It was truly instinctive to raise the gun in that moment.
How many bullets have I fired since coming to this world? From the very first moment I started using a revolver in my childhood, I always carried a gun with me and practiced whenever I had the chance.
With my ability to turn back time, swinging a sword means that time rewinds and goes back to square one. No matter how hard I train, the effort disappears the moment I turn back time. Therefore, the option I chose was firearms.
Just pulling the trigger would fire a bullet with a certain force. And the speed at which that bullet traveled was so fast that a regular person couldn’t even see it coming and would only witness the immediate result.
It’s not that shooting doesn’t require physical skills. The firearms of this era were mostly heavy metal objects, and skillfully wielding and aiming them quickly required some level of physical fitness. However, the most important thing was still the senses.
The calculations of wind flow, gravity, and heartbeat overshadowed normal reasoning. Even in this era, there were plenty of rifles that existed for long-range shooting.
But in the end, the most crucial factor was the shooter’s sense.
Without needing to calculate various things, “Ah, at this distance, it would be like this. With this kind of wind, the bullet would curve like this. How is my arm right now, and how would the muzzle sway…”—
—I needed that ‘sense’ to instinctively think and shoot without even realizing it.
I had no talent other than the power of time manipulation. Therefore, to retain that sense, all I could do was shoot a lot.
Right now, if I still had the power to turn back time, I wouldn’t even be thinking like this. I would just shoot first and rewind if I missed.
But Lucas was smiling. He wasn’t pouting, acting displeased, or glaring at me in frustration.
He seemed to enjoy that he could ride the gryphon and knew I wouldn’t use any ‘cheat’ moves.
“I thought that would be more fun.”
Lucas replied that way to the Emperor’s question as to why he chose me.
He seemed to be enjoying this moment.
Well, I guess it must be nice to be able to ride a fanggriffon.
“……”
Holding the gun was instinctual. But there was a thought that followed behind it.
Could I hit that guy even without powers?
At this point, Lucas was strong enough that he could probably defeat a Sword Saint, especially at this distance. He wasn’t even standing comfortably on the ground like usual.
But that fleeting thought dissipated in an instant.
The hard stock of the rifle model I was using rested on my shoulder, my cheek pressed against the stock. That familiar sensation made my mind go blank.
The long rifle got lined up. The sight came into view between the sights, and my finger rested on the trigger—
—I aimed at Lucas.
I pulled the trigger.
The barrel lifted, my shoulder pushed back. I didn’t hear the gunshot. That’s not unusual; the sound of my gun is always perceived as much quieter than when others shoot.
Lucas twisted his body to dodge the bullet. To the right.
What crossed my mind at that moment was ‘Of course.’
How Lucas dealt with a Sword Saint, and whether he had truly escaped and was coming toward me—I wasn’t sure, but if he was running towards me wanting to slice me, then he could easily predict the trajectory of my bullet and dodge it.
Right. ‘Of course.’
I swiftly pulled the bolt back. Ping- With a clear sound, the casing flew to the side. The closed chamber opened, and the pungent smell of gunpowder filled the air.
As I pushed the bolt forward again, the next round was fed into the chamber with a clack.
Bang!
This time, Lucas deflected the bullet with his sword. At the same time, the blade flew, but the gryphon swerved just in time, barely grazing the ends of my hair.
What was remarkable was that despite the blade zipping right by my face, I didn’t change my posture. Was it that it was a fleeting moment, not allowing me any time to be scared?
And this was also ‘obvious’—
Ah, I think I understand a little now.
Even after seeing Lucas dodge and deflect my bullets multiple times, I didn’t feel fear. I calmly assessed it as ‘natural’ in my mind.
Why was that?
I pulled the trigger once more.
Lucas again evaded to his right.
‘Of course.’
Lucas always dodged like this. He only moved in the opposite direction when absolutely necessary.
And the moments Lucas needed to dodge bullets weren’t many. To begin with, if a human were to confront Lucas, especially at a distance where the sword could reach him, he would have already been split in half before I even got to shoot.
So, this was—
I pulled the bolt again and pushed forward. Clack. The sound of the bullet being chambered rang especially loud.
Lucas was now close enough that his jubilant expression could be clearly seen. As if the gryphon was preparing magic, my sight started to blur. The wings lifted, as if they were trying to protect me.
But Lucas’s sword could definitely reach me.
As Lucas prepared to swing his sword again—
After Lucas saw my muzzle moving—
I ever so slightly adjusted my finger on the trigger to the right. Just as my figure was hidden behind the white light.
With a firearm, a slight misalignment would drastically change where the bullet went. The further the distance to the target, the more pronounced that effect. Well, it wasn’t that far right now, though.
Before Lucas could swing his sword again, I pulled the trigger.
This time, Lucas rolled to his left.
Yeah, that makes sense.
He looked slightly surprised himself as he did so.
I had lived by shooting everything I encountered with a firearm. Be it the china in the Imperial Palace, small flags hanging on the streets, pigeons, sparrows, wild beasts, and even people.
And among those people was Lucas.
And I can confidently say, I’ve shot Lucas more than anyone else and I’m probably the only one who actually hit him.
Therefore, ‘of course.’
I had honed that sense through numerous time resets.
Feelings engraved in the body are hard to forget.
“Cough!?”
A bullet that had been shot in advance pierced Lucas’s right shoulder as he charged in.
Yeah, that must hurt a lot more than the last bullet he was hit with, right? I’m not sure if he’s wearing a bulletproof outfit like before, but there’s a big difference in energy between a pistol bullet and a rifle bullet.
Unlike that time when he maintained posture, Lucas, holding his sword, got shoved back, causing him to lose his balance.
Click.
I loaded another bullet,
Bang!
And lastly, I pulled the trigger.
Everything that happened up to this point occurred in the blink of an eye.
I could see the enemy’s morale breaking.
The gryphon flew around casting magic haphazardly. The Papal State’s army of untrained citizens had become useless. People running in without any awareness can only be blocked by other people who have no intention of defeating them.
Moreover, the machinery had already stopped moving. Those gears that should have been there had disappeared entirely, and the bright light that had soared high had now ceased. The light in this room felt as if it dropped below half its intensity.
For a moment, it seemed like the power of the Goddess was sustained, but not long after we returned to this world, that army began to lose consciousness and drop like flies. Naturally, only my companions who followed me, the Emperor, the Emperor’s children, and a few knights who hadn’t fallen remained standing.
Not to mention—
“It’s over.”
The Emperor murmured that.
The Emperor was bleeding.
The battle continued, and he bore the marks of injury from various foes. Honestly, I thought just standing there so dignified was impressive.
Lucas had already been hit by gunfire, and Bella and Jayden were not in good shape either. Everyone was barely catching their breath.
The only one who seemed slightly okay was Damien, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t bleeding.
“They’ll dispatch an army from Velbur soon enough.”
With the barrier down, that would indeed happen.
“…Are you hoping for proper prisoner treatment?”
Charlotte asked that, and the Emperor shrugged.
“Well, it’s under consideration.”
The Emperor said that as he looked up at the fanggriffon I had mounted.
For the first time, I felt like I saw a glimmer of despair in the Emperor’s eyes.
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