v4c60 (1/2)
Chapter 060 - Battle time
This time, the quest was a Level III caravan escort.
The destination was the Dragon continent’s capital; if we didn’t take detour, then it would have taken about 10 days to reach.
But by the halfway point (after 5 days), there was a place we would stop by next.
That place is the mining town Vesta.
Since Vesta was on a mountainous area, we had to pa.s.s through a forest where a lot of monsters appeared along the way.
It would take us about 4 days to get to Vesta.
We will drop the luggage there and pick up new luggage. The plan seemed to be to stay there and rest for about 3 days.
After we get out of the mining town, we will head to the capital.
This too, will take about 4 days.
In short, 5 days to the halfway point, 4 days to Vesta, 3 days to rest, 4 days from Vesta to the capital -- 16 days in total.
Once we would arrive at the capital, our job would be completed.
It was a quest that would reward 2 gold coins (approximately 200,000 yen) for about 15 days of work.
It was a price that would include a wagon, food, and inn lodging for rest days. The total amount of working hours was long, but if one counts in the days where we didn’t have to fight monsters and rest days, then one could say it was a pretty good job.
I left the house to Meiya in my absence.
“Please leave it to me, Lute-sama! Lute-sama’s first disciple, Meiya Dragoon, will show you that she can perfectly protect the house!” or so she spiritedly said, but I wondered why that instead of thinking of her as reliable, I felt anxiety building up inside of me ...
And before departure, Snow and Chrisse brought presents and did a courtesy call around the neighborhood.
It was so they could take a look at our house once in a while when we were away.
There was n.o.body that would hate two cute young girls coming to greet them with presents.
They were really too good for me.
The first day after the departure.
The road to the Dragon Kingdom was made into a highway, and because there was a lot of traffic, all the dangerous monsters were basically wiped out already.
We were hired for simply pa.s.sing through the forest on the way to Vesta.
Pa.s.sing through the forest typically made the chance of encountering monsters higher.
That’s why he hired escorts.
The wagon of Symil’s 3-man group was at the front, then the client’s 5 wagons, and, finally, my group’s wagon at the end.
Total of 7 wagons.
As expected, the first 5 days of travelling on the highway were lively and peaceful.
But if there was any problem, it was ...
“We can’t use the wash toilet while travelling.”
I sighed while swaying along the luggage on the wagon that was coached by Xiah.
It hadn’t even been 1 hour since we departed, but when I thought about not being able to use the wash toilet, I naturally let out a sigh.
Snow felt the same and sighed together.
“Once you know that pleasantness, you can never go back.”
“I want to hurry up and go home to use the wash toilet.”
On the opposite side, Chrisse shook her head with a grim face.
[That demon king’s weapon, I don’t mind not having it at all! ]
Chrisse seemed to be hostile about the wash toilet somehow.
I wanted to ask her for the reason the next time she was.
But really, there was no way I could have made a simplified, portable wash toilet and load it on the wagon.
In the wagon, there was food, weapons, ammunition, sets of protectors, sets of clothes, blankets, saddles, bridles, and 2 barrels of magic liquid metal for precaution -- all the necessary items for travelling were packed tightly. We were able to create water with magic, so we didn’t bring any.
And we needed s.p.a.ce to sit in too, so there would be no s.p.a.ce for the portable wash toilet.
Xiah, who was sitting on the wagoning seat, learned the existence of the simplified wash toilet and started mumbling.
Of course, Xiah had experienced the wash toilet too and already became a slave to it, in both her mind and body.
“If I asked that person, then maybe even while travelling ? But no, to have that person carry the wash toilet is a little …”
Seeing that serious back of hers, I was a little hesitant to call her out.
Couldn’t be helped … I decided to give up on the wash toilet and make use of the free time I have now.
I took out 1 barrel of magic liquid metal, holding it between my legs.
“Lute-kun, what are you doing?”
“Huh? Well, I’m free, so I thought I should make some prototype.”
Around the time that I almost finished making protectors & accessories, Snow’s and Xiah’s AK47s, I moved on to make other equipment.
That is -- the hand grenade.
Literally “a grenade you throw with your hand,” it was also called the “hand-thrown grenade.”
A grenade is an explosive, small bomb that will scatter fragments and shockwaves if it hits.
The word “grenade” came from the Spanish word “granada” -- “pomegranate fruit.”
And it was known as “hand grenade” in English.
Hand grenades are attested to have existed as early as the 13th century. In the 17th century, troops known as “grenadiers” also existed.
At first, a hand grenade was made from a ceramic alcohol bottle, a cast bronze, and an iron ball … stuffed with black powder and attached with a fuse.
Then in England in 1917, hand-grenade research began.
In 1921, the strict definition of 'hand grenade' was produced.
This is that definition:
1: It explodes when hit from any angle.
2: Hand grenades and rifle grenades work without needing much work or tuning.
3: It has no external protuberances that could catch on clothing.
4: It's waterproof.
5: Even if one makes a mistake when throwing and drops it, it’ll still be safe.
6: It has a kill radius of 10 meters.
7: A rifle grenade doesn't damage the rifle, and it has the ideal range.
8: It can be stored for long periods of time without deteriorating.
After that, hand grenades came to be produced by many nations.
Then, hand grenades evolved into two kinds: the offensive [concussive grenades] and defensive [fragmentation grenades], each having their own uses.
Concussive grenades are grenades that do damage with the [shockwaves from the explosion].
The sh.e.l.l wrapping the explosive was relatively thin in order to increase its blasting power.
In open s.p.a.ces without cover, they both have about equal power, but its uniform kill radius of 10 meters is small compared to the fragmentation grenade.
Because it was made to be usable in areas without cover (without catching the thrower up in it).
Fragmentation grenades, as the name suggests, do damage through fragments scattered around by the explosion.
I’m getting a little sidetracked here, but … the model commonly referred to as “pineapple” have grooves carved in on the sh.e.l.l to scatter well when it explode. But in WWII, explosives’ and fragments’ creations were been studied, and it was confirmed that the grooves don’t create better fragmentation at all. At best, it’s only useful for preventing slipping.
That’s why there are a lot of American-made hand grenades that don’t have grooves but are round nowadays. The reason being “if it’s round like baseball that the soldiers are used to then, it’s easier to throw.”
Back to the topic—The insides of a fragmentation grenade is fitted with fragmenting material, such as wound-up metal bands.
TL Note: here’s some images of notched(so the fragments will be equal) square(s.p.a.ce efficient, more fragment) metal wire rolled up inside blogs.c.yimg.jp/res/blog-75-b9/ak277301/folder/952255/19/23082319/img_0
i.imgur.com/FvWF19q.jpg
Its kill range is larger than explosive grenades at about 15 meters, and it is normally thrown from behind shelters (like a trench) to avoid the fragments.
I first decided on making [fragmentation grenades] for defense.
I thought that because it had a large number of parts, I should have started on it while I had time.
Around the time I completed making protectors & accessories, Snow’s and Xiah’s AK47s, I made the important parts (core, sh.e.l.l, pull-ring safety pin, firing pin spring, firing pin, handle and such) out of magic liquid metal. On that regard, I took detailed notes, reached a decent level and made finished products for all the parts.
But the problem was the explosive.
For example, what if I used the propellant I made out of smokeless gunpowder, put it in the grenade, and blew it up? What would happen?
Even if it was to explode, the power would be far behind a normal grenade.
Why is that?
Compared to the explosives used in hand grenades, such as TNT, smokeless gunpowder had an overwhelmingly slower combustion speed (heat-energy transmission speed).
The combustion speed of powders for rockets, cannonb.a.l.l.s and bullets was about 10-100m per second.
Whereas the combustion speed for explosives, such as TNT, reached 3000-8500m per second.
Furthermore, the high explosive [RDX] had a combustion speed of 8700m per second.
Octogen (HMX) had a combustion speed of 9200m per second.
The instantaneous temperature reaches 1500-4500 degrees centigrade.
The technical cla.s.sification for the ones used in handguns are [propellants (powder)].
Then, the ones used in high-power sh.e.l.ls and inside explosives are [blasting powder / explosives].
The [blasting powder / explosive] I was making to pack in the hand grenade that time was the one called TNT.
Because I could reproduce the handgun powder with magic power, I expected that I could also make TNT for the grenade…. but in actuality, I tried making several prototypes at the Meiya residence, but it didn't go well.
Compared to the powder used in handguns, smokeless gunpowder, it felt like it consumed more magic power.
And I thought I had gotten the hang of it….
Therefore, since I finally had free time while we were travelling in the wagon, I thought I'd tackle the production of TNT explosives and hand grenades again.
“Hee~ is that so?”
[I don’t really understand but, Lute onii-chan is amazing.]
I left out the part I couldn’t tell them -- WW I & II -- and explained the hand grenade, but they only gave generic answers.
Clearly, they didn’t have any interest.
The two of them lost interest in what I was doing and sat down next to each other peacefully.
“Well then, let’s continue the talk from before.”
[Yes, the debate about whether Lute onii-chan’s smell or blood is better, right?]
What’s that? How scary.
Snow, with her scent fetish as always, would sniff my s.h.i.+rts in the laundry or the ones worn on me after a workout. Chrisse looked like she missed her blood bag and thus wanted to want to drink blood, so I let her have a little.
By the way, whenever I spent the night with her after I let her drink blood, she would react better than usual, maybe because of her heightened sensitivity.
They discussed the good things about them having different tastes and references harmoniously, not strained at all.
I was happy that the fellow wives got along with each other, but I was a little turned off by the content of the talk.
Like that, my first Level III quest smoothly progressed.
Only 7 days after the departure did the problem occur.
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
We arrived at the halfway point of the highway to the Dragon Kingdom after 5 days as planned.
From the nice-looking meadows, we pressed on to the road situated between a forest that led to the mining town.
Mining town is as the name says: a town with a main livelihood of mining.
It was located on the mountain side, we had to pa.s.s through the forest.
And that raised the chances of encountering monsters.
In other words: from that point on, it was the real thing.