The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 183

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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 183
Chapter 58: Toward the Fragment (3)
Lorie advanced with a hardened expression.
She had anticipated it would come to this when she’d filed her report.
─Confirm whether the Glacier can be approached. Verify whether it can be destroyed.
This was the Empire’s directive. And they had sent Dark Bureau personnel to assist her, or so they claimed.
In truth, it amounted to being told to die.
“There’s no need to destroy it. We just need to strike the Glacier once and retreat immediately.”
Lorie spoke to the people riding alongside her as though it were a simple task.
But she knew the truth. Even if they succeeded in breaching that monster barrier and attacking the Glacier, the moment they did, every creature would descend upon them in unison. There was no hoping to slip away unscathed after venturing so deep into that nexus.
“Working for the Dark Bureau means this. You knew what you were signing up for.”
Leader’s voice was calm and matter-of-fact. Everyone here, including Lorie and Leader, understood what this operation truly meant.
Life in the Dark Bureau was like this. For the Empire’s interests, one does whatever is necessary. That principle applied when dealing with enemies, but it applied equally to one’s own allies.
The Dark Bureau had classified that Glacier, discovered in the Northwest of the Continent, as a Special Danger Level threat and sent them to investigate.
If those sent—including Lorie—failed their mission, the Dark Bureau would simply send the next person, and the next after that. In essence, they had been thrown as bait to measure the enemy’s danger and strength.
“All for the glory of the Empire.”
“For the glory of the Empire.”
Following Leader’s lead, all of them echoed the same words. The sound was not loud. Their words were not a battle cry meant to raise morale, but rather a form of self-hypnosis.
“Lorie, your ability is crucial. Use Hypnosis on any dangerous monsters that spot and approach us. I’m leaving it to your judgment to determine which ones are genuinely dangerous. They don’t have to be dark-colored monsters.”
“Yes, understood.”
They rode in a wide circle around the outer edge of the monster horde. Several creatures noticed them, but most were too preoccupied with their worship of the Fragment to pay attention.
Leader surveyed the monsters’ positions from outside, searching for the most promising gap through which to advance.
“─From here, we turn left. Once we approach the Glacier, the path will split into three directions. I’ll give the signal.”
“Yes.”
“Go!”
At Leader’s command, the reins of every horse jerked taut simultaneously. They wheeled sharply to the left and drove toward the Glacier.
Grrrrrr—
SCREEEECH!!
Several monsters noticed their approach. The creatures naturally moved to block the Dark Bureau’s advance.
Thud-thud-thud! The fastest ones surged toward them. Personnel on the unit’s flank moved to intercept, swinging swords and thrusting spears at the oncoming beasts.
Throughout, Lorie scanned her surroundings ceaselessly, searching for targets for her Hypnosis. Her ability possessed exceptional potency—nearly every monster fell susceptible to it—but the stronger the creature, the more mental energy it drained from her. The same was true if their numbers grew.
So it was better to reserve it for truly dangerous monsters rather than waste it on everything that crossed their path.
Still, she could always afford to use it on at least one creature. There had never been an exception so far.
‘……Except for Frontdier.’
Normally, when she cast Hypnosis on a powerful opponent, Lorie could gauge the depth of their strength. She had to expend mental energy proportional to it, after all.
But with Frontdier, she felt nothing at all. At first, she’d thought it had taken effect. She’d assumed he was some weakling who barely required any mental power to control.
The reality was the opposite. It didn’t work on him at all. Her mental energy was never consumed, and Frontdier remained completely unaffected. It was as if the Hypnosis had simply missed.
Could such a thing happen again—this time with a monster? That possibility terrified her.
“Now!”
Leader shouted, and with his call, the Dark Bureau personnel split apart, spreading both flanks in three directions.
Not all of them needed to survive. They only needed one person to escape alive—someone who could confirm the Glacier’s strength and report back.
From that perspective, Lorie, capable of using Hypnosis, had the highest odds of survival. That was why Leader and the others fought so desperately to protect her.
Lorie, positioned with Leader’s contingent. As they charged toward the Glacier, the flanking units peeled left and right, diverting the monsters’ attention away.
But there was something they did not know.
“What……?!”
The moment they split into three directions and drew the monsters’ gaze was vanishingly brief. The creatures quickly saw through their strategy.
Monsters swarmed toward Lorie’s group, pressing straight ahead down the main avenue.
The Dark Bureau personnel understood the monsters Outside only in the most superficial terms.
They did not comprehend the difference between the creatures that lurked just beyond the Barrier and those dwelling in the deeper regions, even though both belonged to the Outside.
If they deployed tactics that worked against ordinary monsters, they would be the ones deceived. No stratagem that could fool humans would suffice against the monsters of the Outside.
“R-Retreat! Fall back!”
Leader cried out in panic. Even without his command, the scattered units shifted course.
But that change of direction was itself a mistake. The flanks, forced to abandon their formation so abruptly, were already crumbling.
In that instant, the monsters that were supposed to overwhelm only Lorie’s group descended upon both separated units instead.
“Aaagh! Aaaa—!”
“Ahhhhh!!”
The teeth of the crawling monsters severed the horses’ legs. Those from above tore through human necks and cleaved through torsos.
Blades and cudgels swung wildly, but the soldiers lost all sense of direction amid the endless press of monster shadows.
Had one fought alone, abandoning all caution and swinging like a madman, perhaps a mutual destruction might have claimed a few of them. Instead, bound by concern for the comrade beside him, unable to strike with full force, he fell to the ground alongside that very ally.
Trampled beneath the feet and fangs and clubs of monsters, bones broke and skulls shattered.
“Ugh……!”
Lorie’s eyes snapped open. She couldn’t bear to watch the slaughter unfolding across both flanks.
She picked out one of the stronger-looking monsters assailing the humans and cast Hypnosis upon it. Soon a grotesque tableau emerged—monsters devouring monsters.
“Lorie! Conserve your strength!”
Leader shouted once he noticed. But Lorie clamped her mouth shut and didn’t answer.
“Lorie! We’re all dead already—did you forget that? If we carry out the orders from above, that’s enough!”
“……That doesn’t mean everyone wanted to die like this! Not like this!”
“If you complete the mission and make it back, it won’t be a pointless death! Lorie!”
They were at the height of their quarrel, neither yielding an inch, when—
“L-Leader! From the right!”
The man to Leader’s right cried out.
This time, things like wild dogs were closing in on them. Faster than the monsters from before, and creatures that made human eyes spin with dizziness.
If they were attacked here, the main force where Lorie was would be swept away in an instant.
“Hnngh!”
Lorie stretched out one hand. Her Hypnosis reached the dogs. But she couldn’t get them all.
Some of them bit nearby strays and fell with them, but most closed the distance without losing speed.
Leader reined in his horse. The others did the same.
Leader shouted.
“Lorie! Eyes forward—ride!”
Lorie, startled, belatedly grabbed the reins and pulled hard.
“Leader!”
“If you stay here, we all die together! If you hate dying like this so much, run—by any means, run!”
Lorie’s eyes swept across the scene. The flanks being devoured by monsters on both sides. The main force with dog-like creatures swarming toward them.
They would certainly die. From the start, survival had been a thread-thin possibility, but now they wouldn’t even complete the proper mission before falling.
A meaningless death—nothing more than being cast as food before the monsters.
For their deaths to carry even a few lines of meaning, she had to live. Live, confirm the Glacier, and escape. True, even that survival chance was slim, but it was better than being pinned here.
Run, run, Lorie.
Pull the reins in your hand, quickly.
“……I can’t.”
Lorie thrust both arms forward. With the motion, the monsters around her collapsed. Both flanks opened up for breathing room, and as the approaching dogs fell one by one in front, they tripped over their own fallen.
Drip—
Nosebleed ran down her lips.
Lorie couldn’t abandon them.
She knew it herself. What she was supposed to do as a Dark Bureau operative. That this was simply buying time.
And she also knew. That her nature was ill-suited to the Dark Bureau.
The Dark Bureau—doing whatever it took for the Empire’s interests. Lorie had been able to continue that work until now because those interests were bound to the lives of the Empire’s citizens.
Lorie had done dirty work to save people. She had killed to save people.
Running away alone to survive for herself—and for mere scraps of information at that—was never something she had imagined doing from the start.
In other words, she was.
“Trying to save them all, are you?”
“Huh?!”
Lorie gasped, her skin erupting in goosebumps.
It was a voice she thought she’d heard before, and instinctively ‘fear’ rose in her chest.
Boom——!!
Something came crashing down from above onto the oncoming dogs.
“?!”
In that moment, Lorie couldn’t tell what had fallen. Her eyes couldn’t take it all in.
She lifted her head and widened her eyes, and only then could she see it.
An enormous building. Where there had been nothing but open ground moments before, a massive three-story structure had fallen from the sky. The dogs were crushed beneath its weight, ground to pulp beneath it.
“What, what is that?”
“Is that also a monster?”
Lorie looked around at the sound of intact human voices from both flanks.
The personnel who had been suffering terrible slaughter at the hands of monsters. But now those monsters had vanished.
They lay dead all around. Felled by arrows through the head, chest, throat.
‘The monsters on both flanks of the unit and the dogs approaching the main force—all taken care of in a single moment?’
And without killing a single human?
Lorie immediately knew who had done this. She couldn’t miss it, not with that enormous building. Yet she couldn’t believe it.
That torture technician who’d locked someone away and given them nothing to eat or drink for a month straight—how could he possibly—
“Saving everyone might be beyond my strength, though.”
The voice speaking again cut off Lorie’s thoughts.
Still furious, and if given half a chance she’d love to wipe that smirk clean off his face, yet his voice carried the same terrifying edge as always.
“……Frontdier.”
Lorie lifted her head and glared at him.
Before the building that had fallen from the sky, Frontdier hung suspended in the air, smiling down at her.
“No time for talk. Get your people inside that building.”
“……Inside there?”
Lorie looked at the structure Frontdier had indicated with his thumb. Naturally, she harbored not a shred of pleasant memory of this place.
“Would you rather all die here?”
“…….”
Lorie bit her lower lip and scanned their surroundings. The monsters blanketing the area had vanished in an instant.
It was extraordinary, but soon enough another tide of them would come crashing down. The horses were terrified, and the company’s morale lay in tatters.
“Leader, we should enter that building.”
“……Is it safe?”
“It isn’t safe, but it’s our only option.”
Leader looked up at Frontdier floating in the sky.
Lorie had momentarily forgotten that in this world, a person levitating in the air spoke volumes about their power.
Standing on a rope was out of the question—the terrain was far too open and flat—and floating at this height, several meters up, was impossible even with Levitation magic.
More than anything, judging by what had just transpired, the fact that the surrounding monsters had been wiped out and this building appeared suddenly—surely it was all this man’s doing.
“Everyone! Lead the horses into the Residence!”
At Leader’s command, the Dark Bureau personnel shuffled hesitantly toward the building. They rode in a daze until something stirred in their minds, and they glanced back.
The devastating battlefield where monsters had just raged. Human corpses lay scattered across it, and some still clung to life.
Their wounds were severe, but with the medicines stocked here and healers on hand, they might survive if given enough time.
……But sentiment had no place here. The monsters would return shortly, and every second counted—they had to get inside that building as fast as possible.
“Move the wounded. All of them.”
“?!”
Frontdier had spoken. Everyone turned to look at him in disbelief.
Frontdier swept his gaze across the chaos and continued.
“I’m giving you three minutes. Get everyone inside by then. When that time’s up, the door closes—I don’t care if they’re alive or dead.”
Three minutes? When the monsters were about to pour down on them again, he could spare three minutes?
How could he possibly buy them that time—
Boom—
Then people saw it. Spears suddenly materialized around him as he floated, their blades spreading wide in a perfect circle around them all.
Crack!
Frontdier swung what looked like a hammer, and lightning erupted, coursing down the shafts of the spears. The current linked all the spears together in a blazing web.
An improvised barrier, erected to shield the humans, was complete.
“Three minutes.”
The countdown began again. People snapped to attention and moved with urgency. They carried the wounded, marshaled the horses, and funneled them swiftly inside.
And just as Lorie was slipping in among them, about to disappear into the Workshop,
“Lorie.”
She flinched.
Frontdier called her to a stop without hesitation.
Like rust-stiffened machinery, Lorie turned her neck toward him. Frontdier regarded her with his usual smile.
“I’ll need you to settle a debt for me.”
……A debt?
Why me?
I have no money. Am I supposed to settle the price of all these lives alone?
“Don’t worry. You’ll be able to pay it back—I’m certain. And only you can do it.”
Frontdier spoke as though to reassure her, but Lorie found no reassurance at all.
She had no idea what he meant or how to repay anything, yet a sense of foreboding was all that rose in her heart.

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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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