Andrei went to his room, he was mentally tired of the sudden turn of events.
"Ahhh, I volunteered to command the operation but, can I really do this?" he laid on the bed with his feet still on the floor, he put his arm on his forehead and let out a deep sigh. He's currently wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and breeches, as his original clothes have been taken by the maids for laundry.
"I may have technological knowledge since I'm from an advanced era, but what if someone really dies? I won't be able to sleep peacefully if it really happens." He has seen modern-day battles on TV; terrorists versus the government. However he himself never experienced it himself. He could stand gore scenes since he volunteered on search and recovery operations during disasters, but the weight of being a commander of a group of people would be hard even for him.
Then he remembered his older brothers who went to the academy and became outstanding military officers, one was in the air force and two became officers in the army.
"This is what it feels huh? To hold people's lives in your hands" he stared at his hands and contemplated on his decision, "What's done is done, I need to only think about every possible scenario; the best and worst case, and find out the best possible routes, actions, and options. Think logically, assess risks, as you deal with things," he told himself.
"Unlike my brothers who have enrolled and graduated on the academy, my knowledge is limited to what has been taught to me, however, if it's something that could help save them from the despair, then I will lend them this knowledge, so it may become a part of their strength. This is what should I do right? Ann?" He stood up and went to the drawer where he put his phone. He turned on his phone and unlocked it, various icons were displayed with two people in the background; himself and his beloved Ann. In the picture both had warm smiles written all over their faces with Ann hugging him from his side.
Andrei felt a warmed in his heart, as he checked the date and time it showed.
[September 27, 2018, 9:56 PM]
"I don't know if this is the real-time and date on this world, however… tomorrow's supposed to be a monthsary huh?"
To save battery for important things that he might need the phone in the future, he decided to turn off his phone. He removed the phone case to test its voltage and its built-in firestarter. With a click the red light turned on and electricity made a crackling sound. "Hmmm… the voltage is still good despite using it on that meathead"
He took out the metal stick from the side and ignited it by sliding it with the side, "the fire starter seems to be also working properly, well it's a survival kit after all, where did Ann even buy this?"
He returned the gadgets back to their place and went to his table.
"Hmmm… papers and a map, and a quilt? I really don't know how to use that one, but I guess I have no choice. Hmm… there also seems to be a woman sitting beside the table… wait… what the! Claire why are you here? and since when were you here?"
Andrei thought that he was the only one in the room, he didn't notice anyone coming in. His heart almost jumped when he saw Claire nonchalantly fiddling with papers on his table, "ahhh the door seems to be open so I came in, you seemed so busy fiddling with those things in the drawer so I didn't bother to disturb you" she responded in her flat voice as usual.
"At least knock!!!" Andrei sighed. "Is this your magic or something?" he held his heart, and calmed himself down.
"Ahh if it's magic, then this would be a curse you know like people don't even feel my presence and existence, do you know how that feels," she shrugged and looked at Andrei.
"I… I got it.. I got it. So why are you here?"
"I gathered the materials"
"But the test was supposed to be tomorrow, you came here to just tell me that?"
"No, let's test it tonight," her eyes sparkled with interest.
"Why? Ahh, you're curious aren't you? Enough to bother you from sleeping? HAHAHA!" Andrei put his hands on his waist and puffed out his chest, boasting.
"Ahhh that's one reason but that's not all"
"Then what are the other reasons?"
"It's a secret"
"C'mon…"
"Then I will also ask and pry further on why do you have those strange objects, why are you wearing those weird clothes, and why do you not know much about the customs of the countries, do you want me to do that?"
"Ahhh no, please don't, I completely understand that maidens have their own secrets... Hmmm..hmmm" Andrei nodded while sweat appeared on his forehead.
"Well, I think you might be cowering again, being a commander of such a high-risk mission like this" she leaned to the table stretching her hands on top of it, Andrei felt tired sat in front of her.
"Well, I'd be lying if I wasn't" Andrei responded with a complicated smile on his face.
"Just as I've guess, your hand was shaking after all earlier"
"You noticed that?"
"Well thinking about it, it's obvious. You might be able to trick my sister since you saved her and showed her your cool side and all, but you can't fool me you know. You made that choice because of us right? But it's not totally because of us, you have another reason for it I'm sure."
"I hate intuitive women like you" Andrei tried to joke around by saying a cliche catchphrase.
"Don't worry I will gladly fight you" Claire pulled out a large knife from her dress.
"Sorry, I'm joking, and where were you hiding that knife seriously?"
"Anyway, what I'm telling you is that I know that you have another reason for helping us with this case, it may be for yourself, for your past, but I'm sure it's something that won't harm us, so I just want to thank you, Andrei. If you didn't offer your help, I'm afraid my sister would have acted on her own. Even if she hides it, I know that she's desperate to save those people so…" Claire stood up and bowed her head to Andrei, "I'm really grateful, Thank you very much"
"No… No.. please raise your head. Are you a mind reader or something Claire? Oh sorry… Ms. Claire?"
"Claire is alright, you will be my future brother-in-law after all, why did-"
"I really can't cancel this marriage?"
"No," she replied bluntly.
"Well" Andrei sighed.
"Anyway, why did you come up with that conclusion? That I'm a mind reader?"
"Well, you've guessed the reason the other reason why I'm helping you, and to answer your question, yes it's because of my past, and maybe I'm also doing it for myself, can you listen to a part of my story?"
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I'm in a good mood I guess?"
"Well if you insist, I'll at least lend an ear"
"You're really brutal to Claire you know. Anyway I have lost someone dear to me in my life, it's because of an illness, and who do you think could fight illness?"
"The doctor?"
"Yes, the docto-, wait I'm not talking about that! Anyway, that person died of an illness. I have been regretting it for a long time. Not being in the position to help her, I just did nothing but visit her, made her laugh, gave her gifts. But that's all it was, I couldn't do anything to cut off the source of her pain, I did nothing but watch her from the sidelines as she battled with the pain of her illness, "the paper he was flicking as he spoke made a crisp sound as he crumpled it.
"Well, when I thought of your situation when I saw Michael's face after hearing the news. Knowing her position as queen of the kingdom, who couldn't save the people she loves because of the circumstances.
I saw myself in her, and thought that this time maybe… I could fight those who cause the pain of those people, they may be strangers to me, but if I save them, then there might be salvation for me, I guess, it's something like that.
I'm really crappy right? Well that's who I am" Andrei gave a faint but pained smile and completely crumpled the paper in front of him.
"Well, I think you're wrong," her reply was so abrupt.
"Wha-"
"Why are you regretting it?" Claire immediately interrupted with a serious expression on her face.
"Well, because I did no-"
"No, you visited that person right? You made her laugh? In other words you made her happy! How is that not fighting alongside her in her illness? The doctor might be the one who will be able to cure the disease however who gave her the strength to fight in the first place? Wasn't it you?
Don't insult yourself! Do you think that self-pity would make her feel happy?
If I was her and heard this from you, I would be really pissed you know?"
Andrei was taken aback by Claire's sudden unusual behavior. However her words, her scolding made him feel warm in his heart for some reason, the feeling made him give her a warm smile from his heart, "but you aren't you already pissed now aren't you? HAHAHA!" he laughed his heart out.
"Why are you laughing?"
"Well, it's strange seeing your face have a serious expression, try to look at the mirror, HAHA, it's cute," he tried to be playful, but when he felt a sharp object near his neck that he stop himself from laughing, sat properly and bowed to the girl he's facing.
"Ahhh sorry I apologize"
...
A few minutes later the two were walking together with two maids who are bringing the materials. They arrived at the testing site, it was a wide and plain area with stakes all over the place.
"This is?" He scanned the whole area.
"Yes, it's the training place for the order of knights"
The maids organized the materials on the ground at Andrei's instruction. When the preparation was done, the three girls sat on the ground.
"Okay, first we will make a Molotov Cocktail!"
"Ahhhh just as I've thought, you're gonna poison those knights with that cocktail won't you? That's why you needed actors instead of knights... I'm disappointed Andrei" Claire immediately interrupted upon hearing the word cocktail and tried to stand up.
"Ahhhhh it's not really a cocktail you see, it's just called like that, anyway just let me finish please!"
The three nodded, Andrei sighed and started to make the Molotov bomb or also known as a molotov cocktail.
"I feel like a terrorist" he thought as he picked up a bottle and put it in position, he grabbed the cloth and tore a piece of it.
He soaked the piece of cloth on the lamp oil and set it aside, and filled ¾ of the bottle with lamp oil.
After filling it up he inserted the cloth inside the bottle until it reached the part oil in the bottle.
"Okay it's done" he picked up the bottle and stood up,
"Claire, can you do fire magic like your sister?"
"Are you an idiot? of course, I can't, I know some magic but it's very different compared to my sisters' "
Andrei was silent for a while, "Ahhh they have different magic huh? I guess I'll learn about magic after this operation too. It might increase my rate of survival," he then diverted his gaze to the maids sitting together with Claire.
"You maidens are?" Andrei asked for their names, and the two gave their names with a slight bow.
"Percy Dyster my lord"
"Eve Waller my lord"
Percy was the maid was the one that Claire called in the meeting, she has black hair that reached to her shoulders, while Eve is a maid with red hair color, she's wearing the same maid outfit however something bulging on her chest took his attention.
"Ummm… please don't stare too much my lord," Eve responded in her cute voice and immediately covered her body to hide it, on the other hand Andrei's eyes suddenly got poked that he screamed in pain.
"Well to continue…" Andrei's eyes now have been tearing up due to being poked by none other than Claire.
"Eve, Percy do you have matches? Or anything that could start fire?"
Eve stood up and bowed, "if that's the case, my lord, I can do a bit of fire magic, what do you want to do with the flame?" she tilted her head in curiosity.
"Ahh I just want you to burn this cloth a little later, can you come here with me?" The maid nodded and went to Andrei's side.
"This Molotov Cocktail is a type of explosive, throwing it to people could cause casualties in a certain area, while throwing it to buildings could cause the building to catch fire and be burned in a few minutes"
"Wait Lord, what is an 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒?" Percy asked, raising her hand.
Andrei was taken aback of the question, "They don't know what's an 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒?" He wasn't fond of the history of the western countries, but he read that China has discovered explosives in the middle ages. He knew how to IED's, but not the history behind them.
"Well, my ancestors had to fend off foreigners who had metal cannons with cannons made of bamboo so I thought they would have discovered explosives already in this era, but I guess this is really another world, it has a different timeline.
I can't just assume what they were able to make, from now on I would have to really keep in mind that I am not in my world, the cultures and history are different! But....I have to start from there huh?" he thought as he let out a sigh dropping his shoulders.
"An explosive is something like… if you throw it at the enemy it creates a loud sound like BANG! And then the enemy when hit by the splinters of that BANG! They would die from bleeding or being hit by that splinters in the vital parts of the body," he made funny actions with his crappy explanations.
"My lord what are 𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠?" this time it was Eve who asked the question.
"The word means a part of a large object, but if I have to relate it to the tool were making its basically the small objects that's been contained in order for when the explosion happens, it strikes the enemies around it, for example, a sharp fragment of metal or something.
When sharp metal fragments were thrown to you at high speed and strikes your heart, what do you think will happen? You'll die won't you?
That's the concept of bombs, you'll understand more soon!"
"Ohhhhhhhhhh" the two maids clapped their hands in unison, Claire was just staring at Andrei without any expression which made him nervous.
"Her stare feels like a professor during a project presentation, even when my classmates clapped at the awesomeness of the software, the professor would just stare at me like that" he gulped and continued.
"For now I will just explain how this works… well this is also a kind of bomb, except that what will be throwing are flames and this doesn't have any splinters, given the time we have for production, in three days I will teach you on how to make these"
He looked at Eve on his side.
"Can you please light the tip of the cloth? Only that part please or else we will get caught in the explosion," it would be the first time for Andrei to witness fire magic and wasn't sure how magic behaves, so in order to avoid the accident he reminded the girl to just light the tip.
"Yes My Lord"
Eve opened her hand and closed her eyes and held the tip of the cloth, after a minute a candle-like fire appeared on where the cloth was held, Eve pulled back her hand and the fire became stronger and stronger.
"Good, the fuse has been lit, but next time let's use matches!" he thought while twitching his eyebrows, "these girls can create fire from nothing... its amazing, but its, how do I say it? Slow?"
Not only did the magic took time to appear, but it also needs a lengthy incantation, plus the caster had a hard time controlling it which is why the casting took more than a minute.
"If this was an operation, I'm afraid we were already discovered before we could throw these" he kept his thoughts to himself while looking at the burning fuse of the molotov cocktail he is holding.
"1… 2… 3… " After the count of three he threw the bottle to one of the stakes. The bottle broke into pieces when it hit the stake and the flame appeared and crawled on the stake where it was thrown, the fire was taller than the human-sized stake, and it spread to three to four stakes.
"See so that is-" When Andrei turned around to face the three, they were no longer there, "Huh? Where did those three go?"
When Andrei turned back to look at the stakes it already spread to half of the stakes.
"Geh… I wish they had extra of these guys, or I'm in big trouble" he stared blankly as the wind carried the fire from stake to stake.
In a few minutes Andrei could see Claire bringing with Michaela who's still in her sleeping pajamas, the two maids who brought the other maids and butlers carrying buckets of water.
"Wha-wha-what the hell is happening darling!" Michaela screamed as he was carried by Claire.
"I'd like to ask you that! Claire why did you cause a commotion?! And also Eve and Percy! You woke everyone up?" Andrei was surprised by the audience he got in the middle of the night.
"Idiot! You didn't say anything about the fire being like that!" He put down Michaela.
"Whoaahhh it's spreading fast, all in this in one bottle of that tool?" Michaela admires the fire as it spreads.
The maids and butlers arrived at the scene and tossed their buckets of water to the raging fire, but it had no effect. "Wait… why are you putting it off?" Andrei tilted his head and asked Claire.
"I thought it would be on a scale of a fireball or something, but it was larger than the stake, if this keeps up, our knights would lose their place to practice. Sister please"
"Understood," Michaela walked to one of the stakes and stretched her hand towards it and mad an incantation, with the commotion Andrei couldn't hear it, but it was lengthy. When she was done ice appeared from her hand, and crawled towards the stakes, putting out the fires.
"This is her magic huh? Amazing!" The maids and butlers were also putting off the fire in the other stakes. Andrei noticed that Erneis also participated, still on his sleeping clothes, he looked like a normal grandpa on retirement.
"I might have done something bad… " Andrei thought, still in his place looking at the people around him putting off the fire he made. After an hour the fire was put out and it didn't reach the last row of stakes.
"Ummmm Michaela… Did I do something bad?" Andrei asked the girl beside her who's still in her sleeping clothes, a violet nightgown.
"No, this is Claire's fault, when she woke me up she said that there was an emergency when you guys tested the tool you were talking about and that she couldn't put out the fire herself"
Andrei looked at Claire, "Ahhhh so that's why she disappeared the moment the fire appeared," he murmured.
"Hey!" Andrei directed his gaze to Claire.
"Ahhhh what is it, arsonist?"
"Arsonist???!! You were the one who brought me here to conduct the tests you know!"
"Ahhhh but I didn't think you would really burn the whole training ground you know? I did compensate for it right? By bringing sister and everyone, so be grateful that you weren't able to become a full-blown arsonist," she crossed her arms and looked away.
"Now when I remembered, I didn't really tell them that I was going to make something that could cause a large scale fire," Andrei thought to himself, hopelessly looking at Claire.
He shifted his attention to Michaela in her violet nightgown. "She's big", and his eyes poked again.
Erneis then started to walk towards him, still in his pajamas and a sleeping hat on.
"Am I gonna be scolded?" Andrei was on the verge of running seeing Erneis irritated and tired face.
To his surprise Erneis put his two hands on his shoulders, "sir Andrei! sell this to us! The secret process of making it! Everything!"
"Ahhhh haha, don't worry, I plan on giving it anyway as a token of my gratitude for letting me stay"
The whole troupe sat on the grass, and the maids distributed refreshments. Andrei looked at the stars in the sky, they were numerous and breathtaking.
"The sky here… looks really different" he thought to himself.
He accepted the refreshment and formed a circle with Michaela, Claire and Erneis.
"So, what was that tool darling? Why did it make such a huge fire, almost burning the training place to the ground?"
"I'd like to know too" Erneis still on his sleeping clothes put his two hands on Andrei's shoulder again.
"I get it, I get it! Okay so, first here's a bottle…" Andrei took a bottle from the side and explained to them the process of making it.
𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗔 𝗙𝗘𝗪 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗨𝗧𝗘𝗦
"What? Just that easy?" Erneis couldn't believe what his eyes have seen.
"Darling, are you perhaps an Alchemist?"
"No, I'm not an alchemist or anything, so do you think your maids could make this in a short time period?"
"Yes, it's very easy after all, can you test it again? This time please only target the ground" Michaela suggested as she tied her hair on a ponytail.
"Okay, then please burn the tip… just the tip or all of us here will burn"
Erneis and Claire instinctively got away from Andrei who's holding the dangerous item. Michaela in a few seconds was able to burn the tip of the fuse made from cloth.
"Here we go! Fire in the hole!" Andrei threw the bottle away hitting a ground a few meters from them.
The bottle shattered and fire violently spread on the grasses. "This is amazing, in an instant you can summon large fire... If we could make tons of this…" Michaela couldn't believe what she saw.
"Yes your highness, we might be able to burn down the settlement!" Erneis commented while his eyes are focused on the large man-made fire.
"Stop with the dangerous discussion! I'm not planning to use this to burn down the settlement!"
"Why?" Claire asked nonchalantly
"Well, I don't want the civilians to get involved, I'd like to explain the plan tomorrow but since we're all here anyway I'll say it. This is only for diversion and nothing more, by making these and throwing it on selected areas we can cause a chaotic scene, and when it becomes chaotic, there's a chance that the people guarding your attendants will flee or reduce their guards, if the latter happens we will make use of the second product"
"The second product? Ahhh that's right, the wax, sugar, and saltpeter are still left untouched, are you going to make something with this?" Michaela asked pressing Andrei for an answer.
"What is it called?" The old man's face was full of expectation.
"Ahhh, it's a thing called a smoke bomb, it can be used for escape and cover"
Andrei explained to them the nature of the smoke bomb and discussed the way that it would be used in the operation. The discussion and demonstration lasted until dawn came, the maids, butlers, Michaela, Claire and Erneis started to have bags under their eyes.
When their questions have been answered they all stood up and returned to each of their rooms tired. Michaela stopped and looked at Andrei who still stood in the yard.
"Aren't you gonna sleep darling? You haven't slept since last time right? The sun's going to rise anytime now"
She rubbed her eyes and clung to Andrei's arm. Andrei was startled to see the beautiful blonde cling to him, however the scene unfolding before his eyes made him ignore the fact.
"It's okay I'm used to it, and also indeed the sun is going to rise, that's also why I must see it with my own eyes" as he said these words, lights starts to emerge from the mountains.
"See it's here" Andrei pointed his free hand to the direction.
"Isn't it amazing? Haha they say that when you see the sunrise your day becomes happier than it should be" Andrei smiled from his heart, with Michaela still clinging to him.
Andrei was reminded that he was in another world, this was also why he should do the things that he couldn't do when he was in his original world.
For him the scenery was a spectacle, for someone like him who worked from 6PM to 4AM in the morning, it's rare for him to get a chance to see such a beauty.
He noticed Michaela clinging to him, he looked at her and found her to have the same expression as him looking at the same direction with her eyes brimming with expectations, he diverted back his gaze to the horizon.
"It may be not too bad to live in this world"