Vol 7. Chapter 60: A New Kind of Power

As summer vacation drew to a close, Muse had already been studying under Rebecca for over a month.

And as the saying goes, a good teacher produces excellent students—it really was true in this case. In just over a month, Muse’s shooting skills had skyrocketed. Rebecca was clearly pleased, proud of the outstanding pupil she’d trained.

That night, in the Lionheart Order’s cafeteria, only Rebecca and Martin remained. The couple sat across from each other, with a table full of Rebecca’s favorite food.

“Leon wrote today saying summer vacation’s almost over. He’ll be coming to pick up Muse in three days,” Martin said.

Rebecca had a burger in one hand and a fried skewer in the other, stuffing herself like she hadn’t eaten in days. With her mouth full, she mumbled,

“Mm-hm, mm-hm—”

“Swallow your food before you talk.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes upward, craned her neck, and swung her burger and skewer toward Martin.

“Anyway, Muse’s training is wrapping {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} up too. The custom weapons I ordered for her are almost finished.”

Martin nodded.

“What’s she doing right now? Still training?”

“Yeah, she wore me out. I came here to refuel a bit.”

Martin blinked and glanced at the table packed with food. There had to be enough for three people, at minimum. He muttered softly,

“You call this... ‘a bit’?”

“Huh? Think I got too much? Then go hang out with someone who eats less.”

Martin chuckled.

“No no, I’m just jealous of your metabolism. Eat like that and never gain weight.”

Rebecca popped open a bag of chips with her left hand and kept picking up skewers with her right, continuing her late-night feast courtesy of Martin.

“What’s Muse working on now?” Martin asked.

“Magic bullets,” Rebecca replied. “The gunslinger training system isn’t as complex as what regular magic users go through. Basically, as long as you can shoot accurately, you’re good. This past month, I’ve been teaching Muse how to control her mana output—how to fire magic bullets at maximum power without exceeding what her weapons can handle.”

Although the gunslinger training system was simpler in structure, many parts of it required extremely precise control over one’s mana.

Here’s the most direct example:

On the battlefield, situations change constantly. Gunslingers need to adjust the power of their weapons depending on the situation.

Someone like Rebecca, who constantly uses firearms, needs to be flexible—and that means having near-perfect control over her mana output.

Muse had spent the whole past month practicing just that.

“How’s she doing?” Martin asked.

Rebecca scratched the corner of her mouth, thought for a moment, then said:

“Decent. Her accuracy’s spot-on. But since she’s still young, her mana’s... and on top of that... she lacks elemental affinity. Her magic bullets hit with noticeably less power than they should.”

Hearing that, Martin felt a bit sorry for the girl.

“Didn’t think it’d be that bad...”

“Yeah, that’s why I plan to adjust her future training plan over the next few days. And those custom weapons I ordered? They’ll hopefully help make up for her shortcomings.”

Saying that, Rebecca wiped her mouth and stood up.

“Alright, I’m gonna go check in on the kid at the range. You can have what’s left.”

Martin glanced down at the table again.

There was literally nothing left.

When he looked up, Rebecca was already jogging toward the cafeteria doors, waving back at him.

“Bye-bye~”

And blowing him a kiss.

Martin laughed and waved in return.

Rebecca stepped outside, savoring the aftertaste of that little blown kiss.

...

Indoor shooting range. Rebecca pushed open the door.

“Muse?”

No response.

No gunfire, either.

She walked further in, approaching the shooting booth—and found Muse curled up on the bench beside it, fast asleep.

Her tiny body was tucked into itself, and her sleeping face was sweet and peaceful.

Rebecca tiptoed over, leaned down, and couldn’t resist planting a soft kiss on that adorable face.

“Hey, little one. If only your summer vacation were just a bit longer.”

She took off her jacket and gently draped it over Muse.

“This is the first time you’ve ever practiced yourself to sleep, huh? You must’ve been exhausted today. No worries—Auntie will make you something tasty tomorrow.”

She gave Muse’s little head a light pat, then turned and walked out of the booth.

It was deep into the night now. The range staff had already clocked out, so cleaning up the bullets, casings, and plasma guns was all up to Rebecca.

“Tch. I told them already—I'm the top dog in Lionheart now. It wouldn’t kill anyone to assign me a few assistants to help with this crap. No one would say a word.”

But Rebecca always felt uncomfortable having people follow her around. She hated feeling watched.

What kind of battle-hardened soldier would ever enjoy that kind of pampered life anyway?

She collected all the casings, then vaulted over the booth and headed toward the target boards.

These weren’t normal targets with numbered rings—they were special targets designed to measure the power of magic bullets.

After all, with Muse’s current level of precision, accuracy training was no longer necessary.

She needed to focus on mana control.

Rebecca stood before the target. It was slightly damaged, sure, but not nearly enough by standard benchmarks.

Arms crossed, brows furrowed.

“Still not enough power, huh...”

Just like she’d told Martin, Muse was too young, lacked sufficient mana, and—most importantly—didn’t have any elemental affinity. Without that extra boost from an element, her bullets naturally lost a lot of their potential power.

Rebecca remained standing there, deep in thought.

Was there any way to make up for Muse’s shortcomings?

Custom-made weapons might help, sure—but relying too heavily on tools wouldn’t be sustainable in the long run.

She thought for a long time—but no good idea came to mind.

With a sigh, she muttered to herself:

“Guess I’ll leave this headache to the captain. I’m out of ideas.”

With that, she stepped forward and began removing the target board. These magic-bullet targets were designed to be reusable.

But the moment she pulled the board down—

The wall behind it came into view.

Rebecca’s green eyes narrowed sharply.

“What the hell...?”

The wall behind the target board—made of reinforced high-density concrete—was deeply pitted and scarred.

She froze in place.

The surface was covered in deep craters several centimeters thick.

And the spiderweb-like cracks were scattered far and wide—proof that the damage hadn’t come from a single impact, but from multiple strikes delivered in rapid succession.

“Wind magic? ...No, wind magic wouldn’t leave this kind of pattern...”

“Earth magic? That doesn’t track either—the blast radius would’ve been much wider...”

She looked down at the target board in her hands. It had barely been scratched—compared to the wall behind it, the damage was laughably minor.

“Some kind of special attack hit the board lightly...”

“But the wall behind it... took the full force of the real blow...”

It didn’t take Rebecca long to deduce what had happened.

But the question remained—

“Who... did this?”

Who had launched this kind of attack?

Who had that kind of power?

She thought back—there was no one like that in the Lionheart Order.

“The range has been locked down all month. No one else’s been in here... except—”

Rebecca slowly turned her gaze toward the long bench.

Toward the little girl curled up fast asleep beneath her coat.

Her pupils trembled.

“What... exactly is this power...?”