Chapter 36

< 36.  Chaos of the Andes. >

“So, what happened?”

“Well, you see…”

The colorful llama chuckled at the voices coming from beyond the cabin door.

‘They’re at it again.’

He could picture the situation in his head without looking.

Most likely, Blue Sun was telling the newcomers stories from the past.

The colorful llama opened the door and entered. Then, Blue Sun greeted him warmly.

“Did you come? How’s outside?”

“Well, we still have to go further. Besides, are you at it again?”

“Haha. At it again? These guys keep asking me to tell them, that’s why.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sure they do.”

The colorful llama rubbed his ears and went to his bed and lay down.

“Uh-hum, hum. Where did I stop?”

Blue Sun’s story continued, but the colorful llama tuned him out.

‘Anyway, he never gets tired of it.’

Actually, the colorful llama didn’t remember his childhood very well. The part he remembered was from when he had already joined the Creek tribe.

The colorful llama and Blue Sun were sailors from the imperial mainland.

But there were more sailors from the ocean region than from the mainland here.

They were always curious about the Wakan Tanka Empire.

The stories of how the emperor descended from the sky and unified the surroundings at a tremendous speed, creating a powerful empire.

‘That’s lucky.’

The colorful llama was very satisfied with his current life.

He had been sailing around various places since before he became an adult.

Staying in one place didn’t suit the colorful llama’s temperament.

He had sailed beyond the current empire’s territory and visited various places in both the ocean and Andes regions.

That way, he could feel the difference between the central part of the empire and the non-empire regions.

The natives of other regions were definitely worse off in terms of quality of life.

Moreover, the empire was developing at a fast pace even at this moment.

The colorful llama, who traveled frequently between the capital and various places, knew this well.

Living as an imperial citizen was truly a blessing.

As he was thinking that.

Ding-ding-ding!

Suddenly, a bell rang out loud.

“Assembly!”

“Damn. I thought I could rest a bit.”

He had just changed shifts, but it seemed like they had arrived at their destination already.

He hated this time the most.

But what could he do? As long as he was on this ship, he had to follow the captain’s orders.

The colorful llama reluctantly got up from his bed and left the cabin.

“Hey, did you rest well?”

“Shut up. Are you trying to tease me right now?”

“Hey. It’s just your mood, your mood. Hahaha!”

A colleague who had not been on duty for long smirked at him annoyingly.

He was quite irritated, but the colorful llama just sighed.

He knew that he was just playful and had a good heart.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been here.”

“About a month or so?”

“That’s right.”

“Anyway, I have to appreciate his wanderlust. Why does he have to go on different ships all the time?”

“I don’t like going on just one route. I got on this ship because the timing didn’t match with other ships.”

“Yeah. You work hard by yourself. I’m just going back and forth between Shit Island and Ocean.”

The colorful llama smiled faintly and leaned on the railing.

The open sea calmed his mind and body.

‘What’s beyond there?’

What kind of beings lived beyond the horizon?

He was very curious about that.

But he was just a sailor right now.

He couldn’t go to such places on his own.

So he worked as a sailor and kept saving money.

His salary as an experienced sailor was quite hefty.

He saved and saved his income until now.

‘I don’t have much left.’

He had accumulated quite a lot of wealth by now.

Of course, he had to buy a ship with that money and do various transportation jobs to earn more money, then pay his fellow sailors who shared his intentions.

But it wasn’t as hopeless as before.

As he was thinking that, the ship approached Shit Island soon enough.

“What kind of faction is there this time? Hehe.”

“That’s right. Anyway, Andes is chaotic.”

Shit Island was a battlefield for various factions. It seemed to show a miniature version of the current chaos in Andes region.

It couldn’t be helped.

Shit Island mined bird droppings that were all bought by Wakan Tanka Empire.

In exchange for iron weapons and various imperial specialties.

Before long, the ship anchored near Shit Island.

“Hurry up and get off!”

Following the captain’s order, the sailors including the colorful llama landed on Shit Island.

“Welcome.”

“Glad to see you.”

As the group got off the ship, the leader of the faction that occupied Shit Island greeted them.

This was translated in real time by the interpreter who came with them on the ship.

“Is there anything you need…?”

Captain White Dog tilted his head and asked.

Even if he was a captain, he couldn’t know all the tribes of Andes.

Especially these days, many tribes wore clothes imported from Wakan Tanka Empire, making it harder to distinguish them.

“It’s an alliance of five tribes, including the Pekcha tribe.”

“Oh, I see.”

Only then did the white dog nod his head.

He had heard of that tribe before. It was a tribe that had a considerable power in the Andes region.

‘The Peccha have expanded their territory this far.’

He almost snorted as he listened to their words.

As far as he knew, the Peccha tribe was a tribe that had grown their influence in the inland area.

‘The Tawantinsuyu must have weakened, so they are fighting among themselves.’

The Wakan Tanka Empire had delayed enough time and then started trading with the Tawantinsuyu, or the Inca Empire.

But in the meantime, several tribes that had already acquired enough weapons joined forces and swept away the Tawantinsuyu’s territory.

This was more aggressive and rapid than the Wakan Tanka Empire had expected.

As a result, the Tawantinsuyu’s power had shrunk drastically compared to before.

Still, they were able to recover some of their power by starting trade with the Wakan Tanka Empire.

Even though they had weakened, the Tawantinsuyu were still a powerful nation.

The problem started from then on.

Some of the tribes that had united to take over the Tawantinsuyu’s regions showed their true colors.

They stabbed the backs of the other allied tribes.

‘It became a mess from then on.’

If they had joined forces to punish the traitorous tribes, it would have been different.

But they didn’t do that.

They didn’t know which tribe would stab their back next.

A distrust arose among them.

It was natural.

They had only joined hands for a while to fight against the powerful enemy called Tawantinsuyu.

Besides, they had a desire to expand their territory with the powerful weapons they had acquired.

Especially, they had to secure the mining areas such as gold mines or silver mines, in order to buy the powerful weapons from the Wakan Tanka Empire.

Eventually, the tribes that agreed with each other formed alliances, and the huge coalition was practically dissolved.

And then, wars began to take more mines in their own spheres of influence.

‘And one of those battlefields is this shit island.’

The faction that occupied the shit island could get more weapons, necessities, food, and other goods from the Wakan Tanka Empire. 

And this would eventually lead to further expansion of their power.

Naturally, the shit island became an inevitable battleground.

The workers who dug up bird droppings remained as they were, but the faction that took their profits kept changing.

The workers who dug up bird droppings did not attack. 

That was an unwritten rule for all workers in gold mines and silver mines as well.

It was hard to bring workers to these places every time the faction changed.

And another faction. 

The Wakan Tanka Empire’s trade ship never touched it.

If they succumbed to a momentary greed and touched it, the Wakan Tanka Empire would completely cut off trade with that tribe. 

There were already tribes that had fallen because of that.

‘As for us, we just need to get more bird droppings.’

He didn’t care much whether they fought or not among themselves. 

The empire’s policy was that they could trade with any tribe as long as they didn’t attack the empire.

“I’ll give you one sword for this much bird droppings.”

“No, that’s too expensive! It seems more expensive than what I heard!”

“Haha. You must not have heard the news yet. The demand for the empire’s weapons and specialties has increased in many regions of the Andes. There are more tribes that want them, but the quantity is fixed. Of course, it’s natural that it costs more.”

“Hmm… Then let’s do this.”

Soon after, a fierce bargaining began between the leaders of the two factions.

Thanks to that, the price was lowered a bit from what the white dog had initially offered, but he still got more money for his weapons than in his last trade.

What he said was true. 

More and more tribes wanted goods from the empire. 

Especially iron swords broke easily. 

It cost a lot to replace them with new ones. Of course, the production of iron swords also increased steadily, but demand rose faster than that.

“Haha. It was a good deal. I hope I can trade with your tribe again next time.”

“You will definitely see my face again.”

He could feel a strong will from his face that he would defend this shit island at all costs.

After completing the trade on shit island. 

The empire’s trade ship soon left shit island. 

The ship left the island and stopped by several regions of Andes to load gold and silver. 

Then it would go to Pacific region. 

And from there, goods would be transported to mainland of empire.

***

At an experimental site of chemistry department at Imperial University. 

An experiment was in progress here. 

“Everyone back off!”

At shout of senior researcher, researchers of university prepared for explosion that would happen soon. 

Soon, fuse got shorter and flame reached explosive material.

Then.

Bang!

An explosion occurred in middle of site.

“Hmm…”

“What do you think?”

“I think it lacks firepower. What do you think?”

“I agree.”

“Let’s record it for now.”

“Yes.”

Kim Ki-woo had introduced inductive research method to various departments of Imperial University. 

It was same for chemistry department. 

Chemistry department was currently researching explosive materials. 

This was because Kim Ki-woo had suggested it. 

He had commented to try using bird droppings as explosive material.

“I think we need to increase amount of material made from bird droppings.”

“That seems right. To increase firepower.”

They had tried putting in many materials. 

They had tried putting in soil, and even salt. 

They had tried all kinds of experiments, but only time they witnessed clear explosion was when they put in three things at same time. 

It was material refined from bird droppings, charcoal, and sulfur.

In fact, bird droppings were hint from Kim Ki-woo. 

He had commented to try using it as explosive material.

“Then let’s add more refined bird droppings.”

“Okay.”

They continued their experiments on explosive materials. 

Gunpowder was about to be born at a laboratory of Imperial University.

< Chaos of Andes. > The end