“What are you even planning to do with this? Can we even eat this?”

“Why do we have to eat it?”

“What? Then why did we harvest it?”

“Of course, not to eat it.”

Upright Tree’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He looked at Kiwoo with an expression of incomprehension. It was a natural reaction to harvest and grow crops in the hot weather only to find out that they couldn’t even be eaten.

“Then why did we even bother farming?”

Kiwoo pointed at his own clothes.

 “To make this.”

“W-What? Are you telling me that spirits are born from plants here?”

“What? Hahaha, no way!”

“…Really?”

“Of course not! How can you create spirits from plants?”

Of course, Kiwoo himself was not a spirit, but there was no need to dispel this creature’s fantasy.

“I meant the clothes, not me.”

“Clothes…? Ah!” Finally, Upright Tree understood what Kiwoo was talking about. “Wait, are you saying that all of these are made of cotton?”

“Exactly. Isn’t it obvious?”

There were no traces of cotton being grown here. All the cotton that came in was through trade, and the quality was not very good either. That’s why it was the first time Upright Tree had seen cotton being dried alongside Kiwoo’s clothes.

“These will all become clothing for our people. It has been difficult to bring in cotton from the outside, it’s expensive, and there’s not enough of it.”

Upright Tree alternated between looking at Kiwoo’s clothes and the cotton being dried in the sun. Then he snapped out of it and exclaimed, “Ah! If all of these bundles become clothes…!”

“At least within a few years, all of our people will have decent clothing.”

Whenever Kiwoo saw the bare bodies of his people, he thought they needed proper clothes as soon as possible. That’s why during the harvest season, Kiwoo prepared diligently, teaching new farming methods, producing cotton and making thread during his spare time, and weaving clothes.

Eventually, even Upright Tree realized this fact.

“So, everything we made with wood was for that purpose!”

“Exactly as you thought. Now that they’re dry enough let’s start.”

Although Upright Tree had not understood why these objects were being made until now, he suddenly understood everything after hearing Kiwoo’s words.

“He’s really amazing…”

At the same time, Upright Tree felt even more reverence for their spirit leader.

Regardless, with the help of his people, Kiwoo moved the well-dried cotton to the place where he had set up to weave it into cloth.

The process of spinning and weaving had to be done in a traditional household manufacturing format.

To remove the seeds, they used a seed roller that had been prepared beforehand, rotating it with their hands on both sides and putting the cotton in. Then the cotton and the seeds were separated.

Next, they used a spinning wheel to separate the remaining seed husks using a device called a “sombawi.”

After that, they spun the thread using a spinning wheel, not a loom, made of cloth from cotton.

“Even making just one piece of cloth takes a lot of effort,” Kiwoo thought to himself.

Moreover, the tools used to process the wood were also crude due to the shortage of tools. This made it difficult to produce uniform-quality cotton cloth, but the process of producing it was also quite meticulous.

Although Kiwoo wanted to create a water-powered or even steam-powered spinning and weaving machine, it was still just a dream for at least several decades.

Machine-powered spinning and weaving machines were crucial to Kiwoo’s plan, so he kept the design in his bag. The birth of spinning and weaving machines could be seen as the spark that ignited the Industrial Revolution in England. This was a fact that Kiwoo considered very important.

“This area has a climate where cotton grows very well, to the point where it’s called a concentrated cotton-producing area. It has all the necessary climate conditions to produce cotton,” Kiwoo thought to himself.

It was a self-evident fact that it would play a very important role in the development of the industry. It was even more important than the Industrial Revolution in England.

England imported all the cotton and then sold it cheaply in large quantities to create an industry. In contrast, Kiwoo didn’t need to do that. He just needed to grow a lot of cotton in the neighbourhood, process it, and sell it!

He didn’t know how long it would take, but he was really looking forward to that day.

Now that Kiwoo has finished producing food and cotton for this year, there is not much left to do except for the labour-intensive process of making cloth. However, the principles are not that difficult, and everything that was needed has already been passed down.

So, it’s time to start something new, and the preparations for it have already made considerable progress.

Without delay, Kiwoo turned his footsteps.

“Have you arrived?”

“Yes. Is the work going well?”

“Yes, we are doing as the spirit leader instructed.”

“Hmm.”

Kiwoo carefully checked to make sure there were no problems with the work. There could be a dangerous situation if he made a mistake.

Kiwoo’s gaze fell on three circular kilns that were built about two meters high.

Kilns are made of soil, rocks, and timber. It was probably the first kiln built in America. Next to it was a stack of some of the charcoal they had been collecting hard to get, and there wasn’t much of it. But it was better than nothing.

To develop iron mines, sturdy tools made of iron are needed. For now, even charcoal was precious. Besides the stack of charcoal were pre-burnt timber, crushed bone powder, and lime.

While Kiwoo was admiring America’s first ironmaking kiln, Wide Leaf carefully opened his mouth. “May I ask you one thing?”

“What is it? Feel free to ask.”

“What are you trying to do with these?”

Kiwoo smirked. It wasn’t mocking, but his people had asked the same question every time he tried to do something new. He had probably answered this question several times before. He gave the same answer to the wide leaf.

“Well, I’m trying to make iron.”

“Iron…you mean?”

“Something like hard copper. If we can make it properly, it would be incomparable to copper.”

“Does that even exist?”

“Wait and see. You’ll find out when it’s made according to my instructions.”

The people knew about copper, gold, and silver but not about the existence of iron. They wouldn’t be able to understand even if Kiwoo explained it in detail.

“Well, let’s get started!”

Kiwoo began filling the kiln in earnest. Of course, he only suffered from a sore mouth. There were plenty of men who would provide labour for him.

He stacked iron and charcoal in the kiln and added lime. Then he lit the fire. Of course, that wasn’t enough. He needed to blast air through the bellows to raise the temperature.

“Let’s start!”

“Okay!”

The three men in charge of weeding immediately began moving the air purifier back and forth. Their movements looked like they were rowing a boat.

To obtain good iron, the temperature must be raised from 1,300 to 1,500 degrees Celsius. However, it was difficult to achieve such high temperatures with the tools available. Inevitably, iron with low carbon content would come out, resulting in brittle iron. 

Moreover, removing impurities such as vanadium or titanium mixed into the ore was practically difficult, so the iron produced in the ore furnace was crude.

However, they were satisfied that they could produce iron now.

“Wow!”

“The spirit of fire has arrived!”

“Oh my!”

Suddenly, a large number of tribespeople were beating drums around them. They were the people who had been curious about what strange things Kiwoo would make again ever since he first made the furnace. Of course, as soon as the work began, their interest poured in.

In their eyes, the intense flames shooting up to the sky seemed as if the spirit of fire had arrived. It seemed as if Kiwoo had summoned the spirit of fire with his power.

The fact that the tribespeople were bowing down to the ground was evidence of this.

Kiwoo didn’t deny it. It would only hurt his pride, and because of this fire, his status could rise instead.

“We need to blow the wind evenly! I told you not to be uneven!”

“Yes!”

“Add more charcoal! More, more, stop! It’s dangerous; move away from the fire!”

Kiwoo continued to manage everything carefully to prevent accidents. The tribespeople were all inexperienced with smelting, so he had to keep a clear head and control the site.

Time passed relentlessly. They finally removed the slag from the discharge outlet and began the finishing work.

Finally.

All the work was done, and the iron component accumulated below.

Kiwoo smiled as he obtained the iron.

Finally, the age of iron has arrived.

Just thinking about it made his heart tremble. It felt like adrenaline was rushing through his body.

The one who would end the Stone Age had come into his hands. It was not for nothing that people divided ancient times into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. The use of bronze and, later, iron has radically transformed human life.

Of course, thanks to Kiwoo, there would be no Bronze Age in North America. They had gone straight from a limited Copper Age to the Iron Age.

Was it the same in the Old World?

If the changes in the Old World were forced from the outside, then in the future, the changes in America would come from within.

Although it was thousands of years later than the Old World’s Iron Age, it wouldn’t be long before America caught up.

Wait and see. We’ll catch up soon.

The technological gap between the New and Old World would not last long. Kiwoo once again vowed to catch up to the level of civilization in Europe and Asia as quickly as possible.

***

The Creek Tribe was turned upside down by the self-production of iron and cotton fabric, which they had never encountered before.

“Hunting has become much easier. Oh, this rock is so hard!”

“Is that all? Clothes made of cotton are smoother and have higher production than the ones we had before!”

“Harvesting the sacred children of the earth (crops) has become much easier. This is all thanks to the spirit chief.”

“Oh, how great is the wisdom of the spirits!”

At the tribal meeting held this time, the response of the young and strong warriors was markedly different from before. There were even warriors who were moved to tears. The respectful and admiring eyes they cast on Kiwoo were pouring in.

It was natural. No matter how impure iron was, even at a low iron level, it could not be compared to the stone tools they had been using until now.

Moreover, it was easy to refine. It was different in dimension from the effort required to sharpen a stone.

What about cotton fabric? Although the completed cotton fabric was still lacking due to being in the initial stages of production, most of the tribespeople had realized that it would improve in the future.

In a little more time, most of the tribespeople would be able to wear tops and bottoms and live comfortably.