164 Signing In

Down the street. To the left. A U-turn. To the left again. Down the street.

'Is he testing our ability to follow? This is quite a low-quality test if that's the case.'

Mitsuna thought to herself as she followed behind the man and the group followed behind her. The soldier seemed to take completely random turns only to return to the main street after turning around at some point.

It felt dumb, yes. It felt stupid and useless, yes. It felt like a waste of time. But Mitsuna didn't want to whine about it out loud to the examiner. So, she did it internally.

The group had been walking around in circles for a total of about 20 minutes. The soldier did another U-turn. As the front of the group passed the back of the group, Mitsuna couldn't help but feel as though there were fewer people compared to a few minutes ago when the soldier examiner last turned around.

'Huh. There actually are fewer people. Three. No, four are missing.'

She wondered where the small group had gone for a few seconds but simply accounted it to getting bored and leaving or something similar. Even so, she felt slight interest as to where people were disappearing to.

'Did they actually just walk off or did something beckon them?'

She thought as she spread her senses with a calm breath to cover the entire group.

They kept walking for a while longer, not making much progress down the main street as they kept turning down nearly every single alleyway they passed.

About six minutes passed when she felt it.

'Someone walked off.'

The group had just been walking down a small alleyway before turning to a side alley. Someone who she couldn't quite see just didn't turn to follow the group but kept walking forwards without turning their head towards the now-medium-sized group or even hesitating in his steps.

'An illusion maybe? Or maybe he really just didn't care and left.'

Whatever the case may have been, Mitsuna decided not to ponder on it any longer and just kept following along.

In total, it had now been about 40 minutes.

At last, the group reached the wall of the capital. The soldier stopped next to the wall before turning around and glancing over the group that remained.

He didn't say a word or show any visible reaction, Mitsuna however did notice him narrowing his eyes ever so slightly before blinking once and turning back away from the group.

He stood there for a grand total of 20 seconds before he placed his hand on the wall beside him. A small doorway opened which he then entered.

'So they do have a way to get on top of the wall besides scaling it or going through the stairs near the gate entrances.'

Mitsuna thought to herself, slightly amused.

'I wonder how many kids have stumbled upon some of these hidden doors?'

Following the soldier through the passageway and up a tight flight of stairs, Mitsuna could see the soldier swipe their hands against the ceiling, where the stairs had stopped. The ceiling, or rather the ground moved to the side, now letting the group reach the top of the wall.

A gentle and warm breeze brushed Mitsuna's hair aside as she looked out into the distance.

A few targets sat out there in the sand, grey and brown in colour, not quite visible to the normal naked eye. About a kilometre or more away from the wall, as well as Mitsuna could see, the targets had a diameter of less than 15 centimetres.

'And I guess we have to hit the targets now?'

She thought with crossed arms as she looked at the soldier who stood there, quiet as ever. Glancing back at the group who had now all reached the top of the wall, Mitsuna's eyes momentarily landed on the red-haired child who attempted to attack her for some reason or another. Half a second of eye contact.

Mitsuna turned back to look at the distant targets.

'So the test definitely isn't easy for anyone with only a small or moderate amount of experience. Success depends on the amount of time and chances given. Probably. Though I should be fine.'

The entrance they had used closed up with a *thud* and a second later, the soldier pointed out towards the targets.

"30 seconds. Five bullets. Hit three and pass. Hit one bullseye and pass."

'Simple enough.'

Mitsuna thought as she looked at the distant targets, not that impressed with the difficulty of the test.

'A good amount of time. Five bullets is a fair amount and hitting three out of five shouldn't be too difficult for most people with enough experience wielding guns. The problem here though... I didn't bring my gun.'

Mitsuna couldn't help but frown at herself for the issue at hand. She could just take a minute-long break and teleport to her room and back to get her gun but the soldier seemed quite stern.

"Bullets will be provided."

The soldier said, almost on cue with Mitsuna's thoughts.

'Yay~'

She thought in a monotone voice.

The soldier then handed her a handful of bullets, five in total, without a word.

'I'm first then? And you don't provide guns? Ugh. I don't want to deal with an earful from the annoying General guy. I can already hear it too. "Soldiers always need their weapon on hand" or something to that effect.'

Mitsuna could only sigh when the soldier simply pointed at the targets without moving his gaze away from her.

'Do I use [Create] and just make a gun? It might turn annoying... I already don't have a good impression of this country's military as it is.

As far as I know, they might attempt something or other and I'd have a hard time both obliterating the country and dealing with the annoyances that might arrive if I just leave.'

Mitsuna was now slightly annoyed. She flipped one of the bullets in her hand like a coin.

'Screw it. The guy didn't say guns are necessary. I'll just toss them.'

Catching the bullet, she again held it like she was about to flip it like a coin but instead aimed it forward. Gathering quite the amount of mana into her fingers, she flicked the coin at the left-most target.

A loud *Klink* sound. Almost as if someone was smashing together spoons with enhanced sound magic.

One could hear the bullet flying through the air.

It hit the target it but wasn't a bullseye.

The target moved back slightly due to the impact.

'Either two more or a bullseye and I can be done with this.'

Mitsuna motivated herself as she flicked another bullet into the air before catching it.

'If the timer started the moment the soldier pointed at the targets then I should have about 13 seconds left I think.'

She flicked another bullet at the target. *Klink*

Closer to a bullseye compared to before but still a few centimetres off.

A third flick. A third *Klink*. A miss this time as it landed in the sand. Two more chances remain, no problem.

'I think I got it now.'

A final flick. The fourth *Klink*.

She didn't get it. Another miss. Well, happens to the best of us.

'Damn. Guess I don't got it.'

Mitsuna joked to herself as she flicked her fifth bullet at the distant target. *Klink*

'Oh. A Bullseye. Nice.'

She thought to herself with a pleasant smile as it came as a surprise to her since she didn't quite give it her all on the final shot, or rather the final flick.

Mitsuna turned to the soldier next to her.

"I can go now. Right?"

[Author note: broken knee.]