The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 28

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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 Replicator — Episode 28
Chapter 9: Menosorpo (2)
I made plans to meet Sabel again in the future and left the Hospital.
And where I headed next was the Library.
Originally, the reason I’d gone to see Sabel wasn’t because of Menosorpo — it was because of Artemis’ Bow.
I’d wanted to check whether only women could use it, but I hadn’t managed to.
So I decided to search the Library for information about Weaving instead.
“Ahem, Frondier.”
But the moment I stepped through the Library entrance, I heard this sound.
Ainen the librarian was looking at me.
“Hello, ma’am.”
“Hmph.”
Ainen turned her head away sharply, as if in a foul mood.
Or maybe it wasn’t her mood — maybe she just disliked me.
“You were lucky, Frondier.”
“Pardon?”
“Mistiltain — your bluffing still works for now.”
“…Yes, I suppose so.”
Now that she mentioned it, Ainen had played a trick on me in the Library before.
When some adventurer party had discovered Mistiltain, Ainen had subtly tested me.
She’d been hoping my opinion — that “Mistiltain doesn’t look like that” — would crumble.
But that Mistiltain turned out to be a fake, so
my reputation remained intact.
Though it wasn’t really bluffing in the first place.
“But why do you keep coming to the Library? It doesn’t suit you.”
“I’m looking for a specific book.”
“Didn’t you give me exactly that same answer last time you were here?”
I suppose I did.
But this time it was the truth.
I needed to find a book about Weaving.
Perhaps something related to magic — Illusion, maybe?
Since Weaving was my unique skill, it would be extraordinarily difficult to find any applicable knowledge.
I was searching like someone trying to find a needle in the sand.
“Fine, fine. Look well then.”
Ainen waved her hand dismissively, as if brushing away a fly.
She seemed to have grown less fond of me.
‘That’s a shame.’
As I’d mentioned before, Ainen was an excellent source of information.
She was the librarian at Constel, where all information — both within and beyond the academy — gathered, and Ainen herself loved gossip.
She was a valuable person who could give me a heads-up about trivial, or even important, events I might otherwise miss.
…That is, if I were Aster Evans.
‘Hmm?’
That was when my gaze caught the paper Ainen had been looking at.
It resembled some sort of quiz.
Did Ainen actually enjoy this kind of thing?
“…Are you solving a quiz?”
“Haven’t you left yet?”
“I never took you for the type to enjoy this.”
When I pushed the conversation forward a bit, Ainen let out a sigh.
“It’s not because I enjoy it.”
“Then why?”
“Look here — whoever answers all the questions correctly gets a gift certificate. With a housewife’s heart, I can’t let something like this slip by.”
Sure enough, where Ainen pointed, I could see a department store gift certificate listed as the reward.
And looking at the quiz itself…
‘…Hm.’
The quiz wasn’t difficult content.
It was just petty.
The theme was “Miscellaneous Knowledge Adventurers Need,” but it didn’t look necessary at all.
1. What is the average lifespan of a Goblin?
2. When do Griffons lay their eggs?
……Well, it was like this.
“Where did you get stuck?”
“Why? Can’t you see it’s the last one?”
“I suppose it could be.”
Ainen pointed to the final question.
12. What does Dragon Heart mean, and what happens if a human consumes it?
I looked at this problem and thought.
A gift certificate — she really doesn’t want to give it away, does she.
There are exactly two Dragon Hearts within the Terst Empire.
One is in the Emperor’s Sanctuary.
The other is in the Bamies Church, where Pope Ansproi resides.
So most people have never seen the real thing, and there’s no public material—photographs or footage—available.
Historically, only an extremely small number of humans have ever witnessed or handled a Dragon Heart.
For a problem with a department store gift certificate on the line, this is far too difficult.
‘Does the one who wrote this question actually know the answer?’
I doubted it.
So few people would know.
And looking below that question, Ainen had written this:
-Heart?
“……You only wrote one thing.”
“How would I know what happens when a human eats it?”
Ainen gripped her head and spoke.
Whether she was asking me or muttering to herself, I couldn’t tell.
I smiled.
“Would you like me to tell you?”
“What? You know the answer? Really?”
“Of course.”
I knew it well enough.
I’d actually seen a Dragon Heart,
and I’d even eaten one.
Ainen looked at me with eyes full of desperate hope.
“What happens when a person eats it? Come on, tell me. If I win, I’ll split the gift certificate with you.”
“Before that.”
“What?”
“Your answer is wrong too.”
At my words, Ainen stared blankly at me before opening her mouth.
“Dragon Heart isn’t…… a dragon’s heart?”
“No. It’s a Mana crystal. When a dragon dies, it condenses all the Mana it possesses into crystallized form. Since this is located in the heart, it’s called a Dragon Heart.”
“What? You? That doesn’t suit you at all. How do you know this?”
“I happened to read it in a book once.”
“A book like that exists?”
Such a book.
Why wouldn’t it?
Out of millions of volumes, there’d probably be at least one. Maybe.
Though I haven’t seen it.
“So what happens if a human eats it?”
“They become a cripple.”
“……Really?”
“Yes.”
Ainen wrote it down, suspicious of my words yet honest about them.
……The truth is, that’s only half the answer.
I’d eaten a Dragon Heart when I was Aster, after all.
Even knowing the danger of becoming disabled.
If you just know the proper method, a Dragon Heart can increase your total Mana pool.
‘But if I revealed that, it would actually become the wrong answer.’
That knowledge belongs to me alone.
* * *
“Hmm, this doesn’t seem to be it either.”
After telling Ainen the answer, I searched through books in the Library.
Looking for a hint on whether you could “modify” a Woven weapon.
Illusions, environmental phantasms, magical theory, mnemonic techniques, the structural principles of various weapons—things like that.
But nowhere among them was there a hint that might lead to Weaving.
I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms.
What I’d managed to determine with certainty, at least.
The images of objects inside Frondier’s Workshop are structurally and fundamentally identical to their counterparts in reality.
That is, the Workshop doesn’t simply ‘remember’ these images.
It actually duplicates the essence of objects and stores them.
Which would explain why they can appear in reality, even briefly, and why I can imitate physical forms using shadow magic.
“If that’s the case, then modification ought to be possible too, I’d think…….”
“Modification?”
I turned my head at the voice.
Elody was sitting beside me—I hadn’t noticed when she’d arrived.
Those blue eyes fixed on me.
“What do you mean by modification?”
“What brings you to the Library?”
“That’s a painfully obvious subject change, isn’t it?”
Elody leaned her face closer to mine.
……Lately, Elody’s interest in me had grown noticeably keener.
In a decidedly troubling way.
She’d reached some conclusion in her own mind—she was suspecting something about me.
“You’ve been causing incidents left and right lately.”
Elody fixed me with a frown.
“The Dungeon, and that Golem incident from a few days ago—you were involved in that too, weren’t you?”
“I wasn’t involved; I got caught up in it.”
Elody’s eyes widened at my words.
Her eyes grew round, her expression turning grave as she spoke.
“Really? Is that true?”
“Hm?”
“I thought your involvement was just a rumor.”
——Damn it.
Edwin’s Golem incident was an unexpected turn of events I hadn’t anticipated, so I hadn’t given it much thought.
Now that I think about it, the fact that I got dragged into it at all is decidedly strange.
It had only been gossip, apparently.
‘I wonder how Elody would react if she found out I slew the Golem.’
Part of me was curious, but I held back.
I gave her a vague answer instead.
“I told you, I just got caught up in it. I ran as soon as I saw it.”
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I said I ran, didn’t I?”
Even so, Elody’s eyes scanned over me, searching for wounds.
Serious expression, careful gaze.
Those eyes probing for any hint of false bravado in my face.
……She was sincere.
Genuinely concerned for me.
“……Well, it’s good nothing happened.”
Elody gave an awkward cough, looking embarrassed.
* * *
A few days later, I headed to the address Sabel had given me.
Come to think of it, this was my first time visiting a girl’s house since arriving in this world.
The moment I arrived at the front gate with that thought in mind.
“Is that you? The fool who’s been making advances on my daughter?”
“Dad! It’s not like that!”
Sabel cried out, her face flushed crimson.
Crude as it is to say, that kind of line sounds exactly like an insult to Sabel herself.
It gives the impression he’s saying only an idiot would make advances on his own daughter.
Sabel’s father, Daud Forte.
In striking contrast to Sabel’s slender and delicate beauty, he boasted a muscular frame and imposing stature.
Unkempt beard and shaggy hair.
By appearance alone, he looked like a blacksmith with hands that worked rough, yet Daud was more akin to a meticulous sculptor.
Engraving Magic Circles into weapons is no simple task.
Well, never mind that—it’s honestly a welcome face to see.
Though he probably doesn’t recognize me.
“Hmph. Your eyes are dead, there’s no strength in your body, and Sabel! What possessed you to bring a man like this?”
“That’s exactly it! That’s not—it’s not like that!”
Sabel punctuated her words by jabbing Daud Forte repeatedly.
Of course, Daud Forte pretended not to hear.
“Your name is Frondier, correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Hmph, I’ve heard what this is about. Since my daughter asked so desperately, I’ll hear you out, but the moment we’re done, you leave!”
Sabel’s voice reaches me from the side, objecting to the very suggestion that she’d asked desperately.
“I don’t acknowledge someone like you!”
With that, Daud Forte turned on his heel and walked away.
……Whether it was just my imagination or not, I couldn’t say.
But there was something almost ironic about how Daud Forte’s behavior seemed to actually draw Sabel and me closer together.
* * *
I led them inside the house and explained the situation from the beginning.
Daud Forte spoke.
“So you want to know what this Magic Circle is?”
“Yes. I obtained it as a Dungeon reward, but I can’t identify it.”
“You activated it?”
“Yes, I did. I consumed Mana as well. But nothing happened.”
Daud Forte stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment.
“Well, there’s no way to know just from hearing about it. Draw it for me.”
Then Daud Forte handed me a piece of paper.
I took it but hesitated for a moment.
“What are you doing? Don’t tell me you left your notebook with the Magic Circle drawn in it or some nonsense like that…….”
“No, sir. The thing is, I can’t draw it on this paper.”
“What? Why can’t you draw it?”
“It’s too large.”
Daud Forte’s eyebrows twitched at my words.
Sabel, standing beside him, also drew in a breath, looking somewhat taken aback.
“How large are we talking?”
“At the very least, I cannot draw it in a room like this.”
Not in a confined space like this.
I would need at least an open courtyard.
“We have a backyard. Would that be large enough?”
“Yes, that should suffice.”
“Hmph. You’d better not be bluffing for effect.”
Daud Forte rose as he spoke.
To be fair, it did sound like bluffing.
A large Magic Circle isn’t inherently more impressive than a small one.
In fact, the same Magic Circle produces identical effects regardless of its size.
But I had said it.
‘I cannot draw it small.’
The Menosorpo’s Magic Circle was packed so densely with symbols and patterns that there wasn’t an inch of empty space.
A Magic Circle of such complexity was extraordinarily rare.
At least, I had never seen one before.
So Daud Forte must have assumed I was exaggerating.
Even if I weren’t, he probably thought a mere courtyard’s worth of space wouldn’t be necessary.
The three of us—myself, Daud Forte, and Sabel—stepped out into the open courtyard behind the mansion.
I drew out the short sword.
I retrieved the Magic Circle of Menosorpo from the Workshop and laid it out on the ground.
……It would fit, but only just barely.
It was, without exaggeration, an absurdly large Magic Circle.
I knelt down and began tracing the ground with my short sword.
“……What are you doing?”
“Sir?”
“You should have a notebook or a phone or something with the Magic Circle drawn on it, shouldn’t you? So you can look at it while you draw.”
“I don’t have anything like that.”
“You can draw a Magic Circle from memory? Without even a reference?”
“Yes.”
The moment Daud Forte heard my answer, he burst out as if by reflex.
“That’s ridiculous! The irregular patterns and geometry of Magic Circles—even someone who’s studied the theory thoroughly can’t memorize them completely. Large ones are even worse. How are you supposed to draw a Magic Circle that isn’t even registered on your phone?”
Because there’s one in the Workshop.
It’s higher performance than what’s registered on the phone.
I’d brought the Magic Circle from the Workshop and carefully copied it down.
It took considerable time, but Daud Forte and Sabel watched quietly so as not to get in my way.
A long breath escaped me.
As I lifted my head once it was finished, both their faces looked rather strange.
Sabel simply stood with her mouth open in surprise, while Daud Forte was looking at me as though I were some sort of bizarre creature.
“You really did draw it all. Without even looking at a reference.”
“Yes.”
Though I had been looking, actually.
“Sir, what do you make of it? What sort of Magic Circle is this?”
I asked Daud Forte respectfully.
Daud Forte murmured to himself, then walked toward the Magic Circle.
He examined the one I’d drawn with meticulous care.
He walked around it, then sat down and studied certain sections intently.
At last, as if he’d reached a conclusion, Daud Forte brushed himself off and stood.
Then he spoke.
“I haven’t the faintest idea.”

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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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