The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 30

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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 30
Chapter 9: Menosorpho (4)
The next day.
I sat in my room, wrestling with a difficult decision.
‘Menosorpho — where do I test it?’
Last time, I’d tried it in the open courtyard of the mansion. I’d assumed it was just an ordinary magic circle back then.
But now that I knew it was an Ancient Magic Circle, everything changed. Setting aside whether it was dangerous or not, I had no idea what might actually happen.
‘Thank goodness it didn’t activate.’
This time, I understood how to trigger it properly. I had to speak the name ‘Menosorpho’ aloud.
But the real problem was that I still had no idea what the magic circle actually did.
If it turned out to be unnecessarily loud and flashy, testing it in the mansion’s courtyard would be impossible to hide.
And using Constel was out of the question entirely.
There was a private training room, but that felt just as risky.
‘What if there’s an explosion? No, surely that won’t happen…’
After turning it over in my mind,
I reached a conclusion.
I realized this was something I couldn’t solve alone.
“……Ugh, I really don’t want to do this.”
I steeled myself.
What came next would be brutally difficult.
Painful as flaying bone and flesh, but perhaps that suffering would carry me forward one step more.
I took a deep breath.
And then.
“──Is anyone out there?”
I called toward the door.
My hair felt like it was standing on end.
A moment later, I heard measured but quick footsteps,
and a soft creak—
As the door opened smoothly, an older man bowed respectfully to me.
“I am Vicar, the butler. At your service.”
……Oh no. Did I just
address someone older than my own father from my original world in casual speech?
It felt like I’d committed some grave offense. I’d only meant to summon whoever happened to be passing by.
“Y-yes, that’s right. Vicar… sir.”
“……Master Frontier?”
This wasn’t working.
The formal address wouldn’t come naturally from my mouth.
‘Wait. Hold on.’
A butler held a considerable position within a mansion. Even a young noble would likely use respectful language with the butler.
The trouble was, I had no idea how Frontier usually behaved.
‘But I’ve come this far already!’
I decided to just forge ahead.
“Vicar, I’ve been under considerable mental strain lately due to various matters, and my head feels muddled.”
As I spoke, I swallowed hard.
Worried that my formal register sounded strange to Vicar.
“……I see, sir. That must be trying indeed.”
Vicar responded to me in an unruffled, measured tone.
But he was so unruffled that I couldn’t tell whether my strange manner of speech struck him as odd or not.
True to House Roach’s reputation. Even the butler carries that high-class composure……!
“Is there somewhere quiet I could rest without being disturbed?”
To use Menosorpho, I needed to be somewhere with no one around. Even if a massive explosion occurred, I wanted only the occasional wild animal to notice.
A solitary place where no one would come looking.
……Did such a place exist?
“Hmm, in that case, what of the cabin you used to visit frequently when you were younger, sir?”
“A cabin?”
“Yes. A separate house belonging to our family. If I recall correctly, you spent many a day playing there in your childhood. Along with Lady Elodi de Rishe and……, ah, forgive me. I should say Lady Elodi de Inies Rishe.”
Frontier and Elodi? They must have been very close.
……But this was a problem.
I didn’t know where it was.
“Should you wish to go, I shall have a car brought around. The driver knows the address well.”
Nice, Vicar! Nice chauffeur!
True high-class indeed!
“Excellent. Then right away.”
“……Right away, you say?”
“Yes.”
At my words, Vicar stroked his beard thoughtfully for a moment.
Then he spoke.
“You’ve changed quite a bit, Frontier.”
Thump.
“……Have I?”
I feigned indifference, but my heart felt ready to burst from my chest.
Was my tone really that off? Or was “right away” itself an odd answer?
“Normally in such situations, you would have taken a good rest in your room. The distance to the Cabin is quite considerable……. To be honest, I expected you’d find it troublesome.”
Ah, I see.
So that’s why “right away” struck him as strange.
“These days, even sleep feels like a bother.”
“Heh, that’s just like you, Frontier. In that case, I’ll inform the chauffeur at once.”
“Please do.”
With a respectful bow, Vicar left the room with the same fluid grace he’d entered.
Only then did I exhale in relief.
‘……The Cabin, then.’
I’d chosen it as the place to test Menosorpho.
The place where the old Frontier and Elodi had been.
A small curiosity stirred within me.
* * *
Frontier departed in the car toward the Cabin.
Moments later.
“He’s gone?”
Sybel stood before House Roach Mansion with a stunned expression.
“Yes, he left just a short while ago.”
The gatekeeper stationed at the mansion’s entrance answered.
Sybel’s shoulders sagged with exhaustion.
‘Of all times…….’
She felt the anxiety within her swelling.
Yesterday, she’d heard ominous words from Serp.
-Our next Target is Frontier de House Roach.
She didn’t think they’d attack Frontier immediately after saying such a thing.
But she’d decided she had to warn Frontier beforehand.
At first she’d reached for her Sagephone, then changed her mind. A text or call was too risky.
‘Why did Serp deliberately tell me that Frontier is the Target?’
There was only one reason she could think of.
Serp wanted it known. He wanted everyone in Constel and beyond to learn that Frontier had become an Indus Target.
Frontier’s reputation had improved somewhat recently, but that was only a meaningless comparison.
A few points added to Constel’s worst reputation couldn’t lift it from the depths.
A false Mistiltane, a dungeon, a golem.
The incidents Frontier had involved himself in were all things the common people either didn’t understand or barely knew about.
Rather, those actions had appeared as ‘eccentricities,’ and some of his reputation had suffered further as a result.
‘So that’s why he’s a Target? Indus is targeting the ‘incompetent noble’ Frontier?’
But behind Frontier stood House Roach, a massive clan.
Was Indus an organization that could touch House Roach? Or did they have some guarantee they’d come away unscathed if they did?
‘……An organization trying to build the power of commoners.’
Indus wanted to expand the influence of the common people. To do that, they would need to win over public opinion.
If that were so, they wouldn’t attack Frontier outright. That would just make them a criminal organization.
If designating someone as a ‘Target’ meant more than simply attacking them, Sybel couldn’t carelessly share what she’d heard with anyone else.
If a call or text from Sybel to Frontier leaked and reached Constel.
Indus would seize upon that leak, embellish it in countless ways, and blow it up into something enormous.
Because Indus operated under the banner of ‘for the common people,’ they enjoyed very favorable public perception.
If Frontier became their ‘Target’—if Indus began proclaiming that Frontier was a problematic noble—
The citizens would perceive Frontier as a ‘villain’ worthy of being an Indus Target.
Which was precisely why she’d come all the way to the mansion.
“W-where did he go?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
“I’m Frontier’s friend. Won’t you tell me?”
“Frontier has requested rest without interruption from anyone.”
The gatekeeper’s words were courteous and kind, yet she had no sense they would yield any information.
Sybel bit at her finger.
……It was only now that she realized she had this habit of biting her fingers when anxious. She’d never been impatient before in her life.
Sybel couldn’t rely on luck in a situation like this.
Her Fate Manipulation was utterly personal and selfish. It existed only to improve her own circumstances, with no interest whatsoever in others.
Until now, that had been enough. Just as fate cared nothing for others, neither did she.
But now.
The Sybel who stood biting her finger, her eyes gleaming with calculation, was not the Sybel of old.
‘……Think.’
She hadn’t known Frontier long. So her information about him was sparse.
It was impossible to know where Frontier had gone now. How many places were there quiet enough for undisturbed rest?
……That’s right.
Sybel didn’t know.
Then someone who might know—
‘……Elodi.’
She didn’t know if Elodi and Frontier were acquainted.
But the rivalry between House Roach and House Rishe was well known to her. She’d heard they met regularly to confirm their standing—though it seemed more like a show for other families.
If that were the case, then Frontier and Elodi, as heirs of their respective houses, would have had some interaction as well.
‘Though there’s no guarantee Elodi would know where Frontier went now.’
The odds were slim.
She’d never tried anything as desperate as this gamble before.
“……Fine.”
Sybel steeled herself and turned away.
Toward House Rishe Mansion. For the sake of a low-probability gamble.
──But was she truly one favored by destiny?
That choice proved the right one.
* * *
The car came to a stop.
The sun had already begun to set; night was drawing near.
“We’ve arrived.”
I stepped out without a word.
To the left of the car stretched a narrow footpath. Following it should lead to the cabin.
……Or so I hoped.
Crunch, crunch.
The small footpath cutting through the dense forest bore only faint signs of passage.
It must have been a long time since this trail was made. Likely it had only ever been used by House Roach and House Rishe.
Fortunately, there was no difficulty in walking it alone, and the ground was even.
Yet,
Caw!
Now and then the forest echoed with the cries of crows.
After walking for some distance, I caught sight of the cabin in the distance at last.
I reached for the cabin’s door handle.
The handle glowed blue beneath my touch, and the lock turned smoothly.
‘A cipher?’
It seemed the handle recognized its owner through some kind of password.
I stepped inside and let out a silent sigh.
The cabin smelled only of wood.
When I switched on the light, the interior became visible.
Wooden bookshelves and a desk lined the walls, and a fireplace was set into the far side.
Was this a separate house belonging to House Roach?
I ran my hand briefly across the wall.
‘……Young Frontier and Elodi must have spent time here.’
Lost in contemplation, I walked through the space.
A place the game could never reach.
This feeling of surveying the borderlands beyond the game I’d loved—it was somehow novel.
“……Hm?”
As I walked, I felt something catch beneath my feet.
Something snagged on the carpet I was treading.
I picked up the carpet that had been laid on the floor.
Beneath it was a door, fitted with a handle that could be opened.
“……A basement?”
* * *
Indus was so vast an organization that individuals could never know its full scale.
Serp knew nothing of its concrete extent either. Nor even who led it. Serp simply did his work.
“Frontier left the mansion?”
“No doubt about it.”
Serp received the report from a crow at his quarters.
Quite literally—a crow perched on the windowsill chattered away to him.
Earlier that afternoon, Frontier had slipped out of the mansion. With only a single driver in tow.
The car had traveled a considerable distance before arriving at a remote forest, where Frontier had gotten out and the car returned to the mansion.
“The surveillance wasn’t detected, was it?”
“You know my magic, don’t you?”
The crow spoke.
The crow’s true identity was Gregory, a member of Indus.
His specialty was Taming.
He could subdue animals and see through their eyes. The magic power he used was so minimal that it was erased by the animals’ own natural energy. Even someone with the finest Ki Sensitivity could never detect it.
And by designating a single animal, he could borrow its voice to relay his words, just as he was doing now.
For reconnaissance, it was the finest technique.
“There are plenty of crows in that forest. They’ll never know.”
“Hmm. So Frontier is alone right now.”
Serp ran a hand across his face, and a smile showed through the gaps between his fingers.
Originally, he’d only meant to frighten Sybel.
He knew that the two had grown closer after exploring that dungeon.
Sybel was friendly with everyone. That wouldn’t have changed even with Human Sloth like Frontier.
But their closeness was merely formal, nothing more.
Serp had believed that once he’d probed a little, Sybel would contact Frontier by message or call. That much was enough—it would fulfill her duty.
“Any contact from Sybel to Frontier?”
“None. In fact, Sybel hasn’t had any calls with anyone since yesterday.”
“Hmm.”
So Sybel hadn’t even thought to contact Frontier.
Had she completely ignored his warning?
Or had she realized he’d deliberately given her information, and was protecting Frontier by… no, she wouldn’t go that far.
‘She probably thought it was a luxury to reach out separately to a Human Sloth.’
Well, fine.
There were other ways to go about this.
Serp laughed.
He’d originally planned to begin in earnest later.
But he couldn’t pass up this situation—Frontier alone.
Serp made his decision.
“The plan changes. It’s time to bury Frontier.”

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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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