The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 135

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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 Weapon Duplicator of the Academy, Episode 135
Chapter 42: The Deception Strategy
Thompson and Isamaya found the distance between them refusing to close easily.
Various mechanical devices extending from Thompson’s Prosthetic Arm surged forward, targeting Isamaya’s throat.
Watching the mechanical tentacles rush toward her, Isamaya batted them away with the club she held.
The club in Isamaya’s grip resembled a cudgel suited for one-handed use. It was the Pointer she used during class.
“What is that stick? You’re supposed to be a teacher at Constellation Academy—is that a riding crop?”
“Sometimes it serves that purpose as well.”
Isamaya held the Pointer horizontally, aiming it at Thompson.
In Thompson’s eyes, Isamaya suddenly appeared to be holding nothing but a small sphere. The Pointer’s length vanished completely from his perception, stealing any sense of distance.
In an instant,
“……Hah!”
Crack!
Just as that small sphere seemed to swell suddenly, Thompson hastily extended his Prosthetic Arm. Isamaya’s Pointer struck it and bounced away.
‘What—it looked like it had extended, or rather, it actually did extend!’
He was right.
Isamaya’s Pointer had lengthened. Despite the considerable distance between Thompson and Isamaya, it reached before his eyes in a single motion.
Then, as if nothing had changed, it shortened again; Isamaya gripped it and twirled it smoothly. Or was it slightly longer than before? One could no longer discern its “original” length.
“Polearms are designed with Weapon Arts that conceal their length from the enemy. Especially with simple weapons like staffs, which have little distinction between front and back, concealment becomes easy.”
Isamaya held the Pointer horizontally once more. Once again, it vanished flawlessly from Thompson’s sight.
“But what if a weapon that conceals its length actually changes length? Having to account for both—isn’t that amusing?”
“……You mad bitch.”
As Thompson spat out the curse,
a familiar metallic clinking echoed from far away.
Isamaya listened to the sound for a moment, then spoke quietly.
“……A train.”
“Hmph.”
The two paused. Just as Isamaya had said, a train was approaching along the tracks in the distance.
Isamaya’s pupils darkened.
“So, did you sabotage that track? A bomb, perhaps? Or are you targeting the train directly?”
Thompson laughed sharply.
“How could we? We came because of your commander. With that old man floating around up there in the sky like that, we can’t just pass by.”
“Interesting. So you have no intention of touching the train.”
“Of course not. We’re Indus. Image Management matters. If we blow up the train while we’ve declared we’ll kill Constellation students, we can’t let it pass quietly. It becomes an entirely different problem.”
True to Thompson’s words, nothing unusual occurred while the train passed through.
The train’s sound grew louder, and it passed the Osprey hovering in the sky, yet nothing happened.
Isamaya reflected.
‘Frontdier was right. Their crime really will happen after we arrive in Cropol.’
The fact that members were here meant the Business Cards had already been distributed. Everything unfolded exactly as Frontdier had read it.
How irritating. Frontdier.
As Isamaya pondered this, tentacles burst from Thompson’s Prosthetic Arm. They began spinning like a propeller around the arm.
“Now, this will be different from before!”
Thompson thrust it forward as if to shield himself.
Clang! Crack!
Even when Isamaya tested with a few thrusts of her Pointer, she could not penetrate the spinning tentacles. A flicker of intrigue crossed her eyes.
“That is truly a remarkable Prosthetic Arm.”
“Of course. This one, you see—it was custom-made by Hitchcock at great expense—”
“Your Prosthetic Arm seems more impressive than you do.”
Thompson’s words died in his throat. Tendons bulged across his face, and his jaw clenched hard.
“I’ll have you fitted with Prosthetic Limbs—all four of them.”
“That won’t be necessary. I respect my body more than that.”
“Shut your mouth!”
Thompson roared and charged at Isamaya. Isamaya reduced the Pointer’s size and watched calmly as he came.
‘……Just as expected.’
Isamaya finished her brief assessment and swept the Pointer wide across her body in a horizontal arc.
Thompson, appearing to charge forward in blind fury, ducked his head and evaded the Pointer.
There was no rage in Thompson’s face as he dodged. His loss of reason to the provocation had been nothing but performance. Instead, cold eyes shot toward Isamaya.
“Hah!”
Thompson’s Prosthetic Arm extended. A hole opened in the center of his palm, and something was launched toward Isamaya.
It was a thin needle. It shot toward Isamaya’s face with precision, and
Ting—
It struck her Glasses.
“……What?”
Thompson hadn’t aimed for the Glasses. Isamaya had tilted her head slightly, deliberately blocking the blow with them.
The durability of those Glasses was remarkable, but more than that—it meant Isamaya had already read Thompson’s move.
“……What, most people go down from that one.”
“I imagine they do.”
Isamaya took up the Pointer again, watching the nuanced shifts in Thompson’s expression.
‘He plays at being provoked quite well.’
At first, Isamaya herself had been fooled. She’d thought Thompson would bite at the provocation, lose his composure, and attack recklessly. But that wasn’t it. His very expression had been a trap.
“You think you’re the first one to mock this body?”
Thud-thud. Thompson tapped his Prosthetic Arm as he spoke.
“Those who try to provoke don’t realize they leave themselves defenseless. They put on a show of righteous anger, then stick their necks into the lion’s mouth like fools. But you’re different.”
“Well, it’s certainly true that I don’t like your prospects.”
Isamaya’s expression remained stern, her tone matter-of-fact.
A light breath of air escaped—a faint snort.
“That’s simply my personal feeling. It shouldn’t cloud my judgment.”
“……I see.”
Isamaya tapped the Pointer lightly against her palm.
“Then you have no other tricks? The circus seems over. Time for you to exit.”
“Still provoking, I see.”
“My apologies. It’s in my nature.”
Every word from her was calculated to irritate.
Thompson’s frown deepened, but he showed none of the dramatic expression shifts he’d displayed before. His act wasn’t working, so he’d abandoned it.
‘This woman has sharp defense. She has no intention of killing me, and she’s keeping me from attacking easily. She’s threading the needle well.’
The Pointer, its maximum length unknowable and freely adjustable. Difficult to track on its own, but she wielded it with its length hidden from his sight.
Thompson had judged that he, with his Prosthetic Arm, held the advantage in initiating attacks and in ranged exchanges. He’d been wrong. Isamaya’s strikes reached him first, and were withdrawn before his charge could close in.
‘No way around it. The Prosthetic Arm will be damaged, but here—’
The moment Thompson reached a decision.
Whoooosh—
“Hm?”
Thompson felt a strange sensation and went rigid. His entire body seemed to pass through a current of light Mana in an instant. This peculiar feeling—Thompson knew it well.
“A Magic Circle!”
Thompson cried out and looked around. With Isamaya right before him, it was somewhat reckless, but depending on the Circle’s type, ignoring it could lead to far worse danger.
‘What is this size? It’s swallowing both valleys and spilling over, not just the Aerial Railway!’
Thompson broke into a grin, layering it with a hint of bluster as he called out to Isamaya.
“What are you planning with a Magic Circle this massive? Isn’t the scope overreaching?”
……He was trying to squeeze any scrap of information from her.
But Isamaya’s expression was more contorted than Thompson’s own, her face tensing as she felt the Magic Circle’s presence, her gaze fixed on him.
‘……What is that look?’
You didn’t draw that.

* * *
Pascal and Skyler had also sensed the anomaly.
But they could not afford to look away.
Clang! Crash!
The two of them swung their blades at each other, their Martial Prowess and Aura tremendous as they sought to cleave through one another.
Pascal’s skin opened where a thrust grazed him; Skyler’s Armor cracked where a diagonal blade slash narrowly missed.
That was what a clash of Auras meant.
‘Can’t see inside, so it’s troublesome.’
Pascal thought.
Fighting a knight whose interior remained hidden proved far more disadvantageous than he’d expected.
Without a face, there were no eyes, and without eyes, he couldn’t read where the gaze was directed. Even if the Helmet faced him, Skyler could be looking elsewhere entirely. He was almost certainly exploiting that fully.
And with muscles invisible, the starting point and target of each attack became hard to read. He could only respond properly by watching through to the very end.
Crash-crash-crash-crash!
After two clashes, their blades met head-on as they tested each other’s strength.
When the Aura-wrapped blades collided, they screamed and threw sparks.
“Remarkable achievement for your age!”
Skyler’s voice carried genuine admiration still.
Pascal asked a question.
“How old do you think I am?”
“I’d say middle school, wouldn’t you?”
…….
Veins bulged across Pascal’s smiling face.
Clang! Skyler’s blade was driven back by the full force of Pascal’s Aura. With a light cry of surprise, Skyler retreated a step.
“I’m a teacher. Middle school?”
“Ha! I was joking. Didn’t know you’d get this worked up.”
The two of them had created some distance between them. In that gap, Skyler decided to voice what had been nagging at him.
“……So, what exactly is this Magic Circle? This absurd size—did the teachers get together for an all-nighter or something?”
“I’m not sure, honestly.”
Pascal answered calmly, but he truly didn’t know.
What is this Magic Circle? He’d never seen one this massive before. Perhaps it was simply drawn larger than a standard Magic Circle?
Whether a Magic Circle was drawn large or small, the effect was the same, but drawing it physically larger was proportionally harder. The margin for error increased as well.
Moreover, this was terrain as treacherous as it could be, with an Aerial Railway spanning between two cliffs. Drawing a Magic Circle to encompass all of this while accounting for elevation differences was something that existed only in theory—theoretically possible, but not something a human should actually attempt.
‘Hmm, let me take a look.’
Skyler found the source of the Magic Circle through peripheral vision, keeping his helmet perfectly still. This sort of trick was only possible because his eyes couldn’t see.
‘I see. Something’s standing on the cliff across the way. That must be who activated the Magic Circle.’
He was about to look back at Pascal when—
‘Wait.’
His gaze snapped back to that figure instead.
‘That… that’s Frontdier!’
Skyler was stunned. His shock didn’t show through the armor, but his mind was already reeling.
‘What—why is Frontdier over there? He should be on the train. Why? Then what was that train that just passed? All the Constellation Academy students are heading toward Cropol, but Frontdier was nowhere to be seen?’
Was such a thing even possible? Did Constellation Academy even permit such a thing?
‘……No, that can’t be right. Wait—it’s a mask!’
Skyler made a rapid and reasonable judgment. It wasn’t Frontdier. Someone else was wearing a false face, imitating Frontdier’s appearance.
By common sense, Frontdier couldn’t possibly be in a place like that. He should naturally be traveling peacefully toward Cropol with the other students.
If not, what would become of all the effort Indus had expended—planting false rumors about Frontdier throughout Cropol and carefully spreading his image? Those plans would all come to nothing. It was impossible.
‘How dare they attempt such pointless Deception Strategy!’
Skyler looked at Pascal, his anger rising.
But Pascal’s expression was remarkable.
“……What, no. What?”
Pascal was speaking aloud the very confusion Skyler felt internally.
He too had spotted Frontdier, his gaze pinned to that spot as he muttered.
‘What? Why are you panicking too?’
Was this also deception? Masterful expression acting? Yet Pascal’s face was far too, far too natural, and the bewilderment in his eyes transmitted itself to Skyler’s heart with piercing clarity.
‘What is it! Real or fake! That Frontdier! Which is it!!’
Skyler’s mind was spinning in confusion, his scream emerging only as a voiceless shriek within his armor.

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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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