Getting out of the carriage Robert carried his gun and all the cartridges and walked into the house. He was too lazy to make another trip to the carriage to fetch the cartridges later to reduce the weight.

From all the times he had to come in late and get lost in darkness inside the house, Robert had made a simple mechanism that turned the light orbs on when he opened the door. But at this moment, this mechanism can be said to have saved his life!

Robert pushed the door open and the lights went on. Suddenly Robert got this feeling that something was off, instead of rushing in he slowly proceeded, with his gun prepared in his hand.

“I know you are there, come out!.”  Robert was not sure if there was actually someone in the house if he had made a mistake, no one is going to see him yelling to the air, so he decided to ask out loud.

But instead of a stark silence like he expected. A man came out from behind the bookshelf, he wore tattered leather armor and in his hands was a pitch black dagger.

“I didn’t expect you to find me! ” He said with a slight smile,

“But you made the mistake of coming in, you should have run!”

Suddenly the door behind him closed shut, with a loud noise. Robert understood that he had walked into an ambush. He was being surrounded by thugs. Without wasting a moment he ran towards the nearest wall, he got trapped here anyway, why would he allow himself to be surrounded. This way there was only half the amount of space to observe and he could attack without the fear of being stabbed in the back.

“Who are you? I don’t want any trouble”, Robert didn’t want to fight if possible.

It was not that he lacked confidence in the ability of his gun, but he was concerned more about the life of these five men. They were living breathing human beings. There might be a family depending on each of them, they might have children who were waiting for their dads back home!

He saw three men slowly surround him, clad in leather suits and weapons were drawn, then two more joined them.

And the man who spoke earlier spoke again.

“We do not have anything against you, friend, but we have to do this to survive. You have the option of cooperating with us, give us the alchemical recipe for the cannon and we'll make sure you have a painless death or else.”  He paused after saying that much.

“What if I pay you the money the other side has offered to kill me to not kill me?”

Being from the peaceful times in earth, Robert had grown to be a true pacifist. He would choose the method of nonviolence if he has the chance to. Also, Robert now had a great amount of wealth and wouldn’t mind spending some of it to ward off these people. Tomorrow he could ask Sophy for some guards for his home and everything would be alright.

“That-”, looking at the other thugs, he waited a moment before answering.

“Although I would like to do that if I go against the one who gave me the contract, what would be of my reputation on the streets? It's hard to get rid of a bad name in this business, and my family is dependant on me”

Robert was about to say something when a man with mustache said

“What are we waiting for, leader? let's just capture him and get this done with”

Saying this he walked towards Robert.

“STOP. I don’t want to hurt you!”,Robert yelled at the man closing in on him.

“Haha, you don't want to hurt me? what kind of joke is this?”

Roberts words only fueled his drive to take Robert sooner, this idiot is too full of himself!

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There was no other way, Robert finally decided to use the gun. The gun, looking like 5 tubes attached together had never been seen before and thus had no intimidation factor. He had to fire to show its power to these fools.

Boom! The loud noise of explosion reverberated in the small room.

Robert fired a shot to the front of the place the man was advancing, there were half a dozen of craters in front of him.

The man who was took on surprise looked at Robert, stunned. but instead of retreating, he decided to rush forward, his dagger covered in frost, ready to pierce into Robert’s flesh. He thought the weapon in Robert’s hand must be similar to a crossbow and there was no way he could fire in succession.

Seeing this reaction Robert had no time to think. It was a kill or be killed situation. He aimed the gun at the incoming thug, but he just couldn’t kill a man. Finally, he aimed at the man’s legs and the gun spat fire.

Blood splattered and flesh was pierced, one moment the man was running, the next he fell on the floor with a loud cry.

All the others were still in shock from the 1st gunshot and its aftermath on the floor that they couldn’t stop the man from advancing. Robert had a surge of emotions rising up from his heart.

This man's legs are probably crippled. I have just crippled a man for life. Although it was in self-defense in a kill or be killed situation, he couldn’t just accept that. He from earth would have never been able to do it. The society condemned those who committed murders to a level even lower than animals.

He mustered up the courage and aimed the gun at the head of the man called Kimura. It was nothing but a bluff, there was no way he would kill someone. But after seeing what had happened to the other man, they were not even going to fight.

What they have gone against today was truly devil itself! or how would he be able to injure their friend without even using magic or drawing a sword? Even if it was a bow, it still required pulling the string. Aiming at his leg, his leg was now in ruins, what would happen if he were to aim it at his head?

They were all trembling with fear,

“Who sent you?”, Robert asked.

“Is-Isau, it was the master alchemist Isau”, the man called Kimura said still in fear.

“Please forgive us. please spare our life”, the men begged in unison.

"I dont want to get in trouble for manslaughter, yet." He hadn’t forgotten that they were just trying to kill him, but he had planned to hand them over to the city guards. He didn't want to kill anyone with his hands, he didn't have the heart to kill someone himself.

He led the men out, still at gunpoint, and onwards to the city guards’ house that was nearby. These city guards were both the police and military here. But the presence of these guards in no way affected the operation of petty thieves or murderers.Robert decided to go back to Sophy’s mansion. At least he will be able to be safe there. After going through the traumatizing incident, he didn’t want to risk his life again.

That guy Isau is crazy. I just got him fired and he’s trying to murder me! If this was the norm on earth, all the CEOs of companies would have died a thousand times over. Still, Robert was happy that he could thwart this dangerous situation. Luck also played a major factor in this though, If they had been here a few days earlier, he would surely have been dead by now.

After Robert walked away from the guards' house, an orb of red light shot into the darkness of the night sky and exploded into skull-shaped fireworks.