The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 94

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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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Weapon Replication User at the Academy — Episode 94
Chapter 26: Holy Forest (6)
After Frontdier left, a mist-like wind swept through the space where he had stood.
Merlin stood with his back to Nimue.
Nimue could not see Merlin’s expression. The uncertainty was unbearable.
[……Merlin.]
Nimue called to him, but Merlin did not answer.
He only tilted his head slightly. His profile emerged just enough for Nimue to catch a glimpse.
Yet his face remained shadowed by his hair, his expression still hidden from view.
[Nimue. Why did you deceive me?]
Merlin’s voice was flat, colorless—she could not tell if he was angry or disappointed.
Nimue’s mouth opened to deny it, then closed again. By now, Merlin knew everything. There was nothing left but to speak the truth.
[……It was you.]
Nimue’s honest words trembled with anxiety.
[I was afraid you would disappear.]
[…….]
Only then did Merlin turn to look at her.
Nimue spoke earnestly.
[If you learned that King Arthur was gone, I thought you would leave, having lost your purpose…….]
The Merlin who existed here was, after all, merely a guide meant to lead King Arthur.
Without King Arthur, his reason for existing was also gone.
Merlin’s creased eyes sank deeper still. Nimue swallowed hard. She could not guess what he might say.
[I see.]
Merlin spoke only those words.
Then he turned his back to her once more and walked away.
Step by step, slowly and steadily.
Nimue watched the sight unfold, numb with shock.
The distance between her and Merlin grew. He showed no sign of stopping.
[……W-wait, Merlin!]
Only then did Nimue understand his intent, and she cried out urgently. Her lips trembled.
But Merlin did not stop. As though he could not hear her voice, his pace remained unchanged.
[I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Don’t go, please don’t go, Merlin!]
Even at Nimue’s desperate pleas,
Merlin walked on with an even stride until his form disappeared completely from sight.
* * *
I ran through the forest. Selena glanced back from time to time.
“Worried about those two?”
“……You don’t think Nimue’s going to get killed by Merlin, do you?”
Hah.
I laughed to myself.
Merlin couldn’t kill Nimue. Well, he could if he wanted to, but he wouldn’t do such a thing.
Whoosh—
Just then, the sound of branches rustling reached my ears.
A figure emerged before me. It was Merlin.
Like when we first met, he walked slowly out from behind a tree.
‘Hmm.’
Merlin showed no intent to attack me.
I brought Cassian to a halt and dismounted.
As I approached Merlin slowly, he spoke.
[Frontdier, would it be all right if I asked one last thing?]
“What is it?”
For some reason, I anticipated what Merlin would ask. And he asked exactly as I expected.
[Why could King Arthur not receive the second sword? Why did he not come to the Lake?]
Merlin is still here, and Nimue possesses Excalibur.
That means King Arthur did not receive the second sword.
This is the part where the King Arthur legend in this place differs most from the actual history.
“I don’t know either.”
Unfortunately, even the players haven’t uncovered this part of the mystery.
No matter how thoroughly I explored the world of the game, the King Arthur legend remained in the realm of “history”—the players could never travel to the past.
[I see.]
Merlin nodded. He didn’t seem disappointed. After all, it made no sense that I, living in this present age, would know such things. In truth, that I knew even this much would strike Merlin as remarkable.
[What should I do?]
This time, it was quite a difficult question. There was something in that tone—a hint of a sigh threaded through it—that made it the most emotional I’d ever heard Merlin speak.
I asked him.
“Are you asking about Nimue?”
[Yes.]
“Do you resent her?”
Merlin listened to my question, then lifted his head as if to examine his own heart.
[I’m not even sure of that myself. Am I right to resent her?]
He didn’t know.
Even as Merlin said he didn’t know, I found that answer to be the truest thing a sage like him could say.
“What I can tell you is,”
So I offered them both words that might help, at least a little.
It was probably something they already knew, but Merlin needed certainty.
“Without Nimue, you would have died long ago.”
“……?”
Selena tilted her head beside me, confused.
“You said it yourself. How could a human maintain an Illusory World for so long?”
“Ah, that’s what you mean.”
Yes.
Merlin may have created the dream in the beginning.
But it was the fairy Nimue’s power that had sustained it to this day.
[Indeed.]
Merlin knew. Nimue had spent all her Mana to maintain his dream.
To be with him. Even if it was nothing but illusion.
“Nimue could have unmade you at any time. She could have used that to blackmail you. But from what I can see, she hasn’t done either.”
In the end, I found myself defending Nimue. It couldn’t be helped. I too wanted Merlin to remain.
“And personally, I hope you stay here still.”
[Why? Your business here should be finished.]
I could replicate Excalibur now. By that measure alone, my purpose in coming here was accomplished.
So my words weren’t for my own sake.
“Someone will come looking for this place someday.”
I told Merlin about Aster Evans.
“That man is far more worthy of Excalibur than someone like me. He has the stature to bear it.”
[Are you saying I should give him the sword?]
“Judge for yourself when you meet him.”
[So I’m to see who he is and decide?]
I smiled.
[That too, you’ll understand once you see him.]
What I possess is King Arthur’s first sword. What Nimue holds now is the second.
I wanted to know how the two swords differ to the eye, but there would be a day when Aster and I crossed blades—perhaps not today, but someday.
[You might be able to tell, come to think of it.]
“Tell? What do you mean?”
Merlin spoke suddenly. What followed was something I hadn’t anticipated at all.
[King Arthur once gave me a passage like this.]
He swept his hand once, and an inscription appeared on the ground between Merlin and me.
[I couldn’t understand it even when I looked at it, so I simply kept the image in my memory.]
A line of text inscribed slowly. The moment its form was complete, my eyes widened.
[Can you read it, by any chance?]
“…….”
I stared hard at the inscription. My face was beyond my control.
The text was written in the Ancient Language. I don’t know how King Arthur came to know this passage or why he gave it to Merlin, but it was undoubtedly Ancient Language.
That fact alone was astonishing, but what made my heart race was the content.
The passage Merlin had shown me was only one line.
—For the Giant who shall bring down God.
……That was what it said.
* * *
Nimue stood watching the direction Merlin had left.
It felt as though if she turned away for even a moment, Merlin would never return.
She didn’t know if standing like this would bring him back, but still.
Merlin waited for King Arthur by the Lake. And she, too, could only wait for Merlin by this same water.
[……Ah.]
And from a distance, Merlin approached slowly.
[Why, Merlin.]
[Nimue.]
Merlin looked straight at Nimue.
That unwavering gaze was almost too much for Nimue to meet, yet she forced herself to hold his eyes.
[I’m sorry. For deceiving you.]
[Nimue. I have something to ask. Will you answer me truthfully?]
Merlin asked. Nimue nodded deeply.
[I understand. I won’t deceive you again, ever.]
[Good, then.]
Merlin fell silent for a moment, studying Nimue’s eyes—piercing through them as if to see what lay beneath.
[Can you kill me whenever you wish?]
That was what he asked. Nimue’s lips parted in shock, then she caught herself and bit them shut.
[What do you mean—I won’t lie to you, but still.]
[I’ve been told that my continued existence is thanks to you. If you cut off your Mana, I would simply cease to be. Isn’t that so?]
Merlin’s expression remained unreadable. Nimue’s fists clenched, her whole body trembling. She resented her own lips for the promise she’d just made not to lie.
[……Yes.]
Nimue kept her word.
[The original Merlin’s Mana that designed this dream was exhausted long ago. What sustains this forest and you now is my Mana. I’m a fairy, and the Lake alone provides me enough to sustain it.]
Nimue hated saying such things.
It sounded like a threat—that she held his life and death in her hands. Such threats were useless against Merlin anyway, and Nimue didn’t want them to work in the first place.
That’s why she’d kept it hidden, but now it was pointless.
[Then I have a request.]
[……What is it.]
[Through this incident, I’ve felt my own ignorance and mistakes.]
Merlin smiled. The corners of his lined eyes softened slightly.
[When I make the wrong choice. When I walk the wrong path.]
It was a smile that seemed both self-mocking and relieved.
[Will you not kill me?]
[…….]
Nimue blinked, momentarily dazed by his words.
That Merlin was asking her to kill him—the words themselves didn’t register. She could never make such a choice.
And so, one clear truth alone struck her heart.
[……By my side.]
[Hmm?]
[Will you stay by my side?]
[…….]
[You won’t leave?]
What Merlin had said amounted to nothing less than that.
And that was all that filled Nimue’s mind now.
Merlin spoke.
[You have to watch me make my mistakes.]
He nodded.
[That’s right.]
Hearing that clear affirmation,
Nimue fumbled for words, then nodded.
[──I understand. I will do so. When you stumble, when you make mistakes, I will…….]
She didn’t finish the sentence.
But for Nimue, that answer was a lie she would never speak aloud again, and one she would keep unto the very end.
* * *
“──Selena.”
Frontdier’s voice turned sharp as he addressed her.
“What are you doing?”
A fine needle pressed against his throat.
Selena glared at him as if transformed. The needle in her grip trembled.
“A moment ago—what was that?”
“What do you mean?”
“That phrase just now—that was Ancient Language.”
Selena watched.
She saw something wrong in Frontdier’s face as he looked at the text Merlin had shown him.
Yet Frontdier said he didn’t know.
After parting with Merlin, even as he rode Cassian at full gallop, Frontdier remained silent.
‘I’m certain of it.’
Selena thought hard.
She couldn’t interpret the Ancient Language, but she knew what it looked like.
And the text Merlin had shown just moments ago bore a striking resemblance to the appearance of the Ancient Language.
“What was written there?”
“I couldn’t interpret it.”
“You’re lying.”
A needle dug into Frontdier’s neck. Blood seeped out and trickled down his throat.
Frontdier’s eyes turned cold.
“… Selena.”
“I was sent to Cape Horn because of your ability to interpret things.”
Selena shot him a look, her teeth clenched.
“Don’t delude yourself into thinking you matter.”

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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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