The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 32

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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’s Weapon Replicator Episode 32
Chapter 9: Menosorpho (6)
Frontier’s words hung heavy over the room, and silence fell.
Grovel hadn’t intentionally stopped speaking.
He was simply caught off guard for a moment.
‘What am I supposed to say to that?’
From Frontier’s perspective, Rockbell must look like a hostage. He wouldn’t realize the boy was Grovel’s younger brother.
So of course Frontier would demand Rockbell—for the child’s safety.
The whole reason Frontier had come this far instead of fleeing outright was because of Rockbell.
“I don’t know what you want. But if you wanted that child badly enough to use him as a hostage, you came out here for a reason. Send the boy to me.”
At Frontier’s words, Grovel laughed.
It was a laugh tinged with bluster.
“Hah. Didn’t I just say so? You think your little proposal’s going to work?”
“If it doesn’t, I simply go back into this house. You’ve noticed by now that there’s an Escape Tunnel in the Basement. Do what you like with the boy—kill him or spare him.”
“If that kid dies, you’re done for too, aren’t you?”
“Well, we’re all going to die eventually. I’ll just die later than the rest.”
With that, Frontier took a step backward.
He looked fully prepared to walk back into that burning house.
Grovel’s jaw clenched.
‘Damn it—why is he so confident?’
He’d expected the man to come stumbling out in fear and trembling once he left the house.
Instead, he was conducting this negotiation with perfect composure and steel in his eyes.
That was when Serph spoke.
“Understood. We’ll send the boy.”
Grovel’s head snapped toward Serph in surprise.
If this man were a stranger, it wouldn’t matter. But Rockbell was his brother.
His brother—being handed over to a Human Sloth like that?
Serph smiled at Grovel as if to say there was nothing to worry about.
Grovel didn’t like it, but he nodded and turned to Frontier.
“Fine. I’ll send him.”
“Send the boy alone.”
“—Yes.”
Grovel gave Rockbell’s back a sharp pat.
A signal to go.
Rockbell’s uncertain footsteps carried him toward Frontier.
At that moment, Rockbell’s mind was nearly in a panic.
‘What? Am I really going?’
The conversation had left him confused, and now he was being shoved forward by his brother in the midst of all this turmoil.
For a boy barely ten years old, it was terrifying.
‘He said I just had to fake crying!’
Now there was no need for pretense. Real tears were already threatening to spill.
With that expression on his face, Rockbell stepped forward one pace at a time toward Frontier.
Frontier watched the boy with an expressionless face, and this only deepened Rockbell’s fear.
Just as Rockbell’s feet drew close enough to nearly touch Frontier,
a sharp sound split the air—Frontier’s footfall on the ground.
That impassive face suddenly lunged at Rockbell.
“Eek!”
Rockbell flinched in terror.
And then,
a metallic clang.
He heard the sound of metal ringing out somewhere behind his back.
“…What?”
Rockbell turned to look behind him.
A broken arrow tumbled down. Frontier had rushed toward Rockbell and blocked the shot for him.
How he’d done it, Rockbell didn’t know. The details hardly mattered to him anyway.
What mattered was
‘They… they shot an arrow at me….’
Rockbell stared blankly at the Mercenary Group members across the way. At Serph Daniel, who stood at their center.
He’d only known him a short time, but this older brother always wore a kind smile.
Serph Daniel now wore that same smile,
He was holding an arrow.
“Wh—what……?”
Those were the only words that came. His vision swam. Fear pressed thick against his chest.
In that moment, Frontier—who had shielded him from the arrow—pulled him close and spoke.
“Hold on tight.”
Without thinking, Rockbell seized Frontier’s sleeves with both hands.
Frontier, carrying Rockbell, plunged into the burning house.
* * *
“You lunatic, Serph!!”
Grovel seized Serph by the collar. Rage seized him so completely his hands trembled.
Serph had fired an arrow at Rockbell. An arrow at his own brother.
Even with his collar gripped, Serph spoke with shameless composure.
“Tsk. It failed.”
“Failed? You—you damned—!!”
Grovel’s fury exploded outward as he howled.
But just as he was about to drive his fist into Serph’s face, he stopped abruptly.
“Lower your hand.”
“…….”
Without a word, Grovel released his grip on Serph’s collar. His eyes had lost all focus.
One of the mercenaries watching spoke up.
“What—what’s…….”
“All of you, be silent.”
But before he could finish, Serph cut him off.
In an instant, every mercenary’s vision blurred. Like Grovel, they stood helpless and vacant, all strength draining from their limbs.
This was Serph’s ability—Mind Control.
When the conditions were met, Serph could bend anyone’s will to his own.
First, he would present them with a business card, they would read it, confirm the name, and hold “Serph Daniel” in their mind.
Even when those conditions were satisfied, it didn’t work well against those with strong willpower—but this mercenary group was no problem.
“Tsk. It wasn’t a bad plan, actually.”
Serph clicked his tongue.
He’d originally intended to lock the little brat Rockbell in a shack if things went wrong. The scenario was supposed to be: “Frontier locked the child in the house and burned him alive.”
The next scenario had been “Frontier shot the child with an arrow and killed him”—but it hadn’t gone as planned.
“Frontier uses Aura, just as I heard.”
Serph was certain.
Gregory had reported it.
Gregory, who specialized in Taming, had been using various animals to gather information throughout Constellation. But Frontier had never appeared in that intelligence network. His discovery had been pure chance.
At the time, Serph had been listening to Gregory’s report at his usual dwelling.
It began with Elody.
“When Elody and Frontier were together, Frontier blocked every fragment of broken glass. He did it barehanded.”
Gregory had reported this, but Serph remained skeptical.
“You concluded Frontier uses Aura based on that alone?”
“There’s more.”
Serph’s eyes prompted him to continue—the crow before him, rather.
Gregory lowered his voice as if delivering something momentous.
“The Golem.”
“……!”
“Edwin’s Golem—the one that claimed so many Constellation members from Aktovor, who received support from our Indus. Frontier destroyed it. We overlooked it as unimportant at the time, but looking back at the sequence of events, it’s clearly Frontier’s doing. And at that moment too,”
“……he was barehanded.”
When evidence accumulated like this, Serph could believe Frontier used Aura.
But that incompetent Frontier—using Aura, and barehanded no less.
“How could Human Sloth Frontier possibly wield Aura?”
“He must have received Divine Power. It happens sometimes—people who unexpectedly catch the gods’ eyes. Didn’t you hear that Frontier’s been participating actively in classes lately? He must have received Divine Power. That’s the only explanation.”
……So, was the Aura he’d received truly a gift from the gods?
“If our opponent uses Aura, even numbers are dangerous. Serph, you’ve saved the mercenary group—now make Frontier’s position deliberately disadvantageous. Create as much evidence as possible that Frontier killed or abducted the child. We’ll kill him after that.”
──Recalling Gregory’s report, when Frontier had just blocked the arrow:
Frontier had been barehanded.
He hadn’t caught it or swatted it aside. The arrow had clearly snapped in midair and fallen.
Aura received as a gift from the gods. Something as trivial as an arrow would be nothing to him.
“……Evidence.”
Serph murmured the word to himself.
Frontier rushed back into the Mansion. The Escape Tunnel inside would exist—he was certain of it.
If he crawled through that narrow passage with a child on his back, Serph wouldn’t need to lift a finger; the evidence would pile up on its own.
It would look like Frontier was abducting a child.
Serph’s eyes turned toward the burning building.
“Go.”
At Serph’s word, the entire Mercenary Group rushed inside.
They swept away the embers and cleared the smoke, and barely discovered the basement beneath.
And as they descended into the basement to search for the Escape Tunnel,
“……Hmm.”
One corner of Serph’s eye twitched slightly.
Unmistakably an Escape Tunnel. Or rather, what had been an Escape Tunnel. It lay collapsed.
Stone had caved in from above, sealing every crack.
Frontier had collapsed it from inside after entering.
Serph shouted.
“Search outside! Tunnels like this can’t be built long! He couldn’t have gone far!”
* * *
“Huff…, huff….”
I crawled through the Escape Tunnel with the child on my back.
I’d used my outer coat to bind the child so they wouldn’t fall.
I’d blocked the arrows, then fled with the child to the Basement, entered the Escape Tunnel, and collapsed the entrance.
Before that, I’d placed the child beneath me, lain flat, and fashioned a shield from the Black Cloth, hoisting it onto my back.
Then I’d cut the entrance with Gram and collapsed it, shielding myself against the cascading stone with that makeshift guard.
The child had lost consciousness from the impact.
……Though perhaps it wasn’t only that.
The child’s mind had endured something too vast to bear.
‘Serph….’
When I blocked the arrows flying at the child, I’d used Weaving to fashion a shield.
My reflexes weren’t naturally exceptional.
Serph—that bastard knew the arrows would come. If the child died from them in front of me, it would be far easier to frame me as the culprit.
‘Damn, it hurts like hell.’
When I’d demolished the entrance, I hadn’t emerged unscathed.
The shield hadn’t covered my body perfectly; my head, arms, legs—stone had battered them all, searing pain radiating through me.
Even the parts the shield had protected weren’t without damage.
Each time I crawled forward, the injured areas throbbed and burned. Blood and sweat—I couldn’t tell which—streamed down my body.
The tunnel was longer and narrower than I’d expected.
……How long had it been like this?
As I forced myself forward in an awkward crawl, dread crept over me.
What if the enemy caught up?
If they had explosives? If they collapsed the entire tunnel?
Or if they found the exit first and were already waiting ahead.
My heart pounded. My breathing turned ragged.
Blood dripped from the scrapes that crisscrossed my body, mingling with sweat until I couldn’t tell one from the other.
Yet at last,
“……Outside.”
The tunnel’s end. Light seeped in from far ahead.
Even if enemies lurked beyond, there was nowhere else for me to go.
I gritted my teeth.
I gripped the Necklace Heukryeon in one hand, searching the Workshop for an adequate weapon.
And when I reached toward the exit,
Clap!
“?!”
My outstretched hand was seized. And pulled with tremendous force.
Hell—the enemy was already here after all!
I tensed the hand gripping the Heukryeon, ready to strike.
“Frontier!”
Then I was suddenly pulled into someone’s embrace.
My mind reeled and my vision flashed white for a moment.
But the scent…
A familiar fragrance I’d caught before wafted toward me.
This was the scent from back then.
After I defeated Slav in the Dungeon.
“……Sybel.”
It was that scent—the one from when I carried her on my back.
“Welcome.”
Sybel smiled at me.
I couldn’t make sense of it.
“How are you here?”
I asked, and Sybel’s gaze drifted past me.
Behind her, standing directly in front of me, was someone.
“……Hello.”
Elody stood there with an expression I couldn’t quite read, looking at me.

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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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