The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 115
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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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The Academy’s Weapon Replicator, Episode 115
Chapter 34: An Incident
When I arrived at the classroom, the students’ attention fixed on the raven exactly as expected.
Half curiosity, half wariness—that was the feeling in the air.
“Did you Tame it?”
Aten approached and asked. She stroked the raven with a familiar hand.
“Yeah, well, something like that.”
There was no other way to answer here.
“When class starts, I’ll need to have it leave. Would that be alright with you?”
“Sure. It’ll leave on its own when the time comes.”
“Leave on its own?”
“Yeah.”
Unless it decides not to, which would be a problem.
But Aten examined the raven from every angle, unconvinced. Well, Gregory was certainly keeping up the excellent performance.
“If you don’t mind, could you show me?”
“Huh?”
“I’m curious about what you mean by leaving on its own……”
Hmm.
I looked at the raven. Our eyes met. I nodded slightly.
It meant: do it.
The raven nodded in understanding. Aten’s eyes widened at that very moment.
Caw!
The raven cried once and took flight with ease.
It circled once around my head, or perched on my left shoulder before hopping to my right. When I raised my arm, it walked along it and settled at my fingertips.
The raven matched my movements perfectly, so it truly looked as though I were controlling the bird with nothing but a glance and a gesture.
“Wow.”
Aten’s exclamation was soft, but her eyes sparkled. This was the first time I’d seen her face light up with such obvious delight.
Thinking I’d shown her enough, I had the raven perch on my shoulder again.
“This is the kind of thing I mean.”
“That’s incredible. I’ve never seen such perfect Taming before. Not using ‘Utterance’ or Mana or anything—to control an animal with nothing but gestures and glances.”
Well, that’s because it’s not Taming at all.
Listening to what Aten said, I realized I might have shown off a bit too much.
In fact, the other students in the classroom were stealing glances at me. Taming students were rare to begin with, and if they’d trained their Tames this well, it was even rarer.
Then the class bell rang, and the raven flew out the window.
“…So it really does leave on its own.”
Aten’s eyes sparkled even more brilliantly.
* * *
Frontdier searched for information whenever he had spare time—during breaks or lunch.
He was looking for the other rumor-spreader Gregory had mentioned. Of course, Gregory was also flying about here and there in raven form, gathering intelligence.
Meanwhile.
Inside the Constellation Academy’s Conference Room, a heavy atmosphere hung in the air. It was already thick enough to call it murderous intent.
“……”
“……”
“……”
All the teachers in the conference room held their expressions rigid, mouths sealed tight. The anger simmering in their eyes was painfully evident.
Though they’d gathered under the pretext of an emergency meeting, they all knew exactly why this conference had been called.
They had done nothing during this incident.
Even if it was due to the influence of the Business Card, even if resisting the urge to attack Frontdier was noteworthy, such excuses brought no consolation.
“…Hah.”
Yet sitting in silence with mouths shut only prevented the meeting from moving forward.
Binkis, looking around the room, exhaled as though emptying every last breath from his lungs. Then, after a light inhale,
“It’s shameful. All of us.”
He stated coldly what everyone was already thinking.
The teachers furrowed their brows as if nailed in place. It was a feeling they understood keenly, but hearing it aloud made them want to disappear.
“A student nearly died, and we stood motionless inside the building. Really now, Constellation Academy—supposedly the finest combat trainer in the Central Continent—turned out to be nothing but a den of cowards.”
No one had a reply to Binkis’s words. Binkis himself was also a Constellation teacher; the Business Card’s effect left him able to do nothing more than restrain his movements.
So what Binkis said was no different from stabbing himself.
“That’s enough, Binkis.”
“…Headmaster.”
Rector Osprit opened his mouth.
Among the teachers, Osprit was the only one who had completely resisted the Business Card and deployed magic.
He had been unable to venture outside the building, concerned about the other teachers’ rampage, but he had clearly overpowered the Business Card’s effect.
“It was a tremendous force. If I’d been any closer to Frontdier, I don’t know what would’ve happened to me.”
That was what Osprit said—the only person here who had managed complete resistance.
Teacher Jane pressed her temples. Her entire body ached from enduring the Business Card’s power. The other teachers felt the same.
“According to the incident report, someone else stole that Business Card and fled. The person called themselves ‘Kraken.’ They’re not the perpetrator of this case, but it means another disaster could strike from that Business Card. Very few people would be able to fully resist such power. Honestly, you’d need to be at the level of a Zodiac.”
At Jane’s words, the teachers’ expressions grew darker still.
Malia de Roach, who had been applying a patch to her forehead, spoke.
“Frontdier said that Kraken introduced himself as ‘one who is not of Indus.'”
“A play on words…”
Another teacher ground his teeth with a sharp sound.
Judging from the circumstances surrounding Gregory, the perpetrator, whoever stole the Business Card was undoubtedly a member of Indus.
Teacher Isamaya spoke.
“Kraken understands as much. Right now, making Indus our enemy at Constellation Academy would be extremely dangerous. The public won’t believe that Indus—once called the ally of commoners—has turned to crime. More than that, Indus has a separate ‘face’ that they present to the citizens. Unless their crimes are exposed, they’ll almost certainly be treated as individual misconduct.”
Hearing this, Jane fell silent for a moment.
It was certainly difficult to make Indus an enemy right now. And yet.
“But we’ve learned something. That Indus is an organization that commits crimes. Of course, Indus revealed this themselves, but they probably didn’t intend for things to come to this.”
Isamaya nodded at Jane’s words.
“Yes. That’s how desperately Indus needed the Business Card. Even knowing Constellation Academy would discover them. It was a vital item to their plan.”
“The Business Card’s original owner was Serf Daniel. He was always part of Indus. That means preparations for this plan were likely underway long before Serf was even with Indus.”
What Indus intended to accomplish remained unknown. But if the Business Card was essential to their plan, speculation was hardly difficult.
“Large-scale chaos, perhaps… using that confusion to accomplish their true objective.”
“Or perhaps chaos itself is the objective.”
Several teachers folded their arms and straightened their heads, organizing their thoughts as they processed the information.
“By the way, speaking of Frontdier…”
An unexpected voice came out. It was Pascal.
“Is this his first time? Getting caught up in an incident like this?”
Pascal, having only recently arrived at Constellation Academy, asked out of curiosity.
But every teacher at Constellation Academy shook their heads in unison, as though they’d rehearsed it.
“Frontdier tends to be at the center of incidents, rather.”
At someone’s remark, Malia de Roach let out a small laugh. She couldn’t deny it, even though it was her own son.
“Hmm, I see.”
Pascal answered thus and brought his hand to his mouth. He seemed to be mulling something over.
Meanwhile, Isamaya spoke to Jane.
“You certainly have your hands full, Teacher Jane. Your homeroom student—that’s class five, correct?”
“Yes. Though I don’t mind. He’s not a child of bad character, and his abilities are…”
His abilities are…
Come to think of it, was Frontdier strong?
A memory flickered from just before the break. Frontdier, who had shown remarkable skill in the final exams and claimed first place.
After that came the break, and the memory had faded, but Frontdier’s strength defied measurement. Each technique was unlike anything familiar to her.
“…Well, in any case, all I hope for is that there are no more incidents.”
Jane murmured this as though in prayer.
* * *
Things were coming together.
Whenever I approached passing students to gather information, they would startle, but when I asked politely, they all answered properly. The effort I’d put into improving my image hadn’t been entirely meaningless.
By combining the rumors circulating within Constellation Academy that the students knew of with the information the raven had brought.
We arrived in front of a hallway to one of the classrooms.
“Here it is.”
The raven and I looked at the wall before us.
[Quinie de Viet has an extreme phobia of corpses.]
[Quinie de Viet did not enter Constellation Academy to improve her abilities. She hid here.]
This, inscribed with a Magic Bulletin Board.
Not just me, but quite a few people were already looking at this wall.
There was Quinie too, hiding her expression with a fan. Though she was hiding it, her eyes betrayed profound displeasure.
“Senior.”
“Ah, Frontdier.”
“The recent rumors that have been causing a stir all turned out to be false, but why are you leaving this one up?”
Quinie shook her head.
“I’m not holding back.”
“Then…….”
“This bulletin board won’t erase.”
With that, Quinie reached out her hand. Mana bloomed from her fingertips. I didn’t know much about it, but it seemed like magic meant to erase the bulletin board.
But then.
With a crackling sound like electricity arcing, Quinie’s magic dissolved into the air.
“It’s a fairly sophisticated security spell. At this level, even with the proper procedure, it would take time to break. I’d say you’d need someone like Binkis or Edwin to actually dispel it.”
As Quinie explained,
the displeased whispers of other students drifted through the corridor. Quinie pretended not to hear, though that was hardly possible—especially when they spoke loud enough for her to catch.
“Senior Quinie, I wanted to say something about these rumors.”
“I don’t.”
Quinie turned her head abruptly and walked away. I called after her retreating figure.
“They’re just rumors. Don’t let it get to you.”
“It’s already been four days. Even if I can break and erase this whole thing, it’ll take at least two more weeks. Gregory’s rumors will fade to nothing, but these words will remain. So I’ve decided to give up.”
With a careless wave of her hand, Quinie continued walking.
Her receding figure looked much like it always did,
but without showing me her face, there was no reason to trust that ‘it always looked like this.’
Then I heard a voice from behind me.
“Ah, Frontdier. There you are.”
It was the teacher Jane’s voice.
But I had something more pressing to attend to.
“Senior Quinie. We need to talk.”
“Don’t be troublesome. Go do what you need to do. Your teacher’s calling.”
And so Quinie kept walking. I watched her fade into the distance, then looked up at the corridor ceiling, then at the Magic Bulletin Board.
And.
Weaving, Simultaneous Replication
Imperial Palace Armory
Spears, Same-Type Replication 12 units
Crash———!!
I smashed that wall to pieces. The bulletin board and everything else scattered away, and fresh wind blew cleanly in from the hollow opening beyond.
“?!”
“……??”
The eyes of the surrounding students went wide. Behind them, I heard Jane’s shriek: ‘Frontdier———?!’
Only after I’d demolished the wall did Quinie stop in her tracks, turn to look at me directly, and forget to hide her face with the fan she’d been using in her shock.
I met the gaze in her astonished eyes and spoke again.
“We need to talk, Senior Quinie.”
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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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