The Nebula’s Civilization

“...Your Majesty?”

Hwee-Mun froze and couldn’t move.

Following Kyle, Deyanin came in and closed the door.

Deyanin said, “His Majesty had been anticipating Hwee Ravina Muel’s arrival but couldn’t wait to see her, so he came himself.”

Kyle nodded and sat next to Ravina.

Then he said to Hwee-Mun, “I’ll explain everything, so why don’t you sit back down first.”

“Your Majesty, is everything the alchemist said true?”

“True or not, I don’t think it’s something a left minister like you should concern yourself with.”

“Keeping Your Majesty safe is a left minister’s duty.”

“I don’t think reading a few more books would cause any problems for my safety.”

“However…”

“Just sit down for now. Deyanin, you don’t need to stand around either. Take a seat.”

“Alright.”

Hwee-Mun couldn’t not be worried about Kyle.

Every country grew through Blessings and Miracles from the gods they believed in, and the priests were still offering their help. That was why non-believers were not welcomed. In Black Scale, they were merely banned and punished by national law, but in places like Danyum, it was common for non-believers to be beaten to death by a whole group of people.

‘His Majesty cannot be punished no matter how strict the law is. However, it will inevitably become the ministers’ weapon to attack him. Many of the ministers have come to support His Majesty, but a few have not.’

Hwee-Mun realized early on that Kyle was not only exceptionally intelligent, but also wise. Therefore, she agreed when the Hunting Minister, Deyanin, said that Kyle needed to be made king. To that end, she shared her opinion with the late King of Serenity.

‘But I can’t believe His Majesty is interested in wicked studies like alchemy. It must be the doing of that white lizard.’

Hwee-Mun glared at Deyanin, but Deyanin avoided eye contact.

Kyle then said to Ravina, “You must be the alchemist.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Kyle nodded and looked at Hwee-Mun.

“Hwee-Mun, I’m sorry I’ve kept it a secret from you. However, I assumed you would be too worried to fall asleep at night even if I explained my situation because you’re somewhat a straight arrow. That was why I didn’t tell you.”

“...Your Majesty, thank you for your concern, but alchemy? What would the ancestors think?”

Kyle shrugged.

“I don’t know? There was no such study as alchemy in the past, so that’s something we can never be certain of.”

“Alchemists claim that they are going to make gold out of nothing and pills of immortality. Do you not get the absurdity of that?”

“I’m not too sure about the part about making gold and pills of immortality, but a lot of their knowledge is quite useful.”

“However, studying alchemy in itself goes against national law. There would be no one to punish Your Majesty, but the ministers would be uncomfortable. Is that knowledge worth the risks?

Kyle, who had been graciously replying to Hwee-Mun, shut her down with a short answer.

“Yes, it is worth it.”

Then Ravina added, “Elder, I think I may be able to explain.”

Hwee-Mun silently looked at Ravina.

So Ravina explained, “Forbidden knowledge doesn’t only come from studies done at the tower. If an alchemist on the outside comes up with something, items would be sent from the tower to gain their favor so that the tower can acquire the knowledge. Among them, there was an alchemist who lived alone in the northern part of Red Fruit, deep in the mountains.”

“So what?”

“But one day, updates stopped coming from the alchemist in Red Fruit. The tower thought that the alchemist perhaps needed help and sent someone to check if there was something wrong. When the errand boy got to the alchemist’s house, they found no apparent problem from the outside. The house itself was hidden, so no one had visited them.”

“Then what was the trouble?”

“The errand boy was able to break through the locked door and enter the house. Only then did the errand boy smell a stench. The alchemist was dead.”

Hwee-Mun frowned and said, “Are you saying that since no one had visited them, they died on their own?”

“Yes.”

“Because of forbidden knowledge?”

“Yes.”

“Huh, I’ve heard something like that too. It’s said that there was an Ancient Evil who granted power in exchange for souls. Is that not the case for the alchemist?”

Before Hwee-Mun could cast blame on the alchemist again, Ravina said, “No, that’s not what went down. The alchemist was discovered in their lab, but they hadn’t sold their soul or anything like that. It was an accident. The alchemist had been mixing various substances to make gold, but heat was produced when certain substances were mixed, and an explosion occurred. In fact, those kinds of accidents occasionally happen at the tower too, so it wasn’t particularly strange.”

Hwee-Mun was relieved that they hadn’t sold their soul, but she found it troubling that such an occurrence had been happening every now and then.

“The alchemist of Red Fruit died. Is there anything to this story?”

“If it were an ordinary story, no, there wouldn’t be. However, it’s different when an alchemist is involved.”

Kyle nodded in understanding, while Hwee-Mun was confused.

Then Ravina said, “The alchemist died, but before their death, they had precisely recorded how much of each substance they had added in that experiment. In fact, they had made the record extra precise since other alchemists had died in accidents while experimenting.”

“What use would the record of a failure have?”

“Elder, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as failure for alchemists. Alchemists were able to discover how to shoot fire or make water that melts skin through the failures you mentioned. And gunpowder, the discovery the alchemist of Red Fruit had made, was greater than any other discovery made by other alchemists to this day.”

“The danger of killing people is a great discovery?”

“Yes.”

Hwee-Mun belatedly realized what Ravina meant. If they were an alchemist who was meticulous enough to write everything they were going to do, they would have been careful no matter what kind of experiment they were conducting.

‘That means…’

Ravina grabbed her pinky and said, “The gunpowder tested by the alchemist of Red Fruit was only this much. However, when a flame touched the gunpowder and triggered an explosion, the small soldered case containing the gunpowder was torn, and the shards shot out and stabbed the alchemist in the neck.”

Hwee-Mun looked at Kyle.

“Is it a weapon?”

Kyle nodded and said, “It is a weapon.”

Hwee-Mun pictured it in her mind. She didn’t know much about alchemy, but Ravina had said that the powder could be made easily, and that a small amount would be enough to kill someone. She wasn’t sure what kind of weapon that would be, but it seemed self-evident that it was dangerous since Ravina and Kyle were both paying attention to it.

‘As expected, alchemy is forbidden knowledge.’

Hwee-Mun was worried that Kyle would be fascinated by that danger.

“Your Majesty, even though Black Scale’s land is small, it holds the highest status among all countries. No one can deny our superiority, so why must you take such a risk?”

“Hwee-Mun.”

“Yes?”

Kyle lowered his eyes and said, “Unfortunately, this knowledge is not much of a secret. I wasn’t the first to notice it, and Black Scale wasn’t the first to bring an alchemist to the palace. The alchemists at the Alchemist Tower are cursed people who had fled from various places. Some of them still hold their home countries dear in their hearts. What do you think would happen when those countries asked them to return with that knowledge?”

Ravina added, “And the other countries were trying to stop that from happening. I almost died around ten times on my journey here.”

Deyanin then said, “They are mercenaries hired by other countries, or local soldiers disguised as bandits.”

Hwee-Mun asked Deyanin, “...Then?”

“Yes. Soldiers who got secret orders from His Majesty had to escort Ravina from the Alchemist Tower to Orazen. The Alchemist Tower suffered unprecedented damage because of this knowledge, and they will have been completely conquered by the Trolls of Asbestos by now.”

Kyle raised his head.

“Hwee-Mun, you believed this period to be peaceful, but it’s not anymore. Black Scale’s spies hidden in each country are delivering urgent news. The substances used in making gunpowder are experiencing dramatic price increases, and countries are all setting up secret bases to make gunpowder.”

Ravina said, “Gunpowder is certainly alchemy, but it is a piece of ancient knowledge at the same time. Something similar to gunpowder has been found in an ancient ruin, and it’s said that an ancient weapon like it has been discovered.”

Hwee-Mun asked in a trembling voice, “Your Majesty, are you saying that a war will break out? Just because we have weapons…”

“It’s possible there might be a war.” Then Kyle added, “But what if our weapon is exceptionally outstanding? What if a dunce who had never even held a bow before does their part in the battlefield, sinks ships, and breaks down the fortress walls? What if we have the weapon while the other country doesn’t? You would think we would win the war.”

Hwee-Mun contemplated and eventually nodded.

“I can’t really acknowledge it from the bottom of my heart, but in my head, I can see that Your Majesty’s will is in the right place. I have no reason to oppose it, so please let me know whenever you need any help.”

Kyle smiled.

“Now that you mention it, I do need your help, Hwee-Mun.”

“What is it?”

“There is the matter that you are worried about, and we need to proceed with this plan secretly considering the spies other countries have planted in Black Scale. We had been using funds from the hunting department until now, but now that we have your permission…”

“...You’re going to use the privy purse.”

The country's taxes were managed by the finance department, but the king’s personal assets were managed by the left ministers. As the conversation returned to the topic of work, Hwee-Mun's eyes became full of life again.

“It is certainly Your Majesty’s assets. As I understand, there must be reasonable grounds for its use. Do you have in mind how much you’re going to use, and where and how to use it?”

For the first time since Kyle came into the room, he said in a trembling voice, “Hm, well, that is…”

***

A system window popped up in front of Sung-Woon.

[Notice: The production conditions for ‘Black Powder’ have been fulfilled.]

[Carbon: Charcoal production is possible.

Sulfuric Acid: Sulfuric acid production is possible.

Potassium Nitrate: Production is possible (Borrowing Method), foreign country (Stone Cave) knows of a niter mine.

Black Powder Knowledge: Exists within country (Black Scale), more than ‘1’ person is in the know (read more).]

Sung-Woon let out a sigh.

‘Done.’

Inventions and discoveries tended to be proportional to the size of population.

In that sense, Black Scale, which pursued political stability and was superior to other countries in food production, was able to complete their innovations and fix the flaws because their population was sufficiently big.

However, that wasn’t the case for some discoveries. For example, mixing all kinds of substances to make something else was only done by those who were devoted to such work.

‘The art of making elixirs, also known as alchemy.’

It couldn’t be helped that the process of discovering these kinds of mysterious technology was very tricky in the Lost World. The more faithful the citizens of a country were, the more they hated developing that kind of knowledge. First of all, the Ancient Evil that existed in the setting of the world made it so that this kind of research tended to be hated, and additionally, those who had power and knowledge desired to stand above the general citizens. Simply put, the more a society believed in their god, the more difficult it was to make discoveries in mysterious technology.

On the contrary, if non-believers were allowed to grow in order to discover more mysterious technology, the player’s control would weaken.

No matter what build the player was going for, there were pros and cons. However, the players of The Lost World tended to create a society of pious followers. Scientific knowledge was fair in that if one player developed a place for alchemists to gather, everyone would eventually benefit from all the knowledge that came from it.

‘So the Alchemist tower of Asbestos is the result of NIMBY syndrome.’

Though of course, Asbestos was able to discover gunpowder the quickest and make the most out of it since the tower was within its border. And it was inevitable for Black Scale, which was far away, to obtain it relatively later. If they were unlucky, the ones with the knowledge could die, which would make it impossible for Black Scale to obtain it. That was if Sung-Woon hadn’t sent Hwee Ravina Muel to the Alchemist Tower; the child with antlers, who had a high survival rate due to her Demonic Magic of Probability Manipulation.

As Sung-Woon looked at the system message with satisfaction, Eldar said from next to him, “By the way, did Kyle and Ravina talk about the gunpowder, but not that?”