Chapter 59
The shooting club, a remodeled old wooden building, reeked of gunpowder the moment they stepped inside. A few leather sofas were placed here and there, most of them steeped in the stale smell of tobacco. Unsurprisingly, every seat was occupied by men.
She had sensed it from the building’s exterior, but this was certainly not the sort of shooting club young people frequented. Most of the men were getting on in years, and when they saw Sasha enter after Isaac, they frowned as if displeased.
It seemed they did not appreciate the thought of their sacred domain being used as a dating spot by a couple of green youngsters.
Isaac felt those unfriendly stares the moment he entered and hesitated, but soon stood there expressionless, sweeping his gaze around as if to overwhelm them. Sasha, however, had no interest whatsoever in their silent power struggle. She was busy dragging Isaac along after an employee who, with a strangely unwelcoming face, reluctantly guided them to their seats.
“Here. Captain. Over here.”
Sasha soon led him to one of the lanes where the smell of gunpowder hung thick in the air. Each lane had a partition, making it much better than the hall.
Isaac followed her reluctantly and muttered,
“There are only old men here.”
“Yes. That’s why I chose this place on purpose.”
“What good does it do to show these people that we’re stuck together?”
“That’s not what this is. I just thought you’d like it here.”
Isaac, who had been grumbling while thoroughly scanning their surroundings, paused at Sasha’s added words.
“There wasn’t much to enjoy at the mansion, and you were bored. You kept circling the garden so much that a path must have formed in the shape of your footprints.”
“That isn’t funny.”
“That’s a shame. Anyway, Captain, you’re usually close to guns, so I thought you might feel more comfortable if you came here.”
As if handing a single cigarette to someone who had quit smoking long ago, that was her reason for bringing him to a place full of guns.
Sasha spoke with a fairly serious expression. Isaac found it absurd, but instead of replying to her words, he shut his mouth.
“But there isn’t anything here for you to enjoy, Miss Grayson. Won’t you be bored?”
“I’ll just sleep like you did earlier.”
At her teasing words, Isaac recalled the disgraceful state he had shown earlier and quickly turned away.
The guns on display were arranged in a fairly proper selection. In other words, this was a decent shooting club in its own way. Since the place was old, there were also quite a few old guns that felt pleasantly familiar.
“Or would you teach me?”
As Isaac was looking over the display, Sasha poked her head out beside his arm and asked. Isaac stiffened for a moment and looked down at the round back of her head.
“I’d been thinking I should learn someday anyway. Actually, I did try to learn. But as you know……”
“Grandmothers who want to teach their granddaughters shooting are rare.”
Isaac replied as if he understood. Taking Sasha’s words into consideration, he began carefully selecting weapons that would be relatively easy for a beginner to handle.
Isaac soon picked up a suitably light pistol. Sasha was already standing at the practice point. Isaac looked down as she removed her gloves and revealed her white hands, though he had not told her to do so in advance.
“Have you never held a gun before?”
“No. Not even once.”
Isaac picked up an old-looking flintlock pistol and placed it on her palm. At a glance it looked small and light, but it must have felt rather heavy to her, because a low “Oh” escaped her lips.
“The muzzle is long.”
Looking at the long barrel, she gave her unvarnished impression.
“That’s what improves accuracy. This is the trigger, and the flint is here. When you pull the trigger, the flint strikes here and ignites the gunpowder.”
“……Mm…… aren’t there better guns these days besides this one?”
“This is better for practice.”
“This seems completely useless for actual combat. When are you supposed to put the gunpowder in, exactly?”
At Sasha’s grumbling, Isaac rolled his eyes down at her.
“You’ve never held a gun, but it seems you know quite a bit.”
She answered without looking particularly flustered.
“I studied from books, in my own way. I thought it would be good to at least know the theory.”
“Why are you trying to learn shooting?”
“A woman’s body has its limits, after all. I wouldn’t be able to win in a fight, so I thought it would be good to learn shooting at least.”
“……Is it perhaps because of that cousin?”
Isaac asked, his tone lowering coldly without his realizing it.
Sasha did not even look at Isaac and was busy fiddling with the barrel. She answered indifferently.
“Of course Jeffrey usually does make me angry, but I wasn’t particularly aiming this at Jeffrey.”
“When would someone like you ever be in danger?”
Isaac suddenly replied like that, then shut his mouth. It was because he remembered the unidentifiable gaze he had sensed since the theater.
“No, I think it’s wise. I’ll correct myself. I’m sorry, Miss Grayson.”
For a moment, his face grew hot, as though he had acted as if she were the one lacking a sense of safety. Isaac quickly shook it off and focused once more on teaching her how to shoot.
“Since you already know the theory, this should be easy. The bullet goes in here.”
After miming the insertion of a bullet, Isaac took out the ramrod beneath the barrel and demonstrated gently pushing it into the muzzle.
Then he showed her, as an example, how to add gunpowder and lightly tap the side of the barrel so it would settle evenly.
“The trigger is here. When you pull it, you’ll feel the gun gradually growing hot.”
“I didn’t expect you to teach me so seriously. Since you’re a soldier, I thought you’d refuse in a more conservative way.”
“If you’re going to learn in the first place, it’s better to learn from someone like me. Rather than from idiots who go around hunting deer as a hobby.”
Ah, that was definitely aimed at Jeffrey Grayson.
As Sasha thought that to herself, she felt something hard and broad touch her from behind. He, who had been standing beside her, had taken a position behind her.
“Feet shoulder-width apart.”
Apart from his words having grown shorter than before, she could feel his chest press close against her back. Sasha tensed without meaning to and, hesitating slightly, carefully spread her feet apart.
“This is your sighting point. Can you see it?”
“……Mm……”
She answered vaguely and shifted her body a little. It was because the situation was more embarrassingly intimate than she had expected.
Isaac, for his part, had decided to teach properly and was focused solely on that. He did not even notice that her cheeks had turned slightly red, just like his ears earlier. He was diligently showing her how to load the bullet and add the gunpowder.
Since she was a beginner, naturally, he was the one holding the gun. Sasha watched somewhat awkwardly as he fiddled with the gun and added the gunpowder while holding her from behind.
Whether she did or not, he completed the loading while muttering nonstop in serious explanation, then placed the gun in her hands. Then he taught her how to hold it, and over her fingers, he layered his own to personally help her pull back the firing mechanism.
“……Ah. It’s getting hotter.”
Sasha, who had been stiff and uneasy in the rather embarrassing posture, soon had her eyes light up with interest. She could feel heat curling through her palm.
Then, following Isaac’s instructions, she aimed the muzzle at the target dummy and fixed her gaze on the sighting point. At his signal, she pulled the trigger.
The bullet fired, and at the same time, the recoil pushed her body sharply backward. Naturally, instead of staggering, she simply slid neatly into his broad arms.
“Well done. For a first time.”
Isaac praised her calmly.
“You can’t hit the center from the start. You’ll improve with practice. Though you need to learn loading properly before aiming.”
Listening to him calmly offer encouragement while half-embracing her, Sasha felt almost dazed. Through her back, she could feel the firm muscles of the man’s chest.
Chest muscles? Have I lost my mind?
“Uh…… It’s fun.”
Sasha spoke as she carefully slipped out of his arms.
She looked at him somewhat suspiciously, wondering where on earth the man who had blushed at the sight of her in a dress the day before had gone.
“……Is there anything else you’re curious about?”
Where on earth did that man go?
When Sasha stared at him with a slightly dumbfounded feeling, Isaac merely asked calmly whether there was anything she wanted to know.
Sasha shook her head.
“No.”