The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 122
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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 Duplicator Chapter 122
Part 37: Memory (4)
The man became certain the moment he saw Quinie wearing her glasses.
Quinie was mistaken about his ability. She thought it erased memories entirely, root and branch.
He had seen many people think that way before. Most of them had adopted a Defense Mechanism similar to Quinie’s. All they could rely on was time.
But something like that couldn’t expose his ability. His power didn’t erase entire memories—only his own existence from within those memories.
“Quinie, isn’t Cora coming today?”
After class, the man asked brazenly.
The moment he posed the question, Quinie’s expression shifted. It was an audacious thing to ask, so naturally she was suspicious. But suspicion was all she had for now.
“She will. Later. We promised to go home together.”
A defiant smile played across Quinie’s face as she answered. Go ahead and try, her expression seemed to say. She was probably planning to check the time and report to someone. Frontdier, likely—she’d been seen with him recently.
“Thanks, then.”
The man heard Quinie’s words and passed by her side, brushing her arm lightly with his fingertips as he went. That was all it took. Quinie would lose all memory of him. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to report anything either.
‘So Cora’s coming.’
Of course, he couldn’t trust everything Quinie said. She was just as likely to be lying.
But the fearless smile Quinie had just shown him, her misunderstanding about his ability—the man was willing to bet that her words were true.
Besides, there was no harm in confirming.
‘This spot will do.’
The man hid behind a building near the entrance of Constellation Academy. He was waiting for Cora to arrive.
Of course, if they fought properly, he couldn’t beat Cora. Right now she was struggling to learn magic that didn’t even suit her, but if it came down to simple combat, Cora’s physical abilities were incomparable to those of a human.
The man’s current goal wasn’t to kill Cora immediately. That’s why he’d waited for her to come to the Academy.
If he just waited here for Cora to arrive and induced that previous Berserk state—
“So should I call you Armel de Biete, then?”
[No, judging by his demeanor, it doesn’t seem like he’s been recognized by the family yet.]
“Then you’re still Armel Kolt, senior?”
…What is this?
From above the building where the man was hiding, an unexpected conversation drifted down.
The man looked up.
Someone was perched on the building’s railing, conversing with a raven.
…A raven?
‘Don’t tell me—that one from back then!’
The man recalled the raven that had been beside him when he was in the tree.
Could it possibly not have been an ordinary raven?
And the human he was talking to was Frontdier. Without question, the same man in a cooperative relationship with Quinie.
When did Frontdier learn Taming? His Tamed animal could even speak?
“So then, Armel.”
Frontdier stopped mid-conversation and looked down at the man.
Armel Kolt.
Glasses, a slight frame, an unremarkable face difficult to remember at a glance, and a faint presence.
Frontdier spoke to the man who dreamed of one day becoming Armel de Biete again.
“So what are you? Quinie’s cousin, perhaps? Her brother? Do you have some secret about your birth?”
Thwack!
Armel leapt backward, putting distance between them. Frontdier’s lazy eyes tracked his movement.
Even as Armel broke a cold sweat, he grinned.
“Ah, Frontdier? You startled me. What’s going on?”
“Hello.”
Frontdier jumped down from the building and landed, finally bringing them to eye level.
Fool, throwing away his height advantage like that. Armel suppressed an inward laugh. Frontdier really was inexperienced.
According to reports from Indus, he seemed to be building quite an impressive track record, but it was clearly half bluster—
“Menosorpho.”
Before Armel’s thought could even finish.
Armel felt himself stepping into a magic circle of incomprehensible scale.
‘He’s using a magic circle without drawing it?’
Whatever this magic circle was, staying inside without knowing its effect wasn’t wise.
…But which direction should he move to escape from it?
Fwip—
Just as Armel’s feet faltered without his realizing it.
Whoosh—
Boom-boom-boom-boom-crash!
Startled by something suddenly pouring down, Armel moved his feet. But he didn’t get far.
The moment he understood the situation, he found himself trapped within spears that pierced the ground in all directions.
‘This makes no sense. Spears erupting from empty air! I wouldn’t even believe it if stones suddenly flew up like this.’
Armel examined the spears that clattered loudly before him. They looked impossibly real, yet each one was saturated with a Mana that filled every gap without exception.
Magic. Such material-like magic. Then—was this the true ability of that magic circle? At least within this circle, magic manifests as solid reality?
“Why, why is this happening? Frontdier. It’s quite unsettling.”
Armel spoke to Frontdier with an awkward smile.
Frontdier tilted his head.
“Just asking to be sure—have we met before?”
“……Surely not. This is the first time I’m speaking to you like this? It’s just that you’re so well-known, I recognize your face.”
At Armel’s words, Frontdier laughed.
His hollow eyes closed for a moment, and when they reopened, that laughter had twisted into derision.
“Is that so. I have no memory of it either.”
This bastard.
Tension seized Armel’s throat. Frontdier is certain that he is the culprit.
Then why doesn’t he attack immediately? Does he lack confidence in his own strength? Does he want to test my ability?
Then Frontdier spoke.
“But you see, if your plan succeeds so well that, just perhaps, you actually manage to enter the Biete Family.”
As he spoke, Frontdier drew out the Short Sword hanging at his waist. It was a blade of peculiar length.
Armel did not answer. He merely maintained an expression of utter bewilderment.
Watching that face, Frontdier continued.
“Will you still be able to stay with Indus, claiming to improve the welfare of commoners?”
At those words, Armel’s expression froze exactly as it had been—the picture of incomprehension.
‘Just how much does this bastard know?’
Frontdier knows that Armel is a member of Indus.
Armel stepped back one pace. Not to flee. Simply a step backward to assume a defensive stance.
Frontdier raised his hand.
“I was joking. Of course you can stay. There are already many noble houses of standing that belong to Indus.”
Indus has so far continued its work for public benefit. At least on the surface.
Whether commoner or noble, it expended its strength in containing disasters and accidents that occurred within villages and cities, and donated money to the poor in the name of Indus and others. It cultivated its image and expanded its supporting forces.
The nobles who had received direct favor became vocal supporters of Indus.
Yet no one could estimate Indus’s true scale. No one knew who its leader was. Those who called themselves members of Indus were mostly upright and incorruptible, but not a single one claimed to be its representative.
Outwardly, it persuaded people that the welfare of commoners was necessary, while secretly spreading damaging images of the nobility and orchestrating incidents and accidents.
And the most crucial figure in orchestrating those incidents and accidents was none other than
“You handle the cleanup, don’t you, Armel?”
“……!”
“It’s not easy for Indus to frame or destroy nobles from the shadows. So when there are mistakes or witnesses, your role is to erase that person’s memories, isn’t it?”
The two methods Indus most frequently uses to hide itself in its affairs.
One is to cut off the tail, as Serp and Gregory had done. The other is to deploy Armel’s ability.
Thanks to Armel’s efforts, Indus has never been exposed for what it has done behind the scenes.
Of course, suspicion has pointed toward them during investigations, but such suspicion has equally pointed toward countless other organizations and noble houses rather than Indus.
But Armel’s ability had a flaw.
Armel erases his own existence from someone’s memories. The erasure of memories regarding the incident comes as a consequence of erasing Armel’s memory.
Because of this, Armel must be involved in the incident to erase someone’s memories. When Indus judged the failure rate too high, they deployed Armel.
Until then, Armel did not know.
That one of the houses Indus brought down was his own family.
“So I’m asking you, Armel.”
“…….”
“Who are you? A ‘former’ noble of the Biete Family so obsessed with Indus that you brought down your own house?”
Even then, Armel was still smiling.
But soon his face twisted, crumpled, and crumpled again. That crumpled face never smoothed out.
With features far too wrinkled for a student, his rough lips parted, and Armel spoke.
“I am Armel de Biete. The head of the Biete Family.”
His voice was unnecessarily high—so much so that it didn’t sound like a man’s.
“…….”
Frontdier’s face darkened.
He had expected as much.
Someone targeting Quinie’s house, someone who could seize that house the moment he killed Quinie now.
Of course he would have Biete bloodline, the person easiest to become the next head after Quinie.
He had expected it.
‘Absolutely insane.’
If he was the previous head of the Biete Family, then naturally he was Quinie’s father.
Whatever Indus had planted in this man’s mind, he’d laid waste to his own family, forced his daughter to erase all memory of him, and departed—was that it?
Frontdier asked.
“Everyone’s lost their memories. How do you intend to claim the family?”
“You said it yourself. I’ve erased my own existence from everyone’s memory. So the details, the circumstances before and after—I can fabricate those later. I could say I lived abroad for years, or make use of the incident from thirteen years past. I barely escaped back then, and now I’ve returned.”
Cora’s Berserk. The death toll then had been staggering. And most of them had been members of the Biete Family.
Armel spoke.
“If only Quinie dies—if the Berserked Cora kills Quinie, then I can reclaim my position as family head. Once I dispose of Cora, who slew Quinie, the justification holds.”
“And how exactly do you plan to kill a Berserked Cora?”
Armel grinned widely.
“I have both the drug that induces the Berserk and the one that dispels it. Once the Berserk is lifted, Cora will die of her own accord. She’s not the sort to ignore that guilt.”
Frontdier fell silent at those words for a moment, then laughed.
“You do talk freely. Laying out your entire scheme to me like this.”
“Of course.”
Armel laughed. Both his hands rose.
“There’s something you’re mistaken about as well—!”
And the moment those hands stretched out, Frontdier went still. His eyes lost focus.
“When I saw Raven, I understood. You were observing me as I erased Quinie’s memory. But my ability doesn’t require contact. It only requires knowing the target’s name and letting my Mana touch them. That’s sufficient.”
Though with distance between us, and erasing memories over such a long span of time, the Mana cost grows exponentially. That’s why the risk of discovery increases. And it takes proportionally longer as well.
But once it’s begun, this time passes, and it becomes inevitable.
“Kekeke. Arrogant as always, yet you as well—”
Armel’s words stopped there.
Something was wrong. Frontdier, who had seemed frozen a moment before, had regained focus, and now his head was swaying side to side.
Impossible. He was definitely still using his ability right now…
“Ah, that was close. Just as I expected, though.”
Frontdier spoke thus and met Armel’s gaze directly.
Those eyes, that expression—there was no way he’d lost his memories.
Why? Lethe’s Divine Power had never failed once. How could a human possibly resist Divine Power?
Only one explanation came to mind.
Watching Frontdier channel force throughout his body and infuse his Short Sword with Aura, Armel grasped something chilling.
“You, you bastard! You’re not Frontdier—!”
Slash!
Before he could finish those words, Frontdier’s blade had already reached his face.
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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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