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I knew I would run into adventurers often if I went to the forest, but I decided I wouldn’t ever reveal my identity. I saw going to the forest as time to train, and also as an opportunity to act like a normal male without judgment. So I took special care not to let anyone I met in the forest discover I was a female magic automaton.

My face was easy to remember, and there are next to no magic automatons that look as life-like as me in the world, so those were the two things that could easily identify me. And if I was identified, it wouldn’t take long before Olivia found out I was walking around the forest disguised as a male.

Olivia doesn’t know I came from a different world, or that I used to be male. She acts normal around me nowadays, but I wonder if she’d be able to continue doing so if she finds out the truth.

I think she’s only so familiar with me because I’m a girl now. So if she finds out that’s not the case… It’ll be worse than just awkward. She might despise me, maybe even throw me away, robbing me of my only reason to live in this world.

I promised Ophelia, my creator, that I would watch over her daughter. I’d lose any value if she discarded me. So I vowed I would never let anyone find out my identity.

Look at me now.

Giese’s party attacked me because of a misunderstanding, the dog demi-human knocked my mask off, Mishella figured out I had a female body, and now I revealed my identity as a magic automaton.

I broke everything I had vowed not to do.

I take out Black Hawk and quickly fire at her torso. She easily reads it, letting go of the dagger stuck on my arm and dodging away. But that’s all I need.

I open my magic storage at the same spot where my wrist is stabbed, swallowing the dagger. I then form a magic blade off that arm and swing it upwards in a wide arc.

“Tsk!”

Mishella is shocked, but such a simple surprise attack isn’t enough to take her down. She twists her body and easily evades the magic blade. I dissolve the magic blade and wind up my magic threads, using my recovered arm to reload Black Hawk.

“A magic automaton? That’s so confusing, you’re too similar to a human.”

Mishella looks at me like she’s seeing something disgusting. Well, I’m a monster after all.

“So you’ll stop now?”

Her thing seems to be a fetish for overpowering weak adventurers, so I doubt she has any interest in a magic automaton that can’t feel pain like me.

“Hah, don’t kid yourself. I’d never leave someone who knows my identity alive.”

Makes sense. I completely agree with that sentiment.

“Let’s do this then, murderer. I’ll fight you as a magic automaton now.”
“Don’t get cocky. You’re just a little toy.”

For a moment it feels like my sight is blurred, her figure moving too fast. I try to follow her direction, firing Black Hawk ahead of her.

“Learn already, you can’t hit me!”

My bullet only hits her afterimage, only piercing air. This doesn’t mean I’m the same as earlier though.

While I fought seriously this entire time, I wasn’t using every tool available to me. My priority was to conceal my identity, so I only moved like a human would, but now that the charade is over, I can use every tool at my disposal.

Running to increase the distance between us as much as I can, I shoot my arms at her.

I keep my arms afloat at unnatural angles and heights. Once I feel the moment is right, I pull the trigger and fire from her blindspot. That breaks Mishella’s focus on me, turning to evade the bullets while throwing a dagger from her belt at it.

But my arm is no longer there. No one would be stupid enough to keep still after such an attack.

Her gaze starts to dart around, sometimes focused on me, others around, and everytime she looks away I fire. My bullets are deadly even for ogres. She had dodged all my bullets so far, but that just goes to show just how much she fears them.

This gives me the option for an opening.

I open my magic storage near my empty hand and take out White Viper. I don’t have any spare magazines, but I can afford to manually infuse it with mana now. Any type of firepower will be greatly helpful right now.

White Viper has a fast rate of fire, but that also means it chews through magazines. If I use it constantly, I’ll run out of bullets in an instant. So I just have to use Black Hawk to create an opening.

“Light up the air.”

Black Hawk fires first, closely followed by White Viper, and I chant a spell on top of all that. Countless glowing spots the size of a fist float up into the air around me.

My arms continue floating around Mishella, firing whenever she looks away.

I had used my detached arm to win against Danny in the past. But unlike that time, I have to keep moving to keep my main body safe now, so I can’t use my legs to attack as well, but White Viper adds enough firepower to compensate. I also weaved a protective net of magic in front of me, making it trickier for her to get too close.

I use Black Hawk as a distraction, firing White Viper in short bursts when there’s enough mana. Whenever she gets too wary of White Viper I stop shooting, move Black Hawk behind her, and point at her back.

If she thinks Black Hawk will fire, White Viper does. If she thinks White Viper will fire, Black Hawk does. The combination of both guns chases relentlessly after the murderer.

But unlike with Danny, I can’t tie her up in nerve threads. Even if I wrap them around her, she’ll jump out before they close in. She seems to have a read on them as well.

“Don’t get so cocky!”

Mishella still has hidden daggers left, which she starts throwing at my main body. I dodge it, but the dagger hits one of the floating lights behind me, vanishing like a ghost.

“Ohhh?”

Mishella grins ominously. Damn, she found out.

The lights weren’t some form of offensive magic, they’re just simple Float Lights. Both my arms are detached, meaning I have no way to defend myself if she gets close. That’s why I had cast that spell as a bluff, to pretend the lights were dangerous.

“Blitz Step.”

Mishella’s blonde hair and overcoat flutter behind her as she zig-zags from one side to another, evading all the bullets. This is really bad. Not even the combined fire from my two arms can stop her, not a single bullet hits her.

Can I try kicking to fight back? I don’t think that’s possible at my current skill level. I’ll just have to rethink my strategy from the ground up.

“Project my body, Stand Mirage.”

I finish chanting and a multitude of magic automaton images flood the area, while my main body gets concealed like a mirage, allowing me to retreat.

A dagger reaches me and cuts my foot. Barely an instant passed, but that was enough time for Mishella to run next to me and activate one of her Skills.

“Tiger Fang!”

Faster than she could hurl any abuse, she dashes with a low stance, her two daggers swinging up at me.

I manage to block her using one of my legs as a shield, but it’s not over yet. She finishes swinging her daggers up, then instantly flips her grip on them, stabbing down.

My defense worked earlier, but it can’t deal with attacks from above.

Her daggers resembled the fangs from a tiger, like the Skill’s name suggested, and her blades tear through my Tyrannoghavial armor, even though neither Mir or I could cut it before.

She’ll eventually get to me at this rate. I choose to use magic again to stop that from happening. The only use I have for offensive magic at my level is to trick little children.

Things like making a bit of dirt or sand float, or a bit of wind. There was nothing I could do to harm my enemies lethally, but they still had other practical applications. Like now, my wind spiraled and picked up the dirt and sand.

“D-damn you!”

Mishella quickly covers her face, but I still succeeded in blinding her. I use that small distraction to run into the thicket.

As I step away from the radius my magic is active in, the sand starts to settle. I kept shooting while retreating, but Mishella’s feet would not remain still, dodging every single bullet.