The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 71

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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 71
Chapter 21: Auction (3)
‘Yes, there’s definitely a price ceiling he’s set for himself,’ Rebet thought.
Rebet was thinking this.
Frontdier, too, still had considerable margin. He wouldn’t raise his paddle unless the price climbed beyond whatever limit he’d set himself—or that his house had prescribed for him.
The price had broken past ten million Kurs. It had already doubled. At this point, the bidding began to thin.
Only Elody and some middle-aged nobleman from a prominent house still held their paddles. The man was glaring daggers at Elody with every breath.
Elody caught that angry stare for a moment.
Whoosh—her hand went up again.
She barely gave it a thought.
The middle-aged man trembled, gripping his paddle so hard his knuckles whitened.
Meanwhile, Elody glanced at Frontdier.
He was likely to be her next opponent.
He showed no sign of moving yet.
In the interim, the middle-aged man’s paddle rose once more.
And as if to quash even that feeble resistance, Elody raised her hand before the auctioneer could even finish speaking.
As Rebet had said, an auction was simply a matter of whoever had the deepest pockets claiming the prize.
Unlike the nobleman, whose budget was stretched perilously thin, Elody had plenty of room to spare.
“Lot 127: 10.5 million Kurs! 10.5 million Kurs! Do I hear anything higher?”
The middle-aged man finally shook his head in surrender. Elody and Rebet turned their eyes to Frontdier.
His expression remained unmoved.
Now came the battle with Frontdier. Elody watched him in silence.
But then—
“Nothing? If there are no further bids, I’ll call the price one final time and close the lot.”
Frontdier remained perfectly still.
“10.5 million Kurs!”
At the first call, Elody tensed slightly. This was it, she thought.
“10.5 million Kurs!”
At the second call, Rebet’s brow furrowed. What was he playing at? That infuriatingly composed attitude of Frontdier’s was beginning to grate on her.
And then.
“10.5 million Kurs!”
The third call.
“……?”
“?”
Elody and Rebet blinked in unison.
“Congratulations! Lot 127! The Bifagang, sold for 10.5 million Kurs!”
A chorus of cheers and applause erupted from the surrounding nobles.
Rebet reflexively raised her hand to acknowledge the applause, though her face remained a study in confusion.
Elody showed no reaction at all. She simply asked:
“……Did you have a change of heart midway through?”
“…….”
Rebet offered no reply. Her eyes remained fixed on Frontdier as if beholding something incomprehensible. And indeed, from Rebet’s perspective, Frontdier’s behavior was incomprehensible.
Understanding the meaning behind Rebet’s expression, Elody spoke.
“……Apparently not. Which means, in short—”
Elody looked at Frontdier once more.
From the moment Bifagang was announced until the gavel fell, his expression hadn’t flickered. His hand had never moved once.
The answer was simple.
Frontdier had never intended to acquire Bifagang in the first place.
The only explanation for his presence here was that cursed cloth.
“What in the—what is he even—”
Rebet’s words crumbled as she lost both her patience and her wits simultaneously.
* * *
Several days prior, in the Constellation Academy’s café, Toldwarp.
After scouting Quinie, I conducted a meeting with her, Aten, and myself.
“If I’m being honest, I lean toward ranged,” Quinie said as we divided up positions.
Her primary weapon was the blade concealed within her fan. Since she could throw it, calling her a ranged dealer wouldn’t be entirely off base.
“But you’re skilled at both close and ranged combat anyway.”
“……Hmm, well, I suppose that’s true.”
At my words, Quinie covered her mouth with her fan.
I’d deliberately flattered her, of course—but it was also the truth, so I felt no guilt whatsoever.
“For now, I’ll take the front, Quinie in the middle, and Aten covering the rear.”
“Take the front? But you said you were support?”
“If we had someone like Aster or Ellin—someone purely frontline—I’d have arranged it differently.”
Quinie was versatile. She could hold her own from any position.
That’s why placing her in the middle, ready to adapt as the situation demanded, made the most sense.
“Hmm. Sounds risky.”
“I’ll do my best.”
It saddened me how quickly I was becoming accustomed to danger.
But something about my answer must have nagged at her, because Quinie glanced around once before leaning closer.
“So… there’s something.”
“Yes?”
“Did you really do it?”
“Do what?”
“The fireworks.”
At that word, Aten closed the distance too. Both their eyes gleamed with curiosity.
These two were the ones who’d warned me about the monster attack beforehand. It was natural they’d suspect my involvement in the “fireworks” that had supposedly wiped out the fleeing creatures.
Quinie spoke.
“I’m not going to ask how you knew the monsters would attack—that happened, so let’s leave it. But the ‘fireworks’ are different. I’d like some small compensation for helping you.”
“Protecting Constellation benefits everyone, doesn’t it?”
“That’s exactly why I said ‘small’ compensation.”
This was ridiculous.
Yet without Quinie and the others’ help, I’d never have managed a proper response during that attack. I wouldn’t have gained the Analysis skill either.
So… compensation, then.
“Then I’ll give you a straight answer.”
“Go on.”
“I did it.”
I stated it plainly.
The playful glint vanished from Quinie’s face. Her expression hardened, her eyes fixed on me with a transparent, gleaming intensity. I could almost hear her mind working through the implications.
And I added one more thing.
“But I can’t do it anymore. And how I did it remains a secret.”
That impossible range, that precision from a distance—I’d never have conceived of it without Malia’s help.
I could recreate the visual spectacle people called “fireworks,” but only within my line of sight.
And I’d hoped, maybe naively, that she’d think I was simply bluffing.
“I see. So that’s how it is.”
But there was no such doubt in her mind. Quinie had finished her calculations.
It felt strange, as though my value were being recalculated in real time.
Then Quinie glanced at Aten beside her.
Unlike Quinie, Aten didn’t seem particularly startled. She just gave the look of someone who’d already expected as much.
“Truly befitting of a princess. You have discerning eyes.”
“That title isn’t appropriate here. But I do find myself quite in agreement with the sentiment—”
“All right! Let’s begin the meeting!”
I cut them off deliberately. Their conversation was heading somewhere strange.
Quinie shrugged. Aten returned to her usual composed silence.
I turned to Quinie.
“So how does the final exam work?”
“First years get a simplified mission—a simulated scenario designed to mimic professional work.”
This time Aten asked.
“How do you know in advance?”
“It’s been the same every year.”
Well, the truth is I already knew this anyway. I was only going through the motions to bring Aten up to speed.
Quinie continued.
“Constellation trains students to eliminate Outside Monsters beyond the Boundary. But reality doesn’t work that way.”
“How do you mean?”
“We’re swamped just dealing with monsters inside the Boundary and conflicts between humans.”
This continent was, in the end, where people lived.
No matter how much the Outside Monsters threatened, no matter how the Boundary tightened in response—
Not everyone within it pulled together toward a single goal.
Especially now that the Boundary had stabilized somewhat, making monsters rare sights even in the central regions, human division ran deep.
The fact that most of my fights so far had been against humans or conflicts they’d triggered was proof of that.
“So missions usually come with dual objectives: ‘Subjugation’ and ‘Protection’ at once. Just like professionals who go to disaster sites and handle both monster elimination and civilian rescue simultaneously.”
“……You’re not actually having real monsters attack people, are you?”
Aten’s question made Quinie laugh aloud.
“Aha. No, that would be terribly inefficient.”
Ah. So it was inefficiency that prevented it.
I’d thought there was some other reason.
“The victims of the incident will probably be handled by your seniors. And the monsters themselves will be played by instructors. Most Outside Monsters are trivial to Constellation’s teachers, and some of them even surpass what comes from beyond the Boundary.”
“……Instructors?”
Aten turned to look at me as she repeated the word.
Right. Perhaps the greatest obstacle in this Final Exam.
I’ll have to face my older brother, who’s taken on a position as a temporary instructor.
Artzie de Roach.
“But well, so that Fireworks really was your doing. I won’t have to do anything then.”
“I can’t do it anymore, I told you.”
I turned the thought over in my mind as I replied to Quinie.
When I played through the Final Exam as Aster, it was grueling, but the results turned out well. Aster is like night and day before and after using Divine Power.
Aster is an absurdly broken character that even surpasses that cheat character Artzie.
But as Frontdier, I’ll need to push myself to my absolute limits just to complete the objective somehow.
……Absolute limits.
“Mjolnir…….”
Aten looked at me in response to my murmur.
It was a look of ominous warning.
“Frontdier. Like I said before, I still don’t have confidence that I could—”
“I know. I’m not going to do anything like that.”
Consuming a Woven Dragon Heart would mean throwing my life away.
It was reckless enough to attempt it the first time, and to do it again would be beyond reckless—it would be stupid.
……So if possible, I wanted to find a way to make it safe.
* * *
And so.
I set the fabric known as the “Cursed Cloth” down on the desk.
“……To think I’d actually acquire this.”
And for a pittance, no less. It was embarrassing how cheaply I obtained it.
I’d never planned on acquiring Bifagang. I already had one of Nil Zac’s Short Swords.
It would be nice to have, certainly, but right now I’m trying to add Weaving using Heukcheon to my short sword and employ the Dual Sword Technique.
Bifagang should rightfully become Elody’s in any case. That’s how it was in the game too.
I brought all my savings, unsure of what the asking price would be at the Auction.
I had the winnings from a bet with Quinie before. I worried whether my funds would be enough, but fortunately, no one else had their eye on this item.
Of course not. For an ordinary person, there’d be no use for it anywhere.
Unless they knew its true value.
[Penelope’s Cloth]
•Rank: Unique
•Description: A portion of the burial garment woven by Penelope. It is said that for three years, she repeated the cycle of making clothes by day and unraveling them by night. It carries the pure and faithful love and longing of one who waited for Odysseus for twenty years.
Ability Details >
– Shape Regression: Due to the repeated creation and deconstruction carried out by Penelope over three years, this cloth returns to its original form no matter what befalls it.
– Pure Mana: Every knot woven into this cloth is a collection of Pure Mana. Durability increases dramatically, and the wearer gains the effects of warmth retention and water resistance.
This is the very cloth from “Penelope’s Web.”
While it has the fatal drawback of being incapable of tailoring, the quality of “Pure Mana” should not be underestimated.
Even if the cloth cannot be altered to my liking, simply wrapping it around my arm or neck would still grant its benefits.
But my method of use is somewhat different.
A Dragon Heart created through Weaving has the effect of raising the user’s Mana, much like the original.
The only difference is that it’s a fake, so that amount of Mana is replaced by something else from my body.
Then what if I prepared Mana to compensate? What if I had a “Dummy”—something that would convert to Mana in my place?
This Penelope’s Cloth would become exactly that Dummy.
“Now then, how should I carry it?”
I gazed at the cloth quietly, turning the problem over, then folded it and wrapped it inside my shirt collar, fashioning it into a necktie.
Looking in the mirror to check, it didn’t look half bad.
Since Constellation’s uniform already comes with an assigned necktie, this would serve as a suitable replacement.

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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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