Chapter 58 58 The Wildest Imaginations

Of course the bullet had missed the target as a result.

"I'm sorry…"

She remembered how Zach had already told her not to flinch and to keep her eyes open but she had failed to do so. She looked towards Zach to see if he was angry with her for such low performance but instead she found him smiling as if he had already expected the same result.

"You don't need to be sorry. I have seen worse first tries than this. I have seen people throw away the weapon in surprise after their first try. Your mistake is nothing in front of what I have seen before. I never expected you to get it right on your first try either; after all you have never seen this kind of weapon before. Even I was surprised the first time I used this weapon even when I knew how it worked. You will get used to the sound and the recoil of the weapon upon firing in no time if you practice properly. Just don't lose heart." explained Zach in between smiles in order to encourage Diana some more.

Zach had purposely not demonstrated the firing process to Diana so that she could find out everything about the weapon on her own which was always a better learning experience than if the instructor laid it all bare in front of the student.

"Master could have warned me about the sound beforehand. I wouldn't have been so surprised then. He definitely did it on purpose." Diana puffed up her cheeks as she looked at Zach who was laughing at her discretely.

She turned towards the target once again and corrected her posture just like her master had taught her. Determined to hit the target this time, she took a deep breath in order to calm down her racing breath. She kept her previous experience in her mind and squeezed the trigger as gently as possible as if afraid of truly firing the weapon in her hand.

*BANG*

An instant later than the flash of the muzzle, the explosive sound of the firing of the bullet reappeared but this time her eyelashes didn't' even flinch and kept the shutter to her eyes open as if glued in place.

Small splinters of the trunk shot out of the tree bark as the bullet lodged itself in the centre of the target marked by Zach.

"Whoa! I can't believe it. That's a bulls-eye." Zach gasped in surprise as he had not expected her to be this good as she got over the first surprise of her recoil and explosive sound.

Diana flashed a smile that was like the blossoming spring and made her look angelic. She was incredibly excited that the bullet had hit the mark unaware how unreasonable it was to be able to be hit the target perfectly on your second try.

Again Zach felt that it was good that he didn't teach her based on the stereotypical approach of the previous world.

"Maybe its beginners luck?" Zach thought to himself as he indicated for her to continue shooting in order to assess her skill level.

To test whether it was beginner's luck or not, Zach needed more data. He carefully looked at her firing posture and the way she squeezed the trigger with a professional eye and found that it was perfect…just the way he had taught her.

"She is a natural genius." Zach couldn't help but mutter under his breath. Without even looking at the target he was sure that it was going to be another bulls-eye.

As expected the bullet hit the same mark as the previous bullet and increased the depth of the gorge created by the previous bullet.

"Keep going and empty that magazine." Zach instructed so he could gauge her accuracy level.

"Mmm~" She nodded and then continued to fire at the target one after the other.

"I really can't believe how good she is. She is practically at the same level as I am even though she doesn't have the experience and knowledge of its operations as I have. It was definitely the right decision to teach her this way. Whatever impression she has in mind and no matter what method she is using to control the recoil, she is carrying out her task perfectly. Even I can't do any better than her."

Zach couldn't help but be excited at her future prospects. Considering that she had become a member of his party, the future tactical combination of the two was bound to be nothing but deadly. With her as cover, Zach could rush into any battlefield with confidence and come out victorious. Even mages could be caught off guard if he worked together with her.

A smile crept up on his face that anyone would have found perverted had they seen it in person. Thankfully, there was no one around other than Bruce and Diana and both of them were focused on the target so no one witnessed the scene.

"How was it? I did good right?" Diana fired off the remaining shots with near perfect accuracy and turned towards Zach who was lost in thought to ask about her performance.

Even though the bullets had hit the mark and she was sure of it, she wanted to hear his opinion regarding her performance since she already considered him her master and was hungry for his approval.

Zach didn't answer her question at all. He was so happy on finding the perfect partner who could accompany her in this world that he unconsciously grabbed her from her waist and lifted her into the air in his excitement. He didn't even notice the blush that creeped on to her face and spread down her neck as he twirled her round and round.

Only once he looked up at her face did he catch sight of the cherry red color of her blushing face which cause his excitement to boil down and he finally put her down.

The atmosphere turned slightly awkward and the two simultaneously looked away from each other as if there was something interesting at the opposite end of their vision.

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Frederick waited for the news that he had been expecting inside his room but unlike usual, the mage had yet to report back to him.

This wasn't the first time that Frederick had employed the services of the dark mage. Despite being a wicked and cunning one, the dark mage had never shown any delay in getting his tasks done. He had always proved to be effective which was the reason that Frederick had offered to shelter his experimentation in return for his exclusive service.

Of course he had to pay him every time as well. But that payment was just chump change for a family the size of Sosis family in the Elizabeth city.

"Why is it taking so long?" Frederick could not help but be restless as he began pacing around his room in anticipation of the news that was probably on the way.

Little did he know that his trusted mercenary was lying dead near the fence of the Luther family's mansion without being able to take a single step inside the Luther family residence, let alone assassinating Zach.

His whole night was spent in wait as he told himself various reasons for the dark mage not reporting back to him.

It wasn't until morning that he finally came to believe that the worst case scenario might have taken place. Frederick activated his spies inside the Sosis family in order to retrieve the information about the assassination attempt.

The result was even worse than he had expected. The dark mage he had sent wasn't even able to enter the mansion and was found dead the next morning. Since no one knew he was, the Luther family had set fire to his body and had thrown his remains along with the trash.

It was only then that he got over the fact that the dark mage had died before he could even attempt to assassinate the opposing dark mage. The playing field wasn't even to begin with. The dark mage supporting the Luther family turned out to be better than his wildest imaginations.

The reason he attributed the death of the black mage to Zach was because Frederick had kept a keen eye on the Luther family ever since the death of the previous leader. He knew that the Luther family did not have the potential to neutralize the threats on the level of the dark mage he had sent. And the only change in the Luther family that had occurred was the appearance of the new dark mage.