The Strongest Gun Magus: I Cast Bullet!-Chapter 29: Mother Knows Best

The day has been wonderful for Markus, as much as his days ever were since the lost duel against Reynard.

Today, he managed to walk to the privy unassisted, and his mother cried tears of joy upon hearing that.

At least, even if Markus wasn’t going to be a magus, he could still inherit the wealth of his family!

And then, his day went into the ditch again.

"Markus, you know us. We wanted to destroy that bastard as much as you wanted to! And we were sure he would be eaten... But... He killed that spider, in the end," Carl explained, carefully avoiding the part where Reynard saved him from that same spider. "But I and Joshua both got wounded on the hunt. Joshua is still in the hospital..."

He was standing near Markus’s bed, where the former magus was resting again. After hearing this, Markus wanted to throw something at his friend, even though it was just a pillow.

But Carl did look pale and miserable.

"I will help you pay for the medicines," Markus said begrudgingly. "But I can’t just let Reynard walk away from all this, you understand? You told me that the Magister will deal with him..."

Carl nodded.

"Yeah, and I’m sure he still would. That snake Reynard keeps slithering after Marien, after all! But maybe this is what protects him?"

Markus scowled.

"Well, this would surely change if Reynard got into Marien’s bad graces. Which should have happened already, but if it didn’t—come up with something!"

Carl nodded faster.

"Yes, yes! But... with what?"

Markus scowled at him, and Carl stared blankly back. Neither of them had any ideas beyond attacking directly, and they already knew Reynard was simply stronger.

"Damn it," Markus grumbled. "Carl, call my mother here."

Carl nodded, thinking that he would rather go poke a Singing Spider.

***

Missus Amelia Furgund, Markus’s mother, was already in her forties, but looked barely thirty thanks to the rejuvenating ointments she could afford, and was very beautiful.

The first thing she did after entering Markus’s room was to start fussing.

"Oh, Markus, you look pale! Have you stressed yourself again with bad thoughts? Let me open the window—the fresh breeze will blow it all away!"

She went for the window without waiting for a reply.

Carl went to sit on a stool in a corner and tried to blend with the furniture.

"Mother... Mother, you know the story with Reynard?.. Carl told me today that he survived the Autumn Beast Hunt."

Amelia turned from the open window.

"What, really? But... Didn’t your friends tell you that they were going to throw him to the monsters? That bears would tear him apart, foxes would feast on his liver, and crows would pluck out his eyes—which is only a part of what this worm deserves for wounding you so, my boy!"

Carl paled.

"I... I didn’t say anything about the—the liver-feasting, or eye-plucking... Or even bears, well..."

"A failure! My boy gave you the privilege of his confidence, of his friendship, and this is how you repay him for it? Markus, do you really need such friends? You have your dear mother, you know. You always will."

Markus smiled at his mother adoringly as she smiled back.

"Ah, Mother. Forgive Carl, he’s just a moron. But... Can you help us with this, please?"

"Finally! I was offering you for so long! Don’t be ashamed, there’s nothing wrong about asking your mother to help, my boy!"

Markus disagreed, which was why he tried to deal with things himself so far. But in the end, mother always won, which was why she was his mother, and all of the harlots that tried to seduce his father tended to mysteriously disappear.

"So... What do I do? I was hoping Magister Bartholomew would get rid of Reynard for seducing his granddaughter, but now I think she’s protecting him from his wrath... And few people in the school will dare to mess with him because of her. If only she got bored or angry with him..."

Amelia nodded in understanding.

"Oh, I see how it is. Don’t worry and simply rest. Your dear mother will arrange everything, and you will rest peacefully when Reynard is chopped into pieces and revitalizing essence is made from his ground bones... Carl, let’s go, we shouldn’t tire Markus out. Come drink tea with me instead, we have something to talk about."

***

Calcination, dissolution, distillation, separation, fixation, and projection... The same operations that Reynard could so easily perform while on First Cycle were now five times harder.

It wasn’t because Reynard was refining more mana than before. His Inner Athanor was of the same size as before, so it was still filled from a single Saturnian Ivy flower. But there was also mana from his First Cycle.

It had to be joined with new mana while also being refined again, and this made every operation more difficult.

To start with, the calcination—controlled heating of mana—had to be done much more slowly to make sure all the mana had the same temperature despite their different qualities.

Halfway through his first attempt, Reynard realized he wouldn’t have enough life force to sustain Innate Fire for long enough to do it without knocking himself out.

That, at least, could be fixed with life-strengthening elixirs that Reynard bought on the market.

A similar principle applied to all other operations. But mostly, it all just required repeating the same things Reynard did before.

A week later, he reached the Operation of projection.

In that time, Chili grew enough to run around the tiny pen made for him in Reynard’s garden, huff fire at its borders, and oink pitifully in hopes that Reynard would share with it its life-strengthening elixirs.

Like right now.

"None of that for you. You are already growing pretty strong on all that milk I buy!" Reynard grumbled, taking a swing of an elixir.

Then he closed his eyes and focused.

Inner Fire surrounded his crucible, burning as hot as Reynard could make it. Even if a solid state, its half-refined nature made it more resistant to further refinement.

But under that heat, it was starting to melt and turn from pink to white. Reynard was drenched in sweat, but he still smiled at his progress.

Then, before it became fully liquid, the mana began darkening again, and Reynard’s heart sank.

’The projection... It’s going to fail and regress to the previous cycle!’