Chapter 108

"Is this the new invention that you've been crowing about since last week?" Karsi asked, looking at the Pump Action Crossbow with feigned disinterest even though a simple legilimency probe told him that she was quite curious about the new crossbow as she knew that he won't waste her time on something useless.

"Indeed. This thing here is going to give a huge advantage to our range troops." He said before giving the crossbow to Varko.

"A small demonstration." He told his two generals as Varko got is position and pointed the crossbow at the human shaped wooden target wearing a leather gambeson in 50 meter distance.

Varko looked at him for permission and as soon as he nodded, Varko took aim and pressed the trigger.

The bolt shot out from the crossbow and hit the wooden target, easily piercing through the leather gambeson and entering the wooden target's stomach.

Before the bolt could even stop vibrating, Varko made a pump action that reloaded another bolt from the magazine attached to the crossbow.

Then he released the trigger and the blot flew in the air. Then another pump motion. Another reload and another shot.

This continued until Varko fired a total of six bolts in the target before he turned to look at him.

"Now watch this." He told both his generals who were looking rather impressed by the speed with which Varko was firing the Crossbow. "Change the magazine." He told Varko and he removed the wooden magazine and took another magazine filled with crossbow bolts and attached it to the top of the crossbow.

Then Varko continued and fired another 6 bolts within 12 seconds.

"Continue" he told Varko and he added another magazine, fired all the bolts in the wooden target. Then another magazine. Then another until he had fired a total of ten magazine and filled the wooden target with bolts.

"That's enough." He told Varko and the man stopped and lowered his hands, a slight sheen of sweat covering his forehead.

He would not say it out loud be he was rather proud of his sworn shield's stamina. Especially because he himself didn't even have the strength to pump the crossbow even once properly.

Then again, his body was that of a 14 year old boy who never needed to physically exert himself so he felt that he could be forgiven for such things.

He then turned to his two Generals and asked "So… How was it?"

"Complicated." Bronn replied instantly.

He raised and eyebrow and Bronn explained.

"The thing is too bloody complicated. Sure it might look fancy and yes, it can shoot faster than even a damn bow. But how much time did it take for your men to make it. And how many of these things can those men make within an year. Not enough I reckon." Bronn said as he took the crossbow from Varko and gave it a closer look.

"Maintaining a crossbow like this is going to be a pain as well. Not to mention that right now, it might work well enough but will all the crossbows made my your people be of the same quality."

"A single mistake. One mistake and the thing will jam itself. No use to anybody. Now I'm not saying that it is completely useless. If your people are able to make… say 25 by the end of the year. Then you can give it to your personal guards and they can use it against any idiot trying to murder you."

With that Bronn gave the Pump action crossbow back to him and sat down on a tree stump.

He looked at Karsi for her own review on this matter and she remained silent for a moment with a contemplative expression on her face before she spoke "Bronn is not wrong. This thing definitely looks very complicated and would take a long time to make for any wood craftsman. But… despite your young age, you are no fool. You must already known these things. So, have you found a way to mass produce these… Pump action crossbow?"

"Indeed. Do you remember how the Ship factory works?" he asked.

Both Karsi and Bronn nodded at him.

"This crossbow will be built just like that." He told them "I've already created the design of the workshop and have begun it's construction. By the time the workshop is ready, every worker will have to focus on a single part of the crossbow and at the end of the workshop, a few workers will fit the whole thing together. This way, we won't have to rely on experience wood craftsman who are only able to build on crossbow in a month or so and would be able to produce 2 or even 3 Pump action crossbows on a daily basis."

"You plan to build another regiment of ranged troops who'll be using these Pump action crossbows of yours." Karsi pointed out and he nodded in response.

"Definitely. I also plan on creating one more workshop so that I would be able to provide every member of the garrison with a Pump action crossbow of their own."

He looked at Bronn for any other criticism but the man simply shrugged. "If you can create a lot of them then that's alright. The men could be taught how to take proper care of them. Otherwise, it's definitely much better than a bow and a simple crossbow so I don't have any problem with it."

"Very well then. I want you to recruit a 1000 more men to create this new Crossbow regiment." He told them "Make sure that all of them already have some experience with a bow or crossbow. I think there are a lot of the men among the freefolk who lived as hunters right?"

"Yes." Karsi nodded. "A lot of them have already joined the Archer regiment."

"Good. See if any more of them are interested in joining the army. I want them ready the end of the third month. We should have about 200 PA Crossbow ready by then." He told her and both the Generals gave him a half hearted salute before leaving.

As they left, he turned to hand over the crossbow to his Sworn shield but noticed that he was distracted by the firm posterior of his second General.

"Ahem…" he coughed and Varko jolted and then gave him an embarrassed look. Huh… he didn't even knew that Varko could look embarrassed.

"You interested in her?" he asked Varko who looked indecisive for a moment before his expression became firm and nodded.

"She's a… strong woman. And after I…" he hesitated "I want a family of my own as well."

"Well. If you want to pursue her, then I suggest you learn a bit about the traditions of the Free Folk. I think Ygritte will be willing to help you with that. With how strong you are, I doubt you would have any problem in stealing Karsi away." He said with a smile "Aside from that, you have my blessing for this union. I think both of you will be good for each other."

Varko looked at him with an indescribable emotion for a moment before he simply bowed to him.

"Thank you my lord. For all that you've done for me. I doubt I'll be able to pay you back for all that I owe you but I'll certainly try till the end of my life."

At first he thought about waving his gratitude away but then realized that doing so would hurt Varko's pride. So he just smiled in return "You're welcome. And you've been an excellent subordinate so far. And I thank you for your service as well. Now let's go back to the Castle. I need to hold another meeting with the Head of Infrastructure and Roads."

With that, they turned and left the training field.