The Gun Club.

The Gun Club. Apparently it's a club where you study guns and mess around with them.

Three male students had originally belonged to this club, and onto the scene swept yours truly, Karina-chan. Along with my chaperone, Dea-kun.

And what exactly do I do in this Gun Club, you ask—

"So, this here's the latest dwarven-style gun — a revolver — the one that even floored that General Garou of the Beast Kingdom."

"A-amazing! A repeating model, no less…!"

"It's dwarf-made, and if it didn't have user registration I'd have begged to test-fire it…!"

"Whoa! This part rotates, and even though the slightest misalignment looks like it'd cause a misfire, the mechanism solves it all! Incredible!"

—I show off my gun!!!

Yes, this gun is a revolver made in Aishia's hometown, the dwarven village, and it's an item far too rare to find in other countries!!

It's technically my main weapon! I don't use any other weapons. I do use magic, though.

"Hohoho, there, you can at least hold it. Here, here."

"A-a-amazing. It feels like it just clings to my hand…!"

"Next, me next, please! Let me touch it!!"

"And then me after that, Karina-samaaa!"

Heh, the latest gun makes me quite the popular one!

Feels good. So this is what it's like to be the princess of a club… wait, am I a princess here? Nah, I'm just plainly showing off a rare new item.

"I've also got a single-shot musket I picked up in Véraldo."

"Oh, this is a pretty fine gun in its own way."

"Sturdy, and coated so it won't rust easily even aboard a ship. A pirate's gun."

"This one's splendid in its own right! Hear, hear, our promising new recruit!!"

Man, these guys really heap on the praise.

I like them. I'll get the Five Elders to make me a derringer or something. A pistol small enough to grip in the palm of your hand. A single-shot model wouldn't be all that different from existing guns.

The Five Elders would probably enjoy doing some crafting as a break from their crafting, too!!

"What?! You have a dwarven gunsmith among your acquaintances?!"

"They're not specialists, but they can make pretty much anything. A mini-sized gun's no trouble."

"Please, please, please! We'll cover the cost!"

"Wouldn't a smaller one actually be harder to make?"

Fofofo. A derringer's nice, isn't it. Small and cute. A gun like a toy.

"That's a no, okay?"

"Yessir."

Sorry, Dea-kun says no, so it's off after all.

"Dea-chan, come on, what's one or two or three guns gonna hurt!"

"Yeah, yeah! Just because you're a pretty girl doesn't give you the right to stop us!"

"You're cute, but I want the gun!!"

"Possessing a concealable weapon-grade gun could potentially constitute the crime of inciting civil unrest, so."

"Well, if it's the law, can't be helped."

"True. None of us want to get arrested."

"Gotta bend to the powers that be."

Looks like they gave up surprisingly easily.

Hmm, well, if it's the law, there's no helping it.

"Can't be helped, then. In that case, I'll have them make a gun about the size of the gun in your crotch. Go on, tell me your size."

"Um. There are a great many points to retort to here, but please wait, big sis. At that rate, with self-reported numbers, how is it any different from just having them make that derringer thing…?"

"… I'm, uh, eighteen centimeters."

"Then twenty centimeters."

"Twenty-three."

Hahaha, you vain, greedy bastards! Hahaha!

"So there you have it, looks like no problem, Dea-kun."

"N-no, I just figure it's about that size!"

"If it's too small the law might lock you up, so make it on the bigger side, okay, okay?!"

"Right, right. The law, you know, the law."

"… Huh, u-uh-huh…"

Whoops. I took the dirty jokes a little too far. Dea-kun's gotten put off by me.

Anyway, it seems like the club'll be fun in its own way.

But the next day, I really did bring a gun. Karina-chan does whatever she says she'll do.

That said, it's a nerfed gun with no killing power. Bringing a real gun to a school club really would be wrong, after all… and "nerf" originally comes from the name of a toy gun, so it fits perfectly, see?

So the Five Elders whipped one up as a little diversion in three minutes.

It's not even a Magic Tool — it's a model gun that fires BB pellets by snapping them out with a spring, the kind you'd find sold at a festival stall back in Japan. Since the pellets are technically metal, maybe a silver-ball gun is the closer comparison.

What's more, it's single-shot, requiring you to load each pellet one at a time by hand. You can load it from the side, but it's a fair bit of hassle.

… At first I'd proposed having them make an automatic pistol that loads a magazine into the grip and can fire rapidly, but Dea-kun, who was listening beside me, stopped me with, "That's obviously a no, okay? What are you trying to make?"

Apparently an automatic pistol, even as a toy, is way too overspec to gift to an ordinary person…

Well, yeah. Fair. Even the latest dwarven gun is a revolver. It'd jump the era forward by a hundred years.

"Ohoo, a toy gun with no killing power?"

"A gun — a weapon that lets even a child kill a knight — deliberately weakened even further to never kill at all… How novel!"

"And it's not even a Magic Tool… This has to be the perfect toy for growing the gun-loving population!"

It was a huge hit. Apparently there'd never been a toy gun of the type that actually shoots pellets before.

After all, a gun that fires anything is a Magic Tool. Far too expensive to ever make a toy of. So the only guns that become toys are non-Magic-Tool gun replicas.

Just holding one and posing would be dull compared to a wooden sword. A wooden sword can actually attack and let you clash blows.

"With this you can shoot at each other without dying, just sting a little — let's play survival games! Survival games!"

"Sur-bai-bul? What's that?"

"A survival game. A game where you play under the premise that getting shot means death, and you compete to survive. Oh, and if a pellet hits your eye it really is dangerous, so we'll wear goggles for that."

"Sounds fun!"

"I'm in!!"

I knew you gun-loving guys would say that. Clubs are fun!!

Oh, Dea-kun, it's dangerous, so you sit and watch… huh, you want to play too, Dea-kun? Here, goggles. Be careful, okay!

Hm? Actually, couldn't I sell these toy guns?

Oh right, I'm a merchant! Maybe I'll sell these! Maybe I'll have the Five Elders set up an automated production line!