The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 142

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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 Episode 142
Chapter 43: Volunteer Work (3)
The next day.
I continued my work as a Lifeguard. If I quit midway, it would only raise suspicion.
Personally, I found it easier than pretending to play at the beach. Even if I’d been allowed to relax, my body was in no state for it anyway—I’d just end up sleeping in bed all day.
Whether Elody and Aten would tolerate that silently, I couldn’t say.
‘Am I becoming like Frontdier without realizing it?’
The thought was unsettling.
In any case, the Lifeguard work had surprisingly little to do. Especially when Constellation students were out playing like this.
Constellation students had already received training for emergencies, so they handled everything themselves without needing my intervention.
That meant most of the annoying work had nothing to do with actual Lifeguard duties.
Walking along the coast, women would inevitably approach me and ask,
“Hey, when does your shift end?”
Or they’d pull out their Sage Phone and say,
“You’ve got a phone, right? Write down your number.”
Or they’d recognize me and gush,
“Oh my, you’re that guy from WizardView! No wonder you looked familiar.”
They’d seen my photo on Indus and were trying to create a sense of closeness.
I politely turned them all down, of course, but even that took a certain amount of effort, so it was exhausting.
Outside of Constellation, Frontdier was quite popular. I’d sensed it when I visited Elody’s Residence, but now I felt it acutely.
Still, since this wasn’t actually my face and body, I couldn’t quite decide whether to feel pleased or not.
“Working hard?”
Someone approached me then. It was Saiber.
Saiber seemed relieved when she saw I’d made it to Cropol, so she’d gone back to her lodging and changed into a swimsuit—a somewhat daring bikini that suited her well.
“There’s nothing hard enough to work at.”
“Ah, you’re complaining again!”
……
Saiber spoke as if all my complaints so far had been an act.
There was some truth to that, but this time I genuinely meant it.
“Anyway, it’s good to see you looking fine.”
“Fine?”
“Ever since you went rogue on your own in Taeibun, I decided I’d keep an eye on you. Make sure you don’t do anything strange, no matter what.”
Saiber said this, but unfortunately, I’d already acted out before coming here.
Swallowing a small pang of guilt, I asked,
“And what good will watching do?”
“Keep you from pushing yourself. From getting hurt.”
Saiber smiled at me with a soft laugh. That smile seemed genuine. At least to my eyes.
……
But I was uncertain how to respond to her myself.
Even if Saiber’s smile directed at me was sincere. Even if her kindness and favor to me were real—she who was skilled at charming men.
……Saiber was a villain.
In the game, she had never once stepped out of that role.
She was simply an enormous obstacle that made the game harder, a roadblock, a swamp that grabbed at the players’ heels.
Of course, the Saiber standing before me now was the most different from the one I’d known before. My very presence as a character had greatly altered the game’s flow.
At the truly critical moments, when things grew most desperate, Saiber would abandon everything and flee.
One could fill a river with the tears of players who’d pinned their hopes on her, only to feel her betrayal.
But now I carried a different doubt.
When adversity and hardship came, even if Saiber didn’t flee,
could I truly trust her with my back in that moment?
Could I believe in this single instance of loyalty from someone who’d betrayed players in every moment of the game?
“Don’t worry.”
I smiled faintly.
The smile Saiber wore as she looked at me was truly beautiful in her way.
The more brightly her beauty shone, the more I found myself thinking of a rose’s thorns.

* * *
Obsidian.
The continent’s finest prison—a facility that brought both fear and reassurance to its citizens.
An unusual disturbance broke out within it.
Guards were fidgeting nervously before a solitary confinement cell.
Anyone held in this solitary cell must remain locked inside until their sentence is complete. Since it was a life sentence, in other words, they rot in here until death.
Even within Obsidian, where vicious criminals swarmed, this was an extraordinarily rare practice. It meant the individual inside was that problematic.
And problem enough he proved to be—even locked away in solitary confinement, he’d committed an act.
“……No doubt about it.”
One of the guards checked the display he was holding once more.
“The Mage Device confirms it. His vital signs have ceased.”
At that, another guard opened the narrow window of the cell and peered inside.
The man in the cell sat motionless. The same familiar, defiant posture they’d come to know. His head bowed, yet he looked as though he might rise at any moment and pick a fight.
“……That’s dead?”
The guard found it hard to believe.
Many people die in solitary. Once locked inside, a prisoner spends most of their life in darkness where barely a sliver of light enters.
Perfect soundproofing means no sound from outside reaches in. A space with neither light nor sound except during the brief moments meals are delivered. It’s enough to drive anyone mad.
What’s more, the man inside had rented this single cell until his death—plenty sufficient to make dying inevitable.
“……So Renzo died just like that?”
Yes. The man inside was no ordinary criminal.
‘The Chaos Epicure’—Renzo. In common parlance, the mightiest villain on the continent, rivaling even the Zodiac.
He’d taken his own life in solitary. It was scarcely believable.
“……Then we need to open the door.”
“…….”
“…….”
If Renzo was truly dead, what lay inside was simply a corpse. They’d need to empty the cell and dispose of the body.
Yet none of the guards stepped forward.
“What are you all so scared of? The man inside is dead, I’m telling you.”
“Scared? It’s usually the guy who brings it up talking like that.”
“Even if he were alive, he’s wearing a Restraint Device, so there’s no problem.”
“Alive? He’s dead, I said. Hah.”
“Right, right. Hahahaha.”
A thin, hollow laughter echoed briefly.
Renzo was dead. The display on the Mage Device that measured vital signs clearly said so.
But what if the device was wrong? What if he were still alive?
Even without his Aura, Renzo was formidable.
And to dispose of the body, they’d eventually have to remove the Restraint Device. If he attacked at that moment—
Someone had to open the door, yet no one volunteered.
It was like trying to bell the cat.
“What are you all doing?”
A woman’s voice cut through their hesitation.
A woman with purple hair cascading to her waist approached. Her low-heeled shoes clicked rhythmically against the floor.
“D-Director.”
“Renzo’s dead, you said?”
The woman opened the slot in the cell door and looked inside.
Hmm. She made a small grunt and opened the door.
Creak—
“Director Esther, this is dangerous.”
“Are you idiots? Now you’re afraid of a dead man? And you call yourselves guards of Obsidian?”
The guards fell silent, unable to respond.
Esther was the youngest female guard at Obsidian. In truth, being a woman wasn’t particularly unusual—there were plenty of female guards among those stationed here.
What set her apart wasn’t her gender so much as her youth relative to the other guards.
Her skill and character contributed to her position, but above all, her abilities made her the most suited to Obsidian as a detention facility.
Esther entered the cell and approached Renzo, who sat on the floor. She brought her hand to his neck.
Her eyes narrowed.
“He’s dead.”
Esther drew a small flashlight from an inner pocket of her coat. It was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand.
She pulled back Renzo’s left eyelid with her thumb and switched on the flashlight to examine his pupil.
“Dead.”
Then she checked the pulse at his neck, chest, and wrists.
“Dead. For certain.”
Esther dusted herself off and stood. She cast her gaze toward the guards behind her.
“After checking this thoroughly, is there anyone still convinced he’s alive?”
“…….”
The guards held their silence.
“Clean it up. Prepare the solitary cell and dispose of the body.”
“Yes!”
Esther left the solitary confinement cell, and the guards filed in to take her place. She paused for a moment to watch them, then sighed and walked on.
‘So Renzo took his own life.’
She herself found it difficult to accept his death so readily.
She had conducted a thorough examination in front of the guards just now to prove that Renzo was truly dead, but there was something that puzzled her as well.
Yet her hands had confirmed it beyond doubt. Renzo was dead.
‘I thought we’d lose the use of this solitary cell for decades to come.’
She had believed Renzo would never die.
Even in the solitary cell where everyone else lost their minds, she thought he would have remained there with that bloodstained smile, perfectly at ease.
‘So he was only human after all.’
The final fate of the man who had made an entire continent tremble with fear was so utterly hollow.
Esther returned to her office and rifled through her files. She opened the dossier containing Renzo’s complete records.
‘Hedonist……—if he perceives something as ‘fun,’ he acts on it without hesitation. Because of this, Renzo has no true allies or enemies. It is safer to regard him as an enemy, since one cannot predict when he might cause trouble.’
Most of the information had come from Constellation Academy and the Imperial Palace.
Renzo had infiltrated Constellation Academy’s practical examination and was subdued by the Professional Eden Hamlet.
‘This part is written with ambiguous language.’
The record clearly stated that Eden had subdued Renzo.
But Renzo, when imprisoned in Obsidian, was missing one arm.
So was it Eden who severed that right arm? The question arose naturally, and one would assume it was so, yet there was not a single sentence documenting it.
If Eden had severed the arm of someone as significant as Renzo, that would already constitute a considerable achievement. There would be no reason to deny it, no need to hide it from the records.
Yet Eden Hamlet himself was avoiding investigation for some reason.
‘……Constellation Academy.’
The detailed information about Renzo had surfaced only after his infiltration of Constellation Academy. His nature as a hedonist, his way of living—all of it came from there.
‘……Renzo took his own life. Unable to endure the suffering of solitary confinement. It seems reasonable to think this way at first glance.’
But if that were not the truth.
If Renzo had some purpose behind his own death.
Then verifying it properly would not be a waste of effort.
“Perhaps I should visit Constellation Academy first.”
Even granting that Eden was the one who subdued Renzo.
It must have been someone else who grasped that his life was fundamentally driven by ‘amusement.’ If Eden had known such information, he would have revealed it to the public long ago.
So there must have been another person who truly understood what kind of man Renzo was.
Esther stood before a mirror. It was a full-length mirror that showed her entire figure from head to toe.
Her eyes flickered with a strange light, and the woman reflected in the mirror—the one showing Esther’s image—did not follow Esther’s movements. Instead, she stepped ‘through’ the mirror and walked out.
A figure that looked identical to Esther, but mirror-reversed, spoke.
“Raise your right hand.”
Esther raised her right hand in response to her mirror-self’s words.
Mirror-Esther nodded.
“I see. So in this world, that’s your right side. Are you the original?”
“Probably. Most likely.”
Esther said this and turned away.
Her doppelgänger from the mirror always asked similar questions.
But Esther herself had never experienced left and right reversed. She had never trained to adapt to such a thing. For this reason, she was the original.
Conversely, the only reason Esther believed herself to be the original was precisely this slim reasoning.
“I’ll be away for a moment.”
Esther left her office.
She could leave minor tasks to her doppelgänger. In fact, she would produce results exactly as good as Esther herself.

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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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