The dwarf shook his head, "no but I know something similar. We possess something called black powder, which is explosive in nature. I think upon clicking that part, this powder gets exploded, launching the upper part at high speed.
This works on the same principle as a weapon we recently developed, although that weapon is larger and has more power."
"What is it?" Nie Rougang was excited, feeling that his trip to this city isn't in vain.
Previously, he had suspicions that it might be the work of a human but after hearing the explanation from the dwarf, he felt like the manufactures of the weapons sold at Genesis is the secret work of a dwarf, probably from other cities.
As Nie Rougang asked about this new weapon of the dwarves, the duke of Bernladur had a look of hesitation. He doesn't seem like he wanted to reveal the secret.
Nie Rougang is a politician with good observation skills. It was clear to him what is going on in this dwarf's mind. He looked at his brother, "bring out everything."
Nie Hong nodded.
Very soon, a single-shot pistol, revolver, P365, P226, and derringer were placed before the duke.
"Lord Rundrok, these are all the firearms. Aren't you interested in replicating them? These ungraded weapons sell as high as 50 gold coins in the imperial city."
In an instant, the dwarf's brain activated about the business and he fell into thoughts.
After a brief silence, he stood up on his feet, "follow me."
They walked to an armory/ weapon storage room, full of various weapons, ranging from daggers to metal and wooden puppets. However, out of all of them, one thing attracted the visitors the most.
"This is the new weapon you talked about earlier?" Nie Rougang asked unsurely as he stared at a big hollow rod with a thread sticking out from the rear end. Clearly, he was a little bit unimpressed by its crude design.
"Don't take this lightly, Lord Nie." The Duke of Bernladur caught Nie Rougang's expression but he didn't feel offended at all. Instead, he decided to clear the doubts of these two privileged guests.
He explained as he showed a cast iron ball of about 20kg in weight and has the size of a human's head, "Each one of this can destroy the walls of the fortress with ease. Once it was launched by the cannon, this sphere can even kill a 4-circle realm when successfully hit head-on.
Apart from these, we have developed exploding ones as well. They will not only hit the targets but after a period of time, they will even explode causing more damage to the enemies. In those, we use black powder, which will ignite upon launching the cannonballs."
"4-circle, huh! Now that changes everything." Nie Rougang nodded in approval. There's a glint in his eyes. As the helicopter and the battle tank were considered puppets by him as well as everyone, Nie Rougang didn't think about them.
All he could think is how its firepower is more powerful than Mark's lightweight weapons.
Maybe, it's because he was too excited to have dozens of these installed at his mansion in case of another misadventure by Mark, or maybe, it is because this dwarf is highly reputed… for whatever reason, Nie Rougang didn't bother to ask for a demonstration and directly went for the purchase.
He asked, "How much is it? I want at least thirty of these."
However, the Duke of Bernladur shook his head, "we don't have permission to mass-produce them, yet. It's our king's orders."
Nie Rougang furrowed his brows, "why?"
"I'll be honest with you. These make humans too powerful and uncontrolled. There would be chaos if the owner of these cannons uses them to launch an invasion." The Duke of Bernladur was becoming exasperating while he explained the situation. "One wouldn't need any ether to fire them, you know. Once you figure out how to make them and it will become public knowledge, it won't be a pretty sight. His Majesty doesn't want to be blamed by the human rulers for the mess."
It was clear that even this dwarf doesn't agree with his king's orders. After all, what has the well-being of humans had anything to do with him? They were blacksmiths and he feels that it's their right to innovate new types of weapons.
As Nie Rougang fell into thoughts, trying to figure out a way to convince the dwarf, his brother, Nie Hong opened his mouth, "Lord Rundrok, the King doesn't have to know about this deal. Perhaps, we can come to an arrangement."
"What do you mean, Lord Nie?" The Duke of Bernladur frowned.
Despite being intelligent and possessing greed for gold, the dwarves were honest beings. They don't lie, were loyal to their king, don't cheat their clients, and most importantly, they were quite straightforward. Well, at least, most of them. Exceptions always exist everywhere.
Thankfully for this revenue minister of the Phoenix Empire, the duke of Bernladur isn't a saint. He loves gold more than any other dwarf or dragon. At the same time, he is also a bit cunning when compared to the rest of the dwarves.
Nie Rougang came out of his thoughts and said, "I'll provide you the raw materials and I'll pay 500 gold coins for every cannon and 20 gold coins per exploding cannonball you provide me. This transaction won't be in the records of your kingdom or our empire. Are you willing to accept this deal?"
"500 per cannon? And you will even provide iron?" The Duke of Bernladur was taken aback by this shocking offer. In an instant, he realized that there was nothing for him to lose, and everything is to gain.
But, his greediness came in the way. Seeing the desperation on his client, he replied, "It's very hard to complete this task. I can't do this alone. There's a need for manpower and I had to shut their mouths with extra pay to make sure this never leaves Bernladur. 1000 gold coins per cannon, 10 gold coins per iron sphere, 25 gold coins per exploding cannonball.
In return, you will get the first batch of 10 cannons and 100 cannonballs of both variants within a week."
"Deal," Nie Rougang agreed to it, right away.
He's the revenue minister and is super-rich. Just mere thousands of gold coins aren't much for him. So, despite knowing that the dwarf is trying to take advantage of him, he accepted the deal without any negotiations.
