Princess Celestia stepped up to the firing line and took her position.

Wow, I thought, momentarily caught off guard.

Holding that ostentatious golden rifle, Celestia looked entirely out of place, yet undeniably striking. The cold, untouchable Ice Princess wielding a heavy, gunpowder-based firearm was a bizarre contrast.

She regulated her breathing, her ice-blue eyes narrowing as she aimed down the sights. After a brief silence, she pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The recoil pushed her shoulder back slightly, but she held her ground. The golden flash pierced the target, hitting just an inch off the dead center.

Celestia lowered the smoking rifle, turning to me with a perfectly composed, yet undeniably smug expression. "Well? How was it? Did I hit it properly?"

I hated to admit it, but she was a natural.

"For a first shot? It’s excellent," I said honestly. "You actually have a talent for this."

A rare, triumphant smirk broke through Celestia’s usual icy facade. "Naturally. Did you truly expect an Aurelian royal to fail at something so simple, Cadet Lucien? I suppose you aren’t the only one who can handle these primitive weapons."

I just sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. Ever since Winterguard, she had completely dropped the unapproachable act around me, replacing it with this competitive, teasing edge.

Soft clapping broke my train of thought. Mariella was standing nearby, her eyes sparkling with pure awe as she clapped for Celestia. "Wow...!"

Meanwhile, Elisha smoothly approached me.

"Um, Cadet Lucien."

My body flinched instinctively, bracing for an argument, but... I forced myself to relax. Thanks to the incident in the Aethelgard ruins, the suffocating tension between me and the Ravenscroft heiress had eased significantly. I didn’t know if we’d ever actually be friends, but it wasn’t like the old days where we would just outright glare at each other.

"What is it, Cadet Elisha?" I asked neutrally.

"Well, a crossbow... it seems closer in principle to a gun than a traditional bow," Elisha began politely, gesturing toward the weapon racks. "If you’re not entirely busy, could you perhaps help Mariella? You’re already teaching marksmanship, so I thought..."

I looked past Elisha. Mariella was holding a heavy wooden crossbow with both hands, looking at me like a frightened rabbit.

Ugh. Even among the protagonist party, Mariella was unique. She had an incredibly likable personality, a powerhouse ducal background, and absolute, monstrous magical potential. But she was cripplingly timid. Asking me for help directly was probably equivalent to jumping off a cliff for her.

I was about to walk over to her to save her the trouble, but...

"U-Um!"

Mariella called out to me first. Trembling slightly, she took a few steps forward, squeezed her eyes shut, took a massive breath, and shouted, "C-Cadet Lucien! The c-crossbow! If it’s okay... please teach me how to use it!"

Her face was flushed completely red, and I could practically see steam rising from her head. She had just mustered a monumental amount of courage by her own standards.

"I primarily use firearms, so I’m not a master of archery," I said calmly. "But the trigger mechanics are similar enough. Hand it here. I’ll show you."

"W-Wow! Thank you!" Mariella’s eyes sparkled with immense relief as she quickly held out the crossbow.

Princess Celestia, watching from the side, nodded approvingly at her friend’s courage. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

I took the weapon, testing its weight.

[Sixth Sense (Lv. 3) instinctively calculates the optimal firing trajectory.] [Marksmanship (Lv. 7) partially applies to the trigger mechanism.]

It was surprising that the System’s firearm proficiency applied even slightly, but a trigger was a trigger.

"Watch closely," I instructed. "Crossbows are generally considered easier to master than standard bows, but they have major pros and cons. With a crossbow, you can store much more kinetic power than a traditional bowstring draw. But you don’t do it with just your arm strength."

I lowered the crossbow, placing my boot firmly into the metal stirrup at the front, and gripped the string with both hands.

"You use your core and your legs to lock it into place," I explained, pulling the heavy string up until it clicked into the firing catch. "It stores power using your whole body. That also removes the physical burden of holding the draw weight while you aim."

I lifted the crossbow, nestled it against my shoulder, and aimed. I pulled the heavy trigger.

Twang!

The heavy iron bolt shot out with lethal velocity, embedding itself directly into the bullseye of the target with a loud thud.

"Wow," Mariella gasped.

Elisha, however, was watching with a critical, tactical eye. "The stopping power is impressive, but reloading looks incredibly taxing. There is almost no rapid-fire capability in a live combat scenario."

"Correct," I nodded, unhooking the crossbow from my shoulder. "If you miss your first shot against a fast-moving monster, you will be torn apart before you can notch a second bolt."

I walked over and hung the crossbow back on the weapon rack.

"To be completely honest, Mariella," I said flatly. "There’s no real reason for you to use it. It’s too slow for a vanguard, and too clunky for a backline mage."

"W-Well, actually..." Elisha hesitated, looking sympathetically at her friend.

Mariella gripped her skirt, looking down at her boots. "T-Then, what weapon would be good for me? I... my magical control is still so unstable. Even if I can’t use my spells properly right now, I at least don’t want to be a burden to my friends in the dungeons..."

That’s when I finally understood why she suddenly wanted to learn a physical ranged weapon.

Just as I was running around the continent bleeding to prevent the apocalypse, the protagonist party was desperately trying to improve in their own way.

"I don’t want to hold them back," Mariella whispered, her voice wavering.

I looked at her bowed head. For all her frustrating timidity, her mindset was admirable. She was the most invisible member of their elite party, constantly overshadowed by Kael’s sword, Celestia’s ice, and Elisha’s arrows. But she had the courage to try and fix her own weaknesses.

"No one here thinks you’re a burden," I said, my voice losing its usual cynical edge. "Look at Elisha and Celestia. They clearly value you. Your intentions are admirable, Cadet Mariella. But... a heavy crossbow isn’t the answer. It doesn’t suit your build or your reaction time."

I scoured the neglected, dusty section of the Academy’s weapon rack. Finally, I found what I was looking for. A small, abandoned projectile weapon.

"This would be better."

I picked up the rusted, unremarkable weapon. It was a standard, mass-produced six-shot revolver. The Academy kept a few for theoretical classes, but no noble actually used them.

"It’s good for close-quarters self-defense," I said.

I channeled a pulse of raw mana through the metal. The rust flaked off instantly, and the internal mechanisms clicked into place, using my mana as a temporary lubricant. I flicked the cylinder open, loaded six standard mana-rounds, and snapped it shut with a satisfying click.

"Watch closely."

I holstered the revolver at my waist. I took a breath, then flawlessly executed a quick-draw.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Six consecutive shots rang out in less than two seconds, tearing a tight, lethal cluster into the target’s chest. The hammer clicked on an empty chamber.

Without missing a beat, I flicked the cylinder open, dumped the smoking brass casings onto the floor, and rapidly fed six new rounds into the chambers. I snapped it shut and fired six more shots in a blindingly fast succession.

When the deafening gunfire finally stopped, absolute silence fell over the training range. The rapid, brutal display of firepower had drawn the attention of every cadet in the facility.

I blew on the smoking barrel, watching the blue smoke dissipate.

"It’s this easy to operate," I said smoothly.

I flipped the revolver around and handed it to Mariella grip-first. She received it politely with both trembling hands, staring at the weapon like it was a sacred artifact.

"T-Thank you," she breathed.

A cool breeze blew through the open range, sweeping away the harsh smell of ignited mana powder.

Elisha stared at the target, completely riddled with holes, and then looked back at me.

"Um, Cadet Lucien," Elisha asked, her tone carrying genuine academic curiosity. "You said this pistol is for self-defense. But how is it fundamentally different from the long rifle you always carry?"

At this point, I could have given her a long, technical lecture on barrel length, muzzle velocity, and rifling. But I had already explained too much today.

So, I kept it simple.

"Farther," I said, gesturing to my Winchester.

"Stronger."

I looked Elisha dead in the eye, dropping the polite instructor facade and letting the cold pragmatism of a sniper bleed through.

"It shoots bullets meant to completely obliterate enemies before they even know I’m there."