The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 143

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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 143
Chapter 43: Volunteer Work (4)
Obsidian housed the most dangerous criminals, and incidents occurred with equal frequency.
Deaths were common, naturally.
Corpses that appeared in Obsidian were transferred by the Corpse Disposal Team. Before that, next of kin were contacted and asked about funeral arrangements. If there were no relatives, the body was cremated.
Since Renzo had no family, it was decided that he would be cremated within Obsidian.
His solitary cell was cleared, and Renzo was moved to the Mortuary to prepare for cremation.
After that.
“……You want to meet him? Renzo?”
“Yes. He saved my life.”
A visitor had come to Obsidian.
A woman dressed in refined clothing, wearing a wide-brimmed hat that concealed her face.
With each step, her heels clicked sharply—a sound rarely heard within these walls.
“I always wanted to repay him someday, but I just heard he died suddenly.”
“Hmm…….”
The receptionist’s expression grew troubled.
Renzo had been classified as one of the most dangerous criminals within Obsidian, so he’d been locked in solitary confinement.
He was meant to remain there until death. Naturally, visits and phone calls were forbidden.
So if anyone wished to see Renzo, either he would have to escape, or his life sentence would need to be reduced and he released. Both were virtually impossible.
“I held onto a thread of hope and waited for the day I could see him. Could I at least see his face?”
The woman spoke while her voice trembled. Beneath the hat, tears glistened in her captivating eyes. She wiped them away with her own hand as if to conceal them.
“If I may ask, what is your relationship to Renzo……?”
“……That man couldn’t be called kindhearted. He seemed like someone who simply did as he pleased.”
That would be accurate. A very precise assessment.
“But through that do-as-he-pleased nature, I was saved. Do you know? Even now, slavery thrives in the Duesta region.”
“……Then this Renzo…….”
The receptionist trailed off as if understanding, and the woman nodded.
“He saved me. Of course, he was just passing through, and he simply destroyed buildings and people that didn’t suit his temperament. I was merely swept up in it. Yet there’s no doubt I was saved because of it.”
Indeed. The receptionist nodded. How very like Renzo—to dispense salvation as a side effect.
“I’ll escort you to the Mortuary. Three guards will accompany us. Is that acceptable?”
“Of course. If I can see his face, that’s all I need.”
The woman nodded, and the receptionist made a call, explaining the situation.
Shortly after, three guards approached the woman, and one spoke.
“We’ll show you the way. This way, please.”
The woman was escorted and monitored by the three guards as they walked.
They arrived at the Mortuary, and the lead guard opened the door.
Currently, only one corpse lay in the Mortuary. The guard moved it—resting on a wheeled stretcher—to the center of the room.
A cloth covered the face of the body.
The guard stepped forward toward the corpse’s face.
“Then I’ll remove the cloth.”
As the guard pulled back the cloth, there lay Renzo, his face already grown cold.
“Ah, Renzo…….”
The woman covered her mouth with both hands and murmured in lament. She approached Renzo with unsteady steps.
“Ah, to think it’s come to this—poor Renzo…….”
Her fingertips touched Renzo’s face. The guards’ eyes twitched, but they made no move to stop her.
“Thank you, everyone.”
The woman said this and extended her hand.
For a moment, the guards didn’t understand what she meant. Did she want to hold hands? A handshake?
Her index, middle, and ring fingers each pointed toward the three guards.
And then—
Squelch.
The guards’ heads pierced through. In an instant.
Her fingers—now transformed into tentacles—withdrew, and the woman flicked the blood from them.
“Hmm, if I don’t use Aura, my fingers do ache a bit. Though that’s why I wasn’t suspected.”
When humans confront humans, they are most cautious of Aura and Mana usage.
A human who doesn’t employ power has limits to their strength.
For this reason, humans who don’t use Aura become careless almost reflexively, lowering their guard.
And it’s far more fatal if that thing isn’t truly human at all, merely masquerading as one.
“Now then, shall we begin, Renzo.”
The woman’s face writhed. Something beneath her neck seemed to crawl upward from within, and her features shifted slowly, grotesquely. Not a single sound of bone cracking could be heard.
The woman’s completely transformed face was neither distinctly male nor female—identical to the one in Constellation’s Auditorium. It was Kraken.
“This face is more comfortable, after all.”
She could reshape herself from face to body with perfect control, yet she kept returning to this form. Kraken questioned her own behavior. Perhaps even in human form, there was an original shape she was drawn toward.
“Well, never mind that. Time to work.”
Kraken placed her hand on Renzo’s chest as he lay motionless.
His heartbeat had stopped completely. The Renzo here was undoubtedly dead.
To gain one life, one must lose another.
A technique only Kraken could perform. Or rather, this was less a technique than a forbidden taboo.
Waaaaaaaahhh-!!!
The alarm inside the Mortuary shrieked. Or perhaps it was sounding across all of Obsidian—they’d noticed the disturbance here.
“Fast as always. But it’s already too late.”
A hole opened in Kraken’s palm. Something writhing deep within her body surged outward. It burst through the opening, forcing its way into Renzo’s chest.
Thump! Thump!
Kraken’s entire body pulsed in rhythm. The beating spread to her palm, and soon that same rhythm colored Renzo’s body.
Blood trickled from the corner of Kraken’s mouth. Yet she still smiled. The agony was there, but she endured it.
When Kraken finally withdrew her hand from Renzo’s chest—
Renzo’s eyes opened.

* * *
The third day of the field trip.
My work is simple: I spend most of my time doing lifeguard duties.
While working, I deliberately positioned myself near clusters of Constellation students—especially those who knew me well. Aster, Elody, Aten, Saiber, and the rest.
I needed to demonstrate that I was genuinely serving my punishment from Constellation.
It seemed they suspected I was secretly doing something else.
Since that suspicion was actually correct, I had no choice but to throw myself into volunteer work with even greater fervor.
“You there, sir!”
A voice called out while I was working.
A woman came rushing toward me from the beach, urgency in her stride.
“You’re a lifeguard, aren’t you?”
“Yes, what’s wrong?”
“My son has disappeared…! He was swimming just moments ago, and then I looked away for just an instant…!”
I narrowed my eyes.
I turned my gaze toward the beach. Constellation students mixed with citizens from Cropol filled the sand and water—already packed with countless people.
Finding a lost child in that crowd was like searching for one specific pine tree in an entire pine forest.
If he were merely lost, that would be one thing. But to vanish while swimming stirred darker possibilities.
“…I will cause some commotion, but there’s no choice.”
There were no alternatives.
I spoke quietly.
“Menosorpo.”
A magic circle deployed at my voice. Ordinary citizens wouldn’t notice the change, but every Constellation student felt the surge of Mana and lifted their heads.
An invisible yet unmistakable tension settled over the beach. Those students with keen Mana sensitivity naturally turned their gazes toward me.
Don’t look so hard. You’ll understand soon enough.
Within the Menosorpo magic circle, I carefully checked all the Mana. Especially toward the water.
Based on what the woman said, the most dangerous scenario was the child in the sea.
And…
‘Damn it.’
There he was. Not yet sunk, but struggling against the waves that swept him out.
I ran toward the beach. He’d already been carried quite far. He was barely visible to the naked eye.
I knew his location through Menosorpo’s influence, but the people on the beach mixed with the waves would see almost nothing.
‘I’m glad I trained in this.’
I wrapped my body in Aura and, manipulating it with practiced control, lifted myself into the air. By then, nearly every eye was on me.
I flew across the sea at maximum speed. The child had drifted much farther than I expected.
He’d already swallowed a lot of water, but desperation kept him thrashing—still buoyant, not yet sinking.
“Hey!”
I wove a rope and dropped it toward the struggling child.
“Grab on!”
I’d heard it said that if you jump into water to save someone, you drown together—the terrified child, desperate to live, pushes the rescuer underwater without mercy.
Of course, I was flying through the air, so that wouldn’t happen. In any case, this method was safer.
Yet…
‘Hell, he can’t hear me.’
Fierce waves crashed down, and water had likely filled his ears as well. On top of that, he was crying. Thinking he was moments from death, the world around him was invisible.
This is becoming rather flashy, but there’s no helping it.
Void Weaving
Workshop
Large Shield
I formed a shield beneath the floundering child, deep in the sea. As I slowly pushed it upward, the shield supported the boy and rose toward the surface.
Hack, hack—the child coughed, still wearing an expression of near-death. Fortunately, he expelled the water and drew breath.
I landed on the shield.
“Are you all right?”
In all my years, I’ve had almost no experience handling children. Frontdier was probably in much the same boat.
Well, what to do. I approached closer, trying to gauge his complexion.
A sudden rush—
The child threw himself into my arms. The moment he did, he wailed at the top of his lungs—louder than he had while drowning.
Whaaaa, whaaaa—that sound was so heartrending that I found myself smiling despite myself.
I looked the child in the eye and spoke.
“Come on. Let’s get you back to your mother.”
The child sniffled and nodded.
I cradled him in my arms, settled onto the shield, and rode it back to the Coastal Beach.
Somewhere along the way, the child forgot all about crying and marveled at floating, his eyes bright as he looked about in every direction.
Strangely, I wasn’t particularly amused. Perhaps because I was floating on a shield I was controlling myself.
It felt rather like sitting on a long moving walkway suspended in midair.
‘But using the shield as a mobile platform—that’s not a bad idea.’
I can fly through the sky now, but if I use the shield, I could leap from it or make sharp directional changes mid-flight. Sudden stops and rapid acceleration would be possible too.
I descended to the Coastal Beach, released Menosorpo, and returned with the child to the woman.
The woman clutched the child to herself with visible relief, tears streaming down her face.
After receiving her thanks, the child bowed to me, and only after extracting a promise to play together later did I finally manage to extract myself. Children really are selfish.
“Phew.”
Then I exhaled and looked up at the sky.
The gazes of the people around me—especially the Constellation Academy students—were far too focused, and I was determined not to draw any unwanted attention myself.
But whether that was purely coincidence or not.
Caw—
At that very moment, as I looked skyward, a raven split the air with its call.
A raven flying over the Coastal Beach.
Because it fit so perfectly, I nodded inwardly.
New information had arrived on the wing.
But most likely, it was news I already knew.

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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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