Shadow Slave

Despite the losses Madoc’s private security forces had suffered, there was still a small army of mercenaries left in the Castle. It did not matter much that the outer wall had been breached — the main keep itself was designed with defense in mind, so carving a path to Madoc was not going to be easy. Especially with how low Sunny and his companions were running on bullets.

‘See? One more reason why a sword is a superior weapon — the only thing you can run out of when using a sword is enemies to kill...”

If one was Awakened, naturally.

Sadly, Sunny wasn’t Awakened at the moment.

Even if someone presented him with a sword right now, he would not be too happy. After all, even he was not mad enough to bring a sword to a gunfight.

So, he was a little troubled.

They made a move to rush toward the main keep, but at that moment, a polite cough interrupted them.

The Other Mordret seemed to linger behind, failing to follow them.

Sunny glanced at him with a frown.

“What are you doing? There’s no time to waste.”

Mordret looked between him, Effie, and Morgan with an awkward expression, then opened his mouth hesitantly.

“I am terribly sorry, and I don’t mean to presume. But I could not help but wonder...” He pointed down. ”Why don’t you just take their guns?”

Sunny blinked a few times.

‘What is he...”

Then, he blinked a few more times and looked down with an unreadable expression.

The battlements were covered in bloody puddles and dead mercenaries. Each of those mercenaries... had wielded a gun. Those guns were now littering the scene of carnage, soaking in the rain.

Why had they not thought of picking them up, indeed?

Sunny suppressed the desire to palm his face.

‘It’s the lack of sleep...’

Morgan answered for him:

“It’s because we’re Awakened.’

Sunny looked at her with surprise. Noticing his expression, she shrugged.

“Everyone has subconscious biases. For Awakened, weapons are synonymous with Memories — and Memories disappear when their master dies. So, no one would think to pick up a slain enemy’s weapon. This behavioral pattern is so ingrained in us that we don’t usually entertain such thoughts... the situation might have changed, but our biases remain the same.”

Sunny studied her with a dubious expression for a few seconds.

”You’re just saying a lot of big words to hide the fact that you are embarrassed too, aren’t you?”

Not expecting a response, he turned to the Other Mordret.

“To answer your question, it’s because this one is in the habit of using wooden doors as weapons, this one is still coming off an entire cocktail of powerful tranquilizers... and I hate guns.’ ＲÂΝồ𐌱Ës̈

He looked down.

“Ah, but even though I detest them, I guess I’ll make an exception just this once.’

With that, he leaned down and picked up a pistol... then stared at it in confusion.

‘Huh!

Sunny looked at Effie and Morgan sheepishly.

”Uh... this one doesn’t have a drum? Or a hammer. How do I load it, and how does it fire?”

Morgan closed her eyes for a moment, then leaned down to pick up a gun of her own. She also searched the nearest few bodies and retrieved a few thin rectangular pieces of metal from them.

“These are semi-automatic pistols, not revolvers — the mechanism is a bit different, but the end result is the same. And these are magazines. You load them into the handle, like this.”

Sunny stared.

“How do you know all this?”

Morgan looked at him with a peculiar expression.

“Because traditional firearms are still widely used in the modern day? These are still standard issue for most mundane soldiers and law enforcement officers. Even elite units equipped with magnetic mass drivers like the Gauss rifle still keep a semi-automatic pistol as sidearms, due to how reliable they are. The design is almost entirely the same, too... gunpowder still rules mundane battlefields.’

Sunny glanced at the pistol in his hand silently.

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”Wait...”

So these ”primitive, archaic weapons”... weren’t archaic at all? They were still being used in the real world?

Suddenly, he felt like a complete fool.

‘No, how was I supposed to know? It wasn’t like I was assigned to a regular unit in the Evacuation Army. And the thugs in the outskirts never used this type of gun, either!’

“Let’s... get some magazines, then.’

They were already lagging behind Mordret and Saint. So, they needed to hurry.

They rushed across the outer wall and entered the aerial bridge connecting it to the main keep. The bridge had been raised by the workers renovating the Castle and was quite treacherous, especially in the pouring rain — nevertheless, they reached the door leading into the keep safely.

Any pretense of safety went out of the window the second they entered it, however.

Knowing that a squall of bullets would meet them inside, Sunny broke into a run and dove into the open door at full speed. He opened fire while still flying through the air — time seemed to slow down as he saw half a dozen henchmen hiding overturned tables, aimed his gun as best he could, and pulled the trigger.

Bullets tore through the air, missing him by mere centimeters. At the same time, display cases behind the mercenaries exploded into glass shards as his own bullets hit the wall. Sunny landed in a roll and dashed toward a pile of construction materials, sliding behind it while shooting several more times. This time, his aim was much better — one of the mercenaries let out a pained scream and fell to the floor, clutching his shoulder. More importantly, Sunny’s explosive entrance gave Effie and Morgan an opportunity to open fire at the distracted enemies from the doorframe.

The ambush at the entrance hall was annihilated in a matter of moments.

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But...

There were numerous halls in the great castle, and numerous narrow corridors.

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fingerprint numerous detected but not swapped

If they had to fight their way though each one, someone was going to be hit by a stray bullet sooner or later.

There was a muffled roar from somewhere down below, and the entire fortress shook. Saint was still pursuing the retreating mercenaries, it seemed.

Sliding a new magazine into her scavenged pistol, Effie gave Sunny a questioning look. “Where to now?”

He looked at the next door darkly.

“To the throne room.”