That was a firelock, and a flintlock at that!
It hung lazily on a Knight Apprentice's body.
It was entirely made of metal, clearly showing that this Knight Apprentice had never considered its weight, or if he had, he was weighing whether it could double as a decently powerful club after firing its bullets. It was also evident that its craftsmanship was exquisite, with its pale-gold surface engraved with many delicate patterns that clashed with its crude technology, reminding An Yang of the golden hunting rifle presented to the Qianlong Emperor by the Queen of England, kept in the Forbidden City Museum.
Of course, crude technology was only in An Yang's view; perhaps to the people of this world, it meant the latest and highest technology, the ultimate weapon of mortals, and a reassuring gadget for these mercenaries traveling on business and dealing with bandits.
It successfully piqued An Yang's interest.
Thus, he began to examine this muzzle-loading flintlock with great relish, pondering the implications hidden behind it.
This was clearly a muzzle-loader. An Yang did not believe this world could possess breech-loading guns so quickly. In fact, restricted by the knight class, royal power, and mystical class suppression, along with their own ideological and cultural shackles, it was already startling enough to him that this world could skip the developmental phase of matchlocks and step directly into the era of flintlocks in just a mere decade.
Yet upon careful thought, it seemed a matter of course.
When he first arrived in this world, students in the Capital Academy of the Mesoyarland Federation had already grasped the principles of the steam engine, and the technological content of a steam engine was far higher than that of a muzzle-loading flintlock.
According to Earth's historical progression, humans invented this type of gun