—
After watching the four of them leave to search for materials, Gustave began sketching the weapon he wanted to build on his tiny parchment canvas, using pigment sticks—the medieval equivalent of crayons.
He envisioned creating something even a three-year-old could wield, requiring only minimal strength or effort. Ideally, it would be a weapon he could operate with a single push of a button—something as easy to handle as a Nerf gun, but with the firepower of a real one.
He understood that if the weapon required even a small amount of strength, he wouldn't be able to use it. His tiny toddler body—at an age when most children could barely do more than suck their thumbs and play—was simply too weak.
Coupled with the fact that the Savant—or the Paragon Pathway as a whole—was inherently weak in its early stages, offering little to no enhancement to physical strength, it became all the more crucial for him to design a tool that was easily accessible at this point in his development.
The second requirement was that the weapon had to be concealable. Anything visible would only invite suspicion. If a toddler were seen holding a weapon for self-defense—when the common belief was that children couldn't distinguish friend from foe—his cover as a prodigious child would be ruined, making him appear more like an adult trapped in a child's body.
And if everyone were to discover that he was, in fact, an adult trapped in a child's body, it wouldn't just be the common folk—even his overprotective mother, Meve—would come to see him as a freak.
After all, it was only natural for people to find a baby—or any small child—unnerving rather than cute once they realized there was an adult soul behind those eyes. Gustave deduced that such a revelation would surely attract every kind of sorcerer and priest, all eager to perform some form of exorcism.
The final requirement was effectiveness—Gustave wanted the weapon to work against both ordinary people and sorcerers alike. He reasoned that anyone who took an interest in him would likely be an assassin from an opposing political faction or a sorcerer from Aretuza or Ban Ard.
Whether it was his intelligence clouded by the naivety of a toddler or simply curiosity born from his prodigious mind's desire to experiment, Gustave concluded that any magic-user interested in him was likely driven by manipulative—or even malicious—intent.
To him, the most natural reaction to encountering a genius was simple awe or jealousy at first, followed by indifference. After all, most people had their own lives to worry about and no desire to waste effort entertaining someone else's "special" child.
That was why he suspected that anyone who tried to get too close either wanted to use him for their own ends — exploiting his intelligence and the so-called childlike naivety — or meant him harm, hoping to hinder his growth before his success could one day threaten their interests.
As for preparing a weapon against monsters, Gustave wasn't too concerned. For most of his journey, he would be traveling with a sizable military entourage. He could leave such battles to professionals, focusing instead on threats that were far more intelligent.
So, once again, as he began sketching and designing weapons suitable for a toddler like himself, Gustave came up with four concepts that met his criteria—practical, effective, and easily hidden from plain sight.
The first was a type of blade-embedded boot, similar to those seen in spy films, where the blade could extend or retract based on pressure applied to the outsole of the shoe.
However, he quickly realized that this design relied heavily on leg strength and reach—both of which he severely lacked. For a toddler like him, using such a weapon would be no better than wielding a dagger by hand.
As a result, he concluded that this design would likely be scrapped once he gathered the necessary components.
The second design was a glove with tiny, fine needles along the palm, each to be coated with a poison potent enough to kill an adult. But creating that poison would require advanced alchemical facilities to which he would probably be barred—he was only a toddler—so Gustave knew this design would most likely be shelved and tagged as a future project.
The third design involved custom-made coins, slightly bulkier and hollowed inside. When thrown with a specific rotation, the coins would mix internal chemicals and trigger a reaction that could cause an explosion.
Although this idea suited his toddler frame—easy to carry without arousing suspicion and simple to throw with minimal strength—it suffered from the same problem as the glove: it required advanced alchemical work.
Moreover, since those coins would need to be custom-made—the required intricacies couldn't be found in any ready-made parts—he once again had no choice but to set the idea aside for later.
The fourth design was an air-pressurized gun that would fire nails when activated, disguised as a cane—similar to the cane-sword, except that instead of housing a blade, it would contain a mechanism for launching projectiles.
Operating on the same basic principle as a nail gun or pneumatic weapon—using compressed air and a piston to propel a projectile—Gustave planned to adapt that mechanism to the cane. Much like the pneumatic guns in Metro 2033, his concept followed a similar idea.
The only difference was that, while the pneumatic guns in the Metro series required air canisters to function, Gustave intended to use Glyphstones or Runestones as their replacement.
This would spare him the inconvenience of designing a separate mechanism to pump air into the canisters—something that would likely require an entirely different system dependent on electricity, a resource scarce in this era. Except for sorcerers, of course.
If he needed a mage and their mastery of the elements just to reload a pneumatic gun, then by that point Gustave figured he would already have built something far better—something that required no sorcerer at all. It would be pointless to seek their help when he could design a similar mechanism himself, relying solely on his modern knowledge.
Reviewing the four designs he had already conceptualized, Gustave concluded that a pneumatic gun was the most feasible weapon he could construct with the components available to him.
Pressurized chambers existed in blowpipes, pipe organs, and forge bellows; piston-like mechanisms could be found in the iron syringes used by witch doctors, alchemists, and healers. Even the internal gear mechanisms needed to trigger the launch could be adapted from locks, compasses, and other small devices he had already instructed his maids to gather.
For these reasons, a pneumatic gun was the ideal choice for his first means of self-defense in this world. However, upon further thought, he realized that a cane would be too large for him to carry, so he decided to make the design much smaller—something that could be concealed within his sleeve.
Having finally decided what he wanted to create, Gustave once again began sketching with his pigment sticks, drafting various designs that could be hidden inside his doublet. Since he didn't yet have any of the necessary parts, he kept the designs intentionally vague, unsure of what components he would be working with.
With the soft scratching of crayon filling the room, the three-year-old Gustave continued his brainstorming, alone in his study chamber as he awaited the return of his maids.
—
"Yes, yes. Put it there. No, no! Don't push it to hard! Aish… it broke again."
"Your Highness, I-I'm sorry. I'll get another one right away."
Sighing helplessly for what felt like the umpteenth time, Gustave waved his tiny hand and said, "Just go."
Sitting at the dining table that had been turned into a makeshift workbench, he couldn't help but rub his forehead in frustration. Seven attempts—seven failures. Every single try at building a sleeve-mounted pneumatic gun had ended up as a pile of scrap, thanks to his maids' lack of an artisan's touch.
The tiny bolts, gears, and springs that required precise handling and delicate pressure to lock into place were constantly twisted and tangled together due to his maids' lack of fine motor control. Every time the hidden sleeve pneumatic gun seemed just inches away from completion, some small mistake would ruin everything, turning the entire effort into a waste.
Gustave would have preferred to do the work himself, but with his small body and meager strength, he simply didn't have the force needed to secure the bolts properly. As a result, most of the internal assembly had to be handled by his maids—leading to this endless cycle of failure.
Because of this, the maids—who once only needed to make a single trip around the capital city of Lyria to secure a batch of components—now had to put in extra work, going back and forth to find the same parts that had worked perfectly in the previous design or to bring an entirely new batch of components.
The most vexing part of this entire ordeal was that whenever one of those components couldn't be found, Gustave had to scrap everything and rebuild it from scratch. That was simply the disadvantage of assembling a somewhat complex mechanism from used parts—if one piece didn't fit, the entire construction had to be redone.
And that wasn't even counting whether the mechanism actually worked. So far, every result had been a failure; he hadn't even reached the point of testing whether the pneumatic gun functioned properly. That was why he was so exasperated—at his maids for their clumsiness, and even more so at himself for being trapped in the frail body of a toddler.
Thus, the cycle of failure repeated again and again.
—
This was now the tenth time he had redesigned the sleeve-mounted pneumatic gun, each attempt adjusted so that every part and component would fit together perfectly.
As the sun dipped below the horizon and the last of the components lay before him—the final batch he could get his hands on before his evacuation from Lyria the next morning—Gustave exhaled a weary breath and muttered, "Tenth time's the charm."
"..."
"Okay, girls. Take a deep breath. And exhale. It's okay to cry, it's okay to be frustrated, it's okay to feel down, but the moment we start working I need you four to focus. Focus as if you'd taken the Handmaid's Trial. No distracting thoughts — just pure attention to what's in front of you. Got it?"
"Y-yes, Your Majesty…"
"Louder!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"Nice — that's what I like to hear. Now let's do this together. As usual, Rosemary, you handle the straw-pipe distillation apparatus. Make sure Delilah clips those to the end of the metal syringe. And Delilah, as I said, wait for Rosemary and the rest of us to fit the trigger mechanism before you close it, understand? As for Brinna and Mira, you'll assist me with bolting the mechanism inside. With that said, let's do it."
Moving as if they were extensions of himself, Gustave directed Brinna and Mira to make a small incision in the side of the tube with the stitching awl. He instructed his maids to saw off a short length of iron rod under his supervision, then placed the rod into the incision. After that, he had Brinna push with just the right amount of force so the fit was perfect and no air could leak in.
Without waiting for his usual prompts, Rosemary attached the pipe that would act as a hose, channeling air from the pressurized chamber to the projectile-launching mechanism. Once that task was complete, Gustave moved on to the next component, ensuring the chambers would function perfectly with the trigger system.
Taking the spring and bolt that had been disassembled from the locking mechanism, Gustave pointed out where Brinna and Mira needed to screw and where to secure the spring. Once the trigger assembly was complete, he instructed Delilah to clip it into place so it fit with the rest of the mechanism.
Moving on from the trigger, he directed Rosemary to pull the crossbow string cord—thankfully, it matched perfectly with the projectile system and the rest of the assembly.
Then, connecting the spring from one end to the other, Gustave instructed Rosemary to fit another pipe that would link the pressurized chamber to the empty section designated for the Aard Glyphstones. Following his careful chiseling directions, Brinna and Mira finally completed both the pressurized air reloading and air suction systems: one slot for an Aard Glyphstone with a pushing effect, and another for one with a suction effect.
Once every system was in place, Gustave—his palms sweaty and perspiration running down his cheeks—began bolting and gearing everything together. For the final touch, he pumped the air out to give the mechanism its preliminary jumpstart, turning it from a mere air blower into a true pneumatic weapon.
"Now!"
At his command, Rosemary quickly pulled the pump handle. Without waiting for instruction, Delilah sealed the chamber, while at the same time Brinna and Mira drew the trigger string into the front gear—without a single hiccup or delay.
"That's it, right?"
"..."
Silence filled the room. Even their breathing grew shallow. With trembling hands, Gustave moved to the side of the pneumatic gun. Grasping it carefully, he aimed it forward, then reached for the string attached to the trigger.
A pull—then a click. Fwoohm! A burst of air shot from the syringe nozzle. Moments later—Syyyrhh!—the air was drawn back in, making the pump automatically rise, readying itself for a second shot.
"We did it, girls! We did it!!!"
And with that, a small step for arcane steam-powered technology was taken—a single spark in the dim, dining corridors, that would one day lead to countless paragons of invention.
—