“Get the hell away! Don’t point the knife at me!”

As soon as the King and the Head of the Households arrived at the entrance of the Lunatic Academy of Sciences, which was blocked off by the Royal Guards, they heard the knight commander’s angry cursing coming from inside.

The Head of the Households looked at the King silently and solemnly.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

“It seems that our geniuses are very motivated.” The King said casually, “I hope he will not really annoy our oath knight commander too awfully.”

In the Academy of Sciences, the knight commander who was wearing an exquisite iron armor looked at the anatomist vigilantly. A meticulous diagram of the human body structure was pinned to the wall, and on the experimental platform in front of the anatomist was a corpse that was forcibly covered with white cloth by the knight commander——probably to prevent the King from seeing this bloody scene.

The anatomist was holding a knife and gesturing at the knight commander, muttering words under his breath.

The knight commander’s hair stood on end, and he felt that he was probably not a living person in the other’s eyes, but a collection of bones and countless blood vessels…..

“Your Majesty.”

The knight commander saw the King who walked in and hurriedly saluted respectfully. There was a faint melancholy in his heart——he was happy to serve His Majesty even if he had to give up his life, it didn’t matter. But the King sent him to take care of these lunatics…..God! Could he ask His Majesty to change his job?

“Good work.”

The King nodded slightly to him.

The knight commander subconsciously straightened his spine, feeling extremely honored.

The Head of the Households patted him on the shoulder and silently encouraged him. For the sake of the holy lord, Mr. Knight Commander, please persevere and continue to fight with wits and courage against these lunatics.

“Alright, alright, Mr. Jacob, please stop your work for a while and also call over your companions.” The King clapped his hands in the hall.

As soon as the King’s voice fell, there was a loud noise from upstairs.

The Head of the Households immediately stepped forward and guarded the King behind him.

The knight commander skillfully drew out the long sword and rushed directly upstairs: “How many times have I warned you——”

“——No experimenting with gunpowder indoors!”

“No——even less than a pound is still absolutely not allowed!”

“I will throw you all into the snow!! You bastards!!!”

The roar of the knight commander echoed in the house.

The Head of the Households looked at the King.

“Alright then, my dear Mr. Head of the Households.” The King’s expression did not change at all. The chemist brothers still had some sense, and they didn’t really cause a big explosion. Of course, it is very likely that they could not cause any big explosions yet, “I will have them live in another house alone, okay?”

“One penny, they definitely burned their hair again.”

The architect, dressed neatly and tidily, with every hair perfectly combed, walked out of his room.

“It’s a gamble.”

The astrologer who just arrived took out his money.

The anatomist tried to join the gambling game as well, but the architect kept at least half a hall’s distance away from him at all times, so as not to get into a fight with this fellow who used the knife because of his own obsession with cleanliness.

In the chaos, the King saw all his “genius scientists”.

“Gentlemen, my Head of the Households has prepared a lot of oil for you. Can you tell me, does the stake at the door need to be used?” After the knight commander received the news that the King would be coming over, he had cleaned up the hall and placed out a long table with a few chairs. The King sat down at the table with his fingers pressed together and looked at his scientists with a smile.

“We think that the stakes look better when they are not turned into charcoal.”

The lunatics who caused the knight commander thunderous anger every day possessed an intuitive awe of the young king, and they constrained themselves in front of the King.

The anatomist was the first to speak. He proudly showed the King the human anatomy picture he nailed in the hall: “Your Majesty, I can already confirm that human blood is indeed circulating into the heart. Let the church idiots take their “natural aura” to see their holy lord! Blood circulation is determined by the structure and function of the heart itself! The human body itself is the greatest creation!”

This was why the King liked these “lunatics”.

The extreme pursuit of knowledge in a certain field made them sneer at the holy court.

Then the pharmacist walked forward with a diagram of his bacterial structure. He completed the task in cooperation with the doctor who tried to cut open the human skull with a knife. The two hit it off immediately, and the crazy thoughts collided into one place.

It was worth mentioning that the pharmacist’s research results also had the astrologer’s credit——the pharmacist grabbed the telescope used by the astrologer to observe the sky and transformed it into his own experimental instrument.

Although the microbial structure diagram was still very crude in the eyes of the King, it had already embarked on the right path.

After he saw it, he nodded slightly: “I will ask someone to build a suitable tool for you. Please don’t rob your companion next time, sir.”

The architect took out his handkerchief, wiped the table carefully, and then opened the box he brought out and spread a drawing in front of the King. After he was thrown into this place, the King sent a detailed map of a town——a commercial town on the southeast coast.

In addition to the drawing, the architect also had a thick document of explanation, indicating all the details involved and his calculation data.

The King turned the pages: “I will ask someone to evaluate it. Congratulations on your great success in advance.”

The results brought by the astrologer were very limited. But this could not be blamed on him, the survey of celestial bodies had always required a long time and complicated calculations. He looked pale-faced, thinking that his fate was inevitable, but the King became interested in one of the things he used to measure the angles of celestial bodies.

He perfected an ancient measuring tool “Gilson’s Rod”.

This was a tool for measuring the angular distance of celestial bodies conceived by geometric thinking, although it did not have the same optical characteristics as a nocturnal device. But it could measure the angle formed by the rays from any two stars at a certain point on the ground, so as to avoid errors caused by changes in the position of the ground reference object and the observer. [1]

“I hope you can continue to come up with something useful in the future.” The King said cordially, “However, in order to show respect for you, I will ask Mr. Head of the Households to keep the oil for you. If you fail to achieve anything in the future…..you know what you should do, don’t you?”

Among all the people, who the King had the greatest expectations for was undoubtedly the pair of chemist brothers who almost burned themselves to death again.

The knight commander fished them out of the room.

——Many thanks to the knight commander for his caution, he never allowed them to keep too much gunpowder in the laboratory.

The King turned his attention to the two chemist brothers who had just cleaned themselves up and looked particularly sorry looking without their hair.

In the 13th century, gunpowder began to appear in people’s sight. But for nearly three hundred years, gunpowder had not won much attention. Because of its high cost of production, its power was also very limited at this time. In order to carry out military reforms, the King asked the Duke of Buckingham about the current weapons situation in detail.

The answer he got was disappointing.

Nowadays, the gunpowder components that could be linked to “military use” were mainly saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. Among them, saltpeter accounted for as high as 66.5%-75% [2]. In this age, saltpeter and sulfur were very expensive. Whether it was Legrand or Bressi making gunpowder, they needed to be imported.

Of course, the most important thing was that the power of gunpowder was limited at this time.

The use of gunpowder on the battlefield was mainly to use stone throwers to launch “fireballs” and “flasks” made of gunpowder. There were also some attempted artillery pieces, but the artillery damage to one’s own people was comparable to that of the enemy under such limited technical conditions. [3] But for hard castles, they were just monsters that could make loud noises and create false bravado.

“We have changed gunpowder from powder to granular.” [4]

The older chemist brother answered concisely.

“Explain?”

“Can we give you a specific demonstration?” The younger chemist brother asked with excitement in his eyes.

“No, not possible.”

The Head of the Households’ heart stuttered and he rushed to answer loudly in front of the King. He didn’t bother to care about when these two gunpowder madmen would blow themselves up, but if the King even lost a single hair, he would jump into the river and kill himself.

“Don’t be so nervous.” The King looked amusedly at the Head of the Households who looked like he wanted to throw the chemists on the stake that instant. “Of course I won’t let them demonstrate here. I will ask Mr. Duke to come and observe as well.”

After all, he still needed to discuss with the old duke how powerful this new type of gunpowder could be in actual combat.

“Fine.”

The younger chemist brother was obviously a little disappointed. He had a soft spot for explosions.

“However, we accidentally recovered another thing in the experiment. Your Majesty may be interested in it.”

“Tell me.”

“Ancient Holy Fire.” [5]

The younger chemist brother replied.

The King sat up straight.

“I hope you are not joking.”

The King watched the two chemists and spoke slowly.

“Otherwise the stake will be a luxury for you in comparison.”

Ancient Holy Fire.

This was an unforgettable scar in the Rose family.

This was not an unfamiliar term. It used to be a weapon used by the Holy Court on the other side of the Abyss Strait to deal with Legrand.

In the fifth century AD, Legrand’s Black Death had subsided. The Rose royal family, who were dissatisfied with the control of the Holy Court, once launched an expedition to try to defeat the Holy Court and regain the supreme glory of the royal family.

So long as the church of the Holy Court was reduced to ashes, the light of faith spreading on the land of Legrand would naturally be extinguished.

At that time, Legrand sent a total of nearly a thousand ships. When they arrived at Sanling Bay where the Holy Court was, the battleships of the Holy Court appeared in front of the world for the first time. The white ships dispersed lightly on the sea, and the priests in white holy robes poured black liquid into the seawater.

Something incomprehensible to the Legrand people at that time occurred.

The fire raged on the sea, and with the help of the northeast wind at that time, it spread and swept across the nearly thousand Legrand ships.

The red fire raged on the sea, and the brave warriors fell to death before they even stepped onto the battlefield. They hollered and wanted to jump into the water to extinguish the fire on their bodies, but there was fire on the water. Black smoke floated into the sky like poisonous snakes, and the priests on the white battleship of the Holy Court sang an ancient carol.

“God is the righteous judge

And also a god who is angry with the wicked every day

………..

He also prepared equipment to kill

What He lets loose are fiery arrows.”

In this solemn hymn, Legrand’s warriors were reduced to ashes in the flames. The three princes of the Rose family who led the army were also buried in the sea of ​​flames. They did something worthy of the glory of the Rose before they died. They endured the burning of the fire and drove their warships across the line of fire to each take down a holy ship with them.

However, nearly a thousand Legrand warships were still reduced to ashes in that war.

The Holy Court called the fire that burned on the sea the “Ancient Holy Fire.” That was the time when the Holy Court was at its most majestic. They established their position with that war and declared to the world that “God looks at the earth, and all those who did not comply shall receive the raging inferno of Judgement Day.”

Legrand suffered a great blow after that battle, and the Rose family had to suppress the anger and hatred in their hearts and accept the kingdom of God above their heads. Later generations of Rose family historians recorded that battle clearly, how many people were sacrificed, and how much shame Legrand suffered afterwards.

It was a scar that was still dripping with blood.

However, every crown prince of the Rose family would be repeatedly educated on that period of time since childhood.

The more pain, the more anger, and the more anger, the stronger one would be. It was under this pain that the Rose family survived the most difficult period, and only then was there the later glory of the later organizational structure of the Mad King, the expedition of the Lion King, and the reunification of 36 states by William III.

But this did not mean that others could use it as a joke.

There was no smile on the King’s face, his eyes were like winter glaciers and under the glaciers there was an untouchable abyss. His tone was still gentle, but these lunatics with keen senses all felt a terrible danger enveloping the hall.

“Yes, this is not a joke.”

The older chemist brother replied.

“We created the Ancient Holy Fire.”

He stood up straight and proud: “That’s not a holy flame that can only be used by a god. Mortals can also create it!”

The King looked at the chemist for a long time.

Finally, he smiled slowly and raised his hands to applaud the proud chemist.

“Congratulations, from now on, you are the dean of Legrand’s First Academy of Sciences.”

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

AN: This chapter is also called “The Tyrant and His Mad Scientists”

[1] The prototype is the “Jacob’s Rod”. According to records, it does have the function as stated in the text, which was mentioned in the writings of the Jewish-Spanish astronomer Levi Ben Gilson at the time. It was appreciated by Pope Clement VI at the time.

[2] The data comes from a compilation of Spanish-Arabic encyclopedia knowledge between 1275 and 1300. At that time, this was a gunpowder that had a strong explosive effect and could be used in the military.

[3] A very typical example, in 1460, King James II of Scotland died when his own cannon suddenly exploded during the siege of Roxburgh. The history of the military use of European artillery is actually the same as that of catapults for a long time. They are used to throw stone bombs into castles to destroy houses and churches, but they are not used to destroy city walls. The impact is very limited.

[4] The transformation of gunpowder from powder to granular is a very crucial part of the European gunpowder revolution and a key step in the reform of gunpowder technology. Related book “Competing for the Prosperity: Technology, Military and Society since 1000 AD” (United States) William H. McNeil

[5] The prototype is actually the Greek fire, which was used by the Byzantine army when fighting the Arabs in 678 AD. It can burn on the water.

TN: bonus chapter coming up!

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