Chapter 20 - My Ex-Girlfriend
Tinkle─
A customer entered the firearms shop.
“Welcome. This is Levering Firearms.”
As soon as the customer entered, he looked around the shop, browsing the goods for sale.
The way he was glancing around restlessly made him look like a country bumpkin seeing a bustling street for the first time.
Unremarkable clothes and a worn-out wristwatch.
His other hand was habitually rolling a coin.
His eyes, having looked around the entire store, searched for stairs, but there was no second floor here.
“Is there anything you're looking for, sir? If you tell us, we will do our best to modify it for you.”
“I came to buy a few things for security. The ones hanging here don't catch my eye.”
“For security, huh. Looks like your house was recently broken into.”
The customer laughed lightheartedly.
He seemed somewhat enlightened, but Reggie, who was quick-witted, could read the anger inherent within him.
“Not just the house, but everything inside was cleaned out.”
“Oh my. You must have had a hard time.”
“So, to avoid going through that ordeal again, I was about to hire guards, but someone recommended this place. Said they sell a lot of good stuff.”
“My, my, I don't know who that person is, but they have a great eye.”
Reggie came out, rubbing his hands together.
“If it's for security, will you be using it in the house you live in?”
“I'm running a warehouse. I have to protect not only the goods but the employees as well.”
“Hahahat. The employees will be protected by the guns they hold, and the employees with guns will protect the goods as well, won't they.”
He laughed heartily and, as if telling him to wait a moment, picked up a firearm hanging on the back wall.
“This is a blunderbuss-style shotgun. The farther you shoot, the more you hit. I personally call this guy ‘The Answer Sheet’.”
“The Answer Sheet? Why is that.”
“Because the solution to all problems is right here.”
“Hooh. Is that so?”
“Yes. If a problem arises before your eyes? Take this answer sheet and go to the problem. It'll be solved right away. I guarantee it.”
“Hmm.”
The customer's expression was still subtle.
So Reggie licked his lips and flicked his finger.
“Ah, customer. You must be a greedy one. Actually, so am I. This amount of gunpowder just doesn't cut it.”
He placed the blunderbuss-style shotgun on the table and brought the next one.
“This is a shoulder-fired repeating hand cannon.”
One look at its size would tell you why it was called shoulder-fired.
It was so big that without shouldering it, one couldn't bear the weight or control the recoil.
“This one holds a total of 6 rounds, and you can think of it as a repeating cannon. The guys who robbed your warehouse would have run away immediately if they saw this.”
“Does this one have a nickname too?”
“I personally call it The Broomstick. It turns enemies to dust and sweeps them all away. What do you think, do you like it?”
“It's tempting. But it's not yet at a satisfactory level. Is there anything above this?”
“Ha, really. The customer is firing up my competitive spirit. We are Levering Firearms. Of course, there is.”
Reggie brought the last item.
What looked like a kind of bullet was the smallest among the items he had shown so far.
“Our firearms shop has recently developed a new type of bomb. It looks like a bullet at first glance, but in other words, it's a bomb that you put in a revolver and shoot.”
“Keep talking.”
“When this bomb travels down the gun barrel and heat is applied, it becomes activated and flies towards the enemy. And the moment it receives an impact.”
Pooow.
Reggie's hand drew a large circle in the air.
It seemed to be referring to a large explosion, though I couldn't be sure.
“You're saying such power is contained in this tiny bullet?”
“It's not a bullet, it's a bomb. Furthermore, its true value lies in its blast pressure. People in the radius will have blood pouring out of their noses and ears.”
“So what's its nickname.”
Actually, he was more curious about the nickname than the performance.
He was secretly looking forward to it.
“The nickname for this is….”
Reggie had a very serious face.
Or a face that was reminiscing about something as he answered wistfully.
“My Ex-Girlfriend.”
“……”
“I was inspired by her nagging to make it. When I listened to her, it felt like blood was flowing from my ears.”
After sharing the story behind the item, he placed My Ex-Girlfriend next to the other items he had introduced.
“Now. I've brought out all the items from our store that you might find useful. Is there any item you desire?”
“There wasn't.”
A reply sharper than a knife came back.
“…That's a shame. I even introduced you to my ex-girlfriend.”
Reggie's efforts, who put his ex-girlfriend on the counter with tears in his eyes, were commendable, but it was still too early to be disappointed.
“If there's no magitech engineer here, then I've just made a wasted trip. And the owner's ex-girlfriend will spend a little more lonely time.”
Click─
My Ex-Girlfriend was instantly loaded into the revolver at his hip and aimed at the customer.
“You. Where did you hear about magitech and all that.”
“Didn't I say someone introduced me? Besides, you seem to suit a gunslinger as much as a merchant.”
“…Don't tell me, that 500 gold coins?”
Jubel showed a smile whose meaning only he knew.
So this was where the 500 gold coins were used.
It didn't take long for that thought to lead to the next step.
The Youngest Son's next move is magitech.
With even greater interest and curiosity, Jubel spoke from in front of the gun barrel.
“Yes. That 500 gold coins recommended this place.”
Reggie's eyebrows trembled slightly.
“Tsk. I told you not to put up the magitech stuff. Now we've got weirdos flocking here because of it.”
“Weirdos, huh. Hehet.”
The 500 gold coins. No, the Fifth Son seemed to be hiding his identity.
He existed here at this firearms shop as some kind of sponsor, and they were suspicious of him.
Nevertheless, it seemed they had taken the money well.
From the moment I entered the shop, I could smell fresh paint under the smell of gunpowder.
“I'll admit my name, Jubel Maxman, is called eccentric, but I'm definitely not someone without credit.”
“J-Jubel Maxman?”
Reggie's eyes widened so much that the gun barrel trembled.
A contrasting reaction that made it unclear who was holding the gun and who was in front of it.
Jubel Maxman nodded.
“The Maxman Merchant Troupe has decided to follow the recommender's opinion. To request and purchase security magitech machines from this place.”
Kkiiik─
The back door opened cautiously.
A similarly cautious voice leaked out from the open gap.
“The recommender… who is it?”
“I can't tell you that. As I just said, I have credit, and I'm a person who lives by credit.”
The girl changed her question.
“What kind of machine do you want.”
“It's shameful for the best merchant in the East to say this, but unfortunately, I have no knowledge of magitech. It seems we'll have to create it through discussion.”
“In that case….”
Kkiiiiiiiik─
The back door of the shop opened a little more.
A small doll-like figure walked out from within.
The girl was covered from head to toe in large clothes.
It didn't make her small body look bigger, but it couldn't hide her conspicuous blue hair.
Behind her stood a young man with a sturdy body like a bodyguard.
The girl said.
“I'm Josephine. This is Kio, and that man over there is Reggie.”
“You must be the engineer.”
Jubel accepted the girl engineer without prejudice.
He was a man who would unhesitatingly enter the Fifth Son's mansion, which everyone else ignored, as long as it made money.
A magitech girl was nothing strange.
“I'd like to invite you all to the Mariella. Is your time available?”
It wasn't clearly visible because of the clothes covering her body, but I could see a pounding heart behind that robe.
The airship, a symbol of a great merchant and a symbol of wealth.
Among them, Jubel's Mariella had abandoned most of its combat performance in favor of an enormous cargo capacity.
The ship's power was also good, so no matter how heavy or how much was loaded, the Mariella traveled all over the continent selling goods.
Josephine couldn't take her eyes off the sight of that ship crossing the gloomy sky.
But to be able to go inside it herself.
With none other than Jubel Maxman as her guide.
Furthermore, a large number of requests were expected to pour in from him, and an opportunity had arisen to try things she had only thought about, with the budget of a great merchant.
It really felt like a dream.
When she left her family, she had been prepared to starve and beg.
How did her life start to turn out like this?
Her thoughts naturally converged on one place.
‘…500 gold coins.’
A man whose name she didn't even know, so she just called him that.
He said he would appear again when the time came.
When would that be?
Josephine began to look forward to it.
***
“My lord. We have almost arrived at the G-District peanut warehouse. It's right over there.”
“I see it too.”
“What is your plan? Night has just fallen, shall we launch a surprise attack right now? Or there's also the option of just retrieving the goods.”
Lubosch was enthusiastic.
After properly relieving the stress that had built up like old grime in the basement earlier, his mood was at its peak.
But that peanut warehouse was not a problem that could be solved with hot blood.
“Lubosch. How much do you know about the Fangs of the Black Wolf Brigade, about the Black Wolf Brigade itself.”
“…As an intelligence agent, I'm ashamed, but since I'm still a low-ranking member, I don't think I know much beyond what others do.”
“Those Fangs of the Black Wolf Brigade are not mere humans. You should see them as something wearing a human's skin.”
“Are they ghosts?”
“It would be better if they were ghosts.”
The peanut warehouse, which at first glance seemed to have no one guarding it and looked unremarkable inside.
However, according to the doorman's report, that place housed the Fangs of the Black Wolf Brigade.
The few remaining werewolves in this world were all there.
“W-werewolves…?”
Hearing that fact, Lubosch was so surprised he almost fainted.
It was understandable.
Werewolves were a species that practically no one had seen for the past half-century.
But the reason for that was deeply connected to the Youngest Son here, or more accurately, to the Youngest Son's maternal side.
“As far as I know, there was a war between vampires and werewolves in the past, and the werewolves who were defeated in that war barely escaped extinction….”
Lubosch was right.
If the Youngest Son revealed himself, they would immediately recognize his lineage, and after that….
He would have to be careful not to become a snack for the wolves.
Moreover, the Youngest Son was a direct descendant of the Queen.
The werewolves would probably try to capture him alive and grind him up to drink.
The bigger problem was that although the surviving werewolves were defeated soldiers, they were warriors who had survived against that Vampire Queen.
They were those who had preserved their bodies even in the midst of a bloody calamity, so it would be a bit much for a young noble of blood alone.
Of course, I wasn't alone.
I wasn't talking about that porter.
‘I have the griffin, the Death Knights including the ogre. The guys to use for Skeleton Armor are also still intact. And if it really comes down to it, I can use the Six Paths….’
The thought of using it crossed my mind, but that was something that required resolve.
“The Fangs of the Black Wolf Brigade, huh. I don't know if all of them came, but things have gotten troublesome. I didn't expect them to be this serious.”
Was there some hidden story?
Besides, it was almost a full moon.
As the full moon approached, the werewolves grew stronger, and on the day of the full moon, their power would reach its peak.
It was said that the cause of death of the Wolf Lord, who was killed by the Queen, was the absence of the full moon.
But this time, that full moon was scheduled to be firmly in place in that sky.
“There are roughly three days until the full moon. We have to finish this before then.”
Then how should we finish it?
The number of Fangs in my head was roughly thirty.
Should I fight a life-or-death battle with the last survivors of the werewolves?
Or should I devise another method?
If there was another method, it was right to go that way.
My current enemies are not the trash.
The person who threw the trash is my enemy.
Let's not forget that.
“My lord. What will you do?”
Along with Lubosch's quiet voice.
The Youngest Son also made his decision.
“There is a way out in the thorny path.”
“Pardon…?”
“Lubosch. Return to the estate. I have a separate place to go.”
“M-may I ask where you are going?”
“To the thorny path.”
Whoooooosh─!!
Using the darkness as a veil.
The griffin carrying the noble of blood soared above the clouds.