The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 56

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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 56
Chapter 16: The Assault (1)
Ales’s resistance ended without fanfare.
Since we’d have to face two teachers at once—Jane and Malia, like Ales—it would’ve been difficult otherwise.
The moment he exposed himself as a traitor before me, Ales was finished.
Soon enough, he’d be brought before the Disciplinary Committee.
From there, it was the teachers’ responsibility.
And now it was my turn to complete my role.
“In the end, we’ll need a vanguard.”
After discussing it in the Training Grounds, Aten seemed to have reached his conclusion.
I nodded.
We’d confirmed our respective roles in the Training Grounds.
We ran simulations to see what position we’d hold if we became a Party and fought together.
Aten is one of the few people who’s seen me fight firsthand.
Thanks to that, I could objectively review my fighting style.
The conclusion was that I’m more effective fighting at a distance.
When I fought Sleb in the dungeon,
when I brought down the golem,
when I faced Renzo,
I often closed in to finish my enemies, which gives the impression of a vanguard fighter, but I’m actually positioned as a rear guard.
Most of my fights ended with close-range attacks, but it was Throwing that got me there in the first place.
I injured Sleb with a Dagger throw to expose his form,
I limited the golem’s attack options by throwing weapons at it from range,
and I maintained distance attacks against Renzo to conceal my final move.
Now that Chryselakaros is usable too, my function as a rear guard has improved even more.
“The best choice for a vanguard would be…”
“Aster Evans.”
At my answer, Aten’s face twisted like he’d eaten something bitter.
Well, Philly’s magic should still be in effect on him.
According to Philly, it’s not that powerful a spell, and it should wear off naturally as he spends more time with us, but from the look of things, that seems unlikely.
Truthfully, I don’t want Aster in my Party either.
The ideal scenario is building my own Party without breaking up Aster’s.
And having those two Parties move forward together toward clearing the game would be best.
So I won’t touch the members I consider ideal for Aster’s Party.
Though Aten was originally one of those ideal members… somehow things turned out this way.
“What about his sister, then?”
“His sister?”
Aten’s head tilts.
Does Aten not know?
“Ellin Evans. The finest swordsman among Constellation Academy students.”
“If she’s the strongest swordsman at Constellation, doesn’t that surpass Aster?”
“Well, that’s the thing…”
Aten’s question is perfectly understandable.
Aster uses a sword too.
It’s a trap in the wording of “finest skill.”
“She’s not the strongest among swordsmen. She has the highest ‘skill level.'”
“Ah, I see.”
Ellin Evans.
The epithet “finest swordsman” attached to her name is certainly praise,
but it also reveals her limitations.
Unlike Evans, Ellin has no Divine Power.
Moreover, she lacks sufficient Aura as well.
In the world of Aethius, mana and Aura are fundamentally the same substance called “Aura.”
Ellin has already mastered Aura and can deploy various techniques derived from it, but she doesn’t have the mana reserves for prolonged combat.
A signature technique like Ilsa, for instance, she can use once per battle, twice if she pushes herself.
In other words, she’s a character who compensates for all those disadvantages through skill alone.
‘She probably doesn’t have particularly good stamina either. Learning to sleep while walking was likely born from that necessity.’
Ellin spends most of her time sleeping when she’s not training, in class, or in combat.
Especially when she’s moving silently—it’s nearly a hundred percent certain.
When I played the game, it just looked like a comedic quirk, but observing it from inside the world reveals the circumstances behind it.
“Anyway, you’re more than we deserve in our party.”
“If someone’s too good for the group, isn’t it harder to recruit them?”
Hmm.
Truth always stings.
“Still worth asking.”
The odds aren’t zero, at least.
We fought a golem together, after all. That kind of camaraderie counts for something.
Right?
* * *
The Disciplinary Committee.
Ales sat in the center of the chamber, every teacher watching.
Restraint Devices locked both his wrists.
The same seat Edwin von Behertio had occupied once.
Now the hunter had become the hunted.
“What are we waiting for?”
Someone spoke up.
Isamaya, the history instructor.
Isamaya’s gaze swept across Ales with clear displeasure.
“This incident requires no deliberation. A teacher betrayed Constellation Academy and endangered the princess. There’s nothing to defend, nothing to excuse. We should expel him immediately and file charges. There’s no need for a committee at all.”
“Professor Isamaya, let’s not be hasty.”
“I simply dislike wasting time.”
Isamaya showed no sign of backing down, despite the other instructor’s restraint.
“Frontdier obtained the evidence, didn’t he? And both Jane and Malia confirmed it. There’s no room for argument.”
Jane looked somewhat surprised at Isamaya’s words.
‘Huh. I thought Isamaya disliked Frontdier.’
Isamaya had been embarrassed by Frontdier once before.
She’d given a test question to see if he was taking notes, only to have her own thoughts exposed and faced the students’ laughter.
Frontdier was famous enough that rumors about him spread quickly.
Jane spoke plainly.
“I’m surprised. I thought you disliked that student.”
“Of course, that arrogant brat is disagreeable.”
Isamaya nodded as though it were obvious, a small snort escaping her.
“But that’s my personal feeling. It has nothing to do with the facts.”
Isamaya stated it with such conviction.
Jane smiled and let out a small, thoughtful laugh.
“However, this committee isn’t about assigning guilt to Ales. As you said, his culpability is already certain.”
“Then what?”
“We need to understand the full scope of what happened.”
“The full scope is already clear. We know Ales is a traitor.”
Malia had not yet told the other teachers about Elisia.
She meant to reveal it here, at this hearing.
At Constellation Academy, student safety was paramount.
Most of those present didn’t know the Imperial Palace was involved in this incident.
They saw it only as a continuation of the Renzo affair.
Renzo, who had attacked Aten and Frontdier. A traitor within Constellation who had aided Renzo.
Now that Ales had been identified as that traitor, they harbored no further questions.
“It’s not quite that simple.”
Jane spoke.
The full scope of the plan that Frontdier had extracted from Ales.
She’d heard it from Malia, but there were far too many unanswered questions.
The mention of Princess Elisia in particular troubled her.
“Where should I even begin.”
Malia slowly opened her mouth.
The information was overwhelming, but she laid it out piece by piece.
Princess Elisia as the true culprit. The Beast attacks. The targets: Aten and Roderick.
As Malia revealed each detail, the expressions of the surrounding teachers shifted toward shock.
“That can’t be. Princess Elisia…”
Someone voiced a thought that came naturally to all of them.
“Then couldn’t we simply destroy that summoning magic circle? The one called Rafflesia?”
“We can’t.”
One teacher’s proposal was flatly rejected by someone.
It was Binkis, the instructor of Summoning Magic and Magical Engineering.
“Listening to what Malia said, it appears the perpetrator has already set a timeline for their plan. In other words, the magical circle has likely already been completed.”
“Does that matter? Even if it’s complete, we only need to damage the circuit—”
“If we do that, they’ve probably arranged for the magical circle to activate instead. If that happens, the damage could be far worse than if we’d known nothing about the plan at all. Constellation will be in utter chaos.”
The teachers’ faces darkened at Binkis’s words.
Isamaya spoke up.
“Then what do we do? Are we supposed to just stand by and watch the enemy’s plan unfold?”
Binkis pressed her lips together at that.
After a moment of thought, what came from her mouth was unexpected.
“……Yes. That would be best.”
“What?”
“We must wait for the enemy’s plan to begin, and make it our objective to stop that plan with minimal casualties.”
In other words.
Elisia’s attack cannot be prevented at this stage.
So we let the plan proceed.
But since we know the plan exists, we can prepare our defenses thoroughly.
“Then the most important thing is making sure the enemy doesn’t find out that we know about the attack plan.”
“Yes. To all appearances, Constellation must seem as ordinary as ever.”
The teachers nodded, understanding Binkis’s meaning.
“First, we need to request help from those around us. Since we can’t be discovered, it has to be a select few.”
Request help from those around us, a select few.
Naturally, all the teachers’ gazes fell on one person at those two keywords.
Malia de Roach.
Ampere and Artzie—the Roach Family, possessing vast resources.
“……I’ll pass the word along.”
Malia spoke with obvious reluctance.
Jane asked a question.
“What about the students?”
At that question, everyone fell silent.
They were teachers—guardians of their students.
Yet if the students learned of this plan, it was obvious they would tip off Elisia.
Moreover, whether they could defend Constellation without the students.
Even if it ultimately meant reducing harm to the students—
“All activities at Constellation will proceed as scheduled.”
In that moment, a heavy, measured voice.
Everyone looked toward him.
It was Osfrit, the Headmaster.
“Nothing will change.”
A resolute tone that admitted no objection.
When Osfrit spoke like this, the conclusion was as good as decided.
All the teachers nodded in agreement.
* * *
In my room at the Roach Residence, I remained lost in thought.
I had no way of knowing exactly what measures the teachers would take against the attack.
But at minimum, they would take some precautions.
And most importantly, I could not prevent the attack from happening at all.
I had tried countless approaches through Aster, yet none had worked.
They only brought greater sacrifice.
So my task was somewhat different from the others’.
If I could not prevent it, I had to eliminate the instigator.
There was only one way.
‘Kill Elisia.’
Elisia was, in any case, a fixed villain.
If I don’t kill her now, she’ll only become more of a nuisance to the player as time goes on.
But opportunity had never presented itself.
Aster draws so much attention and has so many entangled relationships that he couldn’t move freely in practice.
Every movement was watched, and any careless act would raise suspicion.
During the planned attack, Elisia won’t be at the Imperial Palace but will observe the situation from her tower.
It was impossible for me to escape Constellation in Aster’s body and reach her there.
But if it were me.
If it were Frontdier, it would be possible.
Now, when no one pays me any attention.
‘From here on, I’m walking blind.’
The true culprit behind Aten’s attack, his accomplice, the plans that follow, the means to dismantle it all—
I’ve known everything up to this point, and it’s all unfolded as expected.
But subduing Elisia, from this point forward, is uncharted territory.
“Well, it’s nothing new, really.”
Has anything ever gone exactly as I wanted?
I couldn’t handle everything in the game either, and I failed.
Failure is familiar to me.
In the game or in reality.
[Main Quest: Assault]
– A large-scale Beast attack will occur at Constellation Academy. Prepare accordingly.
– If the response is insufficient, there is a possibility of Named Character disappearance.
I checked my Smartwatch once more.
A Main Quest I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Quite some time had passed since I first received this quest.
So they’d given me plenty of time to prepare.
The attack was coming soon.
“But.”
There’s somewhere I need to go today.
To secure the greatest ally in preparation for this attack.
The timing couldn’t be better.

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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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