The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 78

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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 78
Chapter 23: Coincidence
The night Frontdier made his bombshell announcement.
Angfer summoned Artzie to his quarters.
In the dim room lit by only a single small lamp, Angfer turned to Artzie and asked.
“Artzie, what do you think of all this?”
“Your will is my will, Father.”
Angfer smiled at the answer, but shook his head.
“I thought you’d say that. You’ve followed my words faithfully without a trace of defiance since childhood.”
Artzie’s record up to now couldn’t be captured by the simple words “model student” or “top achiever.”
The expectations of his family, including Angfer, the scrutiny at Constellation Academy, the burden of it all—he had overcome every last bit of it.
The standard the world demanded of him was unreasonably high by any ordinary measure.
Yet Artzie had climbed without faltering, as though it were only natural he should.
He had shown not the slightest sign of strain in getting here, so to Angfer, Artzie was both a source of pride and of worry. Steel tempered too hard breaks easily.
“But Artzie, having watched Frontdier up close, you must have thoughts of your own. That’s why you said nothing in the dining hall.”
When Frontdier announced he would go to Teibern.
That declaration was even more dangerous than what Frontdier had suddenly brought up at the meeting.
Yet Artzie, who had restrained Frontdier during the meeting, held his silence when Frontdier spoke of going to Teibern.
“Artzie, I still find Frontdier’s transformation unfamiliar to me. It means I have fallen short in my role as a father.”
Remarkably, Angfer admitted his own shortcoming. It was the lowest posture a father could take toward his son.
“I need wisdom now. What are your thoughts? Do you believe Frontdier can go to Teibern safely?”
Artzie closed his eyes for a moment. He could not evade the question when his father spoke with such sincerity.
And Artzie himself felt there were things he needed to convey to Angfer about Frontdier.
“At least,”
Artzie seemed to weigh which words would be most apt,
“he won’t come back dead.”
In the end, he spoke in his own measured way.
“Do you truly believe that?”
Angfer pressed again, skeptical. Teibern was far too dangerous a place for such assurance. A place where one had to genuinely contemplate life and death.
“The Frontdier of now is different from who he was last year.”
Artzie was the person who had observed Frontdier’s growth most closely.
Of course, even he did not know the full extent of Frontdier’s abilities, but at least in Close-Quarters Combat, he had taught him directly.
Frontdier had clung to his instruction with grim determination when he seemed ready to quit within three days, even within a single day.
From what Artzie had seen, Frontdier was the type who thought while moving. The type who laid traps in advance and waged psychological warfare to narrow the gap with his opponent.
That was certainly a different disposition from Artzie himself, who met every situation with fundamentals alone.
Because of that, even his tricks proved genuinely effective. The same was true in this term’s final exam. Through hidden advantages in numbers and information, deception, he had tilted the battlefield in his favor, and he had not missed that opening.
Because of his habit of laying multiple traps, Frontdier attempted the things he believed were possible first.
He accumulated tools with which to wage psychological warfare, piece by piece. That must have been why he asked Artzie to demonstrate the Disarming Strike.
That was what Artzie had come to understand.
Frontdier had shown nothing but laziness until now because he had deemed most things “impossible.”
But at some point, he had reconsidered them “possible.” The result was the Frontdier standing before them now.
“Frontdier is not acting on mere impulse.”
“He believes he will gain something there? Frontdier trusts that?”
“If it were merely trust, Frontdier would not have attempted it. He knows. He knows he will gain something there.”
From Artzie’s perspective, Frontdier had been living with grim determination from some point onward. As though he had become an entirely different person.
That Frontdier would go to Teibern had been a surprise to Artzie as well, but he did not believe that someone clinging to life with such desperation would suddenly make a foolish decision.
“Unless he is expelled, Frontdier will live bearing the name of the Roach Family.”
If the original plan had been to send Frontdier away to safety through expulsion, then short of expulsion, Frontdier would ultimately walk the same path as Angfer and Artzie.
“If hell awaits sometime in the future, it may not be amiss to see it beforehand.”
* * *
I was deliberating.
Who I should tell about going to Teibern.
First, I should mention it to Aten, who had helped me greatly, but no, what if she actually chases me all the way to Teibern? Well, would she really? Better to tell Aster or Siebel first, just in case? But is there any real need to tell them—it’s not as if I’m going to my death or anything—
I was entertaining such useless musings when the answer came on its own.
“You’re going to Teibern, I heard.”
The moment I stepped into the classroom, Aten said this.
It wasn’t just Aten. As soon as I entered, the other students began whispering and staring at me. I could catch the word “Teibern” in their murmurs.
How did all the students learn about this? That thought crossed my mind, and then Elodie came to mind.
That bastard spread this news throughout the entire school!
“Ah, yeah. I was meaning to tell you, but the rumor beat me to it.”
Regardless of what Elodie was thinking, the rumor had spread too far to deny at this point.
Aten looked at me as though I were a man already counting down to death.
“Why would you throw away your own life so carelessly?”
She truly was looking at a man about to die.
“Die? I’m not dying. I’ll come back in one piece.”
“Then why Teibern……?”
Right. It would certainly seem puzzling.
To me, Teibern is a high-risk high-return proposition—but to anyone else, it’s nothing but risk with no return at all. Catastrophic risk, in fact. Some even called it die-risk.
“Because I have something to retrieve.”
After wrestling with it, I gave her that answer. I didn’t want to lie to Aten if I could help it, but a full explanation would only confuse her.
A half-truth, you might say. Aten blinked at my words, then seemed to turn something over in her mind.
“I see. Something you need to retrieve…….”
The way she murmured it made it sound like I was talking about something extraordinary.
“Aten. Just to be sure—you’re not planning to follow me, are you?”
“Of course not. I’m a woman who knows her limits.”
……All right, then.
Asking anything more would likely only make things worse, so I nodded and left it at that.
* * *
-……Teibern? Frontdier is going to Teibern?
Upon hearing Aten’s account, her older sister Salle’s voice came back through the phone, tinged with surprise.
In Aten’s memory, it was rare—countable on one hand—for Salle to sound genuinely startled.
“Yes. He said he had something to retrieve.”
-Something to retrieve…….
Salle repeated it much the way Aten had, the words trailing off into thought.
-You mean he left something behind in Teibern?
“That’s what I’m thinking too.”
-So Frontdier has been to Teibern before?
“If we’re being literal about it, then yes.”
Salle and Aten had reached the same conclusion.
Teibern was hell to those who had seen it, and terror and unknown territory to those who hadn’t.
A wasteland of condemned prisoners and criminals used as cannon fodder, soldiers, and monsters that swarmed in ceaselessly.
To find something worth retrieving in a place where no one else dared venture, where nothing else mattered……
There was no explanation except that he had been there before.
Which meant Frontdier had left something behind in Teibern, and now, during this break, he was going back to claim it.
‘Teibern is somewhere where even the word “dangerous” falls short. Yet he’s choosing to return.’
Whatever it was, it had to be something extraordinary.
The Frontdier that Aten had observed was powerful enough to be excessive for a mere student, yet apparently he was operating at less than his full capacity.
-But Aten.
“What?”
-Why are you telling me this? You don’t expect me to help this Frontdier, do you?
What Salle knew of Frontdier amounted to little more than this: that their mother Philly had sent Aten to gather intelligence on Dragon Heart, and he was connected to that organization.
In other words, they were strangers.
Salle didn’t know that it was Frontdier who had stopped Elicia. If she learned that, her opinion of him would plummet.
“What are you talking about? It’s just part of our conversation.”
-……You know you’re starting to sound more and more like our mother, right?
“Well, this is something completely different.”
Aten pressed on as if she hadn’t heard the warning in her sister’s tone.
“I’ve decided where I want to go for the break.”
-……Hold on. Hold on just a minute.
“Constellation Academy says the break is meant for students to develop their individual strength. So I thought I’d do some traveling to improve myself. There’s nothing odd about that, is there?”
-Are you insane?! Do you understand what you’re talking about?! You think I’d allow this?
“What do you mean? I haven’t even mentioned where I’m planning to travel. Of course I’ll conduct myself responsibly, but you know how unpredictable the world can be, don’t you? The journey might turn out to be far more treacherous than I expect. But don’t worry—surely nothing will go wrong. It’s only a month or so, after all.”
Aten’s audacity had reached its peak.
A deep sigh drifted through the phone.
-Now I understand why you came to me instead of Mother with this.
“What are you saying? I can make small talk with Mother, with you, with anyone.”
-Fine. Wherever you go, I’ll make sure your travels are as comfortable as possible. I’ll assign you a guard. But remember—that guard is also there to watch you. The moment you do anything dangerous, or even so much as dip your toes into danger, I’ll have them drag you back to the Imperial Palace and lock you away. Understood?
“Thank you. I wasn’t actually asking.”
She hadn’t been asking.
That’s what you’d call coercion, Aten.
—So this is something entirely different.
Salle echoed Aten’s words.
—You like Frontdier, don’t you?
“…….”
Aten’s voice trailed off at Salle’s question. Was it embarrassment? While Salle was imagining Aten’s face flushed red,
“I’m not sure.”
Aten’s answer seemed both unexpected and perfectly in character.
—Not sure?
“Right. I don’t even know what that kind of thing is.”
Hmm. Fair enough.
Salle tried to act like a proper older sister in front of Aten, but the truth was she was still young herself. More so, given that she’d spent nearly her entire life confined within the Imperial Palace.
—You might find out this time, though?
“Maybe.”
Aten answered absently.
Then, about three seconds later, she spoke again.
“Wait, what are you talking about? I’m just taking a trip during the break.”
—Yes, yes. Of course.
After that, Aten deliberately ignored Salle’s half-teasing remark and ended the call.
White and equally cold—that expressionless face blinked with pale eyes.
“I am, after all, a woman who knows her limits.”
And just who said anything about following along?
I’m simply taking a trip during the break.
Everything that happens after that is nothing but coincidence.

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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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