The Super-Fast Lightning Gun

It was late. I sat on my dormitory bed with my back against the wall, staring at the ceiling for a long while before I finally lost the fight against a laugh.

"Heh heh heh."

A harem. For a guy who'd had Confucian values thoroughly drilled into him in his previous life back in Korea, the whole situation sat a little awkwardly. I'd come from a world where monogamy was simply how things worked, and now, out of nowhere, two women were showing interest in me.

But hey.

"What kind of jackpot is this?"

A boss with that sultry, stunning face, plus Iris — cute, and looking about the same age as I was now.

"This is a real life reversal."

Just a little while ago I'd been sitting on the street counting copper coins. Thinking about that, this wasn't just any turnaround. I meant it.

"Suddenly?"

Nothing like a bucket of ice water on a perfectly good mood.

"What's that supposed to mean, AI?"

"Ah... okay, fair."

Now that it mentioned it, that was true. I had never cared much about history, but even the textbooks had talked about kings and yangban keeping several concubines.

"Hey, I still said I'd take responsibility at the end, didn't I? That counts for something, right?"

"You asshole."

There was no winning with words. I clicked my tongue and dragged the pillow closer. Picking a fight with the AI was pointless — I had no way to beat something that remembered every word I'd ever said and every thing I'd ever done.

That was when a small knock sounded from the other side of the door.

Knock, knock.

Who at this hour?

"Who is it?"

A familiar voice answered a moment later.

"It's me. Iris."

I sat up on the bed.

"Can I come in?"

...What.

A girl showing up alone at a guy's room this late and asking if she could come in. My dating experience, previous life included, was so pathetic I couldn't tell whether this actually counted as flirting.

Anyway.

I, for the record, was extremely well prepared.

I roughly smoothed my hair with one hand and opened the door. Iris stood alone in the hallway. She was dressed as neatly as always, but she'd come empty-handed — no book, no staff — and that detail snagged at me for some reason.

"What's going on at this hour?"

"...I needed to ask you about something."

Iris lifted her head and looked up at me.

"Leon."

"Yeah?"

She hesitated a moment longer, then opened her mouth carefully.

"...Teach me."

"...Teach you what?"

"How to do it."

"...!"

More forward than I'd expected. I froze for a second, then stepped aside.

"Please. Come in."

The door creaked as Iris walked into the room. I reached for the handle and drew it shut, slowly.

Thud.

The door closed.

The next morning, sunlight cut a slanted line across the desk through the long windows of the Director's office. The approval documents that needed handling today were already piled into a mountain, but Celia's eyes refused to make it past the first page.

That voice from that night kept rising up in her head.

Let's do it one more time. I don't remember a thing from my end, which is a real shame.

Celia's face went scarlet in a heartbeat.

"...You've got to be kidding me."

She picked up her teacup as if nothing had happened. She sipped slowly and forced her gaze back onto the documents, but whatever she'd been reading a moment ago had already flown straight out of her head.

What would he even see in an old woman like me...

He was twelve years younger. Of course, nothing had actually happened that night, and Celia's virtue was still perfectly intact. Her heart, though, had already crossed a line she couldn't quite take back.

And that brat had put this look on her face, and was probably wandering around right now without a thought in his head.

Which, suddenly, made her wonder. What was Leon doing right now?

"Hey, Hermann."

Hermann looked up from the table by the window, where he'd been sorting papers.

"Yes."

"Where's Leon right now?"

"Leon, you said?"

"Mm."

Hermann squared the documents in his hands and searched his memory for a moment.

"He should be at the training ground with Iris. They filed a facility request this morning."

"...Did they?"

Celia's hand paused on the way down with the teacup.

So Leon and Iris were together right now. It wasn't strange, of course. She was the one who had assigned Iris to handle Leon's basic instruction, and she was the one who had personally ordered Iris to teach him from scratch — a boy who hadn't even known what a magic formula was. So of course the two of them were spending more time together.

She had told them to.

"..."

So why did it bother her this much?

Celia looked down at the papers on her desk for a moment, then finally stood.

"I'm going to stop by the training ground."

"All of a sudden?"

"It isn't sudden. I just want to see whether Leon is actually learning the basics properly."

Said out loud, it sounded like a reasonably decent excuse. Celia nodded once, as if she'd convinced herself, and headed for the door. She was just about to set her hand on the knob when Hermann called from behind her.

"A moment, Director."

Celia looked back.

"What?"

"There is one matter I wished to confirm before you stepped out."

Hermann set the papers down with the same unreadable face as always.

"I happened to hear a rather unfortunate rumor this morning."

"What rumor?"

"That you, Director, have taken a lover twelve years your junior."

"Ah. Hahaha..."

Celia's eyes slid quietly off to the side. Hermann did not miss it.

"I assumed at first that it was baseless slander. However, the description of the man in the rumor was rather specific."

The smile hanging at the corner of Celia's mouth began to stiffen.

"It even included the claim that, two nights ago, at a restaurant in the Central Plaza, he won a Formula Deciphering Duel against a mage on the verge of promotion to Grand Magus."

Hermann finished aligning the last of the documents and set them neatly to one side of the desk.

"And, coincidentally, Leon did not return to the dormitory that night. Nor did you, Director, return to the White Magic Tower."

This man is disgustingly sharp...!

"Th-that's not what happened, okay?! Nothing happened!"

Hermann's eyebrow lifted, just a fraction.

"I don't believe I said that anything had happened."

"..."

Hermann regarded her like that for a moment, then let out a long breath.

"Director."

"What..."

"He is still only eighteen."

"I told you nothing happened!"

"Do try to keep a scrap of conscience about you."

"I said it didn't happen!"

Her face blazing, Celia wrenched the door open.

"Anyway, I'm going to the training ground! If something's urgent, call me later!"

The heavy door slammed. Footsteps receded quickly down the corridor. Hermann stood with the teacup in his hand and looked at the closed door for a long while.

Celia, Director of the White Magic Tower. On any ordinary day, she wouldn't have so much as snorted at whatever rumors the nobility chose to spread about her. And here she was, this flustered, over a single man.

A small smile touched Hermann's mouth. He turned his gaze, slowly, to the old portrait hanging on one wall of the office, and lifted his teacup toward it in a quiet toast.

"...Still. It looks good on her."

"Wouldn't you agree, former Director?"

Then he took a sip of tea, as if nothing at all had happened.

"Frost Blade!"

Three blue blades screamed across the training ground at different heights. The first carved through the left side of a stone target, and the two behind it veered to punch into the exact same line, one after the other.

The top of the target split on a slant and slid to the floor with a heavy crunch.

"...Got it."

Iris ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠checked the cut surface with her staff still in hand. A moment later the corner of her mouth lifted, and she drew the leftover magic formula out of the air with the tip of her staff and spread it in front of her.

"Yes! Mana consumption is down, and it's much easier to control."

The way she tapped a few points on the formula with her finger, it looked like she'd gotten it right.

More importantly.

...So that's why she came to my room.

Last night, Iris had asked me to teach her how to do it. How to modify Frost Blade. She'd been stuck on it by herself for ages, gotten nowhere, and finally come all the way to my room late at night.

I'd gotten my hopes up for nothing.

Tsk.

I left Iris absorbed in her formula and stepped a few paces off to the side of the training ground. Well. I'd come this far — might as well run an experiment of my own. I nudged a chunk of broken target out of the way with my toe and set a still-intact stone target in front of me.

"Hey, AI."

"Let's just slam fifty propulsion formulas into a lightning attribute."

"Tch."

So you couldn't just cram things in at random and expect it to work. Still. I really wanted to try this one.

In a comic I'd read in my previous life, there was this technique called a railgun or something. A girl would hold a single coin between her fingers and fire it at insane speed — electromagnetic acceleration, ridiculous destructive power... what was it again?

Anyway. Shoot something really fast and it hits really hard. That was the idea.

"Let's just build it first."

The magic formula floating in front of me multiplied at speed. Air and fire stacked together into a lightning attribute, and propulsion formulas chained on behind it like a tail. It was fine at first, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠once we passed about ten, error flags started lighting up all over the formula. I squinted one eye and leaned in close.

"Hmm... is it because they're all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠piled in one place? Looks like a bottleneck. Try splitting them up a bit."

A few of the propulsion formulas split off and shifted left and right. One side stayed red anyway.

"What's wrong with this one?"

"Let me see..."

I traced the red-marked line with my index finger. One of the lines coming off the output formula was overlapping a propulsion formula in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠middle. In the old days I wouldn't even have known why that was a problem, and I'd have dumped the whole thing on the AI. Now, at least, I could see what was tangled.

"Here. If we just pull a few of these propulsion formulas back, that should do it, right?"

"Then pull them. We're shooting in a straight line anyway, so we don't need a trajectory formula either."

I pushed the trajectory formula aside with my finger, and that section faded.

It went much the same after that. Move one piece and an error cropped up somewhere else; pull a formula to fix it and the output dropped. Every time the AI flagged a problem, I shifted the position or slotted a different formula back in, and we repeated that a few times over.

"No, not here — yeah. That side."

"What if we drop this one?"

"Then leave it."

The formula that had started out tangled like a mess of vines slowly began to take a real shape.

"...This is actually fun."

I remembered this exact feeling from building a deck in a card game. Cut what you don't need, bundle what works together, and at some point the whole thing just starts to run.

Nice.

"Leon?"

I turned at the voice. Iris was walking over with her staff resting on her shoulder.

"What have you been doing this whole time? The magic formula kept changing."

"This? Just putting together a super-fast lightning gun, more or less."

I tapped the formula floating in front of me with a finger. Iris came in close, studied it, and tilted her head.

"...A super-fast lightning gun?"

"Wait, hang on. That's not a name, I was just describing it—"

"...Fine. We'll just go with that. What's in a name, anyway."

Iris still looked like she hadn't understood a word.

"Super-fast... what?"

"You'll get it when you see it."

I gave her shoulder a light push and steered her off to the side.

"Stay a little behind me."

"Is it dangerous?"

"I don't know, which is why I said stay behind me."

I moved into position in front of the intact stone target. The distance was about thirty meters. A thick protective plate stood behind the target, and well behind that sat the training ground's outer wall.

This should be fine.

I set my feet at shoulder width and stretched my right arm forward. Blue current cracked at my fingertips, then crawled up the back of my hand and out to my wrist with a rising buzz. Iris pulled her staff in against herself and took a step back.

In front of me the finished formula stacked itself at speed, and the propulsion formulas began to light from the outside in.

The strain was lighter than I'd expected. Just a faint tingle in my fingers, really. I was more curious than anything. I'd slammed fifty propulsion formulas into this thing — how fast was it actually going to go?

I adjusted the angle of my arm a little and lined my finger up on the center of the target.

My fingertip flashed. And I saw nothing at all.

"...?"

Did it even fire? I was still holding my arm out, craning my neck toward the target, when the door at the back of the training ground opened.

"Leo—"

The boom arrived a full beat late. A shockwave tore across the training ground, kicking dust and gravel into the air. I threw an arm up in front of my face on reflex, and Iris behind me grabbed the hem of her robe and ducked.

A moment later the dust cleared.

There was a clean hole punched through the center of the stone target. The protective plate behind it had one to match. And in the outer wall, much farther back, there was a hole large enough to see the scenery outside, as if someone had opened a window.

Stone dust trickled down from the cracked masonry.

...Success.

"That's fucking fast."

"...Leon."

I turned at the voice behind me, dusting off my hands. Celia was standing in the doorway.

"You came, Boss."

No answer. Celia stared at the target with her hand still on the doorknob. Then her gaze moved to the protective plate, and finally to the hole in the outer wall. Slowly, she took her hand off the knob.

"...Leon."

"Yes?"

Celia's head was bowed, and her shoulders were shaking hard. This felt extremely ominous.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT!!!!!!!"

Celia raised her staff and charged.

"H-hyaaaaah!!!"

I spun on my heel. The staff whooshed through the space the back of my head had occupied a heartbeat earlier.

"W-wait a second! That almost actually hit me!!!"

"How many times are you planning to wreck this training ground?!!!!"

I vaulted a fallen target and bolted for the far side, and Celia came right after me, one hand hiking up the hem of her robe.

"There's only one hole this time!!!!"

"You call that an excuse?!!!!!"

We'd made about one full circuit of the middle of the training ground when the door creaked open and a White Magic Tower staff member hurried in.

"Director."

Celia, mid-chase, stopped dead.

"What? What is it?"

The staff member glanced between me and Iris, then stepped up to Celia and whispered something against her ear.

"..."

Celia listened in silence, then looked once toward Iris.

"...I see. All right."

What was that about?

I caught my breath and watched the two of them. Celia smoothed her rumpled hair with one hand, brushed off her wrinkled robe a few times, and walked toward the door. Then, just before she crossed the threshold, she looked back at me.

"Leon."

"Yes?"

"We need to talk later."

Celia paused.

"...!"

The door closed. I stood there, frozen.

Just the two of us? A staff member had come in and told her something, and Celia had suddenly gone serious.

Don't tell me.

...Did she actually get pregnant?

Were the results already in?! Did those even come back in a single day?!

I'd talked a big game about taking responsibility and all the rest, but with the result suddenly right in front of my face, I couldn't stop the chill running down my spine.

That was when I felt a pointed stare from beside me. I turned my head, and Iris was looking back and forth between my face and the door Celia had just gone through.

"..."

Iris's eyes narrowed.

"...Just the two of you?"