(Narrator)

  As slowly the sun started to come up on the beautiful January morning. The otherwise peaceful farmland was shaken up by a loud bang. Birds fled from the snow covered trees. In the field a mouse quickly rushed back into his hole. In the distance there was a single light visible. The light emanated from an old lantern that was set down on a table. In the light a boy of short stature, could be seen reloading a musket.

  About 30 seconds after the last shot, another bang followed. This time it was accompanied by the sound of lead hitting steel. The young boy ran up the target rifle in hand. Further inspection showed there was a nice solid dent in the steel target. While Theo had hit the second shot, which had produced the violent sound upon hitting, the first bullet did not hit. After admiring his hit for a while, he slowly looked to the left of the target. A big fist sized hole could be found in the earth barrier behind the target. Although the power of the bullet was evident by the fact that it had buried itself deep in the mud. It wouldn’t mean anything if it didn’t hit its target.

  The young boy pulled a hand through his blond hair and sighed. Through his big round glasses the boy’s red eyes inspected his gun once more. The musket he had been working on didn’t work as intended. No musket was super accurate, however this one kept missing.

  (Theo)

  After shooting twice I walked back to the table. On the table rested a sack of gunpowder and several lead balls. I first poured some of the gunpowder down the barrel. After that I put paper wad in, followed by the steel ball. Now that the musket was reloaded, I rested my weapon on the wooden table. The design of the musket I held was an old design. Any good blacksmith could produce way better, but that wasn’t needed. The king kept ordering the same design for the war. Frankly a stupid decision if you asked me. But no matter, he’d get his muskets, we blacksmiths would get our money. With that thought in mind I took aim. While I was about to pull the trigger there was a shout.

  “Will you stop with that loud damned noise so early in the morning!!”

  I fumbled with the gun, almost dropping it. As I turned around I looked right in the eyes of my very very angry grandpa Kerkin. Dressed in his old woolen pajamas. He stood there in the door frame ready to kill with his glare. I could hear one of the remaining bullets fall from the table. He put his hand over his face in disappointment.

  “Damn youngsters these days… Nevermind. Did you at least hit the target once?”

  As I pointed my eyes down to the musket in my hands I answered

  “Yes, though it seems to hit a bit to the left of where I aim. So I'd like to try these last 4 bullets to see if the gun is accurate enough.”

  But grandpa shook his head, the ball on the end of his pajama’s hat shaking along.

  “No kid, we don’t have the time for that. If it hits at least once every 2 bullets, then it's good. The king's army is asking for quantity, not quality… Those damned fools. Well, not like it matters to me… Get ready to bring the latest batch to Amerus military academy.”

  As always grandpa was trying to hide his true feelings. He knew very well that lives were being lost at the front. But as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t care. If we blacksmiths did, we'd spent thrice as much time on a gun. But then we wouldn’t meet the quota issued by the king. As I was loading up the cart, I stared at the last gun I'd tested. I wasn’t happy with it, it just didn’t shoot straight. It had no business going to the front line, however it was like grandpa said. The king asked for quantity, not quality. It still pained me though, anyone who used a bad gun like this would certainly die.

  (Narrator)

  Soldiers without magic would get issued muskets instead of swords, spears and alike. This was because magic users could not only wield powerful spells, but also imbue any object they touched with mana. However as soon as they’d let go of the object, the mana supply to it stopped. This meant magic users could ignore the advancements made in firearm technology. Because why use a gun with a longer reload then a magically imbued bow. Good bows that were embedded with magic stones were impressive. They had longer range, faster reloads and better accuracy than a gun. This fact, combined with the fact that 75% of the population could cast magic, meant the gun wasn’t popular. Though the 25% that didn’t have magic used them happily, because when a gun hit, it hit hard.

  (Theo)

  I opened the large barn doors for the cart, and was blinded. The sun was now hanging low over the frozen fields. Now that shooting had stopped for a while the birds had flown back to the barren trees. Before I set out on my 2 hour long journey with the sluggish cart, I grabbed my personal weapon. Of course the chances of a robbery were low. However, if it did happen, then I'd like to do something about it. Inaccurate or not, 25 muskets would make for a good profit on the black market. So with that in mind I grabbed my gun from the rack on the wall. My personal weapon proved the point of the muskets' dated design. Though still a large and bulky weapon, it had a cylinder at the back that could rotate. The cylinder held 4 bullets in total, meaning 4 chances to hit in a short amount of time. This, plus the barrel being rifled to improve accuracy showed the peak of current technology.

  The snow was thick and it creaked a lot under my boots as I struggled to keep the cart going. I would’ve actually enjoyed the nice winter weather if not for the unwieldy cart. However, the dead weight on the wheels didn’t act on my clear frustration. If I could enroll at the academy I wouldn't have all these issues. I could work on quality weapon designs, unburdened by the king's quota. Besides that the buildings of the academy seemed warm. Warmer than the large wooden shack I lived in with grandpa. Besides the Military academy was a place a lot of the great adventurers went to train before the war. Though a military academy, it only had one requirement for enrollment. Be able to serve the country for 3 years and serve your country in times of war. This meant a lot of the dungeon clearing adventurers attended. Free military training for a year, then 2 years of boring service? It sounded great until the war broke out. The demon army had moved fast across the continent, until it hit the country of Auria. With the large number of trained adventurers it stood tall against the demons. Though this wasn’t without sacrifice, my hometown near the border had fallen quickly. While I was sent away on the first carriage out of town, my parents fought. After the battle I never heard from them again. While I was thinking about the past, I looked down at the thick layer of ice covering the lake I walked past. In the summer this lake served as my grandpa’s favourite fishing spot. This meant that since I lived here I frequently got to eat fresh fish. something i’d rarely had back home.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  This now ice covered lake also meant the beginning of the Underwood forest. a nice calming forest where the old pine trees towered over you as you walked through. And as sturdy and old as the trees were, they made an excellent source of wood. This was demonstrated by the local lumberjack Gary. He could frequently be found cutting down the large pines for coins. However, today he didn’t look cheerful and greetable as he stood there arguing with a guard… It didn’t seem to be just any guard, it seemed to be a guard from the military academy. Apart from guarding the school grounds, they also guarded events outside school grounds. Though I didn't specifically stop to hear what they were arguing about. From what I could make out Gary wasn’t happy about something and was letting that fact be known. All the while the guard stood there with an apologetic smile as if saying. “I’m very sorry, but please don’t shoot the messenger.”

  As I walked into the forest a guard came walking towards where Gary and the first guard were arguing. Clad in pure white uniform with yellow decorations the guard strided on with an air of confidence. When his brown eyes met mine his eyes widened slightly in surprise, then he called out.

  “Hey boy, yes you!”

  Really not wanting to talk to the guard that had a stern look on his face, I quickly looked around for an escape, but alas. When the guard closed in he spoke with a serious voice.

  “You better get out of the forest quickly, we're closing it off.”

  I was slightly confused by this information, so I asked.

  “Ah, why..? And for how long?”

  If I really had to talk to him, then I'd rather finish up the conversation quickly and get on with my trip.

  “A combat examination will take place in the forest, it will be dangerous to be close to this place. Especially for someone like you without any mana…”

  The guard said condescendingly while his eyes glowed from what I presumed was a mana detection spell. At the sound of his words my eyes turned slightly cold. I didn't mind the fact that I had no magical powers. But the fact that people who did have those powers used that fact to look down on me was something I did mind. Not that I had the confidence or power to do something about it, but that exact fact that I couldn't change it is what annoyed me so much.

  “Alright, thanks..”

  I said this with as much annoyance as I could possibly show and moved on. About halfway through my journey I put down the cart and quickly ate something. The landscape here was the same farmscape as before the forest. However in the distance the road became better quality. This was because it led directly to the academy, and after that the city. As I sat on the cart and rested my cold feet, I could hear the drum of feet in the distance. After a while I could slowly see a group of academy students. Likely the ones that were about to have a combat examination in the forest. Approaching in their Navy blue uniforms, they looked to be having trouble with the cold. A guard in front of the students spurred them on and kept up the pace. Not that I had any sympathy for them, most of them looked like rich snobs who’d spit on me for looking poor if they got the chance.

  As they walked by 4 students in front stood out to me though. Compared to the others they looked way less tired. This while marching along with some serious firepower in their hands.

  One of them was a short student with a bit darker skin than the rest, this was rare in the Kingdom of Auria, let alone here in the north. That combined with her out of place looking weaponry in the form of a large club embedded with black mana stones and her large wooden shield probably meant that she was an exchange student. It would not be surprising if she was from one of the far eastern countries. Next to her was another female student who was happily chatting with her. This second student was of tall stature, had long blond hair and green eyes. On her back was a big quiver with abnormally long arrows sticking out, in her hands was a large long bow that from the looks of it had a very high draw weight. This meant it required a lot of strength to even attempt to use.

  Behind them were 2 male students. The first one was a large guy that looked like a giant, especially compared to my short stature. With big friendly eyes and orange hair he looked like he wouldn’t even hurt a fly. However the great sword at his hip told a different story. Last but not least there was a gloomy looking guy with long black hair. As his dark eyes met my blue eyes I sensed something was off. Where the rest of the students were looking forward to the forest. This guy looked me right in the eyes as if sizing me up. Of Course not wanting to look intimidated I stared back. Then I realised it, there was something in those eyes that wasn’t completely human. Sadly I couldn't put my finger on the cause of that feeling before the student quickly looked away. As I followed his line of sight into the distance I saw a black dot take off from the tree. I presumed this was a bird, but I couldn't tell at this range. There was no way that a normal human would’ve heard that bird take off from its branch from this range.

  By the time I was done pondering this guy's humanity the group had already walked by. Since my snack was also long gone, I decided to put my thoughts on hold and continue down the icy road. with my horrible cart in hand, I walked toward the academy.

  After waiting for a while I was called up by one of the guards. So I picked up the cart and moved up to the wooden box where the guards sat. As I walked up to the box a guard happily greeted me.

  “Hello kid, you seem a bit young to be an independent blacksmith, where is your boss?”

  “I’m 18 years old sir, I'm just not that tall.”

  “Oh, well boy you should eat more then. Either way, please show me your papers so I can let you through.”

  Once he guard had finally finished his world he called out once again

  “You may proceed kid”

  I moved the cart through the massive iron fenced gate that shielded the academy from unwanted visitors. As I stepped foot inside the massive grounds of the military academy I saw plenty of white and navy blue uniforms moving around like colonies of ants between the massive buildings. A guard in a white uniform pointed me towards the storage building where all the weapons were collected.

  As I was putting the guns and their spare parts into an assortment of boxes, I overheard a conversation between 2 of the storage building's employees. “Have you heard? Apparently the top brass’s personal men are searching for a demon spy.” said employee number 1. His colleague replied nonchalantly “Oh don’t worry Jim, that happens all the time, I mean this is a military installation after all, You’ll get used to it if you work here as long as I do.” The first employee, apparently called Jim, sighed “Well fair enough I guess, tho isn’t it at least a little exciting boss? I mean it could be literally anyone. It could be you, it could be me!” Employee number 2 who was apparently the more senior one of the 2 shook his head. “Jim shut up and get back to work before I take your talk seriously and report you to top brass for being the suspected spy.” As I turned around, having finished unloading my muskets I saw Jim quickly walk off and help one of the blacksmiths unload their cargo.

  Now that the hard part of this small journey was over, I picked up my now empty cart and started to head home back to Grandpa Kerkin. If anything the now empty card was a blessing compared to the block of deadweight i was carrying behind me before. It no longer got stuck in the mud nor did it require as much strength to move on the unpaved road back. With the sun now right above my head signalling the start of afternoon. I couldn’t wait to get home and eat lunch. However as the forest once again appeared in the distance it very quickly became apparent that getting home was going to take a while…