The Strongest Gun Magus: I Cast Bullet!-Chapter 71: He Started It!

The explosion shook the ice vines, and the entire spell shattered. The blast hit Marien’s Spirit Armor next, breaking it into pieces and mana.

Torn free, Marien flew back and hit the ground hard. Her face was burnt red, her clothes were smoking, and there was going to be a huge bruise on her back.

The spectators gaped in shock.

"She exploded herself!" someone shouted.

"I saw it—she used a treasure!" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"What a mad girl..."

"Ha-ha, she isn’t done yet, you snowflakes! Show them, Julia!"

"Finish her, Kunrad!"

Marien gasped for breath as she pulled herself up. The spectators were more agitated than ever.

At this moment, Kunrad shook off his surprise and began casting another spell. Although his previous spell had just been destroyed, and it was more powerful than anything Marien herself could cast, the Final Cycle Albedo magus still had enough mana to continue fighting.

Contrary to him, Marien was nearly depleted. After her Spirit Armor broke, she had only enough mana for one or two of the most basic spells. This would soon change, but for now...

She knew she was beat.

Her face and hands were burned heavily, and just moving her fingers was terribly painful.

Marien’s hands still twitched as she thought about going for a gun waiting in her other pocket, but she knew it wouldn’t win her this fight.

The lightning she threw at Kunrad earlier barely left a scratch on him, after all.

So instead she turned around and ran!

"Hey! Don’t just escape!" someone from the Order of Snow shouted, trying to block her way.

But there weren’t enough spectators to bar Marien’s path, and people from the Order of Winter moved to let her pass.

"Get back, insolent wench!" Kunrad shouted, releasing a volley of ice shards at Marien.

Whoosh!

She jumped to the side, dodging them by the sound. The shards almost hit a spectator, who jumped away with an angry shout.

"Watch where you are casting this! Were you trying to kill me, snowflake?!"

"Then don’t stand in our way! We will catch her, winter worm!"

A shouting match began behind Marien’s back, soon erupting into a small scuffle as magi from both sides began throwing the first spells. Kunrad was shouting some more, but he couldn’t catch up with Marien at this point.

Soon, she hid in the labyrinth of Darland’s narrow streets and alleyways. By this point, the day was getting closer to evening.

Panting heavily, Marien leaned on a wall of an empty alleyway and grinned to herself.

Her entire body was hurting, and her pride was stinging even more than her burns... But her Inner Athanor was brimming with Fire Mana.

The flame of conflict! A battle against an opponent stronger than you! The risk and the rush! The pure danger of it all!

The entire fight, they were going into Marien’s Inner Athanor, fueling her future advancement.

She knew that Kunrad got some Fire Mana from this fight, too. He must’ve had a weak Fire Affinity. But for him, the risks were smaller, and he was farther away from the danger.

Marien drank a life-strengthening potion from a vial, but felt very little relief. This cheap stuff was like a droplet in an ocean of her own aura.

She pouted a little and went to seek Reynard. He always had a salve for burns on hand. And he also could kiss her boo-boos away.

***

Reynard felt Marien’s aura at the door a moment before it burst open. There was just enough time to think that the aura felt a bit more torn than usual, and to turn toward the door. Then...

"Oh my god, what happened to you, M—my love?!"

Reynard dropped the pieces of metal he was working with and went to the red-faced Marien.

She looked like something exploded in her face. Soot was covering her clothes and skin, blisters were swelling over red burns, and her eyebrows were gone.

Marien walked in and made a pitiful expression.

"Sweetheart, it’s all those dung-heads from the Order of Snow! One of them just won’t leave me alone. But I showed him! He thought he won, and he didn’t! But don’t just stand here, I need healing! And a mirror."

Reynard already pulled out a healing salve, clean water, gauze, and some bandages. He led Marien to a single wooden stool in the workshop, sat her there, and began carefully cleaning her burns.

The girl sighed in satisfaction and smiled at him.

"Thank you! Your hands have such a soft touch. Better than any healer I got to!"

She twitched when Reynard dabbed her burns with wet gauze to clean them.

"What happened?" Reynard asked, puzzled. "Did you win, after all? I thought most local magi don’t use fire spells in combat. At least... None that can do something like that."

"It was an injustice!" Marien whined. "This bully was a Final Cycle Albedo, but he still took a fight with me. He was so sure he would crush me easily, but he didn’t know me!"

Knowing her, Reynard translated her words in his head as: "I knew that this magus was stronger than me, but I still picked a fight with him because I don’t think ahead too well. And because I thought I could win."

He sighed.

"My princess, you have to be more careful... This isn’t Blue Bismuth School, where your grandfather was protecting you. You weren’t picking fights over your own stage before, don’t change that, please! And now you just barged into my workshop without even putting on a hood. That’s very uncareful..."

Marien looked up at him with pitiful and wet blue eyes.

"But he started it! Oh, by the way... I have a gift for you! It’s something special that you would have missed if I didn’t fight for it with my life! And... Gods and Loremasters, I’m so hungry. Give me my Scroll of Holding, please."

Puzzled, Reynard complied and watched Marien carefully unseal a pair of...

"Huh? Are those cakes?"

Marien proudly presented him with one. They were cold.

"My beautiful, fierce, wind-headed princess... Did you start a fight with a Final Cycle Albedo magus because of a cake?!"