Chapter 4: Grandma's Centuries old Sourdough

"You're in." The clerk invite the dude next to me into the conference room.

Now, while I said that I booked a pitch meeting with the Goddess of Smith, what I really did was that I registered my name into the waiting list for Hephaestus Annual Pitch Meeting. I did it like 7 months ago, so I was pretty early in the waiting list.

Though, I did not expect I would sit right next to fucking Welf Crozzo out of all people. Who woulda thunk?

"Hey there!", the 14 years old Welf Crozzo greets me. "I see you're joining Hephaestus Guild too huh? I thought I registered early but it turns out you beat me to the punch.", he laugh it off.

"Well actually, I'm not here to join. I'm here to sell an idea that will change the landscape of Orario's ranged combat."

"oh really?", Welf raised his eyebrows. "Must be a heck of a weapon you made there huh?"

Lily jumped down form her seat and stood imperiously in front of Welf. "Lord Soren is the greatest inventor in Orario and you will treat him with respect, you brat!"

"B-brat?!! Look who's talking! Do you even know who I am?!"

"Nope.", all three of the White Raven Agency founding members shakes our head. Well, I know, but I'm not going to tip him off.

"My name is Welf Crozzo."

"oh cool, I'm Jaune Arc."

"I am Liliruca Arde, and this is Lord Soren Ravencroft. Remember that, peasant!"

"Yo.", I greeted.

Welf had a look of disbelief over our complete lack of awareness over who he is. "wow. Just wow. I think I'm liking you guys."

"White Raven Agency, come in.", the clerk invite us in.

"Welp, that's our cue. See you later, Welf.", I bid him goodbye.

"Same, Soren. Same."

Hephaestus looks a bit tired as she throw a gaudy golden sword into the trash pile. "Alright, White Raven Agency. Show me what you got."

Lily hands Jaune a stack of mahjong papers which serves for our PowerPoint Presentation slideshow. Man, I'm going full corporate here man, making presentation slides with papers and crayon drawings. This better fucking works.

Hephy had a confused look on her face coz clearly this backwater city had not figure out the beauty of PowerPoint Presentation.

Over the span of 15 minutes, I give an accurate explanation of the history of gunsmithing, which is us. How its mechanism works. how the bullets is made. What is its advantage. What is its flaw. And how it can potentially developed further.

"That is the most interesting sales pitch I have ever seen. You give me all the necessary facts and keep it simple.", Hephy applauds us. "But that's all just theories. Do you have a working prototype?"

"we do.", Jaune unpacks the rifle we had brought and start to demonstrate how it operates. "First, you insert the bullets through this slot. Then once it's full, you secure the bolt. Do I have the permission to demonstrate this weapon? Its going to be loud"

Hephy discussed quitely with her security personnel. She nods. "Shoot the wooden block right there."

Jaune then aim to the block. And shoot it. The wooden block splinters as the rifle bullet pierce through it. However he didn't stop there, he shoot the remaining four bullets left and quickly decimates the block into pieces. 5 shots, 5 seconds.

Hephy eye was wide open, and the guard behind her has an O face. What they just witnessed is the power of firearms rapid firing.

"Magnificent weapon you had build there! Sure, I seen arrows that done greater damage and archers that had shot faster than that, but this is a remarkable prototype you had just made!"

"And this is just a proof of concept I believe we can make stronger bullets and faster firing rate. Its not going to replace bow and arrows anytime soon, but this will give the populace a new alternative for ranged combat."

Archery took time to master. Its not easy to aim while pulling a heavy bow. It's a dedicated craft you have to go all in to master.

Guns on the other hand, as long as you aim well enuff and don't shake too much, it won't disappoint. Even a kid can use this. This is the best weapon for rookies to use. Sure, guns are not going to take down those gigantic Monster Rexes anytime soon. But most of us aren't trying to take down giant monsters anyway.

Hephy read over our proposal once again, and make an offer.

"Rather than just selling your blueprints, how about you work for me instead? I will give you a factory to manage. You will be credited properly as the inventor of this new weapon. I will pay you a handsome amount of salary for your work. How about it?"

Jaune and Lily are nervous. Lily only had bad experience on being under a god patronship and I had told Jaune enuff horror stories about the gods to make him think 100 times before thinking of joining one. Besides…

"I don't think so, Madam Hephaestus. We may just be a humble start-up company, but we like the freedom that we have. All we want is just the capital needed to grow our company."

"Is that so? You could have wealth and prestige as the pioneer of this new technology. Are you sure you want to sell this out, not even wanting to get credited for your achievement?"

"Well, I'd like for you to keep silent about who created this weapon. We don't want the publicity. All we want is just to carve a little slice of our own place in this world."

"I see.", Hephy tapped her fingers as she made her final delibration, looking over the five blueprints for 5 different guns. Handgun, Revolver, Bolt Action Rifle, Repeater Rifle and Shotgun.

"500 million Vali. 100 for each of this blueprint. And a permanent discount of 30% for all the materials you buy from us. What do you say, CEO Soren Ravencroft?"

My eyes bulged out over the big ass number. Holy shit, that's like, 5 million burgers! Even with the inflation, that's a lot! Enough to outfit us all properly and renovate our HQ ground completely! I was expecting to get just 5 million Vali really!

"I'll take it!", I shake Hephy hand to seal the deal.

"I look forward to what you do next, Soren Ravencroft. You have the makings of a revolutionary."

Hah, fuck that shit. I ain't changing Orario for shit. I'm just gonna leech off what I could from this dumbass city and fuck off to the sunset for better pastures.

(((Hephaestus)))

What an interesting young man.

He had already picked her interest with his odd but interesting presentation method. She should make it a thing. That should make this stupid Annual Pitch Meeting more bearable at least without the tales of bravado and ludicrous sales pitches she got swamped with every year. She had already intended to invest on him to spread the Powerpoint Presentation method just for that alone.

And then, she seen the actual weapon.

She inspects the craftsmanship of the Mark 68 prototype. The build is rough and shoddy and could use some more refining, but it doesn't really matter. Instead of trying to impress her with useless gaudy decorations, they built this ugly thing for one reason alone.

To prove their concept.

And what a proof it was.

This is the first working gun in history. Already she is enchanting the weapon with her divine energy to preserve it. She will make sure this weapon to be preserved for all ages.

She will keep quite for the White Raven Agency contribution for now. But once they are strong enough, she will reveal the truth.

Inventors deserves to get credit for their hard work.

"Tsubaki,", she calls. "Assign a security team, disguised of course, to watch over White Raven Agency headquarters."

Tsubaki nods and leave to assemble the security team.

"Welf Crozzo, come in.", ah, its still early. She has so much more terrible sales pitch to go through.

Man, she really need to spread the Powerpoint Presentation method