Denseness

While Roland was disassembling the Percussion lock musket, Anna made her appearance. When she noticed Roland inside the workshop working on something, she quickly ran to his side like a puppy.

"Greetings, Your Highness!" Anna said with a bright smile while leaning forward with her hands behind her back, looking at what Roland was working on.

"Greetings to you too, Anna!" Roland replied, trying to match Anna's enthusiasm since he was in a good mood.

"Hehe" Anna kept smiling while staring at Roland's face which slightly confused him.

"What is it? Do I have something on my face?"

"Oh, no...it's just that lately Your Highness seemed quite stressed out and didn't smile much but seeing Your Highness smile today makes me feel more at ease." Anna said in a cheerful tone.

"? I see...I apologize for worrying you, however, in the future don't be afraid to directly approach me and ask me what is going on. At most, I will reject your attempt to help me, nothing serious. I also wanted to ask you something...are you alright?" Roland closed his eyes for a few seconds before he smiled and replied.

"Huh? I am feeling very good. Everything is great, I get to read all those books, eat warm and delicious food...there is nothing to complain about. Why do you ask, Your Highness?" Now it was Anna's time to act confused.

"Well, you know what Nightingale said...Demonic torture is slowly approaching, I just wanted to know if you are feeling alright. If you feel slightly nervous or feel like talking about it, I am always here for you no matter how busy I am." Roland said gently, taking off his glove and putting his hand on top of her head. To Roland, Anna was like a little sister he never had in his previous life.

"Oh...I am truly feeling alright. I will surely prevail over it. Your Highness doesn't have to worry about me." Anna said with a slightly bashful smile after feeling Roland's warm hand.

The sudden change in her behavior was misunderstood by Roland who thought that Anna was just trying to act strong so he wouldn't worry about her.

Roland bent his knees so his eyes would be on the same level as hers which made Anna instinctively look straight into his grey eyes. Seeing Roland's face so close, brought a faint blush to Anna's cheeks.

"Anna, I think that I have a good theory how you can get past the Demonic torture without any sort of pain, however, I am not 100% confident in it." Roland said as he put his hand on her shoulder as if to reassure her.

'...Fool' Anna's all kinds of expectations of what Roland was going to do were betrayed and subconsciously she even felt disappointed.

"What do I have to do?" Anna asked with a slight annoyance in her voice even if it wasn't intentional.

'Huh? Did I say something wrong? Maybe I am being too friendly and physical but even Anna herself occasionally gets quite close to me...Heck, she even hugged me several times. No matter the era, I will never understand women. It can't be that she expected me to make a move, right? We aren't THAT close...Well, I already killed the mood so I might as well live with it.'

"You actually don't have to do anything. You just need to keep using your magic power and practice the control of your flames. Having almost no magic power in your body right before the Demonic torture should make it almost if not completely painless."

"Oh? Had Your Highness already told this theory to Nightingale?" Anna asked, not even questioning Roland's theory which warmed him how much she trusts him.

"No, but I am planning to tell her in case it really works. She said that she is going to be here for you. And in case my theory doesn't work, no...even if it will work, I will stay by your side at that moment." Roland patted her head before putting the glove back on and focusing on the musket.

"Hmm...Is this a new weapon Your Highness mentioned?" Anna once again shyly smiled before focusing on the thing lying on the table.

"That's right...with this, we can defeat demonic beasts. You may call it Percussion lock musket or just musket in short. Right now I am disassembling it back into its parts before I give some of them to the blacksmiths to create more of those parts. In about a week, I will show you the capabilities of this musket and gunpowder I told you about."

Anna eagerly nodded her head throughout Roland's explanation, attentively listening to him before focusing on another thing.

"Oh...that's a smaller version of the ballista, the ammunition is that big dart made entirely out of metal. I made this just in case there will be some mixed species with very tough fur." Roland noticed where she is looking and explained, slightly embarrassed by himself. He knew that building cannon would take too much time and would also slow down the production of muskets so he just made ballista with some of the materials he found inside the Store. The darts were entirely made of feather steel and the bowstring was made of some Griffin tendons he randomly found in the Store. At first, he thought that such a primitive weapon can't really be considered a great threat to demonic beasts but when he saw the toughness and tensile strength of those tendons, he was quite shocked.

He built a small wall on the field for testing purposes and after firing the first dart, the result was that the dart almost penetrated through the entire 2 meters wide wall. After seeing that, Roland decided to keep it and use it during the months of the demon. The most advantageous thing was that his ballista should be capable of taking down any aerial mixed species with really tough and thick fur.

"I see, but won't reloading those darts solely made of metal be too heavy for men? Also, won't the speed of the projectile be too slow due to its weight?" Anna asked while observing the things more closely without touching them.

"As expected of Anna...however, try to lift one of those darts." Roland said with a wide grin.

Anna immediately bent her knees and tried to lift the dart with all her strength and body weight which wasn't a good idea.

"Ah!" Anna effortlessly lifted it but ended up falling backward, thankfully Roland was already there, anticipating this moment when he saw Anna getting ready to lift the dart...

"I got you" Roland said with his arms under her armpits, supporting her to regain her footing.

Anna took a glance behind her just to see his teasing smile which prompted her to look back in front of her.

'I can feel His Highness heartbeat...it's so calming.' Anna blushed a little before shaking her head to calm herself down.

"Why are those darts so light? Ugh! Yet...they are so tough" Anna said before attempting to bend the dart in any way possible but nothing worked.

Roland just smiled upon seeing her behavior but their moment was quickly interrupted with the knock on the door.

*knock* "Your Highness, it's urgent" It was Carter's voice.

"I have to go, see you later Anna." Roland said and Anna nodded her head with a slightly disappointed smile.

.

.

"What is it? Roland asked as they were walking towards his office.

"Hills Medde and others are most likely going to make their move soon. Apparently, they have been gathering in the tavern more frequently, and also every time there is one new person with them and all of them are part of the patrol squad." Carter said with a serious expression.

"That most likely isn't just a coincidence. Don't make any move and wait for them to make the first move. Have those who watch them inform me when they will move out, no matter the time even if they will have to wake me up. Also, make sure the recruits go to Karl and learn how to read and write in the evenings."

"Eh?"

"I need them to be capable of sending messages between themselves. It could be crucial even on the battlefield. And it is also for my future plans." Roland quickly explained when he saw confusion in Carter's eyes.