The Strongest Gun Magus: I Cast Bullet!-Chapter 5: The Beautiful School Princess

The two students were glaring at Reynard. Their hands were already raised in preparation for spellcasting.

They have already sensed that Reynard’s aura had changed, growing stronger—but their auras were still way above his.

"Give us the artifact you used against Markus and the key to his garden, and we will only break your hands, Reynard!" a student said.

Reynard grinned, hiding his anxiety. His hands were already near his pockets.

He had reloaded his gun, but he didn’t have the time to smith a second one!

"Ha! Be honest—you don’t care about Markus, you just want my stuff! Well, maybe I will be punished for killing another student outside of the arena, but you won’t leave this place alive if you attack me!"

The cronies hesitated in the face of Reynard’s bluff. They exchanged glances, wondering if they could cast their spells before Reynard used his strange artifact.

Mana sparkled in their hands. Reynard began to pull out his gun.

"What are you two DOING?! Grandpa said that Reynard won fair and square, so scram before I tell everybody what losers you are!"

Everybody turned to see Marien walk into the scene, glaring at Markus’s cronies with her large blue eyes. Her robe fluttered in the wind, clinging to her elegant legs.

There was a moment of shock as neither of the three students understood why she was there, interfering.

Then the two cronies dropped their hands and bowed.

"We apologize, Miss Marien! We will leave immediately!"

Even if she wasn’t stronger than the two of them, none of them wanted to go against the Magister’s spoiled granddaughter!

’If she calls us losers to her "grandpa", he will just kick us out of the school for offending his precious princess!’ they thought to themselves as they left. Now all they could do was throw dirty looks at Reynard until they disappeared behind a street corner.

With relief, Reynard pocketed his gun.

’Why do I have a distinct feeling that my troubles have only started?’ he thought, turning his eyes on Marien.

"Thank you for helping me, Miss Marien! That was sure a—"

Marien walked up to him, waving off his gratitude, then pointed at Reynard’s chest.

"I saw the artifact of yours—it’s unlike anything in grandpa’s treasury! Give it to me, now!"

Reynard choked on air.

"Did you save me just to rob me myself?! Why won’t you ask for the garden’s key while you are at it, too?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Marien huffed.

"Why would I need your stupid key? Grandpa’s garden has all the plants I might need. I’m not even an Earth Affinity magus anyway."

"That’s not the point I was trying to make..."

"I don’t understand you. Stop wasting my time, Reynard! Give me that artifact of yours or... Or I will tell grandpa that you insulted me!"

’Her scowl was very cute,’ Reynard thought suddenly. ’But her personality is just awful! And she’s the Magister’s most treasured (and only) granddaughter... The wisest thing I can do is to stay away from her.’

To his terror, Reynard still found himself acting unwise–he just couldn’t stop.

He smiled at Marien with his most charming smile, then pulled out the gun.

Marien’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. She reached toward the artifact, but he stepped away and held it close to his chest.

"Alright, beautiful! It will be yours... but! For a price. Just some money to refund my work and materials."

"YOUR work? So you’ve done it yourself?" Marien drifted even closer to Reynard. Her expression was entirely charmed... by the artifact.

"Yes. Steel hardened with Black Salt, my unique alchemical mix instead of gunpowder and hand-crafted steel bullets... And it’s already charged and ready to fire. For you, beautiful princess, I will sell it only for... a thousand gold pieces!"

Reynard bit his tongue at his own audacity.

A thousand gold pieces—this was twice the money that Markus’s garden was worth! He could craft a dozen guns with this amount of cash—and also hire bodyguards.

"Deal!" Marien clapped her hands. "I don’t have a thousand gold pieces on hand, but I can write you a check!"

She grabbed the gun from Reynard’s hands, and he let her. The girl began to curiously look at it from all sides.

"How strange... It had the power of an Albedo-stage spell, but I sense very little magic in it! Oh, what’s inside there?" Marien peeked into the gun’s barrel.

Reynard went pale.

"No, don’t do this!"

To his short-lived relief, Marien turned the barrel away.

’This gun is made to be fired with magic... It has no trigger, but it also has no safety! And this girl... has no common sense. If she accidentally shoots herself, the Magister will skin me alive and hang me over the school’s gates!’

"Hey, Reynard, how do you activate it? Just... a magic pulse, yes?"

"Plea—"

BANG!

With a gasp, Marien dropped the gun out of her hands. Reynard grasped his rapidly beating heart.

Thankfully, the shot went somewhere into the sky.

Reynard immediately went to pick the gun up, but Marien got to it first.

He looked at her pleadingly.

"Please, beautiful princess, let me buy back my gun—my artifact! You just used the only charge, anyway—I will pay you a thousand gold for a useless thing, just give it back!"

Marien blushed a little under Reynard’s intense gaze.

"Useless? It really is?" She looked into the barrel again. "That weak magic is gone... But I thought this wasn’t a one-use artifact! How does it recharge, then?"

"That’s a trade secret, princess. I have to keep something for my own success, you know? But... since your eyes are so pretty, and you are so curious, I will sell you all the explanations—as soon as you sell me my artifact back."

Marien visibly hesitated. Her interest in the gun had waned a little, but it was still there.

"I can even make you your own gun... That’s how this artifact is called. But at a later time, beautiful," Reynard promised, grinning when Marien blushed again.

"Stop calling me beautiful! You—you are outrageous, peasant!" Marien huffed. "Everybody else knows that I am only worthy of a hand of someone as powerful as my grandpa."

"But princess, I can’t just lie to your face! The sky is blue, the grass is green, and you are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen!"

"Gyah! Just let me think why I shouldn’t just take the gun now, peasant!"

What neither Reynard nor Marien noticed was that the street around them wasn’t entirely deserted.

Although Markus’s cronies intended to leave at first, when they heard the conversation, they stayed behind and hid to listen in.

Now, they exchanged glances with evil grins. A single thought went through their minds...

’If the Magister finds out about his behavior, Reynard will be skinned alive and hanged over the school’s gates!’