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Just like Black Hawk, White Viper is incredibly accurate and with little recoil. It can fire rapidly as well, giving it a lot of power. But it has its downsides too.

“It’s chewing through them.”

I look down and notice I’ve already spent three entire magazines. It shoots fast and accurately, but it uses a lot of mana and the magazines don’t last for long on full-auto.

It frequently runs out of bullets, and I need to take time to reload it. That also applies to Black Hawk, except that I don’t have to do that as often, and it’s easier to move around while reloading it. I’ll either need to get used to reloading faster, or find a bigger source of magic energy for it. It’ll take me some time to really be able to use its rapid fire capabilities to their best.

It’s also way too powerful for lower level enemies, so I should keep using Black Hawk against those. But I still have plenty of magazines in reserve, so I can continue testing it out.

In a dormitory room of Ingralowe’s Magic Academy, Olivia was taking classes under her classmate Christina.

“Alright, that’s 68 points this time. You’re getting better.”

Once she heard the results of the short quiz, Olivia let out a loud sigh.

“Thanks Christina. I feel like I might make it somehow thanks to you.”

The topics covered were all the fundamentals of magic, which she was already applying by instinct, and now she was starting to make some connections between the theory and her own experience.

“It’s all thanks to your own efforts, Olivia. The teaching material Natalia prepared is also very well written.”

Christina felt like teaching Olivia would have been much harder if all she had was the textbook. She had been learning magic since before she entered the Magic Academy, but if someone asked her if she could relay the information from the textbook to another person, Christina would have shook her head.

“I think this is a good place to stop for today. Amy looks pretty bored as well.”

There was one more person in the room beside Olivia and Christina. Amy had gone there to check how things were going, but now she was sitting on the bed reading a book.

“Amy, do you like reading books?”
“Nuh uh, I don’t particularly like them. I just feel like I might get some inspiration from them.”

Amy came from a family of merchants, so she tried to speak slightly more politely to Christina knowing she came from a noble family, but Amy was not really used to such language.

Meanwhile Christina was used to talking to everyone with a certain degree of respect.

“Inspiration? What for?”
“Oh, just for a way to make Olivia confess to Natalia.”

Crash!

Olivia had been leaning back on her chair, something considered extremely rude, and hearing Amy’s sentence she lost balance and fell to the floor.

“O-Olivia, are you hurt?!”

Christina was instantly worried, but Olivia had a very resilient body. Hitting the back of her head on the ground was nothing for her.

“Wait a second. Why is confessing to Natalia related to you reading a book?”

Olivia began standing up and asked that, prompting Amy to put a bookmark in the book and placing it to the side.

“Olivia, have you ever heard about a certain type of book called a romance novel? If I use them as reference I might be able to plan a very romantic way for you to confess your love, it’ll be like a scene out of a fairy tale.”
“I see!”

Hearing Amy’s reasoning, Olivia finally thought that was a good idea and seemed completely on board with the idea.

“Why don’t you try reading some too? Even if they’re fake stories, you might get used to romance with them, and you won’t have issues standing next to Natalia anymore.”
“I don’t really like to read though, but for her… Oh yeah, I’ve seen Natalia reading some of the books she brought from home every now and then too.”
“Then that’s even more reason for you to read them, you’ll have something in common to talk about. I’ll find you some that are easy to understand.”
“Wait, let me see if I understood this correctly. Olivia is in love with Natalia?”

Christina was still out of the loop on the whole situation, so she asked that, trying to understand it a bit better. Amy and Olivia forced a smile and began fidgeting.

“Ahh…well…yeah… I guess it’s really weird after all? I mean, we’re both girls, and she’s a monster…”
“Oh, no, not at all. There’s plenty of romance novels with two males or females, and others involving different races. Not to mention…”

Christina still remembered the day of the duel.

If Natalia had wanted to, she could have easily left Christina badly bruised, and after the incident in the dining hall she had every right to do so. But rather than doing that, Natalia had done her utmost to defeat Christina without causing her any pain, and even praised her skills and planning afterward.

“Natalia is…quite a lovely person…”

The image of Natalia holding Christina in her arms, not letting her fall to the ground, was burned in Christina’s mind. Recalling that, she blushed slightly.

“I know, right? She’s usually so pretty and calm, but sometimes she’ll go full beast-mode too. Like that time I got kidnapped in the forest.”
“Wait, you went through such a situation?”

Amy shrugged and gave up seeing the two so entranced talking about Natalia.

(I feel like Christina just hinted she also feels that way, but Olivia didn’t notice at all. Though well, I doubt Christina is the kind of person to use any underhanded tactics.)

But that reminded Amy she still had not asked something very important.

“By the way, do you even know if Natalia is into girls? The first time you told me you had a crush on someone I really thought you were into some thickheaded guy, but maybe Natalia is straight?”

When Amy asked that, Olivia, who had been talking so happily about Natalia, seemed to get frozen still.

“N-Now that you mention it…I never asked her… She seemed fine with me hugging and kissing her, but if she doesn’t swing that way then…”

‘If I’m into girls? That’s…’
Natalia frowned and looked disgusted.

‘Kind of gross, don’t you think?’
Natalia seemed like she was about to throw up.

‘Oh right, I’ve started dating this man, Young Lady.’
And then she introduced her boyfriend.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
“C-Calm down, Olivia! You haven’t asked her how she feels yet, it’s too soon to jump to conclusions!”

Natalia broke down from imagining that scenario, and Christina hurried to comfort her.

“Ah, sorry for bringing that up. But seriously, shouldn’t you at least try to know Natalia a little better? At least to figure out that much.”
“You say that like it’s easy, but what should I even do?”
“You know, the fastest way is to just ask Natalia directly. Though I feel like you’d do a terrible job so I’ll ask her for you. Luckily I have something else I wanted to talk to her about too.”

Amy said that while grinning broadly.