8 The Time After (2) - 7

She was called the final heroine for only one reason.

You see, if the game somehow progressed to the "bad" ending, and all the actual heroines died, she would become the one and only lover of the Main Character.

In all honestly, from the views of many, this was the best ending in the game as the romance was kept as vanilla as possible, but it was extremely weird for the people who had played the game because they wanted to play an eroge.

Anyways, she, along with the Main Character, had removed my heart from my chest in the last run through, before going off and marrying each other afterwards.

I know, talk about a MILF.

Well, now, I was confused though.

If she was not technically a heroine, as she was only the back up one, would she inherit her memories from the past timeline?

I guessed the only way to find out was to actually meet her for the first time.

So, there I was, dressed in my best training clothes, sitting in a wheelchair outside the mansion with my parents as they came out to greet Rylvia.

You see, although my parents were high ranking nobles, and would have usually met guests inside in the drawing room, due to the fact that Rylvia was one of the greatest gunslingers in recorded history, our hiring of her was thought of more as a favor from her to us, as it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to learn from her.

Last life, she had trained me because she had a grudge against some particular elves and had accepted the job for the sole purpose of brainwashing me to kill those elves once I crossed the border into Elven Lands.

Of course, I had nulled her brainwashing, and hadn't killed the elves for her, probably making her hate me even more, as I had been a bratty, dirty mouthed noble when I was under her teaching, using every moment and breath to curse her in more colorful ways than you could ever imagine.

Anyways, she eventually killed me, and I hadn't done any of the truly evil things I had done to the other heroines to her, so I considered us even.

So, this time, I would just train diligently under her, and act like a prodigy so that I could reap out more of her skills to add to my own arsenal.

Back to the present, I looked in the distance, where I saw a carriage coming closer and closer to our manor.

Knowing that it was about time for the moment of truth, I prepared myself to jump into her bullet's path immediately if she decided to fire her gun.

After all, it was basically a surefire way for me to die, as even though Cor and Caroline were watching in the shadows, they were still nowhere close to Rylvia in terms of power, and it would be impossible for them to prevent my death.

Ever so hopeful, I smiled and eagerly watched as the carriage stopped in front of us, and a women dressed in a black trench coat with a black, wide-brimmed hat, a belt with many types of guns in it, and an undershirt with many different holes and pockets to hold things in, jumped out of the carriage.

Not even bothering for the sake of the driver, the woman slapped the horses hard, and they ran off back towards the entrance to our estate.

"Lady Rylvia, it's nice to finally meet you." Greeted my dad.

She turned around and first looked at my dad, before turning her gaze down and studying me.

Her eyes locked with mine for a few moments, before she just looked away and greeted my parents back.

Seeing that her expression hadn't changed the entire time she had looked at my face, I could basically hear the relieved sighs that my sisters were probably taking right now as they watched from some random window somewhere.

Well, after my parents finished with their formalities, they immediately threw me into the tiger's den as they pushed a flintlock pistol into my hand and then had a maid wheel me and take Rylvia to the training room.

The maid then left, and so I was now alone with Rylvia.

"Do you know how to shoot?"

"Yes."

"Let me see then, dismantle and reassemble the flintlock in under 15 seconds and I'll consider you proficient enough in understanding how to shoot."

I smiled inwardly when I heard her words, as I reminisced back to the time that she had said this in the previous timeline.

Of course, the outcome now would be much different from that of the previous run through.

After all, at first, I hadn't understood why she had made me do this, complaining the whole time about how this was a useless task, but when I rose to become the second strongest gunslinger in history, I finally understood that the reason she had made me do this was to set a foundation for all that I would later become.

"Start."

Hearing her voice, I was shaken out of my thoughts, but my hands moved on their own as I relied on pure instinct to disassemble and reassemble the gun in under 8 seconds.

Finishing seven seconds early, I just looked up to Rylvia for my next task.

But, I guess she was either shocked or deep in thought as she didn't respond at all and just stared at my hands.

"Weren't you paralyzed from the neck down until only a few months ago?"

"Yes, the doctors were able to fix me up enough to allow me to move my upper body. I still can't move my legs though."

"And how did you know how to do that?"

"I've been fascinated with guns for forever, before I was, well, like this, I could do this task in under 5 seconds."

Hearing this, her eyes widened.

Knowing her, she would never check if this information was false if the proof was right in front of her eyes, and well, my performance was proof enough.

"Well then, let's get on to the next exercise."

Pulling out two of her own flintlocks, she gave me a demonstration.

"Bang! Bang!"

"CLINK!"

Shooting with one gun first, and then the other, I could see a noticeable spark in the air on the other side of the shooting range as the second bullet caught up to the first one and hit it from the back.

"This works because one of the guns operates at a faster speed than the other. Do you think you can do that?"

She handed me the two flintlocks and I held them steadily in the air.

"Bang! Bang!"