"Uumu..."
"This is a bit unexpected desu"
Renya is together with Therese today. They are now in a forest located in a foot of a mountain somewhere close to Rugartia. Both of them is holding their head, troubled by something.
Between them is Therese silver gun that had its gun barrel broken.
"I'm sorry Therese, I never thought that it would also affects your magic gun too"
"No, please don't feel guilty for it. This child has broke multiple times in the past too desu. This child great performance is also because of the various repairs it receives desu"
To Renya who lowers his head, Therese can only desperately shake her head denying what Renya said.
"In manufacturing a magic tool, failure is an unavoidable part desu!" as Therese once again tries to assure Renya with her cute tough pose while making a fist. Renya feels healed looking at such cute living being in front of him but then again, the problem won't get solved by just this.
It was the day after they arrived at the capital city.
While Floria and the other girls split up to patrol the city, Renya job today is to improve Therese ability as his miko.
And the way to achieve it is not sexually related in the slightest... yet.
Therese had it in her when she was born, ability to 'accept' and 'use' divine power that is limited only from Renya and Floria.
Miko is a human who serves a god and from their service, they will be granted a part of that god power so they can bring miracles and have power that a normal human can't have. The concept of miko in this world isn't that much different from the one in Renya's previous world.
But Renya's god power was an inheritance from that muscle brain predecessor war god and further refined by his daughter Floria.
Renya don't have any blessings that can help Therese in her specialty field, the magic technology. Not even a sliver of it.
And in present condition, their experiment with many things starts to produce some result. Those results are that with divine power, Therese can strengthen her own physical abilities as well as her combat skill by a few grades. She also can create an impregnable wall around her with Renya's divine power.
According to Floria:
"If it was for normal people then it would be faith that increase a miko ability to use the god divine power, but in Renya and Therese case who directly contact each other like this, humanlike emotion is enough to improve Therese miko ability you know? Trust, friendship, yearning; those kinds of positive emotions will make miko power increase while the opposite happened for negative emotions like distrust, hate, and doubt. So in short, you can do whatever that as long as you and Therese get closer to each other it's all O-K-A-Y!"
And that sums it all up. It was good that it can be easily understood but Renya has doubt whether it is fine to easily give a blessing from a god like this? Well, it just Renya with his usual antics
But then again, with possibility of getting involved in a big battle looming near in the future, it is better for Therese to have more cards up in her sleeve to play. With that in mind, Renya in the end bring Therese to experiment her divine blessing when it all happened.
"I never expect that with the gun barrel will get broken from a single shot from the smallest output like this"
That's right, Therese's gun basically use Therese's mana as the bullet so she can control the bullet properties finely from its firepower to its attribute element. Because of that, they try to experiment on how much the firepower will increase if Therese uses divine power instead. Just to be safe, Renya orders Therese to fire at the lowest output possible but it still bring this kind of result. Besides losing a weapon, the plan to strengthen Therese miko ability had hit a wall quickly.
"U-n, I think it can't be helped desu. This silver magic alloy was made by Sirkaberia number one alchemist from a compound of special grade silver and mithril but even something strong like that can't withstand the power of a god desu... It can only be said 'as expected' desu"
"I thought that if we use only the smallest portion of it then the gun can withstand my divine power. I really make light of this god power"
"Isn't it your own power right, Onii-san?"
In any case, letting it left broken is bad. Renya use his divine power to detect his surroundings.
Human and monster scans return a negative result. There are no living things near them.
Confirming that there are no threats close by, Renya take something out from the inside of his own world.
It was metal bars. With a loud thump it falls to the ground.
That metal radiates a white colored radiance that is not something off from this world. That metal is a metal made by the god himself, the divine metal.
Renya takes the gun in his arm, close his eyes. The divine metal changes into small particles and wrapped the gun gently, and the gun starts to slowly absorb it.
Therese can only watch what Renya do with her mouth open agape.
In an instant, the broken gun has been restored perfectly like a new one.
"Yosh! I have coated the entire metallic surface with my self-made divine metal. In just a glance it seems to be nothing changed but this gun now should be able to hold even if Therese uses her full strength"
"I-Is that for real desuka!? Can I go at it with full power full throttle without worry desuka!?"
"I don't know just how much you want to test it with but I can say one thing for sure. This gun would never ever break again. Because in a way, this gun already becomes one of my divine armaments that's why"
"Uwa~!! Uwa~!!"
Therese let out a big happy voice when accepting her new improved gun. She unexpectedly have a trigger happy side within her too. Suddenly, the peculiarities of the girls surrounding Renya come to his mind.
(Floria... in one glance she is a perfect beauty without flaw but actually a little devil inside. Elvira is actually has weird preference to soft M... and Therese is a mecha fetish and also a trigger happy... what a collection of strong peculiarity one after another…)
When thinking like that, Brenda as the one with common sense would definitely buried by the other peculiarity normally. But to Renya, she is the only girl that can stop him from going rampant. She is the last defense line that the party had. This fact made Brenda existence in his heart gets even bigger.
(But then again, seeing her all pleased like that and added with her usual cherubic self... It makes me want to do more to see her happy. The desire to protect and the desire of lust both intermingled in that feeling.)
Within him, there is feeling of wanting to spoil Therese rotten like what he would do to his own little sister but there is also feeling of wanting to see that cherubic face dyed in bashfulness while engaging in that of what a lovers would do. However, Renya still holds his old world value which deemed his later desire as a taboo, a dangerous desire that should be suppressed no matter what. If he were to do that in his old world, his hand will definitely be brought to his back* without question and that memory unconsciously put constriction in Renya's mind.
Moreover, if that truth is to be exposed, he can't even imagine how the girls in his party will react to it. They would definitely hate him for that and it brings shiver down to his spine. Renya quickly seals that kind of thought immediately after. He tries to relieve his own worry by saying to himself that everything will gonna be okay as long as he followed the right order. No one knows what he wants to achieve by following the procedure step by step though.
"Therese, if you want, I can make that gun transform----"
"A transforming gun!? Is that possible!?"
Renya got faltered aback by how big Therese reaction to his suggestion. Her very fast response is also something a bit shocking.
"Y-Yeah. It has become my divine armament now, so anything is possible. Let see, we can make your gun transform into a large caliber mode that will enhanced its firepower big time on Therese will or changing the bullet attributes accordingly to the element it used..."
"S-S-Such kind of complex function... can really be added desuka!? I-I-I can only make this child to shot my magic power straight to the front and that is the most I can do desu desu"
"Well that is the most basic and the prerequisite technology needed so it's normal. Composing a new kind of conception and make it takes a form is something really hard to do realistically speaking"
In the first place, this magic gun isn't the same as the automatic handgun from Renya's old world. The magic gun doesn't follow the same process as a handgun to shot its bullet. To explain it simply, when the trigger is pulled, it will channels the magic words carved inside the gun barrel and cast that word function just like when casting a magic. Because of that, aside from it simple handgun form, the magic gun doesn't have a space to insert a magazine cartridge. The gun that is found in an ancient ruin has the shape that is familiar to Renya. Because of that, magic gun that is acknowledged as a kind of magic tool is commonly known to have shape like this. When knowing that fact, Renya can't help to feel that this universe is rather small that two different worlds have such similarities like this.
In case of a magic gun, it won't do anything other than the magic words inscribed within it. But now Therese gun has been imbued with god made divine metal. Renya can tamper with the magic words inscribed to add a transforming mechanism into it.
"When you say 'Boost'* in your mind then the gun will transform into a bigger form. Be mindful that the bigger it gets the larger mana and divine power consumption will be so be careful with it. When you say 'Element' in your mind then the gun will shoot a bullet with the element that Therese had in mind. Well strictly speaking it was not 'shoot' but 'emits' kind of feeling. It was different from the previous concept so get used to it. And lastly of course the firepower and ability got upgraded by a lot so you must be more careful when using it. Am I clear?"
"Yes desu! This is the power of a god so I won't recklessly flaunt it off desu!"
She really is a good and obedient girl. Looking at her like this, Renya is having a hard time to fight his own urge to jump in to Therese and rub her cheek with his own then do lickity-lick* on her. His last reasoning that says if he does that then everything will meet their end is successful in holding him back.
"Okay! Then let's practice with this new gun until sundown so Therese can get familiar with it quickly"
"Let's do it desu!"
With that, the training between a newbie god with his newbie miko continues.
=+=
There is a small city located a bit further north from Rugartia.
That city has flourished industries thanks to the high quality iron ore that can be mined from the neighborhood mountains. That city is owned by the king younger brother, Duke Conrad Laciel Rugartia
Eventhough the day almost end, there are still light coming out from the duke personal reading room in his mansion.
Inside that room, there is a past middle age man sitting behind a luxurious desk. His doesn't even try hiding the annoyance in his expression and keep on knocking his index finger to the desk.
He has a slender built. But behind that slender built is a well trained muscle that doesn't even get withered by his age but the wrinkle in the corner of his eyes and his hair has subtly mixed with white color show how one can't escape from the cruelty of the passing time.
"So the other will just going to wait for other people to move first is that what you say?"
"Yes. It seems that that prince have already taken many high ranked people from the neutral faction as his allies. He also supported the conservative peace supporting faction from the back so they becoming more assertive. It is truly regrettable"
"Humph! They are in the end just weaklings that easily satisfied with a mere sum of money. But then again I can't recklessly show my ace card around. If there is a spy among them then my plan would be jeopardized before I can do anything"
"But if we don't show them around no one will be persuaded by my lord the Duke's plan and just think my lord as someone who can't differ dream and reality. What a vexing situation"
"So what, if they willing to swear allegiance to me even after we done the thing I will still gladly use them"
"My lord the Duke's heart is really generous"
A man clad in black, while saying such things, respectfully lower his head.
That man wears black article clothing from head to toe, added with a hood, his face can't be seen quite clearly.
"With the suspicious activity in the northern continent, how can our kingdom shows such a weak spot such as doing an unification with the neighborhood kingdom? The new kingdom that is created from such weakling cheap trick like that is just like saying please trample us down to those aggressor. If one wants to unite the kingdom then it should be from showing our strength, the military power that is the kingdom strength! By taking down our enemy with using military power we can show the world how strong we are! Just by simply fattening the kingdomis just the same as having a papiermache for our military power! But that fool older brother of mine, why did you accept such rubbish that is spouted by that bastard prince from the neighborhood kingdom!?"
Bang! A loud sound can be heard. Conrad is letting out his anger by smashing his fist into the table. He didn't even care the mess that is made from that action. His breathing is rough from holding in his anger.
"My lord the king only has two daughter as his successor. He should definitely be worried about the successor to the throne and this kingdom future"
"But because of that he accept that proposal to unite the country by having both 1st successor to the throne from both kingdom to marry each other eh? Just how weak can you get!? And because it was princess from our side then Sirkaberia will definitely have the upper hand in the kingdom in the future! That is just the same like we lose to them! That stupid older brother really wants to leave his dishonored name in the annals of history"
"That's why my lord the duke going to stand up to all of this farce right?"
"Right... That's right. That kind of weak king... I can't let the kingdom be in his grasp any longer!"
"That's right. My lord the duke is indeed the hero that will avert this kingdom from crisis. For such hero, we can only give our help the best we can"
"Humph, I also still don't trust you guys yet you know? With only that much reward to give me such a large support like that. What are you guys really intend to do?"
"Never in our dream ever we dare to defy you my lord. We are just simply agreed to my lord's ideal and will give out our all to support you. That reward is just the minimum amount we need to survive"
"How can I believe you if you never show me your face like that? But rather than those other unreliable nobles I won't mind taking in a bit poison like you in as long as I can defeat those weaklings in the end. Then let's purge all those pest including this kingdom traitor!"
"Let's do that! And then in the end ---- my lord the duke will left his name in the annals of history as the rightful king of this kingdom!"
"Fufufu... that's right. This kingdom doesn't need a king like my stupid brother that covets himself with indolence and only thinking about protecting himself like that. No, he is just like a pest which will drive the kingdom into destruction. It is I the only king that is appropriate for Rugartis...!"
Conrad is already having his eyes turned to the throne located in the royal castle. His tenacity filled shout gives out a dark, ghastly image. And then, the man clad in black, gives out a silent smile from under his hood.