Chapter 41: Ch 41: The Guns are Tempered with

Noah returned to his room...or well, the Medical wing way past midnight. And seeing as he had to get up again in a few hours, he almost wanted to skip sleeping tonight.

But what happened today was likely not going to be the last occurrence of his cleaning duties and that thought made him close his eyes and force himself to sleep.

That ended up making his mood sour but he quickly got up on time and went to the drill hall to check it out.

"It seems like I am the only one here at the moment. Maybe I should catch up on some sleep..."

Noah’s eyes started to fall when he heard a loud noise. It instantly alerted him that he was not alone and he quickly headed out to check what that noise was.

He swore he could see a silhouette of someone running away from him, but the second he tried to catch the culprit, he ran into a teacher.

"Student! What are you doing out so early in the morning? Can’t you tell the time?"

The teacher was an esper as well, so it was unlikely that he had missed the other person running away. But if he was blocking Noah, then that could only mean one thing.

’The teacher is in on this as well. Looks like I will have to give up my chase now.’

Who knew how far the other person had gotten so Noah decided to save himself the trouble of chasing after the culprit.

Also, since he did not particularly care if anyone other than Daniel or Alan got hurt.

"Student, let’s head back now. I am sure the others are done setting up the drill hall by now."

Noah nodded and followed after the teacher. But the hall was as empty as before. It made the teacher sigh and give Noah a stressed look.

"It seems like the rest of the students decided to ditch coming today. It seems like you will have to finish setting up this space alone."

And that was how Noah was put to labour immediately and he instantly made a vow.

’I am coming later from tomorrow as well.’

...

Noah finished 10 minutes before the drill time and he decided to use this time to head toward Daniel’s room. He did not want to give the other guide any time to show his disappointment.

Other students were starting to get out and head toward the drill hall when he arrived and he noticed a few familiar faces who were supposed to work the morning shift with him to avoid his gaze.

Noah ignored them back and instead, knocked at Daniel’s room.

"So you finally remembered to come? You came at an impeccable timing. A minute later and I would have left."

Daniel told Noah but that someone felt like a lie.

After all, Daniel was someone who preferred going to the class early. Would he have waited for Noah all this time if he was not sure Noah was not coming?

The simple answer was no. But Noah made sure not to show this on his face.

Instead, he flashed a smile toward Daniel and grabbed his wrist.

"I heard your complaints, and I decided to do something about them. Now, shall we get going?"

Noah asked and Daniel nodded and followed him out.

Most people had already grabbed their corner and started their drills so Noah did the same. Today was shooting practice so everyone had a gun handed out.

"We will have gun practice for both the esper and the guide team. Don’t give me that look. If you ever get too exhausted to use your ability, you will need to know how to use a gun."

The teacher quickly quietened the complaining espers before he showed how to load and unload the gun.

"Practice for a few minutes and then we can start shooting practice."

The instructor told them and Noah quickly unloaded his gun. But as he did that, he swore he could feel some weird interference. His trigger felt jammed, but just slightly.

He was not sure if it was only happening to his gun, or if it was happening to everyone. So he decided to ask Daniel if he could check his gun as well.

"You want to check my gun? Alright! Here you go."

Daniel handed his over immediately and his gun showed the same resistance. That sent alarm bells inside Noah’s mind.

[You have noticed an abnormality in the test guns.]

[A new conclusion will unfold.]

[A new mission has been created. Protect Subject E-001 and G-002 from harm.]

Noah did not believe in coincidences, but the fact that he had seen someone running out of the drill hall right before they needed to set up stuff made him feel suspicious. And that results in him discovering this.

Now the bigger questions are - how was he going to resolve this situation? He doubted anyone would believe him if he presented the situation to them without any evidence.

"Hey, are you alright? You went pale all of a sudden."

Daniel asked and Noah quickly pulled himself together. He was sure that nothing would happen.

Since the teachers were on it, what were the chances they would call for Alan or Daniel to come up and be the first to volunteer for the shooting practice.

’Right, there is no way they would. I need to stop worrying about them...’

Of course, they did not get selected. But for some reason, teachers decided that Ethan was the perfect person to shoot first.

Ethan, who had been volunteered, stepped forward and Noah started to feel guilty. He wondered if he should say something to warn the other...but what if that painted him as the culprit?

He doubted Ethan would die even if the gun exploded but the thought was still not a nice one.

And then, the teachers and his fate decided to fuck him up. One of the teachers noticed him and decided to make this a pair training.

"Hey, how about we make this an esper-guide pair training? Since Ethan is here already, we can call his partner up and have them go against a live target."