The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 17

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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 17
Chapter 5: The Test (1)
A package arrived at my room. Inside was a single enclosed letter.
[I hope it isn’t what you’re thinking.]
That’s unsettling, Quinier.
Soon the third-year students will undergo their Professional Internship. That’s when the Outside Monster I warned you about will arrive.
I’ve given you detailed information about when I’m coming, the monster’s weaknesses, and how to respond to it, so there shouldn’t be significant casualties.
……That is to say, for an assault by an Outside Monster, things should go that way.
I examined the contents of the package.
First, there was a ring. A jewel gleaming in deep blue was set into it.
[Magic Ring from Viete Trading House]
• Rarity Grade: Rare
• Description: A high-grade ring handled by Viete Trading House.
• Property: Increases the wearer’s total Mana capacity slightly.
If my prediction is correct, this jewel should be a Sapphire.
With Etius Jewelry, the crafter decides what effect to imbue, but generally the material composition of the metal exerts considerable influence on the stats.
The most important factor is color.
The redder the jewel, the more it boosts Strength or Stamina—attributes combat classes need. The bluer it is, the more it enhances Mana or Intelligence. Green stones govern dynamic visual acuity, reflex speed, and velocity stats, while other colors follow the crafter’s discretion.
A Sapphire means blue-toned, which puts it among the more expensive stones in the Mana jewelry category. It would provide quite meaningful help in expanding my Mana pool.
I slipped it onto my index finger right away. Before putting it on, the ring had looked far too large for my finger, but once I wore it, it fit perfectly. Almost like an optical illusion.
And then there was one more thing. This one I had been anticipating most.
An artifact to store the Black Heaven.
I had used that deliberately vague phrasing with Quinier—that it needed to be easy to pour water in and out of.
I was counting on her sense of design.
“Is it this one?”
I opened the box and lifted something that met my hand.
“……What is this?”
A long metal string, a small jewel wrapped in refined ornamentation.
What I was looking at was a necklace.
It was certainly beautiful and elegant. The black jewel reflected her interpretation of the requirement that its interior remain invisible.
Both the design and how she’d executed it pleased me.
……But this.
“How am I supposed to pour Black Heaven into this?”
* * *
Teibun, a frontier region of the Terst Empire.
It lies opposite Yeranhez, the territory governed by Angfer, the head of Loach House.
Teibun is the domain of Urpa House.
The head of this Urpa clan is Lidwy Urpa.
“Well then, how many dead and wounded?”
“Eleven dead, roughly thirty wounded. For an incident caused by an Outside Monster, that’s quite a small number.”
“Hmm, well that’s fortunate indeed.”
Lidwy sat in his carriage, listening to the report.
The Teibun region was hosting the Professional Internship for Constel’s third-year students.
A standard Constel exercise—observing Professionals at work from the sidelines and, if possible, having students conduct simple practical training.
But it seemed that an Outside Monster had invaded the area where those students were stationed.
“What was the nature of the monster?”
“A Black Werewolf, sir. We suspect it had strayed from its pack.”
“……They stopped one by killing only eleven?”
Lidwy was surprised.
Death was never a pleasant thing, but such a small casualty count was undoubtedly cause for relief.
Werewolves derive from wolves, which live communally. When in a pack, they hunt actively and fearlessly, but a lone individual becomes exceptionally cunning.
With their packmates present they act like fearless warriors, but the moment they’re alone, they transform into assassins.
Black Werewolves are particularly prone to this cunning, making them far more troublesome to deal with when solitary.
And when it’s from Outside, all the more so.
“Someone anticipated it beforehand and prevented disaster. Moreover, they identified the Outside Black Werewolf’s weaknesses and responded with remarkable efficiency and speed, or so I’m told.”
“Oh? Who was it?”
“Why don’t you meet them yourself? We’ve arrived.”
The carriage came to a stop, and Lidwy stepped out.
The scene remained busy with efforts to relocate the wounded and identify the deceased.
At the location where his subordinate led him, a familiar face awaited.
“Ah, aren’t you Quinier of Loach House?”
Lidwy regarded Quinier de Biét with interest in his eyes.
Now that he thought about it, she was a student at Constel.
Since they met often as heads of their respective houses, moments like this made Quinier’s youth feel strikingly apparent.
“……So you’ve come. Lidwy Urpa.”
Quinier’s expression as she greeted him was far from pleasant.
The way she held her fan to her lips made it clear she was barely restraining her disgust.
“What’s with that face? I hear you kept the damage from being too severe.”
“……That’s right. Thanks to me, eleven people died.”
There was self-mockery in Quinier’s words.
One corner of Lidwy’s eye twitched slightly.
“Quinier, still haven’t recovered?”
“……You speak as if time will simply heal it away.”
“You did well. Far more people could have died. You stopped that from happening. Take pride in that.”
“……Yes.”
Quinier’s mood hadn’t truly improved, but she acknowledged that Lidwy spoke the truth.
She had done her best. Even if she could go back to that moment, she likely wouldn’t have handled it any better.
‘……And so, eleven died.’
Frondier’s words came back to her.
Everything he’d told her had been correct—the identity of the Outside Monster, its weaknesses, even its habits.
Quinier had wanted to brief the Professional interns on this information beforehand to minimize casualties.
She’d have preferred to cancel the Professional Internship entirely.
But information lacking solid foundation carries no persuasive weight.
The Professionals had heard her out and judged there was a possibility, yet they couldn’t cancel the entire schedule.
They’d taken precautions proportional to the threat, and the losses had been proportional to those precautions.
-You hate it when people die, don’t you.
Frondier’s voice lingered in her ears.
Of all the information Frondier had given her, that piece of information—the one she most wanted kept hidden—he had possessed from the very start.
Judging by the timing and tone of how he’d said it, he hadn’t spoken carelessly.
That weakness of hers, bordering on terror, Frondier had clearly known about.
‘Better to count my blessings.’
Frondier hadn’t demanded anything from Quinier in exchange for that information. There had been no coercion.
What existed was only a fair transaction.
Frondier had given Quinier information about the Outside Monster, and Quinier had given him compensation in kind.
That must have meant Frondier also wished to build a good relationship with her.
‘Frondier. It’s difficult to assign him a price.’
Quinier’s habit of judging everything by money applied to people as well.
For she believed that assigning proper value was the fairest way to treat someone.
And for that reason, Frondier was an entity that greatly occupied her thoughts.
The counterfeit Mistiltein incident.
The series of actions in the Dungeon.
And the information he provided to her.
None of it was clear; everything was shrouded in mist.
“This must be hard for you to bear. Why don’t you go rest somewhere?”
Seeing Quinier’s expression, Lidwy thought she was suffering because of the corpses.
He was one of the very few who knew her weakness.
And so this consideration, too, was something only Lidwy could offer at present.
Quinier shook her head.
“No. I am the head of Loach House, after all.”
That was true. She was the head of the Loach House.
The ‘Little Devil’ Quinier, who had raised her House while still a student.
Her instincts as a head were sounding an alarm.
‘Frondier’—that was the bell tolling within her.
* * *
Several days later, inside a luxury sedan.
“Elody, are you listening? Elody?”
“……Oh, yes. Sorry, Father.”
“Just to be safe, when we arrive at the Loach Mansion, call me ‘Father,’ would you?”
“If you’re going to fuss about that, why didn’t you just call my brother?”
“If I summoned your brother, it’d only end in a fight with Frondier. You know that as well as I do.”
Elody let out a deep sigh at Ortel’s words. She gazed out the window for the entire journey.
Elody and Ortel were now heading toward the Loach Mansion.
The two houses, which had old ties and considerable standing, often met and exchanged pleasantries in this manner.
Given that both families had many rivals, such public appearances mattered greatly. When two powerful noble houses demonstrated their friendship, other families thought twice before causing trouble.
“You seem distant—unlike yourself. Is something on your mind?”
“……Yes, a little.”
True to her words, Elody had been lost in thought moments before.
Frondier’s recent actions, what she’d been hearing and seeing, struck her as peculiar.
His languid, drowsy demeanor remained unchanged.
Yet from the Mistiltein incident to the Dungeon exploration just days ago.
Even Aster seemed to hold him in surprisingly high regard.
-I’ll ease your worries for you.
That’s what Frondier had told Aster. And he’d made good on it.
Which meant Frondier had known the Mistiltein was a fake before he’d ever laid eyes on it.
‘How?’
There was only one answer.
‘Frondier knows what Mistiltein truly looks like.’
What she’d taken for bluster, she now had to believe was the truth. But if it was true, another problem emerged.
How could a human know what Mistiltein looked like? A Mistiltein no human had ever seen—to know its form.
‘……Does Frondier possess Divine Power?’
A god must have shown Mistiltein to Frondier directly. If so, he would naturally know its form.
As far as Elody knew, there was no other possibility.
……The thoughts kept circling back on themselves.
Assuming it was true that Frondier possessed Divine Power.
What did his behavior up until now mean?
Divine Power is determined at birth, for the most part.
A god has already marked the person they will love.
In other words, Frondier likely had Divine Power from the start.
She’d believed his indolent conduct was because he lacked both Divine Power and talent.
But if Frondier actually possessed Divine Power all along?
That entire assumption crumbled.
‘Frondier’s laziness had a hidden purpose……?’
Frondier, who possessed Divine Power.
If he had Divine Power, even lacking combat talent wouldn’t be a serious problem. Now she couldn’t even be certain he truly lacked talent.
It was all speculation, of course.
Frondier might have deliberately disguised himself as lazy.
But for some reason, he’d abandoned that pretense…….
“Father.”
“Mm?”
“We haven’t arrived yet.”
“Still, I’d better start practicing now.”
“Yes, yes, father. By the way, is there anything about Frondier I haven’t heard?”
Ortel tilted his head, seeming not to quite understand Elody’s question.
“Hm? Haven’t heard?”
“There’s been talk that Frondier has been less lazy at Constel lately. I was wondering if there was a reason.”
“Ah, that—I heard about it from Angfer. He said something about ranking in the top ten of the year-round grades, or facing Expulsion if he didn’t.”
Elody nodded at that, then fell into thought once more.
Top ten in year-round grades. Expulsion if he failed.
Had he been afraid of being expelled?
……No.
-I have no choice. It’s my mistake, and there’s no undoing it.
When Frondier spoke those words, his expression held no regret.
He said he’d made a mistake, yet he didn’t seem to believe he’d actually done wrong.
As if it were a deliberate mistake. As if he’d steeled himself for something that couldn’t be undone.
“We’ve arrived.”
Moments later, the carriage stopped, and Elody’s reverie came to an end.
The two stepped out and made their way toward the Loach Mansion.

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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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