"What garbage is this?!" Ragnar yelled at the gun crew. "Again!"

"Sir... This magi-gun is just..." The crew leader lost his words as he and his crew prepared the gun for another shot. "It's just always like this. We’ll try our best! Ready, sir!"

"Fire," I ordered calmly.

With a buzzing sound of magical discharge, the magi-cannon sent its fiery payload towards the practice target. The crew missed again, but I was more than certain it wasn't their fault. I shook my head in disbelief, trying to grasp how the magic weapon missed.

"Again!" Ragnar yelled, red from anger. "I refuse to believe that someone could build something like this!"

"No, Ragnar. Bring the last one," I overrode his order.

"Theon... I am not a specialist, but you could say I know something about magic. Pffffff... Hahahaha!" Lavender couldn't hold her laughter and surrendered. She waved her hand dismissively and covered her lips.

"How is that possible? It's barely what? Two hundred metres away at this point?" I asked as the crew brought the last magi-cannon dismantled from the captured brig.

In the meantime, the guards brought former Captain Navka from his prison in chains. He watched the gun crew prepare the cannon to fire with shock evident on his face.

"Gun ready!"

"Fire!" Lavender ordered, amused. She somehow managed to stop laughing. "It's even worse than the last one..."

"How?!" Ragnar facepalmed with both his hands.

"Captain Navka! It is so good you joined us," I welcomed him jovially. "We would like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind."

"Of course, Sir..." He bowed and curiously looked at the gun crew while counting under his breath.

"Gun ready!"

"Impossible..." he whispered.

"So... I would like to ask you to tell me if this is... Normal." I pointed at the gun leader and nodded my head.

They fired the weapon, missing the Wyvern-sized target by a good ten meters. The crew looked angrily at the cannon and complained among each other. However, Navka looked almost panicked, as if he had no idea about the nature of my question.

"Sir...?" He finally tried with closed eyes.

"Don't 'Sir' us here! Is that normal? Is that accuracy normal?!" Ragnar approached the man whose face finally brightened.

"Oh yes! And I have to compliment the skill of your gun crew, Sir! They must be elite to shoot so accurately at this distance and so frequently at that." Navka nodded. "These guns are our standard cannons. They may not be perfect, but they are fine weapons."

The silence that consumed our surroundings was absolute. For a few long moments, no one even dared to move, giving Navka the false conviction that their weapons impressed us. It was Lavender who finally broke that silence with her crystal laughter. Ragnar slowly sat on the discarded cannon and covered his face in disbelief. I took a deep breath and rubbed the lids of my eyes. "Ok guys, can you set these cannons in the firing line? I want to test one last thing."

"At once, our King!" A few crew members and some of Ragnar's workers quickly lined up sixteen cannons and aimed them in the target's general direction while the rest of the crew took their time to aim them properly. While they were at it, I silently questioned everything I had learnt so far. "I want you to fire them, one by one, as if you would give a rolling broadside. Can you do it?"

"Of course, my King." The leader confirmed with a smile, and they quickly prepared the guns. "On your mark, Sir!"

"Fire!" I ordered and smiled with a mix of satisfaction by the skills displayed by the crew and amusement caused by that weapon. I observed the perfectly executed firing of sixteen magi-cannons that fired one after another in quick succession.

"Well... It worked." Lavender climbed on the tips of her toes to take a better look at the finally hit target. "I'm impressed by your skills, boys."

"Sorry, my Queen, but that has nothing to do with our skill. That was purely a lucky shot." The gun-crew leader sadly lowered his head.

Navka was impressed while Ragnar angrily mumbled that he had to cast new cannons. I took a deep breath and put my hands together in a thoughtful silence. "Tell me about Bernan Navy doctrine."

"Doctrine?" Navka looked at me, confused.

"How do you fight? After all, you managed to hit the Storm Eagles that tried to intercept you," I asked patiently.

"Well, the standard guns are accurate up to one hundred metres. So we usually fall on the enemy with wind and then fire broadside after broadside while our ships move in line formation..." He stopped, seeing my raised hand.

"Guys, one hundred metres!" I shouted at the gun crew and Ragnar's technicians. "Continue, Captain..."

"Well... That's mostly it, Sir. If the enemy is still flying or sailing after the first pass, we just make a turn and repeat the process." Navka smiled nervously.

"Gun ready, my King!"

"Fire then! We don't have all day!" Ragnar yelled, and I almost snorted.

For some reason, my Forgemaster had taken this entire ordeal personally. The target took a central hit, which caused a round of murmurs. Without my further orders, the crew and their helpers started lining the cannons and preparing new targets. Even Lavender got serious all of a sudden. Navka, in turn, was in shock. Without further ado, the gun crew started firing Bernan magi-cannons, achieving perfect accuracy.

"HOW?!" I yelled simultaneously as Ragnar and Navka, but the latter had other concerns.

"Boys, can you shoot that gun for me?" Lavender pointed at one of the guns that had started to be overgrown by various plants, and some grew even in front of the cannon.

"Of course, Queen Lavender!" The crew replied in unison, almost tripping on their way to the designated cannon.

Soon after they fired the gun, scoring another hit, they declared the weapon safe, and Lavender approached it. Ragnar and I followed her curiously as she touched some of the plants growing on it. She hummed a few times to herself as if she was confirming something, a few times in surprise, and she even smiled grimly once or twice as she took a stroll. She took off her shoes and walked barefoot over the plant blanket she had created all the way to the practice target. We patiently waited for her to finish her examination at a respectful distance from her plants. She returned, stepping slowly, with her head tilted to her left and tapping her lips in a thoughtful gesture she had picked up from Amber. Her face turned serious when she stopped in front of me.

"These guns were deliberately made this way, Theon. I don't know why, but whoever made them put great effort into making them inaccurate over a certain distance." She turned around and pointed at the cannon, still entangled in the ivy-like plant. "I think we could investigate this further, but you will need Stella Er'lamira and possibly a very skilled artificer like Verni. Luna could also possibly provide some insight, but... As far as I can tell, the weapons' aiming runes are at fault. I used my magic on this gun earlier and compared the entire firing sequence. The only difference was during the aiming process. Frankly, this gun has some interesting features, and you should look into them, Ragnar."

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"At once, my Queen!" Ragnar bowed to my wife and waved at his helpers to take one cannon to his workshop.

"Lady... Queen Lavender." I turned in surprise, hearing Navka, whose face was grey, but his eyes were full of anger. "Are you saying that our guns could be better? Do you think that someone sabotaged our equipment?"

"I don't think this is a sabotage. It's more like intentional design." She shrugged.

"Gods... Aaaaaaa!" He covered his face with his hands and started screaming in anger, which soon turned into tears of despair. "Those bastards... Those paranoid bastards..." He took a deep breath. His features hardened, and I saw some determination in his eyes. He kneeled in front of us with a severe face. "So far, I have told you what I believed would let me live. I know you detest me. Nonetheless, I will pledge myself to you. I swear to tell you everything I know and reveal everything I suspect."

"Why so?" I asked curiously.

"My family was killed during a pirate raid on the coast of Berna. My father informed me that the coast guards tried to stop them, but they couldn't score a hit on the pirate vessel, which managed to sink them in turn."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Lavender looked compassionately at Navka, who lowered his head and closed his eyes. She really meant what she said.

"I'm not worthy of your compassion, my Queen." He raised his head and deeply bowed to her. "I followed the dogmas of my faith for my entire life. The King is right. I am a monster. I am a murderer. I am a slaver. The only accusation I reject is that I am a rapist..." He took a deep breath and looked right at me. "I told you, my King, that these guns are standard issue for the Bernan Navy. But there are others. The Capitol Fleet, consisting of the twenty finest airships of the Bernan Navy, uses different cannons. We were always told that their weapons were custom-made, and we were made to believe that their crews were special. Best of the best in the entire Navy."

"Hmmmm... What do you suspect?" I looked at him, noting the wrath in his eyes... Anger and satisfaction of a man who knows that whatever he discloses here has the power to change the future.

"That the admiralition, and perhaps even the Patriarch himself, are afraid of us, the captains of their ships. They provided us with faulty weapons while keeping far better ones in case we ever rebelled." Captain Navka turned red in anger. "Am I right that your cannons are far superior to these... Things? You were not impressed by these guns. You were amused, Sir."

"Yes. You saw Victory erasing one of your ships from the sky with a single broadside." I crossed my arms in front of me. "Your toys have less than a tenth of the engagement range of our weapons. Our crews can almost always accurately hit their targets at five hundred metres range. Besides... Our cannons and crews can do tricks you can only dream of."

"Good. You can add pettiness to the list of my sins, but I am a spiteful man. I can't see their downfall with my eyes, but I will do everything to hear how they died..." There was a grim determination in him, and I felt Lavender tremble behind me. He kneeled again in front of me. "Can I ask for paper and writing tools? I am going to write down everything I know in exchange for allowing me to live to the very moment all those guilty of the death of my family met their end. I know I am unworthy, but I humbly ask for this one favour. Allow me this kind of vengeance..."

I almost expected Verka to materialise from thin air. Maybe it was for the better that she didn't show up since I might get stupid ideas about giving that man a chance to redeem himself. Instead, I considered his offer for a moment, and since I was losing nothing entering it, I could agree. I looked at Lavender, and she gave me a short nod as if she saw what I had on my mind. I winked at her, and she smiled. When I turned around to Navka, I put on a benign facial expression. "I think we may strike a deal, Captain."

"Thank you, my King." He lowered his head, and I waved my hand to take him away. "My Queen? Thank you for your kind words. I know it changes nothing, but I'm so sorry for all the evil I helped to happen."

Lavender simply nodded at that but stayed silent until he was taken away. She took a deep breath and tugged me by my shirt sleeve. "There is a bottomless sadness and deep-rooted hatred in that man."

"It's hard not to notice..." I nodded and put my arm over her shoulder, and she gladly accepted a hug. "Ragnar, I need this ship refitted with our cannons for yesterday. I will need you and Verni to take apart a few of these guns and get out everything you can from them. You know what? Just leave one or two if we need to check something later, and you can take apart others. They are junk anyway. If you need Ian to help you, just drag him to your forge. Where is Bjorn?"

"On board of Victory. They took her on a short trip to the Wolf Manor. He wanted to make sure that the frame was holding correctly and there were no hidden stress points." Ragnar shrugged. "And totally, by pure coincidence, he also proposed to Miss Eri."

"Uhum..." I nodded and hid my smirk.

"Do we know if she agreed?" Lavender asked curiously with a wide and warm smile.

"Not yet..." the Forgemaster replied truthfully and opened his arms in a powerless gesture. However, he barely masked his smile as well. "I wish them the best." Suddenly, Ragnar tapped his forehead and opened his holding space. "Bjorn prepared a report before they embarked and asked me to give it to you, my Lord. Sorry, I almost forgot."

"Thank you..." I looked briefly through it and smiled. "Yeah, I was waiting for this. We all have a bit too much on our plates lately..."

"Well... It's funny, at least."

"*Sigh* Anything I have to know about?" I asked, ignoring his previous remark.

"No... Work progresses according to the schedules on all fronts, my Lord," the Dwarf replied, shaking his head in denial.

"In that case, we can wrap up things for today. Thank you, Ragnar, sergeant, boys." We waved goodbye to them, and after making sure no one had anything important to say, we teleported away.

•••

We sat in our living room, and I read Bjorn's report in silence. Lavender summarized the latest events for Aoi and Amber, who were a bit shocked by her discovery. Irene, Luna, and Hestia were more focused on helping refugees from Berna and were busy planning the entire logistics of the relief effort. However, Aoi was absolutely consumed by the Bernan Navy's situation at large.

"Theon?" Aoi called my name.

"Yes?" I looked at her from over Bjorn's report.

"One hundred metres range for their cannons, at least in theory, is not as stupid as it seems." She took a deep breath as if she were waiting for a scolding or me laughing it off.

"No, it isn't. I admit that I could have reacted differently a few moments ago, but after reading this report, I have additional insight into the problem. But before I start, what made you think that?"

"There are various possible reasons, but I think it's about safety. After one hundred meters, their cannons are inaccurate and lose most of their power with the distance. I know you think little of the Bernans... Well, so do I, but in this case, I can give them the benefit of the doubt," she explained as I fixed myself on the couch, letting her expand on her thoughts. With an appreciative smile, she continued. "As far as we know, the Bernans routinely use their airship fleet, carrying out various tasks throughout their country. So, theoretically, their ships fire their guns more often than not over the populated areas. A hypothetical fire exchange between two airships would leave that area devastated. Both ships would evade, circle, and try to shoot down their opponent, often missing their shots entirely. Such an exchange of blows would leave the surroundings in ruin. Well... People, being people, would fire at their maximal distance, disregarding their hitting chances in favour of shooting more frequently. I talked with Janet about that before, and she told me that the typical engagement distance at sea would be around two hundred metres. But she also told me that everything changes in the air. The distances shorten as it's harder to lock on the enemy. Guess what she said?"

"One hundred metres?" Amber guessed instead of me.

"Yes." Aoi nodded. "And if everyone knows that hitting anything above that distance is impossible, no one will even try. They will hold their fire until everyone gets in range."

"Hmmm... However, the crew, or at least the Captains of their ships, should be aware of such things. They should also have the means to override such a safety feature if we decide to be benign enough to agree that's the case," I agreed without conviction since I had already focused on her theory.

"Well... It's just a theory," Aoi sheepishly admitted.

"But it's an excellent theory, my Darling!" I said, this time with conviction, and smiled at her. "According to Bjorn, Bernan airships possess special instruments that help mitigate the stress on the crew and ship's frame during fast and sharp turns. While he doesn't know what to call them, I would call them inertia dampeners. Their brigs are much faster than they should be and can pull off sharper turns. While our philosophy of shipbuilding is to put formidable shields and long-range artillery on our ships, the Bernans build much faster and nimbler ships. Even our light frigates would struggle to keep up with them. So your theory seems plausible, Honey."

"And it makes sense." Amber nodded her head and hugged her Dragonkin sister-queen. "We cannot always attribute only evil intentions to our enemies. Even if their own Captains do exactly just that."

"Theon... Do our cannons have such limiters?" Lavender made a thoughtful face.

"Of course not!" I replied instantaneously without much thought.

Lavender looked at me sadly. She was the most gentle and kind soul I have ever known, far more forgiving than any other of my wives. While she accepted me and my often violent solutions to various problems, she always deeply cared about all people, not just those of Arcadia. "We should add this feature to our cannons as well, and if possible, to allow us to select the distance after which the projectile became harmless. But we should explain to our Captains that these are really safety features intended to protect the innocent bystanders. I fear the devastation our own weapons could accidentally wreak on our kingdom..."