinctive features, only an iron mask that had not been damaged by fire.

In the sovereignty war, the Senas Allied Army had not managed to kill, capture, or persuade any court mage to defect. Even if Antonio believed his nephew was not lying, he could not point to this body and declare it a court mage.

Antonio could only ask Winters to keep quiet about it for the time being and send the body to the Magic Combat Bureau for dissection, while he would try to uncover the anonymous magician's identity through other channels.

It was only upon retrospect that Winters understood how the man managed to fire the nailed-down cannon—he had used some kind of powerful fire-starting spell to ignite the gunpowder within the gun barrel.

In this way, the cannonball could be fired without an open flame.

He had tried it himself, finding igniting gunpowder through closed metal to be extremely difficult, as magic seemed to hardly penetrate metal. However, it was not impossible—it could be done with sufficient magical power.

With this thought, an idea struck Winters—maybe this concept could be applied to firearms. It wasn't necessary to light the gunpowder through the barrel; magic could replace the open flame.

Therefore, this customised short blunderbuss was created, but its actual performance was yet to be tested by Winters.

After confirming the gunsmith had followed his instructions, Winters placed a bag of silver coins on the gunsmith's table.

"No, no, I can't take this, I already receive a salary," the gunsmith refused, trembling with fear.

"Your salary is for the work you do for the legion; this gun was custom-ordered by me, privately. This money is not just for your labor, but also for the gun materials. Keep it."

The gunsmith finally accepted the money bag, and with a sheepish expression, said, "Actually, it wasn't much trouble, just sawing off a regular gun barrel and making a lighter stock. But without even a firing mechanism, I really can't imagine how you'll use this gun..."

Winters smiled and said, "I have my uses for it."

He wrapped the gun in burlap and returned to his own tent.

Outside the tent, a dark, thin man was waiting for him. It was Gold, "Lucky" Gold, the former pirate captain, death-row oarsman, and Winters's key to survival on Red Sulfur Island.

In times of emergency, the Vineta Navy could release prisoner oarsmen and arm them. Provided they fought and returned to their posts without fleeing, their crimes would be expunged at the end of the war, allowing them to regain their freedom.

Gold's freedom was restored after the Lighthouse Port sea battle, and the Golden Lion sailor who handed a bag of water to Winters was him.

Now, he came to say goodbye.

"Sir, I'm leaving this damned place, taking the next messenger ship to Sea Blue City," Gold said, revealing a mouthful of gold teeth—those knocked out by Layton had all been replaced with gold, and he added with a smile, "Thanks to the commendation letter you wrote, the Vineta Navy restored my freedom early. I've come to bid you farewell."

"Leaving now? Where will you go?" Winters was surprised and quickly invited Gold into the tent to talk.

Gold didn't enter, standing respectfully outside the tent and said, "I don't know, I don't know where I'm going. Now that I'm free again, I'll just take it one step at a time."

"It's good to leave this place; you don't need to be involved in this war," Winters said, somewhat sentimentally. He took a piece of paper, wrote down an address, and handed it to Gold, "Do you remember that fat captain we found? You know, our old acquaintance, the one who sailed your Lucky back to Sea Blue City and ran into pirates again, ending up sold as a slave at Hongsong Manor? Remember him?"