Chapter 62: Those with a Twist (1)

After the Night Ogre’s assassination attempt on Raion came to an end, Kanas Castle began to bustle with renewed activity.

When Raion handed over certain blueprints or design drafts to Dike, Dike would begin producing them one by one.

Of course, Dike didn’t stop at the basics—he always devised ways to apply and improve upon the initial design.

The completed products were then connected to Theron Village, where agreements for commercialization had already been settled.

The first items to be commercialized were the guillotine-style pump and the flush toilet.

Naturally, these items brought great shock to the people of the territory.

Thanks to that, the lord’s once-declining reputation began to rise rapidly.

For the sake of the territory’s development, Dike was hammering away diligently once again that day.

Tang—! Tang—!

“Phew~! I think this should do.”

Sweat beaded across Dike’s forehead beneath his sky-blue hair.

In front of him lay several weapons—improved versions of the slingbow.

Knock, knock.

As the sound of knocking was heard, Monica, the maid, entered. In her hands was a simple meal.

Setting it down, Monica scolded him gently.

“No matter how busy you are, you still need to eat.”

“Hehehe! I will.”

Approaching the table, Dike swallowed hard and began to eat.

Meanwhile, Monica looked at the slingbow Dike was making and exclaimed in awe.

“Is this another weapon like the bow the Prince made before?”

Having never handled a weapon in her life, Monica found it fascinating.

Dike swallowed a mouthful of meat before answering.

“Mm! Yeah! I made this to increase the range compared to the standard slingbow.”

Originally, a slingbow had only a single latch fixed to the center of its support to hang the bowstring.

But the improved version before him had an additional wooden support structure apart from the latch.

“How do you use it?”

“I’ll show you. Watch closely, noona.”

Dike set down his food and picked up the slingbow.

He placed an arrow on the separate support and hooked it onto the latch.

The string—made from an ogre’s tendon—was pulled taut and released in an instant.

Ping! Shwaaaaaak! Pak—!

The arrow shot along the support, striking the wooden target hanging on the wall with great force.

It hit so hard that the arrowhead pierced clean through the target and embedded itself into the wall.

“At this level, the range isn’t bad at all.”

“Wow…”

Monica was nothing short of astonished by the sight.

The boy she had always thought of as just a child suddenly seemed impressive and capable.

“Now I need to go outside and test the proper range.”

“You mean the backyard? Ah… maybe we shouldn’t go there right now.”

There was something strange in her tone.

Dike tilted his head, but soon realized what she meant.

“Did those soldiers bother you again, noona?”

“It’s not that… I just saw them training in the backyard earlier.”

Life in Kanas Castle hadn’t been peaceful ever since Raion and his people arrived.

Although the chief culprit of internal corruption, the administrative officer Conrad Vivalous, had been dealt with, it was impossible to cleanse every tainted faction under him.

Naturally, territorial bias and bullying still existed.

Raion, being a prince, was cautious even with the smallest rumor—but those beneath him were not.

“Haa…”

“There’s no way we can tell the Prince about this. If we can’t handle it ourselves, we’ll just have to endure it.”

Monica already sounded resigned.

That only made Dike angrier—but at the same time, he couldn’t disagree with her reasoning.

After all, it was Raion who had saved him from being sold off as a slave in the Edina Kingdom.

“Let’s just go outside. If the soldiers mess with us again, I’ll handle it my own way this time.”

“Will you be all right?”

Gathering the different types of completed slingbows, Dike headed to the backyard with Monica.

As Monica had said, soldiers were training there with slingshots and slingbows.

When the two appeared, the soldiers began whispering among themselves.

Most of what they said wasn’t pleasant.

“I heard that kid’s the one who made these weapons. Is that true?”

“You still believe that nonsense? How could a little brat like him make something like this? Ridiculous.”

“Exactly. How could a half-breed dwarf like that… The Prince must’ve just been kind enough to let him help a little.”

Their words grew more and more harsh.

Some lingering prejudice against other races still remained.

Even so, Dike and Monica held back, afraid that making a fuss would trouble Raion.

“Dike, let’s just check quickly and go back inside.”

“You can go ahead, noona. You might get harassed again. And besides, the Prince might look for you.”

“The Prince went out. The head butler’s handling things personally these days.”

“Is that so? He must be busy then. I’ll finish up quickly.”

Together, Dike and Monica walked toward the targets the soldiers were using.

As soon as they approached, the soldiers stopped talking.

It was too close a distance for a soldier to openly chatter without consequence.

In the meantime, Dike took his place at the table farthest from the targets.

He set the slingbow and arrow rest he had brought from the workshop onto the table.

The soldiers, who had gone quiet for a moment, soon began to chatter again.

“Is that kid really planning to pull that thing?”

“That’s ridiculous. Even we have a hard time pulling it—how could he manage it?”

The soldiers were members of the newly formed Sling Unit under Kanas’s regular forces.

Since they were still in the early stages of training, they struggled to handle slingbows and slingshots made from ogre tendons.

Even as those unpleasant words passed around, Dike ignored them, picked up the wooden rest and arrow, and hooked them onto the slingbow string.

“You think that brat can pull something even we can’t? He’s just playing around.”

As more mocking voices rang out, Dike pulled the string with all his might.

Juuuuuuuk—!

The string, made of ogre tendon, stretched past his right shoulder and even farther back.

The moment he released it, the arrow flew faster than it had in the workshop and struck the target.

Pak—!

The arrow didn’t fly in an arc—it shot almost perfectly straight.

The soldiers watching the scene wore dumbfounded expressions.

He had handled a slingbow, which even grown men struggled to draw, as if it were nothing.

“At this range, the distance isn’t bad at all.”

The target was roughly 200 meters away.

At this power, firing in an arc would easily exceed 300 meters.

“That’s amazing. How can you pull it like that?”

“It’s not too hard if you practice. Want to give it a try?”

“No thanks. Try the other one now.”

At Monica’s suggestion, Dike picked up another modified slingbow.

“Ah… I brought the wrong one.”

He had picked up a different type than he had intended.

“Is it defective?”

Dike scratched the back of his head.

“Not exactly. It’s an early prototype made with ogre tendon instead of orc tendon. It’s much tougher to draw.”

“Ogre? Then you can’t use it?”

“Not exactly…”

Saying that, Dike lifted the slingbow made with ogre tendon and set the arrow and rest in place.

This time, the string was pulled back much more slowly.

Juuuuuuuuuuuk…!

The ogre tendon stretched far, then released in an instant.

The arrow shot out several times faster than before, piercing through the target and embedding deep into the thick castle wall behind it.

Paaak—!

The arrow shaft couldn’t withstand the impact and shattered completely.

“…”

The soldiers who witnessed the scene were speechless, standing frozen in place.

Monica, on the other hand, exclaimed in shock.

“W-wow! How is that even possible?”

The wooden target wasn’t just pierced—it was shattered completely from the center outward, reduced to splinters.

If the target had been a person instead of wood, the arrow would’ve gone straight through their armor and torso.

“The ogre tendon is just that strong. But because of the pull strength, only I, the Prince, or Brother Jade could use it properly.”

“How can you?”

Dike’s slender frame was barely 160 centimeters tall.

He looked far weaker than even an average woman, so Monica found it unbelievable.

“Noona, did you forget who my dad is?”

“Ah…!”

As she gasped in realization, a few soldiers approached Dike, their tone hostile.

“Hey, brat! What did you do to that slingbow? If something like that existed, you should’ve handed it over long ago!”

The soldiers assumed that what they’d seen wasn’t due to Dike’s strength, but because of some trick or special modification.

Dike lifted his chin and stared back coldly.

“I told you—it’s just made with ogre tendon.”

“Ogre tendon? You expect us to believe that? That a half-breed runt like you can pull something made from ogre tendon?”

“Hahaha! That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard. He wants us to believe that?”

The others laughed and jeered along with him, mocking Dike endlessly.

At that moment, Monica, who had stepped back, came forward.

“He’s telling the truth! It really is ogre tendon! You men can’t even draw it yourselves, so who are you blaming?”

“You little maid, how dare you talk back!”

The men had served as soldiers in Kanas for a long time.

Because of that, they thought of the Prince’s maid as no different from any other servant.

One of the angry soldiers shoved Monica’s shoulder.

“Kyaaa!”

As she fell, Dike rushed between them, alarmed.

“What do you think you’re doing!”

“Who do you think you’re talking to, brat!”

The soldier grabbed Dike by the collar and lifted him into the air.

Small as he was, Dike dangled helplessly from the man’s grip.

But not for long.

“Arghhh!”

Before anyone realized it, Dike’s hand had clamped tightly around the soldier’s wrist.

Whether from sheer force or shock, the man released his grip and clutched his wrist in pain, collapsing to the ground.

“I told you to stop!”

There was only one reason Dike possessed such strength—

He was a half-dwarf, born from a dwarf and a human.

And he had inherited his dwarf father’s physique strongly—despite his slender frame, his strength was extraordinary.

Even by innate muscle power alone, he easily surpassed a full-grown adult.

“It hurts! Let go!”

Dike gripped his arm tightly and didn’t release.

The man couldn’t even roll away, holding his arm and groaning.

Seeing this, the other soldiers’ faces twisted in anger as they rushed forward.

Shwaaaaak—!

In that instant, a rock the size of a fist flew swiftly past the soldiers and struck the center of a distant target.

Paak!

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