After the consultation with Rosaria, Felix’s room was extraordinarily noisy for several days.
Light occasionally flickered through the cracks of the door, sounds of violent impacts echoed, and there were even sounds resembling explosions.
At this point, even the servants passing by Felix’s room realized that something unusual was happening.
However, too afraid to open the door, they either quickly lowered their heads and scurried past or pressed their ears to the door, curious about the commotion.
Magic, being a rare and extraordinary existence, was a symbol of fear for ordinary people but also a subject that sparked curiosity and fascination.
On the third day after Felix had firmly shut his door, the moment finally came.
“So… this is the finished product?”
Rosaria, who had been idly spending her time in her room, was suddenly dragged to a corner of the training ground by Felix.
Carefully, she accepted the object he handed her.
“A… gun?”
“It looks like a gun, doesn’t it?”
Tenet, who had also been killing time in boredom, followed the two and chimed in.
As Tenet pointed out, what Rosaria was holding looked very much like a long gun, one that could barely be gripped with both hands.
“A gun? It’s a magic staff!”
“If this is a magic staff, then I’m a wizard with a lollipop wand.”
The design, more rugged than a modern rifle, resembled a musket.
Despite Felix’s adamant claim that it was a magic staff, Rosaria coldly criticized it.
“This is a staff refined through countless improvements, designed for even those who can’t use magic! It’s lightweight because it’s made of wood! It uses a mana stone inscribed with magical formulas as its core, allowing anyone to fire magic without needing their own mana! A cutting-edge magical tool!”
“So, you just pull the trigger, and it fires?”
“That’s… amazing.”
“Could you listen to the explanation?!”
“I stopped following after the part about it being lightweight.”
As Felix passionately explained the intricacies of his creation, Rosaria and Tenet were more intrigued by its appearance.
Carved roughly out of wood, it looked more like a child’s toy gun whittled from chopsticks.
“Anyway, try using it.”
“This is the bullet, right?”
Felix sighed and handed Rosaria a small, elongated object that resembled a bullet.
Its surface was inscribed with numerous barely discernible magical formulas.
“This tiny medium contains three formulas! The tip holds a mana-infused core spell, the rear absorbs shock and provides propulsion to drive it forward, and the stabilization formula ensures everything works harmoniously. Do you know how groundbreaking it is to engrave these into such a small medium? Publishing this in a research paper would cause an uproar!”
“So, how do you load it?”
“…You insert it into the hole at the back of the staff.”
“Oh… here?”
As Rosaria examined the back of the staff near the bolt, she noticed a hole and slid the bullet inside.
“Well, I want to shoot it. Do we have a target?”
“A target? Not really. You could just shoot at a tree branch or something.”
“That doesn’t have the right vibe. Don’t we have some sort of humanoid, durable, and magic-resistant target for situations like this?”
“…? Why are you two suddenly looking at me?”
Rosaria and Felix, who had been fiddling with the staff, fell silent and turned their gazes toward Tenet.
Scratching her head, she tilted her head in confusion.
“This is too much! A practice target now?!”
“You can withstand a direct hit from an anti-tank shell without a scratch, so it’s fine!!!”
“It is perfect for testing the power!!!”
“This is just… wrong! It feels so wrong!!!”
Despite Tenet’s protests echoing across the training ground, Rosaria and Felix remained unbothered.
Humanoid?
Durable?
Magic-resistant?
The perfect target.
By this unshakable logic, Tenet became the ideal subject for testing Felix’s staff.
Witnessing this scene, others might have fainted in shock at the idea of using a dragon—considered nearly god-like—as a test subject for a new magical tool.
But for these three, it was business as usual.
To them, Tenet was firmly categorized as “indestructible, super strong, and an easy-to-handle younger sibling.”
Of course, while Tenet loudly protested, she didn’t truly hate it.
If she had, she could have flipped the Evergarden family estate—including the training ground itself—upside down.
But being too pure and kind-hearted, she found herself swayed as usual.
“Hah… It’s time to show the world the shooting skills of a Republic of Korea Army sergeant and a marksman who earned a four-day leave for perfect scores.”
Rosaria, gripping the magic staff (gun), settled into a standing shooting stance with a smirk.
Before arriving in this world, Rosaria had carried an K2 rifle throughout her military service.
Although she never earned special leave, her shooting skills had consistently earned her top marks in training and promotion exams.
Of course, her proficiency was limited to shooting. Her physical endurance often buckled under the weight of her gear (and PX snacks), leaving her struggling to pass promotion tests.
But in marksmanship, she was second to none among her peers.
“Well then…”
Steadying her breath, Rosaria adjusted her stance and prepared to fire.
“Okay! Ready!”
“…? Why aren’t you firing?”
Felix gestured for Rosaria to give it a try, but when she remained in her firing stance without pulling the trigger, he asked what she was doing.
“…This is why rookies are hopeless. Tsk.”
“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Ugh… Gas regulator: check! Front hinge indicator: check! Bolt locked back: check! Chamber clear: check! Bolt forward: check! Selector set to single-shot: check!”
“W-what?!”
Sighing deeply, as if she had expected this, Rosaria loudly recited the shooting checklist she’d repeated endlessly over her 18 months of service, acting out exaggerated motions as she did so.
Of course, Felix, who had never so much as touched a real gun before, tilted his head in confusion, wondering what on earth she was doing.
“Shooter ready! Commence firing!!”
With the final checks complete, Rosaria finally placed her finger on the trigger.
She exhaled deeply, releasing every bit of air left in her lungs, and then tightened her finger on the trigger.
And then—
BOOM!!!!!
“WAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!”
Flames erupted.
The mana stone bullet, reacting to the signal from the magic staff, exploded violently, shooting through the long barrel at an almost imperceptible speed, heading straight for Tenet’s forehead.
The bullet struck Tenet’s forehead, the tip crumpling on impact.
The intricate magic formulas engraved on it distorted, causing the mana within to go berserk.
The result was a massive magical explosion that shook the very ground, accompanied by a deafening roar.
It all happened just 0.74 seconds after Rosaria pulled the trigger.
“Wow. The destructive power is impressive. I see now—intentionally weakening the tip to cause structural failure really does make triggering explosions easier.”
“A-a-a… WHAT?! What was that?!! What just happened?!”
As the dust settled, Felix clapped in awe at the aftermath of the explosion, while Rosaria, frozen with her mouth agape, screamed in shock at what had just unfolded.
“I thought it was just a basic gun! What possessed you to make a portable cannon?! And—oh my god! The gun exploded!!!”
“Well, it is made of carved wood. Even with durability enchantments, there’s a limit. Definitely room for improvement.”
“Improvement?! Are you kidding me?! I almost died!!!”
The front end of the staff had completely shattered under the pressure of a single shot.
Realizing she had narrowly avoided being blown apart alongside the staff, Rosaria furiously berated Felix.
“But what about Tenet?! Is she okay after taking a hit like that?”
“She’s a dragon. She’ll be fine even if she gets hit a hundred or a thousand times with something like that.”
“Ke-cough…! Ugh… All this dust…”
“See? She’s fine.”
Indeed, just as Felix said, Tenet emerged through the thick dust cloud, coughing but unharmed.
“Tenet! You’re okay… Uh… I mean…”
Relieved, Rosaria rushed toward Tenet but stopped in her tracks.
She averted her eyes awkwardly.
While Tenet herself was unharmed, her clothes had completely disintegrated in the explosion, leaving her clutching her hands over critical areas with a deeply mortified expression.
“…Can someone please give me clothes?”
“…Does this happen often?”
“Well, yeah… pretty much.”
“I… I’m sorry. This is my fault for not raising my sibling better.”
“…Forget it! Just stop sneaking glances and give me some clothes already!!!”
And so, thanks to Felix’s magical tool experiment, the three of them had managed to create a five-meter-wide crater in the training ground, marking the site of a major incident.