Despite the losses Madoc's private security forces had suffered, there was still a small army of rcenaries 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 mont.
Even if soone 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 mont, a polite cough interrupted them.
The Other Mordret seed to linger behind, failing to follow them.
Sunny glanced at him with a frown.
“What are you doing? There's no ti 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 an to presu. But I could not help but wonder..." He pointed down. "Why don't you just take their guns?"
Sunny blinked a few tis.
‘What is he..."
Then, he blinked a few more tis and looked down with an unreadable expression.
The battlents were covered in bloody puddles and dead rcenaries. Each of those rcenaries... 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 mories — and mories 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 sa."
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.’
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 hamr. How do I load it, and how does it fire?"
Morgan closed her eyes for a mont, 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 tal from them.
“These are semi-automatic pistols, not revolvers — the chanism is a bit different, but the end result is the sa. 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 enforcent 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 sa, too... gunpowder still rules mundane battlefields.’
Sunny glanced at the pistol in his hand silently.
fingerprint glanced detected but not swapped
"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 so 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 et 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 — ti seed to slow down as he saw half a dozen henchn hiding overturned tables, aid his gun as best he could, and pulled the trigger.
Bullets tore through the air, missing him by re centiters. At the sa ti, display cases behind the rcenaries 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 tis. This ti, his aim was much better — one of the rcenaries 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 doorfra.
The ambush at the entrance hall was annihilated in a matter of monts.
fingerprint monts detected but not swapped
But...
There were nurous halls in the great castle, and nurous narrow corridors.
fingerprint nurous detected but not swapped
fingerprint nurous detected but not swapped
If they had to fight their way though each one, soone was going to be hit by a stray bullet sooner or later.
There was a muffled roar from sowhere down below, and the entire fortress shook. Saint was still pursuing the retreating rcenaries, it seed.
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."
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