The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 33

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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 Replicator Chapter 33
Part 9 — Menosorpho (7)
“Frondier is in danger!”
Risha’s mansion.
The moment Sai Bell met Elodi, that was the first thing she blurted out.
“What?”
Elodi naturally didn’t understand.
Everything was too sudden.
In the first place, Elodi had barely spoken to Sai Bell before—they’d only exchanged greetings whenever they happened to pass each other.
They were both famous enough that they knew each other’s names, nothing more.
Yet here was someone she’d never had a conversation with, showing up at her home and mentioning Frondier’s name.
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, um……”
When Elodi pressed for details, Sai Bell gave her a brief rundown of the situation.
“──Hmm.”
After hearing everything, Elodi brought her fingers to her lips, thinking.
As she explained, Sai Bell seemed to have calmed down a little.
“Of course, I don’t know if Frondier’s in immediate danger right now. Just because they’ve marked him as a target doesn’t mean they’ll strike this instant. Still, I thought I should let you know……”
“No.”
Elodi shook her head.
“He probably is in danger. Right now.”
“What?!”
“If Indus really has made Frondier a target, they won’t miss the moment when he’s alone.”
“How would they even know he’s alone right now?”
“They have someone who tames animals. He’s been caught in their surveillance network.”
Elodi had long been aware of the gaze that watched her.
At first, even she hadn’t noticed it—the presence was too faint to be detected by Mana Detection.
But when weeks and months passed continuously like this.
One began to feel the ‘gaze’ itself, before Mana Detection could find anything.
‘I didn’t like killing the animals, and since they weren’t doing anything else, I left them alone.’
And now they were creating this troublesome situation.
Elodi’s eyes darkened.
“So what do we do? Where could Frondier have gone?”
“That’s the problem.”
Whatever Sai Bell had hoped to find by coming here—
—Elodi herself had difficulty guessing where Frondier might have gone.
They weren’t even close anymore, not really.
It might have been different in the old days.
‘……The old days.’
The moment she thought of that, a place came to mind: the cottage on the Rockbel family estate in Roache, where they’d played together as children.
But would Frondier really go there? He hadn’t set foot in that place for years.
Old memories stirred.
A younger, foolish version of herself chattering at Frondier—”Fron, Fron!”
“Ugh.”
Suddenly her mood soured. She wasn’t exactly thrilled about saving Frondier.
Let him die.
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Should we go check it out?”
“You have an idea where he might be?”
“Roughly.”
At Elodi’s words, color returned to Sai Bell’s face.
Elodi caught that expression for a moment.
Was Sai Bell this happy just at the prospect of finding Frondier?
……Did Frondier mean something to her? Or did she mean something to him? Or was it simply—
Sai Bell was just naturally kind.
“All right then. How should we go? Take a car?”
Sai Bell fidgeted, her impatience showing.
Elodi placed a hand on Sai Bell’s waist.
“No.”
“Huh?”
“This is faster.”
And then.
“What? Ahhhhh!!”
They took to the air.
Sai Bell cried out as she watched the ground suddenly fall away beneath her.
“What—what is this?! Flight Magic?! ‘Wings’?”
“No, something a tier above that.”
AHHHHHH!”
Elodi carried Sai Bell toward the cottage, soaring through the sky.
It was a maiden voyage worth remembering.
And her impression of it:
‘So… so heavy…!’
The wind and gravity pressed down on her body.
She wasn’t flying under her own power, after all.
For a first flight, it was far from pleasant.
* * *
“That’s how we got here. Ta-da, impressive, right?”
Sai Bell spoke with a proud expression, even tracing a V in the air.
I answered her.
“…Yeah. Really impressive. Thank you.”
There was nothing else I could say.
I could only feel grateful toward her—worried about me, she’d rushed around in a situation where it wasn’t even certain I was in danger.
But when Sai Bell heard my response, she seemed dazed again.
“—W-wait? No, it wasn’t really a big deal or anything…”
Her voice sounded oddly strained.
What do you mean it’s not a big deal.
You just bragged about how impressive it was yourself.
“Who’s the child?”
Elodi asked, noticing the child I was carrying.
“The younger sibling of one of them.”
“Why is she here?”
“She’s both my hostage and theirs.”
“Huh?”
Both of them tilted their heads, not understanding my words.
I gave a bitter smile and explained.
“I had her fake crying to lure me out, but the moment she got close to me, one of them shot an arrow at her.”
“What? At her own comrade’s sibling?”
“Yeah. Though ‘comrade’ might be the wrong word—they seemed to be hired mercenaries.”
As I answered Sai Bell, Elodi’s eyes went cold.
“…Do you think I could shoot an arrow too?”
“No.”
“Why not? They shot first.”
“If you shoot, everyone dies. One arrow means nothing.”
The arrows Elodi fires are the Storm Arrow—one of the five gods’ techniques, Rudra’s.
Fire something like that and it won’t just kill people; the terrain here will be reshaped.
If someone unfamiliar with this region came back looking at a map, they’d call it “That damn map is useless.”
“So we’re safe now, right?”
Sai Bell asked, her tone worried.
I shrugged.
“Well, Elodi’s here.”
“What? You’re planning to leave everything to me?”
“No need. Their goal was to make me a murderer and bury me. That only works if I’m here alone. With Elodi here, they’re actually at a disadvantage. The teachers at Constel won’t believe my words, but they’ll believe yours.”
The fact that Serph kept using this little one suggested a clear intent—to make me out as a murderer.
By now, Serph had probably tried to make it look like I’d kidnapped this child.
If I’d been alone here, and if they’d let word slip that Indus—that “righteous organization”—viewed me poorly, it would have been easy.
‘Maybe Serph tipped off Sai Bell with exactly this in mind. If word got out that Indus had targeted me, people would naturally assume something was wrong with me.’
But Elodi had a reputation even better than Sai Bell’s, and more importantly, she possessed the strength to defeat them all simultaneously.
“The real problem is her. We’ll need to wake her up.”
I set the child I’d been carrying down.
Elodi brought her hand close to the child’s face.
The light of mana flared briefly, and the child’s eyes opened slowly.
The boy gazed about in a daze.
“……Ah.”
Once he caught sight of my face, understanding seemed to dawn on him.
He was looking at Sai Bell and Elodi with frightened eyes.
“Don’t worry. They’re my allies.”
I wondered if those words would reassure him, but fortunately, they appeared to have done the trick.
I asked him a question.
“Come to think of it, I don’t know your name. What is it?”
“……Rockbel.”
“You’re Grobel’s younger brother, aren’t you?”
The child nodded faintly.
He was trembling. Confusion and terror still churned through his small frame.
“Why don’t we just send him back to those men? One of them is supposed to be his brother, right?”
“If we return him as things stand, he’ll become a hostage again.”
“……Surely his brother wouldn’t allow that.”
Of course, Grobel wouldn’t let it happen without a fight.
But if my knowledge of Serph holds true……
“Then let’s move. Best not to meet up with them at all, wouldn’t you say?”
Sai Bell spoke thus.
But I shook my head. Elodi would think the same way.
“Too late.”
As if timed to my words precisely——
“I’ve been searching for quite some time now.”
That voice, unpleasantly courteous, sounded once more.
Serph had a Tamer with him for reconnaissance, so flight was ultimately useless.
I could hear Serph’s voice, but not see him. He was hiding deeper within the forest.
The footsteps and breathing had multiplied. They seemed to be encircling us from their hiding places.
“Don’t move. Frondier, Sai Bell.”
Elodi spoke in a low voice.
With her Mana Detection, she’d be able to pinpoint their positions roughly.
From the tension in her stance, it seemed the encirclement was already complete.
“——Serph Daniel! Give it up now!”
Elodi cried out.
“You know this is pointless! You can’t frame Frondier! I’ll be his witness!”
Elodi spoke well.
Those were my words from before, after all. Still.
“Yes. It seems I’ve made a mistake. I didn’t expect Sai Bell to go this far for him.”
Serph remained hidden in the forest as he spoke.
He clearly had no intention of showing his face.
“So I’ve decided to kill all of you here instead.”
“……What?”
At Serph’s words, Elodi questioned as if doubting her own ears.
Yes, that’s the sort of man he is.
Indus’s goal was to amplify the influence of commoners. Behind it lay the more dangerous word ‘revolution,’ but on the surface, Indus still stood on the side of justice. Revolution was still premature for them.
But Serph Daniel, as an individual, pursued a different purpose.
‘Aristocrat killer. Serph Daniel.’
Serph, who would later become infamous as a criminal in the Etheus Game, had joined Indus in the first place merely to find a justified pretext for murdering the nobility.
And he built up his record within Indus bit by bit, waiting for the day when revolution erupted.
Serph did not usually step forward into the light.
He would appoint a ‘false leader’ for others to see, while he plotted in the shadows.
‘The problem is, all of this is merely prior knowledge.’
During my time playing the Etheus Game, I had never fought Serph directly. The revolution failed in the end, and Serph was arrested and sent to Teaban’s Barrier; I had heard the domain’s lord, Lidwi Urpha, suffered greatly.
I knew nothing of his abilities or techniques.
‘But even so, could Serph possibly defeat Elodi?’
Though Serph’s face remained hidden, his voice was eerily calm. Even in this situation with Elodi present, he spoke as though certain of his victory.
How?
There were precious few who could best Elodi.
“Rockbel.”
Serph suddenly called out the boy’s name.
Rockbel, who had been shrinking beside me, suddenly went rigid.
“Stab Frondier.”
Thrust!
“……!”
──The situation came later.
For now, a pain so acute it threatened to steal my consciousness came crashing through me.
My side, perhaps.
Stabbed by steel, torn, was I—
As I fell, what I saw was the startled gaze of Sai Bell and Elodi.
And on the other side, Rockbel standing with a dagger in his hand, his eyes completely vacant.
* * *
Consciousness sinking.
Within that descending darkness, I thrashed to wake.
Useless bastard.
You’re going to lose consciousness over one blade strike?
Wake up!
Wake up, damn it!
A vast tide of unconsciousness bears down, and I clutch at my consciousness like a single thread.
And flooding in with it, all manner of memories from the past.
──I despise Elodi.
──Why does she torment me, standing beside me like that?
─Why are you always smiling in front of me?
─Why are you always kind to me?
─That’s right, I know. You have Divine Power, so of course you do.
─Overflowing with Divine Power and talent, naturally you laugh when you see a wretch like me!!
Is this Frondier’s memory?
His hatred, his inferiority, his loathing—they turn my insides upside down.
Yes, because I am Frondier.
Like a hole forced shut now breached, his memories pour out like mud.
─Die, Elodi.
─Fall from everything and perish in despair.
─This is my true heart.
─This is my honest word without lies.
Frondier’s memories grow increasingly vivid.
A scene replayed before my eyes like film stock.
Frondier, meeting someone in a cottage.
Wearing a fluttering robe, even their gender indiscernible.
They whisper something to Frondier, and he, bewitched, interprets the Ancient Language.
Fragments of that interpretation pour into me as if being injected.
When the translated incantation was at last complete, Frondier trembled with exultation.
─With this alone, I can erase Elodi’s Divine Power……!
Even that joy, that elation—I felt it.
As though it were not Frondier but I who despised Elodi.
As though it were I who wanted to strip away her Divine Power.
As though it were truly I who rejoiced at that plan.
……And yet.
“Shut……!”
Because it was obvious enough.
In the end, I am not Frondier.
Because I am not Frondier, I have always carried guilt in some corner of my heart. I stole his life.
Whether lazy or incompetent, it was still his life alone.
Whatever that life might have become, it would have held its own value for him.
But if Frondier tried to kill someone.
If he tried to plunge the innocent into misery.
Then I, too, have nothing left to hide.
Frondier interpreted the Ancient Language. To erase Elodi’s Divine Power.
But to me, such things matter nothing.
He may have studied earnestly driven by hatred for Elodi. But I will use it as I see fit.
‘I will make use of the memory of that Ancient Language interpretation.’
‘Frondier of Roache’ will live this way now.
I’ll struggle with everything I have in a world destined for ruin.
Give up, Frondier.
You are the lowest of villains.
I reviewed Frondier’s memories again and again, endlessly reviewing them, filling my mind with all his knowledge.
It wasn’t learning something new. It was like recalling a memory I’d forgotten for a moment—I absorbed the knowledge rapidly.
I recalled something Daud had said not long ago.
—Then this magic circle might be in the Ancient Language.
That’s what he’d said.
That Menosorpho was composed of the Ancient Language.
That the symbols, patterns, and the logic of their arrangement were the Ancient Language.
After absorbing all of Frondier’s knowledge, I stood before the magic circle of Menosorpho in the Workshop.
‘……I see.’
I understood.
What Menosorpho was. How to use it.
The moment I grasped it all,
I opened my eyes.

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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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