"So, would you let them get bolt-action rifles from you?" Granny looked at the young man across from her with great interest.
Erwin chuckled. "Of course not."
"Giving them gifts is one thing. If they covet our weapons, that's another matter entirely. But that prince should realize it soon enough."
Then Erwin asked curiously, "Granny, I heard you're a researcher. I don't know much about this—but will there really be no problem with Lord Theus giving them bolt-action rifles?"
Granny looked up and adjusted her glasses. "I recall that you joined the patrol from the very beginning and never spent much time at the factories?"
"Yes. Lord Alexei picked me in the first batch. I became a soldier before the factories were even built—there wasn't even a Faithguard Army back then."
Granny nodded slowly in understanding. "I see. Then do you know what it takes to make this bolt-action rifle?"
"Uh, coal? Steel?"
Granny casually picked up the rifle Erwin had leaned against the side, expertly pulled back the bolt, pushed it forward, and turned it down. After examining the receiver and chamber, she spoke unhurriedly:
"To make this bolt-action rifle, you need sixty parts, two hundred procedures, a dedicated rifling broaching production line, milling, heat treatment, an entire set of chemical processes to manufacture gunpowder, seventeen factories working together to produce and assemble it, and eleven thousand literate industrial workers."
"In short, producing it requires an entire Castel Island. It is a miracle of industry."
Granny set the bolt-action rifle on the table and gently pushed it toward Erwin.
"Replicate it? Even Nini using Turn Stone to Mud couldn't do it, not to mention Cognitive Interference."
Erwin swallowed. For the first time, the burly man felt reverence for the gun in his hands.
It was a product of industry,