15 Jacques

Frederick frowned as he stood and waited for the man to speak. He had dragged him all the way back to the castle despite the odd looks from the guards and was now in a small room used by visiting nobles for their own business. The man simply sat and stared at Frederick, with a dumb grin on his face, it seriously irked Frederick and somewhat reminded him of Leon.

Speaking of the devil, without even bothering to knock, the door opened and in walked Leon. Frederick gave him a glare of disapproval before Leon opened his mouth.

"Ahh, what's this, did you find a stray puppy?"

Frederick decided to ignore his idiot friend and instead continued to stare at the man. Leon unhappy with being ignored walked up to the man and introduced himself.

"Hello, friend, I'm Leon, the son of the Count. Uh, and who might you be?"

"Okay." The man replied gruffly.

Leon stood waiting for him to say more, but the man already returned his attention back to Frederick. Frederick watched as Leon's face grew grimmer and he could not help but laugh out loud at his friend's expression.

"Pfft… That is too funny. Alright, so what do you want? And who are you?" Frederick asked in an annoyed tone.

"Oh, Your Highness, you finally said something and here I thought we would continue staring so

lovingly into each other's eyes until you finally admitted your love for me." The man said without any hint of shame.

Frederick coughed and glared at the man in response.

"Oh, Your Highness, this look, this perfect look, it speaks to me." The man continued to tease, but as he saw Frederick start to look a little angry, he quickly stopped.

"Sorry, Your Highness, it was just that teasing you is quite fun. But where are my manners. My name is Jacques de Angers and as you can probably guess I am, no was from the Great Frankish Empire. I fled after the country imploded and finally arrived in Saar two weeks ago. Um, however I have not been able to eat well for the last few days and I saw such a rich noble, I thought I might give pickpocketing a try. And I guess I was not as good as I thought." Jacques finished explaining.

Frederick sighed. It was as he guessed. He had noticed the person was too well mannered, his fingers were rather clean, and his face was cleanly shaven, it was obvious he was not some random ruffian.

"So, Your Highness, you were offering me employment?" Jacques asked expectantly.

"Uh, Frederick this guy doesn't look too reliable to me." Leon interjected.

Frederick gave Leon a glance, telling him to shut up before he focused back on Jacques. He gave Jacques another once over before he asked.

"Jacques, do you have any skills? Talents? Besides being able to read and write."

"Yes, I can hide very well and am proficient in the sword. I can also shoot a moving target from one hundred and fifty metres with a musket. Of course, I can easily double that with a bow. I am a very good hunter, if I do say so myself." Jacques bragged.

"Hm… well alright, if you are as good as you say you are then you're someone I need. Leon, bring him to Phillip and have him trained. He will know what to do. Before Jacques could say anything, he was already grabbed by the scruff of the neck and dragged out of the room.

Frederick quickly left the room afterwards and returned to his original business.

Fortunately, this time Frederick was not accosted by a stranger and instead made his way to Wesson's workshop, in good time. Wesson was a fifty-year-old man that wore a pair of rimmed spectacles and was already almost completely bald.

After he was informed by one of his apprentices that Frederick was there looking for him, he hurriedly ran out. After all, it was not an everyday occurrence that the heir to the throne would show up on one's doorstep.

Frederick and Wesson exchanged pleasantries as he was invited over to a side room for refreshments and to discuss their business. Frederick decided not to beat around the bush and asked him directly.

"Wesson, have you seen a Prusen rifle?"

"Of course, Your Highness, in fact I was able to acquire one through some contacts, although it is a little damaged, the parts and the interior are fine. However, I am not too sure how to get it firing again. This so-called rifling technique is vastly superior to the smoothbore's we have been making. However, I have tried to replicate the rifle, but all of my attempts have been a little defective, either it shoots but not at the range the Prusen's claim it can or it simply jams."

Frederick listened intently and realised why rifles had not become as widespread as they should have been. After all, the creation of a rifle was not hard, but it appeared the gunsmiths failed to realise that the bullets were the issue. Due to the incompatible bullets, the rifle would jam or not shoot as well as a standard smoothbore musket.

The difference between a smoothbore musket and a rifle simply came down to the designs of the barrel. A smoothbore musket had a smooth barrel as the name suggests. However, in a rifle, the barrel would have a series of grooves, this allowed the bullet to be directed along a straight path rather than veer in random directions and go off target as what happened in smoothbores. This rifling resulted in rifles being able to shoot further and more accurately than muskets. However, just as with muskets, they were currently still muzzle-loaded, which meant they were very slow to reload.

However, Frederick had not come to Wesson, to solve the issue regarding the front loading of the firearms but instead wanted to know more about his skills. After all the weapon he had designed required some special skills and would be the first of its kind, in this world at least.

Frederick had been a little worried about his lack of fighting skills. Although he could fight barehanded using his mixed-martial arts and overpower his unarmed enemies such as Jacques. He was no match for those versed in the sword or dagger, as his late-night encounter with Phillip demonstrated. As a result, he had decided to have a special weapon crafted for himself.

After careful thinking and seeing that no other person had thought about it yet, he settled for a revolver. He with the knowledge from his previous life was able to directly jump into the creation of revolvers. Although they would not be widely spread, as they would be enormously expensive and time-consuming to make especially since everything needed to be hand-crafted, he would make sure that he and a few of his close friends and family would have the means to defend themselves.

Frederick decided to show Wesson, the schematic he had drawn up. It was modelled after the Colt 1851 Navy Revolver. His Grandfather in his previous life was an avid gun collector and Frederick whenever he visited him in his mansion had always wandered over to the collection to browse through the weapons. This revolver had attracted the twelve-year-old Frederick's eyes more than once. Although it had the severe downside of being muzzle-loaded it was still far superior to that of muskets and rifles. After all, he would be combining the cap lock mechanism, which already existed with the mechanically indexing cylinder, which was way ahead of its time. As a result, the world's first revolver could be made.

Wesson's eyes widened in shock as he scanned over the schematic. At first, he was confused at the strange style of the blueprint, but he quickly came to realise the simplicity and the easy-to-read nature of the document. He recognised the cap lock mechanism which had not replaced the flint lock simply because it was far more difficult to set off the main charge. A flintlock used the flint to strike a steel frizzen whereas a cap lock required the hammer to strike a cap. However, no one had been able to produce the cap in sufficient quantities. It was simply too expensive and too time consuming to be worth it.

However, with this strange new mechanical indexing cylinder, Wesson saw this weapon named the revolver in a new light. Although it still suffered from the cost to create and equip it with the right mechanism, the ease of use of the weapon greatly intrigued him.

Wesson was adamant that he wished to create this weapon, even if he could never use it or talk about it with others, he would undoubtedly be able to use the skills in other areas. He had been greatly troubled since the invention of the rifles and had been trying very hard to find a means to replicate its success.

"Your Highness leave this with me, I have full confidence I can create this weapon. It should take me about six months, if I focus on it solely."

Frederick nodded in approval before he had him swear to secrecy and let him know that he would have some guards check in on him every now and then. Wesson agreed to all terms and was eager to start work. Frederick seeing him in that state left him to it.

Six months later, Frederick received a note informing him that it was ready.