Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“An ordinary person with no mana sensitivity at all.......”

“Can stand against mages or aura users......?”

“That strange metal rod is such an incredible weapon.......”

Normally, they would have dismissed it outright, saying, “What kind of nonsense is that?” But now that they had witnessed the mercenaries being helplessly beaten before the weapon called a “gun,” the domain residents could only stare wide-eyed at the boy before them.

Just what...... was that boy?

For now, they could tell for certain that the boy was a mage. He had destroyed that damned stone wall, then taken out some strange weapon they had never seen or heard of and subdued the mercenaries in an instant. As far as the domain residents knew, such miraculous feats were impossible unless one was a mage.

Even so, the reason the domain residents questioned the boy’s identity was...... because his appearance was too shabby for a mage. That was only natural, since mages were usually from high-ranking noble families or wealthy free citizens.

Of course, looking at his smooth hands, where the only calluses seemed to be the traces of holding a pen, or his face, pale and wan as if he had lived indoors without seeing sunlight even once, the boy did not look like a commoner who lived doing rough work outside.

However, judging by his overall skinny frame—perhaps because he was still a child, he was not very tall either—and his grubby appearance, no matter how one looked at him, it seemed hard to see him as someone of high status.

For instance, there was his hair, which looked as though it had never been properly cared for, sticking out every which way and growing at will down near his jawline.

There were his hollow eyes, soaked in fatigue to the point that the area beneath them had turned black.

There was the fact that he wore a plain white cotton shirt with no splendid decorations whatsoever and mouse-gray cotton trousers—ordinary nobles wore splendidly decorated silk shirts and trousers—and as if that were not enough, the hem of his shirt was not neatly tucked into his trousers but was poking out.

If there was at least one part that made the boy look like a mage, it would be the hooded robe he had thrown on, but even that hooded robe was far too loose for the boy’s unimpressive build and was half slipping off him. If the boy had not pulled the hooded robe over his head, it seemed as though it would have slipped straight down below his waist and barely hung from his arms.

Still, the grimoire the boy had been holding and screaming at all this time before roughly hanging it at his waist was decorated with glittering gold leaf at a glance, making it look extremely expensive....... But aside from that, there was truly nothing about the boy that could make one see him as being of a status that received precious treatment.

Moreover, on the boy’s arm, which had been exposed before the domain residents’ eyes for a very brief moment, there were burn scars that looked severe at a glance. They were layered thickly enough that almost none of the skin’s original appearance remained.

Because of that alone, the domain residents could not be certain the boy was of noble status. As domain residents who had experienced a great fire not long ago because of the new lord’s mischief, they could not help but know that the burn scars on the boy’s arm had not come from a single accident, but had been formed by being seared repeatedly over a long period. Would someone of precious status ever be subjected to such a thing?

“But...... he is a mage anyway, isn’t he?”

“That is true. Seeing how his eyes are such a deep purple, that much is certain.......”

Purple eyes. They were the symbol of a mage. That was because long-term exposure to the mana lines released while manipulating formulas gradually dyed the color of the iris purple. Therefore, regardless of the eye color one had been born with, a mage’s irises were always bound to take on a purple tint. The irises of the mercenary-side mages were also a pale purple.

As for the new lord, well, it felt as if a faint purple hue had maybe been there, or maybe not.......

In any case, even if the boy’s appearance was rather shabby, it was clearly true that he had the eyes of a mage—and extremely deep-colored ones at that. It was also true that such a boy had destroyed the barrier and even fought against the mercenaries for them.

Did that not mean this boy was the very hope that would let the domain residents escape this desperate crisis?

“T-Then...... does that mean we don’t have to run anymore?”

“O-Ohhh...... How could we be so grateful.......”

“We’re saved!”

***

More than nine hundred years ago, when I was still an undergraduate at the Royal Academy, there was a time when my mana sensitivity was sealed for quite a long period, leaving me completely unable to use magic.

The reason was simple. Unable to endure injustice any longer, I had used magic against a fellow undergraduate and injured them.

“Just because some conflict arose between students, you harmed another with magic?! And a green young junior at that, against a senior several years above you! On top of that, you show no sign of repentance....... Since a lowborn wretch like you was lucky enough to be treated as a student of the Royal Academy, have you forgotten your place? Or perhaps you have come to harbor dangerous ideas. Until you sincerely repent of your sin and reform, I will place a sealing collar around your neck as punishment.”

Thus, until I turned twelve, when I caught the eye of my master, who had been invited as a short-term specially appointed professor, and left the Royal Academy, I had to wear a sealing collar around my neck for a full five years.

And the memories of everything I had to experience at the Royal Academy during those five years became the trigger for research into a means of standing against the one-sided violence of numerous mages and aura users, finally giving birth to the result known as the invention of firearms.

In a way, perhaps it was my own form of self-consolation for a painful past.

If something like this had existed then...... if there had been any means at all to resist one-sided violence.......

Would it have hurt even a little less......?

However, when I actually completed the thing called a gun, what I felt was not consolation, but emptiness and pain. Because I realized that even if I comforted myself this way, the painful memories of the past would not disappear.

Even if I took this gun and went back to the past, and even if the past changed completely as a result, it would be the same. I would still remember the past, and I would still live carrying the wounds caused by that past. In the end, the past would not become something that had never happened.

More than anything, I had not the slightest intention of creating a formula that regressed me to the past in the first place. If I did such a thing, it would cause chaos throughout the entire design that composed the world. If that happened, the great disaster known as the collapse of the world would become impossible to avoid.

How could I create something like a formula for regressing to the past when I knew that perfectly well? Me, of all people, who had walked the path of a mage because I was fascinated by the precise and complex designs composing the world. My life might already have been trampled, but I did not want even what I loved to be trampled too. Least of all by my own hands.

......In any case, the “invention of firearms” was no different from chewing over a past that had already gone by while licking a wound that had never healed.

-Then does that mean there is truly nowhere at all to use the firearms you went to the trouble of making?

No, Master. That is not so. Because now is exactly the time to try using these guns.

***

[Research Assignment] No. 402083-125

＃001. Research into a Means by Which Ordinary People Without Mana Sensitivity Can Stand Against Mages and Aura Users

→ Complete (Experiment 1,256,365 / Experiment log completed)

→ Name the corresponding means “firearms.”

＃002. Subdivision and Improvement Work Based on Loading Method, Firing Mechanism, and Presence or Absence of Rifling

→ Complete (Experiment 4,661,049 / Experiment log completed)

＃003. Experiment on the Practical Utility of Every Completed Type of Firearm

→ Test at least 10,000 rounds for each firearm type!!

→ Do not delay. Complete without fail!! ☆★Prompt completion urged★☆

***

Finally...... finally, I could settle an assignment that had been left to age for about five hundred years! Hooray!

Honestly, I had been curious about just how useful this “gun” thing was, since I had never had a proper chance to try it out. Feeling somehow delighted, I tossed aside the gun I had just fired and drew a new one. Unlike the chamber-rotating type I had just thrown away, the one I took out this time was a gun that separated the chamber, added something called a magazine, and allowed semi-automatic loading.

BANG. BANG. BANG. Along with the sound of gunpowder exploding, mercenaries collapsed one by one.

“Oh...... This definitely seems a bit more convenient.”

The improvements were worth it. Satisfied, I swept my gaze over the mercenaries in search of my next target. Perhaps they noticed my gaze, because the mercenaries who had been standing there blankly suddenly snapped back to their senses and flew into a rage.

“You damned little bastard!”

“Pulling out some weird thing like that......!”

“Kill him now!”

Along with furious shouts, several of them, including aura users, charged toward me, while the mages deployed formulas. But the lead bullets that came flying in an instant pierced their bodies faster, and the mercenaries had to collapse, spurting blood, without managing even a single proper attack against me.

Formulas that had not even fully taken shape scattered into pieces, and things like axes and swords slipped from their owners’ hands and buried themselves in the dirt.

Hmm, at this level, it seemed like a reasonably usable means of resistance. The only problem was that this gun seemed somewhat inadequate for dealing with bastards who pushed in with numbers.

For example, there was the fact that because my finger hurt so much from continuing to pull the trigger, I ended up allowing a few bastards I had not managed to shoot to approach.

“Die, you bastard!”

One mercenary, who had barely managed to get right in front of me, swung a huge battle axe toward the back of my head. The axe blade flashed as though starved for blood as it flew in, then was caught by something invisible and crumbled apart in midair before vanishing.

“N-No?! H-How did this......!”

“Um...... I am a mage, you know?”

No matter how much I was firing a gun wildly, surely they hadn’t thought I was an ordinary person with no mana sensitivity.......

......No, had everyone really forgotten completely?

Well, it didn’t matter either way, so I should finish what I was doing. I took my gaze off the bastard and immediately deployed a formula. Threadlike, multicolored smoke bloomed and wrapped around him, then caught the other bastards who were about to rush in and floated them into the air.

“Urk, aaaaagh?! T-This is.......”

“L-Let go of me......!”

“S-Save me......!”

The bastards floating in the air could not hide their panic and thrashed about. Whether they did or not, the smoke threw them into the air, and the bodies that flew far away in arcs slammed into the ground with a roar.

In truth, I was not certain whether they had slammed into the ground or a roof. What was certain was...... probably that those bastards would not be all right.

In any case, it looked like it would indeed be difficult to deal with all these bastards at once using this gun, so I should take out a different gun. The gun I was about to take out this time was an object I had named a “submachine gun.”

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT. Under the pouring storm of fire, mercenaries sprayed blood and were knocked away in every direction.

“Aaaaaaagh!”

“W-What...... Gah!”

“A d-defensive formula......!”

Among the mercenaries falling helplessly, a few mages hurriedly constructed a barrier. With a tremor, a stone wall surged up and hid the mercenaries from view, and immediately afterward, bullet marks appeared rapidly across the stone wall.

What kind of shoddy thing did they set up and call a barrier? Swallowing that pathetic thought, I wrapped one foot in a destruction formula and kicked the stone wall hard. Beyond the stone wall, which was crushed in an instant, the mercenaries shrieked and were flung in all directions.

“D-Damn it...... Retreat! Retreat for now!”

“What? Uh, wait, I haven’t finished the experiment yet.......”

Before I could even finish speaking, the mercenaries, having completely lost their will to fight, began scattering all at once like a flock of sparrows that had encountered a hawk. There were at least a few archers on top of several buildings hesitating over whether to aim at me, so I quickly took out a sniper rifle...... but after I hit one or two of them, even the archers fled with their tails between their legs.

Damn it, this was bad. If all the test subjects ran away, I couldn’t complete the research assignment. There was still a mountain of guns I had not even taken out yet. What should I do?

If only I had several bodies, I could at least take out every gun I had and fire them all at once....... But if I used telekinesis magic to hold and fire them all at once, the problem was that it would no longer fit the experimental condition of being a “weapon usable without mana sensitivity.” Tsk, I wish I could find some experiment assistants somewhere.

......Unexpectedly, that wish soon came true.

“Um, Sir Mage.......”

“Could you perhaps...... share those guns with us?”

“Uh, um......?”