Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Multiple bullets shot resounded inside the training room.
Ethan's mouth is wide open as he looked at the dummy board 10m away from him. All bullets have gone through same hole! What kind of ridiculous aim is this!!
"I am losing touch. It lacks the smoothness."
His eyes twitched as he looked at her from the corner of his eyes. This woman…Is she bragging again?
Raven reload magazine and pull barrel and aim in front. She seems to be checking as she keeps repeating the process. She threw the gun toward him.
"It's 8 a.m. now, I will be back at 12 a.m. Today, it will be first day of your job."
Ethan looked at the time on his I-Link and gives her a nod.
"That's fine but what I am supposed to do?"
"You know about your strength as a swordsman."
Ethan turns silent. He wants to refute her but somewhere in his mind he knows that he lacks too much from everyone. It became too obvious from before as he realize his powerlessness in consecutive past events. He possesses nothing at all and just like she said it is an insult to call him a swordsman but…
"I won't give up on sword."
Raven smiles at him. She can read his mind so she obviously understand what he is going through his mind right now but since he doesn't want to give up she won't try to change his mind.
"I am not telling you to give up on sword. I am telling to you learn to use a handgun."
Ethan dreams himself as he carried a handgun in left hand and sword in his right hand. He imagined himself as he got attacked from all direction. He will use his sword to deflect the blows while use the gun to shoot at their chest, neck and every vital points.
"I will learn it!"
Raven smiles at his enthusiasm. She almost forgets that he is still a teenager. She turns around and leaves while waving her hand.
"Good luck with your practice."
She stands in front of elevator. Elevator opens and she went inside when she heard his call.
"Raven."
She turns around inside the elevator and looked at him. He was looking in her eyes directly with his blue iris.
"You haven't used your spell on me since morning."
Raven looked at him for some time and smiled. Elevator door closed and went up.
'This guy…He figured out.'
Ethan looked at the lift as it climbed above. Ethan expression turned determined. After kidnapping incident, Ethan had been extra cautious of everything. It's cautiousness that saved him during Dungeon incident. Yet he somehow still followed her out of nowhere and did whatever she said without questioning.
When he was taking bath, he didn't do anything and lie down in bathtub and think about it. He felt something was missing all together. He is, in fact, a doubtful person then why is it that he never doubted her words?
Answer is simple. She is using some spell that is suppressing his reasoning. There is no other explanation to explain it. He became cautious after figuring out but that doesn't mean he can resist her spell. If he can, it would have already happened after all.
She is too strong for current him to do anything. He still doesn't know what Raven is actually planning. It is clear she wants to steal something from academy. If he help her, execution will be only way out for him. If he rejected her, she will kill him without hesitation. So what should he do?
He decided to stop resisting all together and wait for things to fold out. He will wait and wait until she finally let her guard down around him and show some cracks in herself. He will slip in, making a place for himself and found out everything about her. He was planning to do that but…
'She didn't use her hypnotic suggestion since morning.'
Ethan understand her ability but he choose to stop resisting as current him can't resist it but since morning, she hasn't use her spell on him even once! Ethan, of course, thinks she might be testing him. That's why he told her but…
'Something is different…'
Yesterday, Raven was close, frank, easier to talk and enjoyable to spend time with but today she is different. It is like there is a wall between them.
Raven is like a black hole that absorbs everything including light. The closer you got to her, more attraction you feel toward her. When you got close enough, you will have no choice but to follow along with her attraction.
But today, it feels like her attraction force doesn't apply to him anymore. She is standing in front of him but yet she felt so far. Ethan felt slightly pain of panic in his heart as he doesn't understand her change in attitude.
'Did something happen after I fall asleep?'
That's the only things that he has missed until now.
"It doesn't matter. I need to find out everything first and make the decision."
Ethan holds the gun with his left-hand and supports it with his right-hand while aimed at dummy board head and fired.
Bang.
*
Raven was sitting in front of the table while playing with the glass of drink. It has become her habit as she always play with glass of drink whenever she is deeply thinking.
Her hairs were tied up again neatly. She was wearing different set of clothes that covers her skin the most yet show off her enchanting curves above the clothes perfectly.
There is still 5min. left until 12 a.m. She is planning to give Ethan his first job today. His last words were still lingering in her ears. Ethan has figured out her skill!
Her skill is Voice of Enchantress (A-Rank). It is similar to hypnosis as target has no choice but to do her bidding. It highly depends on her charm. All mental strength based Skills or Arts are depended on Charm stat. In term of Charm, It is impossible for anyone below S-Rank to win against her but…
Ethan resisted her skill and kept his reasoning mind intact. If Ethan was in same rank then she might consider him to have stronger charm but he is barely a G-Rank! How is it possible for him to resist her!
She raised her head and looked at the time. She picks the glass up and chucks the drink down in one sip. She raised herself and move toward elevator.
Ting.
She enters the elevator and move down. She waited for its door to open.
Ting.
Ethan was standing far away in front of her while holding the gun along his eyes. He fired consecutive bullets with stable recoilless stance. Raven gave him a nod of approval and move forward. She stands behind him and her expression froze.
Ethan relaxes his stances and look in front of him. He brings the gun close to his mouth and blows the imaginary smoke above the barrel.
!!
Suddenly, Ethan fell forward by his face. His face sticks to the ground which was lit up by 3D complex runes. Ethan notices that and looked around the room when he notices Raven behind him. He screams in panic voice.
"Wh-what the hell happened?!"
She didn't say anything but just stare at him yet gravity on him increases further.
"Raven-gave-me-a-chance-to-explain."
Ethan again asked her but this time his voice become shaky and suppressed as gravity keep increasing on him.
Pressure on him, due to gravity, vanished and Ethan pulls himself up. He almost felt his chest getting crushed. He took deep breathes as he felt his chest out of breath. Women are too scary! One just drowned him in water! One treated him as a toy! Other just crushes him out of nowhere! What is the hell is up with women in this world?!
Raven still stares at him, waiting for him to explain. Ethan knows that he needs to calm this bewitching beauty or else his plans might end with his life before he even gets the chance to execute it.
"Can I ask my sin?"
Ethan talked with her with an extremely polite voice. She raised her head and look toward the dummy boards in front of her.
Ethan also turns around and looked at dummy board. Dummy board is 10m away from them and has outline of a human body. In its head, there is still a hole left by Raven's bullet while there are lots of bullet hit marks outside the human body outline.
!!
Not a single bullet of his has hit the silhouette! Most of them had scratched the edge and some of them had hit the board but only outside the silhouette!!
Ethan turns sneaks a glance of her but hurriedly look in front of him before she caught his peek. Ethan took a deep breath and turn around with desperate expression.
"Raven, you must listen to me, I tried my best but gun just shakes too much!"
Raven still looked at him without saying anything but Ethan can feel her eyes tracing all over body. He felt that she is cutting and torturing his whole body in her mind!
"I am sorry."
Ethan just bowed his head with an apology. He doesn't know what to do so best choice is but an honest apology.
Raven's expression relaxes slightly. She looked at him for some time and just sighed.
"Aim."
Ethan raised his head and looked at her with a doubting expression.
"Aim!"
He flinched and straightened himself. He holds the gun with his shaking left-hand and takes the stance. He brings the gun in front of his head and aimed at dummy board. Barrel of the gun was shaking even though he is holding it with both hands.
Raven frowned as she looked at him. His stance for someone who just picked up the gun is not bad but the real problem is not that…
"Why are you using gun with left hand?"
Ethan relaxed his stance and turned toward her.
"Well…A handgun in my left and a sword in my right."
Raven looked at him. She did remember him mentioning about not giving up on sword but she didn't think he will be thinking something so bizarre. Raven really can't tell what she should do with him. She can tell he has been practicing with his left hand since the start or else he would told her already but the fact he is been practicing with his left hand without frustrating shows that he has tenacity in him.
She just shakes her head in the end. If he got tired, he will give up eventually, she was hoping he would just learn marksmanship as a secondary until he become stronger as a swordsman. He can choose whatever he wants in future but she didn't think he will choose both.
There is a saying; more the merrier. If he has more ways to fight, then it will better as the one who survives is always the one with more cards.
"Try it with Right hand."
Ethan shifted his grip and used his left hand to support. He took his stance and brings the gun close to his eyes and shoots the bullets.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
Raven was relieved looking at the result. It may be because he used his left hand before but it seems he can fire fine with his right hand. All bullets hits the silhouette, some of them also hits close to center but they were clearly dumb luck.
"It's not bad."
Raven gave him a nod of acknowledgement but Ethan just looks at her. She doesn't understand his stare when a thought flashed by her mind.
'Hmm, He doesn't understand praise until you tell him clearly.'
It is not a surprise since he is an orphan. She raised her hands towards his head but stop in the middle. Her hands trembles slightly, she didn't push it further and bring her hand down. She looked away and looked at her. She muttered…
"What a curse."
"Hmm?"
Ethan made a noise as he thought she was talking with him. He looked at her curvy back but she didn't say anything and walk forward.
"Let's go. Today is the first day of your job after all."