Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase2 (section)

===Part 4===

Mamilis felt almost no fear at waking up in an unfamiliar place.

But perhaps she simply did not have time to feel it.

The truth was, she was still stuck in a dead end. She was still alive and free, but she no longer had a house to live in. She had lived on her own a little bit away from her family, which meant no one else would have been buried alive there, but losing her place of residence was a painful blow.

Anyone who lost their home due to a stray shot would be generously supported by the government.

Except it was less clear if that would still apply for a Dark Elf. If the investigation drew attention to her, they might even end up hunting her down. Her sorcery device craftsman of a grandmother had been maintaining a precarious balance so far, but it felt like this incident had entirely overturned the scales.

For the same reason, relying on her family in Fire Castle Town Flared would be dangerous. Then the stones thrown at her could end up falling on her family’s roof instead.

Her options here were limited.

(I need to think up a way to live on my own.)

She should have done so from the beginning, but she had never been able to come up with anything and ended up relying on her grandmother and the rest of the family. She had stayed in this sky city and continued to indulge in their kindness.

And then these Forwards had shown up to supply violence for monetary reward.

But they had saved her despite seeing her long ears. They were not the kind of people who threw stones at someone just for being a demon.

That felt like a message from heaven to her.

(I don’t care if I’m just an assistant at first. I need to observe them from up close and learn how they do things so I can gain the skills needed to ''get by on my own in the world.'' This has to be my one and only chance! I won’t get another opportunity to live a life without causing anyone any trouble…especially my family!!)

She had thought a life like that only existed in fairy tales. From the moment she was born, she had assumed she was bound by her species, bound by her birthplace, and unable to ever break free of those bonds.

But she had just seen people who calmly accomplished things no one would ever have expected.

They had so much to teach her about life, so they were like a ''coach'' to her.

(I’m taking advantage of this.)

The long silver-haired girl had no power of her own.

Not even the power to stay true to the things she swore to herself.

But that was why she had to do this.

She had to accept that she lacked that strength now and then consider what she had to do in the future.

(I will follow after them!! I will follow after my coaches no matter what!! No longer will I be helpless and held back by my ears! My life begins now!!)

“Nghh. If that’s what you want.”

“…”

But the Dark Elf’s resolve was cut off by an unexpected voice. Ayato was looking up at her from the floor of this rundown inn that did not even have a sofa.

“By the way, Miss Mamilis, can you sew? Our Miss Teleria is hopeless when it comes to needlework, so it would be extremely helpful if you could fill that gap.”

“Eh? Eh? Y-you’ll make such an important decision based on nothing but that?”

“Eh heh heh. Man, this is a pretty nice angle. I was a little disappointed to see you were wearing pants, but that skintight leather certainly has its charm.”

“P-please take this seriously.”

When Mamilis desperately resisted Ayato’s attempt to change the subject, Teleria breathed an exasperated sigh while leaning against the wall (from enough of a distance to be ready for a low angle attack).

“The more serious the people around him are, the more he feels a need to ruin that mood, so be careful. Now take this seriously, Ayato.”

“Open that bag over there.”

He pointed toward a corner of the room while still lying on the floor. It was a cheap leather sack filled with the items the boy and girl had cautiously purchased in the market while the Dark Elf girl was unconscious.

When Mamilis got out of the bed and checked inside it as told, she found a shotgun mixed in with the more ordinary items. It was a full-auto model with a drum magazine attached. It was of course a sorcery gun.

It was the blonde girl and not the Dark Elf who spat out the contents of her mouth.

“Bfhhh! Wh-what is that dangerous thing doing in there!?”

“Hm? The guy at the street stall was shouting that it was perfect for beginners, so I went ahead and bought it.”

“Th-that had to have happened before we came to this inn, right? We were risking our lives to buy even some simple food and you were making a detour for this!? I only took my eyes off you for a moment!!”

“Ha ha ha. To be honest, getting paid can make me generous. ''I am never going to use a sorcery gun again,'' but wielding an obvious weapon can function as a threat even if you don’t shoot it.”

“…Ayato.”

“Yes, trauma is a hell of a thing, isn’t it?”

Teleria’s face clouded over a bit, but Ayato’s expression was entirely unreadable.

“But he wasn’t wrong about this being good for beginners. It’s definitely a good gun if I’m not the one using it, plus it fits the current age. The structure of the individual magics might not be the best, but you just have to keep pulling the trigger to produce a dense barrage that will push back the enemy with pure numbers.”

Sorcery guns came in a variety of types, but shotguns had the special effect of self-replicating a specific type of magic and scattering it over a fan-shaped arc.

If that scattershot was repeated with full-auto, the magic barrage would quickly fill the entire space in front of the wielder.

The flaws were how quickly it wore out, the short range required for a decisive blow, and the inability for precision firing if the enemy took a hostage. That meant it left a lot to be desired when acting solo, but support from Teleria’s dual handguns could make up for those flaws.

“To be blunt, if you cover yourself with oxidized mana-conducting silver and carry one of these, you can force back most any below-average target just by charging straight at them. Although you’re never going to get any better if that’s all you do. If you pay attention to your remaining ammo and where you place your feet, you shouldn’t screw up too badly. If you want to be a Forward, then I recommend this as a starting point.”

“I-I see…”

Dark Elf Mamilis held the full-auto shotgun-style sorcery gun between her arms with a look that said she was unsure if he was serious or joking. She must have felt bad not using the bed after he let her have it, so she moved back there and sat on it. It was a very lower middle class thing for someone with her appearance.

“Forget about combat for a second. You’ve used sorcery guns in your everyday life before, right? Is there an element you excel at?”

“Um, fire?”

She responded as a question, but perhaps that was because she lived in Flared. Or maybe it was the influence of her grandmother who worked with mana-conducting silver at high temperatures.

“Then focus on making fire-related bullets. If you’re serious about this, I can eventually teach you the basics of shooting, loading the magazine, and dismantling the gun for maintenance.”

But that was where Ayato’s voice dropped in tone while his position on the floor gave him quite a view of Mamilis while she sat on the bed.

“There is one thing you need to learn first and foremost: the sorcery guns held by a Forward are not the same as the triggers used to light the kitchen stove. No matter how you try to pretty it up, you have chosen to wield a tool of killing to live your life. Whether or not you actually kill with it, you still sought out a power that was designed to kill.”

“…”

“But that doesn’t have to scare you. The knights patrolling the streets don’t carry guns at their hips in order to kill the ordinary people out there. The point is to use them as a threat to stop criminals without killing them. Do not look away because it scares you. You have to stare this one in the face. You must first understand just how frightening a thing they are and then you can figure out your own way of not straying from the path you want to take. If you do that, you’ll be fine and you will be able to wield the sorcery gun like an extension of yourself. Although I doubt I will ever be able to do that again.”

That was all he said.

“Agh, no, I can’t stand it. I need to go take a bath to refresh myself.”

“Coach, um, surely there’s more…”

“Don’t say you want to join me in the bath. You’ll make me blush.”

Ayato walked to the bathroom and there was nothing more the brown girl could do.

For a while, Dark Elf Mamilis’s eyes wandered uncertainly through the room.

Finally, she hesitantly asked the blonde girl a question.

“Um…how much of that did he actually mean?”

“If you really can’t tell, then your first task is to sort through all that information until you can.”

She got the feeling he meant every word of it.