"Why are you like this?", asked Noah.
"Huh? What did I do?"
"Corvin, your shoulder healed just yesterday, and you are playing with this tube again! Didn't you also train with your new sword? Aren't you in pain?!"
"Why would I be? I like doing this."
"You may be a sucidal maniac after all."
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. Just show us your amazing failure again and be done with it. Come on, come on, don't make us wait."
"Sigh~, Okay, okay. Just watch. This time it's gonna work!"
Clair, who was tiredly listening to the two's back and forth said.
"Just shut up and show it! We don't have all the time!"
"Alright. Watch."
Corvin aimed the metal pipe towards the archery target. After a second, he lowered it and turned to the two who were watching him.
"Look, this time, there is no hole for fire to come back at me, I will use magic to create a spark inside as well so it is safe."
"Be honest, are you scared? You keep talking and not shooting."
"I am not-"
Booom!
"-See?", said Corvin as the bullet flew out of the pipe and hit the target. It wasn't a bullseye, but it wasn't too far off either.
The two stood there and looked at Corvin in shock.
"Hm? What happened?"
Corvin asked them why they were stood there frozen, but suddenly he realized. It worked.
"-! It- It worked!"
"You realized that now?"
"...Yeah."
"Well, good job Corvin. You showed us proof that these hand cannons work. And the bullet goes much faster than a normal cannon too. If it was a completed weapon, it would definitely change warfare. Normal people can be deadly soldiers now. On this day, humans got much better at killing each other, thanks to you Corvin!", said Clair, with a smile.
"Geh... Don't put it like that. That just makes me look like a horrible person."
"Only look like?", said Noah.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing~"
"Well then Clair, as you can see, this thing clearly works but the design needs polishing. Can you take care of that?"
"Only if you two help me."
""Of course we will."", said the two.
"Of course you will. Hehehe..."
Clair gave a creepy smile and snickered like a villain.
*****
The next month and a half was like hell for the two.
"Put it there!"
"Hey! Keep turning the wheels!"
"Hold it properly!"
They were forced by Clair everyday after school to help her make machines. At first, it was light work because they were only working on the blueprints and calculations. But as time went by and they got closer to completing the prototype, Clair suddenly called them to a giant one story building. Appearently it was an old workshop that used to work on carriages and it was a perfect place to work on machines and testing serial production. There were of course many problems and a lot of things to put together for it to all work properly, but the biggest problem was...
"Hey! Why do I even need to do this?! Can't you just make an engine to do it for us?"
"We don't have time for that! We already wasted a whole two days celebrating the new year last week, and spring is coming closer! The emperor might ask for the guns anytime!"
Some of the machines they made needed electricity to work, and Corvin had to turn the generator by hand or magic because Clair refused to let Noah do that 'since it might hurt his hands and prevent him from making art'. Corvin was left dumbfounded at the blatant favouritism.
"You just want to overwork me!"
"Hm~? What are you talking about~?"
'Guhh.... This b-'
As Corvin was thinking about rather rude things, at the other side of the building, Noah was hurriedly pouring ingredients into a machine.
"Clair! We are running out of saltpeter! This was the last one we had."
They were testing out different ratios of ingredients for the black powder to find the best working mixture. Because black powder was only tested as a medicine, there were no recipes that maximized explosivity.
They could get charcoal easily because of the lumber industry in the north, and could get sulfur as an import from a southern kingdom that had an inactive volcano in it's borders. But they couldn't find a steady supply of saltpeter for a reasonable price since that was the ingredient they needed the most.
"Ugh... I will ask my father about it. For now, let's work on the machines instead of the gunpowder. We still need to find a way to carve the barrel."
*****
A week later, after school at the factory the three were working in.
Noah had just finished his daily violin practice and came to the factory to help. He recieved a letter from his father. Appareantly, when Clair asked her father to help her get saltpeter, Dion just redirected the request to Felyp, who was the reason they were working on this project in the first place.
"Clair, Corvin! I have good news!"
"What happened?"
"We can solve the saltpeter problem! My dad said we can come to the Margravate and search for it!"
Clair and Corvin stared at his face and said at the same time.
"How can we do that when we have already spent so much time in the north?"
"What?"
"Noah, you shouldn't ignore your studies, you know? Why don't you just tell master to send people to search it for us?"
"Wait! What school? We can just go in the spring break next week, no?"
Corvin thought for a second and said.
"Yes, that is true but still, why can't he just send someone to do it for us?"
"M-Maybe he is busy?"
"Yeah, him being busy means the emperor is gathering the army again, which means we need to be faster here and not there.", said Clair.
"T-That makes sense, but aren't you guys tired and bored of working in this place all day? I think we should go on a little adventure to relax ourselves!", said Noah.
"..."
Clair and Corvin stared at each other. They both had a slight darkness under their eyes. After nodding to eachother, they answered Noah.
"Welp, can't do anything! We have to go there ourselves. Yup."
"And, I wanted to go on an adven- I mean, we have to find it, right?"
"Hehe, great! Do you guys know where it appears? I honestly don't want to search the entire mountain range for a vein of that thing, and we don't have the time anyways."
"I can just ask my father, he probably knows something about it.", said Clair.