The Strongest Gun Magus: I Cast Bullet!-Chapter 35: Spirit Armor Doesn’t Protect Spirits

Reynard went through familiar passes. Mana in his hands underwent a series of rapid transformations, burning and reforming a dozen times over to acquire spiritual properties.

Reynard’s eyes sparkled. He was close! Just a single day of training, and he already improved so much! The way this went, he would be done in a week.

But he had to be very careful with his mistakes, because a single wrong twitch could—

"Reynard!"

His fingers twitched.

The incomplete spell lost stability, and the spirit energy turned into a furious whirlwind.

At the last moment, Reynard released it in a random direction and jumped away.

The whirlwind flew forth, grabbing stray leaves and dirt from the ground. It hit a tree and shredded through its bark and wood with a hundred invisible knives, never dissipating until the tree began falling.

"Shit," Reynard breathed out as it hit the ground.

He took a deep breath and finally turned to Marien.

The girl looked like she had run here all the way from Blue Bismuth School without stopping. Her plump cheeks were flush with blood, and her chest was heaving (which made her robe stretch over it in a very pleasing way).

Marien blinked in shock at the fallen tree, then shook her head and scowled at Reynard. She pointed an accusing finger at him.

"Reynard, how dare you cheat on me?! How... How could you?!"

He blinked, thinking for a moment what Marien was even talking about.

Then he remembered.

’That woman?! This happened nowhere near Marien—oh, somebody must’ve told her. It’s peak gossip. And what do I do? Explain that she was just a hired distraction? No way, she was too hot! But Marien... She’s too cute! Damn, the life of a man is full of hard choices... Well, I don’t even know that other woman’s name, but it’s still a hard choice!’

"And why are you silent?" Marien asked, putting her hands on her hips. She squinted at Reynard. "You... You achieved the Albedo stage, ha! Do you think this just lets you do whatever you want with my heart? I thought you weren’t like the other guys!"

Reynard raised his hands in a prayer gesture.

"Marien, my songbird! Everything I said to you was true. But don’t you know? Men are people with the most love to go around. They have too much love for a single woman! That’s why rich people always have mistresses and sometimes even several wives. Don’t you know? Like, hm... Right! In more distant magic orders, I heard that’s normal for powerful magi!"

Marien gasped in affront. Her eyes teared up.

"But... But I deserve ALL the love! I... I am the precious princess!"

Reynard stepped forward, looking at her pleadingly.

"Trust me, I will give you all the love you ever need. You will always be in first place in my heart, just—"

"I heard enough! You... I knew you were too nice to be true!"

Before Reynard could realize what she was doing, she suddenly pulled a gun out of a pouch on her belt—the same gun she bought from him!—and aimed it at Reynard.

He froze, staring at the gun’s barrel with wide eyes.

"Reynard... I command you... To find a way to make me feel happy again," she ordered. "Otherwise... I will achieve it by taking my revenge on you!"

Then Marien sniffed and put the gun away again.

"Don’t speak with me until you find a way," she declared. "You have a month."

Reynard was still gaping at her as she stormed off. The girl’s energy didn’t diminish even a little during the entire time.

’What a mad woman,’ he thought, shakenly. ’Make her happy, damn it. And how am I supposed to do? Get a nice gift? I’m unsure if this would even be enough...’

He turned to the tree destroyed by his miscast and sighed.

’I guess the least I can do is to train my spells until I become harder to kill. Because I’m sure that everybody wants my death now!’

***

It took five more days for Reynard to be able to cast Spirit Armor, if barely. Unlike well-practiced combat spells, this one took him half a minute and still sometimes failed.

When it worked, an ethereal and transparent suit of plate armor would cover Reynard’s entire body. Only stopped fast-moving objects and energies, so it could be worn the entire day, even in a bath.

However, during this time, it would drain his circulating mana, reducing the amount he could use for active spellcasting to an absolutely miniscule. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

After a couple of Ice Bolts, Reynard would run out of circulating mana, then his Spirit Armor would just dissipate. If he didn’t cast magic, it could last for hours—casting the spell in the first place was the hardest part.

Still, he continued practicing to make sure his Spirit Armor was perfect.

’As long as I could use its protection in combat, I won’t need to care about lacking mana for other spells. Because I have guns!’

But Reynard’s plans were interrupted when he returned to his inn this evening. Terence was waiting for him in the tavern on the first floor. At the sight of Reynard, Terence immediately went up to him.

"Mister Artemy! You... Oh, you even stopped wearing your school uniform!" Terence gave Reynard’s casual (and stealthy) clothing a wide-eyed look. "But you can’t hide from the school forever, anyway. The teachers insisted that you come back for lessons! I was told that you have one day before you are punished for missing lessons, and three days before you get expelled. And your garden will be taken away."