“Target missed!” Loris Federico stood within the town hall amidst the crowd, his body frozen, face drained of color. The people who came to watch erupted into laughter, their mocking whispers reaching every corner of the hall. “It’s him again.” “I already expected he would miss the target.” “What a waste of time.” “Truly a disgrace to the Federico family…” Blind to the humiliation Loris felt, the announcer brutally continued, “Shooting score - E level. Magic power 56%.” The same crowd then became divided, some shutting up and some continuing to judge Loris by the side with mocking gazes. In reality, this kind of magic power was particularly excellent, even exceeding the majority of the people in his family. However, his shooting score wasn’t just tragic – it was pure garbage and humiliating! Loris himself felt incredibly upset. Listening to the crowd’s judging commentaries, he clenched his hands and glanced down at his hands. He had questioned it again and again – how did h
Three years ago, Loris was hailed as the genius in the Federico Clan. He made everyone proud, especially his father, Gustavo Federico, the clan’s leader. Everyone respected the clan and praised Gustavo for having a genius son. In short, he became everyone’s favorite, always the talk of the town in a positive light. However, due to an accident, all of that vanished. Now, he was branded by the town as the disabled son, the pitiful boy taken away from the light and pushed to some random dark corner. Loris lay down on the bed in his room, surrounded by papers scattered everywhere. On each page, messy handwriting could be seen with one word particularly written in bold, shaky letters: useless. He had scribbled it earlier out of anger after reading those medical books for treating hand diseases, all of which proved to be useless – just like him. Cursing under his breath, he picked up a book and threw it to the wall. But even that made him wince, his hand ended up trembling at the small
Loris was in his room, seated on a chair and staring at the basin containing the potion in front of him. He took a deep breath and carefully placed both of his hands down the liquid. He winced, sensing the familiar aching in his hands. He had been doing it for the past hours ever since he received the instruction from the doctor his father brought. According to the doctor, he had to do this to soak his hands in this potion for at least half an hour. Even if it became painful along the way, he had to endure it if he wanted to be cured. Loris’s eyebrows twitched as he clenched his teeth. Each time his skin touched the liquid, it would send an incredible cooling sensation to his hands but it also brought immense pain with it. If he hadn’t been able to feel that the magic power in the potion was indeed decreasing, he would have doubted whether his father had been deceived again. “Could it be effective this time?” he wondered while staring at his hands submerged in the potion-filled wa
Loris tried to listen to the conversation between his father and the guests. It wasn’t every day that their clan had guests from other cities so he felt curious about their arrival. From the looks of it, these guests didn’t come for a simple business. Who are these guests exactly? What do they want from the Federico Clan?Loris frowned, silently trying to grasp their words. However, they were a bit too far from him and they spoke low, making it fruitless.If there was one thing he knew, however, it was that the guests weren’t ordinary people. They wore an emblem that easily caught other people’s eyes. It had an intricate shape of a Golden Eagle – a rare bird that could be seen near the volcanoes as stated in the books Loris read. If his memory served him right, this rare emblem belonged to the Morne City Academy.Morne City was one of the biggest cities in the World of Nimgofu. Called the City of Gunslingers, it was the home of the elite academy – Morne City Academy – where the best
Standing up, the teacher asked Mr. Federico’s help.At first, Loris’s father, Gustavo Federico, looked at the said teacher with dubious eyes. He already had a faint guess what this guest would ask of him. Earlier when he passed by the garden, he heard the servants speaking of a marriage termination.He wasn’t a fool. He had expected something was off when Remuel Rodel came herself. He concluded right away that her main purpose was to do that – terminate her engagement with his son, Loris.He was so angered at the sudden revelation that he almost vomited blood. After calming down, he tried to ask them to speak to him personally. After all, there was no need to have such a discussion in public, was there?The teacher was slightly embarrassed under the hardened gaze of Mr. Federico. Even though they came to dissolve Remuel’s engagement with Gustavo Federico’s son, they still knew the Rodel family used to owe a lot to the Federico family and even made a pact with them.At the same time, R
The teacher brought the box forward. Remuel had specifically arranged this present for this particular purpose. Although the teacher didn’t know much of the motivation behind it, she had always thought Remuel did extra effort in preparing such a significant gift. On the other hand, everyone fell silent as they stared at the precious item inside. It was a single-shot percussion gun made of a rare variety of metals. It lay in the box, displayed with its might and brilliance.In the World of Nimgofu, enchanted firearms such as this could enhance the power of shooting, making ordinary bullets have an impact similar to enchanted bullets. At the same time, the interior of the enchanted firearm had magic notches carved along with the bullet design direction, which was more conducive for gunners below F level to become familiar with the structure of the firearm. Using this rare item would help 99% of F-level gunners go to a breakthrough, making them reach E-level easily.Enchanted firearms
“I refuse,” Loris stated, stunning everyone at the hall. The crowd looked at him as though he had gone mad. The elders themselves were so angry their faces went red. One of them stood up and reprimanded Loris, “For the sake of the family, we demand you to take your words back. Repent for your misconduct right this instant!” The whispering turned louder and everyone stared at Loris, waiting for him to change his response. But their words fell to deaf ears. Ignoring the elders who always judged and hated his father and disregarding the crowd’s unimportant opinions, Loris faced Remuel. “No matter what conditions you give, I have only one answer. I refuse,” he said with no other emotion. Other people his age couldn’t help but scoff and look at him incredulously. “Whoa, who does he think he is, refusing such an important invitation?” “Did he lose his mind when his hand became disabled?” “How unreasonable and insatiable!” “He’s so shameless! When will he stop embarrassing our clan?”
The next minute, Loris was already on the stage. With everybody’s eyes on him, Loris signed his name on the duel paper, but because his hand shook, it came out crooked. When the acting duel master saw this, he couldn’t help but feel pity toward Loris, but then again, this was necessary to make the duel between Loris and Remuel valid if that was their true goal. By signing this duel paper, it meant the two parties both agreed to follow all the rules. In addition, it meant no one would hold Remuel accountable even if Loris died. Remuel proceeded to go straight to the stage but Loris stopped her. “Sign it,” he uttered coldly while glancing down at the paper. Signing a duel of life and death wasn’t a casual occasion to witness. Even the strongest rarely held such duels, never mind the weak and the crippled. Needless to say, most of the audience looked at Loris as though he had gone crazy. They all thought, who in their right mind would sign that duel paper given their current conditio