Magnifico

The underdog weapon

A few moments later, a eunuch made an announcement. It was a visitor and he was granted entry.

“Oh, Lucas!” King Zulu exclaims as he sees Lucas. “Please do come on in, you entered in a crucial time,” King Zulu said excitedly as he sees him. He walks gently up to where Sun and the King were both sitting. The General stood up and greeted Lucas.

“My Greetings Sir,” Sun said as he stands up from his chair and offered Lucas to sit down instead.

“Thank you, Sun. Like you know, I am getting old.” Lucas said as both Sun and the king laughed.

“I will order your food. We are almost done eating ours” King Zulu said to Lucas.

“No. No. I have taken my breakfast. But you can offer me one of that tea.” Lucas said.

“Oh. That would be nice.” King Zulu said. He ordered another hot tea for Lucas.

“I reckon today should be the day you would be traveling out General,” Lucas said to Sun.

The question caused a quick spike of adrenaline rush on Sun’s stomach. He wasn’t expecting the question from Lucas. He wished the former Regent was there when he told the king why he wouldn't be going for the Journey that day, he also wondered how he was so exact about the time. “Yes sir. You are correct.” Sun replied.

“Are you still leaving?” Lucas asked. Hot tea was already served.

“Drink your tea Lucas.” the king said.

“The General said he won’t be going today. He needs to get all things ready before they move and today won’t the day” he added.

Taking a sip, Lucas dropped the cup on the table and said “Oh. That would be okay. Since going to Sytrits today isn’t going to be possible, I guess we should look into other things at home instead.” Lucas said and he picked his cup to drink again.

“What could that be?” Sun asked.

Lucas dropping his cup again, he said “we need to look into how well we are fortifying ourselves for the worst possible outcome. We need to know if there has been any progress about our weapon development, you know we can not entertain delays on that part.”

“Yes. Yes. That is true.” Zulu nodded his head as though his interest has been aroused because of what Lucas just said.

“Oh. I have been taking care of that and it is among the reasons why I won’t be going on the journey. I have inspected the level at which we had gone towards new findings that would help our army even if I am not around. There are new weapons that were developed and they have been working on it for months. One of the weapons is called a stone-throwing machine. Hammer, the man in charge of the weapon development has given me updates about this amazing flagship weapon that could scare our enemies from inside these walls. I can categorically tell you that this machine is a pain in the a*s and even the kingdom of Alaphas would think twice when they see it. Though rumours have it that Alaphas have developed this weapon too. They have a similar weapon as well but the only difference is, ours is more sophisticated because nobody has developed the type with three throwers or preferably called the scorpion. Even Magnifico can’t fight us alone so this machine is useless for pulling down the less vulnerable in his army.” Sun paused to drink water. He continued “there is this amazing invention that I love so much and Hammer is still working on it and it is called the walking tower.”

“The walking tower?” Lucas asked, his face looking confused.

“Yes, the working towers,” Lucas answered.

“How does a tower walk?” Zulu asked.

“Nice question. When I mean the walking towers, I don’t mean the towers will stand on its feet to start walking. No, that’s not how that works. I mean, watchtowers will be built with woods and the foot will be built on a wheel. The reason Hammer said for designing it with the wood is, so it could be flexible and easy to carry. The whole subject of the matter for designing this is to help us easily maneuver incoming fire from an enemy.” Sun explained.

“Does it mean the slim towers we have isn’t strong enough?” King Zulu asked.

“Our slim watch towers tactics are strong and also very okay but the wooden one will act as a failsafe. In case those are brought down, we could use other ones as well to the exact position of our enemies. This way, we can maintain an accurate precision of our target whenever we use our weapons.” Sun explained with a more steady voice.

“But since it is made of woods. What happens when the enemy fires back at us and the towers end up in flames? Wouldn’t that be a waste of taxpayer’s money?” Lucas inquired.

“That area has been sorted out as well. Hammer managed to design a means that successfully suppresses fire. He has developed a mixture of vinegar and hides as a liquid for suppressing fires. This is an amazing invention our generation has not quite seen before, anywhere. I was surprised as well when I heard it and I knew he thought of every worst possible outcome that might come up before drawing these plans,” Sun said with joy in his voice.

“wow! That is very new. I am happy to hear this.” Lucas said.

“Me too, I am happy to hear this General. We are truly improving. This is kind of news I wish to be hearing every day, I love these inventions.” said King Zulu.

“Yeah. That is true. We have also successfully enlarged the weapon house and it’s now very large. We did this because we want every weapon to be accommodated. And the weapon house is on the south side, even though it is close to the wall of the south side but there is nothing we should be worried about. The south side beyond our walls is a muddy terrain so our enemies won’t be attacking us from that side. I felt that is the safest place is should be in our fort. We can let the enemy destroy our weapon house because destroying it would amount to destroying us as well.” Sun explained.

“That is true. That is quite true.” King Zulu said.

“I am happy to hear this General. I am happy you and your teams have been working towards strengthening us, we can’t go down without a fight, we can’t go down like Zuix.” Lucas said happily, taking his already cold tea, he sipped it as though it was still hot.

“Thank you. I have to go now. My king, thanks for the food” Sun said as he bows down in respect.

“You may go,” Zulu said.

“Okay,” Sun says as he turns around and left the room.