The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 87

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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 87
Chapter 25: The Barrier (3)
At first, it was unmistakably an arrow. Of course it was—it had been loosed from a bow.
Emitting a strange light, it traveled through the air alongside the other arrows, and then, in an instant, fractured into dozens, hundreds of separate shafts.
“What… what is that…?”
Someone whispered the words, momentarily forgetting the battle was upon them.
But there was no one to blame. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on that long, impossible trajectory.
The light became a swarm, then a river of stars, and in the moment before it reached the monsters—
Whoosh—
Each thread of light traced its own path. What had seemed a phantom shimmer became undeniably real, falling with the sound of driving rain, scattering in all directions.
Splatter!
The monsters’ skulls were pierced. Their necks whistled with sudden holes where screams should have been. Some had their hearts punched through; others were transfixed from crown to groin.
The arrows fell like rain, and like rain they struck true—not a single shaft went astray. Every one found its mark with perfect, pitiless accuracy, drilling through the monsters’ vital points.
‘… So this is Firecrackers….’
Selena swallowed hard.
—Firecrackers might belong to Frontdier.
Even with that information from Manggot, Selena had found it difficult to believe. When monsters attacked Constellation Academy, whatever had been recorded as “Firecrackers” seemed far too fantastic to be real.
But now she had witnessed it with her own eyes. The scene before her matched the records perfectly—no, the actual display of power made the records seem almost understated.
“The… the monsters……”
Someone spoke, voice trembling. The horde of monsters that had been advancing became corpses in a single instant. Those charging forward froze, their momentum broken.
Only a handful of monsters remained. At this rate, they wouldn’t even reach the Barrier—
Whoosh—
“Hm?”
Selena let out a sound at the sight of Frontdier.
He was drawing back the bowstring, taking aim. A second arrow, then.
‘Surely he can’t unleash something of that caliber twice?’
As if in answer to her doubt,
the second Firecrackers soared forth, embroidering the air once more. The human forces had abandoned all thought of combat, staring in stunned silence.
A horrible shriek tore through the air. The monsters understood now what they faced. They wheeled about and fled back the way they’d come with every ounce of strength they possessed.
Monsters retreating from outside the Barrier—a sight these soldiers had never witnessed before.
Splatter—
But whether they fled or stood their ground, Firecrackers showed no mercy, cutting down each life with ruthless precision……
* * *
No battle in this continent’s history—not against the monsters outside, not any battle humans had ever fought—had ended this decisively.
After a moment of silence, the knights began scratching their heads and went out to survey the corpses; the soldiers returned to their barracks.
The prisoners filed back inside as they’d come. Some of them kept bowing toward Frontdier, tears streaming down their faces.
Until now, the knights had offered him their praise, each one taking their turn. But this time, there was nothing.
It was as if the battle had never happened at all. People moved mechanically through their duties as if it were an ordinary day.
Everyone was trying to act as if nothing had changed. How else could they respond to what Firecrackers had wrought?
And Selena.
For some reason, Frontdier remained atop the Barrier, gazing outward. Selena watched him, her eyes narrowing.
‘… This man.’
Selena stepped back. She had already been behind him, but she withdrew another pace.
‘He’s dangerous.’
She brought her hand to her side with studied casualness. Beneath her ornate robes, a needle was already “loaded” and ready.
Her superior Hagley had given her only two tasks: to guard Frontdier and to watch him.
The guarding was to protect his Ancient Language Interpretation Ability, and the watching was to ensure he harbored no thoughts of defection.
But this judgment, this impulse she felt now, came from her own assessment alone.
—If she killed Frontdier here.
She still hadn’t grasped the full extent of his abilities. Throughout all the fighting so far, Frontdier had never once engaged in close combat.
Of all the intelligence Manggot had provided about Frontdier, only Firecrackers had proven accurate.
That meant every piece of information underestimating him was false. The only truth was an impossible weapon of terrifying power.
So it could be said she had no real information about Frontdier at all. His melee combat might be just as brutally overwhelming as Firecrackers.
But this distance, this moment where he hadn’t yet sensed her intent.
Every condition aligned—the range where she was most confident, the situation, all of it.
A single, unified strike might succeed,
“Selena.”
“…!”
Frontdier suddenly called her name. Selena’s body went rigid.
“Y-yes?”
“Do you have good eyesight?”
Eyesight?
“Well, when you say eyesight…….”
“Literally. I’m asking if your vision is sharp. Or perhaps you’re skilled at sensing Mana and detecting presence.”
“Yes, yes. That’s a field I’m confident in.”
She was, after all, an assassin selected and trained by Constellation Academy. Everything Frontdier had just mentioned was basic assassin craft.
……But why was Frontdier asking such things? As if he already knew she was good at them.
“Of course you are.”
The way Frontdier nodded, so matter-of-fact, only deepened that unease.
“Come to my side. And look ahead.”
Selena walked to Frontdier’s side. She’d decided to postpone the ambush for now.
……Something about the timing of Frontdier’s remark felt too deliberate. The thought crossed her mind that perhaps she’d already been discovered.
“Do you see that forest over there?”
“……Yes, the Sacred Forest, you mean.”
Beyond Teibun’s Barrier, a forest so lush and green it caught the eye at once. Everyone called it the Sacred Forest.
Because it was a place that should have long since been defiled by Monsters—yet no Monster could ever approach it.
Of course, they didn’t know that Excalibur lay sleeping within it, but the forest was already perceived by most as something singularly special.
“Watch that forest. You can use your eyes, or push your Mana sensing to its limits. Either way, search inside thoroughly.”
“……What am I looking for?”
“Someone will be there.”
Someone? In that forest?
Selena thought it made no sense. That place lay beyond the outer boundary.
No matter how holy the Sacred Forest was, how impenetrable to Monsters, humans couldn’t reach it in the first place.
But she did as Frontdier ordered. She focused her eyes and pushed her Mana sensing to its maximum. Well, if there was nothing, she could just say so.
“……Huh?”
Yet she felt it. Faint—so faint she couldn’t tell whether it was Monster or human—but there was a presence of Mana.
“Is someone there?”
“……I’m not sure if it’s a person or something else, but yes. There is something. Faintly. Though it could just be a small animal…….”
“Do you really think so? You felt a presence you’re attributing to a small animal?”
……No, she didn’t.
Small animals couldn’t be sensed this faintly at this distance. If she could feel a presence from so far away, then whatever was inside had to be anything but ordinary.
“No. It’s definitely Mana I shouldn’t overlook. But why wasn’t it felt until now, and why can I sense it now?”
And how had Frontdier predicted she would find a Mana presence?
Frontdier gave her only half the answer.
“They came to assess the situation. An entire army wiped out in an instant—they needed to understand what happened, so they ventured a little closer to the Barrier.”
“Their army……? Could it be! Frontdier, you mean…….”
Frontdier nodded.
“Inside that Sacred Forest, there is a Monster Commander.”
* * *
In front of the Dormitory, in the open space.
Aten was facing a fear unlike any he had felt before.
“Hah, hahh…… ha! How’s that!”
Sybel thrust her chest out proudly, preening with satisfaction. Though her sweat-drenched face and labored breathing rather undermined the effect.
“……That’s impressive.”
“Ha! Right? Anyone who picks a fight with me is done for! Ahem!”
Sybel took Aten’s formal praise at face value and chattered on excitedly.
But Aten was not merely being polite.
To Sybel, Aten appeared serene; in truth, he simply didn’t know what else to say in this situation.
‘……It won’t even take five days.’
Sybel’s training had already nearly reached the practical stage.
The exercise was simple: Aten created ice fragments and set fire beneath them. Meanwhile, Sybel infused those ice fragments with Mana to keep them from melting.
At first, the ice would melt at once, but then—one minute, five minutes, ten minutes…… her duration stretched gradually and smoothly, until Sybel had already surpassed the one-hour mark.
‘This isn’t even a matter of genius. I understand now why Frontdier said what he did.’
If Aten had to describe Sybel’s talent in a word, it would be unfailing intuition.
Infusing Mana into created ice to prevent it from melting—anyone could do it. Given enough time to master it.
But humans repeat countless failures while learning something. Through trial and error, they discover what went wrong, what was right, what’s efficient and effective.
And then they internalize it. All these steps happen as a matter of course.
But Sybel skipped the trial-and-error phase entirely. Every intuitive instinct she had arrived at the correct answer.
Because her first attempt followed the right method, she progressed through the shortest path without any false starts.
“By the way, why does the ice fragment look like this?”
Sybel gazed quietly at the ice sculpture Aten had created.
At first she hadn’t paid it much attention, but the longer she looked, the clearer it became—this was no ordinary chunk of ice.
“Is that a hammer? It’s kind of cute when you make it this tiny.”
Just as Sybel said, Aten’s ice sculpture was shaped like a hammer. It didn’t suit him at all.
“……The handle’s really short. I feel like I’ve seen something like this before.”
Crack—
The moment Sybel finished her murmur, the ice sculpture vanished.
“Hey, what?”
“……I cancelled the spell. Next time, let’s try making something a bit larger.”
“Hmm……? Well, fine. The barrier’s definitely going to be way bigger than that anyway!”
Sybel found Aten’s behavior a touch odd, but she spoke brightly. Time wasn’t particularly abundant, after all.
“Ah, there you both are.”
At that moment, someone approached from the direction of the manor. It was Frontdier.
Aten breathed a quiet sigh of relief, pressing a hand to his chest. Not that it would matter even if Frontdier had seen the ice sculpture just now, but still, there was something about it…….
“Ah! Frontdier! You send me off on strange errands without so much as a word!”
“I’m sorry. Things at the barrier were too urgent. I’m truly grateful for your help.”
“Hmm, well, hmm, okay.”
Frontdier’s unexpected humility left Sybel scratching her head. She’d had plenty she wanted to say, but somehow it all felt irrelevant now.
“How’s the training going?”
“Great! I succeeded in maintaining ice for a full hour! Though it’s a tiny thing, of course.”
In just two days.
It was the sort of thing that would have astounded anyone who heard it, but Frontdier simply nodded.
“As expected.”
“Can’t you act a little more impressed?”
“Sorry. It’s not that impressive.”
For Sybel specifically, such feats were nothing extraordinary.
Aten caught the hidden meaning in those words and glanced briefly at Frontdier.
“But there was something I heard.”
Frontdier opened the conversation that way and then cleared his throat once.
This was when he would broach the true purpose of his visit.
“Sybel, you rode Kassian when you came here, didn’t you?”
Kassian. The finest steed in the realm.
Sybel had said she borrowed it from Constellation Academy, and that was probably true.
“Yeah, why?”
“Lend her to me for a bit.”
“Kassian? I don’t mind, but we only ever fought on top of the barrier. What do you need Kassian for?”
“It seems I’ll need her before long.”
With those words, Frontdier smiled easily enough.
At that calm, languid expression, Sybel nodded without a second thought.
In other words, she’d been taken in by Frontdier’s peaceful face.

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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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