After that, I met up with Lyon and gave him the shogi set. Sensing a small opportunity, I also told him that Reflet was planning on becoming the official town for shogi.
“Oh? Are you going out?” Once Kohaku and I were done with our business in the palace, we set off for the main town. But not before we ran into Yumina and Linze. It seemed they had just eaten breakfast and were about to go out for a walk in the courtyard.
“Yeah, Kohaku and I were gonna go shopping. You two wanna tag along?”
“Of course,” Yumina responded immediately.
“I-I’ll come too,” Linze replied hesitantly. I was thinking of inviting Elze and Yae as well, but Linze said they were training alongside the Mismedian soldiers in the arena... I could only hope that His Beastliness wasn’t there, too.
The four of us crossed the palace gate and went out to town. Alright, now... wait.
“Where can I buy metal?”
“M-Metal?”
“Yeah. Iron, copper, brass. Things like that. Ideally they’d be pressed into ingots.”
“I’m not exactly sure what ‘ingot’ means, but I think you might find what you want at a blacksmith’s,” Yumina replied.
Well, that makes sense. I took out my phone and ran a search for smithies. There were some points here and there. I figured I couldn’t go wrong by choosing the closest one.
We took the street heading eastward and found the place on the corner near an intersection. I could hear the hammering before we even got there.
“Morning. Welcome all. You here for a repair job? Or maybe your blade needs sharpening?” A horned employee greeted us with a smile. They were more than happy to sell pressed metals to me, so I bought some iron, brass, and lead. Several ingots about as thick as two small paperback books, to be exact. There was a tool shop right in front of the smithy, so I took the opportunity to buy some wood and rubber. The kind used on shoe soles.
“And now for the gunpowder...” I ran a search for it and easily got a hit. Seems like it’s at a magical goods shop... Well, I guess gunpowder is kind of magical.
I went there and bought three medium-sized bottles of the powdery stuff. I think that’s everything I need, then!
“...What are you planning to make?” Linze looked at all the goods I bought and couldn’t help but ask.
“Gonna forge myself a weapon.”
“A weapon...?” After they tilted their heads in confusion, I took them to a nearby back alley and used a [Gate] to return to my room in the palace. I grabbed the meter-long dragon horn I had left there earlier, and used another [Gate] to go to the forest we crossed before getting to the Mismedian capital.
Good, nobody’ll see us out here.
I placed my papers on a nearby stump and put an ingot on top to stop the wind from blowing them away.
“Now I just need to take this dragon horn, and...” Crap. I can’t actually make use of the horn right now, can I? It’s a little bit too long. Ah well, I’ll just trim it a bit first... Wait, it was too tough to cut with any of my gear, wasn’t it?
“Linze, can you use magic to cut it? Somewhere around here, please.”
“N-No problem!” I showed her where to cut and she got to it pretty quick.
“Come forth, Water! Feel My Blade, Both Cold and Clear: [Aqua Cutter]!” With a watery sound, the dragon horn was cut down to a more proper size. Whew, good thing I brought Linze along. I took the result into my hand, and it was far lighter than it looked. I felt as though I was holding plastic. The lightness made me doubt its strength, but it was a cold hard fact that it was far tougher than iron. I was pretty amazed by it all.
Wait, I didn’t come here just to admire this thing. I’ve got a job to do!
I glared at the papers I brought and memorized all the relevant parts. Well, even if they came out wrong, I could just use some fine-tuning to fix it up. Alright. It’s time.
“[Modeling].” The horn began to slowly change shape. Barrel, cylinder, hammer, trigger... I made the parts, one after another. After that, I used the wood I bought to create a grip and put them all together.
Ten minutes later, I held a slick black revolver in my hand.
I based it on a gun known as the Remington New Model Army, but it turned out a bit short. Well, it wasn’t too different, so I didn’t really care.
Since I wanted something that could rapidly fire, I turned a single-action gun into a double-action one and messed around with the cylinder, so the insides of this gun ended up completely unlike the original. I only used it as basis because I thought the design looked cool. Taking it in hand, I examined how it felt.
Not too shabby, to be honest. Maybe it’s a little light? Actually, that’s probably not a negative.
“Now, for the bullets.” Using the ingots and gunpowder, I made the bullet heads, cases, powders, rims, and primers, just as they looked on the internet.
By the time I was done, I had fifty bullets of several varieties. That’s enough for now, I thought.
Alright, time to load up all six revolver chambers... Oh wait, before that...
“[Enchant]: [Apport].” I enchanted the gun with my item teleporting spell. And now...
“Begin [Program]/ Starting Condition: Wielder says ‘Reload’/ Action Upon Start: Hastily Eject Empty Cartridges, Use [Apport] to Refill any Empty Chambers Using Bullets Located Within a Range of One Meter/ End [Program].” And with that, I was done. Manually reloading was a pain, after all. I could’ve just made an automatic weapon instead, but my taste was more important than that. I considered revolvers to be the coolest gun, that’s all there was to it.
I filled the chambers, aimed at a nearby tree, and pulled the trigger. The bullet went flying with an explosive sound. Whoa! The recoil’s way stronger than I thought it’d be. Linze and Yumina put their hands over their ears. Despite the grand presentation, it seemed that I actually missed my shot.
I followed it up with two more bullets and noticed that my accuracy was pretty low. Am I just a bad shot? The bullets aren’t firing straight at a— Oh...
Right, I forgot to make the rifling. Rifling refers to the helical grooves in the inside of a gun’s barrel. I read that it gyroscopically stabilized the bullet by forcing it to spin, which made it travel straight.
And so, with another [Modeling] spell, I crafted the rifling for my gun. I shot some more bullets, and the difference in accuracy was clear as day.
Once I emptied the whole cylinder, I decided to test the reloading mechanism that I’d programmed earlier.
“Reload!” The moment I said that, the empty cartridges were instantly ejected and fell to the ground. Then, six of the bullets I had placed on the stump disappeared and reappeared inside the gun. I pulled the trigger again. Another bullet fired out. Yup, it works like a charm.
“Are you finished?”
“Yep, I’d say so. This is something called a ‘gun.’ It’s a weapon made to attack at long distances. You can use it with one hand and it’s stronger than bows and arrows.”
“...Amazing. It’s like a small cannon.” Linze quietly spoke, gazing at my creation. It was true that not-so-sleek cannons also existed in this world, but since any single wizard who knew the [Explosion] spell was far more effective, they didn’t see much use.
“I finished making the gun, but there’s still one more thing I wanna try.” After removing all the bullets from the cylinder, I took one into my hand.
“[Enchant]: [Explosion].” I imbued it with explosive magic. Let’s see here...
“Begin [Program]/ Starting Condition: The Bullet Head Escapes the Gun’s Muzzle and Impacts Something./ Action Upon Start: Activate [Explosion] Around the Bullet/ End [Program].” I placed the enchanted bullet into the cylinder and shot the same hole-riddled tree.
With a fierce roar, the tree I shot and the ones unfortunate enough to be near it shattered into thousands of splintery pieces. The [Explosion] test worked.
“Wha...?!”
“W-Whoa!” Linze and Yumina fell to the g
round, seemingly too shocked to stay upright. Good. That solves my issue of using offensive magic without an incantation. Then again, having to [Enchant] and [Program] everything is a bit of a pain, too... Wait, I could just do it with multiple bullets at once, so it’s not so bad.
I could probably enchant some rubber rounds with [Paralyze] for non-lethal takedowns. Weapons this handy are few and far between indeed! Oh wait, [Paralyze] wouldn’t work if they had any magic-warding amulets on them.
“Touya, may I also have one of these... guns, was it?”
“I-I’d like one, as well...”
“Huh?” Yumina and Linze’s sudden request made me ponder for a bit. I could understand why they, being rearguard fighters, would want such a weapon, but I couldn’t help but worry. Am I just being too overprotective?
Yumina has a bow, a pretty dangerous thing in its own right, and Linze has the ability to clip a dragon’s wings, so worrying about them handling a gun safely is kinda stupid.
Also, being able to use magic without any care for affinity would be pretty advantageous. With a gun, even Yumina, someone without any aptitude for fire, could use [Explosion].
“Sure, why not? Pick a design you like.” I ran an image search for various guns and put them to paper using [Drawing]. After a long moment of staring at the options, Yumina finally chose a Colt Army Model 1860, while Linze went for a snub-nosed revolver known as the Smith & Wesson Model 36.
Linze’s was fine, but I was a bit worried about how Yumina’s choice would fit in her hand. Then I remembered that it was just a design and I could handle the size myself. My gun was also made to suit me, after all. Right down to the specs and caliber.
Honestly, my gun-crafting was rough. I was sure any gun nuts out there would give me a real earful. If I needed it to just shoot something out, a BB gun would’ve worked just fine. Even so, there were things you just couldn’t help but get picky about. Basically, I always wanted to fire a real gun.
I had Linze cut the dragon’s horn again and used it to make their guns for them. Just to be on the safe side, I programmed their weapons in a way that prevented anyone else but them from pulling the trigger.
I created about a hundred rubber bullets, divided them between the girls, and let them get the hang of wielding and firing their guns.
Being made from a dragon’s horn, they were lighter than standard firearms and weren’t too hard for girls to use.
Alright, now it’s time for the main event. The gun was actually nothing but a base for the creation of my real weapon.
“[Modeling].” I took more of the dragon’s horn and once again began giving it the form of a gun. However, unlike the other ones, this one was building up to be a bit strange.
Extending from the trigger guard and tracing the lower part of the barrel, there was a blade. The grip made a bit of a curve and gave the whole object a somewhat straight shape. Overall, it was less of a gun and more of a shortsword.
An unholy fusion of gun and knife! Though, “knife” wasn’t too apt either, considering the blade was thirty centimeters long and pretty broad. However, there was a reason for that broadness.
“Begin [Program]/ Starting Condition: The Wielder Says ‘Gun Mode’ or ‘Blade Mode’/ Action Upon Start: Use [Modeling] to Quickly Transform the Blade Piece from Shortsword to Longsword in the case of ‘Blade Mode,’ or from Longsword to Shortsword in the case of ‘Gun Mode’/ End [Program].” I also programmed it with the same reloading mechanism I’d tried earlier. I reloaded quickly, readied my weapon, and pulled the trigger. A gunshot rang out, and the bullet easily destroyed a branch. Great, the gun works just fine!
“Blade Mode.” In response to my words, the thirty centimeter knife instantly became an eighty centimeter sword. The broad blade lost about two-thirds of its thickness and gained some length instead.
I swung the elongated blade around. It didn’t feel the least bit heavy.
“Gun Mode.” The blade became short and broad again. Alright, the transformation function works just fine.
“Amazing. So it can be both a gun and a blade?”
“Elze and Yae are purely vanguard fighters, while you two are purely backliners, so I decided to be a little more flexible in my approach.” To be honest, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. The duel with the beastking made me consider that there’ll be situations where I can’t effectively use magic. The answer to that problem? A gun.
“...So, what are you going to name your weapon?”
“Well... ‘Brunhild’ works fine, I guess.” I answered Linze with a grin on my face. Instead of using the name of some legendary weapon like “Excalibur” or “Balmung,” I went for the name of the strongest weapon in one of my favorite retro games. Man, did I have fun playing that one... It was really old, though. In fact, it was a part of my grandfather’s collection.
As I looked at my new weapon, Brunhild, I realized that I was actually part of those fantasy worlds I yearned for in my younger years, which made me aware of just how much my life had changed.
◇ ◇ ◇
After a few test shots and debugging of my program, I tested the durability of Brunhild’s blade mode.
Though it was made of many parts, the whole section that was unaffected by the transformation was almost perfectly merged with the blade and the entire object had the toughness of a dragon horn. I could easily cut down a rather thick tree. The sharpness was incomparable to my previous sword.
Soon after that, we returned to the town around the palace and bought three leather sheaths for daggers and one for something a bit larger. I turned them all into holsters for our guns with my [Modeling] spell. They really stood out, after all.
While I was at it, I also took the opportunity to buy three waist pouches for bullets. Since we were in town, we didn’t have to worry about being attacked by monsters, so I only gave the girls rubber bullets imbued with [Paralyze]. I still had a bunch of real bullets with me, though. It suddenly dawned on me that there was the possibility of them standing next to me while reloading and accidentally getting my real bullets into their guns...
To prevent such a disaster, I reprogrammed their weapons. Now, the guns would only load the bullets that the wielder wanted. That was perfectly doable thanks to [Apport].
That meant we only had to consider the enchantments to put on the bullets. Since Linze used [Explosion] back in the ruins of the old capital, I was fully aware that it had the firepower to blast away a whole load of ruins, and it was lacking in utility. Maybe [Ignis Fire], then? One shot and they’d be engulfed in flames... No, that’s totally overdoing it as well.
Well, as long as the opponent is human, [Paralyze] should work just fine. Even if they have amulets protecting them, the rubber bullets’ll still hurt a lot. Hm... guess I’ll need to think about it more later.
“Wanna grab some food while we’re in town?”
“Great idea. I’d love to try the local cuisine.”
“Y-Yes, me too. I’ve heard a lot about this local dish called ‘Cully.’”
Cully...? Hmm... that’s piqued my interest. Guess I’ll try it too. It was sold at a nearby food stall, so we went right for it. There was a menu with “pork cully,” among other variants. That smell’s pretty familiar...
Yumina ordered a beef cully, Linze got a chicken cully, and I got a pork cully. Kohaku didn’t want any, for some reason. We sat at the nearby table and waited for only a few minutes before it was ready.
This color, and this smell... I knew it! It’s curry. Not rice curry, though, since there was no rice.
“Uh, guys? Just so you know...” I was about to warn them about the potential spiciness, but they had already brought some of it to their mouths.
“Ack!” “Gah?!” They covered their mouths as tears formed in their eyes.
Ah. I guess it is spicy, then. Shame it isn’t the sweet kind. Judging from how those two are acting, it must be super hot...
They reached for the water jug on the table, almost fighting
one another over it, as they poured some water into their cups and quickly gulped it down. As I watched them, I tried the curry myself, and wow, was it hot. That evaluation was coming from yours truly, who’d tasted quite a number of spicy curries, so I could only imagine how hard it hit the girls.
“Whath a shtrong tashte...” “Ow, it’sh like my tongue ish on fire...” So hot they couldn’t even speak properly... Once we left the cully wagon, we went to get some fruit juice from another vendor. A few quick sips of that neutralized the deadly spice.
“It’s not that bad once you get used to it.”
“You hadh a chance to eat khullay before, Touyah?”
“Well, something similar to it, at least.” I gave Yumina, who was still having trouble speaking, an ambiguous answer. Linze took the ice that came with the juice and moved it around in her mouth. Come to think of it, I haven’t had much of anything spicy since I came to this world. In my mind, Belfast was almost solidified as a kingdom of sweet foods.
...Huh? As thoughts of dinner circled my head, I felt someone looking at me. This sensation’s a familiar one...
«Master. Someone is observing us. I believe it’s the same people as before.» Kohaku spoke to me telepathically. I knew it.
«The ones who were watching us back in Langley? Alright. Let’s say hello to them. Where are they located?»
«Atop the tallest building to your right.» Pretending that I wasn’t aware of their presence, I looked up to where Kohaku had pointed out. I could see them on the roof of a three-story building. They were pretty far off.
“Guess I should get ready... Reload.” I filled my holstered gunblade, Brunhild, with rubber bullets imbued with [Paralyze].
“Touya.” My sudden reloading made the girls look at me with apparent confusion, but there was no time to explain.
«Keep an eye on the girls, Kohaku.»
«Be careful.» It’s go-time.
“[Boost].” I buffed my physical abilities and jumped upward. After landing on one of the buildings to my side, I made another leap toward the roof ahead of me. Roof after roof, I went straight for the building upon which I saw the mysterious observers.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 2 Page 12