Chatper 4: Testing new projectiles
The talk about the prayers and protections spread like wildfire. It really paid to have so many nobles helping with the right messaging. Not just Charlotte’s retainers—Cornelius was also on board, and Hartmut was downright easy to recruit. I merely needed to mention how this will improve the temple’s reputation in these “crucial times,” with Rozemyne’s enrollment approaching.
Those who weren’t convinced by simple encouragement definitely listened after we spread the fact that the children in the playroom were already working towards gaining their protections. The fear of getting outshone by the soon-to-be students was definitely a strong motivator. I guess it’s kind of my fault. I had helped to put that fear in everyone’s hearts with the first-years’ academic success. Now, every student was quite receptive to the threat of missing out on something crucial.
It was exciting.
By the time I reached my bed, my mind was “positively tired” from all the deliberations. Though, it didn’t help me much with my sleep. Despite Schlaftraum’s blessing, I still had nightmares about someone approaching my bed. Gretia’s sleep wasn’t much better. When I saw her in the morning, I used yet another healing prayer.
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” she protested with an embarrassed expression.
“Prayers can help you get protections. It’s quite selfish on my part.” I smiled casually so she would not feel indebted.
Sure, I already had that particular protection, but she didn’t have to know that.
“Still, thank you.” Gretia smiled weakly.
Behind her, Diana was giving her a pensive look, as if she was dissatisfied with something. Well, her job was kind of assuring that her lady got a proper rest so she could function in the Academy. I understood why it might frustrate her.
I thought we already solved this with those Schlaftraum’s blessings. I wanted to sigh.
After breakfast, I went to my hidden room to brew. I had gathered a lot before my departure because I hadn’t been able to focus after my recent summons to the temple. Without any brewing, an accumulation of ingredients had been kind of inevitable, which was great. After all, there was the monumental task of producing 79 praying charms in front of me.
Though, more than any generic charms for praying, I wanted one to replace the brooch I had returned to Ferdinand. It really irritated me that I had never used it properly. The only ones ever harmed by that defensive tool were Damuel, Brigitte, and one unlucky bird. Not really the most effective use.
It was just, every time I had wanted to use it, some associate of mine stood nearby. My mind had always been preoccupied with thoughts of collateral damage, so I usually just defaulted to other means.
Nevertheless, I already had a pretty solid idea for replacement. This will require way more mana to charge up, but I think it will be worth it.
I copied a couple of sections from Schutzaria’s shield, to imitate the “push-back” effect simply by expanding the barrier, with the added bonus that the fast-hitting barrier affected only those meaning harm to me. The written prayer was quite specific about that part. I really didn’t want any accidents.
“O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria, protector of all. O twelve goddesses who serve by her side…” I chanted during the brewing, making the prepared circles shine, right before they got embedded in my new brooch.
Previously, the idea of using prayer during brewing felt kind of rude, but ever since my divine protections ritual, I had been much more daring in this regard. Any area where the inclusion of prayer could help seemed like a fair game—whether blessing our cooks, a more elaborate “goodnight” wish with Gretia, or even including prayers into the brewing process.
It’s really fortunate that Dregarnuhr is subordinate to Schutzaria, I thought as I was looking at the finished product. Her inclusion was vital to my trigger mechanism, so it was nice that there were no compatibility issues.
I filled the tool with my mana, and then, once again, I prayed to Schutzaria. My new brooch shone for a second, signaling its state of readiness.
OK, that’s for defense. Now, it’s time for a bit of offense.
I brewed a few tiny “artillery shells.” Or oversized bullets? They were a bit smaller than an ordonnanz in a bird form, and worked pretty much just like those exploding ordonnanzes I had tested on Adeus. Just stripped of their innocuous look.
While this version lost its element of surprise, it no longer required mana to keep its form.
The fake ordonnanzes were by nature a set of parts assembled into a form of bird. One couldn’t just leave them around transformed into a yellow feystone for too long since that required a constant mana supply. Unlike the real ordonnanzes, which didn’t have such a problem, and could be stored indefinitely in their initial feystone form.
It wasn’t such a problem if the birds were hidden in a bag. I sneakily changed their form only when pulling them out, but it could become a major problem if I were ever checked by a guard.
With these shells, there was no such issue. Their form was just that—a shell. Not only did they not require mana when stored, they also didn’t need to contain the part which changed the shape of the tool to begin with. As such, more mana remained for the other parts.
After producing a few shells, I began brewing metal parts as a special storage for them to put in the corner of my room. It was basically a long vertical tube, which could be filled with shells facing towards the floor, with a tiny trigger mechanism embedded in the casing at the bottom. If one placed a thin rod on the floor below the tube and pushed it up inside the tube, one shell would fall down.
I immediately brewed the thin rod as well so I could try it.
With the rod in my hand, I crouched down on the floor and pushed it up the tube. The trigger made a satisfying clicking sound, and all the shells in the tube fell down. The one at the bottom landed on the floor, while the rest were stopped by the trigger, clanging against each other.
Maybe it wasn’t the most elegant design, but the explosives were magical, so it didn’t really matter if they bumped at each other. A better solution could be designed later, once I had tested the proof of concept.
The storage would remain safely in my hidden room, out of reach of any foe. I smiled. Now I only need one last component from Caroline, and we are set to go.
“So, what completely ubiquitous tool did you weaponize this time?” Adeus asked with a smirk.
I guess I’m kind of predictable.
I smiled dejectedly at my brother. “A faucet.”
Henrietta and Estelle were present as well, just like during my last round of testing with exploding ordonnanzes.
While outside, this time we were much closer to the dormitory. To give us a bit of privacy, we stood by the corner of the building where the chambers of the aub were located. Those above, for the wife, were also empty. And with no archduke candidates around, even the neighboring rooms were vacant.
“Wait, really?” Adeus furrowed his brows. “I was joking.”
Or maybe not so predictable. I smiled. “Let’s make this three on one. Me against all of you,” I declared confidently.
“Ehm, maybe…?” Adeus scratched the back of his head.
Apparently, the exploding ordonnanzes from the last time didn’t help much to entice volunteers.
“Do not worry. We are too close to the dormitory, so I didn’t make any explosives. We don’t want to attract any attention,” I softened my tone.
“Alright,” he nodded with relief.
The others relaxed as well.
This is what I call a false sense of security. I smirked and pulled out my “boomstick,” while the others produced their schtappes and began readying themselves.
“You can start whenever,” Adeus uttered, hiding behind a shield.
They weren’t as relaxed as I had thought. All three of them were in a complete defensive stance. I could only see three shields in front of me. Not even a bit of helmet stuck out.
I activated my handheld faucet borrowed from Caroline, though no water was coming through. Instead, I pulled an attached trigger of my own design. Its only function was to push a thin rod further inside the faucet, or more importantly, through the teleportation circle there.
“Adeus,” I muttered.
A shell shot forward, right towards its target. Then it sharply curved mid-flight and hit Adeus in his shoulder just as he was trying to dodge the attack from an unusual angle. His armor should protect him, I mused.
“Wha?” he burst out as his whole body got flung from the impact, hitting the ground almost immediately.
It wasn’t an explosion, but an imitation of a physical attack could be just as deadly. This was practice, so naturally, I didn’t go overboard with the lethality of the spell. Though, it still packed a punch.
I shot another round, which sent my brother back down before he even managed to stand up fully. Estelle and Henrietta dashed forward in unison, most likely hoping to overwhelm me with multiple attacks.
Before they could reach me, I aimed the tube away from us and pushed the trigger multiple times without even looking in that direction. They tried to predict the ballistic route and put their shields to their side as the projectiles curved their way. But just like with my brother, the bullets randomly changed their route, hitting them in their leg and shoulder, respectively. Both of them ended on the ground.
By then, Adeus managed to power his prepared circle, producing a barrier. It made me smile. I was pretty sure he was trying to exploit the previous weakness of my fake ordonnanzes—the mana field.
Unsurprisingly, he got hit regardless.
The next round went to Estelle, who got hit in her stomach, and the last one followed Henrietta, who got hit in her helmet.
I brewed those things for over two bells, and ran out in less than ten seconds. I sighed. Can I outsource this to anyone? I put the faucet away, pouting.
Though, the concept worked, so the test was a success.
“I ran out. Now is your chance,” I announced cheerily.
All three of my opponents looked at me as if I were luring them into a trap. Well, I was. Still, this was a test, so they eventually shrugged and dashed forward.
I activated my brooch, and the barrier slammed both Henrietta and Estelle against nearby trees. Their bodies fell on the ground like a couple of rag dolls. It seemed they needed a bit of rest. What shocked me was Adeus, who just stood there without any issue.
“The heck. Why didn’t that affect you?” I frowned.
“You are the one who produced it, no?” He raised his eyebrow.
“I mean, it was supposed to hit everyone who meant harm to me.” I had no clue what could have caused this.
“Oh.” Adeus nodded in realization.
“What?”
He smirked at me. “I was just thinking about creating a diversion so the others could get to you.”
“Hey, aiding someone else who wants to harm me should qualify!” I protested.
Though, without much success, as he dashed towards me. We clashed with our weapons, until he managed to land a hit on me. Even with my armor, it hurt a lot. Though, considering the shells I had used on them, he was actually gentler in comparison.
“One wants to be nice and not harm bystanders, and what does it get me?” I grumbled, after everyone received their healing. “I guess I will brew a backup tool that just targets everyone.”
“You are the one to complain.” Adeus glared at me. “Those projectiles continued even when I spread my mana in a sphere around me.”
“Yeah, it hasn’t protected us at all,” Estelle complained too.
Apparently, they all tried that method, not just my brother. He had just used a barrier in addition to the mana field.
“I knew you would try it.” I snickered. “I just added one additional command: in case of a wider mana field, dash straight ahead. Well, jerk to a random side, and then dash straight ahead,” I specified, watching their annoyed faces. “You did technically blind it, so it would have missed you if you had evaded a bit faster.”
“How did you manage to power all of that functionality with a single feystone?” Adeus asked with an exasperated voice.
“I didn’t.” My smile widened. “I used ingredients from home.”
There was only so much I could power with a dyed feystone that was supposed to fit in a shell, which itself needed to fit through a handheld faucet. A bigger teleporter faced the same problem as a modified ordonnanz—it wasn’t the standard tool, allowed automatically by an ivory building’s security. If I wanted to transport the shells from my hidden room through a faucet, they needed a stronger, more compact, mana source.
And what has higher mana density than a dyed feystone? I smirked. “I brought mana-rich dust and glue, to replace the feystone inside. This way, the projectiles can get way more deadly.”
After all, more mana didn’t mean just additional commands for evasion, but also more mana for a stronger explosion.
“Did something happen at home?” Adeus glanced at Estelle.
She gave him an uncertain smile.
“Estelle wasn’t around,” I added hastily so she wouldn’t think it was because of her. “I might have gotten a bit annoyed by certain nobles.”
Adeus looked at me for a moment, as if to check for something, but then he just shrugged and smiled. “How does it help here? I assume we have fought so close to the dormitory because the tool would not work too far away, right?”
He was right, of course. The dormitory was in the middle of nowhere, so it wasn’t covering any of my Academy life. Then again, I had been attacked inside the dormitory as well, so the chance of something happening here was nonzero.
“Yeah, I wish I could have used the foundational magic to make something far reaching like the connection between the main entrance of our dormitory with the Academy.” I slumped my shoulders. “It would have been so much more fun if I could use this weapon everywhere without restrictions.”
“I have a feeling that all those archduke candidate classes are so restricted because of someone like you,” Estelle teased me.
I shrugged. “Well, this won’t be ideal, but I will just have to brew multiple stockpiles for different locations. Our summer mansion, the winter mansion, the temple, the castle, the dormitory…”
I could probably hide a stockpile under some old research papers in Hirschur’s lab. She would have noticed only if she had decided to look through the notes on research that had already been solved, and not so interesting anymore. So, like never.
“They really must have made you annoyed.” Adeus smirked.
Honestly, it was hard to even joke about it, but I didn’t want to stress everyone. I just wanted a bigger stick to feel a bit better about myself. “Yeah, a bit.” I smirked as well, without showing my frustration. “Hmm… now that I think about it. Do you want to partake in the maintenance of this? Brewing so many projectiles seems kind of arduous. We could do it together, and then share access to the whole stockpile. Running out in a few seconds is not fun.”
We could just put the magic circles from all the individual faucets on top of each other, and everyone could access the same stockpile during times of need.
“If we do that, we definitely need to brew some other design than a faucet to make it less obvious.” Adeus nodded in agreement. “Just like with ordonnanzes, it would be really inconvenient for the attendants if these faucets lost their permissions in ivory buildings.”
On that point, we were in complete agreement. Sure, there was always the water-stone option, but creating something took more mana than moving something. It would have end up exactly that—inconvenient for a lot of people.
I was really glad that he was willing to join. “Yeah, I will redesign it to look like a tool that shoots projectiles.”
The deception would give us an advantage against any potential opponent. They might believe that they were fighting against someone pouring their mana into a ridiculously strong magic tool, draining themselves with every attack. When in reality, it was a mere prepared stockpile of magic tools, which were all powered in advance. The only actual drain was to maintain the teleporter, and a bit of mana to lock each shell on a target. Compared to the damage the tools caused, it was a rather negligible expenditure.
I mean, I was winning against three knights at once, and those were just practice shells. It was exciting to think about it.
“We could also stock on projectiles with different properties, to counter various defenses,” Henrietta proposed.
She seemed to be on board as well. I nodded at her with a big smile.
“This is actually a much tamer leverage than the alternatives. I will help as well.” Estelle looked at me knowingly.
Yeah, no one would get purged for stockpiling magic tools and then using them in a fight. That was pretty much standard. I was glad she hadn’t completely soured on me after I had pushed so much for the Grutrissheit.
“Alright, you will be put on ‘dusting feystones’ duty.” I smirked at her.
“Sure.” Estelle smirked as well. “But the next batch of projectiles will be tested by me.”
“Fine.” My smile tensed.
Those hits on them had looked quite drastic. Bah, I will just have to learn to dodge bullets.