The Strongest Gun Magus: I Cast Bullet!-Chapter 72: A New Goal in Life
"Did you start a fight with a Final Cycle Albedo magus because of a cake?!"
"No, it was because he was a bully!"
Instead of continuing the argument, Marien bit into her cake. Immediately, her eyes widened, and an expression of absolute bliss came over her face.
"Mmmm!"
She closed her eyes and chewed slowly, making even more ecstatic moans.
Reynard stared at her for a second, then couldn’t fight his own curiosity anymore.
He took a small bite of his cake.
His eyes widened.
An explosion of taste spread over his tongue. It was a perfect mix of savory with a bit of sweetness, of dough and stuffing, Ying and Yang. Never in his two lives had Reynard tasted anything as delicious.
’Is this how five-star cooking tastes? No, this has to be better! This is literal magic!’
Reynard felt the Earth mana of the ingredients in the cake enter his body and flow into his Athanor. This natural way of absorbing mana was less effective than just meditating on it, but it was so much more pleasant!
It took all of Reynard’s restraint to chew slowly and stretch the cake as much as his willpower allowed. Still, it ended way too quickly.
He stared at his hands with a feeling of fullness in his stomach and his heart, wondering if he would be able to stomach any other food after tasting something so miraculous.
"Alright. I will admit it–THIS cake was worth it. My love, do you think we can buy more of them?"
***
It was morning, and Reynard was smithing alone. Marien had left around sunset with more ointment for burns and bombs. After this, expecting trouble brewing in their lives, Reynard persevered despite exhaustion and worked throughout the night.
Despite his hard work, he didn’t finish putting the golden revolver together, and he still didn’t smell the bullets for it. Ordinary ones wouldn’t fit–the golden revolver had a larger caliber than Reynard’s other ones.
So when he felt a pair of magi’s auras approaching his door, Reynard grabbed a couple of grenades off a shelf, cast Spirit Armor on himself, and only then went to open it.
To his relief, the magi on his doorstep wore symbols of the Order of Snow, which meant they were his allies. In theory, at least...
The two that stared down at Reynard looked way too unfriendly for someone who wanted to buy a potion or two.
"Greetings, Mister Faust. Why are you meeting us as if you were expecting a fight? Is this how all foreigners imagine hospitality to look?"
While the first magus spoke, the other one was subtly trying to peek into the workshop behind Reynard’s back.
Reynard put his hands over his hips.
"Am I at fault for protecting the privacy of my workshop, when the magi of the Order of Winter constantly prowl the neighborhood? I don’t invite visitors here. If you want to commission something, you should go to the Snow Trade Emissary."
The magi perked up like hounds that smelled prey.
"You don’t invite visitors? But we heard that a known offender of our order, magus Julia Windblown, came to this place. Tell us honestly, are you harboring her? Give her out, and the Order of Snow will reward you generously."
’Shit,’ thought Reynard. ’Is Marien a fugitive now? I hope she’s alright right now. The place she lives in is right next to the Order of Winter, the people from Snow won’t dare to attack her there... But she won’t stay there forever, though!’
Outwardly, Reynard channeled his best acting into appearing confused and irritated. The last emotion came much more naturally.
"Who? Look, I wouldn’t have settled near the Order of Winter if there were better places that rent out to foreigners in your city. That doesn’t mean I collaborate with them! As if the last time wasn’t enough. Maybe I should just move to another place. There are many caravans moving north and south this time of the year..."
The magi exchanged glances, looking less sure than a moment before. One of them nodded, then the other looked at Reynard with a frown.
"Julia is a foreigner, like you. And we know that foreigners’ first loyalty is always to themselves, and their second loyalty is always to each other. But you have been a valuable ally of our order, so we will investigate the matter further and make sure you aren’t collaborating with our enemies. Because if you do, you will become our enemy as well!"
The magi stepped from Reynard’s perch.
"Goodbye, Mister Faust. And remember that in our city, one cannot survive without an ally."
Reynard stared at the leaving magi, silently gritting his teeth.
His desire to leave this city immediately was fighting only with his desire to get his hands on Frozen Balance again.
’But the chances of this happening are too low, anyway, so I might as well start packing at this point! As soon as I finish my golden gun, I will be able to say I achieved what I wanted in this place. Even more than that!’
He entered the workshop again and looked it over, estimating how much of it he and Marien could take with them.
He was sure that Marien would agree to leave the city with him. She liked to travel.
He just had to meet with her somewhere they won’t be seen by spies of both orders and tell her about what happened...
***
The place they met was a room in a small inn that was popular in the city for having a separate back entrance for guests.
"Leaving? No, we can’t leave just yet!" Marien shook her head vigorously. "We can’t leave without the recipe for the Midnight Skylark sun cake! If we leave without it, we will never taste it again!"
Reynard closed his eyes with a pained expression.
"Nnngh... The worst thing is... You are right. There are some things worth living for, and some things worth dying for... And people of this city clearly don’t understand well enough just how good they are living with these cakes! Let’s do this! But first, we really have to avoid suspicion somehow. But... how?"
