Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 87: Cannons
Owen wasn’t surprised that Euchina had to stay behind for punishment copying on her very first day.
After all, during her time wandering outside, she had hardly interacted with humans at all. She had no use for the things taught in school, so it was only natural that she’d have trouble adjusting to suddenly having to learn them.
She was probably feeling pretty frustrated by now. But it was fine—she’d improve slowly, and besides, Ryan would help tutor her.
When Owen entered the hall, though, he found Euchina looking cheerful. Did something good happen?
As soon as she saw him, she ran over with little skips, asking for a hug.
Unable to refuse, Owen opened his arms and gave her a big embrace. After setting her down, he turned to Ryan and asked what had happened.
“Master, Euchina made friends with Lilica at school.”
“Oh, Lilica, huh?”
Owen patted Euchina’s head and bent down to say.
“You need to get along well with Lilica, okay?”
“Okay!”
Then Owen signaled a maid to bring over a finely wrapped gift bag and handed it to Euchina.
“This is a present I prepared for you. Go ahead, open it.”
Euchina eagerly unwrapped the packaging and found a stuffed teddy bear inside. Her eyes sparkled, and she happily hugged it to her chest.
“Thank you!”
“I’m glad you like it. You can sleep with it at night.”
That morning, Owen had asked and found out she’d had a nightmare the night before. He couldn’t really blame her for sneaking into his room.
He hoped the teddy bear would give her some comfort at night—maybe now she’d stop sneaking into his room in the middle of the night, Owen thought to himself.
At the shooting training field.
Kadir was carefully polishing a brand-new musket, grinning with excitement. That’s right—thanks to his outstanding performance, he had been lucky enough to be selected for the musket team.
Besides excellent militia members, a few knights were also drafted into the musket corps.
That wasn’t even the most surprising part. The lizardman troops were required—all of them—to learn how to use muskets.
Not only that, their tribal chief had even pulled a large number of young lizardmen from their temporary settlement to take part in the training.
Judging by the way things were going, it seemed they were planning to form a specialized musket unit made up entirely of lizardmen.
The fact that the sinking sand tribe had pledged loyalty to the lord had already spread through the northern walls.
In other words, those lizardmen were now officially part of Bianshu Town.
Considering their physical abilities far surpassed those of the local militia, it wasn’t hard to understand why the lord wanted to train them into a formidable force.
The shooting training was led by nine members of the marksmanship team.
Because there weren’t enough muskets to go around, everyone trained in shifts and took turns.
Just holding a musket looked so cool! Even the dull tasks like polishing the gun and making paper cartridges didn’t seem so bad to Kadir.
However, there was one thing he didn’t quite understand—Blue, who was also selected, chose not to join the musket team. Instead, he became an artilleryman.
Everyone had seen how effective muskets were in battle, especially on the walls—able to kill undead monsters with ease. Almost everyone dreamed of joining the musket corps.
Kadir had asked Blue.
“What even is artillery?”
Blue replied.
“It’s like a giant version of a musket—way more powerful.”
A single musket already felt heavy in your hands. If you made it even bigger, wouldn’t a cannon have to be carried on your shoulder? Kadir couldn’t quite picture it.
But when the first cannon appeared before everyone’s eyes, Kadir immediately realized—he’d been completely wrong.
Good heavens—he had never seen a weapon like this before. The cannon barrel was black, large, and thick. Just looking at the bore diameter was enough to imagine how big the cannonballs must be.
The cannon carriage had iron wheels on both ends, and moving it required horses to pull—clearly, it was extremely heavy.
This kind of cannon required five people just to operate. It was just as demanding as a catapult.
Kadir guessed that this weapon might be intended to replace catapults altogether.
There were exactly twenty people in the cannon unit, split into four teams for training.
Over the past few days, Blue and the others had only been running simulated operations with the cannon—no live ammunition yet.
Their trainer, the one-eyed instructor, seemed particularly interested in cannons. To avoid mistakes during live fire, he made every part of the training extremely strict.
The musket team seemed a bit better off; once they got familiar with the motions, they were allowed to practice with live ammo.
Kadir remembered his first time firing at a target. The gunshot rang out right next to his ears, and he experienced a sharp ringing that made it feel like his eardrums were about to burst.
The sharpshooters could withstand it—truly impressive.
After a few more practice sessions, Kadir gradually got used to the noise.
That night, Kadir and his teammates returned to their tent to rest.
Even though some people had already been selected to join the musket and cannon teams, living arrangements hadn’t changed yet—they still slept in the same tent as before.
In their tent, only Kadir and Blue had been chosen from among the elite militia, so the other eight looked at them with envy.
“So jealous of you, Kadir…”
One teammate said bitterly.
“We still have to keep practicing bayonet drills, and you’re already handling muskets.”
“Hehe.”
Kadir chuckled and said.
“Don’t feel too down, buddy. Muskets are so powerful that Lord Owen is definitely going to expand the team. You’ll get your chance eventually.”
“Sure, that’s what you say—but you saw how many lizardmen are in the shooting drills. It’s obvious they’re going to get priority for new weapons. Who knows when it’ll be our turn?”
Another teammate sounded more cautious.
He had a point, and Kadir couldn’t really argue with it.
“Alright, let’s not talk about that anymore.”
Kadir shifted the conversation, turning to Blue:
“Hey, Blue—your cannon unit looks like it’s always fussing over that big tube. Must be a hassle, huh?”
“It really is…”
Blue said, resting his hands behind his head.
“Just converting the cannon from a transport state to firing-ready takes a whole tedious process.”
First, they had to move the cannon to the designated spot, stop the horses, disconnect the trailer, move the gun carriage, push it to the firing position, and lower the supports. This whole transition process required tight coordination among five artillerymen.
Once the cannon was set in place, they had to load the shell, aim, and fire.
That part was somewhat similar to musket operations. Blue had secretly observed the sharpshooters and had a basic understanding of their steps.
The difference, though, was that cleaning the cannon bore was far stricter than with muskets—it required two brushes and had to be done twice.
“Oh? Clean it twice? Cannons are that picky?”
Kadir joked.
“Yeah. You have to make sure there are no lingering sparks inside the barrel—or accidents can happen.”
Blue said seriously.
After a pause, he added.
“Also, the gunpowder we use comes pre-packed—we just push the whole thing into the barrel. For ignition, we use a standard fuse instead of flintlocks like muskets.”