Plundering Worlds: I Have a Shotgun in a Fantasy World - Chapter 35: After the Kill

I am Master Siwei, and I speak for arcane arts.
This is an era of heroes and heroines.
This is an era of great changes.
In the end, it will be an arcane era opened by me.

- Description from Novelupdates

The Principality of Atall lies between two great powers: the Kingdom of Allion to the west, and the Holy Dytiann Alliance to the east. Leo Attiel, the second-born prince, was sent to Allion as little more than a hostage, where he studied and trained in the military arts under a frontier general. And now, the times have reached a turning point.

Relations between Allion and Conscon Temple, a neutral land adjoining Atall, have worsened. Percy, sent from Atall as reinforcement; Camus, a warrior monk; and Kuon, a mercenary from a remote region, join forces to resist the looming threat of Allion’s army.

At the centre of the fighting, the three of them and Leo are about to have their fated encounter.

A thousand years have passed since the Variants first appeared from the Rifts. God answered the prayers of the human race and gave them a chance to fight back.He bestowed special marks called crests upon twelve who were worthy, granting them unfathomable power to fend off the wave of attacks.Well… that's what the church wants us to think.Man, being man, found a way. And in the present day, large numbers of the population have crests, and those that don't are treated as second-rate.This was the case with Marcus, who spent most of his life doing odd jobs—until one of those jobs led to his demise.At the hands of whom??The son of a major crest-bearing house.Marcus is reincarnated into the body of his killer and soon finds that despite being from a major house, the boy did not have a crest.At least, not one that was bestowed upon him by God.

He was a simple man in his past life – a masseuse, not a hero. His hands were trained to heal pain, not cause it. But when fate dragged him into another world, those same hands became the only thing keeping him alive.Unlike the chosen ones who gain holy blessings or unrivaled power, he has nothing but skill, wit, and stubbornness. He doesn’t seek glory, nor does he dream of leaving his name in history.But the world has other plans.A kingdom built on lies. Families fighting for power in the shadows. Betrayals hidden behind smiles. And he? He’s caught in the middle, forced to navigate schemes that could devour him whole.He isn’t the strongest. He isn’t the bravest. But sometimes, the man who doesn’t want the spotlight… is the one who survives it.________I get this alot so I'm going to clarify:This is not a smut novel, there will be romantic scenes but not as pronounced.