“Astreia… Astreia?”
Wendy gently pushed the breastplate in front of him, but Princess Royal stood frozen like a finely crafted statue, unmoving and unresponsive.
After a moment, Astreia suddenly snapped back to her senses, her starry eyes shrinking.
In front of her stood the Prince, full of concern, his handsome face etched with worry.
Everything had returned to normal.
But recalling that icy, bone-chilling sneer from before—that face, twisted with mockery and disdain—was like a burn that would never heal, seared deep into her soul.
The muscles on Her Highness’s face twitched uncontrollably, her expression twisting into something almost grotesque.
“Astreia, are you alright?” Wendy, quick to notice the change, immediately grabbed her hand. “Just now, you were standing there, and your expression suddenly went blank…”
The warm, soft touch startled the Princess Royal once again.
The heat in her palm was real.
It was as if she had found a lifeline—she clutched Wendy’s hand tightly with both of hers, whispering in relief, “Thank goodness… thank goodness…”
“Hm?”
Wendy tilted his head, his peach blossom eyes blinking.
“Thank goodness for what?”
“It’s nothing, really, I just… I’m just too happy, so happy that I zoned out for a moment.”
Astreia turned away in embarrassment, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead when Wendy couldn’t see.
Hallucination! It must have been a hallucination!
She must simply be too tired lately.
It was only her subconscious fear that he would leave that conjured up such a terrifying vision.
Astreia tried desperately to convince herself.
But a more frightening thought, like a poisonous vine in the shadows, grew wildly and uncontrollably in her heart.
If… if she severed those slender limbs, made Prince Wendy into a doll, chained him to the bed…
Would that lovely beauty forever remain in her embrace, hers to love as she pleased, never able to leave again?
Would that perfect, enchanting smile… belong to her and her alone, forever?
‘No! No, no, no… What am I thinking?! This is too terrifying…’
Astreia shuddered at her own thoughts, shaking her head madly to force out those wild and blasphemous ideas.
“Hoo…”
She took several deep breaths, calming herself, then turned back around with a dignified, gratified smile, signaling for all the kneeling generals to rise.
“This is the Gunpowder Formula,” Wendy said, seeing that everyone had now become his nominal allies.
He took out a roll of Sheepskin Parchment he had prepared in advance and handed it to General Sera.
“General, I’ll trouble you to gather the materials listed as quickly as possible.”
Sera accepted it solemnly.
In her eyes, it was as if she was holding not just a piece of paper, but the future of the entire kingdom.
The gazes of the other generals grew fervent in an instant.
If they had just submitted to Wendy’s wisdom, now they looked forward to the glorious future that this formula could create.
Of course, Wendy would never be foolish enough to hand over the classic “one part saltpeter, two parts sulfur, three parts charcoal” Black Powder formula directly.
As a seasoned PVP player, he knew the importance of never revealing his trump card.
What he wrote on the Sheepskin Parchment was a modified Alchemical Explosive Formula from the game—more powerful, but much less stable.
Most importantly, he had deliberately added a dozen irrelevant interfering substances to the formula, and the ratios of the core materials were completely wrong.
The real proportions would only be shared verbally with Astreia and Sera.
This way, even if the formula was leaked, all they’d get was a pile of useless powder.
With General Sera’s formidable execution, the materials were soon all gathered.
Saltpeter took a bit of effort to find, but sulfur was easy to locate near the Hot Spring Mountains, and charcoal was everywhere.
Wendy declined everyone’s “help,” asking only Astreia to stand guard outside.
He worked alone in a dry storeroom.
A short while later, he carefully wrapped a small amount of black powder in Oil Paper.
The leftover materials were carelessly mixed together, destroying any chance of reverse-engineering the correct proportions.
One hour later.
Outside Sunset Fortress, at the abandoned Quarry.
The area was already tightly guarded by sentries at every turn.
No unauthorized personnel were allowed anywhere near.
Astreia, Sera, and several core generals stood on a high ground in the distance, watching the busy greenish figure in the field with grave expressions.
Wendy, carrying an unremarkable “explosive pack,” walked to a giant granite boulder nearly waist-high at the center of the Quarry and carefully stuffed it into a natural crevice at the base.
Then, he drew out a length of grease-soaked hemp rope from his bag, dragging it dozens of meters away.
Only after everything was in place did he dust off his hands and stroll back up the hill.
“That’s… that’s it?”
A noble-born general stared at the lone hemp rope and the loaf-sized paper-wrapped package in disbelief.
Wendy didn’t answer.
He took a torch from a guard, then looked at Astreia and winked playfully.
“Cover your ears, my dear Highness~”
With that, he brought the torch close to the end of the hemp rope.
“Hiss—”
Sparks raced along the rope like a swift serpent, darting toward the distant boulder.
General Sera instinctively stepped forward, her single eye wide, eager to see what this “black powder” could do.
The next second—
“BOOM——!!!!”
A deafening explosion, the likes of which had never been heard before, erupted with a force that could tear eardrums apart!
The earth shook violently.
Everyone on the hill felt their legs go numb, barely able to stand.
A wild shockwave mixed with smoke and flying stones rushed toward them!
Their clothes and armor flapped in the blast, and it was nearly impossible to keep their eyes open.
When the dust finally settled a bit and everyone looked back at the field, they were all petrified.
“How… how is this possible?”
“This power already surpasses the Dwarves’ Gunpowder!”
The massive granite boulder had been completely obliterated.
All that remained was a scorched, gaping pit and scattered fragments of rock.
Some pieces had even flown over a dozen meters away, embedding deep into the rock walls and leaving jagged holes behind.
The whole abandoned Quarry was dead silent.
Everyone stared as if they’d seen a ghost, their eyes slowly shifting from the still-smoking pit to the Prince’s calm and collected figure.
All former doubts, scorn, and greed were gone. In their place were shock, fear, awe—and a kind of fanaticism, as if they had witnessed a miracle!
Astreia clutched her wildly thumping chest, her red lips parted, unable to utter a single word.
That slender figure now seemed impossibly tall, like a god who had descended from the heavens, wielding thunder in his own hands.
“Gulp—”
General Sera swallowed hard. In her remaining eye, not a trace of doubt remained—only a burning ambition.
It was the soul-deep longing and excitement of a warrior seeing the ultimate weapon!
She spun around and faced the generals behind her, who were all still stunned, and with a hoarse, broken roar, issued the most thrilling order of her life.
“Pass down my command! Mobilize the entire army!”
“By tonight, I want to see enough Gunpowder to blow Sunset Mountain to pieces!”