Since there was no room for the soldiers in the villagers' homes, the center of the village served as a camp for them. Ariadne was staying at the home of the village chief, where the dining room had been converted into a sleeping area. Although she thought it was inconvenient for the chief, they did it for her, and as time went on, the villagers grew accustomed to the lights, and because of those lights, there were no nighttime attacks on the village. The guards of the village were being trained and got much experience defending the village. A wagon was coming close to the village; the driver was a Shafran man, and by his side was a young Chatzi child.

‘Hey, even here, they have street lights! Look!’ The Shafran man pointed at the lights.

‘Yes, father, they are really lovely.’ The young Chatzi child smiled at his father.

‘What is your purpose here, my friend?’ A soldier at the village's entrance halted the wagon and inquired.

‘We are from the Arc company; my name is Levi Arc, and this is my son, Isaac Arc. We are here to trade.’ He nodded to the soldier.

‘Hello!’ exclaimed the small child.

‘Hello little one, you are lucky, mister Levi; this village was attacked a few days ago, and if it weren’t for the duchess, maybe you would walk right into an ambush right here.’ The soldier scrached his head.

‘The duchess is really doing good work in the territory.’ Levi responded in a happy tone.

‘Do not worry; the captain is already devising a strategy to deal with the monsters in this region as we speak. You're good to go.’ The soldier returned to his position.

‘Father, will everything be alright?’ Isaac reached for his father's clothing and moved in closer.

‘Everything will be fine; i bet the duchess will help us with the mine.’ Levi grinned as he watched his son.

They came to a stop at the corner of the village's main square and began to set up shop. Ariadne was having her daily walk that Edmund said she needed to do in all villages so that they felt she was close to them, raising loyalty. She approached them as the villagers drew nearer the merchants.

‘Levi, why didn’t you tell me about mine?’ She shot him a chilly glance.

‘Isaac, look after things... Please follow me, your highness.’ Levi made his way around the wagon to the other side.

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‘Eliza, help the child.’ Ariadne pointed her fan at Isaac.

‘As you wish.’ Eliza bowed to her.

Levi was visibly shaken by the duchess's presence as they went to the other side of the wagon.

‘I will be up front with your highness. My grandpa decided that the Arc company should have exclusive access to the mine.’ He lowered his gaze while his voice trambled.

‘Well, I can understand the choice, but rest assured that it will not happen again. I need information about my duchy because the villagers, not the Arc company, are the true owners of this mine.’ She approached him and tapped his shoulder with her fan.

‘Yes, I told Grandpa it was an error, but he was worried the Socher company would find out.’ He continued to look down.

‘So, you thought you could fool the villagers? You would lose money if Socher offered better deals, huh?’ Ariadne used her fan to poke at his chest.

‘No, hold on, I give the market price to them; we would never defraud our people; my son is a chatzi, your highness.’ He raised his head and gave her a determined look.

‘Hum… They aren’t complaining; I simply need to ensure that the people under me are treated fairly.’ She started gently cooling her face with her fan.

‘I understand your highness; you are a great ruler.’ He bowed to her

‘Tell your grandfather that while business is good, my duchy comes first.’ She turned around, catching a glimpse of the merchant out of the corner of her eye.

‘Yes, your highness.’ The merchant kept his head down.

Edmund was watching the villagers at the merchant's stall in the corner of the village center.

‘Edmund, Ethan was telling me that you have a new weapon that you forgot to mention.’ Alon approached the young man.

‘I merely believed it to be unimportant to you at the time.’ Edmund shrugged his shoulders.

Alon turned around and took a deep breath while looking up, which confused Edmund but made him chuckle a little.

‘Edmund, you must tell me these things.’ Alon turned around and looked at Edmund.

‘Fine, fine, just wait a little.’ Edmund entered the wagon

He pushed the recharger so that he could open the chest, where the weapon was. When he opened it, it had just the weapon inside of it: a long retangular chaped object with a cylinder chape opening to the front and a square-shaped empty space on the back. He then gave it to Alon.

‘Well, I have no idea what this is.’ Alon looked at Edmund, puzzled.

‘This right here at the back is where a battery with a projectile inside goes; the magic in the battery travels through this rectangular chamber here so it can charge the weapon. When it lauches, the battery breaks into four parts, and the ball travels at high speed through the weapon. I have different types; the one I built the most is the iron type, but there are also ones with explosive magic. Edmund explained as he pointed at the parts.

‘Why don’t you make one that spews water or fire?’ Alon enquired.

‘These things are dangerous, and I don’t want to kill myself. Do you think I’m some kind of god, Alon? Perhaps in the future, at the risk of my students lives, I will let them take the shot at it. Edmund shrugged his shoulders.

‘Fine… But will you risk your students lives? Why?’ Alon looked confused.

‘Do you think I’m going to do everything by myself? I tested a lot of things and faced death a lot of times when they failed, Let them try.’ Edmund responded.

Alon examined the weapon and was struck by how peculiar it was. After showing him the trigger and the canon's components, Edmund came to his side and assisted him in placing the weapon on his shoulders.

‘To get it ready to fire, you need to pull out the sight on the side of the cannon; I did it like this to make sure people wouldn’t just shoot each other by accident.’ Edmund laugh.

‘Let's use this to obliterate the monster's hideout.’ Alon looked at Edmund.

‘Ah, I already did that.’ Edmund grinned.

‘What?’ While pulling the trigger, Alon yelled.

‘See, that is why I put it the way I did; you need to be more careful.’ Edmund shook his head in dissatisfaction.