3. ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

The incessant downpour grew stronger.

The silver girl had fled long and desperately, but she’d eventually been captured when her stamina expired.

I curse you all!

She thrashed and struggled, but the cold barrel of a gun poked against her back.

I curse you all! May you all rot and fester—

Her heart had been consumed by grudges and malice. That black, despicable, all-too-stagnant emotion was…

“No— Wait, stop, noooooo!”

She screamed. But unfortunately, the executioner showed no mercy. He pulled the trigger and pierced her heart, splashing fresh blood across the virgin snow.

The time was 2:36 PM. The battle over the East’s Ental Mountain Range had ended earlier in a resounding victory for the defending side. The enemy had announced they were forfeiting at 2:00 AM and bitterly handed over control of the entire region.

The casualties came out to five Exelias for the East and thirty from the West, so it wasn’t at all surprising that the West had retreated. Losing an entire company’s worth of units was a massive blow. And additionally, one of the West’s officers had been captured.

Hmm, who was that again? Oh, right. Commodore Wood.

High-ranking officers didn’t often take direct command of the battlefield, but Commodore Wood was known as a strict, seasoned veteran who’d never lost a battle. In fact, he’d caused so much trouble for the East over the years that he’d earned the moniker “Speedy Devil.”

But that venerated soldier had been reduced to the state of a common criminal, chained hand and foot. Someone had likely already punched him, as his face was red and swollen. From an outsider’s perspective, he was just a powerless old man. Even an experienced man of valor could be reduced to this.

“Man, even the Speedy Devil looks like any old fart without his fancy getup.”

“Show him a little respect,” Rain said as he cast a sidelong glance at Orca. “Commodore Wood’s a well-known soldier, even if he is our enemy. We shouldn’t make light of him.”

“I know, but…”

The East’s cadets had returned to base unharmed. And Orca, who seemed to be in perfect shape, seemed particularly lax. “I hear you, but you’ve gotta admit that he made a pretty big mistake today.”

“A mistake, huh?”

“I mean, look at how bad we crushed them. How else would you describe it?”

“Yeah, good point…”

“Well, thanks to that, we got away with basically zero losses, so I ain’t complaining! Ha-ha-ha!”

The cadets had been dispatched in five units, made up of ten members in total. None of them were exhausted, though, because their victory had been overwhelming. The battle had ended in an exceedingly favorable position for the East… An almost too favorable position, in fact.

“…Sorry, Orca, I’m going to step outside.”

“Something wrong? We’re gonna celebrate while we wait for further orders. Don’t ditch us already.”

“I wouldn’t celebrate now if I were you.”

“Still, you sure you’re fine? You said you were feeling kinda sick the other day, too.”

“…I’m fine. Just need a little rest,” Rain said as he left his classmates behind, heading for the tent in the rear of the base. It was a designated sleeping area, so there was no one around.

It’s done… I got away with it again.

Rain lowered his beloved TK rifle, which wasn’t formally used by the military. Then he lifted the slide, and the firing chamber opened with a loud click. A puff of gunpowder hissed into the air as ten or so shells rolled out of the rifle…

“……”

And each one had the name of a human being etched onto it.

He’d gunned down ten people, using a silver bullet on each.

“I see you’re making good use of it.” A mysterious voice suddenly praised him, and Rain wheeled around with a start. He’d made sure he was alone, but…

“You…”

“Been a while, hasn’t it?” The silver girl had appeared out of thin air. “I see you’ve been working hard.”

“…I wouldn’t exactly say that.”

“Oh, come now. It’s important to at least maintain the facade with pleasantries.”

Air approached him, mouthing a Now then before Rain could even react. And as soon as she got within arm’s reach of him, she snatched the pouch dangling from his belt.

“Wait, give it back!”

“No.”

Rain reached out to grab it, but he wasn’t fast enough.

“I gave you a trial period, so it’s only fair I grade you now, right?”

Air poured the contents of the pouch onto the ground. She knew there were a lot in there based on its weight, but when she saw the sheer number of objects spilling out…

“Ha…ha-ha-ha!”

There were well over two hundred shells…and they were all silver.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

There was only one type of ammo that used those specific silver casings: the Devil’s Bullet. Scattered over the floor were the remains of those bullets, which served as the only tangible proof of the hundreds of human beings who’d been wiped from existence.

“I must say, I’m impressed. I didn’t think you’d have a field day with them! Ha-ha-ha-ha! I’ve never met such a trigger-happy fool before!” Air laughed loudly upon catching sight of Rain’s possessions. Hundreds of shells were spread out on the ground.

“Let’s count, then… Oh, two hundred four. Well, aren’t you an eager beaver? It’s only been ten days, yet you’ve accomplished so much.” Air smirked at him. Rain hated her flippancy about this, but he could not deny them.

“Could you stop laughing already?”

“I suppose I should. I’ve laughed enough for all the people you’ve killed already.”

Ten days. That was how long it’d been since he’d found those first five bullets. And as long as he had those shells in hand, he could freely produce more.

“Why did you come now?”

“Oh, there’s no deep reason behind it. I decided it was best to gather more information about this world, so I buckled down to work in the grand library. And then I saw this article in the newspaper this morning.”

Air tossed a newspaper at Rain. It had the following headline:

The eastern nation, O’ltmenia, is taking charge.

Four eastern territories reclaimed.

“This is the first time I’ve seen one fool change the country so much…change the very course of history.”

“You don’t have to call me a fool.”

“Oh, but you certainly are one. Don’t you think you went too far?”

Only the two of them knew what had happened, but things had definitely changed. In just ten days, every aspect of the conflict between the East and the West had shifted.

Ever since the war began four years ago, the East had been on the back foot. But starting ten days ago, it had experienced a sudden change of fortune.

“I knew you were doing quite a bit, but still.”

The East’s position continued to improve. It had won local battles in quick succession, reclaimed four territories, and repeatedly broken through the West’s once unbreakable defensive line, wiping away the cloud of defeat.

How could the situation have changed so drastically when no new technology or strategies had been introduced? Many scholars and generals sought the answer to that question, but they were left with only theories.

None of them knew the truth. None of them even had a chance of discovering the truth. No one would’ve guessed that a single boy, with bullets laced with mysterious magic, was responsible.

“You erased fifty people over the past three days, right?” Air asked as she arranged the silver shells of the Devil’s Bullets in a meaningless formation. “You really let loose. More than I thought you would, to be honest. It breaks most people—either that or they go mad from the power and start abusing it, only to die.”

Air cast her gaze at Rain, a boy who looked no different from any other cadet. A boy whose only real talent was his ability to make use of ricocheting bullets.

“…What?”

“I was just thinking how interesting your eyes have become.”

Rain Lantz’s gaze was now akin to that of a ferocious beast—but he’d likely always been like that at heart. Those weren’t the eyes of a man drunk on power, but the calm, collected eyes of one who’d mulled over things rationally and chosen to erase the lives of hundreds of officers to seize control of the battlefield.

And in so doing, he’d permanently altered the world in a way that was extremely hard to detect.

No one noticed the truth.

No one noticed the Reprogramming.

Anyone shot by the Devil’s Bullet had every trace of their existence removed from the annals of history. The moment they died, the world shifted to one where they’d never even existed.

And so no one could judge him for it.

“Well then, what do you want from me now, Ghost?” Rain asked.

“Nothing much.”

“……”

She was getting on his nerves.

“…Ugh, please. You’ve come to take my life, haven’t you?”

“Huh? Me, take your life? Now, why would I ever do that?”

“What do you mean, why…?” Rain mumbled, confused by her words. Then, seeing the look of shock on her face, he added, “I mean…this is the Devil’s Bullet, right?”

The devil… Yes, the Devil’s Bullet. Air had definitely used that word to describe the silver bullet…and the meaning of that term was rather evident.

“Didn’t you give me this power as some sort of…I dunno, deal with the devil? In exchange, you claim my soul?”

“Did they drop you on your head when you were born?”

“……”

Just bear with it. Hitting her won’t get you anywhere.

“Don’t treat me like the biblical devil. I’ll have you know that I’m the most state-of-the-art model available. Besides, you said I’d take your soul, but do souls even exist? I can’t say I’ve ever seen one.”

“…I mean, same here.”

“Right? I can’t take something you don’t have,” Air stated as she furrowed her brow.

“Well, sure, but…”

“I’m glad we’ve come to an understanding.”

…Have we?

“Anyway, your free trial expires today. If you wish to keep using my power, you’ll have to make a pact with me.”

“See, there is a catch.”

Some state-of-the-art model you are.

“So, a pact?”

“Right. In exchange for those silver bullets, I desire everything that you are.”

Wow, that’s a pretty shitty deal…

The girl demanded his whole self in recompense. And upon hearing her conditions, Rain murmured, “A devil…”

“Right. Ghosts are one kind of devil.”

This again…

Air had called herself that repeatedly, and over the last ten days, Rain had tried to figure out what she meant, to no avail.

A ghost…

“Ugh, I’m growing tired of this back-and-forth. It’s about time I explained things to you properly. I doubt I’ll find another gunslinger as trigger-happy as you, so you’ll have to do,” Air said as her hand moved to draw the white gun on her back.

Ah… Rain reached for his own gun reflexively. Without even thinking, he pulled it out and moved the muzzle toward her. However—

“You’re slow,” Air stated. With her overwhelming speed, she had shot him before Rain could even target her.

“What…?”

“Let me show you a dream.”

And as she said that, her bullet traveled straight into Rain’s head, making him lose all strength and crumple to his knees…

Ugh…

A hazy scene played out before his eyes. It was a distorted image, with foggy, undulating edges. However, after a few seconds, the blurry world grew clearer.

Oh, this is…

It was a memory. There was a form of Bullet Magic that allowed one to display their memories—the “Projector” spell, Reluminance. The memories were loaded into a bullet, which was then shot into a person so they could relive them. A most uncommon, rarely used spell.

Rain was on a battlefield. Whose memory is this...?

A recollection of a war? Flames raged, screams of pain tore through the sky, and armored vehicles raced forward, trampling the remains of the dead. Old Exelias tore through enemy lines, facing off in the dozens.

And that was when she suddenly appeared. A silver girl, smiling pleasantly as she destroyed one enemy after another.

That’s… She was a rather beautiful, striking girl. Wielding the cannon on her back, she unleashed Bullet Magic and made quick work of the Exelias. It was as if a Valkyrie had descended onto the battlefield.

The girl’s gallant stride made her attractive features all the more radiant. And by crushing the enemy with her own two hands, she’d brought that war to an end.

She’d stopped all the fighting, which made her a hero. However, when the image changed, Rain was dumbstruck.

Huh...?

“Why...? Why?!”

The same silver star of the battlefield was bound in chains like a felon.

“I fought while wagering everything I had…so why?!”

The military tribunal had made its judgment. And its verdict was…capital punishment.

“No— Wait, stop, noooooo!”

The moment she heard about her sentence, the girl flew into a rage. Thanks to some impromptu use of Bullet Magic, she stole a nearby guard’s pistol and escaped the place. Unfortunately, her pursuers soon recaptured her.

Lying atop the white snow, the girl wept bitterly. And yet they still shot straight through her heart. They executed her…and the memory cut off there.

“Ugh, aaah!” Rain woke from the vision with a start, his heart beating like a drum. He’d been exposed to those memories for only a few seconds, but his forehead was slick with cold sweat. Also, his consciousness felt unfocused, as if he’d been intoxicated. “That…was…”

“Yes, that’s right. Those were my memories,” Air declared. “Now allow me to introduce myself once more.”

At those words, the girl straightened and looked Rain right in the eye.

“I am a mage who was once affiliated with the First Unit of Harborant’s ground forces. And one hundred years ago, I was executed by the military, who sealed my very existence into a bullet and turned me into a Ghost.”

A Ghost. Or in other words…

“Then you really did…”

“I died. A long time ago…”

Her voice was perfectly detached as she spoke of her own demise.

“It happened just like in the memory I showed you. They shot me through the heart. And time after time, people like you picked me up, which was how I retained my consciousness for so long. Though I’ve been dormant the past twenty years,” Air added.

There was no melancholy in her voice, no resentment or malice. It honestly almost sounded as if she didn’t care about anything she was saying.

“Oh, allow me to correct myself. My real name is Air Arland Noah. I’m a mage who was given an unprecedented promotion at the age of fourteen. As a commander, I led a five-day defensive line to victory during the concluding battle of the first war in 1881. And I was once a dyed-in-the-wool, true-blue war hero who saved her country.”

Rain couldn’t laugh off her words. After all, he’d just seen her memories. That battlefield had been full of first-generation Exelias, which were clearly from a century ago. Plus, he’d seen the girl’s incredible prowess as she danced across that battlefield. However, he’d also seen the scene that followed…

“An execution…”

“Yes. I was killed.”

It was a cruel, ghastly conclusion…

“My own country put me on trial and sent me to the gallows.”

“Why…?”

“The battle you saw was the final one of the first war, the Battle of Anval. I led them to victory in that battle, but while I was a mage…I was also a student. The people in charge were scared that having a child war hero would shame them. Not only did they send children who weren’t ready for war into battle, but one of them even led them to victory. That fact greatly complicated the country’s righteous narrative. That’s…the only reason, really.”

They’d sentenced her to death for such a simple reason. Which was why, on the verge of death…

“I cursed them.”

May you all rot and fester—

That had been her greatest wish. And at the very end, her lingering grudge had been preserved…

“My existence was sealed into this bullet.”

Air pulled out an accessory that had been dangling from her neck. It was a bullet, but not a silver one like the Devil’s Bullet. Instead, it was an eerie black.

“I am within this black bullet, but I have no clue who resurrected me like this, or even what happened to my corpse. Though, circling back to our earlier topic, perhaps humans do have souls…and mine is sealed in here. Either way, thirty years after my execution, during the second war, I woke for the very first time.”

“Seventy years ago…”

The second war…

“Yes, and I quickly realized I had a rather special disposition.”

“Disposition?” Rain echoed.

Air paused for a moment. “Do you know the story of the Ten Divine Sentinels from the Bible?”

“Well, yeah.”

People considered it a fairy tale, but the story of the Ten Divine Sentinels was common knowledge. Several countries had even derived their names from it.

“Let’s see… To defend himself, God chose a representative from each race in the world, allowing them to pick from ten divinities… Also, there’s a similar story in an island nation to the far east.”

“Yes. So tell me, what was so special about those ten races?”

“I believe it was their divine blessings, which became the inspirations for the names of some countries: Renosaid, the Celestials; Belial, the Daemons; Traxil, the Shieldguards; Rentogral, the Trueflames; Achiral, the Crystalians; Oud, the Grankaisers; Pharel, the Aviators; Pixie-Oh, the Starspirits; Demifaman, the Demidivines; and Ema, the Lupines. Those make up a total of ten races.”

“Correct. And I noticed the brand of the Belial on my body,” Air said as she rolled up the sleeve on her left arm.

“That’s…”

A pattern that looked like a stagnant black seal was etched onto her arm.

“The symbol of the Belial… As a mage, I’ve gained a single divinity that exceeds human comprehension.”

Divinity was the name for magic that defied human understanding. And the Belial’s divinity produced the Devil’s Bullet.

“The Belial’s divinity… Or in other words, the power of Oblivion. It was…powerful, to say the least. I’d used many forms of Bullet Magic in my life, but the Devil’s Bullet was on an entirely different order of magnitude. It was truly a weapon from the age of the gods. And in exchange…” Air paused and lowered her gaze before raising it again and saying, “I became a Ghost.”

Her eyes had suddenly changed.

“”

Rain couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine as he watched Air’s beautiful, transparent silver eyes turn pitch-black. Black, a color that was impossible for a human. And in the center, her irises looked like rubies.

They were the distorted eyes of monsters, of beasts like the demons and vampires who appeared only in legends and the Bible.

“The color of my eyes is one aspect of this curse. Whenever I use my powers, my eyes become wasp-hued like this. So in order to hide my identity, I have to take great care every single time I use the slightest bit of magic.”

Air laughed lightly, but Rain could tell the situation annoyed her. Her black-and-red wasp-hued eyes were simply that abnormal. They were the eyes of someone who deviated from the norm, of someone inhuman. And they all but confirmed she’d lost any last shred of her humanity.

“Well, anyway, seventy years ago, I gave that bullet to the first man I met. I was a genius, so thanks to my life experience, I knew how to best use it,” Air proclaimed with her black-and-red inhuman eyes exposed.

Her life experience… She must’ve meant the life she’d led before she cursed the world.

“I decided to grant this power to many people.”

That meant Rain wasn’t the first person who’d used the Devil’s Bullet. People had had their existence erased many times in the past.

“But unfortunately, I never once found a worthwhile partner. They were all either fools who feared erasing people or who got drunk off the power and destroyed their own lives. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, as they say. If you don’t use your head, all that power is a waste… I’d thought my life as a Ghost would never change—but then you appeared, Rain.”

Air paused for a moment at that point.

“You’re trying to end this war, right? And not in a peaceful, friendly manner. You wish to crush the West so thoroughly that they never dare rear their ugly heads again. That’s your goal. Honestly, I like that about you…and I know exactly how you feel. You’re no mere cadet. Behind that vacant expression is a dark and brutal nature. You’d erase countless others from existence without batting an eye. And I’d wager it stems from the hatred burning in your chest. I’m right, aren’t I?”

Intense hatred. Flames of vengeance that coiled upward from the darkest purgatory. Both of those emotions slumbered within Rain Lantz.

“Tch…” Rain clicked his tongue as he restrained himself. He knew if he didn’t, his rage would bubble to the surface.

“Well, regardless, you’ll have to make a pact with me if you intend to keep using the Devil’s Bullet,” Air stated as she pulled her handgun away.

“…What does that involve, exactly?”

“I told you already. I desire everything that you are… Or, to put things in simpler terms, I want the right to decide everything you do. If I tell you to go somewhere, you’ll travel there, even if you end up in the depths of hell. If I tell you to shoot someone, you’ll gun them down, even if they’re your family or a loved one. If I tell you to bark, you’ll woof like a puppy. And if I tell you to die, you’ll drop dead on the spot. All you have to do is act according to my orders,” Air said as she playfully twirled the gun in her hands.

“That’s…”

How is this not a deal with the devil? Sounds pretty damn devilish to me…

“…Ha-ha-ha. Well, that’s fine. I’ll give you time to think things through. For now, I’ll give you one simple order. If you wish to make a pact with me, complete it.”

A deal with the devil… In exchange for your soul, I shall grant you power. Those notions were the stuff of legends, but she spoke of them in an extremely casual manner.

After a few silent moments, Air pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket.

It was a clipping from a public newspaper. The latest publication, in fact.

Peace talks failed.

War to resume after complete breakdown of negotiations.

She’d pulled out an article, and the picture at its center showed important figures from both the East and the West. And standing among them, looking out of place, was a young officer in his twenties.

“See that gentle-looking man there, first from the right? That’s a soldier from the West named Alec.”

Alec…

“His full name is Alec Thanda. His face may be adorable, but he’s one of the most accomplished soldiers in the West. The man is a natural-born warrior who’s snatched eight victories from the jaws of defeat. And according to this article, they’re going to move him to the central battlefronts because negotiations are going nowhere.”

Alec Thanda, an important soldier from the West… Rain had found his next target.

“This is just a provisional order, but I’ll speak in an official capacity to help keep us on the same page… Rain, erase Captain Thanda.”