Chapter 13: Bow and Freedom
I left our house with Lucie in order to be on time.
A soldier’s armor has been place in the large hall of the village. What was prepared was the strongest one that the captain had worn.
It’s probably not a coincidence that this has been chosen.
“Come on, Syril. Let’s show the piercing of this armor now.”
The haughty voice of the village chief echoes.
Most of the villagers gather in this place have mixed looks of uneasiness and curiosity.
Lucie’s shoulders next to me was trembling.
Meanwhile, with an haughty expression on my face, I looked each villager in the eye.
Don’t worry. It can be done. I convey these feelings by sight.
And, I place my hand gently on Lucie’s shoulder.
It was just a little, but her trembling stopped.
“I shall do it. Before demonstrating, I would introduce my new model of armor piercing bow. It’s called the crossbow.”
I lifted the crossbow made from iron and wood high.
Then, the eyes of the villagers around me changed into disappointment, while the village chief follower’s expression relaxed.
It is an expected reaction.
“Are you sane, Syril!? The armor that even your father’s longbow can’t pierce, do you think it can be done with a toy like this?
With such a small bow, it is impossible no matter how I see it.
I think you said you wanted Lucie to use it? That is certainly a bow for women to use.”
Booing from the village chief and his followers echos all around.
With a smile on my face, I begin to talk.
Just for a little, I will now stir up the mood with some side show.
“Formerly, the warriors of elves were invincible! With the power of the wind and bow, many invasions have been repelled! Now, the past glory has become a fairy tale. Since hundreds of years ago, human have set it eyes on the magic stone of the elves.
I have lost count of the number of invasions we received. Still, we continue to be victorious until the development of metal armor.
With the blessing of the wind, arrows of the enemies did not reach us while our arrows consistently strike the enemy.”
Warriors of the elf manipulates the wind.
Enemy archers are always forced to shoot their arrows into headwind on the battle field, while arrows the the elves received protection of windbreak, allowing it to achieve an incredible range without air resistance around the arrow.
As a result, it was possible to unilaterally overrun long distance warfare.
“However since 5 years ago, with the rise of iron making technology and appearance of metallic armor, it became impossible for our arrows to pierce an enemy. Our pride was crushed along with the arrow, and our strong warriors fell one after another, allowing for an invasion before long.”
The spread of metal armor caused the battlefield to change drastically. With the improvement of iron manufacturing technology, the empire has made an armor which prevents an arrow from piercing through.
Even if an arrow were to strike from a distance, it was repelled by the armor, which allowed enemy to draw near and kill skilled elf archers one after another, causing the elves to lose the ability to resist.
“Our glory was always together with the bow. If you wish to regain pride, there is no choice but to make a strong bow that can go through the dignity of the empire, the iron armor! Only after that is done can we take the next step.”
I raised my voice and filled it with emotions, crying out loudly.
“With this, lets take a look at the arrow which will regain our pride.”
I make a bow respectfully and pulls the string, giving the crossbow set with arrow to Lucie.
However, that was stopped at the last minute.
Because her hand was trembling.
If you look closely, her expression is rigid and pale.
It will not go well in this condition.
I mutter in a whisper that is only audible by Lucie.
“Lets cast a spell because of your tension. Hey, put your hands together and see.”
“U…Yes”
“Then, endure it because it is a little painful.”
“Eh?”
While looking at the stunned face of Lucie, my hands sandwiched and clapped Lucie’s hands together.
A good ‘PAN’ sounded.
“Its painful~ Syril.”
After widening her eyes in surprise due to the sudden situation, Lucie complained in a whisper. Her expression has soften from a while ago.
“However, the trembling has stopped. It is not necessary to think too seriously. You should do it as practiced yesterday. Its not even 10m.
Even with eyes closed, you will be able to strike at this distance?”
“But, But, I, if I fail here..”
“At that time, however, shall we have a spanking? Of course, it will be on the skin.”
“To say a joke at such a time..”
“It is because of such a time! Look, everyone is dumbfounded.”
“It is Syril as usual. I have become silly due to my nervousness.”
Lucie smile thinly, really thinly. With this, it will be alright.
The crossbow gripped by Lucie’s thin hands is pointed to the armor, and the trigger was casually pulled.
With a dry sounding ‘PAN’, the arrow went through the armor easily and pierced the ground.
I place my hand on top of Lucie’s head and ruffled her hair.
“Its a lie!”
“I can’t believe it.”
“The arrow from a girl like Lucie went through the armor?”
“With such a small bow?”
An excitement that could not settle stirred the surrounding.
For the crossbow I made, bow power is 89kg, nearly twice of the long bow and with a initial velocity at 102m/s. The speed is approximately 360km/h. With this much, it is natural to go through the armor.
“Did everyone see it? This bow is usable by powerless women and children and is able to penetrate anything, and as long as you have this, anyone can become an archer and fight against the empire!”
The excitement is stirred up further.
However,
“Do not be fooled, although it pierced the armor, the string has been pulled beforehand. It is impossible for Lucie to pull the bowstring of such a power bow!”
Village chief enters to disrupt.
“If this is the case, Lucie, try to do as taught yesterday.”
“Yea, I understand.”
Lucie, whose arrow hit the armor safely and is wrapped in relief and joy, pushes against the ground wheel attached to the tip of the crossbow, which is fixed by treading with the tip of the toes.
In addition, I have attached 2 S-Shaped tool which hooks onto the string, and after the bowstring is pulled by both hands and the back, it is hooked onto a stick and fixed.
By no means can a string of 89kg bow power be pulled by one hand, but if its pulled b both hands and the back, even a girl can pull about 100kg.
“Then, take another shot. Lucie please.”
When I say so, Lucie sets an arrow in the hollow of the rail and flips the trigger. Hereupon, an arrow went through the armor again.
“As you can see, even Lucie can pull this bow. Moreover, it is possible to move with the bowstring pulled unlike a usual bow.”
“Certainly, even Lucie could pull it. However, if the tip is on the ground every time, it will not be able to fire consecutively unlike an ordinary bow.”
“Such a thing depends on a little training and handling. In addition, is there a need for us elf to shoot consecutively? It should have been killed with a single blow.”
When I say so, I picked up a different crossbow from that pa.s.sed to Lucie and move away from the armor steadily, to about 200m away before stopping.
“We elves have good eyes, an excellent sense of distance and is loved by the wind.”
That’s the reason why elves are excellent archers.
We can see far objects, have superior dynamic vision and an excellent sense of distance. Everything necessary for handling of a bow.
“By putting in your soul, the arrow fired will not be off.”
I applied windbreak magic to the arrow and fires it.
An arrow unaffected by wind isn’t upset by anything except gravity.
Besides, I tried it several times, but there is not influence of the Coriolis force, earth’s rotation, in this world.
Therefore the arrow flies in an orbit as aimed just by calculating free fall.
Originally the weakness of the crossbow is shorten arrows, and because long feathers of an arrow cannot be included, neither power nor lift of the inertia are included, and straight shots are inferior, the arrow shifts and range is shorten.
However, all these weak points can be disregarded for an elf.
“Look, as you can see”
With an arrow speed of 104m/s, it will take 9 seconds to arrive, and from there the calculated free fall distance is 181m. . I aimed and shot and arrow upwards of the center of the armor equals to the distance from the armor.
With that alone, the arrow was sucked in and pierced the armor.
Because there is not air resistance, the power of the arrow does not decrease thanks to protection of the wind.
And in the case of elves, protection of the wind is the most basic and easiest spell that can be used by anyone.
So, everyone present really holds the power to shoot a lethal arrow from 200m away.
The venue erupts in excitement gain after my long distance arrows are fired.
I move near the armor again while confirming it.
“Even if long distance shooting like just now isn’t possible, us elf will certainly be able to hit a target at less than 100m with a little practice. It is possible to exterminate the soldiers of the empire before they are able to attack.”
“Foolishness, such a thing as bow training would be counted in years. In the fight 5 years ago, all our first cla.s.s archers died. Archery is out of the question.”
Futile struggles of the village chief continues.
Actually, it is difficult to handle a bow. Stance, angle of the pulling hand, and release timing. All of the techniques are required. To become a first cla.s.s archer, several years are needed.
“For the case of an ordinary bow, that is. However, the crossbow only needs to pull the trigger.
In this case, try it, anybody is okay. Those who wants to pull this bow come on down.”
Saying so, several people came down striving to be the first, and Lucie and my crossbow is pa.s.sed over for shooting.
Villagers pulls the bowstring and fixed an arrow after a simple lecture, aiming at the previous armor from 20m away.
This, again is also the charm of a crossbow. Even for an elf, bows cannot be handled without archery training. As what the village chief says, most of the expert archers died in the previous war. Only several people who goes hunting can handle a bow directly now.
Everyone would be able to use it in a few days with the weapon made this time. That was my consideration for minimum requirement.
There is no surplus time to produce war specialist in the elf village. Being a farmer during spare time, it is only meaningful if an ordinary elf can fight for the first time.
“Do you still have any complains about this?”
“Well, there is. What can be done with only 2 bows! How many soldiers do you think come at once?”
An expected reb.u.t.tal. I was waiting for these words.
“Who said there was only 2?”
I performed partial [rinne kaiki] (Reincarnation recursion) and took all 50 crossbows made by yesterday, from Deet’s [Item box].
At the sight of crossbows with an overwhelming destructive power lined up, a strange atmosphere possesses the soul.
“Such an arrangement is not enough yet. Look everybody, as you can see, there are a lot of bows.
Fellows who wants to shoot it, please come quickly to shoot.”
With those words, surrounding villagers who were watching gathered.
One after another, arrows were shot and the armor was filled with holes.
That’s the moment an ordinary villager changed into instantly into an archer who penetrates the armor of a strong soldier.
“Have you understood? There is no longer a need to fear the mysterious armor of the empire. It is merely a slow-witted target!”
The basic strategy of an empire soldier. Cast away long distance warfare that is hard to win and charge with an invincible armor to cut the enemy down.
Destroy the foundation from the roots.
“We can win! No longer can anyone deprive us of that! To regain our freedom!”
Until now, these are sweet words that n.o.body believed. The power of the crossbow lets you believe in it.
It can be understood by shooting a crossbow. One is able to kill an empire soldier by himself. Actually, once you pierce the hateful metal armor of the empire by your own hands, it would be impossible to restrain your emotions anymore.
“UOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
“We can win! We can win!”
“I can take revenge on mother’s enemy!”
Suppressed by fear up till now, anger from lost of loved ones burst out.
When it has come to this, things should be left to its own course after this.
“Calm down, everyone settle down. Certainly, Syril made a weapon that might be able to win against the empire. But there is the possibility to be defeated! War causes large amount of death! Isn’t it just fine as it is now, to abide obediently with the empire and only killing 10 elves every year?”
“Village chief, I do not think its merely 10 elves.”
“Nevertheless, to wage war, surely more will die.”
“I am not contending for victory. The crossbow is only one of a number of weapons. I shall prepare many methods that will not let everyone in this village die.”
I declared it openly. My behavior up to now adds persuasiveness to my words.
“Sti..Still,”
“Lets listen to the other side. Why do you go that far to not fight?”
“It has been said many times. It’s to reduce the sacrifice even a little!”
“Really?”
I asked looking directly into his eyes.
“Village chief, are you not saying so only because you are satisfied with the present life?”
“Wha..What are you saying!? Isn’t such a thing impossible!”
“Is that so? Its good in that case. I think. The villagers themselves have to decide on the future of this village. Therefore, I want to hear everyone’s voice.”
I look at each and every villager surrounding me.
As it is, is it better to live frightened without freedom and dignity while being exploited! By waging war, we protect freedom and pride and above all else, lives! Please make your choice here!
Upon hearing my words, tension arises.
“First of all, please applause for those who desire to live.”
When I say that, the village chief and his followers clapped their hands with all their might. Not even 10% of the total crowd was seen.
“Next, those who choose to fight and regain freedom, please clap.”
A standing ovation. Most of the elves are clapping with all their strength. So, anyone who wishes to change his mind should do so now.
“As you see, village chief. The villagers have chosen to fight. Do you want to ignore this feeling!”
“Be quiet! Everyone is just exposed to this feverish atmosphere! Is such an important thing decided at this kind of place? I’m leaving.”
Saying that over his shoulder, the village chief went out.
Having done that, the village elves gathered towards me.
“Syril is amazing. To really make a weapon that can pierce the armor! Where did you find this kind of material?”
“When stealing the food, I stole swords and armors too. I melted that to use.”
“The back is wood from a maple tree, right? A number of bows was prepared because a portion of wood was big.”
“In truth, preparations other than bows exist as well right?”
“Well, of course. For the sake of not letting everyone die, I made various preparations, even healing injuries. Therefore, I want us to fight together.”
I said so while bowing my head.
Then, everyone declared to fight together.
Feelings of the villagers have become firm. The village chief will be dealt with somehow later.