Chương 38: Chapter 1.38: Use of Weapons

Favius advanced with three straight strikes, letting the cold fire of the pneuma in his core empower his fists just as they met Caliga's block.

"Good!" shouted Brutus from the sidelines, and Favius got ready to defend. Let's see if I can get it right this time. Attacking is so much easier. He focused as Caliga's strikes came in and tensed his forearms while letting the insight and pneuma toughen him against the strikes. Feels like… something. He grit his teeth as they stepped back from each other.

"So, Caliga," he said while they circled each other, "tell me, why do your father and mother not like each other?" She chuckled darkly.

"Well, what is there to say? My mom never made a secret about me hurting her when she gave birth." Favius's eyes widened, and Caliga struck as per the rhythm of the exercise. He took the strikes on the chest, stumbling back as his attempt to reinforce his body with pneuma failed. On the second strike he growled, "She's blaming you for complications during your birth?"

"That's just my mother," Caliga continued, a hard edge to her voice.

"And well, if—" Favius attacked and couldn't help but smile as Caliga failed to reinforce her torso a single time against his strikes.

"So Hesnia is infertile and that's why Marcus is so glad he could adopt me and the others?" Caliga spit to the side and ran her fingers over her wrapped chest.

"This is gonna leave bruises, Favius." He was about to apologize, but Brutus interjected mercilessly.

"Keep bruising her, Favius. That'll keep her motivated to learn to reinforce her muscles, to use her pneuma properly." Caliga sneered and attacked. A few silent, angry exchanges followed before Caliga glanced at him over raised fists.

"You know, my father tried to take a mistress two times. It was a whole thing." Favius's eyes widened.

"He tried to cheat on Hesnia?"

"How is that cheating?" asked Brutus, and Favius turned to him while deliberately opening his defense. Caliga pounced. He smiled as he countered mercilessly. She still takes everything that looks like an opening. Don't think she has sniffed out any of my feints so far.

"What are you smiling at?" she hissed before shaking her head.

"Damn it. Well, yes. I even liked the second one, but they were gone within a week." Caliga pursed her lips.

"I don't actually know what happened to those women." Favius nodded slowly.

"Still, they are married and he—""What? How does that matter?" Brutus interrupted.

"Understand, boy. He's an aristocrat who's lacking a male heir. Of course he was going to take mistresses. Such is his right." Favius tilted his head to the side, and Brutus continued.

"Haven't you read the legal code on family affairs?" Favius nodded while keeping an eye on Caliga.

"I have." He dimly remembered a rather dry document. Brutus made a cutting gesture and the two of them settled back on the ground.

"You've investigated your mother. What are you going to do?" Favius wiped sweat off his brow and hummed.

"This tension with Marcus and the whole infertility-infidelity thing... There might be something, but it doesn't seem she's doing anything wrong. Like... she's just being a bitch and not committing any crimes."

"I wish we could use her nasty personality. Show it to everyone.," murmured Caliga. Brutus chuckled.

"Politics, Favius, is the art of appearance. You will rarely get lucky and find an opponent who has exposed a true weakness." Caliga kicked him gently across the sand.

"But that doesn't mean my mother has no weaknesses. We can get to her." Favius's eyes widened slightly.

"Brutus, you mean... we make something up?"

"Why not?" asked Brutus. Favius was about to reject the idea, but rubbed his chin and thought about it. Fabricating blackmail material. I mean, I read the family code, so I think the angle Brutus wants to take is accusing her of infidelity or something. He narrowed his eyes.

"Unfaithfullness is quite harshly punished if married women have affairs, but..." He studied Brutus.

"You want to turn this into a political scandal, not just a relationship affair." Brutus snapped his fingers.

"Exactly. Because everything is political." Favius ground his teeth.

"So how do we proceed? If, hypothetically, we were to go ahead with this?" Brutus smirked.

"Hypothetically? Well, first thing I'm gonna do is get the guardsmen drunk and get the full story. Next, you need to remember who you are." He looked at Favius expectantly. The boy narrowed his eyes, then ventured a likely guess.

"I am Severin's son." The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Exactly. You are the son of General Ahenopugnus, the legendary Bronze Fist. The constitutionalists may have reclaimed power, but you still have friends and allies in the Senate. The remnants of the Iron Phoenix faction." He put up one finger, then a second.

"Rhexion-aligned senators." And finally a third finger, which was accompanied with an amused expression.

"And there is someone who is involved with the academy, who might be help us."

"So we write them and ask them for help?" Brutus chuckled.

"Not for help, but for intelligence. They know how this marriage binds together the constitutionalists and the Lirini. They will be all too glad to provide us with the background of a plausible story." Brutus gave him a stern look.

"If the young aristocrat is willing to do what is necessary." Favius's guts tightened, but he nodded.

"Very well. Let's do it." He nodded and they returned to training and bathing, soaking in waters that were pleasantly warm during late summer. He let out a bubbling breath, enjoying the feel of pneuma flowing through his body as it relaxed. It just deepens whatever my body is doing right now. He sighed. I'm distracting myself from my feelings. Damn it, this is necessary. I'm just blackmailing my mother. It's not like I'm arranging for her to be assassinated. Yet the thought stayed with him until the next morning.

After the usual training and education, they soon found themselves in the empty woodworking shop close to another bench. Favius studied the amphorae of oil and the urns containing fat and the various caustic ashes he had ordered. Urania stood close beside him and glared mistrustfully at the veiled beekeeping hats.

"Why are we using those? You told me there would be no yucky insects involved." Favius looked over his companions.

"Because we are working with chemicals." He picked up the gloves.

"Whenever you work with dangerous substances, it's very important to protect your eyes and hands. Otherwise you might go blind." Brutus inspected the urns, and his expression darkened as he saw one of them.

"Is this lime ash?" he asked, and Favius saw anger, maybe grief, in the man's eyes.

"Yes. Why?" Brutus shook his head.

"Pyrii mages call it caustic essence if it's in their grenades. I lost a lot of friends in the Celita campaign due to this stuff. The barbarians threw it off the walls, blinding our soldiers." Brutus let out a long breath.

"Some of the survivors are still blind." Favius swallowed hard while his sisters took several steps back from the substances.

"Why do we need that kind of magical weapon here?" asked Urania carefully, but Favius licked his lips.

"Lime ash, is not inherently dangerous. It is needed for what we are making. If this works, we will have soap." But even on Earth quicklime as it was called there wasn't a substance that could be handled casually. He looked at Urania.

"Soap makes you feel better after you wash yourself and makes you smell nicer."

"You're saying I'm stinky?" asked Caliga with a smile. Favius moved his head from side to side, and her expression darkened. But just as she was about to poke him, he raised a hand.

"No punching or shoving around chemicals." She sighed and was about to object, but Brutus gave her a stern look before Urania clapped her hands.

"Alright, so we put on the veiled hats and the gloves. What then?" Favius gestured at two of the remaining workshop slaves.

"Let's get those three cauldrons set up outside. We will mix the caustic ashes into them to create a solution." As they moved outside and the slaves filled the cauldrons with water, Urania poked her gloved hands into each of the ash urns.

"I don't understand how ash and oil can create anything useful." Favius hummed briefly.

"Well, you see, if you rub your hands clean with sand and water, that only cleans through the force of friction. But with soap..." He gestured at the oil. He stumbled briefly. This language has no word for molecule. Fuck it. I don't want to give a chemistry lecture.

"The atomi in the oil are changed by the atomi in the ash. If they are dissolved in water, they produce atomi that like to attach themselves to—" He frowned in displeasure at the imprecise language.

"—dirt atomi and allow them to be cleaned away."

"And they also clean away your invisible little monsters?" Brutus asked teasingly, and Urania turned around.

"Little monsters?" Favius ground his teeth. Why did I use those specific words when I told Brutus about bacteria? But outwardly he just nodded.

"Yes, Brutus. Bacteria are particles of dirt like anything else." The man hummed. Soon Favius picked up a wooden shovel and filled it with a handful of lime ash. He smiled as he adjusted the veil.

"Alright, everyone take at least ten steps back from the cauldron." He looked at the audience that had gathered in the courtyard, the slaves that had gotten used to them working on the beehives. He slowly started dumping the lime ash into the water. The water began boiling and sizzling as he shoveled the lime ash in, and steam and heat rose. Gasps erupted from all around. He glanced to the side and saw both his sisters glancing awestruck at the reaction while Brutus just chuckled.

"Is all of this going to be this... fiery?" asked Urania after he had pushed nearly a kilogram of lime into the water. Favius shook his head.

"No, I think the others are going to be more tame." He handed the shovel over to Urania.

"Your turn. Take the potash and put it into that cauldron." She glanced at the steaming vapor that was still boiling out of the quicklime cauldron, then straightened up and picked up a shovel full of potash. She hesitantly inched forward to the pot in the middle and slowly began sprinkling the ash into it. Nothing happened.

"Is… is it not going to burn or explode?" she asked, and Favius shook his head.

"No, this is just going to be a normal mixture. The water is going to extract what we need from the ash." She hummed as Caliga stepped forward with a stick and stirred the solution. She even gave the quicklime solution a stir, but took a fast step back when it sizzled a bit. Don't actually know why the quicklime is reacting like this when the other ashes aren't. Maybe it's chemically different from them in some way? He narrowed his eyes. I'm fairly certain that quicklime is calcium-based.

Some sort of oxide or carbonate. He scratched his chin. Well, potash is obviously potassium, but again, oxide or a carbonate? He observed how Caliga was dumping what the locals called marsh ash into the last cauldron. Well, and marsh ash, that's just soda ash, so it's sodium. God damn it. If only I had paid more attention in chemistry class. Soon all the mixtures were stirred and the remnants of the ashes had settled at the bottom of the cauldrons. Favius glanced at all of them.

I think the quicklime has turned to slaked lime, but... He shook his head as he instructed the others to split the caustic water after they returned a few hours later. Soon, six cauldrons were prepared over small fires, they poured olive oil into the first three and large chunks of rendered animal fat into the other three. The afternoon hours passed by as they talked and stirred the pots. Favius studied the various liquids skeptically as the sun neared the horizon.

I have no clue about how long we have to boil this, but I think it's enough for now. Well, the truth is I'm getting hungry. He clapped his hands together.

"I believe we are done." He smiled at his sisters.

"Let's get the cauldrons off the fire and see what we've managed to produce."