Back at the castle, my friends were busy on their own.

The three of them were finally enjoying the fruits of their training. Balout, Gel and Melodi were now not only able to feebly sense the Chi in the air but also to use it to replenish their stamina. This officially made them first rank Chi users.

They were very young for such a feat, even more so for commoners. It amazed Hamy who was the one supervising their training and seeded mixed feelings in the princess' heart. She was proud of her ability to gather such brilliants followers around her but was also a bit jealous at how quickly they were making progress.

She was stronger than them and was already a rank 3 user, standing at the peak of the first quarter at age 9. It was a commendable performance but deep down, she knew her results were thanks to the nurturing of her family and the use of a few external helpers.

My friends only had their raw natural talent and a bit of pointers to reach in a few months what took her a year. She was younger than they are, this thought was bringing her some solace but she was worrying that one day her new sparring partners might out shadow her.

Now that the three of them were able to find a second wind whenever needed, far gone was my dream to ever beat them again in a race or a contest of strength. I was still accompanying them on some morning training just to stay fit but it wasn't the same now that there was no competition anymore or even the slightest hope of keeping up with them.

On the other hand, the competition between them was fierce, especially between Gelcaria and Mel. Even Balout who wasn't the kin to exert oneself was outranking me now.

This left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth, deep down I was still not completely over with accepting that I wouldn't have any kind of magical power. It was hard to swallow when you were in a world filled with magic. It was like being the helpful nerd that was supporting the main heroes, or to be left in front of a bakery to watch all the nice cakes only to have bread to eat. It wasn't that bad, just a bit underwhelming.

It was easy to tell when they were training to hold on as much Chi as possible inside of them. Balout was looking like he was having a stomach ache after binge eating, Gelcaria's eyes were flashing purple angry beams of annoyance and she was complaining about headaches while Melodi was grumpy and had her fur standing straight up all over her body, making her look like an unhappy plushy hedgehog.

Chi overstretch was famous for being uncomfortable. It was a needed step to improve one's ability to sense, steer, and feel Chi, but the side-effects were unpleasant.

When they were in that state of overdosing on Chi I was able to beat them. Even if they had a second wind they were like drunk on power and their moves were clumsily large and predictable. I had to enjoy it while it lasted because soon enough, this too will become an impossible feat.

* * * * *

Right before the end of Piscost the building crew was ready. They would have a week to rebuild the fort and it would leave three more weeks to reinforce and garrison it before winter.

I wasn't allowed to go out alongside them. Despite the military protection, it was deemed too dangerous for a powerless little kid. This made me rant against my lack of Chi once more. I've never seen the world outside. The city was nice but I was also wishing that I could go explore the world, see its fauna and flora, and how it was differing from what I knew. Who knows what I could think of when seeing more of this world?

Instead, Akili and Kirli were my deputies. They were an odd pairing: the rough-looking Cyrano and the delicate rose of the rich neighbourhood, but this was my crew of mismatched talents.

They would make sure the construction would go well in my stead. Kirli was as knowledgeable as I was on construction if not more and I had taught him as much as I could on cement.

Akili was a competent supervisor, she would be there more for the logistics and to provide me feedback later on rather than because she was needed. What surprised me the most was that she was a fourth rank Chi user, as good as a veteran soldier in the army.

I've never asked about her martial abilities and now that I knew that she was able to crush a monster barehanded it gave another flavour to all the light jokes she was making around me about how fragile looking I was. She was more fearsome than I thought, a rose had its thorns.

Now that the crew had left the city I took a week of respite.

I could spend some time with my family. The recent amount of money I made had changed our daily living. My mother had hired Mango to help her at home with my youngest sister. The help was more than welcome and this was earning the black-skinned seamstress more than what she was when working for Ms. Tarina. I hope my former mentor doesn't blame us for poaching her employees.

We made it up to the workshop in two ways. First, my eldest sister enlisted there as an apprentice. It was a better path than washerwoman if I had to give my opinion. If I could, I would have her enlist with the alchemists or work in the palace. Secondly, I bought everyone better clothes.

Finally, we all had shoes and not just wrappings around our feet. It was simple wooden sabots filled with hay and warm cloth but it was still an upgrade. Leather shoes were custom made for free citizens and were just too costly yet. I had shoes made out of fabric and a thick leather sole but those were for when I worked for the Palace, either in the castle or as a representative outside, not for my personal use at home.

I also splurged a bit on clothes: warm furs for the winter, thick blankets, and new futons for everyone. Now my kins were looking less like struggling commoners and closer to the best earners in our neighbourhood. Still far from free citizens but improvements were coming slowly.

I've considered teaching my brother and sister how to read and write. I tried on “sundays” to teach them a bit but they were just too slow learners. Maybe because they were already too old and had never learned any ideograms or maybe because they were just too dumb. The later explanation was clearly the one for my brother.

He was walking the same path as my father and was bulking up to become a smelter or smith too. He was already able to sense Chi and when growing up, he'll learn to use it to strengthen his arms when hammering or lifting heavy duties.

* * * * *

When I resumed my duties at the castle, I started working on black powder.

I had everything I needed on hands: charcoal from Siroz, niter from the mines and a small amount of sulphur. Luckily not much was needed.

I had scrounged the corners of my memory with the help of Shinpilo but couldn't find a clear recipe. I knew the ingredients but having a list of ingredients and baking a cake were two different stories.

I enquired with the court alchemist: Ms Kakaya, if there were reports of flaming or explosives devices but the court alchemist only knew about powders to make coloured flames, nothing about explosions, those were magicians' monopoly.

I could only experiment on my own then.

I asked the old lord for a place to fiddle with burning materials and maybe explosives. I was given the authorization to do my experiments in a secluded corner of the princess's training yard. It was where she sparred with the girls and Balout.

It was a big partly roofed room with stony pavement. So no fire risk, no risk of choking on fumes and I could still protect my gear from the autumn rains. Explosions sounds wouldn't be too unexpected coming from the training place of Chi users and mages, and it was only natural that I worked under the direct watch of my boss. Princess Moatimu was still our boss officially since we were all part of her retinue. Our palace uniforms were now bearing the crest of the princess with the four lilies rather than the old lord's one.

This was fitting well with me. In the early morning, I could run a lap with them, stretch, and share

tea and snacks with them all. When they started sparring with mock wooden sais or training to use Chi, I would be in my corner, working on my powder.

Whenever I would lift my eyes, I would be greeted with the fierce exchanges of blows between them. Now I understood why Gel and the other were covered in bruises, Hamy was a merciless trainer, far harsher than what Gupta and Orzhov were with me.

The kids were flying around the room and the wooden weapons were still able to leave a blackening bruise when it struck a clean hit.

When using Chi, the princess was clearly a rank above the rest of them, I'm still amazed Gel and Mel managed to push her back to a corner during their first meeting.

On my side, I had prepared my ingredients as far as I could tell: all were ground to a fine powder with a mortar and pestle. My arms were aching but I had all I needed, now was the real grindy part: figuring out the right proportions.

I prepared a lot of small pouches, fabric was cheaper than paper and I would try to make firecrackers.

I had a list of the most probable proportions I knew it would be mostly saltpetre, that's why it was such a crucial resource at some point in history: around 70 to 90%, then coal from 20 to 10%, and the rest of sulphur for a few percent.

I had a scales balance with a stone as weight. At least the stone would be my golden etalon to look for the correct ratio.

For a week, I only met failures.

My black mixture was igniting but the pouches were burning rather than exploding. I tried to shift to small clay pots to increase the gas pressure but even so, it was smoking and burning rather than exploding.

There was something wrong. Either I wrongly remembered or I was lacking a key component.

I tried more irregular compositions: half coal/half niter and others.

Until I finally got a small firecracker. Sulphur was more important than I remembered. After making even more new proportions I found a satisfying mix: a little bit more than 7 parts niter and the remaining three parts were half niter half sulphur with just a tad more niter.

If I had precise measuring tools it should be around 75% niter, 15% coal and 10% sulphur. With this rough recipe, I was managing to get a small bang each time. More or less, depending probably on my lack of precision, the composition of the coal, purity of my niter, and other factors I didn't control yet.

The first bang surprised everyone, me included. The kids and Hamy all gathered around.

“Is this your explosion thing? Not that impressive.” noted princess Moatimu with a pawky smile.

“It is but the beginning.” I retorted.

“How does that work?” asked Balout who was looking interested, he was probably the only one who genuinely tried to understand the chemical reaction.

“The combustion of the mix occurs so fast that hot gases get compressed in a tiny space creating an explosion as it expands,” I explained.

He wore an understanding look when the others were just looking dumbly at me, not understanding a shred of my explanation.

“Gas that what in what?” asked the princess in disbelief.

I knew she should know about the states of matter, I had taught them to her myself. She may not understand the concept of expansion but she shouldn't be at a loss that much.

“So if I were to compress air using chi and releasing it in one go, I could also create the same bang?” Smartly asked Gelcaria. That's my girl.

I almost wanted to pat her on the head but it would be a bit demeaning in front of the princess. “Yes, that could do to but you would have to compress it like a lot and release it all at once. It shouldn't be easy. Having a chemical reaction is far more doable.” I explained to her. I could see that Balout was getting my meaning and even Melodi seemed enlightened.

Only Moatimu was still doubtful: “So it would be hard for a Chi user but with your coal, you would be able to launch a fireball like a fire mage?” She was almost laughing at how stupid the idea was. Burnt wood could do magic? What next?

“Yes. I should be able to, with the right amount. Right now, I must work more on the precision of my tools to get a more reliable result before wasting more powder to get a true explosion,” I explained.

She scoffed at it like I was trying to evade acknowledging the inferiority of my product. In time, she will see.

And indeed it needed more fine-tuning. I wasn't getting a regular result. Be it because of my wrong proportions, the changes in the air humidity, or the clay pots, bangs weren't ascertained every time.

For the next few days, I requested the help of Ms. Kakaya. I needed her assets to be more precise. This wasn't a sexual innuendo about her chest, I really needed her precision scales, vials, and other grinding tools.

I was working for the Shield's family and she was curious about my work so the charming Elve was happy to oblige. When she had the time, she would even come herself to teach me how to better use the tools.

Now that she was closer to me I could get lost in her eerie yellow eyes that were ever-shifting, a bit like the sun's surface, there were constant changes in them.

Her smell was also intoxicating. In a world with little good soap, she was by far the nicest smelling person I've met. She was always wafting the scent of fresh flowers with her every move. Had I not controlled the urge, I would have buried my head in her hair to take a good smell of her shampoo. I missed shampoo, hair conditioner, deodorant, and perfume. It might sound trivial, but her smell was reminding me of lost commodities.

I'll have to order some from her when I get enough money, for me, my family and Gelcaria.

She also brought some interesting inputs. For example, she had me wet the mix of coal and niter then dry it back to a powder so that both could mix and link together more closely. Never would I have thought on my own to pour water on gunpowder in the making, that just sounded so illogical and counter intuitive.

The effects were real though and now I was getting consistent and better bangs. I just had to scale up the volume.