Janek and I sat on a tree branch. I held his musket in my hands, and he had several pistols strapped to his body. In the Duke's Duplicity, Janek didn't use pistols, just muskets.

  However, I recalled that this was real life now and not a video game. Even the people who were fastest at reloading muskets could only get one shot off every 15 seconds. Under those circumstances, having some sort of backup was necessary. Hell, even modern soldiers carried pistols, and Janek's main weapon was far inferior to any of their guns.

  Sitting below the branch was Augusta. She had grabbed a bush and ripped it out of the ground, moving it to where she was now. It was like something out of an old cartoon.

  This was the compromise Janek reached. Augusta wouldn't be part of the hunt itself, but she would be nearby. And as long as she stayed right under us, Augusta wouldn't be in any danger of getting shot by accident. She also poured some deer urine on herself so the animals wouldn't smell her. I had no idea where she even got that.

  On the branch above, Janek turned to me. He noticed my hands shaking.

  "Are you nervous?" he asked.

  "Yes," I answered. "I've never used a gun before. This is my first time even holding one."

  "You haven't pointed it at anyone so far. So, you're doing just fine," Janek replied.

  He let out a slight chuckle. Then, his eyes turned cold. Janek scanned the horizon, gazing out for any game.

  "We are hunting deer today. If you see other animals, do not shoot. The sound will scare off the deer," Janek explained. "More will come later, but it will make the hunt longer."

  I nodded and started looking too. Several birds passed by. A squirrel ran up a tree. I think I even saw a boar in the distance. But no deer came by.

  Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes turned to hours, and I sat bored in a tree. I had no idea how anyone could enjoy hunting with a firearm. It was hours of boredom followed by a few seconds of excitement.

  Desperate to alleviate my ennui somehow, I turned to Janek and asked him a question.

  "So, have you ever used a blunderbuss?"

  He nodded.

  "I tried shooting one a few times," Janek explained.

  "How did it go?" I asked.

  "Even in the hands of an expert marksman, they aren't very useful," he answered. "They have very little range. The only thing they're good for is intimidation."

  I raised an eyebrow.

  "They're good at scaring people?" I questioned.

  "Yes. Blunderbuses make a very loud noise when fired, even by gun standards. However, aside from that, they have little use. If you want a close-quarters gun, a brace of pistols or a musketoon would be better."

  "So, blunderbusses are a big joke?"

  Janek nodded.

  "Yes. They're still firearms, so they're dangerous weapons. But they fall flat compared to other guns," he said.

  I placed a hand on my chin, entering a degree of contemplation.

  "But don't pirates use them all the time?" I asked.

  "Pirates mostly use muskets. That is their preferred weapon, above any other. They go on land and fight in small squads, eschewing the traditional line formation for one more based on stealth and cover. It works for the jungles of the New World," Janek answered. "Why would you think they used blunderbuses a lot?"

  I couldn't tell him that I remembered seeing pirate cartoons and movies featuring blunderbuses heavily. So, I shrugged.

  "It's a rumor I heard," I said.

  "Whoever told you it knows little about pirates," Janek replied.

  A sudden interest flowed through me.

  "How do you know about pirates?" I asked.

  "My uncle served as a mercenary. He was the second son, so he would inherit nothing," Janek answered. "He traveled to the New World and fought Delhians and pirates."

  A sense of awkwardness flowed through me. Janek's uncle was no doubt involved in the massacre of natives, who couldn't do much against the firearms and diseases of their colonizers. But he's also a mercenary, so it's not like he has many morals to begin with.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  "And you learned about pirates from him?" I questioned.

  "Yes," Janek nodded.

  Then, his eyes flashed. He placed a hand over my mouth, and I turned dead quiet. Janek pointed with his free arm. I looked, following his direction.

  A deer had shown up. It was a massive buck with a grand set of horns. Vines grew between its antlers, and its hide had a shade of green to it. With every step it took, grass withered and died. Any other plants it stepped on suffered a similar fate.

  "It's a drainbuck," Janek whispered. "We are lucky that we found it when we did. Those things are the death of all plant life around them."

  I remembered the drainbuck from the bonding event. And I also remembered what questions to ask.

  "How bad is it?" I spoke in a hush.

  "If it steps on the exposed roots of a tree, the tree will die. And if its fur turns completely green, it will split in two. A single drainbuck can become a herd in a matter of days. If they find farmland, it will cause mass starvation," Janek explained.

  He gazed around the area, looking for any signs of other animals.

  "There are no others. It must be a newly-formed drainbuck. We must kill it now before it spreads," the noble said. "Get in the shooting position, like I showed you."

  I raised his musket up to my shoulder and looked down at it. The gun wobbled in my grasp.

  "Are you sure you shouldn't shoot? This seems like something I can't afford to fuck up," I asked.

  Janek pulled out one of his pistols and aimed it. His weapon was incredibly steady.

  "I will also shoot," he said. "Focus on yourself. Breathe out and fire at the end of your breath."

  Trying to hold my gun straight, I took aim at the drainbuck. Nervousness started to flow through me. My body shook, and my breathing was unsteady. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself.

  The drainbuck moved through the woods, not stopping. A trail of dead plants followed in its wake. I positioned my gun over where I thought its heart was. But with how much it wiggled, it moved over the drainbuck's lungs and stomach.

  Then, at the end of a breath as vast as the ocean, I pulled the trigger.

  A loud BANG! echoed through the air. Smoke blasted from the musket in my arms as the recoil slammed into my shoulder. The drainbuck let out a human-like cry of pain, and blood splattered on the ground. For a moment, I thought the creature was dead.

  But it started to turn and flee. Panic flashed through me. I'd missed my one shot. Now, it...

  Another BANG! interrupted me from my thoughts. I turned to see smoke rising from Janek's pistol. He turned his head to me and gave a single nod.

  "You did well, for your first time," Janek said.

  "But the..." I started, turning my head towards the drainbuck.

  It was dead on the ground. When I faced Janek again, he was climbing down the tree. I followed him, cradling the musket in my arms and making sure to not point it at anything. Yes, I knew that it was impossible for it to shoot again. But safety first.

  We walked over to the corpse of the drainbuck. It smelled like a dozen different types of flowers. Augusta joined us, but she kept her distance. Janek started examining the creature's body. He pointed to a hole in its side.

  "This is where you shot. The ball went into the drainbuck's stomach. If this was a normal deer, it would have killed it. But slowly, painfully. Not an easy demise."

  A sense of guilt flowed through me. Even if the drainbuck was a threat to farmers, that doesn't mean I had the right to give it a painful death. It would be best if it could be killed swiftly.

  Then, I noticed Janek's wording. He said 'a normal deer.'

  "And a drainbuck?" I asked.

  "It would have healed by taking the lives of plants, doing more damage," Janek answered.

  He then walked over to the creature's head. The boy turned it over, revealing that one of its eyes was gone.

  "This is where my shot went, through the drainbuck's eye and into its brain. Instant death. The heart or the head. That is where you want to shoot deer and drainbucks alike," he said.

  I looked back at the tree branch we were sitting on. From that distance, this would have been a very difficult shot with a modern pistol. With a smoothbore, it should have been impossible.

  It looks like Janek was just as good a shot as he was in the game.

  "You're really good at this," I stated.

  Janek shrugged.

  "I owe it to my mentor," he replied.

  A mentor? I didn't remember any dialogue like that from this bonding event. It looked like I'd stumbled onto new territory.

  "What was your teacher like?" I asked.

  Janek smiled. A look of nostalgia crossed his face.

  "He liked hunting. He liked dogs. And he was the best shot of anyone I've known," Janek said. "He also had a very strange musket. He called it a hunting rifle."

  What?

  "It had some things on it that he called sights."

  WHAT?!?

  "I also think he might have been a bit mad. He claimed he was from another world and was given a mission by his God to teach me how to use a gun," Janek explained.

  Ho. Lee. Fuk.

  "He said he was from a place called Suomi. I've never heard of it before, and I couldn't find any atlases with it. And I have not seen a gun like his since. So, maybe there was some truth to his claim that he was from another world?"

  That was...quite the revelation.

  I was so focused on it that I didn't see Augusta walk over. Instead, I heard her voice. But I was still so fixated that I didn't even jump up in shock.

  "Is someone coming here from another world even possible?" Augusta asked.

  "I'm not a mage, so I wouldn't know," Janek shrugged. "But a god could probably do it."

  That was...was this part of the original game? I had no idea. But...Millia and I were from another world. At least, I was certain Millia was. So, other people could have come too.

  But Millia reincarnated. She confirmed that. I might have reincarnated or just gotten zapped into Dante's body. However, it looked like Janek's mentor was outright sent to this world by a deity. He had a rifle from his old world, after all. I don't know if there can be more proof of his transposition than that.

  If it was part of the original game, Millia would probably know. I could ask her, and...

  "Dante," Janek's voice hit my ears.

  I was broken from my thoughts.

  "Yes, what is it?" I asked.

  "Are you alright?" Augusta spoke next. "You got very quiet all of a sudden."

  "I'm fine. Just lost in thought," I let out a deep sigh.

  Then, I turned my gaze to the dead drainbuck. A contemplative expression crossed my face.

  "So, Janek, do you know any good drainbuck recipes?" I asked.

  "You cannot eat them," he answered. "They are poisonous to humans. In fact, we should probably burn its body until there is nothing left."

  Augusta spoke up.

  "I can handle that. You two stand back," she said.

  We did as we were told, and Augusta summoned a great fire on the drainbuck corpse. It burned like leaves used as kindling. Parts of the supernatural deer floated up into the atmosphere, turning to ash in the breeze.

  A warmth flowed through me, even though I was standing some distance away. I turned to Janek.

  "So, what are we doing for food?" I asked.

  "That is simple," he answered. "We are going back into the tree."

  Dammit!

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