The Protagonist’s Party is Too Diligent – 29
EP.29 First Impressions (4)
No matter how many times I reset the time, the feeling of embarrassment didn’t disappear immediately. It might vanish from the memories of others, but it didn’t disappear from mine.
Well, whatever.
At least I realized firsthand that Claire was serious about this.
Since I hadn’t revealed my identity, it seemed Claire wanted to figure it out for herself. That bright smile on her face made it all obvious. She must have been startled when I was knocked down earlier for the same reason.
The time Claire and I spent together wasn’t that long. But the memory of someone who treated her warmly during her most difficult times must had left a strong impression.
On top of that, in young Claire’s perspective, I probably seemed like someone with extraordinary abilities. It was as if I knew the future, moving the children around to bring them to the baron’s house.
Honestly, I considered hiding my identity a little longer. Not because of any grand reason, but just because I wanted to maintain the character I’d built. After all, it would be a shame to let it crumble after ten years of effort. But if I manage to dodge Claire’s attacks and defeat her here, she would realize that I was ‘Sylvia Black’ all along.
…That wouldn’t be so bad, actually.
A reunion between older sister and younger sibling, proven through skill. It would make for a great scene in a Japanese manga-style story, wouldn’t it?
“……”
I slung my rifle onto my back and drew my revolver. I hooked my finger around the trigger. Since the Wexler revolver was double-action, there was no need to cock the hammer back.
“Alright then!”
Jennifer’s voice rang out once more.
“Begin!”
As soon as Jennifer shouted, Claire raised her sword above her head again—
But this time, I had a different weapon, so the situation didn’t unfold exactly as it had before.
Instead of dodging Claire’s movement, I extended my arm straight toward her.
Click.
When I pulled the trigger, the hammer of the gun snapped back and then snapped forward. There was a slight recoil due to the movement, but that was all. Without any gunpowder in the chamber, there was no force pushing the gun back.
“Missed!”
Jennifer declared.
The moment I extended my arm, Claire had already twisted her body sideways, moving out of the line of fire. She might not be able to see the future like I could, but she must have seen my arm lifting. Dodging a bullet was impossible. But adjusting her stance in anticipation of the shot was feasible.
In the turn-based combat of the original game, it was as simple as walking up and hitting your opponent, but in reality, that kind of approach wouldn’t work. To face an opponent with a gun while wielding a sword, you’d need this level of speed.
To my right—Claire’s left—she twisted her body sideways as she moved. Even the way she gripped her sword had changed, holding it in a position where the flat of the blade almost seemed to shield her face. She probably wasn’t trying to block a bullet, but rather trying to maintain her form as she turned with all her strength.
I swung my arm to follow Claire, but before I could aim the gun at her, she was already swinging her sword. It wasn’t that my arm was slow—Claire’s next move was simply faster than my reaction time. The distance was too short for her to hit me with the sword. In fact, her diagonal slash missed my body.
But half a beat later…
“Ugh…!”
A sharp impact slammed into my right shoulder, as if something struck down hard.
I dropped the revolver from my hand.
Again.
*
Right after I pulled the trigger the first time, Claire had returned to her earlier stance, but before she could swing her sword downward again, I moved first.
Half a step to the left.
As I moved to the left while aiming at Claire, the sword energy struck the ground belatedly, scattering the sand.
Click.
“Missed!”
Her voice sounded a bit too excited.
This time, I had been too hasty. While the revolver allowed for faster aiming with its shorter barrel, any extra distance made the shot go wide. And when you were moving wildly and holding the gun with just one hand, it only got worse.
Before I could pull the trigger again, Claire shifted to the left.
Click.
The revolver made an empty sound. Jennifer didn’t even bother announcing it this time. It was too obvious that I had missed. And now, Claire raised her sword above her head with both hands.
Swish!
With a whoosh, the sword came down at a frightening speed.
Once again, it wasn’t close enough to hit me, but the sword energy followed, kicking up dirt from the ground.
And this time, I couldn’t dodge the sword energy.
Again.
*
I think I was starting to understand. Claire’s sword energy followed her sword like a whip, but it didn’t move as freely as the whip sword from the game. Compared to the “snake-like” movements in the game, Claire’s sword energy was too straightforward.
Was it because of the nature of the sword energy? Or maybe her skills weren’t fully honed yet? Either way, it worked to my advantage.
Though I had to admit, dealing with a two-hit combo was still annoying.
…Alright, I’ve made up my mind.
Next time, I would prepare a shorter shotgun. In a battlefield where people were swinging around swords like that, having more options was always better—unless it was an assassination mission.
For now, all I had was the revolver.
I aimed the gun at Claire again, sidestepping to the left. This time, I used my other hand to steady the one holding the revolver. I aimed at Claire once more, but just like before, she shifted her body to the left from my perspective.
In this world, there were machine guns. One of the most famous methods to counter them was to run in a zigzag pattern, making it harder for the shooter to predict the next move and increasing the chances of the bullets missing. Of course, dodging bullets with just one’s body required extreme physical abilities.
However, I wasn’t wielding a machine gun or a submachine gun right now—I had a revolver. While it could fire rapidly, the double-action revolver had a high trigger pull weight, making quick successive shots difficult. Moreover, Claire wasn’t just swinging her sword; she also had the long-range attack of her sword energy.
Alright.
Again.
*
Claire’s feet moved. I hadn’t noticed before, but after resetting time a few times, I started to catch her movements. Claire was preparing to shift to her right, which meant to my left. A subtle, split-second movement, too small to see in the heat of battle.
But just like a frame that flashes by too quickly in a video, if you watched it enough times, it became clear. I didn’t have the skill to precisely aim based on such a tiny difference in movement in real-time. But that didn’t matter.
With one shot, I could try again a hundred or even a thousand times. I turned the barrel to the left and pulled the trigger.
“Missed!”
Again.
*
Click.
“Stop! Claire Grace loses!”
Jennifer, who had been carefully watching both of them, declared the outcome. The other two teams had both used swords, so Jennifer didn’t need to intervene as much—the students could judge the fight themselves. Not that she wasn’t paying attention, though.
It was rare for nobles to handle guns.
After all, guns were often regarded as weapons anyone could use. Unlike cold weapons, which required years of training to master, firearms took relatively little time to learn. A soldier could be trained in as little as three months to fight effectively on the battlefield.
But still, a weapon is a weapon.
Once you start training, there was no end to mastering it. Estimating the paths needed to strike distant targets that were typically difficult to hit, rapidly aiming in close combat to overpower the enemy, and even using the gun itself to defend oneself was part of mastering firearms.
However, soldiers who use firearms typically hone their skills not under excellent teachers but by rolling through real battles. It was difficult to simulate true combat with firearms in training. For instance, the gun that the princess had been using wasn’t even loaded with gunpowder, and the feel of firing it would have been different from using a real weapon.
Survival breeds strength. This applied to all soldiers who have experienced battle… but a fifteen-year-old girl? Was she a talent worthy of being deployed to the North? Or perhaps she had already been forced to wield that weapon and fight for her life before?
Moreover, there was something strange about Sylvia’s movements. It seemed as if Sylvia knew in advance how Claire would swing her sword and move her body. When Claire tried to strike down with her sword, Sylvia was already extending her hand to aim at Claire, and when Claire brought the sword down, Sylvia calmly stepped aside to avoid it.
And…
While the one aiming the gun might think differently, at least from Jennifer’s perspective, Sylvia was already turning the gun in the direction Claire would dodge.
And she fired at the moment Claire moved diagonally.
Unlike the other students, who were engaged in fierce, drawn-out sword clashes, their duel ended in an instant. That didn’t mean their duel seemed easy, though.
“Hmm.”
Jennifer wondered if it was truly in the Empire’s best interest for Sylvia to have come to the academy instead of heading north to the battlefield.
It piqued her curiosity.
*
There was no physical exhaustion and no pain either. Mentally, I was a little drained, but even including the resetting time, it hadn’t taken that long.
Still, the sensation of being hit wasn’t something I enjoyed. If it hadn’t been Claire, I would’ve felt much worse about it.
As I was putting the revolver back in its holster, Claire approached me.
Despite having lost, her face was lit up with a bright, beaming smile. It was a lively, energetic smile. The only time I had seen her smile like that in the game was once, at the very end. And at that time, the ‘sister’ she was smiling at wasn’t me, but Alice.
From behind us, I heard the clashing of two wooden swords. Alice and Charlotte’s sparring match wasn’t over yet.
Thud, thud.
Claire reached me and extended her hand, as if offering a handshake.
“…”
I looked at her hand for a moment, then slowly extended mine and grasped it lightly. However, I was the only one holding lightly but Claire gripped my hand tightly. Then she pulled me toward her. I didn’t think it was an unexpected attack, since I had somewhat expected something like this. I didn’t lose my balance because I had anticipated this situation. As I was gently pulled closer, Claire looked directly into my eyes and spoke.
“Sister.”
Her voice was steady.
“You’re my sister, right?”
Her eyes were already filled with certainty.
…Well.
I had anticipated this anyway. If it were Claire, she would think that cleanly winning against her would prove that I was that Sylvia Black. That was why she had been so startled when I took her hit.
“You’re quite confident, aren’t you?”
I said that, but the smiling expression on Claire’s face didn’t change at all.
“Of course. I knew you would dodge just like that, just like you did back then.”
The time Claire and I had known each other was very short. And in truth, that foresight-like ability I had displayed… while the principle was the same, it was fundamentally different. Now, I was using it in short bursts to dodge each attack, whereas back then, I had used it to avoid an immediate threat.
“Those people back then were definitely part of a human trafficking ring.”
The fact that only one victim had been reported when the orphanage burned down had been a mystery even at the time. Honestly, while we had escaped in broad daylight, the fire had spread to nearby buildings, causing chaos with reports pouring in from everywhere.
The children had vanished without a trace, only to reappear at House Grace the next morning. It would’ve been more surprising if the Baron and Baroness Grace hadn’t noticed something was off.
“…Did you find that human trafficking ring?”
I asked.
The trafficking deals happening in the Count’s mansion were separate from what had been going on at that orphanage. If I had ever found that man with the monocle, I would’ve shot him on the spot. He might not remember, but I was beaten unconscious by him. I was thinking that many other children must’ve died from his fists. The term that he called a ‘processing.’
If it had been Claire, would they have beaten her just enough to keep her alive? Or could it have something to do with that resurrection ritual mentioned in the game’s lore? Maybe she had just been lucky enough to avoid being sold off to some necrophiliac pedophile.
After I revealed my identity, Claire’s expression stiffened slightly. She shook her head in response to my question.
I see.
Though I hadn’t encountered this particular figure in the original story, that didn’t guarantee he wasn’t important. Perhaps he was meant to appear in a future sequel. If he was still alive, he might have become a major player by now.
“…”
I glanced around. There were quite a few eyes on us. The students were staring with curiosity since our duel had ended first, and Jennifer’s gaze still lingered on us as well.
“Claire.”
“Yes, sister.”
“…Call me Sylvia here.”
I said, revealing my identity once more. Claire’s eyes widened in surprise before she nodded vigorously.
“Information should not be revealed carelessly. You never know how it might be used.”
“Got it.”
Claire said, nodding obediently, her expression reminiscent of a well-behaved child.
She didn’t look anything like the scruffy orphan from back then anymore. Her hair was neatly styled, and she wore much better clothing—though the academy uniform was military-like in design.
At the very least, she no longer appeared like a ‘child with nothing.’
“…”
“…”
Hmm.
Even though our conversation had ended, Claire still hadn’t let go of my hand.
It would be nice if she could let go first, so we could continue the conversation more comfortably.