CHAPTER 107

THE SILENT MUSKET

"Deli took care of the fire flower, so now I only need the dwarven alcohol" Hans muttered as he went to find Hodges and found the butler ordering servants around. "Hey, Mr Hodges, I need to go out," he said grabbing his tailcoats. "Just, why?" Hodges asked back, his irritation apparent on his face. Hans doing something has always started with one thing and ended up doing another and most of the time Hodges end up clearing his messes. "I know I'm not likeable but isn't it too rude to show on your face." Hans retorted seeing his expressions.

"Was that shown on my face, Oh my, I'm getting old?"

"Tsk tsk," Hans clicked his tongue and continued, "I'll spare you for a bit then since I don't have the main ingredient yet. But we'll be going to some pesky place after that, so get yourself ready even if you don't want to." Hodges was sighing one after another, his young Lord and the so-called pesky place will surely be doubling his troubles. "Young Lord, can't you be like other kids." However, Hans ignored the old man's tired expressions and went to do his regular training, his trip to the Dwarven community was postponed anyway so there was no use becoming a lump in Hodges' throat.

He found Vanessa on his way to the garden and asked her to follow him. Being a mage, he believed she might possess valuable insights to offer him. "I'm definitely not doing this because I feel less attention on me," he thought. Vanessa on the other hand was humming silently, "So what are we going to do today, lil brother?" she asked and Hans instantly replied, "Some scary stuff sis, really scary stuff."

They continued this training regime for the next half month, he doing VoidZone's first part and Vanessa trying to increase his proficiency and now his efforts were showing. The really scary thing about Hans was that once he start mastering things there was no stopping him and Vanessa was experiencing this first-hand once again."Woosh" a sound along with a small wave hit her and she got startled.

"I only knew it existed but this is really..." she uttered not feeling mana around, "How did you do it, Hans," she asked. it was the ability that she only had heard about, the VoidZone. But Hans gasped as his control grew weaker, "Tsk, damn it," he shouted and continued, "It was for mere seconds, but I succeeded." Vanessa asked him once again, "How did you do it, all of the mana was gone for a while ---" "Come on sis," he interrupted and with a smug face answered her, "I am my father's son after all."

"Then you shouldn't stop here, " Vanessa encouraged him, "try it once again, I know you can do it better this time," and Hans nodded, expanding his control once again. He could feel every mana particle in his vicinity and this time he felt in more control. "It's not complete," he said gritting his teeth," it's just the first step, aagh... " and finally his control over Mana was released. He fell on his bottoms but there was no exhaustion on his face only pride. "How long was it, this time?" he asked her.

"Several minutes and it was more than ten metres radius, dear brother, I know I tell you this often but you are really special."

"Hihihi," Hans giggled, "I don't like flattery sis --"

"But your face tells otherwise Hans" she interrupted, "so what is the next step? You said it was the first one!"

"Next should be stopping everything," Hans expanded his control once again and it was easier than the previous tries, but making InvincibleArmour was way tougher than AntimanaField. Since it needed him to stop every particle in his control, which went against the nature of mana particles that were to remain always in motion. And to add to the difficult task, he needed to compress nature’s mana into a thin film around him but he was facing a problem in reaching the equilibrium. If he put more compression, the dense mana shackles him within but if he exerted more force from in to out then the film broke. But since achieving the first step, his greed over mastering VoidZone also touched the skies.

"I can do it, damn it," he shouted to encourage himself and tried it once again however, it resulted in nothing but failure. He gasped and said, "Well, mastering two things in a single day feels like a stretch ---" "Get up," Vanessa helped him out to stand and spoke, "Getting a decent rest is also an important task, little brother."

Hans followed her advice but was thinking another thing, "Should I try the last step first." And after this day, the knights of the mansion started feeling cursed. One after another, the knights stationed as guards started vomiting. "Hmm, the third one was relatively easy" he muttered as he noted down the data. Some less fortunate trainees in the mansion also became his experiments without consent.

"Hmm," He added another entry today, "Okay, I just need to practice, the AntiMana field. I suck at the InvincibleArmour and Inectio... it needs proper test subjects, I can't go off killing Mansion's people." And after a few more days have passed, he could feel the progress in AntimanaField but the next two steps didn't progress as he wished. He was deep in thought when a knock came on his door, "Young Lord, Young Lord, your order has arrived ---"

"Finally," Hans opened the door and ordered Hodges, "Prepare a carriage and don't make a molehill out of this."

"Haa," Hodges let out a sigh and asked him, "So where are you causing trouble this time?"

"Dwarven Community ---"

"They might not be welcoming, Young Lord"

"Do you think, I'll ask them nicely?"

"Aah my head," Hodges grasped his temples and went to inform Rudolf but the Count did not object even once, he was sure that the dwarves will probably not even allow him to enter but his guts were giving him a feeling they would. And to prove his gut feeling right, Hans ventured to the market and now was facing the gates of the Dwarven community. "Stop your foot," a dwarf not much taller than Hans stopped them at the gates "GO BACK HUMAN," he shouted once again.

Hans let out a sigh, "Nothing goes, as I wish." He had asked Hodges to escort but the shrewd old man had passed this torch to Aldrichand the head knight kept denying it but in the end, had no choice but to accept. But compared to what was going on in the Mansion, his troubles were irrelevant. When he went on his little adventure another news hit the Count’s place. They received a letter that the new King of Grimgar, Samwell was going to grace them with his presence along with the prince and princess of the nation. But instead of joy and excitement, the environment became gloomier. "What for?"Rudolf shouted at Hodges, "Why is he coming here?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Ahem, ahem! Control yourself master" Hodges said clearing his throat, "He is just returning from Utar, the mess Eclipse caused is still in the veil. The Alliance declared that Eclipse was probing their strength and they won..." But Rudolf completed his sentence, "Like hell, they won. They still do not know why Eclipse made a bold move without Xandor leading them. And they only killed that Elf chief of staff. What was his name again?"

"Cornell," Hodges quickly answered, "Aide to the Clandorian king."

"Yes him, but do you think Xandor would put up this big of an act just to kill a small fish? There is definitely something else and the Alliance is in blind."

Hodges coughed, their conversation have gone in some other direction so he reminded him again, "So how do we prepare to welcome the king---" "Aagh!" Rudolf grunted in annoyance, he was already tired of hearing this, "For fuck sake why can’t I catch a break."

AT THE DWARVEN COMMUNITY

This place was exactly what Hans had thought, filled with the smell of iron, sweat and the sound of hammers constantly hitting the anvil. A place for products that did not respect the territory lord, just like him. Hans was pacing to the entrance whereas Aldrich was worried that dwarves might hurt their young lord’s feelings. They were rough people who cursed first and speak later so other races just avoided them.

A dwarf not taller than Hans already had stopped him from entering the gates making Aldrich step up but before he could introduce his young lord, the dwarf started his ranting filled with the dense smell of alcohol. A normal child would have felt disgusted but Hans was oddly happy, confusing his escort knight. He took out a badge of the Edenberg family to show it to the dwarf but the midget instantly refuted, "That ain't mean shit here, pipsqueak."

"Fine, then what pull weight around here," Hans said like he knew how to deal with these people and the Dwarf replied glancing the child up and down, "Booze? a fucking strong booze."

Hans took out another thing from his pockets but this time it was a pouch filled with his saved-up money, "I came here to buy that." he said giving it to the drunk midget but the dwarf shoved his money pouch into Hans’s pocket back and raised his head by the nose, saying with pride dripping from his tone, "We barter here shrimp, what shit you got?" And, with a smirk on his face, Hans said with intimidation, "Something a low-level thug like you can’t see, bring me to your chief."

Aldrich was showing his attitude of ready to jump at Hans’s command so the dwarf responded with the same vigour, pointing at the escort knight "You tryin' scaring me, with that? ----" "Swoosh" a shot that the dwarf was used to went past his ears. "What the fucking hell..." It was oddly similar but different at the same time. A shot from the musket created loud noise, but what passed through was as silent as a woman’s whisper to her lover.

The dwarf was sober now, their kind did not want their technology used or created by others so a musket firing right at their door was very serious business. The dwarf looked at Hans with infuriation and shouted to inform his brethren."We got a rat here, come out y’all."

"I knew what kind of attitude can pass through these thick-skulled dwarves." he thought the only way for a dwarf would pay a mind to humans was when a human threatened them or make them curious and he was doing both. Surprisingly, It did not even take a few seconds and Hans was facing many dwarves, some brought the Warhammer, some anvils and some came with the broadswords. Hans did not show any sign of backing down and said,

CONTROL CENTRE: SCAN

NOTICE - The race [dwarves] in front of you are extremely agitated, think twice before speaking something.

Caution advised.!

The control centre did not help much. Hans needed to show his domineering behaviour, he took a step inside the dwarven community like he was strolling in his backyard. He was waiting for someone with authority to speak and as he wanted a voice came from the very back. "You’ve balls of steel or mad worm in your head."

"I don’t like both analogies," Hans replied, intentionally sounding arrogant."I prefer being reckless." The dwarf who talked before asked in irritation, "So who the fuck are you? And how did you own a silent musket."

Hans replied, "I can only answer to the chief, so are you the one ---"

"Not interested." the dwarf firmly replied but Hans was not going to lose an argument with the midget, "Fine, whoever wants to learn how my Silent musket work, can find me at the corner inn. I will wait exactly for an hour and whoever comes first can have the workings of my silent musket."

Hans had learned these tactics from Vanessa who still finds time to teach things Hans about getting things from the people that they don’t wanna share. His words were not finished yet but the dwarves started a heated conversion in their native tongue. Hans was familiar with some words and could predict the rest. These shortlings were talking about Hans’s genuineness and discussing what to do if that was their technology. And after a heated debate, their chief who spoke from very far earlier came into the light asking, "What do you want in return?"

"Now, someone with sense is talking." Hans maintained his smug attitude and added, "Some alcohol and dwarven supplies."

The dwarf Chief scanned Hans from top to bottom and shouted, "You are just a newborn shit, wanna drink the dwarven booze. I ain’t taking responsibility for your noble ass."

"My ass is my business," Hans replied and asked further "So are you bartering or not?"

"Give me your words, that you will tell all about the silent musket," the dwarf chief asked, making Hans smile inside. And hiding his scam he answered with confidence."I promise to tell how my attack works, do more damage and be as silent as the wind itself. If you can’t imitate it then it's your incompetence." The dwarf looked at the metal pallet that was stuck in the ground, it was really a bullet from the musket, and there was no sign of mana in it just like their bullets. The chief looked at Hans with serious eyes this time and asked,

"This is an innovative thing and you are sharing it just for the booze that you can’t even drink, why?" the dwarf chief asked with suspicion in his eyes.

Because you people are not competent enough to imitate this, even if I share every intricate detail. I'm just getting free booze" Hans mocked the artesian blood in the dwarves openly and this was a hammer to the dwarven pride. Every dwarf was looking at Hans like he ran a carriage over their dog. And a female dwarf, twice the muscles and the age of Hans chided in, "What if you choose to hide the important details?"

"My words are my bonds that I was taught not to break. That's my pride like the forging is yours"

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