It's Only Fun When It Blows Up!
Because nothing's ever fun until it explodes!
Having finally entered Iwami, we resolved from the start to strip this place to the bones without stopping once we got going, so we prepared thoroughly.
We built a fortress, laid railway lines, and leveled mountains in the process — which turned up yet another silver vein, so we gathered and piled it up for ages, then built more roads. The infrastructure work alone swallowed an entire year.
“Heh heh heh. So it begins?”
“Heh heh heh. Yes, my lady.”
We stood atop the fortress, which commanded a clear view of the mountains rumored to hide the Iwami mother lode. Since no one knew exactly how far the deposits ran, we'd built a compact but tall walled citadel at the center of a rather expansive area.
The trains running outside were more than these people could ever hope to rob even if they died and came back to life, so there was nothing to worry about there, and the harbor saw ships coming and going around the clock — no defense worries there either. So we'd concentrated everything right here.
“How many laborers have we gathered?”
“Well, as long as the money's good, they'll come from anywhere.”
“Did you put them to work the way I told you?”
“Yes. We've installed local overseers.”
Mining was hard enough work without us making it brutally cruel, right? So we'd charmed some well-chosen local overseers into managing things.
And if any of them betrayed us, we'd just send the boys over and blast them sky-high along with their entire house while they slept. Gunpowder is an excellent conversational tool, after all!
“Though this country's population is far too small, honestly.”
“Even after sweeping up everyone from the surrounding regions, we barely scraped together enough.”
Yes, we were a ways off from the capital, but at this rate the whole population couldn't be more than five million, surely?
Even if every one of these people flooded in from across the nation, they couldn't outdo a single Iwami.
“Hmm. If we want to dig this up fast, it'd be better to blast through the rock quickly, no?”
“Wouldn't it, now?”
“Ah... well... that's... dangerous...”
“Wh-what? What is it!”
Don't make your eyes light up like that — you're going to wring it out of me before I even finish.
“People could get hurt making it, that's all.”
Hmm. It's a bit tricky without a thermometer or refrigerant or anything like that...
Oh! Wait, I know a way to brute-force this!
“You know when you make soap, at some point you get this slightly sweet-tasting sticky liquid? You mix that with nitric acid and sulfuric acid, and it goes off even if you just leave it sitting there — so tell them to test it somewhere cold.”
“Oh... it'll explode nicely, then?”
Nicely? It'll explode extremely well. The Nobel brothers went up in smoke with that very stuff, after all.
“Anyway, if you poke around behind the eastern mountains near Samsu and Seonju, you'll find stone that looks whitish-gray. Grind it into powder and absorb the liquid into that, and it'll be a bit less prone to blowing up. The details the master craftsmen will have to work out through trial and error.”
“How powerful is it?”
“Roughly ten times what we use now?”
“Gah! I'll be off, then!”
Diatomaceous earth isn't asbestos, is it? The chemists all wear mouth coverings and goggles anyway, so they should be fine, right?
I just hope the kids don't build something weird with that stuff. Surely they won't do anything insane just because they're calling it a substitute for gunpowder?
Somehow lately I keep feeling like all I do is add to the widows' ranks.
Once I handed over the recipe, they certainly came back with the finished product quickly — well, it still took a few years, but still.
Apparently they'd used the substance I gave them while developing the revolver as the detonator.
“My lady! We've arrived!”
The man was over the moon as a shipload of dynamite glided into port.
“You're happy about something that gets a whole lot of people killed, you idiot!”
“We will handle it with care!”
You're the one getting too worked up here... something tells me the whole thing would go off if he got too close.
「THUD」
“Hiek...”
A scream escaped me before I knew it. Who just dumps something like that down as if they were tossing a sack of grain?
“What seems to be the problem?”
“Handle it... carefully...”
Something tells me everyone but me is about to die.
“Wahahaha! Fear not, my lady. I survived four shipwrecks and lived to tell the tale!”
“Uh... uhh...”
Why four, of all numbers? Why does it have to be such an ominous number?
“Well then, I'll be off! That huge boulder's been giving us no end of grief — blasting powder only chips it away in crumbs!”
You were worrying about something? Good heavens... the end times are truly upon us...
“Keep your distance when you set it off. Be careful.”
“Yes, my lady! Off we go!”
「THUD-BAM, THUD-BAM」
I said carry the crates carefully...
「SCREEEECH!」
The train chugging off toward the mine gave me a strange premonition — that one day, it would simply vanish.
And then, inside the walls that shut out all outsiders, where only Daehan's own people were allowed.
「Thud. Thud. Thud.」
Ore hauled in from the mine was being ground to powder in absurdly thick boxes by steam engines.
“So, how is it?”
“Magnificent. How on earth did you know of such a method?”
The moment I taught them the smelting process for separating silver from lead, the Moda craftsmen sang my praises nonstop.
“I just knew it. Haha.”
I did not. I read it in some Joseon-era scholar's notes once, that's all.
“To think such an extraction method existed.”
“There's plenty more where that came from. I just don't happen to know it — that's for you lot to go discover.”
“Ah... I never liked studying...”
“Do it anyway. That's how you'll make even more interesting things.”
“Yes, my lady...”
These people. Honestly, they're so hard to play around with.
“So the lead gets separated here too?”
“No, my lady. Expanding the facility that large is impractical, so we ship it along with the silver to the other site.”
“Good. Do it that way.”
That wasn't just me being lazy, right?
“You don't need many people here, I take it?”
“No. For charcoal making and such, we can put the natives to work.”
“Right. Give them the simple tasks.”
Since we had to keep the Japanese kids busy, we paid them a little silver for their labor — and they went absolutely insane for it.
Then we sold them all sorts of odds and ends at the harbor and clawed the silver right back.
My, my. A creation economy even here. Next time the train comes around, I should go check out the silver vein myself.
「KWAAA-BOOM」
There was no denying it — the sound was on a completely different level from black powder.
And yet, contrary to my worries, they were handling it so carefully that no accidents occurred. Or maybe accidents did happen, and Holy Water patched them right up.
「KUGU-BOOM!」
Usually they set off one blast, then spend ages picking through the rubble — but today was two in a row? There was still plenty of rock left above ground, and the sound was deafening. I wonder if it'll quiet down once they tunnel into the earth?
The first time they set that stuff off, the natives scattered in absolute panic, screaming.
“My lady!”
“Oh...”
There he is... he recognizes me on sight every single time he arrives.
“You came!”
“Yes. Keeping busy?”
“This stuff is incredible! What's it called!?”
Huh? A name? It's dynamite, obviously. Should I just say "explosive"?
“Explosive?”
“Oh! What a beautiful name!”
What's beautiful about it? It just means "medicine that makes things blow up" in characters. Do whatever you like.
“You're at least buying straw coverings and such from the natives before you blast, right?”
“Of course. They aren't strictly necessary, but we buy all sorts of things from them whenever we can.”
This is how you stimulate the local economy. The people gather in greater numbers, and the mine gets dug up and stripped that much faster.
That said, the silver really is everywhere — they're picking up staggering amounts of raw silver ore right off the ground, enough to fill a whole train car in no time.
I suppose ordinary folk have been carrying off bits and pieces here and there, but how exactly do they plan to smelt silver without knowing the first thing about separating it from lead? And why bother taking the stuff that's so lead-contaminated it doesn't even look silver? It's a LEAD mine, you people!
“Are many people coming here to work?”
“Word has spread, and they're streaming in from all over.”
“Good to hear. Go ahead and just pay them in proper currency. They're hauling it all to the harbor and buying up everything anyway.”
“Yes, my lady!”
“Smooth sailing~”
Excellent!
Even after several years had passed, things remained unchanged. There was barely any interference to speak of, so we were mining our silver in peace.
「KWAA-KRANG, KUGU-BOOM」
“Wow... they really don't know when to stop.”
They were blowing up every suspicious patch of ground on the pretext of hunting for silver. The mountain that had been richest in silver was gone entirely...
How on earth are they manufacturing this much explosive? And that recipe is genuinely dangerous, isn't it?
The protective gear makes it somewhat safer, I suppose, but still. Or are they just feeding people into the fires? The letters said there'd been no accidents, which is a strange relief.
「Murmur, murmur」
“What, more of them?”
Whether it was rumor or desperation, impoverished Japanese were flooding into this nameless mine in enormous numbers.
The harbor area drew even more — apparently having land to farm made the difference. How hard could their lives be, for them to flock like this?
And the answer to that question arrived not long after. A person of high standing came calling, escort in tow.
Having lived here so long, I'd picked up Japanese anyway, so I decided to greet them personally.
If I left it to that bomb-happy lunatic, something was bound to go off before the day was out.
“Who is it?”
“He says he has come from the Fujiwara clan.”
He spoke with perfect courtesy, but the boy had no strength to him at all, did he? I could beat him in a fistfight without breaking a sweat.
I had gotten a bit stronger lately, sleeping and waking as I do. Maybe that's what growing taller does?
“Mm. Right. So, what business does Lord Fujiwara have?”
“Is there a representative present?”
“That's me. I'm the highest authority here.”
“I see you call this place Daehan — so even women hold office, I gather?”
Office work takes a good head on your shoulders. What does gender have to do with anything?
“Yes. And I happen to hold a fairly high one.”
“Ah! You must be a daughter of a noble house.”
“The highest house there is, probably.”
“Hohh...”
Just get to the point already. What's with all this stalling?
「KUGU-BOOM」
“Hwuh...!”
“Why are you startled by a little thing like that?”
“What... what is that?”
“Hmm. In our language we call it 'explosive.' We use it for breaking rock and digging earth?”
They don't have any concept of gunpowder or explosives here yet, do they? Well, if they're practicing alchemy, they might figure it out.
“Never mind that — what is your business here?”
“Why are you detaining the Emperor's subjects?”
“Detaining? They keep coming on their own.”
Not that I'm complaining — though plenty of people who aren't really needed keep arriving too, and it's getting annoying.
“Hmm...”
“Take them back if you like. It's not as though I gathered them.”
Though judging by the rumors, they probably wouldn't come back even if dragged. What was it again — crushed to death under taxes, was it?
“But this is not Daehan soil...”
“Right! In exchange, we purchased the resource extraction rights.”
“I beg your pardon? From whom?”
“The Emperor. One hundred thousand ryō of silver.”
That was dirt cheap, honestly? What we could dig out in three or four days, tops.
“Gahh...”
“What? Sounds like you sold it cheap? Want me to pay more?”
Had he come all this way to shake me down for more money?
“That is not it. Word reached us that silver comes from this land, and so I have come.”
“It does come out, but so what? Planning to buy it back?”
So they'd slipped a spy in among the laborers. No wonder the men kept hauling off ore so laced with lead it barely passed for silver.
“How does two billion ryō sound?”
“HACK! What nonsense is this!”
“What do you mean, nonsense? I found the silver vein myself, developed it myself, and now you're just asking me to hand it over?”
That's just shameless, isn't it? I was going to go easy on him because he looked so weak.
“There are limits, my lady! How can you inflate a purchase of one hundred thousand ryō twenty thousandfold!”
“Lord Fujiwara! Shall I cut down this insolent woman where she stands?”
Huh? What did he say? I must have misheard.
“WAIT!”
“Yes, my lord!”
Hmm. Eight men, if these are his guards. I could take them, couldn't I?
“Whew...”
Hey, why are you losing your temper? That's supposed to be my job here?
“What? A hundred thousand isn't enough? Want me to throw in that much more?”
“Gahh!”
“What, still too little?”
“Just how much silver is there!?”
Why is he this shocked? More than two billion ryō, surely! Is he dense? Or is silver worth more than I thought?
“Me? Or Daehan? Or this mine?”
Not that it made much difference.
“All of it! I must know!”
“Hmm...”
“Gulp.”
“Well, the Emperor lets me spend all of Daehan's silver as I please, so if we go by Daehan's holdings...”
Huh? How much is it? I know it's a staggering amount, but it's so vast I've never actually counted...
“Ah. Sorry. It's been ages since I visited the warehouse. Even the hundred thousand ryō I paid the Emperor wasn't a thousandth of it, probably?”
“H-hack...”
Was that really so shocking? There is more silver than gold in the world, but he'd just heard it was less than one part in a thousand?
Millennia of plunder and trade built that hoard — even I can't guess at its full size.
And that place to the west — France, they call it these days? We've been sweeping up virtually all the silver coming out of there, too...