The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 42

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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 Episode 42
Chapter 11: Dragon Heart (2)
“Seeing the future isn’t as impressive as it sounds. Most of the time, it’s less about observation and more about feeling. Excitement, joy, displeasure, unease. I don’t see situations so much as I feel the emotions attached to them first.”
Phillie spoke matter-of-factly.
She was genuinely experiencing Future Foresight.
Only, she said it was closer to intuition than observation.
“Then when the rock fell just now—”
“Ah, so that’s how I gave myself away. Yes. There was this uneasy feeling, like if I took one more step forward, something bad would happen. I didn’t know it was a falling stone, though.”
So Phillie had dodged the danger, yet still been shocked.
She’d known something was wrong, but not what.
“Then, the reason you cast that spell on Aten—”
“If she stays with Aster, Aten will be unhappy.”
Phillie said it with certainty.
“I don’t know exactly what will happen in the future. But I can tell that if the two of them are together, something terrible occurs. Every night, I feel a sense of revulsion and corruption—as if I’m being warned. That’s how I know.”
……
I didn’t answer.
I couldn’t deny it.
Probably because it was true.
‘The game no one has ever cleared.’
After everyone else had abandoned it and left, even I—who stayed until the bitter end and tried everything under the sun—had failed.
What Phillie saw in the future was inevitable.
Aster was a man destined to stand at the vanguard of humanity.
Naturally, his ally Aten was the same.
So when humanity fell, they would be among the first to die.
I felt a bitterness I could do nothing about.
I had come to this world and lived with all my strength.
I’d applied the Weaving Ability, obtained the Black Sky, replicated Gram, repeated mana depletion to increase my total mana reserves, defeated golems, and stopped Serf.
But even having done all that.
Phillie’s foresight showed the same ending I already knew.
I still hadn’t influenced this game’s future by even a speck of dust.
I breathed in, then out.
‘Impossible Game.’
I exhaled the complaint I couldn’t voice aloud.
I asked Phillie a question.
“How are you able to have foresight, though?”
The skill called Future Foresight doesn’t exist.
Some characters, like Frondie, have unique skills, but if Future Foresight were truly unique, a character like that would be impossible to miss.
“What do you think I’m doing?”
“Could it be Divine Power, perhaps?”
But Phillie shouldn’t have Divine Power.
If she possessed it, she wouldn’t hesitate to exploit it politically.
Phillie shook her head.
“It’s not Divine Power. Or rather, in a way, it’s the truest form of Divine Power.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m a descendant of Völva.”
At Phillie’s words, this time it was my turn to be shocked.
Völva—the sorceress from Norse Mythology.
They, who appear ‘dead’ from the beginning to the end of Norse Mythology, can supposedly observe everything from the world’s birth to its end.
In Norse Mythology, they often appear making prophecies, but that’s only a fraction of their abilities.
They know everything—future, past, all of it.
“The bloodline is so distant that it’s grown thin, so this is all the foresight I can manage.”
“…… Then your mother as well?”
“She could do it, or so I’m told. Though she never spoke of it to anyone but me.”
Then was it possible that Aten had the same gift?
Phillie, reading my expression, spoke up.
“I hope my daughters don’t have this ability.”
“…… Why is that?”
“They need to live their own lives. There’s no good in becoming a meddlesome mother like me.”
She said it with a wistful smile—that she hopes for a world where foresight won’t be necessary.
“So then! Let’s leave off the gloomy talk here.”
Phillie raised her voice.
“Now it’s your turn.”
“Information about the Dragon Heart, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. I’ll use the Dragon Heart to push my Future Foresight to its absolute limit. So I can see clearly with my own eyes what must be done to save Aten, and beyond that, to save the Empire—and what must be stopped.”
I found myself nodding at her words.
So it was all for Aten, after all.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
To organize my thoughts.
Opening them again, I spoke.
“I have one request.”
“What now?”
“I cannot disclose the source of the information I’m about to give you. Nor can I prove its veracity. Whether to believe it or not—that choice must be yours alone.”
“Heavens, you’re saying that now?”
Just believe me blindly.
For someone whose nature was suspicion, those were surely the words she hated most.
But there was no helping it.
I had no way to account for the source or verify the truth.
I spoke first.
“The Dragon Heart can be used.”
“…!”
Phillie’s eyes widened.
The languor that had settled over her lifted slightly.
“When a human swallows the Dragon Heart and becomes a cripple, it’s not just because of the enormous volume of Mana—the nature of it is the greater problem.”
In Etherius, dragons are hardly sacred beings.
They are merely calamities—beasts of disaster.
And so the Dragon Heart, their crystallized form, possesses a violent nature.
“So first, we must change its nature.”
“Change its nature? How?”
“By breaking it.”
Phillie’s mouth fell open at my words.
Well, it was a natural enough reaction.
“Create a spherical Mana barrier to confine the Dragon Heart, then shatter it from within. That way, the Mana remains contained in the barrier and becomes usable.”
When I played as Aster, I used this method with help from Lunia Friselle.
Lunia was a genius when it came to Mana Manipulation.
She managed everything—constructing an enormous Mana barrier and shattering the Dragon Heart from inside it.
It was the kind of solution anyone might think of, given time, but the problem lay in actually breaking the Dragon Heart.
Only two Dragon Hearts exist in the world right now.
That single fact made the rarity of the Dragon Heart painfully clear.
Even if the method were sound, no one could bring themselves to make the decision to shatter the Dragon Heart.
For this reason, the Dragon Heart had remained within the Empire all this time—a poisoned chalice.
Precious and lustrous, coveted by all, yet never to be used.
“If we truly did that, the Dragon Heart would be usable?”
“Whether to believe me is your choice.”
Phillie fell into thought, humming quietly.
My explanation sounded plausible enough that she couldn’t dismiss it outright as a lie.
Phillie’s suspicion operated even on slim odds.
Just as she doubted claims that everyone else believed, she also doubted those that no one would accept.
“Mm, mm, mm—well, if the chance comes, we’ll try it.”
After her deliberation, Phillie said as much.
It seemed she had decided to believe my words, at least tentatively.
After all, she would do anything for Aten.

* * *
A few days later.
The practical exam at Constellation Academy.
“As you know, today is the practical exam.”
All first-year students had gathered on the Field.
After lining up the students, the instructor Ales began to speak.
“You are still first-years, but let me say this now: when you successfully graduate from Constellation Academy and become Professionals, you will take on various positions of responsibility. And most of them will be dangerous work.”
A Professional was any occupation that earned money through combat and magic.
Soldiers, hunters, court mages, mercenaries, and so on.
Admission to Constellation Academy meant aiming to become a Professional after graduation.
“When you face danger and fight, I cannot guarantee that a strong and trustworthy ally will always stand beside you. It’s common to find yourself working alongside someone whose goals don’t align with yours, whose heart doesn’t match, whose movements don’t coordinate with yours. Sometimes you must synchronize with someone you meet for the first time that very day. That’s what being a Professional means.”
At Ales’s words, every student’s expression tightened and they nodded in acknowledgment.
Satisfied with their response, Ales continued.
“The practical exam is fundamentally individual competition, but we don’t forbid forming teams. However, the points you gain will be distributed accordingly.”
Then Ales held up a phone.
“If you want to form a team, simply match the backs of the phones that were distributed earlier. That determines your team.”
If you have confidence in your abilities, go solo; if not, team up.
This practical exam also makes objective self-assessment crucial.
The practical task is monster subjugation.
It’s a large-scale exam using the entire Field.
Drones circle around the Field’s perimeter, and the supervising instructor can see the whole Field at a glance through the drone footage.
The audience watching can also see the video captured by the drones.
We in the Field can’t see the spectators, but by now they’re sitting in the stands, watching our movements through the drone feed.
The exam itself is simple.
Capture monsters and collect material that proves it—horns, ears, things like that.
When the exam ends, bring those materials to the instructor and they’re added to your score.
Rankings are determined by that.
Straightforward.
However, there are disqualification conditions.
Giving up midway.
Losing consciousness.
Inflicting serious injury on another student.
In those cases, you get zero points across the board. No matter how many monsters you captured, your score means nothing.
“Now, begin!”
At Ales’s flat signal, the students moved.
Some sprinted to secure advantageous positions, others wandered around looking for teammates.
I glanced around at the chaos.
“Well then, let’s give it a try.”
I limbered up.
At Constellation Academy, the practical exam matters more than written tests.
And for me, too, practical performance is far more stressful than written work.
I can’t cheat on the practical like I can on written exams, and my abilities lag behind the other students.
But I have no intention of forming a team.
In fact, while it might seem advantageous for the weak to team up, that’s rarely how it works out.
Without restrictions on team formation, the strong students naturally pair with other strong students.
And those teams sweep up all the monsters.
In the meantime, I can catch monsters my own way.
I have quite a bit of information no one else knows—the Field’s geography, monster types, weak points.
I’ll make the best use of that and diligently hunt down monsters.
‘I hope the top students work hard.’
The harder they go, the better.
Since it’s about rankings, if the ones ahead clear everything out, it’ll be easier for me to climb the ranks.
“First, I should find a place to gather materials.”
I stopped mid-thought.
A chill ran through me.
Something ominous and sinister, yet at the same time
disturbingly familiar.
I turned around slowly.
“……Hello.”
There stood Aten.
As if it were only natural.
The same figure who had been stalking me in the classroom these past few days.
Standing there, pale.
“Hello, Frondie.”
“……Aten, why are you standing next to me today?”
At my words, Aten blinked, then with a soft sound, seemed to realize something.
“I see. I had forgotten.”
Then Aten held out her phone.
“If you’re going to follow me around anyway, it’d be better to form a team.”
…….
Ha ha.

* * *
“Elicia~~ Salle~~ over here, over here.”
Phillie sat in the spectators’ section, waving her hand as she drew attention to herself.
She looked childish for her age.
Elicia and Salle covered their faces with their hands, embarrassed by Phillie’s antics, and sighed.
“Mother, you don’t have to do that. There’s no one around here but you.”
The First Princess spoke truly — as Elicia pointed out.
Phillie was surrounded on all sides by Imperial Palace knights stationed at measured intervals, leaving no gap for escape.
Hoping to go unnoticed under these circumstances was asking too much.
“Hmm~~ but my energy does go up in a place like this, you know? It feels like we’re on a proper outing with our daughters after such a long time. I love it.”
“……Well, it’s not all that different, I suppose.”
Elicia and Salle took their seats beside her.
Elicia glanced around for a moment.
There were many famous people from throughout the Empire present here.
Not only the accomplished second and third-year students from Constellation Academy, but also renowned professionals operating outside, mercenaries, and noble families of standing — everyone was here.
‘Hmm?’
Then someone caught Elicia’s eye.
A tall man sitting in the spectators’ section.
Rodrick Therst.
Elicia’s gaze darkened at once.
‘What is that man doing here?’
The Imperial Palace was currently roiling with fierce factional politics.
The greatest cause was simple and easy to exploit: the fact that all of Phillie’s children were daughters.
The Emperor of the Empire had always been a man.
The opposition faction’s argument was that no matter how legitimately Phillie held the title of Empress, a woman could not inherit the throne.
And at the very head of that faction stood Rodrick Therst.
Rodrick was the son of the Emperor’s second-ranking consort — a prince, in other words — and held influence second only to Phillie’s daughters.
His appearance and abilities had earned him no shortage of followers.
Though unsavory rumors about his character circulated from time to time.
‘This doesn’t feel right.’
Oblivious to Elicia’s unease, Phillie had become absorbed in the massive wide-view screen before her.
Among the scenes occasionally changed by drone cameras, Aten appeared on screen quite frequently.
“Oh my! Did you see? Aten was on screen! How wonderful!”
“Yes, yes.”
It was Salle, the Second Princess, who answered offhandedly.
Of course she’d be on camera — she’s a princess, after all.
What was striking was how purely and genuinely Phillie was making a fuss over it.
“……But Mother.”
“Yes?”
“Who is that?”
Aten appeared frequently on screen.
At some point, Aten had held out her phone to someone.
They had already heard the rules of this practical exam.
Extending one’s phone meant declaring intent to form a team.
Before Aten’s outstretched phone stood a male student.
Phillie also caught sight of it.
Phillie made a small humming sound, then laughed lightly.
“I have no idea!”
She answered with characteristic cheer.

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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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