Angel Guide

Bud was an excellent gunman who could easily be called a master of firearms. He could wield a shotgun with a single hand, and hit his mark every time.

Countless adventurers in Solismenamus scoffed at his inefficient weapon choice. Ammunition cost a fortune, and cold steel was far better suited for maximizing elemental power. Others preferred heavy artillery powered by magitech. Even Bud's close friend Miller continued urging Bud to upgrade to magitech weaponry.

Nevertheless, Bud stayed loyal to his shotgun, solely because it scratched his romantic itch.

While working on an assignment in Vmerznut, Bud fell in love with the most celebrated dancer of the time, a woman named Jenny. With only Bud in her eyes, Jenny left everything behind and moved to Solismenamus to start a family with him. Bud was a devoted husband, and soon, the two had a precious daughter.

Bud and Jenny lovingly named the girl "Angel," meaning a "noble being of the heavens" in the language of an ancient kingdom. Miller, while clicking his tongue at Bud's stubbornness, was genuinely happy to be the girl's godfather.

Young Angel adored her father, who knew his way around firearms. She harbored a deep desire to become a brave adventurer taking down monsters with firearms just like her father.

To her, those who dismissed firearms as inefficient weapons were just blind to her father's greatness. She flourished in the warmth of her family's love.

Until the day cruel fate stole all of that away.

Many adventurers were jealous of Angel's father, Bud. They resented him for exceling above anyone else despite using firearms widely mocked and dismissed. They also may have been incensed seeing him live happily with a beautiful dancer as his wife.

Some called him a cheater behind his back. Others claimed that he stole the glory owed to Miller, his close friend. They were all baseless lies, and Bud ignored them.

Then one day, while on a mission hunting a monster, the unthinkable happened—Bud's shotgun failed to fire. At just ten years old, Angel lost her father.

People were quick to assume that Bud's death proved the unreliability of guns. But his long-time friend Miller couldn't accept that.

His friend had cared for his shotgun every morning like a cherished treasure. It had never once malfunctioned. Why would it fail and kill him now?

Even before Bud's funeral was over, Miller quietly began his own investigation to uncover the truth behind the tragedy. He found his answer surprisingly quickly.

Some thoughtless adventurers in Hananis were eager to prove that Bud's exceptional skills weren't real.

So they secretly replaced his gun oil with a degraded, faulty variant. It was a malicious prank that was subtle enough to avoid detection but would still raise Bud's chance of failure. They figured the world would see that he was nothing more than an ordinary man when his gun malfunctioned.

However, their cowardice led to Bud's death. When he was called on an emergency mission, Bud had no time for his routine inspection and went out with his shotgun tainted with the faulty lubricant.

In a crucial moment, his shotgun didn't fire, and that split second was enough to kill the master marksman.

After uncovering the whole truth, Miller quietly retrieved Bud's shotgun and cleaned it just like Bud used to.

Then, Angel found him. She'd already read everything Miller had found out about Bud's death. Her eyes, aged far beyond her years, burned with a fury that sought to kill everyone involved in her father's death and anybody else in her way. Stroking her hair, Miller warned her that unfocused rage would lead to her own destruction.

Judgment must be reserved for those who cross the line.

That was the first lesson he gave her as her godfather. Then, Miller took Bud's shotgun and executed every last person who had a hand in Bud's death.

Not a single soul escaped his judgment.

After Bud's death, Angel's mother was consumed by deep grief, and was barely able to continue surviving. Any time Angel looked into her mother's eyes, she was met with an empty gaze. She became desperate to bring a smile back to her mother's face, but there was nothing she could do to bring back the light that had been died alongside her father.

As time passed, a deep need for vengeance burned in her heart, but the ones responsible for her father's death had already been killed.

Angel didn't want anyone else to suffer what she had. She believed that the ill will men bore toward each other was the root cause of the tragedy that befell her. Those who'd ended precious lives had to be made to pay a price.

So, to satisfy her need for revenge, she decided to target violent criminals with bounties on their heads. Her mother worried that her thirst for vengeance would put her in danger, but Angel held onto the words of her godfather. Her gun would punish only those who crossed the line.

Every single day, Angel practiced handling firearms with grueling repetition. She was still too young and small to wield a shotgun like her father, so she chose to use revolvers. One in each hand, she trained until both answered her will with perfect, deadly precision.

Angel had also inherited something from her mother, Jenny: the fluidity of motion, poise, and balance of the best dancer of her era. Seeing her daughter's determination, Jenny stepped in to support her.

As a result, Angel became a matchless gunfighter. Even when her form slipped for a split-second and created a possible opening, she would quickly recover with fluid, yet precise movement and fire straight into her enemy's heart. Upon realizing that her daughter had become even stronger than Bud, Jenny went back to Vmerznut after leaving her daughter with some final words of wisdom: "Don't lose yourself."

Angel did not become an adventurer. Despite Miller's urges, she chose to live as a hunter of violent criminals.

She wandered all over Centralia, tracking down a countless number of them. She wouldn't grant one of her targets a quick death. Even Miller's executions had been too light, in her eyes. The vile malice that led to her father's death should not be put to rest so easily.

Upon finding her marks, she'd first shoot their wrists so they couldn't lift or hold anything. As they ran in despair, she'd follow them and shoot their ankles next, preventing them from fleeing. Lastly, she'd shoot their eyes, trapping them in eternal darkness. As they called her a 「demon」 while bitterly weeping bloody tears, Angel would whisper into their ears with a cold voice.

"Thanks."

Before finishing them off without any hesitation.

It's been years since Angel became a bounty hunter. Over that time, her reputation has split into two extremes.

To violent criminals, she's a demon risen from hell. To the powerless, she's an angel of righteousness descended from the heavens to nip evil in its bud.

Angel has never considered herself a "noble being of the heavens" like her namesake. She doesn't believe that killing villains in a persistent and brutal manner deserves to be praised as a good deed. She's painfully aware that everything she does is the tragic fruit born from the grief that took root when a little girl who lost her dear father. And most of all, she knows that her own actions of vengeance could lead to someone else wanting revenge on her. And if the day comes where someone approaches her, seeking vengeance, she's ready to face them.

Of course, she won't go down without a fight.