The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 62

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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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The Academy’s Weapon Duplicator Episode 62
Chapter 16: The Assault (7)
Malia de Roach is a clever woman.
This location is in an entirely different direction from where the monsters are fleeing, which means I’m further away than any of the students or teachers at Constellation.
So it’s realistically impossible for me to intercept those monsters. She’d know that much.
Which means—precisely because she knows it—the fact that she’s telling me this can only mean one thing: there are no other options left.
[Frontdier, I know the monsters getting away is thanks to you. But it’s not over yet,]
“Not yet, then.”
I thought fast. There was no time. Right now the students and teachers are pursuing the monsters, cutting them down, but from what Malia said, the scale of the monster wave seems substantial.
In a few moments they’ll scatter in all directions and we’ll lose track of them. If even some breach the village, the tragedy that follows is certain.
I have at most a few seconds before that happens. I have to find a solution in that time.
My thoughts accelerated. I recalled every ability I’d acquired so far.
Out of everything I have, something, anything.
……Something.
I bit my lip.
More than method or means, the word impossible kept scraping through my mind.
If even Constellation’s students can’t stop them, how could I, who am so much farther away?
No. I can do this. I don’t know how, but find it. Search. Make it work somehow. That’s what I’ve always done. I’m used to impossible situations cropping up out of nowhere.
Somehow……
[I’m sorry.]
Malia’s voice came through.
Why was Malia apologizing?
[I saw you take down the chimera myself. But here I am, telling you this.]
Malia had nothing to apologize for. She’d simply done her job.
With Sense Sharing, Malia was monitoring both locations at once—here and Constellation.
She’d been rallying the students, feeding them hope constantly. Accounting for how I was progressing against the chimera, she’d have paced the students’ stamina and morale carefully.
She’d fulfilled her role more than adequately.
It was up to me now.
Me, and no one else.
“You’re rather solitary, aren’t you?”
A voice came suddenly from the air.
I flinched and turned toward it in alarm. It was Philly.
Philly spoke with measured composure.
“From the moment we first met until now, you’ve always seemed as though you understood everything.”
“……Philly.”
“Always fighting alone. Human sloth, Frontdier.”
Philly had called me by that epithet.
It wasn’t mockery. She’d pierced through to the weakness that lay beneath that nickname.
‘……Ah.’
I lifted my head.
I’d always thought alone, planned alone, acted alone. But this time I couldn’t do it by myself.
However, if there was Malia now.
“Mom, can you still see the monsters fleeing?”
[Huh? Yeah. I’m on the roof of Constellation’s main building right now.]
I couldn’t chase them, but they were still within sight.
If that was the case.
“……Mom, can Sense Sharing work in reverse?”
[In reverse? You mean show me the view you’re seeing?]
“Yes.”
[There’s nothing stopping me, but seeing it alone won’t—]
I bolted the moment I heard that, racing toward Elissia’s Tower.
Behind me came Philly’s voice crying out in confusion.
I entered the tower, climbed the stairs, and stood on the roof.
“Show me now. What you’re seeing.”
[……All right.]
Malia didn’t ask further questions. Time was pressing, and besides, she was trusting me.
Soon a new landscape entered my vision. It was an oddly strange sensation.
My left eye and right eye were seeing different scenes. It seemed Malia had applied Sense Sharing to my left eye alone.
I could see the fleeing monsters, just as Malia had said. And behind them, the students giving chase.
The one leading the charge was Aster, I realized. The figure on horseback stood out clearly.
“All right, then. I’ll hang up now.”
[There’s a way, isn’t there?]
“If things go as planned.”
[……Good.]
I pocketed the phone.
Time was running short. Soon the monsters would slip beyond Malia’s line of sight.
I shattered Heukryeon.
Weaving
Rank — Divine Rank
Chrisela Catos, Iokeira.
I wove Artemis’ Bow and Arrows and drew the string taut.
What I aimed at was the massive herd of monsters visible through Malia’s sight.
The distance from where I stood to fire with a bow was shamelessly far.
But a god’s weapon makes shameless things possible.
— Certain Hit: The user’s arrow invariably strikes its intended target.
I trusted in that shamelessness and,
in what would have looked to any other observer like the foolish act of aiming at empty air,
I released the bowstring.
* * *
When the monsters’ movements shifted and they began to flee,
the one who acted fastest was Aster. He bolted toward somewhere, then emerged on a white horse. And with that, he gave chase to the fleeing monsters.
It was the famous steed Cassian, whom Aster had handled in the Horsemanship club.
Of course, Cassian belonged to Constellation Academy, so Aster’s current action was a blatant violation of school rules, but no one present had the mind to care about such things.
The people around them simply wondered, in pure bewilderment, why Aster was chasing the monsters.
Then a thunderous voice crashed down.
“——They’re heading for the village!!”
It was Aster’s voice, and it rang so loudly that the vibration of the sound lightly struck the ground. It was an Aura Manifestation.
Hearing Aster’s cry, the students snapped to attention. Those with weapons followed in Aster’s wake, and the mages began their Incantations anew.
“Haaaah!!”
In an instant he closed the distance and slashed at the monsters’ backs without mercy. Before him, bolts of lightning and fireballs cascaded down, woven from magic.
Cassian, true to his reputation as a fine horse, dodged with practiced precision without requiring even subtle commands, and continued forward even as he evaded. He did not even neigh.
Aster swung his blade in a frenzy. The fatigue accumulated from defending against the assault, the depleted stamina — all were cast aside.
His arm moved before his muscles could cry out. To the monsters, he was nothing but a phantom, and so they pressed all the harder to escape. Not a single beast among them attempted to counterattack.
Yet even if Aster’s stamina were endless, even if he slaughtered monsters with the fury of the possessed,
their numbers were simply too great. For now, clustered together as they were, his blade reached them, and the barrage of magic bolts and fireballs from afar proved effective. But
soon they would scatter. Once they did, total annihilation became impossible. No matter how exceptional Aster was, he could not multiply himself into two or three.
“Haah, haah……!”
With each swing, the upper body of a monster flew skyward, its neck severed, and Aster’s blade swept through empty air.
Aster looked ahead. The monsters were spreading out, creating distance between themselves. The moment that sight registered in his eyes, forgotten fatigue came flooding back.
If the scattered monsters swept into the village, or worse — if they regrouped and surged back toward that village again,
Monsters are inherently hostile to humanity. That is why they are called monsters. They would not ignore the scent of blood from a village.
‘I have to reach the village at full speed. In a straight line.’
Aster steeled himself. It was a resolve so bitter, so agonizing that it felt as though he was gnawing through his own heart.
……A resolve to face the death of ordinary civilians.
The despair Aster felt spread gradually, seeping into the warriors who pursued behind him, and reaching even the mages in the rear.
The mages who could observe the situation from afar realized it even sooner.
A tragedy that had not yet come, but would surely arrive…….
Elody, who stood on the rooftop, lowered her hand. Runia, who had been chanting magic beside her, looked at her in alarm.
“Hey, don’t give up yet! We have to eliminate at least one more!”
Elody did not answer. Yet her expression was peculiar. She did not look despairing, nor did she look like she had surrendered.
Elody simply stared skyward, as if she had witnessed something very strange indeed.
“What on earth are you——”
Runia naturally followed that gaze. And her words ceased as well. Her expression shifted to mirror Elody’s.
And one by one, the number of eyes that confirmed it grew.
Beginning with Elody and Runia, the gazes of the mages, including Aten, turned skyward.
The teachers who had been checking on the students’ condition and safety were also captivated by that sight. And the archers who had pressed further forward lowered their bowstrings.
Too incongruously, silence suddenly fell over Constellation Academy.
─At first it resembled a comet.
A long, endlessly trailing thread of light carved a great gash across the sky. Yet upon closer inspection, it traced a very subtle arc.
And when it reached the monsters’ heads, it exploded like a firework.
And the burst of light became rain, no—became spears that pierced through the earth itself.
They poured down upon the monsters.
“……!”
Only then did Aster realize what was happening. He yanked the reins hard, bringing Cassian to an abrupt halt.
The monsters around them shrieked as they were pierced, then collapsed one after another.
Head, neck, chest—there wasn’t a single vital point left untouched.
Though it appeared to rain down without discrimination, every last arrow found its mark against the monsters.
That meticulous precision proved it.
‘……Not a single one has touched me.’
Aster himself hadn’t been grazed.
He’d been cutting through the monsters at the very front of their formation, surrounded by them—yet not a single shaft had come near him.
Aster surveyed the fallen monsters in a single glance. The streaks of light were arrows.
The monsters that hadn’t been struck by arrows continued their flight. There were no missed shots—only a simple shortage of ammunition.
Then, one more time, a volley erupted.
With each salvo, the number of monsters decreased by that exact count.
And again, and again, and once more.
Without targeting a single person, without letting a single monster escape, every last creature was pierced by those streams of light.
——Countless arrows formed a Fire Net that descended, and every arrow found its vital point without fail.
The reality conveyed by this single sentence was, absurdly, chilling.
All sound ceased at once.
The violent breathing from moments before, the monsters’ screams, the metallic clang of weapons, the thunder of footfalls on earth—it all felt like a dream.
Screech, screeeech—
Gurgle.
Every last monster had fallen, yet a few had survived the onslaught.
Even with arrows striking their vital points, some could linger for a few seconds if luck was on their side.
Of course, escape was now impossible, so Aster and the other students could handle the rest—but
As if there was no need for that, one more time.
A sound like bursting fireworks shook the ground. That same stream of light poured down before Aster’s eyes.
This time, it was truly complete—a perfect ‘tidying.’
As if to ensure no one could dismiss it as a dream, reality was thrust upon the students’ eyes once more.
“Hah……hah…….”
Aster’s breathing was still ragged, but it began to slow.
He sheathed his black sword and slowly accepted the exhaustion flooding through him.
Now, he thought, it might be all right.
Aster turned around without thinking. Every student who had followed him bore the same expression he did.
And they weren’t alone.
The mages at Constellation Academy, the instructors as well.
It had been far too clean, far too decisive a victory, yet no one made a sound.
No cheers. No shouts.
“What the—what exactly is happening?”
Someone spoke aloud what everyone felt.
They all resonated with that question desperately.
Thump.
Malia de Roach sank to the ground.
She knew who had created this scene.
Or rather, she suspected.
The uncertainty in her phrasing stemmed from the fact that even she could scarcely believe it.
‘Frontdier did this……?’
Frontdier was her son.
And with her trait of Sense Sharing.
She had always believed there was nothing she didn’t know, at least when it came to everything she could see and hear.
Yet about Frontdier, the one closest to her, she now felt the stark weight of her own ignorance.
* * *
“Damn it, this is—”
I gritted my teeth and held on.
My legs went limp and my back bent. Still, I didn’t collapse. My hands, braced on both knees, trembled violently.
I shouldn’t have fired that last volley!
My head swam with Mana Depletion.
Here, the arrows arrive late, so it’s hard to tell how many monsters remain.
So I overdid it.
I forced myself upright and stumbled down the tower’s stairs.
This time, I wouldn’t pass out—sheer stubbornness wouldn’t allow it.
Collapsing every single fight, spending time in the hospital—there was nothing more pathetic, nothing more of a burden.
I reached the first floor, and the door creaked open.
Philly stood at the entrance, regarding me with an expression of utter disbelief.
“Did you forget what I just told you? You should be resting—why are you coming down here?”
“It’s just… a matter of pride, I suppose.”
At my words, Philly let out a theatrical sigh. She approached with heavy steps and looped my arm over her shoulder, supporting my weight.
“Being supported by an Empress—you’re not going to get an opportunity like this twice. Consider yourself fortunate.”
“…That’s certainly true. An experience no one else will ever have.”
“You earned it, then.”
Philly’s words carried a sharp edge of praise.
The tension drained from me, and I found myself smiling slightly.
We’d set out at dawn, yet the sun now hung high overhead. The sky was far too clear, too serene for the battle that had taken place.
“…Philly.”
“What is it? I said no thanks necessary. Set aside rank for a moment—you’re actually the one who—”
“You’re smaller than I thought, up this close.”
“Would you like me to show you what the penalty is for insulting an Empress?”
Philly’s face was smiling.
It was the smile I knew from her, the one that was wholly hers.
It was utterly, deeply terrifying.

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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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