Chapter 40: Artillery

　　The members of the "Emperor Seal Society" became more and more desperate in their discussions, and finally the whole group fell into an awkward silence.

　　"In fact, didn't we recognize how difficult our goal was at the beginning of our association?" Duke Madias said, "However, we can't back down either, because that one is not only coming to suck our blood, but also to completely crush us, to completely crush the empire that we have guarded with our blood and tears."

　　The Duke said and hammered the table heavily, "It's useless to be afraid when the country is in trouble. We cannot retreat!"

　　Upon hearing this, the members brought a touch of sadness to their faces as well.

　　"But yeah, I think it's better if we .... not have a head-on conflict with the Second True Vampire Ancestor, right?" A female member said weakly. "That's a good point, we should focus our strategic goal on interfering with the Second True Vampire Ancestor at this stage, and while hindering his expansion, we should develop our own power and prepare for the future against the Second True Vampire Ancestor."

　　"Yes, the layout for the Second True Vampire Ancestor should now be based on harassment and nuisance, and a head-on clash would be tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg!"

　　"In fact, there are a lot of things we can do, even if we don't clash with the Second True Vampire Ancestor head on, we can still attack his subordinates and destroy his coven, as long as we make things a bit cleaner, the Second True Vampire Ancestor won't be able to suspect us for a while. "

　　"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we could even hire domestic animals to do these things and still not get our hands dirty."

　　The members spoke to each other, much to the discouragement of the Duke of Mathias.

　　In his mind, the "Society for the Protection of the Emperor" should be a national salvation organization that fights against oppression and seeks justice.

　　But how is it that before we even start the official campaign, we're going to run off in the direction of tripping and underhanded little evil parties?

　　"Uh, all in all, even if our means can be used in a dirty way, we can't forget that we are doing it for the Empire, for the greater good of the Blood Clan ....." The Duke said slightly feebly.

　　------

　　A month later, the construction of the outer wall of the vampire camp of the "Skin of the Stigmata" guild had been completed.

　　Baldwin, busy as he was, also came over from Constantine to examine the unfinished fort.

　　"That's two or three times taller than Constantine's walls, isn't it?"

　　Standing on the magnificent outer wall, Baldwin looked out over the low Constantine walls in the distance, clearly very pleased.

　　"What are these platforms around the corner for?"

　　The outer walls were trimmed in the style of a prismatic fortress, as Edward had requested, and at each of the prismatic points, circular platforms were constructed.

　　"Kayne says it's reserved for a battery." Chief Hector said.

　　"Battery?"

　　"He had a weapon called a 'cannon' forged, and he also came up with a powder that burns violently and said it was called 'gunpowder'."

　　"Cannon?"

　　This was very new to Baldwin.

　　Due to the advancement of magic, firearms were not developed in this world.

　　But Edward had recently been researching alchemy and realized that things like saltpeter sulfur and the like to formulate black powder could be bought from the market, and that the alchemists were just using these as accelerants and things like that.

　　The direction of his research immediately ran in the wrong direction, temporarily abandoning the study of alchemy and instead engaging in gunpowder.

　　After tossing and turning for days, and after nearly burning down his desk, he managed to try out gunpowder.

　　He then found the blacksmiths who had helped him build the silver needle yoke and asked them to try casting the cannon.

　　Fortunately, the smelting level in this world was already very high, and the blacksmiths quickly understood what he meant after listening to his request and looking at the crooked design he drew.

　　"In a few days, the weapon, called the 'Cannon', will be pulled over, but Kayne says it will have to be test-fired before a decision can be made on mass production."

　　"And what if this weapon is of little use? Won't these 'batteries' be built for nothing?"

　　"No, Kayne said we could also go to the Western Continent to recruit elemental mages if that sort of thing doesn't work, and this place would be great as a magical shooting gallery."

　　Baldwin stood in the center of the turret and surveyed his surroundings and realized that was a good point.

　　"Indeed, but can the guild afford to hire that many mages?"

　　"Of course I can't afford to hire now, but maybe the guild will have money in the future."

　　"Haha, expecting these vampires to make money for the guild?"

　　Baldwin turned his head and surveyed the vampires who were struggling to move bricks inside the walls.

　　"But you don't say, this Kayne kid has a real knack for making vampires."

　　"You're making me nervous by saying that, I'm a vampire now too."

　　The two were talking when they saw a carriage approaching gradually from Constantine's side.

　　"Look, the kid's coming over."

　　Sitting in the wagon was none other than Edward. behind him in the hopper was also a dark gun barrel.

　　This is a prototype of the "Experimental Type II Gun" that he commissioned the blacksmiths to cast.

　　In fact, the blacksmiths cast a "Test One Cannon" for him half a month ago, but he had to try the strength of the barrel on the spot, and threw a [Fireball] into the barrel.

　　Then the "Test One Gun" cracked without incident, but fortunately no one was hurt.

　　But the blacksmiths scolded him and forbade him to test the strength of the barrels with "demonic magic".

　　This made Edward quite aggravated; if a single fireball spell in the area couldn't carry it, how could it carry a continuous barrage of shots?

　　However, when he handed over the "Test Type II Cannon" this time, the blacksmiths agreed with him that as long as he didn't use strange magic to test the barrel, and if anything went wrong with the barrel, they would help him recast it at any cost.

　　In fact, the blacksmiths were curious about how powerful this new type of weapon was, and if it could really propel iron balls hundreds or thousands of meters and smash city walls as Kayne described, then they would certainly be able to make a lot of money with this.

　　So this time the blacksmiths followed Edward to the camp to watch the test firing of the artillery.

　　It was a good thing that their attention was on the artillery, and they didn't notice anything different about the guys moving bricks inside the walls, and just thought that those guys were ordinary stonemasons.

　　With the help of the hunters, the "Experimental II Gun" was mounted on the north-facing turret of the city wall, facing the ruins of the old city of Valenvinia.

　　With the crowd watching, Edward loaded black powder and fuse into the barrel and then slipped in a shell.

　　The first test-fire charge was a little low to prevent blowing up the chamber. edward thought that maybe the gun wouldn't be very powerful.

　　Rolling up a [Inferno] rune to ignite the fuse, he stepped back and covered his ears.

　　With a loud bang, the shell flew straight out and hit the wall of the ruined city a few hundred meters away, smashing a large hole.

　　The people watching were stunned.

　　"This is more powerful than even a single [Meteorite Spell] from an ordinary mage, isn't it?!"

　　The keyword is [Common Mage].

　　Just as the hunters were marveling at the power of this new weapon, suddenly, from over the ruins came the hissing of a wild beast.

　　A wounded lion and scorpion beast crawled out of the large hole that had just been smashed by the cannon.