Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 47: Like Falling into an Ice Cave (Foreshadowing resolved)
I was startled awake to find a humanoid creature climbing into my bedroom through the window.

The reason for describing it as a humanoid creature is that the thing that crawled in was completely black and had a strange posture; in the moonlight, only its limbs and head could be vaguely discerned.

The humanoid figure noticed that the bedroom's occupant had woken up and turned to look at them.

Their eyes met, and Winters was instantly wide awake.

He immediately jumped out of bed and grabbed the Dussac dagger hanging on the wardrobe door.

He had only a moment to think; he didn't care whether the attackers were human or monster, he just wanted to get the weapon first.

Winters drew his sword and lunged at the humanoid creature, forcing it back into a corner. As it retreated, the creature drew a short gun from its waist and pointed it at Winters' head.

It wasn't a matchlock gun, but rather the kind of short gun with a strange mechanism used by assassins on the docks, the spring-loaded gun the lame man was talking about.

Winters recognized the musket and abruptly stopped in his tracks.

Just as the humanoid creature was about to pull the trigger, seeing Winters stop, it released its finger and threatened in a low voice, "Don't move, don't make a sound, or I'll kill you."

The moment she opened her mouth, she revealed her identity: she wasn't a monster, just a human, and a woman at that. Although she tried her best to lower her voice, she couldn't hide the fact that it was a woman's voice.

"No...don't shoot. There are guards downstairs. You won't be able to escape if you're shot." Winters feigned panic.

Actually, only Aunt Marita lived downstairs. Apart from the four family members, the only other person in the house was Kosa, a live-in maid she brought from her parents' home.

The old woman is almost fifty years old and has virtually no fighting ability; Winters is just bluffing.

“By the time the guards arrive, you’ll be dead.” The woman, dressed in a black bodysuit, her face covered except for her eyes, gripped the revolver gun firmly with both hands, the muzzle never straying from Winters’ head: “Put down your weapon.”

Winters found that the more critical the situation, the clearer his thinking became. The other party spoke a second time, revealing even more information.

The presence of the guards did not make her feel uncomfortable, which meant that she knew about the family's military background.

However, she was unaware that there were no guards in Serbiati's residence, which suggests that her intelligence was not thorough and that she may only have access to information available through public channels.

"Don't kill me. There's some money in the purse on the table. Take it all if you want." Winters obediently dropped the Dusac knife on the ground.

He tried his best to appear weak and cooperative, but his mind never stopped thinking about how to retaliate.

He tried desperately to recall the structure of the firearm: there was usually a short delay between pulling the trigger and igniting the gunpowder, and another short delay between igniting the gunpowder and the bullet leaving the barrel.

Observe the opponent's movements carefully, and dodge laterally in advance to avoid vital areas. If the opponent misses with a single shot, immediately close in and use your strength advantage to subdue them.

However, Winters didn't want to use this method unless absolutely necessary, because it was too risky. It would be better to find a way to divert the other party's attention first.

What can distract someone?
Arrow-throwing technique? Those ten steel cones were all on the desk, next to that woman.

Is there any other way? Winters racked his brains, thinking hard.

“Don’t you recognize me, Mr. Montagne?” The woman in black changed her tone, as if flirting. But she held the revolver gun in her hand very steadily.

Winters shook his head, realizing that the other person already knew his name.

The woman in black said bitterly, "You burned all my hair off with a fire half a month ago."

"It's you?" Winters exclaimed, never expecting that the female thief from that night would actually track down Hailan.

"It's me," the female thief said with a cold smile.

Winters felt bewildered: "You went to the military academy to steal things, and I was on patrol. It was my duty to stop you. We don't have any personal grudges between us, do we?"

"Who are you calling a thief? I'm retrieving my family's property from a thief!" The woman in black was clearly stung by the word 'theft,' and her emotions became somewhat agitated.

After the words left her mouth, she realized her slip of the tongue and feigned anger to cover it up, saying, "I haven't settled the score with you for burning all my hair off yet."

"Then why didn't you set my hair on fire too?" Winters shrugged. "And when you tried to kill me, you wouldn't let me defend myself? The knife you stabbed in my arm still hasn't healed."

"You all Alliance soldiers deserve to die," the woman in black said hatefully. Realizing she had already extracted too much information from him, she cut to the chase: "Give me back my things, and I won't kill you. We'll call it even."

"What is it?" Winters felt a chill in his heart, but still lied without changing his expression.

Where is my dagger?

"What dagger?" This is terrible. Winters has already given the dagger to Elizabeth, but he can't involve his sister now.

Elizabeth was fast asleep in the room just a few meters away; who knew what that crazy woman might do?

"Stop playing dumb. I looked carefully when I got back that night, but I couldn't find it. You must have picked it up."

"You lost the dagger yourself and are asking me for it back?" Winters noticed a contradiction in the woman in black's logic. That night, when the woman in black fled, she threw the dagger at Winters to buy time.

If she valued that dagger so much, why would she use it as a throwing knife?
“Mr. Montagne, you seem to have misunderstood the situation. It's not me asking you for something; it's you handing over my things in exchange for your life.” The woman in black's tone turned icy. “If you don't cooperate, I don't mind killing you first and then finding it myself. Hand over my dagger!”

Having learned from his previous experience, Winters had no doubt that the woman in black would kill him without hesitation.

This woman seemed to have no psychological barrier to taking a life; during the encounter that night, every move she made was aimed at Winters' vital points.

But Winters' rationality was warning him: even if he returned everything to the woman in black, she would still shoot him in the head and disappear.

The key question is what the woman in black truly wanted. Was it the dagger? Obviously not. If she really cared about the dagger, she wouldn't have thrown it.

Winters shook his head inwardly, muttering, "But I really didn't find a dagger... I only found other things."

The bait is already on.

"What is that?" the woman in black asked coldly.

The fish bit the hook.

“A small notebook.” Winters had completely seen through the woman in black’s mind—what she really wanted was that blank notebook.

The dagger was just a decoy; if Winters obediently handed it over, he wouldn't refuse to hand over something else. The woman in black could easily retrieve the notebook with just a casual remark.
If Winters refuses to return the dagger, the woman in black will not reveal what she truly wants.

Ignorance is not the biggest obstacle; arrogance is.

The woman in black underestimated Winters. She thought it would be incredibly easy for her to conceal her true intentions from this naive young man, and she would pay the price for it.

"Where is it? Let me see it." The woman in black's tone remained indifferent, but Winters had already sensed something different.

“It’s in that bag on the table behind you,” Winters said nonchalantly.

Upon hearing this, the woman in black immediately turned to look for him, but suddenly stopped. She held the revolver firmly in her hands, pointing it at Winters, giving him no chance to launch a surprise attack.

She tilted her head, gesturing to Winters: "Go get it for me."

"Can't you just take it yourself?"

"Do not talk nonsense."

Winters walked slowly to the desk, looking very reluctant, while the woman in black kept the gun barrel on him the whole time.

But in reality, the woman in black's idea was exactly what he wanted to do; Winters never expected to distract her in this way.

Winters reached his right hand into the blood-stained satchel and quickly found the notebook, but didn't take it out.

The woman in black watched as Winters froze after putting his hand into the cloth bag, and urged him repeatedly, "Hurry up and look for it."

"Is this what you wanted?" Winters asked the woman in black with a laugh, pulling a notebook out of his handbag.

Winters's smile appeared maniacal in the firelight, accompanied by the acrid smell and smoke of burning leather. The blank notebook that the woman in black had risked her life for was now engulfed in flames.

When Winters got his hands on the notebook, he immediately unleashed his magic without reservation, setting it ablaze with fire.

The woman in black widened her eyes and let out a piercing scream. Now!

Winters crouched low and pounced on the woman in black like an arrow released from a bow.

The woman in black's attention was no longer on Winters until his hand touched the barrel of the gun and the trigger was pulled.

A loud gunshot echoed throughout the house, and a bullet hole appeared in the wooden ceiling.

Upon getting close, Winters pushed the barrel of his wheel-loaded gun upwards, using the momentum to knock the woman in black over. He then used his weight to pin her down, subduing her.

But at this moment, the woman in black had lost her previous ferocity and cruelty. She was like a helpless little girl, struggling, crying, and shouting, "Fire... put out the fire..."

Winters, however, was oblivious to the woman in black's changing emotions. He still vividly remembered her sudden attack and killing, and dared not be careless, carefully searching the female assassin for all her weapons.

After searching her back, Winters pulled off the bed sheet and tied the female assassin up tightly.

The woman in black let out a heart-wrenching scream, and even Winters could hear the despair and resentment in her voice. She muttered like a madwoman, "I'll kill you... I'll kill you..."

Awakened by the gunshot, Antonio rushed to Winters' bedroom with his sword. Pushing open the door, he saw his nephew straddling a dark object with a bedsheet, seemingly doing something. There was a small fire on the floor, which he quickly stomped out.

Only after the fire was extinguished did he realize that the dark thing on the ground was actually a person.

"What happened?" Antonio asked, unusually calm.

Winters, sweating profusely and panting heavily, said, "A thief! This is a thief, and a killer too! He chased me all the way from the federal province to my home."

The women were also awakened by the noise. Elizabeth stared wide-eyed as her brother carried a man in black to the bed. Kosa lit the candles, which took a little longer.

When the lights came on in Winters' room, Kosha could finally see the figure in black and exclaimed, "It's a woman!"

“A female thief, a female robber, a female assassin,” Winters replied.

The bound female assassin suddenly screamed, "I'm going to kill you!"

Kosha and Elizabeth were terrified by the ominous curse.

"Save your breath!" Winters grabbed a pillowcase and stuffed it tightly into the female assassin's mouth.

Now the woman in black could only make muffled noises. She struggled desperately, but her hands were tied behind her back and her legs were bound, so she could only expend her energy thrashing back and forth.

Antonio quickly regained his composure and calmly took over the command: "Elizabeth, go with your mother back to her bedroom. Don't worry, it's just a burglar who broke into the house."

After arranging for the women, Antonio pointed to the woman in black and said to Winters, "Let's take this female thief to the basement first. Don't leave her on the second floor and disturb your aunt and sister."

Mother Marita, who lived on the first floor, was also awakened. She saw Antonio and Winters carrying a man in black who was fighting desperately down from upstairs and kept exclaiming, "Oh my God, oh my God, what's going on..."

“Mother Marita, please hold up a lamp for us and go to the basement,” Antonio interrupted the old woman.

Still shaken, Mother Marita walked ahead, carrying an oil lamp and muttering, "Oh my God, oh my God."

The female thief in black was carried into the basement storage room, where Winters briefly explained the incident to Antonia.

The two men discussed it and agreed that although there were still many doubts about the whole matter, it would be best to hand the woman over to the sheriff for now.

Send her to jail first, then interrogate her slowly.

Winters, who had only been back in Hailan for a few days, didn't know anyone, so Antonia rode off to find the sheriff while Winters stayed home to guard the black-clad female thief.

The woman in black had stopped struggling in vain, but anger was burning fiercely in her eyes as she stared intently at Winters.

If eyes could be materialized, Winters would now have thousands upon thousands of holes.

"Who is this person?" Unable to contain her curiosity, Elizabeth secretly ran to the basement. The girl was surprisingly bold, tiptoeing over Winters' shoulder to peek at the woman in black.

"Get out, get out." Winters pushed Elizabeth out of the storeroom. "He's just a thief... what's so interesting about him? Didn't I tell you to go keep Kosha company?"

"Does your aunt need me to accompany her? She should be the one accompanying me." Elizabeth pouted unhappily, "I came to deliver something to you."

Elizabeth handed the black-clad woman's revolver to Winters. Actually, she hadn't come to deliver anything; she just wanted to find an excuse to run away from her mother to the basement to watch the commotion.

"Okay, I got it. Now you can go back upstairs," Winters said helplessly.

“And this too.” Elizabeth handed Winters a small folio with a blackened cover: “It’s almost completely burned off.”

It was the little notebook the female thief wanted. The pages were layered, making it difficult to burn completely. Although Winters used all his fire magic, only a small portion of the notebook remained after burning for a long time.

Winters shook his head with a wry smile: "I really can't understand what this woman wants this blank notebook for."

Winters casually flipped open the notebook, half of which had been burned to charcoal, and was surprised to find that blue writing had appeared in the previously blank spaces.

Lieutenant Colonel Field's words echoed in his mind: Some people write information in ways that are invisible, a method called steganography... Steganography is an enigma... Common methods are nothing more than water and fire...

So that’s it!
The contents of this notebook are written in invisible ink and will only become visible after being heated with a flame.

Winters turned to the first page of the notebook, where the yellowed paper contained the following passage:

To my dear Mary
You are the flame that warms my skin
You are the clear water that satisfies my longing.
You are my light

you are my Everything

After you left, my life lost all meaning.
——AL.DL”

This is a sad love poem, seemingly written by a man weeping for the departure of his lover.

But at this moment, Winters felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave upon seeing this poem.

It was the height of summer, but he genuinely felt a chill in his limbs, as if the air he exhaled from his lungs had frozen into ice.

Winters had never been so terrified, not even when a dagger was just an inch from his neck, not even when a rower grabbed his thigh in the cabin, not even when a musket was pointed at his forehead.

His hands trembled as he turned two more pages.

This page contains a simple drawing, titled:

"The Fourth Improved Spell Talent Testing Device"

Turn a few more pages:

"Analysis of the Nature of Sound-Based Spells"

Winters reached out and grabbed Elizabeth; he was feeling dizzy and needed to support her to avoid falling.

There can be no mistake.

AL.DL is an abbreviation for Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier.

Marie de Lavoisier was the wife of General Antoine Laurent.

The letter L he saw at the end of the notebook represented Lavoisier.

This small notebook is the lost research notes of Antoine Laurent.

He burned it himself.

"Damn it!" Winters blurted out.

I'm so sorry everyone, I'm truly ashamed. Thank you all for reading this far. Although I feel the main plot has begun, it actually starts from this chapter, which is the main plot mentioned in the synopsis: "A mass-produced magic combat tool learns the essence of magic." I often review what I've written so far, and each time I feel a sense of immaturity that makes me want to bury my head in the sand. If I were to write again, I'd probably put this chapter before chapter five (facepalm). Anyway, thank you to all the readers who have made it this far. Don't worry about this research notebook, there's still half left! 2333
Thank you to reader 20170726153222839 for the recommendation vote, thank you to reader 20181013204343295 for the recommendation vote, and thank you to reader "Social Justice Old Wang" for the recommendation vote. Thank you to reader "Social Justice Old Wang" for the donation.

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(End of this chapter)