Chapter 20: The New Friend
“…hello?” I say to the two siblings standing in front of my gate. Despite just seeing me yesterday, why are they already making contact with me? Are they already expecting results? I can’t exactly tell them that I’m not blending in at all, so I can’t exactly speak to other people and find out who’s violating the rules.
“Oh, hey Aria. Sorry to suddenly come by, but are you busy today?” Ash asks me. I shake my head in response to this.
“Great, then Raina has a request for you!” He pushes his sister forward, who for some reason has a dress on, even though it's only been about 20 minutes since the school day ended.
“...Ah, okay…” she mutters. She clears her throat, and then suddenly yells, “Can we go eat ice cream!?”
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Ten minutes later, we’re both eating ice cream at a parfait shop. We ordered one large parfait between the both of us, and shared it together. I’ve never eaten ice cream while I had my bandages on, so this experience was a first for me. The parfait we ordered had 5 different small scoops in a bowl, each a different flavor. I, in particular liked the ‘cookies and cream’ flavor, but it seems like Raina enjoys mint.
Honestly, I didn’t expect her to be a person who enjoyed sweets, but here she is shoving ice cream at a really fast pace. I find it hard to believe that she isn’t affected by eating all of that at once. I got a brain freeze after about 10 seconds of consuming it as fast as she did. When we finished it, she had a satisfied smile on her face, and it made me smile looking at it. When the waiter came over to take our payment, his face turned red upon seeing us. I had no idea why, though. Did we annoy him somehow?
Anyway, I paid the bill because it seemed like Ash forgot to give Raina money for the ice cream. I had about 15 gold saved up from what my parents have given me over the years, so I always carry around 1 gold in the form of silver and copper coins. I put the coins in a pouch that I usually leave in my school bag, so it was convenient that I brought it with me this time. After paying the bill, we both leave the shop and walk around downtown together.
I didn’t realize it before, but now that I’m walking side by side with her, I noticed that she was about 10 centimeters shorter than I was. It shows that I really don’t seem my age, huh? We go around window shopping, when she suddenly pulls on my arm. I turn to see what she wants, and I see that she’s pointing at a clothing store. I see a gleam in her eye, and a playful smile on her face, which made me inclined to shake my head.
“…we’re going anyway!” She says, and drags me into the store against my will.
A few minutes later, I’m being forced into a light blue, frilly dress with a ribbon tied onto it. I’m no good with this kind of stuff, but I don’t know how to refuse pushy people like her and Thoth. She tries on different dresses as well, many which completely makes her look like an angel. I can feel my cheeks heating up a bit when I see her smile at me in those clothing.
After trying on dresses, we go onto clothes that fit me more than the dresses did. We both try on boyish clothes; t-shirt, pants and all. I find it far more comfortable than the dresses, and I liked the way I looked in these. Raina also fit the look very well, seeming very tomboyish because of her short hair and figure. In fact, I think that she’d look nice in anything, which made me feel slightly inferior to her.
I buy some of the clothing we tried on for the both of us, which she tried to refuse but I insisted on it. We leave with about 2 bags of clothing each. I just spent all the silver I brought with me, with only about 4 silver left in the form of copper coins. Clothes were pretty damn expensive, I didn’t expect it to cost me 94 silver in total. I spent 2 silver for the parfait we ate, so today I nearly used a whole gold coin’s worth of money.
It’s 5 PM, so we had about an hour left until my curfew. Raina wanted to show me something, and made me follow her through the city. We reach the slums area, near the parking lot where I usually met up with Thoth whenever we went out to the dungeon. She runs into an abandoned apartment building, which looked like it was about to collapse any minute now. Inside, we go by the receptionist desk and walk up the stairs. After reaching the third floor, the stairs were collapsed, and we weren’t able to progress any higher.
Raina suddenly begins running down the hall, and runs up the wall straight into a hole in the ceiling of the building. I follow her example, running down the hall and trying to wall run like she did. Except I slipped down after the first step, so instead, I just used my high strength and agility to just jump through the hole instead. I find myself on the fourth floor, and Raina was there waiting for me. When she sees me jumping through the hole, she turns and runs down the hall again, and leaps right out a hole in the wall.
I immediately dash to the hole and look through it, only to see Raina standing on a giant steel beam part of another abandoned building that was still in it’s construction phase, the steel framework still standing. From the looks of it, it was originally supposed to be a skyscraper, but the project was scrapped. I take several steps back, and prep myself, before sprinting at the hole and taking a leap at the building. I soar through the air, and find myself falling onto the steel beam right above Raina’s. The strength of my jump nearly sends me right over it, but I managed to spin myself whilst in the air and grabbed onto the beam, before pulling myself up onto it.
After confirming my safety, Raina begins climbing the steel framework of the building, ascending at a fast pace. She leaps from beam to beam, running up the vertical beams and jumping off them to reach the higher ones, and it takes everything I have to keep up with her crazy speed. Eventually, she reaches the top of the incomplete building, and sit on one of the beams, swinging her legs in the air while waiting for me. I eventually make it as well, and stand next to her, looking at what she was staring at. A sunset in the horizon, and a huge city below us.
“This is my favorite spot.” She suddenly says. “I like to watch people from here. Those tiny dots on the ground, I see them clearly.”
“…eye?” I ask.
“Yep. Both of these eyes have a different special property to them. Do you want to know?” Her shy, reserved personality from before has completely disappeared. I don’t say anything, nor do I make any actions, but she tells me anyway.
“My left eye gives me magic perception when I put mana into it. My right eye grants me enhanced vision in both day and night. That’s how I saw you that day on the roof.” She explains to me.
“…why tell me?” I ask.
“Silly. You’re my friend, right?” She says, turning to me with a smile.
“…yeah.” I confirm, and take a seat next to her, watching the sun set down the horizon, and the city lights popping up like stars in the night sky. I was already late for curfew, but I didn’t really care. If I just tell them that I went out to play with my new friend, my parents will probably forgive me right away. After the sun is completely down, Raina stands up, and watches me.
“I showed you one of my secrets, so we’re close friends now, right?” Her words surprised me. A close friend, all the sudden, huh? Should I tell her a secret of mine?
“You don’t have to tell me your secrets. This is just my way of opening up to you.” She interrupts my thoughts, completely reading my mind. I look up at her in surprise, and she just stares at me with a smile.
“When you finally tell me your secret, then we’ll be best friends. I’ll wait for you.” After saying that, she begins climbing down the steel tower.
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I follow her, the descent much faster than we climbed it, reaching ground level quickly. I walk her home, dropping her off at the gates of her house. We ring the doorbell, and she thanks me for the day out. When her parents opened the door and saw the both of us, she walks right into the house and closes it before they could say anything. I heard loud yells of excitement as I walked away. It sounded like her parents were similar to mine.
Speaking of my parents, they were extremely mad when I returned home 2 hours later as curfew. As I predicted though, as soon as I mention that I went out with my new friend, they forgave me immediately. Really, they’re too simple and predictable.
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“You don’t know what the difference between a physical and ethereal gun is!?” Jiriko yells out loud.
Second day as his student, I just asked him about two guns that looked extremely similar to each other. When he told me that one was physical, and one was ethereal, I asked him what that meant, and it lead to this. He sighs to himself, before beginning the explanation.
“Okay, little girl, let me explain it nice and quick for you. A [Physical Gun], is like the [WMM-450] you’re currently using. It fires physical bullets that can change it’s projectile properties to different elements. An [Ethereal Gun], on the other hand, fires raw magic energy rather than bullets. It’s made for spiritual and ethereal beasts, also to destroy magic barriers much more easily. You can use it to harm physical things too, but the [Physical Gun] is superior in that manner.
“[Ethereal Gun Magic] is much different from the [Physical Gun Magic], just be aware of that. For now, because you’re using a [Physical Gun], we’ll stay down this path for a bit before switching over. Just to satisfy your curiosity, your mother was a fan of [Physical Guns] rather than [Ethereal Guns].” He gives me a quick explanation, but I was able to understand the general concept of it.
We return to the firing range to practice my [Gun Magic], and today, I learn about explosive projectiles. This time, several targets were set up in the firing range, and Jiriko has a [Magnum] in hand as well. The one he was using was called the [BLC-90], while mine was the [WMM-450]. I was using the weakest gun of the class, while his was a more powerful one, common amongst the soldiers that uses [Magnums].
“Okay, you see that crowd of targets? Launchers aren’t the only ones that can make things go boom. Using [Gun Magic], regular guns can as well. Watch this." He fires the [BLC-90] at the center of the group, and an explosion occurs in the center of the firing range. When the smoke subsides, all the targets are completely destroyed, not a single one remaining. The firing range was okay, because it was built to withstand experiments that involves [Gun Magic] much more powerful than this.
“That’s one of the more advanced spells of [Fire Projectile Magic], [Inferno Bullet]. It engulfs a small area in flames reaching up to 2000˚ celsius. You look excited to learn this, little girl.” He says to me, and like he implies, I’m in awe of what I saw. This was truly amazing, [Gun Magic].
“…why have launchers?” I ask. If a small weapon like the [Magnum] can cause an explosion like this, is there really a point to a launcher?
“Because they’re better at the job! Think about it, if you have [Gun Magic] for small weapons like this that can become as powerful as a normal launcher, imagine using [Gun Magic] for the launcher itself! For example, the [MPC-2] can fire a large anti-tank missile, but with [Gun Magic], that missile can have properties of a cluster bomb, and create even more explosions at impact!” As he spoke, Jiriko had a hint of excitement in his voice.
“…how to defend?” I ask. If [Gun magic] was this powerful, then how come we haven’t just destroyed several [Dungeon Worlds] on our own already?
“How to defend against it? Well, ironically, guns can easily be disabled, blocked or stopped completely with magic. Bullets can be blocked by barriers, explosions can be contained or reversed easily, because that’s the nature of magic. An overwhelming force that overturns other powerful forces. That’s why [Ethereal Guns] were created, but even those aren’t enough to completely nullify magic. It’s why people believe that being a [Marksman] isn’t worth it.” He says with a hint of sadness in his voice.
“Honestly, I myself believe that [Magic Guns] alone are not that effective when there’s a mage on the enemy side. But when you combine the power of a [Magic Gun] with a physical fighter, then things change completely. That is why [Gun Knights] are one of the most powerful classes available for Humans. They are capable of using the powerful magic equivalent to a normal magician’s arsenal, and they are fighters that can keep up with even the strongest of knights. I believe that they are the capable of leaving behind a legend similar to the [Arcane Knights].” He says proudly.
“…[Arcane Knights]?” I ask. I haven’t heard about this legend myself, so I was curious about it. I was originally one of these, as well.
“Little girl, no one’s told you the legend? Then I’ll do so myself. Many people say that these people never actually existed, but the [Arcane Knights] were a legendary group of warriors capable of both magic and swordsmanship of the highest class. It’s been said that they could create fissures in the earth, shockwaves with their every strike, and even make the sky fall.”
...what did I just hear?
“…what?” I echo my thoughts.
“That’s right, they can make the sky fall. According to the stories, the [Hero] Thoth was an [Arcane Knight] himself. Apparently, during the war against the [Demons], at the battle of [Feranlite], he made the sky fall onto the stronghold, said to be the second strongest castle of the [Demons].” He says with admiration in his voice.
That story? I didn’t make the sky fall there. That was just a [Light Magic] spell called [Sun Raze]. I focused my mana onto the castle, and after about 30 seconds, a large ball of fire I pulled from the sun finally landed onto the castle at the speed of light, and completely destroyed the place. They over exaggerated my efforts by saying I made the sky fell. I don’t say that out loud, obviously, and just let him keep this image in his mind.
“Anyway, the [Arcane Knights] completely disappeared at the end of the war, without leaving behind any of their techniques or spells. Due to this, it was believed that they never even existed, and that the [Hero] had [Archmage] as one of his classes. Returning to the original topic, I believe that [Gun Knights] can truly become the next [Arcane Knights], leaving behind a legend as great as them. But, I don’t want you to become any normal [Gun Knight].” He says to me.
“You see, [Gun Knights] are supposed to be people who fight with their guns, fists and magic. What I want to see you do, is fight with a gun in one hand, a dagger in the other, and large arsenal of magic right behind you, ready to be fired at any time. Therefore, after teaching you the basics of [Gun Magic], I will personally train you to be able to use melee weapons alongside [Magic Guns].” I liked this idea a lot. If I was capable to using a close combat weapon, along with a gun in hand, this would truly make me an unstoppable force in combat.
After the long, off-topic conversation, we continue with [Gun Magic] training, and I learn how to use some of the higher-tier [Projectile Magic]. At this rate, I may be able to just use the [Gun Magic] in actual combat when the tournament comes around. Now that I think about it, I still can’t find a way to register into it. I should really get working on that, shouldn’t I?
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Phew, finally done! Though I proofread it myself this time because Editor-san went to sleep early. So yeah, there may or may not be grammatical mistakes and such like before.