Volume 1 - CH 24

The pain of experiencing a hangover is what a man must experience to really mature. Only through facing the drunken dizziness and throbbing headache can a man learn how to handle his drink.

It could have been that my Xifu was the one who carried me to my bed. Of course, compared to the ‘bed’ made out of wool that I had at home, this was much more comfortable. 

Though sleeping in my dirty clothes does feel disgusting…

‘Welp, time for a bath…’

The room felt warm, most probably due to the glaring sun visible through the window. No wonder she didn’t coil around me as usual…

Looking around, I found my spectacles being held tightly in her hands. Not wanting to wake her up, I got up in a daze without my spectacles and boiled some water.

Mixing some of it into the leftover water from the tub last night, I soaked my body into it, and was speechless when the water immediately turned murky…

Having a bath in this world is way different. There was no such thing as shampoo or soap, just some paste-like substance…

I had no idea what it was, but it could apparently be used to wash the hair and the body.

When I got out of the bath, Xifu was still deep in her sleep. Well, after such an extended period of observation, I could somewhat understand Medusa’s daily schedule. 

Compared to a normal human, it seems that she needs to sleep for an extra two hours, which was obvious as she always woke up way later than me. Though it’s not like it’s affecting our lives too much, since she’s still a magical creature that’s diurnal.

It would have been a problem if she was a nocturnal creature like a vampire though.

When I finished washing up and put my clothes on, it was only 8:30 AM after checking my pocket watch. Time to head downstairs for breakfast I guess…

‘Good morning, Simon…’

‘Yes, Mr Lao Wu, good morning.’

‘Now, eat, okay?’

‘Yes, wait a moment.’

It seems that it’s steel-cut oats porridge on the breakfast menu this morning…it really was different from the rolled oats I was used to having in my old world… 

It was way harder to chew and even more to swallow..though it’s kind of interesting that the oats in this world were all shaped like a coffee bean.

Honestly though, I was actually expecting a western-like breakfast like a mug of piping hot milk and a freshly baked croissant…

As I had some small talk with Simon, I contemplated on the itinerary for today. 

Honestly, I don’t mind staying here for a few more days, maybe even take it as a honeymoon with her.

As I was lost in my train of thought, Medusa appeared in my line of sight as she slowly climbed down from the staircase.

Wait, she can’t climb stairs, but she’s able to use it to get down?

After some observation, I could say that there’s two ways of how she’s able to move about. 

First was how she slowly squirms forward with her tail,  similar to the speed of a human walking. Another was by using her tail to slither in an S-shape, which increased her speed similar to a normal human running. 

Of course, there’s also when she’s able to dart quickly from one place to another, probably by compressing the muscles in her tail and releasing them quickly 

She was slowly getting down from the stairs, as if she’s cautiously moving bit by bit. I quickly went by her side to help her. It felt like she’s having a hard time controlling her body’s centre of gravity.  

Seems like even though her body’s more stable than any human on a flat surface, she really needs to take it slow as if she’s tiptoeing on uneven surfaces like these stairs.

While feeding her a spoonful of the oat porridge, I took a whiff of her body odour.

Yep, still smells like a snake to me. All those anime logic about how a girl would smell after a bath is all bullshit.

Alright, where do we go next? Since Nightfall Town is so large, we can probably explore around for another few days or so. 

When you’re having a vacation in an unfamiliar city, you don’t have to go to famous places only. Even wandering around the quiet alleys would be an experience. After all, all I have now is time. 

After saying my goodbyes to Simon, we stepped onto the busy streets of  Nightfall Town.

While slowly trudging along the roads,I couldn’t help but feel really accepted by the people of this town. Everyone we passed by greeted me, even though I already forgot who most of them were. There were just too many people in the bar last night.

After walking a bit, we reached Parker’s workshop. Looking in, I could see Parker hard at work, with his hands full on operating the machines and materials. From the looks of it, he seems to be working on wooden fences this time.

‘Ho, Mr Lao Wu’

‘Good morning, Mr Parker’

‘Hahaha, how was last night?’

As he laughed, he was expertly making measurements with a pencil and a wooden set ruler.

‘Well, I kind of drank too much…’

‘Hoho, even though you overdid it a bit, you’re not so bad yourself. It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone able to take 8 mugs of Nawedom in a single sitting.’

‘Nawedom?’

‘Yep, that’s the name of the alcohol you drank.’

What a unique name for an alcohol. Well, even the taste is unique, so I guess that’s that…

‘What are you making this time Mr Parker?’

‘Oh, you mean this.’

Putting down the tools in his hands, he showed me a set of blueprints. On it were plans of fences surrounding an empty piece of land, probably for a ranch or a farm. 

Well, seems like this town gotta be self-sufficient, else it’s going to be really hard to survive on lands outside of the Kingdom.

There wasn’t any designated place to rest in the workshop, just some commercially made chairs at the side. Xifu and I made ourselves comfortable on them and looked around.

Parker’s really a pro with manufacturing, seeing that he could even create delicate items from the miniscule gears for pocket watches to the various parts of a flintlock pistol with that bear-like hands of his.

I’ve got experience with handling flintlock pistols, but I can’t say I’m fond of it. It just has a reloading process that’s too complicated, not to mention that it’s only a single-shot weapon.

But I couldn’t help noticing the flintlocks that Parker made all had different sizes and unique designs compared to the ones that the 5 people had on them, which were all identical. Maybe the Kingdom had strict rules to follow on the manufacturing of weapons? 

Sensing my interest in the flintlocks, Parker quickly wiped his smudged face with his dirty apron and started recommending to the ones he had. Though he looked clumsy trying to do so, it honestly made me feel relaxed around him so it’s fine I guess.

‘Wanna try it?’

’Right here?’

‘Yep, how about behind here?’

Lighting the tobacco in his pipe with a match, he took a long deep breath with it.

It seems Xifu was also interested in these things. Well, I’ve got nothing better to do anyways, so why not play with these antiques?

Following him to the back of the workshop, I was shocked. Even though he told me before that his workshop was around 100 metres in width and length, I didn’t expect it to actually be that large, even more than the workshop building itself.

There were big stacks of wood and minerals piled up behind his workshop, each covered with a layer of what seems to be a type of waterproof cloth. Just 10 metres away from them was a target made out of a few large thick pieces of wood. 

Beside us was a rack stacked full of different kinds of firearms. Though I’m calling them firearms because I had no further knowledge of any other 17~18th century weapons that looked like these.

Though I soon realized what these weapons meant——the proof of a genius.

With the recommendations of Parker, I tried my hand firing a few different guns. To be honest, I didn’t expect my shots to land, which was even more evident when I saw how bad my wife was at using them. I even had to cover her ears for her when she was firing them.

Wait, couldn’t you just use the small snakes you had to cover your ears for you?

‘So, how was it?’

‘Yeah…I like this better’

‘You’re right…’

Xifu took out her shortbow and in a quick succession fired three arrows, all which landed a perfect bullseye on the target. Heck, it seems like those arrows are way faster than the bullets!

‘Mr Parker, anymore…better, gun?’

Testing my luck, I asked the question. Honestly, I didn’t want to know if there was any gun that was better. I was just curious if there was any  weapon in this world, or even just in Nightfall Town, that was more powerful other than magic.

Parker only kept quiet as smoke billowed out like a chimney from his nostrils.

Even though my question doesn’t seem like it was implying much, it was understandable for him to hesitate a bit. To provide a powerful weapon to an outsider was the same as increasing the danger risks to the townspeople.

‘Follow me’

After a while, he gestured to me to follow as he moved his giant body. Briefly glancing at my wife, I quickly tried to catch up to him.

In a small hut made of bricks behind the workshop, I saw a weapon that didn’t belong in this world.

Yep, in the hut laid a metal box which had a revolver in it.

Much different than what I expected, there were no markings or carvings on the gun, with the smooth slick piece metal laying on its side. In it were 5 rounds chambered in it’s cylinder.

I was surprised, because I remembered clearly that revolvers only appeared in my world in the 19th century, wherever this world’s firearms technological advancement was at most only up to the flintlocks in the 18th century.

Parker didn’t react to my shocked expression, but only sat on the bed on the side. Emptying the ashes from his pipe, he gestured for us to take a seat anywhere.

‘Care to hear a story?’

In reaction to our wide blinking eyes, Parker only continued refilling his pipe with more tobacco leaves.

‘You two may not know this, but this gun was actually made for a person named Krifrey…’

TL Note: Surprise! I’m alive! I’ll try to keep being alive and do more updates, though it seems that the author actually took the raws down from his publishing site. I’m still managing with webarchive, but it’s really slow and I don’t know when I will run out of raws.