The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 107

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Academy Weaponsmith 107
Chapter 31: Rumor (5)
I sank into deep thought as I made my way to school.
I never actually saw Serf Daniel die. Saiber fired the arrow, and I passed out right after.
I’d only heard from the hospital that Serf was dead.
But still.
Just because I didn’t see Serf die with my own eyes.
‘Crisellacatos’s Certain Hit—Serf dodged it…?’
At the time, I’d thought Serf was completely defenseless, but he actually had another means of survival?
‘It doesn’t make sense.’
I can’t accept it. Serf was definitely dead.
There has to be some trick—
My worries persisted even after I entered the gates of Constellation Academy.
“There! Frontdier!”
“Huh?”
When I’d nearly reached the Main Building, I heard my name called from a distance and looked up.
The moment I did, I realized the Constellation campus was packed today—absolutely swarming with people.
“What? Where?”
“There! He’s coming!”
The moment a few students spotted me, the ones next to them looked, and then the ones next to them.
“Waaahhh!”
“Out of the way! I’m first!”
And they started running. Rushing toward me.
“…Huh?”
I stared blankly at the surge bearing down on me,
Clatter-clatter!
and bolted to the side.
“Hey! Frontdier! Stop! Why are you running!”
Someone with a vaguely familiar face shouted from behind me as they gave chase.
I kept running as I answered.
“Ah, just—I don’t know, it just happened?”
“Stop it, you idiot!”
The momentum was too frightening to stop.
Another boy called out to me this time.
“Hey! Is it true you’re dating Elody!”
“What?”
I repeated the question in shock, hearing something I never expected. Even for me, this was bewildering.
Who in their right mind would spread such absurd nonsense—
“While you’re dating Elody, is it true you’re cheating on her with Saiber?”
“What?!”
This time I actually shuddered and cried out.
It wasn’t just one rumor.
If such rumors were spreading, it made sense that the students had gathered to find me, and—
“Is it true that while you’re dating Elody and cheating on Saiber, you’re enslaving Aten!”
“What? No! You bastards are all out of your minds!”
I turned sharply to the right as I fled. Students looking for me were everywhere.
I tried to run toward areas with fewer students, but I soon hit a limit. There were far more chasing me than I’d expected.
Finally, I stopped and looked around.
“…Unbelievable.”
I sighed, seeing the sheer number of students surrounding me.
So many people actually believed such outlandish stories. I couldn’t understand it at all. Or perhaps—from their perspective, it wasn’t outlandish?
‘Among these people, who’s actually dangerous…’
I quickly scanned my surroundings. In other words, I was looking for a Named Character. If there were no Named Characters present, I could find a way to slip out. Persuading them to leave would be ideal, but I wasn’t sure if that was possible.
Good. As expected, someone of Named Character status would know better than to give ear to rumors like these.
“Hey! Frontdier! I heard about it!”
…Rohwald was there.
I covered my eyes in despair. Constellation’s worst delinquent—a hot-headed idiot—was taking the rumors seriously.
“See, I knew it! You were coercing Aten, weren’t you!”
“You’re still saying that?”
On the day I first met Rohwald, he’d been convinced I had some kind of leverage over Aten. It was trivial student gossip back then, so how did it become like this?
“Frontdier, you know what?”
Rohwald suddenly turned grave, his voice dropping to something heavy.
“……What?”
“Unlike anywhere else, Constellation Academy upholds Justice.”
So what.
“Frontdier! Tell the truth! You’re straddling two sides and blackmailing Aten, aren’t you! That’s it, isn’t it!”
“I’m not.”
“I don’t believe you!!”
This wretched bastard.
Yet strangely, the eyes around them seemed to align with Rohwald. They nodded eagerly in agreement with his cry of disbelief.
I’d thought that since becoming the lazy human Frontdier, I’d at least been living with some effort.
But the sincerity I’d shown all through the first semester had done nothing whatsoever to improve my image.
“Frontdier! What did you mean to gain by blackmailing Aten! Or wait, s-surely! You’ve already achieved your goal, haven’t you! You, ah, you didn’t do something to Aten’s body……!”
At Rohwald’s runaway imagination, gasps erupted from those around us. Were they all really in on this together? Had they simply gathered to torment me?
I spoke with a what-will-be-will-be tone.
“Fine. I blackmailed Aten. I found her weakness and we’ve already done all sorts of things together.”
“……I can’t believe that aaaaaa!!!”
Rohwald cried out as if spewing blood. Either way, this bastard wouldn’t believe me anyway.
Yet Rohwald was shouting with an almost tearful intensity. Another moment and he’d be weeping blood.
Did this guy actually have feelings for Aten? There’d been no sign of it when playing the game Aethius.
Back then the player was Aster Evance, so I’d coolly accepted it and moved on. So Aster was fine but I, as Frontdier, wasn’t? Ah, you think I’m the one doing the blackmailing.
“I was joking. Whatever rumor you heard, it’s all baseless gossip.”
I stretched both arms out wide after saying that.
“Look at me.”
“……?”
“I’m the lazy human Frontdier!”
I never thought I’d say this nickname with my own mouth. And certainly not with this much confidence.
“Do you really think I could date Elody?”
“……!”
“While dating Elody, do you think I’d have the energy to cheat with Saiber?”
“!!”
“And on top of all that, do you think I could make Aten into a slave?”
“!!!”
Rohwald’s expression transformed in real time. His face was pure “now that you mention it, yeah.”
“Now that you mention it…….”
He was the type to speak his thoughts aloud.
But even I had to admit my reasoning was flawless. It wouldn’t be easy to dismantle this perfect logic.
“Rohwald, snap out of it! We investigated the sources and details of the rumors we heard and drew our final conclusions! We can’t just dismiss this as baseless gossip!”
“Right! That’s true!”
One of the guys behind him snapped Rohwald back to attention—or rather, broke him again from my perspective.
I turned to the one in the back.
“What details?”
“Ha! You’d like to think these are just rumors with no evidence! But we have plenty of proof that you met Elody from a very young age, and we’ve received full reports on the circumstances before and after you went to the Dungeon with Saiber!”
……That bastard Gregory. He’d added unnecessary detail to the rumor and boosted its credibility. And what he said just now—it’s all true.
No wonder they’d been seeking me out so much. There was reason enough for it. Though they still seemed skeptical.
“Therefore, Frontdier! Come along quietly!”
“What happens if I come along?”
“Naturally, we’ll rehabilitate you with the power of Justice!”
I should definitely not go along.
Rohwald, getting no response from me, began swinging his arms in circles—whoosh, whoosh—cracking his neck.
“If you won’t come on your own, we’ll drag you by force!”
“You’re going to use the power of Justice here?”
At my question, Rohwald grinned. A glint of something bordering on madness lit his eyes.
“That’s exactly it!”
Bang—Rohwald launched himself at me.
‘……Insane.’
He jumped from a standstill, shooting so high into the air that I had to crane my neck to look up. Then, riding the force of gravity, he plummeted straight toward me.
Crash-boom!
I scrambled out of the way, and Rohwald’s knee shattered the ground beneath him. Pure physical force—no Aura, no magic.
“……Damn, that actually hurts.”
Of course, smashing bare earth left no room for the absence of pain.
“Frontdier! Don’t dodge! Behave yourself and accept your reformation!”
“Hey! You don’t even know what reformation means, do you?”
Rohwald trudged toward me, his intention obvious as he drew his right fist back and cocked it.
The next instant, he bellowed and drove a Right Straight at me.
“I don’t care──!!”
As I slipped aside, an eerie whistle of displaced air thrummed past my shoulder.
This bastard—he just said he didn’t care?
I dove into the gap left by his wide stance, grabbing his waist and shoulder, then swept his leg to throw his weight off balance—
“……?!”
This madman didn’t fall.
He simply refused to go down. I’d planted the throw almost perfectly, yet he absorbed the entire force with his body alone. Even accounting for the fact that I’d held back deliberately to subdue rather than injure.
“That technique isn’t strong enough to topple me, Frontdier!”
He seized the back of my neck and hurled me away.
“Ugh!”
I rolled across the ground to absorb the impact, then pushed myself up and shouted.
“You lunatic! The real problem is that you didn’t fall! You’re the strange one!”
“But I didn’t fall!”
The strange creature announced this with perfect confidence.
Rohwald seemed to be thinking something through before he spoke again.
“But you really do have talent for combat, Frontdier. Not many can evade my strikes. Even fewer attempt a counterattack in the same moment. Your eyes are sharp. Your instincts are sharp. So it wasn’t just chance that day—it was genuine skill.”
Rohwald was recalling our first meeting, when I’d caught him off guard and sent him sprawling with a Woven Staff I’d crafted.
It really was chance, though.
“My eye for talent doesn’t deceive me.”
He nodded to himself as if he’d reached some profound conclusion.
I had plenty to say about that assessment, but the figure behind Rohwald spoke for me.
“Rohwald! Get your head on straight! This guy threatened Aten!”
“Oh! That’s right! Frontdier, you’re a bad person.”
I exhaled at the absurdity of the exchange.
“Your eye for talent really is broken.”
That was when it happened.
[Ahem, ah— this is an announcement to all Constellation Academy students.]
The school broadcast crackled to life. Everyone froze at the sudden transmission, ears straining.
The voice shifted, entirely different from before, and delivered this command:
[Kill Frontdier.]
“……!”
That voice.
It had faded from memory, yet the moment I heard it, recognition struck like lightning.
─Serf Daniel. It was his voice.
I understood at once and looked around.
Every student surrounding me had lost focus. Rohwald too.
‘They all received Business Cards.’
Serf could issue commands to anyone who’d accepted his Business Card. The ability to manipulate so many at once—it was formidable beyond question.
‘This is bad.’
The students’ faces had gone blank, but they held their ground and fixed their eyes on me. This was Constellation Academy, where every student had been trained as a combatant. And Rohwald stood directly before me.
Metal sang—clack, ring—as the students drew their weapons.
Cold sweat beaded on my skin. The crowd that had gathered moments ago had been driven by curiosity, but the air hanging over this courtyard now tasted only of killing intent.
‘What do I do? How do I escape? Flying with Molnir is my only out, but I don’t have time.’
To use Molnir now, I’d need to recite Menosorpho, consume a Dragon Heart, and only then could I take to the air. The minutes simply weren’t there.
And if people who still had their wits about them saw me activate Molnir—
‘Even so, dying without a fight is worse.’
With that conclusion, I was about to recite Menosorpho when—
“Sigh.”
Someone descended from the empty air. Auburn hair like sunset, eyes the color of twilight. With that soft breath, she appeared—Elody.
“Hold on tight.”
Elody wrapped her hands around both my shoulders.
Together, we shot skyward.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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