Event (3): Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sharp crack of gunpowder from the supply rifles split the air. Each shot followed the last in roughly 0.3 seconds, a rate of fire that made Camilla’s earlier performance look positively sluggish. The students were utterly transfixed by my flashy movements, mouths hanging open in awe. By the time they snapped out of it, the show was already over. They could only smack their lips in disappointment.
“Haa…”
The moment I set the rifle down and let out a long breath, the supervising professor couldn’t hide his dismay.
“P-Plea… twelve points.”
Yeah. I’d completely bombed the shooting test.
“Pfft.”
A mocking laugh tickled my ear while I was still stewing in the aftermath of my spectacular failure. Who the hell— I whipped my head toward the spectator seats and caught Camilla, face pale as a ghost, desperately avoiding my gaze.
“Damn it…”
For a second I considered storming over, but I knew that a 12-point loser throwing a tantrum at someone with 320 would just look like pathetic sour grapes. So I kept my head down and slunk out of the testing area.
“Plea, please don’t take it too hard. Nobody’s good at everything, right?”
“Aria… maybe try saying that without the smirk?”
“Eep!”
She slapped both hands over her mouth, but the damage was done. The sight of her looking so pleased with herself was genuinely irritating.
“…It’s only because I wasn’t using my usual minigun. If I’d brought that, 320 points? Please. I could’ve scored 640.”
Wouldn’t any normal person be able to hit the max score with a minigun, though…? Aria seemed to be debating whether she should argue, but she must have realized it would only invite twice as many excuses. She settled for shaking her head instead.
Unfortunately, I caught the gesture.
“You think a normal person could max out the score with a minigun? Wrong. A normal person couldn’t even handle the recoil, and aiming something that heavy with any accuracy isn’t easy. Not to mention they’d run out of mana and collapse from exhaustion before they even—”
“Okay, that’s enough, Plea.”
“But—”
“You’re being seriously pathetic right now!”
Aria’s face had gone beet red. The blunt declaration shut me up instantly. If I kept making excuses she might actually suggest we stop hanging out together…
“Fine…”
“Good. Then let’s hurry to the next booth.”
Whatever had her so embarrassed, Aria practically sprinted toward the next station.
The third booth we reached measured mana control. Yep, the exact same mana control they’d tested to death back at the lab.
“Nice! 43!”
“You’ve been practicing? I only managed 63…”
Students were already comparing scores the moment we arrived. 43 and 63… those were seriously high. Before I could dwell on it, Aria—who had gone in first—came back waving her results like a trophy.
“Hehe… Look at this! Twenty-five!”
“Wow, impressive…”
What was my mana control score again? The last time they measured it at the lab it had been around 700 and… Nope. Better not think about it. Nothing good would come from remembering.
“Miss Plea, aren’t you going to test? Someone of your caliber should score quite high in mana control…”
“I-I’m good. It’ll probably explode like the mana meter did anyway…”
“Explode…? The mana meter exploded?”
“Whoops.”
I’d slipped up. Aria now knew about the accident I’d caused.
“…Please explain in detail.”
“Ugh… fine.”
Faced with her determined expression, I had no choice but to recount everything that had happened at the mana measurement booth from start to finish.
“Miss Plea, honestly… how can you be so clumsy! If the machine was malfunctioning, the first thing you should have done was let go! What were you thinking, just standing there until everything went wrong?!”
Smack!
“Ow! Aria! No hitting!”
Her full-powered back smash landed perfectly. Because I hadn’t wrapped my body in mana, the surprise attack made me fold like a well-cooked shrimp. When Aria saw how pathetic I looked, she quickly scanned the area, let out a relieved sigh at the lack of witnesses, then immediately resumed her assault.
“Good, no one’s around… But why are you being such a baby about it?!”
“Wait, hold on—kyaa!”
Having confirmed the coast was clear, she showed no mercy and hit me several more times. I went from cooked shrimp to a live fish flopping desperately on dry land.
And then, as if some cruel god had planned it…
“P…Plea…?”
Siwoo appeared out of nowhere, staring at me with a look of pure shock.
“Don’t look!!!”
“Ah… so that’s what happened.”
“Ughhh… I’m dying of embarrassment here, okay?!”
Okay, yes, I had acted pathetically. But was it really necessary to recount every humiliating detail right in front of the person involved? And look at Siwoo’s face. The same guy who had looked shocked earlier was now watching me with pure pity after listening to Aria’s full explanation.
“…Stop looking at me like that. Unless you want to restart our toughness training?”
“Ahem. No, I wasn’t trying to make fun of you.”
“Same goes for you, Aria.”
“Mm. I was just startled… I’ll be more careful.”
Luckily some of my old charisma remained. Both of them scratched their heads awkwardly and changed the subject.
“So you’re skipping the mana control test because you’re worried you’ll break the machine like you did the mana meter?”
“Pretty much.”
“Exactly. If that one breaks too, the academy might issue me an official warning…”
Siwoo burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! What are you even worried about? The mana control device isn’t built to explode like that. To measure control precise enough to make it overload, the machine would need to calculate to the ten-thousandths place. And even if it looked like it might break, you can just let go before it does, right?”
“Well…”
He wasn’t wrong. Unlike the mana meter, the control tester wouldn’t explode from excessive mana output. It would simply measure my painfully average control score.
But that wasn’t really the issue for me.
“S-still, there’s always the chance something goes wrong…”
“You worry too much. Tell you what—I’ll go with you. Problem solved.”
“Huh? Wait—”
This wasn’t what I wanted at all. My brain was frantically generating thousands of excuses, but Siwoo was faster. He gave me an embarrassed smile and took my hand.
“Eh?”
“Let’s go together.”
His attitude had completely shifted to that of an older brother looking after his clumsy little sister. Before I could process the change, I found myself following him with my head hung low. In short, I had been completely checkmated.
“Oh my… Does this mean we’ll finally get to see Plea’s record-breaking score?”
“Y-yeah, I guess?”
“I’m curious about your score too. Let’s hurry.”
Still holding my hand, Siwoo practically dragged me into the mana control booth at a run.
“Welcome… Oh myyy…”
The moment we stepped inside, the middle-aged female professor clapped a hand over her mouth and stared at us with a mischievous glint in her eye.
For a second I wondered what she was doing, but I decided to figure out her intentions first. I met her gaze and realized both her eyes were fixed on one specific spot.
The direction of my hand?
Why was she suddenly staring at my hand? What was I holding… holding?
I flinched and looked to my left. There was Siwoo tilting his head in confusion… and our clasped hands.
“Aaaaaah!”
“Whoa! You scared me! What’s wrong?!”
“You idiot! Why were you still holding my hand after we came in?!”
“O-oh!”
Oh? This bastard had actually forgotten he was holding my hand?
“I was only going to hold it until we got inside… Oh my, well then…”
“No, it’s not what you think.”
“It’s fine! I understand completely~!”
“No, it really isn’t!”
And so, before we could even start the test, we spent a solid ten minutes trying to convince the professor.
“Goodness… This old lady got carried away.”
“It’s fine… Can we please just start the test?”
Siwoo already looked drained. He placed his hand on the mana control device with a tired expression. Even if he looked exhausted, I wasn’t about to forgive him…! The crime of nearly making me look like I was in a gay relationship. I’d make him pay for it later by increasing our toughness training by five times.
While I was grinding my teeth, Siwoo’s test finished.
“H-huh…! Single digit!”
“Single digit?”
The professor’s eyes widened as she handed over the sheet with his results.
“Control: 7…”
As expected, his growth rate is ridiculous.
But my admiration for Siwoo’s talent lasted only a moment before a bolt from the blue struck my ears.
“Next up is the academy’s very own celebrity, Miss Plea!”
“Ah…”
Right. I had to do this too.