Apologies for the delay. Sadly, only a single chapter this week with no extras like before. The chapter was pretty long and confusing for me to translate accurately, blah, blah, blah, another excuse, yada, yada, yada.  I’m not too knowledgeable about firearms so if I did something wrong in the translation, please tell me. I honestly got lost in the translation. So here is the chapter.

The Preceding Hero Gets Scouted?

「Wo~w……」

What stretched out before my eyes was the most prominent training inst.i.tution of mages that was also the most prominent research inst.i.tution in the other world of Reynbrook, Lizwadia Magic Academy"s school building, and the gigantic clock tower.

I had heard that half of the city was made up of academy-related buildings, but just the school building itself boasted an unbelievable size and vastness.

「Yashiro-san, it is this way.」

「R, right…」

With a lanky body, a man whose face looked like he would die any minute now beckoned me and headed towards the clock tower.

Being beckoned by this man, for some reason, I can"t help but think that it"s the same as being beckoned by a Shinigami.

Now then, if you"re wonder why I came to the Lizwadia Magic Academy……It"s not like I"ve come to gaze at the female students, you know?
Just so you know, I"ve come with a proper reason.

If you"re wonder why I"ve come here,

it"s because I"ve become a temporary teacher.

Having confirmed that Bernadette"s nickname of Food Buster Bernadette wasn"t a lie once the amount of her food went over 30 peoples" worth, a bit of time has pa.s.sed since I handed Ossan the check for 300,000 f (approx. 2,000,000 yen) and now it was a time where the customers in the store amused themselves with a pool[1] on how many people"s portions could Bernadette eat more so than the food itself.

「Hey, Ossan.」

「What is it? I"m kind of busy right now.」

Forgetting things like the plate"s arrangement of the food, Ossan started to simply pursue making it quickly and skillfully.
Beside him, putting the finished meals on a tray and lifting it, pretending to be a waiter and helping out was me, but,

「Who"s that skinny Ossan that"s coiled up in the middle of the day at the counter over there? It looks like he"s been hit with some really hard luck……」

That"s right, while giving off an atmosphere that looks like he"d commit suicide at any moment right now, drinking a gla.s.s of alcohol in a way to make it last, there was a man that was grumbling as if chanting for a curse and muttering things that sounded like complaints, but because he was giving off way too much of a deep, dark aura of sorrow, it bothered me.
Not being able to be compared with the macho Ossan and the small macho me, even compared to the guest Ossans, he was a skinny man.

「If anything, I don"t think that there"s anyone that surpa.s.ses you concerning bad luck.」

「Shut up. ……So? ……He doesn"t look like a traveler――」

Wearing a robe of someone related to the academy, he"s probably a teacher or something, but, would a teacher be drinking alcohol in the middle of the day? If I say it like that, probably not.

「Could he have possibly been fired from being a teacher?」

「No, rather, conversely, he"s on the side of being overly expected of.」

「Ahh, I see~.」

So the timid personality man shrank back from the academy"s expectations and became like that.

「………That reminds me, you could handle the Alexelia language, couldn"t you?」

「Na?……What"s with that coming out of the blue. I was lightly taught by Alicia and trained with the quarrels with Ossan, you know?」

The Alexelia language that was pa.s.sed down among the Elves.
Compared with the ancient Ishrel language that used spirits to invoke magic, the Alexelia language, like how the Elves that befriended the spirits, was something that borrowed the power of the spirits to invoke it.

Both of them have advantages and disadvantages as magic languages, but, at the present time, globally, they aren"t really used that much.
That"s because the modern Ishrel language, which derived from the ancient Ishrel language, was introduced far and wide in the world as a magic language and as a regular language.

The reason why is because the modern Ishrel language exceeded the Alexelia and ancient Ishrel languages in regards to aria speed and because it was possible to join it together with other languages.

That"s why the Alexelia language isn"t generally used, and is used almost exclusively by Elves.

「『Try saying something with the Alexelia language.』」

「Ha? ……『Mareeda-san is my waifu.』」

「『You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, looks like you want to die once!』」

「『Ossan"s the one that told me to do it!』」

Getting caught in Ossan"s pace, I was angry -degozaru.[2] At the Ossan that wanted to continue the conversation in the Alexelia language, I reply with the Alexelia language that I learned.

……Man, this is kind of nostalgic.

As I was thinking of things from three years ago, my shoulder is grasped from behind.

……Huh? Since Ossan is right in front of me, who is it?

「『Do you mind if we talk for a bit!!?』」

「Gyaaaaaahh!!??」

When I turn around, what was there was a man who made an overshadowed, dreadful expression that not even a R-18 horror film would put it in!

「Wait, the shadow of death Ossan that was drinking alcohol!」

「I"m, I"m terribly sorry. ……I had overheard the conversation between you two…, ah. …I, I work as part of the teaching staff at the Lizwadia Magic Academy. I am called Leizelido Dotoragé」

The shadow of death man who called himself Leizelido Dotoragé pulled out a single piece of paper from his pocket, and handed it to me.

「Ah, a business card. ……Nice to meet you. I"m called Yuu Yashiro. I"m tentatively an adventurer and――」

*Gaun gaun*――!!

「I, I"m terribly sorry Yashiro-san! I unconsciously fired at you! You don"t have any injuries, do you!?」

「You dumba.s.s!! My head was nearly blown off just now, fool!」

The plate I was hold was smashed by Bernadette"s Magic Gun together with the tray, and I, who had promptly crouched down, had Neapolitan-like pasta covering my head.

――This girl…For me, whose motto is "Treat women kindly", to be irritated……only her troublesomeness is at the Six Blade General level!

As I was thinking about how I would punish Bernadette, the shadow of death Ossan who would be cool if it were only his name had……It"s kind of feels like the letters for him and Ossan are starting to overlap their characters.
Let"s go with Doto-san.
……Doto-san approached Bernadette, who had piled up 37 peoples" worth of plates into a huge tower of white plates.

「Hou…That Magic Gun 『Kerykeion』, it looks like you"ve done some peculiar customization, haven"t you.」

Doto-san, who had at some point took out some gla.s.ses and put them on, while still being a shadow of death, had an atmosphere that didn"t let you feel his gloominess.

「Hou, ……You have some pretty good eyes. However, this child"s true name is 『Magic Gun Failnaught』!
Please be sure not to make that mistake again.」

「You little, you said that it was 『Magic Gun Misteltein』 earlier.」

Th, this girl…saying things like true name and former name, the truth is that she said things on the spot!」

「The words in your mind are coming out of your mouth, you know, Yashiro-san!? B, besides, it wasn"t a lie! This 『Failnaught』 is a model that improved the hitting accuracy and range distance and …Look, this one here is 『Misteltein』. Misteltein is a model that improved its power! ………Fuffu~n. How was that? It wasn"t" a lie!
There is no way that a Sister that serves G.o.d could tell a lie!」

「Though you are a brutal Sister that comes shooting without even confirming with the person himself.」

「H, how mean, Yashiro-san! I"m terribly hurt n―――」

Well, it certainly is as Bernadette says, the two Magic Guns that Bernadette pulled out and showed each had subtle differences.
No, in the first place, their appearances greatly differed from the stages that I designed.

These two are――cylinder magazines.

What I designed three years ago was something like the present day automatic handguns that, due to the magazines" high speed reload, stressed high heating power to rapidly fire large amounts of magic.

But, these two guns were cylinder magazines, a type of gun called revolvers, so to speak.

「Ya, …Yashiro-sa~n?」

In the first place, Magic Guns, aren"t things that fire bullets like the present day weapons do.
They either focus Maryoku into a Maryoku bullet to be fired or with high-speed, apply magic that uses cartridges engraved with magic symbols. One of these two.
The advantages of using magic due to Magic Guns are greatly divided into two.
First, is how it"s possible to fix the point of the magic"s activation in a "straight line".
For example, take the low rank magic that everyone knows, 『Fireball』.
This is a magic that fires a ball of fire from an arbitrary spot.
Beginning with Fireball, the many shooting type magic must have the pract.i.tioner accurately hypothesize the magic"s point of impact.

「Ya, Yashiro-san? ……Yaーshiーroーsaーn!
Are you listening~?」

Though you can be able to fire a magic bullet at a specific spot by means of a certain amount of training, to make a magic bullet hit at an even more precise spot, you"d need to have an innate spatial recognition ability.
Because it makes that impact point fixated in the line of fire, the Magic Gun makes magic sniping possible.
Also, even in regards to high-speed battle time, being able to fire without having to perform arrangements for the magic"s aria or hypothesizing the impact point is huge.

「……L, look~ Yashiro-san, here are some b.o.o.bs!
Fufu, I heard it from Mareeda-san. It seems that Yashiro-san is a pervy demon that loves b.o.o.bs, right~?
……I-if you stop ignoring me, though it"s only on top of the clothes…for a bit, only just for a bit, but………I-it"s alright if you touch them! ……Kya! For a Sister of all people to say that it"s alright to touch them, how embarra.s.sing!」

And then, second, just like with the above, since the aria is unneeded, with the so-called two-action of c.o.c.king the firing hammer and pulling the trigger that doesn’t need even a second to perform, it becomes possible to invoke the magic.

Possessing these two, you could say that Magic Guns should have been called something like a revolutionary technique for Mages, who were a.s.sumed to function originally as a battery.
The Mages’ weak points were that they needed to take heavy concentration for the aria and that they wouldn’t be able to invoke magic at point-blank range due to the self-inflicted damage that would occur.

The Magic Gun overcame these two weaknesses.

However, conversely, there are also major flaws with them.

Here’s the first one. Magic symbol engraved cartridges are normally disposable.
The reason why is in the cartridge that the magic symbol is engraved and invoked, a special metal is needed.
This is a metal that has high Maryoku conductivity, but although it does have high Maryoku conductivity, when the magic is invoked, since a radical metal fatigue occurs and makes it deteriorate, it only becomes usable once then the effect disappears.
And then, again for this reason, though obtaining that metal itself is easy, because it takes a lot of time to make, its price is also high.

And then, this.
Because it was made with a.s.sumption that it will be shooting type magic, it can"t be fitted with wide area type magic.
Maybe because the magic can"t stabilize, the concern was that although it was invoked, it would only end in a misfire and uselessly expend the cartridge. Furthermore, the shooting type magic also can "only" be fired on the straight line of fire.

With there being even more faults, and the faults overwhelmingly standing out more than the advantages, the "me" at the time gave up on its development.

And yet, why, was this made………Why, was the design changed to cylinder magazines……….

「……Yashiro-sa~n, I, I"ll cry, you know~? ……E~n, e~n[3], Yashiro-san is ignoring me! I"m so sad that the tears won"t stop!…………」

――――I see, so in exchange for cutting down the loading speed and the general number of bullets, he made the Maryoku bullet that was originally used as a restraint the main shaft and aimed for application of it!?

No, that"s not it. This is, while also adding a high offensive ability to the restraint itself, it"s the application of the super offensive specialization that is said to aim for magic sniping!!

If it"s this operating procedure, not many cartridges will be expended, and it"s also good economically! And all while doing that, the heating power limit was raised as a whole………ッ!

Now I get it, though it"s become something more peaky, if it were designed and revised under the a.s.sumption that a mage that possessed high technical skills would be using it……

……Is the guy that thought of this design a genius?

「……Gusu…Just what is the difference between my b.o.o.bs and Mareeda-san"s -no desu. Though it"s certainly true that the size is more or less different……Rather, mine have springiness, while Mareeda-san"s are drooping unsightl―――wait, ow!?」

「A" ahn? Whose b.o.o.bs were what?
Don"t think that your well-shaped b.o.o.bs on a disappointing Sister like you and Mareeda-san"s graceful enormous b.o.o.bs are on the same level.」

「P, putting aside the terrible ignoring of me, please don"t suddenly insult a person"s b.o.o.bs!
Th, though, technically, you were praising my b.o.o.bs……」

「Of course. I won"t lie about b.r.e.a.s.t.s that made me think they were beautiful!　By the way, Bernadette, could you show me one of those.」

「Misteltein and Failnaught, is it? ……Fufu~n, I won"t show it to the bullying Yashiro-sa~n. ……But, if you don"t ignore me anymore wait ahh! You took it by force!」

Jeez, so noisy.

There has never been an opponent that made me not feel guilt for insulting b.r.e.a.s.t.s up until now.
Rather, this is the first time I"ve insulted them. ……I"ll keep it secret that it made me feel slightly good.

「……As I thought. This cylinder magazine, abandoning its rapid fire nature while also raising their respective magic efficiency, it"s something meant to put Maryoku bullets as the main shaft. ……The barrel has also become longer than when I first hypothesized it…Was the purpose of this to lengthen the acceleration distance of the Maryoku bullet and elevate its power!?」

「Ig, ignoring Mode again, is it!? ……Hmph!」

「Ah, hey, give it back. I"m in the middle of investigating right now.」

「As if I"d give it back! Rather, it"s mine!」

Ah~, I ignored her too much and she became sulky.
Well, whatever, I"ve generally understood the Magic Gun"s composition.

Nevertheless, the person that designed this Magic Gun sure is amazing.
As I thought, they designed it focusing on reality more than me who did it only on knowledge.
Though there"s probably no change in that it"s as high-priced as before, just making it exist as a weapon with possible practical use, is something amazing.
I certainly would like to meet them……

「……As I thought, it can only be you.」

「Gyaaaaaa!?」

As I was thinking about my feelings for a great person I still hadn"t met, my shoulder was grabbed, and as I turned around to look……There was Doto-san!

「Please don"t startle me every time! I"m not good with the horror-type after all…」

「I-I"m terribly sorry. ……Um, Yuu Yashiro-san, wasn"t it?」

「Yes. I"m technically Yuu Yashiro……And, as if I"d let you!」

「Ham!?」

At the mouth of Bernadette, who pointed the muzzle with a condition reflex at me who once again named himself, I threw a lump of ham that probably was one kilogram. When I did, Bernadette, while being surprised by the ham that suddenly appeared in her mouth, got distracted by that deliciousness and lowered the gun.

……d.a.m.n, even though it hasn"t even been half a day since we"ve met, I"ve already established a way to deal with her!

「So, what do you mean by it can only be me?」

「Yes. ……Yashiro-san. By all means, could I have you become a Lizwadia special lecturer!?」

「…………Excuse me?」

And then, we return to the beginning.

As we enter inside the clock tower, it became a large hall.
Underfoot, the stone that looked like marble was beautifully polished and clicking footsteps resounded, and the ceiling had a height that even a dragon would have no problem flying.

At the center of that hall, I found a pillar that stretched to the heavens.

Close to the base of that pillar, something like a reception desk was established, and the receptionist was running a feather pen on some doc.u.ments.

「Uwah, it sure is amazing. It really doesn"t make you think it"s an establishment for an education inst.i.tution. Even when compared to a temple or a castle, its vastness is remarkably different.」

「……What did you come along for?」

I also leaked a voice of admiration at the clock tower"s structure, but, all of the words, all of them were taken by Bernadette who came along for some reason.

「What are you talking about, Yashiro-san! I came in order to watch over you so that your devilish hand doesn"t reach the students!」

Although she was able to misunderstand that I was a different Yuu Yashiro from the Preceding Hero, I totally didn"t foresee that this time she would follow after me for a different reason.

「Incidentally, what"s the real reason?」

「Yashiro-san. I want to eat dessert.」

「Your saying that even after eating all that, it"s still not enough!?」

Although Bernadette finally finished feasting on 40 peoples" worth of food (for lunch), even after having eaten all that, it seems she still desired dessert.

「Ah~…Only after this case is done, alright.」

「Really!? It"s a promise, okay!? Do you swear to G.o.d!?」

「Daaaah! Shut upppp!! If you don"t stay quiet, I won"t let you have dessert, got it!?」

「…………………………」

This girl, she"s so easy to handle…!

「Please wait for a bit.」

「Eh? ……Ah, yes.」

As we approached the pillar in the middle of the hall, Doto-san talked with the receptionist.

Delicately talking with a volume where I couldn"t hear the subject, Doto-san nodded and looked this way.

「This way.」

As we follow exactly as he said, we stood before the pillar.

「……This is a transferring formation, isn"t it.」

With the pillar at the center, despite the magic formation being directly engraved into the marble, Bernadette noticed it.

「H~n…so it"s just like an elevator………Wait, what are you talking all naturally for.」

Maybe already having forgotten the words of "if she didn"t stay quiet, there"d be no dessert", I turned and glared at Bernadette who had normally called out.
But, without any hesitation in her words, she scornfully laughed.

「I thought about it. A meal going up to dessert is standard……Therefore, Yashiro-san has the obligation to treat me up to dessert! ………Fuffu~n, it"s my complete win in this argument!」

「In that case, I"ll make it an absurdly shabby dessert. Like the dango grains of skewer dango.」

「Uwahn, I"m terribly sorry!」

Because she said it with a "How"s that"-face, since annoyance came to me, I lightly teased her.

「The preparations for the transference formation are done. Yashiro-san, Bernadette-san. Please get on.」

As we did as Doto-san said and got onto the transference formation, a light enveloped us.

Together with the end of the momentary floating feeling, the light also settled down.

「How nice of you to come, young ones! ……Hoho!」

What we saw was an old person whose size was about 50 cm sitting in a luxurious desk and,

「……You"re the rumored……No, the special lecturer Dotoragé-sensei recommended……」

a beauty with charmingly slanted eyes and wearing gla.s.ses.

Translator’s Notes:
[1] Pool as in betting pool.
[2] Had trouble translating this line: おっさんの振りに乗ったら怒られたでござる。
[3] Kind of a sound for crying.