Andrea had just climbed to a corner of the city wall when she saw a scene that shocked her.

A row of soldiers dressed as militiamen stood on the wall, holding strange weapons—presumably the firearms that Ashes had mentioned. As the demon beasts approached, the firearms spewed flames and thick smoke, and continuous explosions echoed in her ears.

This should be a weapon similar to a crossbow, but she couldn't see the crossbow bolts fired by the soldiers, probably because of the heavy smoke. The demon beasts rushing in the front seemed to be hit hard by something, their bodies paused, and they fell to the ground one after another.

But the soldiers neither observed the results of the battle nor reloaded their crossbows. Instead, they continued to shoot at the enemy, and their speed was several times faster than her own when nocking an arrow.

"This is the terrifying weapon you mentioned?" Andrea felt her lips were a little dry, "The rate of fire is indeed fast, but the hit rate seems..."

"These people were miners, farmers, and hunters before being recruited into the First Army," Ashes interrupted, "They have been using this weapon for less than half a year."

A well-trained warrior needs five years to cultivate, and an archer even longer. Even the crossbow, which requires the shortest training period, takes about half a year to prevent farmers from accidentally loading the bolts backward in a panic. As for actual combat? Heaven knows what they can hit. In most cases, they just carry it around to boost morale.

Andrea couldn't help swallowing. She was no stranger to this kind of training. Her family had also cultivated outstanding knights, so she naturally understood what it meant to be able to enter actual combat in about half a year. As long as weapons and food were sufficiently supplied, Roland could put together a huge army in a short period of time, and this army wouldn't have to worry about collapsing in close combat. The relentless attacks would be difficult for even elite knights to approach.

This had nothing to do with the courage and will of the militiamen; the weapon gave them great power.

"Do you have any other understanding of firearms?" Tilly asked Sylvie after a moment of contemplation.

The latter nodded, "I have observed it carefully many times. It is indeed a weapon similar to a *gongnu*, the arrows fired are very short, without arrow shafts or fletching. The difference is that the arrows do not rely on the elasticity of the string, but on the explosive force of the black powder—it can instantly increase the speed of the arrows to an extremely high level."

"Black powder?" Ashes asked, "What is that?"

"Probably an alchemical product," she shook her head, "I don't know the specific ingredients."

"It must be very expensive," Andrea said, "The things alchemists make are never cheap."

Ashes curled her lips, "Is that so... But looking at their expressions when shooting, it doesn't seem like they are using such expensive items."

"Wait, something is coming," Sylvie, who was observing the battlefield, was slightly startled, "Good heavens, is that also a demon beast? It's almost as tall as the city wall! It looks like a giant turtle, with a huge carapace on its back."

Andrea immediately became energetic, "Carapace? These firearms are probably of limited effectiveness. As long as I get within ten steps, even the city wall can't stop my magic arrows. Ashes, cover me."

"Sigh, okay," Ashes reluctantly took off the greatsword from her back, "Just so you know, don't embarrass Lady Tilly."

"Don't go," Sylvie stopped them, "They also have—"

Andrea didn't hear the second half of her sentence. She only heard a deafening roar, like thunder exploding in her ears. Turning her head, the metal tubular objects erected on the city wall spewed flames in unison. This time, she vaguely captured the trajectory of the arrows flying—they were like shadows, heading toward the monster that had just appeared in the distance with lightning speed.

A few moments later, several ten-foot-high snow columns rose around the monster. After the splashing snowflakes fell, the ugly giant demon beast continued at a fixed speed—obviously, this attack had failed to hit it.

But even so, it was enough to surprise Andrea... This distance was far beyond that of longbows and heavy crossbows, "This is..."

"His Highness calls it a field gun. Simply put, it is an enlarged firearm," Sylvie released her ears, "Its power is much greater than a firearm, and its range is also much longer. He used this to easily defeat Tifeico's militia fleet at the Redwater River fork."

The demon beast's luck didn't last. Two shots in the second round of artillery fire accurately hit its carapace. Andrea saw very clearly that the uneven carapace raised a layer of mist in the muffled impact sound. The side near the head was directly blasted out with two large holes, and black blood and internal organs spurted out of the holes, splashing everywhere.

The battle didn't last long. The bodies of demon beasts were lying all over in front of the city wall, and the flowing hot blood caused a burst of white mist to rise above the snow. The soldiers began to carry out the aftermath work, and she never found a chance to take action.

"It seems I was wrong," Tilly smiled helplessly, "He doesn't need the help of combat witches."

"The last time I went to the town, this weapon had not been popularized yet, only the Chief Knight could own it. Now he has actually made so many..." Ashes sighed, "Perhaps this is why His Highness dares to insist on publicly acknowledging the existence of witches under the heavy pressure of the Church."

Andrea didn't respond. In normal times, she would definitely mock Ashes, but now she only felt unusually depressed and didn't even have the strength to argue.

Back at the castle, Prince Roland still prepared a sumptuous lunch for the witches.

Seeing the colorful dishes on the table, Andrea felt even more blocked in her heart.

The upper nobles of the Dawn Kingdom pay attention to the beauty of nature in their diet. They are willing to spend a lot of gold dragons and energy to acquire some rare and precious ingredients, and then cook them in the most original way. Foods like those in Graycastle, sprinkled with various spices and sauces, are a very vulgar way of eating in her eyes—seasoning is just to cover up the defects of the food itself, and the more is put in, the worse the taste.

But... every dish on the table was terribly delicious.

Like the grilled mushrooms, where did His Highness find such plump and juicy mushrooms? With a slight bite, the overflowing juice could almost fill the mouth.

And this vegetable soup, seemingly ordinary clear soup, has a strong umami taste in the mouth, as if it was made with whole chicken, ribs, and seaweed.

The most special thing was the dessert—ice cream bread. The milky ice cream was sandwiched between two slices of bread. After taking a bite, the cold and soft feeling made her addicted and unable to extricate herself. Even though it was "winter", it didn't prevent her from eating slice after slice.

Damn it, she lost completely even in this.

Looking at Ashes, who was showing a provocative smile towards her, Andrea didn't make any response for the first time.