Gunpowder and Sanitation (3)

I had come to observe the process of making saltpeter.

I had expected it to smell awful, since they were making gunpowder with soil soaked in excrement and urine, but the stench was even worse than I'd imagined.

“This is driving me insane, seriously.”

They hadn't even entered the saltpeter works yet, and it was already this bad...

I can’t even handle this now—what am I supposed to do?

Gapseok, who came with me, suddenly clamped his hand over his nose and mouth and started running off somewhere.

He emptied the contents of his stomach into the bushes.

If not for my yangban dignity, I wanted to puke just like him.

“I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

Now I understood perfectly why the old Chamji official had thought I was just making up an excuse to go out and have fun when I said I was coming here...