Chapter 24: Stocking Up
Chapter 24: Stocking Up
Keith happily used up all the bullets and walked over to Amelia so he could exchange his bullets for hers.
"Oh, okay." she said and took out a small piece of paper which looked similar to the newspaper token that Keith had bought earlier in the day.
"Take this to the room that's at the end of the corridor. There'll be an old guy there and all you have to do is give this to him." she said looked at the gun she was holding, "You know, this thing barely has any recoil and that's what makes these bullets so valuable."
Keith gave her a confused look, and she immediately gave him an explanation, "Adam is well known in the noble circles and churches. The bullets that he produces have extremely low recoil, which makes them very useful in the hands of experienced shooters. If someone finds out that we're using them to practice... they'll curse our ancestors."
She then let out a chuckle, "But, that's the advantage of having connections. If you give your bullets to the old man in that room, he'll give you double the amount of same sized bullets."
"Thanks."
He then walked out of the shooting range and went straight to the end of the corridor before knocking on the door.
"Come in." he heard a voice and walked in. Just like Amelia had said, there really was an "old looking" man, but he was way too short. He seemed youthful, but his wrinkly face just made him look old.
"Hahahaha, you don't have to stare so hard." he said as he laughed and the next second his skin moved and began to straighten up until it wasn't wrinkly anymore. This just stayed for two seconds before his skin turned wrinkly again.
The guy smiled at Keith and said, "Just a side effect of having the ability to change my facial appearance. Anyways, I heard that young lass a few minutes ago so maybe you're here to get some bullets?"
"Yes."
"Great. I assume that you're using a flintlock?"
Keith shook his head, "No, a revolver. The bullets that I need are the ones that Amelia usually gets, but I also do need the ones that follow the Empire's standards and measurements."
After saying that, he took out the box of bullets that he had and emptied it into his palm before handing over all the 20 remaining bullets to the guy in front.
"My brother in law is Adam and these bullets were made by him. In exchange, I wish to have thirty six of the bullets that Amelia's revolver needs and four of the same size as these." he added as he put the empty box back into his inner pocket.
"Hmm, you really must learn the names of these bullets you know? But before that, I must introduce myself. I have given up my actual name and currently go by storekeeper. As for the names of these bullets... it's based on where the bullets originated from or their destructive effects.
The ones that war church uses are basically just call the war church's bullets as they're only produced by the war church. The empire's bullets are called the Kazak bullets and the ones that Amelia uses are actually the hunter's bullets as they're mostly used to hunt animals.
The revolver she uses is also a hunting variant of the empire's revolvers, but here's a fun fact. The empire actually never made the weapon. The one that she carries is actually an artefact that she received through her dead grand father's will two years ago.
The hunting bullets are mostly used in hunting rifles, but her weapon is just a miracle."
Keith listened to everything and nodded. While these bullets did have their own native names, the author of the novel had used normal terms such as 9mm, 10mm, etc so that the readers didn't get confused.
Even Keith hadn't paid too much attention to the native names and now it bit him in his back.
"Understood." he said, nodding as he digested the information which was actually very easy to remember.
The Kazak bullet was basically the 9mm luger that was most commonly used bullet/round in his old planet. The hunter's bullet was 10mm, which had more recoil and power. It was the war church's bullet that was more unique.
Compared to 9mm luger, which had the diameter of 9mm and length of the case as 19mm, the war church's bullet had a diameter of 8mm but the length of the case was at 25mm. This change allowed their bullets to have almost equal kinetic energy compared to the 9mm counterpart.
But in Keith's eyes, the 9mm was still better as it had more diameter, which meant more damage area.
After he made the calculations in his mind, he got a better understanding of the three types of bullets. He watched the storekeeper take a step back from the table that was between them.
He walked towards one of the shelves and grabbed two boxes before bringing them to the table.
"Thirty six hunters and four Kazak bullets." he muttered as he grabbed four bullets from one of the boxes and then he began to slowly count up to thirty six of the thicker bullets before putting them all in a group on the table.
"Do you need anything to carry these in? Or will you just put them in your pocket?"
Keith looked at the bullets and said, "I'm just practising, so I'll keep them in my pocket."
As he filled his outer pocket with the bullets, he thought about the money he had, which was 11 Zens and 32 Braks in total.
After thinking about his money while looking at the box of bullets in front of him, he made up his mind and took out a silver zen note that had the number 1 printed on it along with a big nosed man's face.
Then, he grabbed a big 10 Brak coin from his leather pouch and placed it on the table along with the 1 Zen note.
"By the way, I forgot to ask. How much does each bullet cost?"