The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 93

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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 Chapter 93
Chapter 26: The Sacred Forest (5)
[……It can’t be.]
A grim voice cut through the air.
That rough, murky tone spilled from Merlin’s lips.
[You cannot take that sword!]
[Wait, please, Merlin!]
Ignoring Nimue’s protest, Merlin lunged at me. His face was that of Asura.
I rolled to the side and rose, drawing Excalibur.
As though stripped of reason, Merlin sent every nearby branch hurtling toward me—a scale and ferocity utterly different from before.
Against Merlin’s savage onslaught, I
“I won’t give it up.”
unraveled the Weaving of Excalibur.
Crash-crash-crash!
Merlin’s branches pierced through me and buried themselves in the earth. Selena’s eyes widened beside me.
[This…….]
Merlin faltered, uncharacteristically shaken. He hadn’t truly meant to kill me.
Yet, contrary to that intention, I did not fall. Not a scratch marked my body.
“It doesn’t work.”
I am untouched by Merlin’s branches.
Because in my eyes, Merlin’s “dream” registers as nothing but an illusion.
[How is this…….]
“I can see it. What I create is also illusion. The trees you’ve made, the beasts, and.”
I looked at Nimue. My gaze a warning.
“Excalibur itself.”
[……!]
Nimue’s eyes snapped wide at my words.
[What do you mean by that?]
Merlin’s voice fell lower as he spoke.
“……Merlin.”
I fell silent for a moment. The weight of what I was about to say muddied my chest.
“Whom do you guard the Lake for?”
[What are you saying?]
“The sword sleeping within the Lake—whom do you protect it for?”
Merlin regarded me, his weathered eyes blinking.
As though I’d asked something obvious, he answered.
[For King Arthur. I wait for his arrival.]
“What?”
The voice came from Selena. She couldn’t fathom Merlin’s answer.
I closed my eyes, then opened them.
“Merlin.”
And I spoke.
“King Arthur is dead.”
* * *
Merlin—Great Mage, Sage, and Seer.
He received a Prophecy.
One day, King Arthur would need a second sword.
When that time came, he must wait to deliver it to him.
Yet Merlin himself did not know how long he could endure. If Arthur arrived when he was already gone—if there was no one left to guard the Lake.
And so Merlin carved his “dream” into the Lake.
So that even in death, the promise could be fulfilled.
So that he might become the final sword to uphold the King’s back, and guard the Lake.
“The being created from that dream—that is you.”
I told Merlin this.
The Merlin before my eyes is but a single consciousness that the ancient Great Mage Merlin embedded within his “dream.”
……In other words, an illusion. Merely believing himself to be Merlin.
[……Ha.]
Merlin gave a hollow laugh.
[I thought I commanded dreams. To think I myself am illusion.]
[Merlin. Don’t listen. It’s a deception meant to confuse you. This is nonsense, isn’t it? Have you forgotten your covenant with King Arthur?]
Nimue spoke up quickly.
I approached Merlin. Meanwhile, Nimue continued talking earnestly about something.
“Why don’t you try it? Touch me and see for yourself.”
Now I could perceive Merlin as a complete illusion.
Another person might have been able to touch him without difficulty, but not I.
[…….]
Merlin moved his hand in silence.
He swept downward to touch the hand I extended toward him.
Whoosh—
Merlin’s hand simply passed through me.
Like a ghost, truly.
“…….”
Everyone who witnessed it fell silent. Even Nimue, who had been chattering eagerly beside me, closed her mouth.
I looked at Nimue.
“Nimue. You mean the sword lodged at the bottom of The Lake.”
She caught her breath, looking at me with a start.
“You said it yourself: ‘The sword cannot be drawn. Not by anyone.'”
[That is, of course, excluding King Arthur—]
“In an age without King Arthur, then whom are you waiting for?”
Nimue bit her lip at my counterargument. She tried to speak with those trembling lips, but stopped herself. Over and over.
Selena, who had been watching, opened her mouth.
“Then the sword embedded in that lake is, ultimately……?”
“Fake. Two legends have merged together.”
The Lake is real.
Or rather, the only thing that truly exists in this place is The Lake.
The sword that King Arthur drew from the stone and the sword given by the Lady of The Lake are certainly different.
Though both are called ‘Excalibur,’ that is merely what they are named.
[……all of it.]
Then Merlin’s tightly closed lips opened.
[Do you know it all? Everything.]
“Well, roughly speaking.”
[Then tell me everything. The truth.]
Merlin remained composed even as he heard himself called a “fake.”
A true Archmage indeed. Even the Merlin born from within him maintained wisdom and an observing stance.
I took a breath and began my account.
My audience was Selena. It would have been far too heavy a burden to speak directly to Merlin.
“This place is a dream that Merlin created, but it probably wouldn’t have grown so vast originally. Back then, there was a proper forest here, and it was part of the human realm.”
But when time passes—enough to be called an “age”—circumstances change.
The human realm shrinks, the power of monsters grows, and Merlin expands his dream to protect The Lake.
“The trees in this forest, the flora and fauna—all of it is excessively beautiful and lovely. Yet not a single thing among them exists in reality. As time passes, even dreams change. These are the traces of ’embellishment.'”
Monsters don’t enter this forest. Or rather, they have no reason to.
Monsters are living creatures that need to eat and survive, but eating anything here means nothing to them. Besides, Merlin drives them out himself.
“Monsters don’t enter, the forest remains a forest, and all that needs to happen now is wait for King Arthur to come someday, and everything is resolved. But there was one problem.”
“What was it?”
“Merlin doesn’t have Excalibur.”
“……!”
In the King Arthur legend, Merlin’s role was never to give Excalibur. He was King Arthur’s companion and advisor, a beacon lighting his path.
Selena asked again.
“Then why did the Merlin of old design this ‘dream’? How could he hand over a sword he doesn’t possess?”
“……He trusted Nimue. Because she was the one holding Excalibur.”
In life, Merlin designed this dream trusting in Nimue. He meant to repel others who would invade The Lake before King Arthur arrived, and should King Arthur have died, to select someone worthy of Excalibur.
“But Nimue lied. ‘The sword lies embedded at the bottom of The Lake. Only those with the proper qualifications will obtain it.’ Something along those lines, no doubt.”
[Y-you! If you don’t stop……!]
Slash!
I fired a spear forged from Weaving into empty air. It grazed past Nimue’s side.
“Stay quiet. I already know you’re ‘real.’ You couldn’t have thought you’d be able to hide it forever, could you?”
I spoke as if threatening, but of course I had no intention of truly killing Nimue. Witch or not, she was a necessary witch.
“In any case, Merlin believed her. Because Merlin, the owner of the dream, believed that lie, a real sword was born at the bottom of The Lake. At least within this forest, the Excalibur in The Lake is ‘genuine.’ Though it can’t be drawn, of course.”
“……But the real Excalibur is the one Nimue possesses.”
“That’s right. Even now.”
Hearing our conversation, Nimue stepped back, retreating across the Lake until she stood at a distance, ready for combat.
[Wait, you. If you’re thinking of taking Excalibur, absolutely not—]
“I’m not taking it.”
I answered without hesitation. Nimue made a foolish sound, as if to say, what?
“You saw it yourself. I already have it.”
With that, I Wove Excalibur once more. Then I cancelled it immediately.
I feigned composure, but mana was my concern.
“Merlin cannot leave this forest. He’s an existence within a dream. But Nimue is not. As a fairy, she understands how the world has changed. Yet she never told Merlin. She kept insisting that King Arthur is still alive and will come here someday.”
Here, Merlin is merely a personality created to guard the Lake. Because of that, his thoughts aren’t as complete as a human’s.
Just as nothing within a dream is questioned when we exist in that dream.
The Merlin of the dream questions nothing, so long as he remains within the forest.
“And she sent monsters to attack Teabern.”
“What? Nimue did?”
“Yes. Or rather, it’s not so much that she attacked Teabern as it is that she adjusted the timing of monsters that would have attacked anyway.”
Whether Nimue existed or not, the monsters outside were always going to invade Teabern—it was inevitable.
But the recent frequent small-scale attacks that hindered the Barrier’s repair, and the full assault that exploited the moment when the Barrier was weakest—those were orchestrated by Nimue.
She didn’t need to become the monsters’ ally or claim a leadership position. By using magic to leak useful information to the monsters, the intelligent ones from outside would move of their own accord.
“Why? Why would she do such a thing?”
“Because the Barrier is visible from the forest.”
“Does that matter?”
“Then Merlin finds it strange. ‘Why is the human realm repaired this far, yet King Arthur does not come?'”
“……Ah.”
To prevent that, Nimue attacked Teabern.
So that the human realm would not advance further north. So that a lie could take hold: ‘King Arthur cannot come to the forest because we are too busy holding back the outside monsters.’
……In the game, Nimue’s actions eventually spiral into disaster—the monsters breach the Barrier and swallow Teabern whole.
Of course, Nimue never intended it to go that far, but the players’ rage when they learned the truth was absolutely enormous.
“So, in truth, only the Lake and Nimue, called the Lady of the Lake, truly exist. Everything else was created by Merlin and grown into illusion by Nimue’s deception.”
I laid out the truth that way, then looked at Merlin.
“This is the reality.”
Merlin showed no reaction after hearing those words.
But a moment later, he lifted those aged eyes and swept his gaze across empty space with eyes that had grown even more transparent.
[Is that so.]
That was all.
Though he had lived long ages stripped of existence and meaning, even after learning all the truth, Merlin remained serene.
“……Let’s go, Selena.”
“What? Just like this?”
“We have nothing left to do here. More than that, time is pressing. This is a dream, so time flows a little slower, but the danger is the same.”
Even now, the Barrier would be bleeding under the monsters’ onslaught.
Even if Nimue broke contact with the monsters, they wouldn’t abandon their strategy so much as they’d simply keep swarming forward.
At least this assault had to be stopped.
I climbed onto Cassian’s back. Selena glanced back and forth between Merlin and Nimue before mounting behind me.
“Go, Cassian.”
Cassian moved without delay, and as we rode, I glanced back.
The figures of Merlin and Nimue growing distant were like a frozen frame.

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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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