Mystery: But the Witch's Path

Chapter 19 Smokeless Gunpowder

Although Vivian and Altair lived and ate together during this time, the butler, Hahn, still had a lot of complaints about her, believing that it was Vivian's fault for leading his count astray.

During this time, he tried many times to persuade Altair to let Vivian leave, but was refused for various reasons.

.......

After reporting on the income and expenditure of the assets over the past two weeks, Hahn opened the study door and was about to leave when he saw Vivian Laurent, the last person he wanted to see in the manor.

Seeing the other person greet her, out of politeness, despite her dissatisfaction, she gritted her teeth and said, "Good morning, Ms. Vivian!"

Vivian shook her head helplessly as she watched Hahn Clayton leave without wanting to talk to her, then turned and went into the study.

As I approached, I said, "What's wrong with Hahn lately? I feel like he's getting increasingly resentful of me."

Hearing Vivian's words, Altair looked up and laughed, "Isn't it because someone was too loud last night and got caught?"

Vivian blushed slightly upon hearing this and said, "You know perfectly well why. Tomorrow you'll be like a bull, and those kinds of movements are things I've never even heard of in Intis. You even made me use 'spider silk.' I really don't know what you were thinking, since you didn't know anything before."

Seeing Vivian's current state, Altair got up and went to her side to comfort her, "Alright, alright, you know that my public identity is that of a minor girl. I'm afraid you'll have to put up with this for a while."

Altair's words left Vivian helpless; it was indeed a last resort, a pit she had dug herself, and she had no choice but to jump into it. After a period of tenderness, she revealed her purpose: "I need to leave 'Backlund' for a while. The cult has given me a mission to handle some matters."

Upon hearing this news, Altair was also surprised, saying, "Aren't you one of the Witch Cult's leaders in Backlund? Why did you suddenly leave after receiving a mission?"

Vivian looked troubled and said, "I can't tell you about this. It's a very complicated matter, and I'm afraid you'll get involved."

"Besides, your body should also rest for a while."

Vivian leaned down and whispered in Altair's ear, "I can feel that you're not feeling as well as before these past few days."

Feeling the warm breath and hearing the words in his ear, Altair turned his head and touched his nose awkwardly, saying, "Won't you be in danger this time? I know I can't refuse, but safety should always be the priority when going on official business..."

Hearing her little man's words of advice, Vivian slowly replied, "Don't worry, it's just a normal item handover mission. I'll be back as soon as I get the item, nothing will go wrong."

"And now you've learned some extraordinary knowledge. If you miss me these next few days, you can contact me through the 'Magic Mirror'."

.........

After a night of 'madness,' Vivian was put into a carriage and left by Altair the next morning. Standing at the villa gate, after watching Vivian's carriage leave, he turned and went into the villa to deal with the family's business documents.

Sometimes having too many family businesses isn't a good thing. Although Altair doesn't have to handle most documents personally, he does need to sign off on important matters.

And these nobles really have nothing better to do! They have several banquet invitations tomorrow.

If I could just throw around any reply, I'd definitely show them how people greet each other in this information age, I'd curse their whole family to the heavens! Sending invitations tomorrow, aren't you annoyed? Even if you're not annoyed, I am! What's with this baron? This is the eleventh time I've seen his name in the last two weeks!

blah blah blah

Hearing the sound at the door, Altair didn't even look up before saying "Come in."

When you look at Hahn as he enters, he is already carrying a large box.

Upon seeing the large box, Altair knew what it was. He put down his pen, stood up, and said, "Just put it on the table."

Hahn slowly placed the box on the table, opened it, and said, "Count Altair, this firearm is absolutely a milestone of the last hundred years. It completely subverts modern people's definition of firearms, combining the power of a high-pressure steam rifle with the firepower of a machine gun."

Altair looked at the items in the box and said, "Actually, this gun isn't as good as you say. Compared to existing firearms, its only advantage is in gunpowder technology."

After this period of contact with firearms, Altair understood why a special firearm like the "high-pressure steam gun" appeared among the existing firearms.

Because gunpowder manufacturing technology in that era had not yet fully entered the smokeless gunpowder stage, black powder affected its power, not to mention the later high-energy composite gunpowder.

This incident also disrupted Altair's original plans, as he had thought that he would only be able to sell some "advanced weapons" in the future.

But to everyone's surprise, even though Russell has been gone for over 150 years, gunpowder has not been completely replaced.

After learning about this, Altair used his acquired abilities to have Hahn find materials to make a new type of "gunpowder".

Materials don't require any cost to obtain; you can simply get them from your own factory.

During this period, I spent half the day in class and the other half researching gunpowder. Of course, dangerous situations were common; Altair even destroyed the garden area near the laboratory window.

For the first prototype firearm, Altair drew up a design based on the Winchester M1895 and Marin M1895 lever rifles, and had the factory manufacture two of each. During this time, Hahn frequently went to the industrial area to supervise the process.

The ammunition uses its own "new type of gunpowder".

As for why we don't produce better firearms, there's absolutely no need for that now. These two prototype guns are just for our own use and are not part of the military's bidding process.

With current technology, it is easy to manufacture firearms with simple components like bolt-action rifles.

Of course, even a bolt-action rifle is better than a lever rifle, so why not produce the former instead of choosing a loser from among the tall ones?

Altair's answer to this question was "because he's cool," even though he wasn't going to the battlefield.

Altair took out two guns from the box, weighed them in his hands, and found that the weight was acceptable.

Both guns were forged entirely from blued steel, with walnut stocks, and their exteriors were decorated with intricate engravings. Altair was growing increasingly fond of the guns.

Concerned about safety, Altair asked curiously, "Hahn, has this gun been tested?"

Watching Altair's current actions, Hahn smiled and said, "Both guns have been tested. The bullets are made with the gunpowder you provided. The Winchester M1895, using 7.62×54 pointed bullets, can reach a distance of 800 meters and remain stable. The Marin M1895, using .45-70, can reach about 200 meters."

"The factory's suggestion is to abandon the round-nosed bullet version and directly mass-produce the pointed bullet version. The first month, they may only produce a thousand bullets, but after scaling up production, they can triple that."

Seeing Hahn's excited expression, Altair immediately poured cold water on him, saying, "There's no need to mass-produce these guns. These guns are only good for hunting now. They'll cause all sorts of problems if they're actually used on the battlefield."

The lever rifle has many drawbacks: it is expensive to manufacture, has many parts, is difficult to maintain, and cannot use pointed bullets for all its ammunition.

They were built just for our own amusement; let them pull the bolts on the battlefield.