Chapter 122

The next morning, all useful supplies from Resurrection Island were loaded onto the ships, and Gervas and his party began their return journey.

This time, they took away nearly three hundred refugees, along with over a hundred pirates.

They spared the pirates instead of killing them because Gervas had foreseen the coming conscription order.

With only a hundred or so men, they would never be enough for the battlefield, so these pirates were perfect for filling the ranks.

Besides, they were utterly wicked; using them as cannon fodder caused no moral harm whatsoever.

Fortunately, they now had three ships altogether, allowing them to transport so many people at once.

Besides being packed with Resurrection Island’s supplies, each ship carried an average of over one hundred fifty people.

Even the warship was no exception.

Though the warship’s hull was streamlined and sat high in the water,

it was still a combat vessel—this number of men was far from its limit.

The same went for the other two merchant ships; the Birdshit routinely hauled several tons of guano at a time, so its carrying capacity was still considerable.

“My lord, this warship is incredibly fast!”

Migen and others stood at the rail, exhilarated beyond words by the warship’s cutting through the waves.

Just moments ago, when Gervas ordered full speed to test the warship’s true velocity, it left the two merchant ships far behind in mere minutes.

With such a vessel, pirates could easily catch any merchant ship.

Had the Skulls’ nest not already been raided by other pirates, it likely held plenty of treasure.

Still, once his strength grows, he might consider claiming it someday.

“My lord! We found something strange in the hold!”

As Allen fantasized about seizing future dominance of the seas, Lei Meng hurried over.

“What strange thing?” Gervas asked, puzzled.

“My lord, it’s something very similar to the crossbow you made—but much, much larger!”

“Similar to a crossbow, and much bigger? A ballista?!” Gervas exclaimed in shock.

Ten minutes later, Gervas returned to the deck, his expression unreadable, carrying with him a ballista with a three-meter-long bow arm.

It was a fixed ballista; the original mounting spot had been found—a perfectly fitted recess on the ship’s central bow.

“My lord, can this giant crossbow actually fire?” Migen and the others stared wide-eyed.

They had seen the small crossbows their lord had the blacksmith make—each as powerful as a longbow.

But this giant weapon surpassed their wildest imagination.

“It can fire—and with tremendous power!”

This was indeed a ballista from another world; Gervas was certain now.

Though it had only a single bow arm, its power likely fell far short of the double- or triple-arm ballistae from his past life.

And its stringing mechanism lacked a winch—only a large iron hook remained.

But this was a technologically backward world; the only large ranged weapon Gervas had ever heard of was the trebuchet.

As for the difficulty of stringing it, if he didn’t want to waste too many men, he could have a titled knight assist.

That way, the stringing speed would certainly not be slower than with a winch.

Gervas now wanted to see the ballista’s true power, so he ordered Lei Meng to draw the string.

With a soft grunt, Lei Meng’s aura flickered faintly, and with a sharp snap, the bowstring slid effortlessly into the latch.

Then, he had Migen and the others load the massive bolt, and under everyone’s curious gaze, he pulled the linen cord on the trigger.

With a thunderous crack, the bowstring released, the ballista shuddered violently, and the bolt—thick as a baby’s arm—shot forth.

Because the bolt was so enormous—two and a half meters long—the shaft visibly wobbled under the immense stress.

Finally, the massive bolt plunged into the sea over two hundred fifty meters away.

Though it had lost nearly all its kinetic energy by that distance, Migen and the others stared in stunned silence.

“This… this…”

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Gervas smiled.

“Yes, my lord! The longest range of a longbow is barely over a hundred meters!” Migen and the others nodded vigorously.

After a pause, they asked, curious and awed, “By the way, my lord, aren’t you surprised at all?”

Little did Migen and the others know, this ballista was nothing to their lord—a man from another world.

Besides, Gervas had crafted the small crossbows partly to gain experience, preparing for the eventual construction of a ballista.

He simply hadn’t expected that ballistae already existed in this world—even if their technology seemed crude.

But it was still a major advancement.

At that moment, two guards brought forward a pirate lieutenant who knew something of the ballista’s origins.

The ballista and the warship were a matched set, both originating from the Duke Hernalde family of the kingdom.

The former Skull boss had been a first mate in Duke Hernalde’s naval fleet.

Later, after embezzlement was exposed, he seized the warship and fled.

This ballista was designed by the Hernalde family’s chief master bowyer.

Gervas had never heard of it because the Hernalde family kept it tightly secret.

Or perhaps, another possibility: Gervas’s rank was too low for such information to reach him.

After all, the Skull boss had stolen the warship five years ago.

In five years, unless the ballista had never been used, there must have been rumors.

…

“M… Master!”

In the evening, Gervas had returned to the castle.

Six Resurrection Island villagers were brought into the parlor.

Of course, these villagers were now slaves.

“I hear you are jewelers?”

“Yes, Master!”

These men were indeed the jewelers mentioned in the intelligence.

After bringing back the islanders, Gervas had ordered Old John to tally their skills.

To his delight, the proportion of craftsmen aboard was surprisingly high.

Among them: eighteen shipwrights, five carpenters, six jewelers, and twelve navigators.

The scarcity of shipwrights, carpenters, and navigators needed no explanation—especially shipwrights.

As a transmigrator, Gervas understood the importance of naval dominance; even as a mere baron, he must plan for the future.

Of these craftsmen, the jewelers were currently the least useful.

But remembering the high-quality crystals Catherine had given him, Gervas had an idea.

“I need you to polish a batch of crystal slabs—polish them perfectly smooth, without a single scratch, like this glow pearl. Can you do it?”

“Master, we can!” To Gervas’s delight, the hardworking craftsmen gave a firm affirmative.

“Good! If you work hard, earning amnesty and becoming serfs is not beyond reach!”

Then Gervas handed them the drawings he had sketched from memory of glass lenses from his past life.

…

【Ding! Daily intelligence has refreshed…】

【Intelligence One: A messenger from Iron Wolf City will arrive today, bearing the King’s conscription order.】

【Intelligence Two: After more than ten days of excavation, Viscount Beckter failed to discover any new ore veins in his family’s iron mine.】

Viscount Beckter was deeply disappointed.

Yet he did not wish to let the mine lie idle; instead, he planned to squeeze out its last value.

That is, conceal the mine’s depletion and sell it as still productive, swindling a substantial sum in gold coins.

But Viscount Beckter did not know that, if he dug just ten more meters ahead along his current vein, he would uncover a far larger iron deposit.