When I returned to Rosengarden with fifty guns and five barrels of powder, the handler gave me detailed instruction on managing both. I already had a basic grasp of the concepts, which made everything easier to follow.

"So this powder is extremely vulnerable to moisture?"

"Yes, my lord. Dry storage is critical. And since each arkebuse is handmade, every gun has its own ball mold made to match. Lose that, and the gun becomes unusable."

"They’re handmade, so the calibers must all differ slightly."

The bullets, made from comparatively easy-to-obtain lead, were poured by the gunner himself into a mold to produce balls of the right size. Bullets of a single standard size simply couldn’t be used.

So loading the wrong ball into someone else’s gun could clog the barrel and cause the firearm to explode. It was also vital to clear out powder residue before it caked hard. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Firearm maintenance was no small feat.

The problem was that none of my men could properly grasp the handler’s explanations. Viktor and Fiel were dismissive of powder weapons, and Göring wasn’t my retainer.

Even the retainers back in Feuzen would struggle with this.

In the end, hiring a specialist was the best route.

"If it’s not too much to ask, would you consider joining my house?"

"I also manage the royal cannons, my lord, so I’m afraid that would be difficult."

"Is there anyone you could recommend, then?"

"I have an apprentice, but he still has a long way to go."

Even if I learned this myself, as a lord I couldn’t be the one handling firearms day to day. The trouble was finding someone trustworthy enough to manage strategic assets like powder and guns. Frankly, no one I had even understood them.

But then a perfect candidate turned up unexpectedly, right under my nose.

It was Ralph, the forest keeper of Vintenheim.

"What? You’ve learned how to handle firearms?"

"Yes! Yes, my lord! Arkebuse mercenaries pass through Vintenheim from time to time, and I learned from them!"

"What’s a forest keeper doing learning something like that?"

"Just, well, out of curiosity..."

Ralph had been quite the village drinker, and through befriending the arkebuse mercenaries, he’d picked up both how to use the guns and how to manage powder. Between the ones willing to teach him and the one who actually remembered it all, what a bunch.

Of course, given the price of powder, he’d never actually fired one himself.

But knowing the theory alone was already something.

So Ralph received intensive training from the armory handler, and thanks to his foundational knowledge, he quickly mastered the specifics of maintenance.

With my permission, he even got to fire a gun himself on the duchy army’s parade ground.

The duchy soldiers gathered in droves to watch the strange new weapon.

As a result, Ralph, whose status had been somewhat ambiguous, became a properly employed member of my household.

I’d been mulling over whether to hire the couple as attendant and handmaid under Daniel, but Ralph’s value shot up the moment I learned he could handle firearms.

It really does pay to do good things for people.

If I hadn’t run myself ragged trying to clear Ralph’s name, I never would have stumbled into such an extraordinary stroke of luck. Ralph and Stella, falsely accused as their family’s murderers, had now secured stable employment. Two birds, one stone.

"...Have you lost your mind?"

My father-in-law came storming over the moment he heard about my little firearm experiment.

He’d been having a grand time amid the noisy politics lately, so the instant I saw his deadly serious expression as he started grilling me about the firearms, I knew he was genuinely furious.

"The reason I opposed adopting firearms was the princes and the knights. I barely managed to kill the proposal by pushing back against their pressure, and now if word gets out that my own son-in-law is playing around with guns, what do you think happens?"

"...I’d face protests?"

"You know that, and you still did it?"

I hadn’t fully considered my father-in-law’s position.

This one was entirely my fault.

I had to mop the sweat from my brow as I scrambled to explain.

"I only intend to run a pilot program on my own personal lands. It has nothing to do with the duchy army."

"In Feuzen? Hmph. So the scale won’t be large."

"Only ten men. Could that handful possibly cause a stir?"

I convinced my father-in-law that firearm usage would be confined strictly to my own territory. What he feared was the prospect of formal adoption being proposed under my name.

I had no desire to make enemies of the princes and knights either.

A small-scale pilot wouldn’t raise much concern from them.

And one day they would fall behind.

That firearms would come to dominate the battlefield was inevitable.

Having my own forces grow familiar with guns and powder would be a tremendous competitive edge. That edge was exactly what I was aiming for. And if I rose to the rank of prince, the scale would grow far larger.

"Very well. That’s small enough to smooth over. But, son, the fact that you didn’t bring such a sensitive matter to me first is deeply disappointing. Have you forgotten that the War Minister’s house is on your side?"

"I intended to introduce them only in Feuzen, so I didn’t think it through. I’m truly sorry for the oversight."

Fortunately, it ended on good terms. And then anger surged up inside me.

The Grand Duke had clearly foreseen this whole situation.

Damn that conspiratorial streak of his. Would it have killed him to warn me ahead of time?

"Master! I found it!"

Some time later, Bodo brought me word of the source of the rumors.

It was a German-style noble salon modeled after the French ones.

The kinds of ladies’ gatherings Hilda despised so much were held in salons like this, and there were more of them in Breisburg than I would have expected. They hated the French while French culture swept through their city. A real spectacle.

"Those bastards were trashing you to no end, Master."

Bodo was so worked up he reported every last detail to me. The more I heard, the more outrageous it got. If it were up to my temper alone, I’d have mobilized my men and surrounded the place, but without solid evidence I lacked proper justification.

So I decided to raid it instead.

Let me see for myself just how much they were dragging my name through the mud.