Sven wanted them to test the wrong chemical formula so they would waste more time.

Every single month they wasted failing to build a musket was another one hundred silver coins added to his pig farm savings.

Minister Hugo walked inside.

"Report your progress immediately." Minister Hugo ordered. "Emperor Louis the Germanic demands a working iron musket by the end of this month. We must equip our knights with these weapons before the Iron Kingdom marches on Paris."

Gerard placed the seamed iron barrel on a testing stand. He secured the metal tube with thick iron clamps.

"We are ready for our very first live test, Minister Hugo," Gerard stated. "We have loaded one ounce of Bernard’s balanced powder into the back of the iron barrel. We have inserted a round lead ball weighing exactly one ounce. I will now ignite the powder using a torch to test the firing mechanism."

Sven stood up from his stool. He took twelve steps backward until his back touched the stone wall.

Gerard lit the torch using the closest hot iron furnace. He walked over to the testing stand.

All the scholars and blacksmiths crowded tightly around the table, standing three feet away from the iron barrel.

"I strongly suggest everyone step back exactly twenty feet," Sven stated directly to Minister Hugo. "King Ragnar’s weapons are highly unpredictable during the early testing phases."

Minister Hugo nodded. Hugo took twelve steps backward and stood right next to Sven against the wall.

The thirty scholars and fifty blacksmiths did not listen.

Gerard lowered the burning torch to the small touch-hole on the top of the iron barrel.

The fire touched the balanced black powder.

It ignited with a loud sound. Because there was too much charcoal and sulfur, the powder burned too slowly.

The seam on the iron barrel instantly failed. The hot iron split wide open with a loud sound of tearing metal.

A massive cloud of black sulfur smoke erupted into the room. The testing stand completely shattered.

The lead ball simply rolled out and dropped onto the floor.

The fifty blacksmiths and thirty scholars fell to the floor, coughing and shouting in fear.

Their faces and clothes were completely covered in black soot. Nobody was dead, but they were entirely terrified and humiliated.

Sven stood still against the wall. He calmly brushed a small piece of black soot off the shoulder of his wool coat. He looked at Minister Hugo.

"As you can see~ Minister," Sven explained, "The iron in Francia is simply too brittle. Also, I believe the weather in Paris is too humid for the black powder to burn correctly. You must order the blacksmiths to hammer the iron for exactly ten more days to remove the invisible impurities."

Minister Hugo coughed loudly. He waved his hand to clear the thick black smoke from his face.

"This is a disaster..."

"But we will not stop. Gerard! Bernard! Clean this mess up! You will forge another iron barrel tomorrow!"

Hugo turned to look at Sven. "...you must return to your inn. It is time to write your monthly espionage report to Queen Gyda. You must tell her that we are failing... This will make King Ragnar arrogant, and he will stop building his own weapons."

"I will write the fake report exactly as you command, Minister Hugo," Sven bowed.

Sven walked out of the hot room. He walked up the stairs and stepped out into the cold streets of Paris. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Sven entered his room at the inn. The two guards stood outside the door.

Sven opened his leather bag. He pulled out a piece of plain white paper, a feather pen, and two small glass bottles.

One bottle contained the fake lemon juice ink. The other bottle contained the highly advanced iron sulfate ink.

First, he dipped his feather pen into the real iron sulfate ink. He wrote the truth. He overloaded the paper with logistical facts for King Ragnar and Queen Gyda.

"To King Ragnar and Queen Gyda,

The Franks are hiding fifty blacksmiths and thirty scholars in the dungeons beneath the palace’s eastern wing. Currently, they are blindly testing a 33% ratio. Their seamed iron barrels keep shattering at a mere five hundred pounds of pressure.

But do not celebrate their failures. Their pockets are bottomless, and they have the wealth to fail a thousand times over. Eventually trial and error will lead them straight to the true 75% saltpeter ratio. The clock is ticking. You must prepare."

Sven waited for the iron sulfate ink to dry.

Next, Sven dipped his feather pen into the fake lemon juice ink. He wrote a different message directly on top of the invisible words using the four-letter shift cipher he had given to Minister Hugo.

"The Franks are fools. In their incompetence, they managed to blow their only stolen musket to pieces.

The scholars are fleeing the capital, leaving Emperor Louis humiliated. He has scrapped the entire reverse-engineering project.

You can rest easy; Paris is nothing to worry about."

Sven stood up from the chair and opened the door. He handed the folded paper to the two Frankish guards.

"Please deliver this to the merchant boat," Sven instructed. "It contains the lies Minister Hugo requested."

The guards nodded silently. They took the paper and walked down the stairs.

They would take the letter to Minister Hugo first. Hugo would hold it over a hot candle, read the lemon juice lies, smile happily, and then send it to City Titan on a fast boat.

Hugo would never know that the invisible iron sulfate truth was written right on top of it.

Sven closed the door. He lay down on his bed.

He did the math in his head: fifty pigs meant a hundred square feet of mud for each, plus the misery of building five hundred feet of sturdy fencing.

Compared to that headache, he was certain that sitting in a room and watching scholars accidentally blow themselves up was a blessing from the gods.