The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 174

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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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Academy Weapon Duplicator Episode 174
Chapter 56: The Iron Wall (2)
The first day’s battle had ended.
Though the human side suffered casualties, thanks to Angen’s efforts from the outset, the losses remained minimal compared to the scale of monsters they faced.
From a defensive standpoint, it was nearly a complete victory, yet the faces of the Knight Order were far from pleased.
“I’m relieved everyone is safe.”
As the knights returned to the Barracks, save for those on watch, Frontdier was waiting inside.
He was distributing water and towels to the returning knights. Meals had already been prepared, and Frontdier deftly loaded food onto plates and carried them alongside the servants.
It was a sight wholly unbecoming of a nobleman, let alone the son of a house lord, yet no one attempted to stop him. Occasionally someone had tried to dissuade Frontdier, but he had consistently replied with lines like, “I shall continue unless my father tells me to stop.”
And of course, Angen said nothing about it. Though his expression suggested it was not quite approval, Frontdier either did not notice or did not care about Angen’s countenance as he aided the knights’ rest.
“Frontdier.”
Saiber approached Frontdier, who smiled and spoke.
“Treat me as you do during training. Formality doesn’t suit us.”
“……right.”
Saiber seemed somewhat embarrassed and cleared his throat awkwardly. Then he spoke again.
“Frontdier, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Yes?”
“It’s about the Raven…….”
“Hmm?”
Saiber trailed off.
Thinking it over since the battle’s end, that Raven had undoubtedly been an asset to their side. It would have been unnecessary for an enemy trap to rouse Saiber from his carelessness. In hindsight, pulling back then had been the wisest decision.
Then who among their forces had controlled that Raven?
With everyone occupied at the Barrier, the first name that came to mind was Frontdier.
“Did you perhaps leave your quarters?”
“No.”
Frontdier shook his head without hesitation.
“Due to my father’s concerns, I’m under tremendous surveillance. The servants at my quarters know well that I remained there without moving.”
“……I see.”
Saiber nodded.
Even if one Tamed a Raven, you needed to be nearby to control it properly. After all, you had to see what was happening to decide whether to help or not.
For someone confined to quarters to send a Raven all the way to where Saiber was would have been impossible.
‘I’ve heard rumors of such a bloodline ability.’
A piece of information suddenly occurred to him, but at least that ability did not belong to Roach.
“We begin the conference immediately after the meal.”
Angen spoke. The Barracks had a Conference Room, and after dinner the knights would naturally make their way there.
At that moment, Angen’s gaze turned toward Frontdier. Oddly, Frontdier too happened to be looking at Angen, and their eyes met naturally.
Angen’s expression seemed dissatisfied about something, yet what those sharp eyes conveyed was an unexpected statement.
“You come along too, Frontdier. It’ll be good to get you accustomed. But not a word from your lips.”
“……Yes.”
Frontdier nodded. Everyone regarded Angen with somewhat startled eyes.
Had Angen not initially assigned Frontdier to ‘miscellaneous tasks’? Their gaze carried that meaning.
Of course, neither Frontdier nor Angen offered any further explanation, simply attending to their duties.

* * *
Frontdier’s eyes lit up as he saw the Map laid out in the Conference Room.
It contained terrain details far more precise than what he had seen in Taeibun.
‘It’s almost identical to the Map Gregory drew from what he saw. Remarkable.’
Even a knight would have had difficulty venturing beyond the Barrier easily, yet a Map this detailed had been created.
“Then first, let us hear a Report on today’s battle—”
The conference began, and the knights steadily exchanged reports and opinions with one another.
Throughout, Frontdier watched the conference without moving, his lips sealed shut, exactly as Angen had instructed.
In fact, Frontdier believed his turn to speak would not come. Angen would hardly permit it.
As the conference progressed, someone raised a grave concern.
“The Winged Monsters still did not move.”
A knight spoke while examining the Map.
During today’s battle, while humans fought over the Barrier, their casualties were light.
This was certainly due in large part to Angen’s participation, but there was another factor at work.
“While numerous Monsters were slain, the Winged Monsters remained motionless behind the front lines. Even after the archers, unable to bear it, turned their attention downward, those creatures still did not move.”
In a conflict between humans and Monsters, two variables hold the greatest sway. One is the type of Monster; the other is their quality.
The most conspicuous type of Monster is the Winged Monsters—those creatures that fly through the air.
The Barrier exists only to hold back enemies on the ground. Those that fly must be dealt with by human ingenuity.
The Empire does, of course, have barriers prepared to cover the entire sky, but equipping such installations in a remote frontier is simply not feasible.
“As yet, we cannot discern their intentions. Should we take comfort that our forces have suffered minimal losses, or should we harbor suspicions about the absence of Winged Monsters and heighten our vigilance?”
“For now, I believe watchful waiting is wisest. Winged creatures are necessarily more fragile than ground forces, regardless of their nature. If those mysterious black beasts do engage, we can only hope that our archers’ arrows will pierce through.”
Saiber, who had been listening quietly to the knights’ exchange, suddenly opened his mouth as if struck by a thought.
“Since you mention they haven’t moved—what about the Black Monsters? Not the ones that were tainted, but the purely black ones from the start?”
“That… they vanished at some point after the battle began.”
So those creatures didn’t participate in this engagement either. They must have stained the ordinary Monsters with their blackness and then withdrawn.
It was because of those Black Monsters that even the common Monsters had gained additional resilience and ferocity, making the fight far more grueling than usual.
Yet the Black Monsters and Winged Monsters themselves had not entered the fray. That was what troubled the knights.
……
……
About an hour into the meeting, silence settled over the Conference Room. Each of them was lost in thought about the principles governing the Monsters’ behavior.
If the next battle unfolded like today’s, fought in the same manner, there would be no great problem.
But they needed to prepare for when the nature of battle shifted—and as yet, their enemy’s true intentions remained unclear.
‘What of Frontdier?’
At that moment, Saiber found himself glancing toward Frontdier without quite knowing why.
Perhaps it was the memory of his advice to practice wielding a sword in his left hand, or perhaps some intuition about a connection between the Raven and Frontdier that he couldn’t quite articulate.
Yet Frontdier, whom he’d regarded almost unconsciously, seemed to have been watching Saiber all along.
The moment Saiber’s eyes met his, Frontdier opened his mouth.
He spoke not a word aloud, as Angen had instructed,
—Ambush Tactics.
He formed that word with his lips.
“……!”
Though Saiber had never learned Lip Reading, that particular shape was unmistakable.
Saiber turned his attention back to the meeting.
That single word was enough. He understood what Frontdier wanted.
This was not the place for such a conversation.
Saiber waited quietly for the meeting to end.

* * *
“I’ve been here before, but it seems few people come to this place,” Frontdier observed as he entered the Laundry Area, glancing around.
Saiber followed behind him, taking in his surroundings as well.
“Still, it’s a public space. There’s a risk someone might overhear.”
“That’s no concern. I have many ears and eyes, so I’ll know at once if anyone draws near.”
“……As expected.”
Saiber nodded.
“That Raven from before—it was you. Frontdier.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Frontdier smiled and replied without hesitation.
At first, he had considered keeping it concealed indefinitely. But continuing to pass information by way of the Raven had its limits.
From Saiber’s perspective, there was no way to know whether the Raven could be trusted or not. And the more critical the moment, the more sensitive and vital information becomes.
If Saiber came to doubt the Raven’s information—or worse, to suspect it as an enemy stratagem—then passing information through it could become dangerous.
Battle had already commenced, and its scope was expanding far faster than Frontdier had anticipated. There was no room for delay.
“I can Tame all manner of small animals. Ravens are my preference because they’re the easiest to work with.”
Of course, it wasn’t Taming at all—it was Gregory’s ability—but mentioning cooperation with a prisoner would only invite unnecessary suspicion.
“You’re saying you can see what’s happening outside while confined to your Quarters?”
“Not see directly. The Raven reports what it observes, and I confirm the situation against my maps and battle reports.”
“Reports……?”
At that word, Saiber’s brow furrowed, and just then, a sharp caw echoed through the air.
A Raven flew down and perched upon Frontdier’s shoulder, and to Saiber’s surprise, it lowered its head in a bow toward him.
[Pleased to make your acquaintance. I serve my master faithfully. I look forward to our cooperation.]
“……My.”
The Raven had spoken. Saiber’s expression went momentarily blank.
“This is the kind of speech I can teach them. Ravens are intelligent creatures.”
“……I understand that only the most highly trained and experienced Tamers can teach birds to speak like this, and only after considerable time and effort.”
“I was fortunate, I suppose.”
It was barely an answer at all.
Frontdier decided to move past this topic quickly.

“That is precisely what I wished to discuss with you.”
“Indeed. That’s why you summoned me, then.”
Saiber did not press further, recognizing the gravity of the matter at hand.
Frontdier drew a shallow breath.
“I know the reason.”
“The reason?”
“Why the Winged Monsters did not engage in combat.”
Saiber’s eyes gleamed. If he could obtain that intelligence, it would surely grant him significant advantage in future battles.
“What is it, then? This reason you speak of.”
“Simply put, they’re taking our measure.”
“…Taking our measure?”
Frontdier’s words, setting aside their elegant phrasing, sounded profoundly ominous. The reason Saiber could not immediately grasp the meaning lay in that very dread they inspired.
“They sent in Monsters to gauge how thick the Barrier is, how strong our soldiers and knights are. That’s why they’re preserving the Monsters essential for victory. Winged or Black alike—it makes no difference.”
“…?”
Saiber struggled to grasp the meaning at once.
“…They deployed Monsters merely to assess human strength?”
“Yes.”
“They sacrificed so vast a force—all of them—just for that?”
The battle that had taken place today was, in Saiber’s lifetime, among the very few of truly staggering scale.
Had Angen not slain considerable numbers of Monsters beforehand, Yeran Hess’s undefeated record might well have been broken.
Saiber shook his head. It was an inconceivable thought.
“Frontdier, that’s a flawed premise. No enemy commander, however foolish, would sustain such losses.”
“….”
To this, Frontdier did not answer immediately, closing his eyes deeply instead.
…Yes, he knows.
Saiber knows what words Frontdier is about to speak.
There would be no other reason for such an expression.
“Captain, you said a moment ago that the force was ‘vast.'”
Yet Frontdier had to speak it aloud.
Because intelligence is not merely a catalogue of facts—what matters is what those facts ultimately signify.
“From the enemy’s perspective, those Monsters were not ‘vast’ at all.”
“…What are you… saying?”
“As I mentioned before, I can observe what lies beyond the battlefield through my Raven. I have located the enemy’s stronghold and confirmed the routes through which they converge.”
Having spoken thus, Frontdier turned his gaze toward the Raven—a silent command to speak.
Remarkably, the Raven understood Frontdier’s intent from that gaze alone and opened its beak.
[Though it pains me to report, the Monsters gathered at their place of assembly number more than five times those that attacked today. This count excludes the Black Monsters—only the ones beyond the Barrier.]
“…!”
[Yet there is a graver concern still.]
A graver concern?
At this point, Saiber’s distress was no longer merely emotional—his head had begun to ache in earnest.
His chest tightened. This was not mere sensation; he was actually struggling to breathe. He struck his chest once, trying to steady himself.
[The Black Monsters are proliferating rapidly.]
Though he struck several times more, his ragged breathing would not calm.
[Within days, they will match the numbers of the Monsters beyond the Barrier.]

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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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