Matan’s Shooter

Chapter 709

“Hey, Leeha! Don’t tell me you’ve been just reading books without knowing about this too?”

“Oh, no. It’s just that… it didn’t come up until now…”

“If I weren’t here, we would’ve been in big trouble.”

“Yeah, that’s right. Blaugrunn is truly the best.”

With a thumbs-up gesture, Leeha praised Blaugrunn. Straining his neck, he pulled out a total of twenty-two books.

“These are items that sense the flow of mana. I will unlock them now.”

With Blaugrunn present, the tasks that would have required all sorts of preparations, from mana detection items to items for uncovering secret documents, were swiftly carried out—!

As the intense turquoise light slowly faded, the hands of the three turned towards one place.

The characters on the covers of the other books were unreadable, but it was evident that they were written in ‘Dark Elf language’.

Having seen such books numerous times at Kaztor’s other research facilities, what mattered most to the three was not that.

Among the unreadable books written in Dark Elf language, there was one with a distinguishable gun drawing!

“《Journal》!”

[Finding the Lost Records of Dark Elves]

Contents: The recovery and return of Dark Elf data including the journals of the “Matan’s Shooter” were intuitively recognized by the trio.

With all the data collected from Kaztor’s research facilities and the data found here, they believed they could finally satisfy the contents of this quest.

“This is… what the ‘Matan’s Shooter’ personally left behind…”

“A journal, huh?”

“Incredible! Incredible! Leeha, quickly, quickly!”

Blaugrunn’s eyes also sparkled brightly. Leeha, Kidd, and Luger mutually locked eyes, their usual desire to selfishly monopolize even the slightest bit of information long gone.

Finally facing the information on what might possibly be the [2nd Advancement Job] of the strongest in Midearth, the three came to a united decision for the first time.

“Right, then. Let’s open it.”

“Tsk, be careful not to wrinkle the pages of the book, you savage! Handle it delicately!”

“Luger, your hand – that, hand! Hand! You’re wrinkling the second page!”

Of course, it was only natural that as soon as they turned the first page, Luger would have to grimace in frustration.

“My name is Max Hescok. A poor hunter.”

“No, rather, the successor to a cursed profession, I don’t know how many times.”

Just two lines in the preface on the first page. Yet, Luger’s eyes reddened as he read the two lines he was about to read.

“Hes…cok? It’s you…”

“What, what’s wrong? Why?”

“You, you shit-“

“What the hell is going on!”

Luger suddenly lunged at Leeha.

Confused, Leeha tried to push Luger away, but he was no match for Luger charging like a wild animal.

If it weren’t for Kidd quickly stepping in and striking Luger’s collarbone with his palm to cut off his breath, Luger seemed like he really would have launched a serious attack towards Leeha.

“K-Kidd! Do you know- k-know what’s going on?!”

“Why are you suddenly acting like this? This is the royal palace.”

“It’s Hescok, Hescok!”

“What do you mean by that?”

Kidd replied calmly, but it was truly frustrating for Leeha. Why was Luger causing such a scene because of Hescok?

“What’s with this Hescok nonsense?”

“… You don’t know? The guy who is supposed to inherit [Bullseye]?”

“What? Is he like a descendant of [Bullseye] before Elizabeth?”

As Leeha furrowed his brows, Luger and Kidd looked genuinely bewildered.

Kidd put on his hat and let out a sigh, and Luger’s face became one unsure whether to laugh or cry.

“Absurd. How can he not even know the full name of a figure considered to be his master? The Elizabeth Hescok of [Bullseye] one of the three musketeers of the previous generation.”

“What, what? Wait a minute! That doesn’t make sense! Originally, she was called Miss Elizabeth! Isn’t Hescok a code name? I have that level of common knowledge, you know?”

Miss Elizabeth was called Mrs. Brown when she married Brown!

The words he wanted to say were stuck in her throat. As Leeha hesitated, Kidd nodded with determination.

“It may be difficult to understand for those unfamiliar with Eastern culture. The ‘Miss’ at that time was merely an expression of respect. Um… it would be best to understand it as closer to the meaning of ‘Beautiful Elizabeth’.”

“What on earth- no… but- that…”

“Elizabeth’s full name is ‘Elizabeth Hescok’, and the reason Luger got excited may be because the surname matches a certain Max Hescok mentioned in this book… Luger, you are also a foolish person.”

“What?”

“Heir only to the ‘Bullseye,’ not of Elizabeth’s lineage. Moreover, there is no evidence that Max Hescok and Elizabeth share the same lineage. In fact, this Max explicitly states that he does not follow any lineage.”

“Regardless of curse or luck. This accursed profession does not follow bloodlines. In my case, it did follow the bloodline. Nonetheless.”

“But still, wouldn’t this side be inherited somehow?”

“Hmm. Let’s see first.”

“When it is clearly revealed, it will be when I die. No, it will be when I disappear. From the beginning, I should not have picked it up. Even if I regret it now, it’s too late. But hunters can’t resist picking it up. Oh, all the cursed things in this world are beautiful.”

With an atmosphere of antiquity in their writings, the three of them once again became serious.

Blaugrunn also looked tense as he carefully read the letter.

“Is the condition for inheriting Matan’s Shooter position an item?”

“The possibility is high.”

Max Hescok ‘picked something up’. Something that even a ‘hunter’ couldn’t resist picking up.

While Leeha and Kidd did not mention specifically what item it was, they knew.

A firearm.

Even with Max Hescok regretting it so, it was clearly a gun that he couldn’t resist not picking up.

“They differentiated between death and annihilation. What could that mean?”

“And one more thing, it’s also intriguing how Max, a human who has not experienced either death or annihilation, knew about it.”

Blaugrunn responded to Luger’s muttering. Leeha was concerned that Luger might attack with his rifle if the teenager used informal speech, but such an incident did not occur. No matter how daring Luger was, he would never leap at a dragon with just his bare body.

What Leeha and Blaugrunn were curious about, and what Luger mumbled, was written on the next page.

“[I grew up as an orphan until I was 27. Well, at least that’s what I remembered. It wasn’t until I turned 27 that I found out the fact that I had a father, and that I had even lived with him until I was 27.

If it weren’t for my father’s journal, if I hadn’t found it and read it, I would have never known that I had a father.]

[The reason why Matan’s Shooter would remain a legend forever. The portrait drawn in my father’s journal, the young me smiling brightly in that portrait, and the young version of my father holding a gun that I now held in my hand; if it weren’t for those, I would have never known the truth forever.]

[Matan’s Shooter erases the user. In everyone’s memory.]

[No one in our village remembered my father. Not even my two closest friends.]

“Erase…?

“It seems to mean erasure of memory.”

“It’s not a memory erasure spell, right? It exists, doesn’t it? Considering what Lotzak, no, Kaztor used, it was definitely a kind of memory manipulation spell. So, Blaugrunn?”

Leeha hurriedly asked Blaugrunn following Kidd and Luger.

However, Blaugrunn just stood there with a blank expression for a moment.

“Blaugrunn?”

“No, this is… magic related to memory is of the highest class. Even using it on one person requires tremendous concentration and is unstable. But – if it’s as written in this journal, it seems like ‘simultaneously removing memories from all involved’… It’s impossible! Even if it were the Lord, would it be possible? No, I think it’s impossible. If that were possible, then the Color Dragons would have…

“Hmm… I guess you’re right. They must be getting along well with the Metal Dragons.”

If widespread memory manipulation or memory erasure were possible, there would never have been wars in this world.

That was what Blaugrunn was trying to convey.

Not to mention complete memory deletion that regresses someone to infancy, manipulating or erasing ‘memories about specific events’ is even more challenging.

Of course, whether difficult or not, it wasn’t a major issue for the three of them.

“The problem is that Matan’s Shooter is disappearing!”

“Death? It’s clearly different from death. If I were to become Matan’s Shooter…”

“How would that apply to the users? They went through all the trouble of a second job change, would they lose their second job? What the…! How would that apply to themselves?

Would their second job status be reversed to Musketeer and lose out? It was actually fortunate to think of it that way.

In a way, it’s to maintain the balance of Middle Earth that the strongest profession with a high risk of balance collapse imposes ammunition restrictions as a penalty. However, maybe… it might be the most useless for memories.

For a user who won’t even die, what’s the point of assassinating them a few times?

In the end, they’ll just resurrect.

But if you think it’s more than that- Leeha slowly organized his thoughts.

“How far, how much can we consider? Think, think, Leeha.”

The same was true for Kidd and Luger. Upon the first death, the loss of memory also occurs simultaneously. Leeha can accept that. Ample time will be given before it disappears. Also, Leeha believed he could control the loss of memory.”

“Dammit, my head might explode. Despite thinking that my head is dangerous, my instincts are shouting that I must pick it up as soon as I see it.”

All three of them knew that they only had the luxury of contemplating now.

If the opportunity to become Matan’s Shooter came, it would already be too late.

At that moment, they would have to act immediately based on all the contemplations they had made so far.

[Rapidfire], [Pierce], and [Bullseye].

The new generation’s three musketeers, who are not easy opponents but are both best friends and fierce rivals, are the ones who understand this more than anyone else.

[Luckily, we obtained new information in the Dark Elf forest. The God’s Sword. If that exists, then he—]

“Huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

“It got cut off.”

“Next page! Next page!”

[He tried to deceive me. He pretended to be friendly and reasonable, but he was clearly not letting his guard down. An interconnected fate? The one who only plans to destroy me and take my soul is quite a talker.]

Who exhaled first?

At least two or more people expelled their breath simultaneously.

The diary suddenly created a tense situation, making it impossible for the reader to look away.

“It feels like someone is watching us, doesn’t it?”

“Does a figure like Matan’s Shooter really exist?”

“If he can blow away anything, anyone, anywhere with a single shot, doesn’t that make him Matan?”

However, the contents of the diary were clear. Max Hescok was in a position where he was being watched or receiving instructions from someone.

“By the way, the term ‘God’s Sword’ appeared again.”

“Well, I’ve seen it in the Dark Elf forest and at Kaztor’s research facility.”

“Surely, the item must be significant. Could that be the same sword from the unfortunate incident in Minis…”

“Rainbow Knight Lark? Pfft, Luger, do you know that guy too?”

“Is there anyone who doesn’t know the guy who got the short end of the stick? Damn, if it wasn’t for Minis, he would have been crushed.”

Listening to Luger cursing at Lark, Leeha watched with amusement. They were well aware that their personalities did not match, but imagining the scene where the two of them met and clashed filled him with a strange sense of satisfaction.