After the gun had gone off it took mere seconds for it to hits mark. Lena didn't know what to say however once she had seen where it hit. Samuel was being quiet as well, but more so because he had already expected this outcome.
Despite the fact that the princess had been helping him to stay steady as he fired the gun and fixed his position for him, he had still somehow managed to hit far off from the center point she was aiming at. The aim was so far off it had almost completely missed the target and only barely grazed it instead.
Without saying much to him, she loaded the gun and made him go through the process two more times to make sure the first time wasn't a fluke because of a last minute change right before the gun went off. However, both times the result ended up being the same with little improvement in accuracy even though he had been trying to relax more.
Taking into consideration the fact that he knew how to play paintball, she had assumed even though a paintball gun and a handgun were the same thing that he would at least have developed some type of accuracy even if it wasn't the best to work with, but this made it seem as though he had almost none whatsoever.
"This is not the outcome that I was expecting. Lena finally murmured as she released his arm and moved away from him.
"Well this is my first time handling a gun as I told you before and I don't really understand that well how I am supposed to aim or fix my breathing the way you." Samuel replied as he turned to face the other. Keeping the gun pointed down for safety even though he knew it was empty, he held it out to take back.
"I know that already, but generally when a novice has someone help them to line up and aim, they can at least hit a center mass point, not instead almost completely miss the target." She replied feeling annoyed at the situation. Partly because she hadn't expected him to be that bad and partly because she felt like there was something she must've been doing wrong that caused him to have missed by so much.
"You're honestly terrible at this. It's only your first time shooting and I'm sure the difference in our size doesn't help that factor, but your ability to aim is horrible." She ran a hand through her hair as she spoke. It was hard to not let the frustration that she was feeling bubble over since it wasn't even Samuel's fault.
"I am sure that it is something with a little bit of practice that I can fix. I understand what you said before about me needing to learn how to protect myself, but I am sure that I still have some time to at least get the basics of it." She turned and faced him with a raised eyebrow.
"You do understand that this is something that can take a fair amount of time to fix depending on why you're aim is bad. It's evident that you're nervous about handling a gun and would prefer not to touch it which affects your breathing and how rigid your body is, but even with practice if you can't get over your nervousness at handling a gun, you're going to miss more often than not still." She explained trying to get him to understand that the problem was not as simple as he was making it out to be.
"Also, we're going to be apart for the next two weeks before the engagement. Even after that, I'm not going to have the time to help you practice this except for on the days I will be coming here myself. Sure there are other people you could ask, but that isn't a guarantee that the problem can be fixed. I'm talking about you need weeks of constant practice." Samuel frowned when she said this, he didn't want her to reject him over something so small since it was his first time firing a gun.
"How did you survive playing paintball with your aim?" the princess asked after a few seconds, crossing arms over her chest.
"My record in playing paintball isn't that greatly actually. Usually unless I was playing with Roger, the team I was on lost because we tended to miss a lot or not move quickly enough. I could still hit targets but it was usually when I was able to focus, not when the game began to get intense." Samuel replied. Even though he hadn't been the greatest at paintball, he still enjoyed playing it with his friends whenever they got the chance.
"Practice when we're away then. Not with an actual gun I mean. I don't think it would be safe for you to do that with how nervous you're around them, but I mean with playing paintball. It won't help that much due to the difference in size of the gun between what you're aiming this time and a paintball gun, but if you work on focusing to be able to hit your targets rather than letting your nerves get ahead of you, it'll help a little bit." Lena told him with a sigh. There were some suggestions that Clive wanted to make about the situation but decided to hold his tongue until he had a chance to talk with Lena later.
"For now though while we're for the rest of the time, you can stay to the back and watch me practice so you can at least get used to the sound of the gun and not flinch so much when you're around them." Maybe it wasn't the way that Lena had meant for it to come across, but it felt as though she was sending a child to stand in the back corner because he couldn't be trusted to do what he was doing. He didn't say anything as he obliged by taking some steps back so that he was standing behind her but still close enough so that he could pay close attention to the way that she was holding herself as she fired the gun.
To him, she made it seem as though it was easy to do. But watching really was a lot different from handling the gun himself and figuring out the best way to fire it. He would humor her while they were apart and try to practice with paintball as he was Roger wouldn't turn down any chance to play with him, but he wasn't sure exactly how it was going to help. He just knew though that this couldn't be the one thing that would stop them from getting engaged.