Chapter 13
Indra's question caught Yoren off guard.
"What is gunpowder?"
Yoren opened his mouth, then shut it. How could he even begin to explain? Gunpowder wasn't just one thing—it was a compound, a reaction, a cornerstone of an entire branch of warfare. The structure of modern bullets alone involved nitrocellulose, carefully designed aerodynamics, metallurgy, and precision chemistry.
But how could he explain all that to someone who had never even heard of it?
After a moment of thinking, he tried a simpler approach. "You know fireworks? The kind that go off in the sky with a bang and make sparks?"
"Why would you waste resources just to make something explode for fun?" Indra frowned.
Yoren sighed. "Because it looks cool. And it makes people happy."
A beat of silence. Then Vina furrowed her brows, as if trying to piece something together. "Are you talking about sub-origin stone powder?"
"Sub-origin stone powder?" Yoren echoed. "What's that?"
Vina hesitated, then turned to Kate. "I'm not good at explaining. You do it."
Kate nodded. "Sub-origin stone powder is what's left when an Originium stone is depleted. It's highly flammable, ignites easily, and burns at an extremely high temperature. While it's not as valuable as processed Originium, it's still rare and dangerous to handle."