As the days went by, the weather gradually grew warmer.
The school uniform had been changed into a brown short-sleeved linen shirt and black trousers. The half-high leather boots on his feet had also been changed into flat leather shoes.
The uniform for the girls in middle school was similar to that for the boys. They wore the same short-sleeved shirt, but the lower half was replaced with a long black skirt.
Because of that, during the 20-minute break between classes, many boys would gather in the corridors and stare at the girls' classroom, hoping that the girls would come out and show off their beautiful figures.
Claude was rather annoyed that his mother was scolded by his father for the sake of a pair of leather shoes that morning.
For some reason, Mr. Morssen seemed to be quite stingy the past few days. As Claude was still a sixteen-year-old, his body was still developing normally. His mother bought him a pair of bigger ones when the leather shoes were too small. But after a week, the weather got warmer and the school told everyone to change to flat shoes. His mother bought him a pair of bigger ones when they found that they were just as small.
When Mr. Morssen heard that from his mother in the morning, he got angry for some reason and felt that his mother wasn't being frugal at all.
He pointed out an important issue that his mother had neglected. The pair of leather boots they bought for him was a size too big. They had no choice but to put them away after ten days due to the hot weather. But Claude would still grow bigger. If he were to wear them again after summer and autumn, the boots might become too small for him again.
Mr. Morssen felt that the new boots would be useless after ten days and that it would be a waste of the family's money.
He felt that if Claude could endure it, he would only need to wear the old leather boots for another ten days or so before he could change into a new pair of flat shoes. That way, the family would be able to save money on a new pair of boots.
Claude wanted to stand on his mother's side and criticize his father for being so stingy about buying a pair of boots. Wasn't it just four riyases? Was there a need to be so stingy?
In the end, Mr. Morssen scolded him and said that it had been more than a month since he bought him a new gun and often saw him carry it to the forest outside of town to practice shooting. Why didn't he bring back any game?
Couldn't he put in some effort for the family and let them spend less money on meat? If he couldn't hunt mountain antelopes, he could at least hunt a few rabbits …
Claude was speechless and could only go to school with a belly full of anger.
Borkal, on the other hand, knew a little about it. He secretly told Claude that his father's generation was trying to gather the first batch of funds for the expedition to reach Tyrrsim from Whitestag to Nubissia.
From what his father had revealed, it was clear that many people did not believe that the expedition plan would succeed. It was difficult to raise funds, so it was understandable that Mr. Morssen was a little angry recently. He was the one leading the plan.
Alright, since he had transmigrated to this world and became Morssen's second son, it was only right for him to be reprimanded. After all, a transmigrator had taken over his son's body.
However, being looked down upon by Morssen made Claude feel bad. The reason he couldn't hunt the antelope was because he hadn't found it yet, but there were always hares. Even though they were more agile, Claude didn't believe he wouldn't be able to hunt them down.
When Claude went to the forest outside of town to practice his shooting, he had already set up the target a hundred meters away.
He had no choice. One shouldn't expect to be able to get within fifty meters of a rabbit. A hundred meters might be enough to stop the rabbit from running away.
However, the rabbit was only the size of a soybean at a distance of a hundred meters. Claude still had to train his eyesight.
After three days of practice, he could hit seventy to eighty percent of the bullseye from a hundred meters away.
When he felt that he was ready for actual combat, he invited Welikro to go rabbit hunting in the afternoon.
The reason why there were only two of them was because Eriksson had to go to the docks to fix his fishing boat. Borkal, on the other hand, was busy with his business, promoting the new targets Claude designed.
It was said that the business was quite good and the four thales invested by the four partners had doubled. Currently, the carpenters from Borkal's trading company were working on the third batch of eighty new targets and a new batch of three hundred target papers.
Borkal's aubass mark 2 matchlock was currently being used by Welikro. As usual, the sights weren't attached.
After the first afternoon lesson, Claude and Welikro didn't attend the next two horsemanship lessons. They left the academy and went to Claude's house first. The two matchlocks were placed under the bed in the attic and they packed everything they needed. Then, they called for a carriage to send the two of them to the hills and forest in the south of town before heading up the mountain.
Welikro said that the best place to hunt hares was the hills and forest in the south of town.
Even though the area was filled with farms, orchards and vegetable gardens, small animals like rabbits and pheasants weren't uncommon.
The larger carnivores didn't dare to come to this area at all. Most of the people who owned businesses here were citizens and had firearms at home. Hunting was also one of their hobbies.
From a certain perspective, it could be said that without their natural predators, the small animals reproduced quickly and their numbers increased by a lot.
The reason why the four of them didn't catch anything the last time they came here was because Borkal was focused on hunting large prey. He kept moving through the forest and the small animals that heard the noise either ran away or hid. It was only natural that they didn't catch anything. Claude found it strange.
Didn't you say that the watchdogs here are experts at catching small animals?
Welikro explained that the owners kept watchdogs to prevent their farms, orchards and vegetable gardens from being damaged by small animals. They basically wouldn't let their watchdogs out of their properties.
So, as long as the two of them ventured deeper into the forest, they would be able to find a good place to wait for the rabbits.
The most important thing to hunt small animals was patience.
After walking for a while more, Welikro led Claude up a small mound. Beneath the mound were sparse trees and shrubs, as well as dense grass nests.
"Alright, let's do it here," Welikro said with satisfaction.
Welikro said with satisfaction, "Let's set up our guns here and wait for the hare and pheasant to appear. Light the match first and use a long one.
If there's a target, put it on the box and fire. If there's no target and the match burns out, change to another one.
Also, don't talk from now on. Those little things have very sensitive ears. As long as the wind carries our voices, they'll hide or run again. "
"Are we just going to wait here with our guns trained?" Claude asked.
Welikro nodded. "Yes. You have to learn patience when hunting these little things."
Claude didn't say anything else. After setting up his gun, he stared at the shrubs at the foot of the hill.
Welikro said that pheasants liked to roam around the shrubs the most.
Well, compared to rabbit, Claude preferred chicken soup.
After an unknown period of time, Claude felt his legs go numb. There was still no movement around him except for the sound of the wind blowing through the bushes.
Just as he was about to stretch his body, Welikro poked him a few times. He turned around and saw Welikro gesturing for him to look at a grass nest at the foot of the hill on the left.
Taking a closer look, he saw a gray rabbit looking around with its two long ears. It was still chewing grass in its mouth.
Welikro pointed two fingers at Claude and himself, then at the rabbit and finally at the two guns.
Claude understood that he wanted the two of them to fire at the same time to prevent the rabbit from escaping if they missed.
Nodding, he lifted the match to the top of the box and took aim.
The rabbit was around 80 meters away from the hill. What delighted Claude was that the rabbit stayed where it was. Even though its head was shaking non-stop, its body didn't move at all.
When Claude felt confident, he pulled the trigger.
Even though it was a hundred meters away, the rabbit seemed to have heard something and pricked up its ears to listen to its surroundings.
However, it was too late. Two gunshots rang out at almost the same time. Claude and Welikro had finished firing at the same time.
From afar, the rabbit seemed to have leaped high up in the air before falling back into the bushes and disappearing.
Claude was disappointed. "I missed. It got away."
Welikro jumped up. "I hit it! It didn't get away!
Let's reload our guns first and search the bushes. The rabbit should be around there. "
Once again, the two of them loaded the gun with gunpowder and bolts. After lighting the match, they used the frame as a crutch and walked down the hill step by step.
"It's a pity we didn't bring our hunting dogs," Welikro suddenly sighed.
"Hunting dogs?"
Claude had heard Welikro mention before that his family had three hunting dogs. It was said that they were a cross between those mongrels, commonly known as watchdogs, and mountain wolves.
They were slightly bigger than the watchdogs and were smart and ferocious. They were great helpers for his father when he went hunting in the mountains.
"Why would we bring the hunting dogs?" Claude asked.
"If we bring the hunting dogs, we won't have to search the bushes anymore.
The dogs will go down on their own to help us bring back the rabbits we kill.
But if we really bring the hunting dogs, we won't even need to bring our guns. My Big Black, Erhei and Sanhei will be able to catch all the rabbits and pheasants in the forest on their own, "said Welikro.
Claude didn't believe him. "It's true.
I'm not lying to you, "Welikro said.
"Our three hunting dogs are specially trained to deal with large wild beasts in the mountains. They can even keep a wild boar busy so that my father can find a chance to kill it in one shot.
Usually, catching a rabbit or pheasant isn't a problem for them. But now, there isn't even a single rabbit in the forest near our house. They've already cleaned out all of them. "
"Didn't you say that the watchdogs at the foot of the mountain can catch rabbits and pheasants too?"
"They can, but they can only be caught in the farms, orchards and vegetable gardens that they guard.
If you're lucky enough to catch one or two rabbits or pheasants in the mountains, it's useless if you don't have any training. For example, they start barking the moment they enter the mountains. Animals that can run would've run away long ago. "
"Then what do you think we can do to catch rabbits and pheasants?
Can we set traps and snares? "
"Well … Let me think …" Welikro muttered to himself for a moment before saying, "When it comes to catching hares and pheasants, other than using hunting dogs, the only way to catch them is to shoot them from a distance like we are doing right now.
However, many hunters like to use hunting bows and ballistae to hunt rabbits and pheasants. Firstly, they have a higher accuracy rate than flintlocks. Secondly, they make a lot of noise, unlike flintlocks which would scare away everything else apart from the target hit.
As for traps and seine nets, those are used to deal with large animals. I've never heard of them being used to deal with rabbits and pheasants.
I really don't know what snares you're talking about, but I've heard of people scattering grains of grain soaked in alcohol in the bushes. Pheasants will get drunk after eating them and they'll just go and pick them up.
Others say that pheasants are blind and won't run away if you cover them with torches or lamps at night. It's very easy to catch one with each hand. I've tried it before, but it didn't work. They all ran away before you even got close. "
The grey rabbit was lying in the bushes with a bullet hole in its back. It was no longer breathing.
Welikro said that he was aiming for the head, so Claude was definitely the one who shot it. Claude wasn't sure if he was the one who shot it, but he still accepted the grey rabbit. At least he would be able to satisfy Morssen's craving for rabbit meat.
Welikro said, "We have to go somewhere else. The two gunshots just now scared away all the small animals in the area. Unless we wait until night, we won't be able to see any more prey."
Claude ignored him. He was busy choosing some tenacious and thin vines from the bushes to weave into a condom.
"What are you doing?" Welikro asked.
"Setting a trap," Claude replied.
It was a skill he learned back in his past life when he was still a child in the mountain village. All the naughty kids there were good at catching pheasants and rabbits. Fortunately, he didn't forget that skill. "This is a snare. It's specially made to catch pheasants and rabbits."
"You can catch pheasants and rabbits with that?" Welikro squatted down to help with the snare, but he was still doubtful.
"Yes. Put these snares under the bushes and grass later. We'll see if we can catch anything tomorrow," Claude said.