The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 89

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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 89
Chapter 26: The Holy Forest (1)
Sanders rushed forward and seized the shoulder of the one who looked like Frontdier—or rather, who was wearing Frontdier’s clothes.
“What are you?”
“Ugh!”
The creature in Frontdier’s garb flinched in alarm. Sanders saw his face. A stranger’s face. Not a knight. He couldn’t even tell if the man was a soldier.
The squalid visage seemed unkempt, and despite the bitter cold, a sickly stench pricked his nostrils.
“I asked who you are!”
“I-I’m called Grobel, sir knight…….”
“Grobel? Which unit do you serve?”
“I’m, I’m just a prisoner, sir knight.”
At Grobel’s answer, Sanders felt the world tilt beneath him.
There was no way a mere prisoner would be standing here in Frontdier’s clothes. This had been planned from the start.
When the time came, he would change his garments and be ready to flee at a moment’s notice. Even the switch to heavier clothing midway had been part of that design.
“I was only doing as I was told, sir…….”
“I don’t care about that! What is Frontdier’s objective?”
“I wouldn’t know, sir…….”
Swish—Sanders hurled Grobel’s shoulder away roughly. It was nothing but venting his rage. And yet the fury would not subside.
When he thought about it, Frontdier was just a student. A half-grown boy who hadn’t even reached manhood. And certainly no knight. It was foolish to have expected anything of such a child.
‘It’s all right. We’ve managed fine without him until now. The tactics don’t change.’
Even as Sanders thought this, his jaw clenched, muscles tensing visibly. The battlefield was a desperate place where victory was nearly impossible—but with Frontdier’s escape, that word ‘nearly’ had been split in two.
Sanders cried out as though spitting blood.
“Kill them! Don’t let a single one of them set foot in Teyban!”
* * *
“What, what is it? What’s happening?”
Sybel noticed the commotion atop the Barrier and froze.
Sanders was shouting something at someone.
Aten saw it too. She realized that the person Sanders now faced was wearing the same clothes as the Frontdier who had been on the Barrier moments before.
“……A fake.”
“Huh?”
“It looks like Frontdier dressed up a fake in his own clothes.”
“……What?”
Sybel scanned the top of the Barrier. Indeed, Frontdier was nowhere to be seen.
“……So Frontdier isn’t there?”
“No. Probably not.”
Both Sybel and Aten fell silent for a moment in the face of this absurd turn of events.
Yet unlike Sanders, they were not consumed by rage. Even as they grasped the situation, both of them realized something at the same instant.
“……Cassian.”
“That request to borrow……”
They both turned to look in the same direction simultaneously. It wasn’t toward Teyban. It was toward the Barrier.
Strangely, neither of them thought Frontdier had escaped on Cassian’s back. A far more dreadful possibility came to mind.
“Did that bastard actually cross the Barrier?”
“To reach the outer territories.”
They climbed atop the Barrier. Sanders’ warnings about the danger had completely slipped their minds in this moment.
Aten pushed her Mana Detection to its limit, while Sybel heightened her Ki Sense to maximum, both searching for Frontdier.
—And unfortunately, their assumption proved correct.
They spotted Frontdier almost simultaneously: riding on Cassian, racing toward the Holy Forest. Selena was riding behind him.
Crack—Sybel’s teeth ground together audibly. Her rage was so intense that she felt she might tear the Barrier apart with her bare hands.
“You, you’re absolutely infuriating……! Frontdier……!!”
Her breathing grew ragged with fury, her voice trembling. The Aura blazed across her entire body even though the monsters hadn’t yet drawn near.
Whoosh—
Aten seized Sybel’s wrist. Sybel started in surprise. Aten’s body temperature was naturally cooler than most people’s, but the hand that now gripped her wrist was impossibly cold.
“……We have to hold the Barrier.”
There was no breath misting from Aten’s lips. In this brutal cold, her body had reached a state of near-absolute frigidity.
Her transparent eyes now looked like carved ice.
Sybel suddenly understood the truth: the angrier Aten became, the colder she grew.
“……You’re right.”
Sybel nodded in agreement.
Frontdier’s betrayal was infuriating, but they had a mission to see through.
* * *
I clenched my teeth and drove toward the Holy Forest.
The wind from Cassian’s speed struck me hard, and more rushed in to fill the gap.
The reason for gritting my teeth was simple—I’d never ridden a horse before. So there I was, teeth clenched, clinging to Cassian for dear life.
“I told you I’d handle the reins.”
Selena spoke calmly from behind, where she rode double with me.
“How do I know where you’re taking us?”
“You certainly don’t trust anyone, do you?”
Fair point.
We’d known each other less than a month.
At first, when Cassian had picked up speed, I’d nearly tumbled off entirely—but I’d finally gotten the hang of it.
It helped that Cassian had been careful with me even at full gallop.
“I’m… getting… used… to… this…!”
I’d tied Penelope’s Cloth to the reins and gripped it in my hand.
That alone seemed to provide enough warmth—neither Cassian nor I suffered from the cold.
After lending me the cloth for a day, Cassian had started following my lead quite well.
Either he thought pleasing me meant escape from the cold, or perhaps simply possessing such cloth raised my value in his eyes.
Either way, the horse obeyed my commands well enough that I could execute my plan.
This plan resembled the ‘ambush’ that had occurred at the Constellation Academy.
While our allies held the line, I strike the enemy commander.
The difference from last time was the difficulty. The timeout is far shorter, and my opponent’s caliber is entirely different.
And more than anything, I’ve made almost no preparations for the state of the Barrier and enemy forces.
The only advice I have is about ice walls. That means many variables, and the failure rate climbs accordingly.
Yet the reason I came all the way to Teyban during the break was that this place held a payoff high enough to justify all those risks.
Screee!
At that moment, a terrible cry cut through my thoughts.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a creature resembling a bat. It had the simplest possible design—a bat, but one the size of a bison.
“Cassian!”
I yanked the reins and shouted, and Cassian, remarkably, understood my intent and veered away from the bat’s fangs. At the same moment, he brought it into my line of sight.
Weaving, Black Stream
Rarity – Rare
Sleb’s Sinister Dagger
I destroyed the Black Stream and fashioned it into the dagger, then threw it at the creature.
My Throwing skill had now reached the intermediate level. I rarely missed against ordinary enemies.
And against something with that much bulk, even intermediate-level throwing would find its mark.
Screee!
The bat swatted the dagger away with its wing as though it were nothing.
Ah, damn.
My Throwing was useless here.
Screee—
The bat dove at me with its fangs bared, then suddenly tumbled to the ground of its own accord.
Unable to understand why, it kept raising its head to try again, only to crash down once more, until at last it began trembling and fell silent.
“What is it—is it dead?”
Selena asked in alarm.
“Not yet.”
Well, not yet. It takes twenty-four hours.
But this is the land of bitter cold, and it’s now stuck fast to that frozen ground with no way to move.
Whether paralysis claims it first or freezing—I couldn’t say.
* * *
The closer we drew to the Holy Forest, the more monsters blocked our way.
It made sense. The one controlling the monsters was somewhere in the forest.
‘Monsters cannot enter the forest, so monsters and the forest stand in opposition like water and oil.’
Humanity had long held this truth as self-evident.
The one controlling the monsters attacking Teyban couldn’t possibly be inside the forest. Everyone believed that. It was a trap of the mind.
‘…Of course.’
But as I pushed forward, I understood.
The monsters’ strength was clearly diminished. All the powerful ones had been sent to the Barrier.
That humans suspected nothing of the forest meant, naturally, the enemy knew this too.
So they’d grown careless with their own defenses. They’d fallen into their own psychological trap.
“At this rate, we’ll breach the forest without trouble.”
“Well, most of it’s me doing the work anyway.”
“Be quiet.”
I dismissed her, but Selena had been right.
True to her role as escort, she’d cleared away every monster that threatened to impede our path into the forest.
It was remarkable, really—every creature that took a hit from something as small and frail-looking as Needle simply collapsed.
After spending a few days with me, Selena had grasped my temperament well enough that her irritating pretense had begun to fade.
Not entirely, though—her courtesy had diminished by half, the gap filled by an equal measure of bluntness.
Ironically, this version of her was preferable to when she’d been feigning coyness to seduce me.
‘An assassin from Mangot, then.’
Selena had been sent from Mangot, and with Haglini as her superior, there was no reason to let my guard down.
Yet the mission itself—to escort me—seemed genuine enough.
Not to protect me, precisely, but to protect my Ancient Language Interpretation ability. During all my time in this game, I’d never encountered another human possessing such a skill, no matter how thoroughly I’d searched across continents.
In other words, Frontdier’s ability had no replacement, at least not in this era. Of course it had to be guarded. This mission likely outranked even Selena’s own life.
“The forest.”
Selena spoke.
A neat path stretched through the forest, as though inviting visitors inside.
“Right.”
I urged Cassian forward and we stepped through the entrance.
* * *
The moment we entered the forest, the monsters vanished as if they’d never been.
Within, a fresh, crystalline energy hung in the air.
“…I don’t sense any Demonic Aura at all. Are you certain there’s a monster commander here?”
“There is. Though ‘commander’ might be imprecise.”
“Sir?”
In truth, I’d been searching for the Lake rather than the creature controlling the monsters.
If I found the Lake before him, I could avoid the tedious work altogether.
But of course, he’d have considered that too.
[Do stop there.]
He emerged, speaking with meticulous courtesy.
I brought Cassian to a halt, and the ground before us convulsed upward.
The earth that had surged skyward subsided, leaving a figure behind. The creature that revealed itself seemed truly a part of this forest itself.
Except for that, his appearance was utterly unremarkable—that of an ordinary old man dressed in a long robe, the sort of white-haired elder you might find anywhere across the continent.
“…Is that man truly the monster commander?”
“He is.”
Selena’s gaze remained fixed on the old man, dissatisfaction plain on her face. More than his appearance, she seemed unable to reconcile the holy aura radiating from him.
I dismounted from Cassian. A verdant forest, warm sunlight streaming down, and before us an old man emanating sacred power.
It was the sort of scene that belonged in a fairy tale.
Which made sense, I suppose.
“A pleasure to meet you. This is our first encounter. I am Frontdier.”
[…I see. Frontdier. A name hardly worth revealing to someone as insignificant as an old man like myself.]
“Merlin.”
[…!]
His name was Merlin.
The great sorcerer from the Arthurian legends—prophet, sage, teacher and counselor to King Arthur.
And here, in the game Aethius, Merlin was a Druid.

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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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