The Injector's True Nature

The promotion exam. A narrow, stifling room that smelled unmistakably like a chicken coop. Flickering candlelight cast a soft glow across mold-speckled wallpaper.

“Miss Regina… I really can’t take any more, nyang…”

“It’s fine… It’s perfectly fine………”

On a makeshift bed of rice straw covered with black and yellowed hides lay a mumbling middle-schooler and a cat, sprawled out and babbling. And, as always, a pitch-black crow-headed monster leaned against the doorframe. But unlike usual, his hand gripped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a large, grotesque-looking matte-black revolver.

The Injector. A modern weapon named “Injector” that felt wildly out of place in a fantasy world. Unlike ordinary guns that used gunpowder to fire metal slugs or lead bullets, the Injector’s defining trait was that it fired fear.

Firing fear? Any Korean man who had served in the military would immediately think of blank rounds. Non-lethal ammunition designed for suppression and warning. Having gone through mandatory military service in South Korea himself, Raven had naturally assumed the same thing when he first read the description about loading fear instead of live rounds.

And indeed, while fiddling with the Injector that produced a deafening roar exactly like a blank round, Raven had thought:

Oh! So the volume scales with how much mana you charge it with. It’s a bit lame, but it should work well enough as a threat tool!

‘…?’

It was far more than “good enough for threats.”

The moment he pulled the trigger to drive off the aberrations in the dungeon, a massive explosion had erupted. The shockwave and searing heat that wiped out the monsters in an instant. Through his crimson-tinted lenses, Raven—feeling a nostalgic whiff of his old home for the first time in ages—had immediately revised his evaluation of the Injector.

Aha! Now I get it! This thing explodes if you charge it with enough mana! Goddess, I’ll put it to good use!

. . .

…?

The passive skill Fear Collector that he had gained after promotion. The two eerily familiar fears listed in its catalog.

‘Fear of sudden loud noises, explosions, or explosive sounds?’

Raven felt a strange sense of déjà vu as he looked at the fears that had been collected without his knowledge.

‘This is…’

And then he realized it. This weapon might not be a simple device whose physical force simply increased with the amount of mana charged into it.

“….”

Still leaning against the door, Raven stared blankly at the Injector for a moment before slowly raising his empty hand into the air. He murmured softly so as not to wake his party members.

“Mutation.”

Slither.

His body suddenly began to melt like ice cream on a hot summer day, only to rapidly regenerate and return to its original form. Raven, now back in his true appearance.

…Still feels a bit awkward.

He let out a small sigh, then created a black thorn in his outstretched hand. After tapping the Injector against the thorn a few times, Raven nodded in satisfaction, flipped the thorn so its sharp tip pointed downward, and gripped it firmly.

After a brief moment of hesitation, he muttered,

“Guess I should test it.”

And drove it hard into his own thigh.

From the darkness came a series of pained groans.

“Ughhh… My head feels like it’s splitting open…”

“Nyan… This body feels like it’s dying, nyang.”

Yuri lay face-down on the makeshift bed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of animal hides and straw, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠while Sion hung limply beneath her legs like laundry on a drying rack. With a sense of déjà vu, Raven looked at the pair with an exasperated expression.

“I told you two to drink in moderation.”

“I wanted to, but…”

“But Regina kept shoving food at us the whole time, nyang!”

In truth, they had thrown a promotion celebration party for their contractor at the Rainbow Cup the previous night. Along with Regina Gura, their senior demon colleague, who had been depressed after working twenty minutes past her shift.

For someone who looked like she barely ate, the demon had an astonishing appetite. The wooden bowls had piled up like a tower, causing the staff to trip while trying to carry them away. It had been absolute chaos.

Oh, and although Sion had initially offered to pay the entire bill herself, Regina’s conscience wouldn’t allow it, so they split it evenly. From what Raven had overheard from the staff, the total came to about 1.5 million dallants. The sight of the two women handing over a check without batting an eye had left their contractor staggering and muttering his usual impressed remark.

Honestly, forget being an adventurer. Being a civil servant is the real jackpot, isn’t it?

Anyway.

“Shouldn’t we head to the Adventurer’s Guild soon?”

Promotion wasn’t as simple as filling out an application. You had to take an actual test to confirm that you had truly been promoted. The promotion exam was supposed to be held the day after submitting the application. So they needed to go to the Adventurer’s Guild today—right now, in fact.

Regina Gura had announced the test would begin at 8:30. According to the digital clock (?) floating beside his status window, it was currently 8:00.

Only thirty minutes left.

“Nyaaahaaam…”

But their veteran nekomimi looked completely relaxed, yawning widely.

“Ugh…”

The contractor was half-unconscious, mumbling incoherently, while Sion lay sprawled across the edge of the bed like she was melting and said lazily,

“Crow. There’s still thirty whole minutes until the test starts, nyang… The Adventurer’s Guild is only a ten-minute run from here. We can afford to laze around a little longer, nyang…!”

“…Ten minutes?”

It had taken them over an hour to find this cheap inn in the first place. Ten minutes? Was this cat planning to carry the contractor on her back and sprint at full speed?

“Nyanya-nyang…”

“….”

Ah.

This wouldn’t do. Raven was a demon who treated punctuality like a sacred law. It was only proper and virtuous to arrive at the meeting place ten minutes early. …He could not tolerate this.

He stood up, Injector still in one hand, and walked toward the rice-straw bed where Sion and the contractor lay.

“Nyang? Crow, why are you getting up, nyang? I’ll wake you when it’s time, so just lie back down, nyang.”

As he approached, Sion slowly swished her tail and looked at him with half-lidded eyes. The sight made his whole body feel sluggish, as if the Demon of Sloth had possessed her. This… definitely required an exorcism.

Click.

He aimed the muzzle at her, who still hadn’t properly opened her eyes.

“Hmm?”

Sion’s half-closed eyes slowly drifted toward his hand, then gradually widened.

“…Crow? Wait. That, that’s…?”

To the cat whose ears were trembling and whose mouth hung open in a daze, Raven calmly declared,

“I will now count to three.”

So if you don’t want to die, get up.

***

After slipping into a narrow alley, sprinting across rooftops, and leaping over several buildings, they arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild fifteen minutes before the promotion exam was scheduled to begin.

“Haa… Haa… Crow! See? This body was right, nyang! It didn’t even take that long, nyang!”

“…You’re talking nonsense.”

What did she mean it didn’t take long? The only reason they had made it was because he was the one following her. Anyone else would have fallen behind long ago and been guaranteed to be late. As he quietly glared at Sion, who was thumping her tail against the ground and meowing complaints, an unpleasant sound came from his arms.

“Ugh… Uuuep…”

“Is the contractor okay?”

“No… I’m… Uuuep!”

During the entire parkour run, he had kept both arms locked around Yuri, who had been carried in a princess—or rather, prince—carry. He carefully set her down on the ground.

“Ugh… Ueeeh…”

Yuri lay limply on the floor, dry-heaving like a middle-schooler suffering seasickness on a Viking ride. After patting her back for a while, her complexion finally improved a little.

…He wasn’t sure she would be able to take the test properly like this.

***

“Everyone, follow me, it is the case!”

“Yeees…”

“Understood, nyang.”

Unlike the two who were groaning from their hangovers, Regina Gura was suspiciously full of energy. They followed her to the backyard behind the Adventurer’s Guild building.

Creak.

When Regina opened the door and stepped through, the entire rear courtyard came into view.

Oh. It’s huge?

The space was nearly the size of three gymnasiums. The U-shaped building surrounding the testing area seemed to be a guild-operated tavern; adventurers were visible enjoying drinks and snacks while watching the promotion examinees as entertainment.

There were no fences dividing the center, but each section appeared to be clearly separated. In one area, an elf was calmly drawing her bow toward a target. In another, a human boy and a wolf beastman girl were engaged in a fierce exchange of blows.

Flames danced across the sky. Streams of water coiled around logs like living snakes. Adventurers cheered at the spectacle while examiners tried to keep order.

Very fantasy-like.

After quietly admiring the scene and carefully moving so as not to disturb the tests, they arrived at an area that reminded him of a shooting range. Targets and wooden pillars were set up at various distances, and people were firing arrows or launching long-range magic at them.

But what exactly are they going to make us do here?

Were they going to have the contractor shoot a bow or something? As he looked around with a puzzled expression, Regina Gura’s energetic voice rang out.

“Right! Then, before we begin the promotion exam for new adventurer Yuri! We will first evaluate the combat capability of her familiar, Raven, it is the case!”

“…?”

Huh? I didn’t hear anything about that.