I Had the Talent to Kill People (2)
Beneath the cascading snow mountain, even conversation had to be shouted.
The fluid mixture of snow and water poured down the cliff only to surge upward again.
Kwaaaa—!
The roar incessantly shook the surroundings.
At this level, a few gunshots would go unnoticed beyond the mountain.
I lay prone on a flat rock.
A folded tent and sandbags supported the barrel.
Senior Sergeant Misty Misty studied my posture for a long moment, then pressed the buttstock slightly lower.
“Press it more firmly against your shoulder. Any gap will generate recoil.”
“Yes.”
“Do you see the cross inside the scope?”
“I do.”
“Center the target on it, hold your breath, and slowly squeeze the trigger.”
Having finished her instructions, Senior Sergeant Misty raised her hand.
Only then did I understand what she meant by “making a target.”
She was a spirit—an endangered species that had lived through the mythic age. She operated under entirely separate laws, not magic.
Like a star, she wielded something independent and beautiful.
The faint mist drifting nearby gathered into a single point.
It formed the blurry silhouette of a person.
It possessed a head, torso, and limbs, yet its edges constantly wavered like heat haze. Inside its chest floated a small mass shaped like a water droplet.
“I created a core in the heart region. A bullet strike there will cause the target to collapse.”
“The distance….”
“Roughly 150 meters.”
“Understood.”
“Using D magic to assist the shot would make things easier.”
I drew a short breath.
Five pools of power lay accumulated inside my body.
I pulled mana from the deepest one.
In an instant the world expanded.
The curves of the rock, the water droplets suspended in the air, Misty’s breathing—every useless piece of information was discarded.
Filter. Filter again. Filter once more. Only what mattered remained.
The target 150 meters away and the tiny core writhing ceaselessly inside it were caught in my net.
“…Are you certain this is your first time using magic?”
“If we’re being exact, I had one chance to test it during training camp.”
“That is an unnatural degree of proficiency.”
Unnatural proficiency?
Did that mean my talent stood out that much?
I hid a smile inside and aimed directly at the core.
I shifted the scope’s crosshairs onto the target, held my breath, and pulled the trigger exactly as taught.
Bang!
The recoil slammed into my shoulder.
The mist-formed target remained exactly where it had been. It had suffered no damage at all.
I clenched my molars.
“You missed. Approximately one handspan to the right.”
“…….”
Honestly, even now I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking back then.
Was I swept up in impulse? Had I simply failed to control my emotions?
No matter what label I apply, it’s nothing but an excuse.
Yes. To speak plainly, I was angry at the time.
Angry at myself for failing to land even a single shot like this. Angry at myself for possessing no talent whatsoever even after arriving in another world.
The smug satisfaction I had felt at being able to use a little magic shattered in an instant, and the recoil struck me.
After all, I hadn’t even properly savored the schadenfreude.
Because I had gone so long without discharging my desires, that much recklessness had spilled out.
In the orphanage, toward the child I disliked… Ah, I’m told not to speak of that?
Understood.
At any rate, I was not a cold person.
…Yes. Because I was not cold, I was caught by you. I grew weary. And I ended up like this.
“Private Winterland, what are you—”
I yanked the bolt, ejected the spent casing, and chambered the next round.
This time I corrected a handspan to the right.
Bang!
I missed again.
Unlike before, the shot had gone left.
…Why?
I could feel the target’s exact position.
I knew the distance.
I could sense the wind’s direction.
Yet it refused to hit.
I had every variable locked inside my head, so why—why wouldn’t it connect?
I had wanted the image of a beautiful-girl sniper genius…!
Yes. Th-that… I’m sorry….
That wasn’t the reason I became angry.
I was only furious that I couldn’t seize the concept I desired.
A moment ago I lied because telling the truth was embarrassing. Uh—stop touching me!
“Again.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“From now on, do not fire without the observer’s permission, Private Chloe Winterland.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“Resume your aim.”
Senior Sergeant Misty Misty, fortunately, chose to overlook my mistake with leniency.
It might have been mercy reserved only for the present moment, yet my concern lay elsewhere.
She stepped close enough for me to feel her breath and began inspecting my posture once more.
Even at such proximity, I felt almost nothing.
After a moment’s thought, I realized the same had been true when I grew close to Anais Shen back at training camp.
Could it be… that becoming a woman had caused my crucial senses and desires to vanish?
Well, schadenfreude was the main course and the rest merely side dishes, so it was tolerable….
Still, a vague melancholy settled over me.
There was a difference between never having something and losing it after it had once been mine.
Hm? Why is my reaction so delayed?
Because… there were no pretty girls in the orphanage to begin with.
The few who were even moderately attractive were too busy keeping me in check and tormenting me to spark any interest.
“The scope’s zeroing was confirmed, so I cannot blame misalignment….”
“I don’t understand it either.”
“Your posture, your magic usage—everything was textbook perfect. That is a compliment.”
Senior Sergeant Misty offered the dry praise and then examined my rifle with great care.
Her blue eyes, staring so intently they seemed capable of bewitching anyone, stole my gaze for a second.
They reminded me of the sea or a river—no, more like mist, a solar halo, or drifting clouds.
I coveted those eyes.
Eyes, gaze, the operating principle of D magic is clearly….
Aha.
I had realized the answer.
I wanted to shout “Eureka!” at the top of my lungs, yet the presence of Senior Sergeant Misty beside me and the technological level of this world prevented it.
The principle of buoyancy existed in this world, but the man who discovered it had not been Archimedes, and he had never cried “Eureka!” either.
It felt like a fish-shaped pastry with no red-bean filling.
Enough pointless digressions.
Returning to the main point, I now understood why my aim and D magic refused to align.
It was the gap between vision and perception.
D magic conveyed precise data, but the scope and my own eyes did not.
The information delivered to me had been edited by my brain, the refraction of light, and various other factors.
The reason Senior Sergeant Misty never mentioned this fact is that the humans of this world experience no such discrepancy between the two senses.
In other words, this error had most likely arisen because I had spent over twenty years in a world without mana before reincarnating here.
The solution?
The solution was simpler than I could have imagined.
I simply had to abandon one of the senses.
I reached out and detached the scope from the rifle.
The moment Senior Sergeant Misty saw it, she moved to stop me.
“What exactly are you doing?”
“Removing the scope.”
“This is a sniper rifle.”
“I’m aware.”
“…Removing the scope from a sniper rifle leaves you with nothing but a heavy, long, cumbersome rifle.”
“I know that as well. Please allow me to test it.”
She let out a sigh and muttered to herself that another defective soldier had arrived.
She had not seemed the type to show irritation so openly; it appeared I had crossed a line.
…Well, I had crossed it rather decisively.
“This is your last chance.”
With that warning, Senior Sergeant Misty folded her arms.
Still prone on the rock, I sighted the target through the iron sights without the scope’s aid.
Seeing how tiny the mark appeared, I immediately regretted my decision.
Was it even possible to destroy the core with a single unaided shot at an object 150 meters away?
I exhaled, then drew a deep breath and held it.
I closed both eyes and focused solely on the magic.
I nudged the muzzle a fraction to the left, steadied my breathing once more, held it, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The chest of the mist-made figure caved inward.
The form lost cohesion, crumbled, and scattered across the ground.
“…This is another first for me.”
“Did it hit?”
“Yes.”
“Is there another target?”
“There wasn’t originally, but since you seem to want one, I’ll create it.”
Senior Sergeant Misty gathered the mist again.
At a distance where it was barely visible, a faint human shape appeared.
There were now three targets.
“The distances….”
“Two hundred meters, two hundred fifty meters, and three hundred meters respectively.”
“Should I hit all of them?”
“Try it.”
Three gunshots rang out.
Senior Sergeant Misty wore a complicated expression as she turned a subtle, layered gaze upon me.
“…Thank you.”
“How did this country end up like this?”
“…….”
“Winterland? What are you—Winterland!”
A trickle of blood ran from my nose.
My vision blurred.
I could hear Senior Sergeant Misty calling my name, yet the sound gradually receded.
Ah, using magic multiple times… shortens your lifespan, doesn’t it…? Maintaining it for long was already too much….
The world tilted sideways, and I collapsed.
My body felt cold.