The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 77

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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 Weapon Replicator of the Academy — Episode 77
Chapter 22: Final Examination (6)
The practical examination of the Final Examination was over.
In other words, all tests determining the rankings for the first semester of first year had concluded.
If my predictions held, the practical results must have delivered no small shock to the instructors.
Originally, they’d aimed to teach the first-year students the meaning of defeat. Yet the students succeeded instead, and my role as Human Sloth played no minor part in that success.
Because of this, the grading took somewhat longer than originally scheduled. The initial grading was meant to score how the students coped in the face of defeat.
But the students won. So it became necessary to reset the grading criteria.
There was some minor discord as a result, yet the anticipated outcome remained certain.
“……Done.”
The bulletin board where the Final Examination scores had been posted.
My name was listed at the very top.
For the practical examination with individual evaluation applied, I’d scored the maximum points, and for the written exam, a perfect score.
“Thank goodness.”
I murmured quietly to myself. With this, the condition Anfer had stated was somehow cleared.
But perhaps my quiet voice had carried, for nearby students flinched and hurried away.
What was that? How did they interpret what I said to react like that?
“Congratulations.”
As the other students withdrew from my vicinity, another voice drew closer instead.
It was Elody. She held out a beverage can toward me.
“You like it, don’t you? Hot Chocolate.”
“……Ah, right.”
“What? Like you just remembered?”
Elody smiled, apparently thinking I was joking.
So Frontdier likes Hot Chocolate, she must have thought. I should remember that. It does suit a sloth somehow.
“You’ve kept your promise. You’ll spare me from expulsion.”
“That’s right.”
“Still, surely you weren’t really going to expel your own son? I gave you tough love to make you work harder. And thanks to it, you ranked first.”
“……I suppose.”
I had no response to Elody’s words and answered dryly.
As I opened the can, I thought about what would come next.
As Elody said, expulsion had been avoided. For now, at least.
According to Malia, Anfer seemed to want to expel me.
But Anfer was at least a man who didn’t go back on his word. And far less a man who broke his promises. So long as I ranked in the top ten, expulsion wouldn’t happen.
But conversely, that meant Anfer had truly intended to expel me. For the original Frontdier, placing in the top ten of year rankings would have been nearly impossible.
“So what will you do from now on? Summer break is coming soon.”
Elody spoke.
Now that the first semester Final Examination was complete, summer vacation would soon arrive. The break lasted one month—similar to the world I’d come from.
During this period, Constellation Academy became busier than an ordinary school. The quantity of supplies and facilities needed for the next classes and training differed, and above all, the Field settings had to be configured.
……And the most striking difference from the original world.
The students of Constellation Academy hated breaks.
“I’m not sure. What about you, Elody?”
At my question, Elody let out a sigh first.
“Well, I have to go to the Magic Tower again. Running around here and there as a foot soldier, the break flies by in no time.”
Elody, as she spoke, was visibly weary.
Like Elody, most Constellation Academy students didn’t rest during breaks.
They either worked to shore up their own weaknesses as they’d felt them during the first semester, or strengthened their particular style, or—like Elody—ground themselves under someone of higher rank.
While Constellation Academy’s training intensity was no joke, it was at least administered to groups. In contrast, breaks meant nothing but high-intensity individual instruction. It was no wonder the students dreaded them.
Elody opened one eye, looking at me.
“I thought that the old you would’ve just loafed around, eaten, and slept through the break. But this time will be different, won’t it? Constellation stays open even during breaks, so are you planning to keep training in the practice hall like you have been?”
At Elody’s words, I smiled. It was good that her evaluation of me had improved.
But since her assumption was wrong, I opened my mouth to correct her.
“Actually, I’m going to──”
I gave my answer, and Elody made the most surprised expression I’d ever seen from her.
No, surprise alone wasn’t quite enough to describe it,
It was close to anger.
* * *
A famous restaurant called Wild Amuse, in Yeran Hess, the territory of House of Roach.
There, Anfer and Malia, myself and Artzie had shared a meal—to celebrate my first-place finish in the Final Examination.
“Really, my son placing first—Mother is so delighted. Don’t you agree, dear?”
“Mm.”
Malia, uncharacteristically using the intimate term “dear,” was making a fuss over it, while Anfer had grown even quieter than usual.
Artzie simply sat beside me, eating slowly.
Is this really meant to be a celebration? The air feels impossibly heavy.
When Anfer showed no reaction, Malia’s eyes sharpened.
“Dear, surely you’re not going to start talking about excommunication and such nonsense again?”
“No.”
Anfer spoke, then looked at me.
His gaze toward me was almost perfectly direct. For the first time, it felt as though Anfer was truly seeing me.
“Frontdier, you did well.”
“……Thank you.”
Anfer, who had seemed like unyielding armor, had praised me.
Even if he wasn’t my true father, there was something in those words that made my chest swell.
“With such a weak body, you tried genuinely hard.”
And yet.
Anfer’s perception of me had not changed after all.
“……Dear.”
Suspicious of Anfer’s words, Malia intervened from beside him.
But Anfer was sincere.
“I will make no unreasonable demands of you henceforth. If you wish it, I’ll even consider transferring you. You despised Constellation Academy so greatly, after all.”
He was genuinely thinking of me, and—
“Yes. Central has promising schools unlike Constellation Academy, ones that focus on cultivating scholars and researchers. What would you think of transferring there? With your perfect written examination score, you’d surely flourish there, and you’d suffer no wounds.”
Genuinely, he did not see me as a warrior.
“……Are you serious about this?”
Malia’s tone shifted from “dear” to “you.”
“Why wouldn’t I be serious? Frontdier despised Constellation Academy. You know that well enough.”
Malia began to say something to Anfer, then closed her mouth. Instead, she looked at me.
Frontdier despised Constellation Academy. This was a truth I couldn’t deny. How else would I have slept through every day, skipped practical training, and earned the nickname Human Sloth?
Frontdier, with no spark of talent for either warrior or mage—he had believed Constellation Academy was not where he belonged.
Knowing this, Malia did not protest further and simply looked at me.
Asking silently if I was still that way.
Asking if the only reason I’d worked hard at Constellation Academy was to return to being the “Human Sloth.”
……Now, at last, I think I understand why Anfer had wanted to excommunicate me.
‘It’s a kind of overprotection, in its way.’
Anfer, the iron wall of the North.
If I remained his son, then like Artzie, I too would inevitably stand on the battlefield.
And in Anfer’s eyes, Frontdier surviving that battlefield was impossible.
Better to abandon the name of the prestigious House of Roach and live.
That must have been Anfer’s heart as he looked at me.
“……I.”
And so, what I’m about to say—
—is nothing short of filial betrayal toward Anfer.
“I’ve arranged my holiday plans.”
“……?”
“Your holiday plans?”
Anfer’s eyes twitched, and Malia echoed in bewilderment.
It may sound absurd, but neither Anfer nor Malia would think it so.
With these words, I will answer all of Anfer’s proposals.
At the same time, it’s a good opportunity to show him what resolve I carry.
“I’m going to Teiburn.”
The moment I spoke those words.
If I had to describe it, there was a sound like a sharp snap.
As though all the noise and chatter in the space was being severed at once.
The restaurant fell silent. All those who had been enjoying casual conversation were startled by this sudden hush that had no visible cause.
Anfer.
He had merely released the slightest pressure, yet everyone in the room could not make a sound.
“……Frontdier.”
“Yes.”
“I warned you at the last meeting as well. Do not speak carelessly. You don’t yet understand the weight of your words.”
Anfer’s voice had moved beyond simmering—it was ablaze.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
Teiburn.
A northeastern frontier region under the jurisdiction of Reedwi Fon Urfa.
Anfer, who governed the northwestern region of Yeran Hess, lived up to his epithet of “Iron Wall” by never once allowing a monster incursion into his territory.
Because of this, though Yeran Hess carried inherent potential danger, that threat had never manifested into actual damage.
The people’s morale remained sound, commerce turned over reasonably well, and the soldiers’ spirits stayed intact.
But what of the northeast?
Anfer earned the epithet “Iron Wall” simply by denying entry—nothing more.
The monsters beyond the frontier were desperately formidable, so much so that merely keeping them at bay was enough to earn such a name.
Teiburn was different from Yeran Hess.
The monsters beyond had ravaged human settlements again and again, trampling them underfoot, and countless lives had been spent in response.
People were ground down to hold back the monsters. Then more were ground down to deal with those that breached. Then more still were ground down to drive them back out.
The number of lives Reedwi Fon Urfa had sacrificed to hold back the monsters was beyond reckoning.
Yet no one blamed him for it.
Because that was simply how things were.
Anfer, who managed to hold everything back, was the aberration. Any frontier tasked with repelling the outer monsters would become a hell like Teiburn.
Teiburn was the most treacherous of all the hells that had descended upon the earth. For this reason, most of the humans Reedwi ground down were criminals comparable to the condemned.
The moment a prisoner was drafted to Teiburn, most would scream for execution instead.
Even if it was only for the summer break, volunteering to go there of one’s own accord took more than ordinary madness.
Right now, that madman was me.
“My resolve remains unchanged,” I said.
“Frontdier!”
This time it was Malia.
Malia looked at me with eyes that held worry and fear and mercy all at once. To Anfer and Malia, it must have seemed as though I were marching toward my own death.
If anyone else had said such a thing, the meaning would surely have been the same.
But I had to go to Teiburn.
To Frontdier, Teiburn was a treasury of riches. Divine Grade weapons and those approaching Unique-rank artifacts existed there in considerable number, and most of them sat idle, their purpose unfulfilled.
And backed by the House of Roach, going as a volunteer rather than a convict meant far better treatment.
It did not mean I would be safe, of course, but my position would be infinitely better than that of the condemned.
‘It’s a place I’ll have to face eventually anyway.’
Humanity’s fate, doomed to destruction by monsters in the distant future.
To overcome it, I would eventually have to cross the boundary between human and monster. That day would come, whether sooner or later.
And no matter how I thought about it, the most optimal timing for that day was this summer break—when everything around me was functioning most smoothly.
But Anfer simply shook his head as though he would hear no more of it.
“I didn’t hear that. Dinner seems to be finished, so let’s—”
“Father.”
I cut off Anfer’s words.
Interrupting him even once was terrifyingly risky, but I had to convince Anfer right now.
“I know I’ve been an unreliable son to you.”
Anfer’s eyes widened. Today was perhaps the one day we would ever see so many different expressions from him.
Though the changes were so subtle they barely registered.
“I am a child of the House of Roach. I must go to the boundary of the inhuman. That is my duty.”
“Frontdier, I’ve told you. You’re a weak child. I and your brother will handle things.”
“I won’t hide away alone while everyone else perishes. Not anymore.”
……!
Frontdier’s past life had become a massive debt, pressing down heavy on my shoulders.
His weakness lost the family’s trust. His idleness created the Human Sloth. His cruelty touched “Makot.”
None of those things were things I did, but I am now Frontdier de Roach.
Having to pay the price for sins I never committed seemed deeply unfair to me.
But by now, I had decided to accept it.
I had no choice but to accept it.
“I must—”
I am Frontdier de Roach.
“pay the price for my idleness.”
One who knows how this world ends.
One who has been struggling long and hard to twist that ending.
The Human Sloth, Frontdier.

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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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