The Release That Witch
Chapters 80's

A week after the concrete ship was placed in the treatment room, it was finally the day to launch the ship.

All the workers were stunned when the Prince ordered to put a large bathtub into the water, making everyone wonder if they heard wrong.

However, they did not misunderstand him.

His subordinates had to dismantle the temporary warehouse, and then they had to dig a slope at the bottom of the concrete ship, heading to the river. This section should be handled with great care because the tensile strength of the cement product is weak, even a small knock on the ground is enough to create a small crack that can destroy the entire vessel.

The ship was placed on top of a wooden beam, and its speed of gliding was controlled by ropes. When all was prepared, the workers let the wrist-thick ropes slowly slide through their hands, taking care that the ship always pointed in a straight line. While the workers chanted their slogans in harmony, the ship slowly slid over the logs, creating a loud sound of friction.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly, and Roland could see how the ship was slowly lowered into the water. The ship sank nearly half a meter into the water, with more than a meter still above the surface. The workers were very surprised to see that this massive construction made of stone and metal did not directly sink to the bottom of the river with a loud noise, but rather floated peacefully on the surface.

"Quick, grab the rope and place it around the milestone then tie it tightly!" roland's orders were harsh. If the ship is not fast-bound to the milestone, the water current will take the ship with it south.

Although Nightingale did not show herself to the public, but after seeing this shocking scene, she could not help herself and asked in a voice full of astonishment: "Why does the ship float?"

"Well .. that's pretty simple. The average density of the ship was lower than that of water, and all this time anything could float on the water," Roland explained and after thinking for a moment, he added, "That the ship is made of iron and concrete is not a problem. In fact, you should have already seen a large sailboat, which also weighs more than a few rocks. "

Since he did not hear Nightingale's voice anymore, Roland assumed that the others still understood what she was saying. Even Anna was unable to directly understand the concept she had described. Finding this, Roland smiled and continued to direct the next task worker.

The subsequent hardening of the concrete takes a lot of time, and each time it snows heavily, work must be stopped. Only when it does not snow for more than an hour can they continue their work. The most time-consuming work was the construction of the deck, which was built of many wooden planks, and supported by many small poles placed between the bottom and the deck. Although this is a waste of space, but taking into account the main purpose of concrete vessels, this is not too much of a problem.

After that, it continued with the rot. The carpenters know how to do it. First they apply a layer of oil with a pungent taste to the top of the deck. After the oil dries, they repeat the procedure several times until it is finally covered with red paint. After the deck construction is completed, the installation stage of the upper building begins.

The so-called top consists of a wooden shed placed between two pylons, and which will later be used to store weapons and ammunition. When it starts raining, the warehouse can also be used by the crew as a shelter. The roof of the wooden shed was so thick that it was built of people who could stand on it, a special place that was only made for Wendy. As long as he stood on the roof, his magic ability would range far enough to cover the entire screen.

The stern steering is made of melted iron, and the installation is rather complicated. First, they were required to put the steering shaft through a previously made hole, which is now laid underwater. To steer the ship, Anna welds a triangular plate on the side of the steering shaft, which ends underwater. At the other end of the steering shaft, which ends at the deck, is smelted into an iron ring that can rotate freely.

The welding was naturally done by Anna, who was also surprised and confused by the fact that the stone bathtub could float on the water. Since he had the same problem as Nightingale, he also asked the same question.

So Roland had to answer that question, over and over again. After that Anna went to the side and sat down to think about it.

*

In the end, Van'er doesn't know if it's better to be a shooter or better to stick with a hunting squad.

Everything changed when he got an important order three days ago.

His Majesty decided to move some members of the first and second militia teams, who performed outstandingly, building a new elite army. When Van'er's name was called, he felt very happy. But when asked if he wanted to join Iron Axe's hunting squad or a new firing squad, he didn't know what to choose. He was aware of the new flintlock, which allowed them to fight against demonic beasts, due to its penetrating power being much stronger than automatic arrows. Currently, only the Iron Axe, the Knight Chief, and a number of senior hunters were allowed to use this weapon. Van'er was supposed to join the squat hunters without hesitation, but he instead spoke up and asked, "What is a cannon"?

When he found out that the cannon was ten times larger than the flintlock and its power was a hundred times stronger than the power of the weapon, he fell into a dilemma.

Apparently, the more powerful the weapon one used, the higher its value to the Prince. So joining the artillery seems to be a better option than the hunting troops, but the advantage of carrying a weapon is being able to carry it while walking in the city, attracting the attention of the people, which has always been Van'er's dream. . Although the power of the cannon was ten times that of a weapon, it was certainly impossible to carry such a powerful weapon while walking on the streets, right?

Until the last day of the deadline he was not sure what to choose, but in the end, he took the artillery. The final point that brought the decision was that the salary of a shooter was higher by five silver nobles than that of a hunter.

With his decision, rigorous training began.

A cannon requires five men to operate, and for the Van'er team are assigned Jop, Cat's Claw, Nelson and Rodney. Since Van'er was previously the vice-captain in the first militia team, he was also chosen as the shooter.

Compared to weapons, these cannons were ten times more troublesome! Since the beginning of the previous month, Van'er had been secretly observing how Iron Axe operated his weapon, making him even able to recite the process smoothly from memory. But the cannon must always be changed from a bending state and move to a ready-to-fire state, always having to go through the tedious work.

Stop the horse, unplug the pins, pull the hook, move the cannon cart, push it towards the shooting scene, prevent the horse from falling, this process requires five people to work together together. As when pulling the hook, others had to push the support cart away from the cannon, turning it from a four-wheeled vehicle into a two-wheeled vehicle, without which the barrel of the cannon would fall to the ground.

When the barrel is finally filled with ammunition, it is ready to be fired. The firing was very similar to that of cannons and cannons, but the cleaning of cannons with the use of two different mops was much more complicated. When using weapons, ammunition can be directly inserted into the barrel. To light a cannon they have to light a wick, but when it rains, it will be very difficult to use this weapon, Van'er thought.

Fortunately, as a shooter most of the time he had to command the others, so he didn't have to spend too much effort.

During the first three days, the four newly selected artillery teams only had one cannon to train. So under the command of Iron Axe, the group had to go through the process of stopping the mounts, lowering the cannons, preparing them to fire, loading the cannons onto the carts and then restarting the entire process. These four steps were always repeated, even Van'er suspected, that under the unbroken cleaning of the cannon, it became much cleaner than its own face.