The Academy’s Weapon Replicator

The gathering place of Satan's devils was a deserted, abandoned village southwest of the mansion where Aster had met Bart. It was the innermost location among those Bart had designated.

This place bore the scars of the war against monsters from long ago.

Many residents had died or fled when monsters attacked the village, and it remained a dangerous zone ever since, a ghost town that citizens of the Empire avoided.

Unlike the devils of the Empire, Satan's devils only needed a place to gather away from human eyes, so a proper dwelling wasn't necessary.

They exploited the expectation that they would gather in a decent mansion like the Empire's devils, and so far, it had worked well.

Of course, that meant it wasn't a suitable place for a long stay, and naturally, the same went for the hostage.

"...This is embarrassing."

Lunia muttered to herself like a complaint, confined within a room. Her hands were bound with magic-suppressing cuffs in the form of bracelets.

These cuffs were fastened tightly around the wearer's wrists, making them impossible to remove with one's own strength.

Of course, if pure physical strength exceeding the cuffs' durability were applied, it might be possible, but that was an absurd assumption for Lunia.

However, since the cuffs weren't connected like handcuffs, Lunia had free limbs except for the inability to use magic.

It was decent treatment, considering it was done by devils. Lunia experimentally kicked the door of the confined room, but it was futile. The entire room was reinforced with magic.

'They lock me up in this shabby abandoned house, but they've done everything they need to.'

She was experiencing the worst feeling since entering Constel.

The sudden attack of devils on Constel.

While others managed to cope somehow, Lunia's situation wasn't good. Above all, it was a matter of compatibility.

The more one was influenced by Frondier, the more they resembled Frondier's habit of 'trying to solve things alone.'

Whether that was a good thing or not was another matter, but most of those who tried to follow Frondier also practiced preparing for all kinds of situations.

That was a separate issue from the training and classes conducted at Constel.

'The fact that I'm the only one here means I'm the only one taken hostage, right?'

Unlike them, Lunia wasn't particularly interested in Frondier. Rather, the person she was interested in was Aster.

As Aster grew as a swordsman, Lunia grew as a magician.

Even among magicians, Aten, who spread the domain of ice to compensate for her lacking physical abilities, and Elodie, who could exert sufficient power with fast and simple ritual magic, were different. Lunia was just a 'pure magician.' Ｒ

The higher her ability as a magician, the more essential it was for Lunia to have a vanguard to protect her.

The devils targeted situations where the students they wanted from Constel were separated, and that's why Lunia was at the greatest disadvantage.

Of course, from Lunia's perspective, such words wouldn't be convincing.

"Ah, this is embarrassing. Embarrassing! Everyone else handled it well, but I'm stuck like this!"

Lunia paced around the room, her voice echoing with each step as the old floor creaked.

"Hey! Be quiet!"

The devil guarding Lunia from outside the room shouted. Lunia glared at him through the small gap in the door.

"Give me water!"

"...Huh?"

"Give me water! I'm thirsty!"

A considerable amount of time had passed since Lunia had been tied up here.

Of course, that didn't mean she was suffering from hunger or thirst. She hadn't eaten, but she wasn't hungry yet, and the devils provided water when the time came.

Lunia drank the water the devils gave her without any suspicion. Of course, it wasn't because she was careless, but because she had a near-certain thought.

"You bitch, don't you understand the situation you're in?"

The devil's eyes flashed with murderous intent.

Lunia's response was immediate, without a moment's hesitation.

"Shut up! Just give me water!"

It was a threat that wouldn't work on her.

'I'm the only hostage anyway. If several people had been captured, it might be different, but if they went to such lengths to capture just me, they can't treat a valuable hostage carelessly.'

Moreover, from what Lunia had observed, these devils didn't know much about humans.

How different they were, how much water they needed to drink, whether they ate the same things, whether they were vulnerable to illness or fatigue.

It was evidence that they hadn't encountered humans for long.

If Lunia were to come to harm, even by accident, Satan's devils would lose their only bargaining chip.

The Constel abduction operation had already deviated significantly from their expectations, resulting in considerable losses. As a result, they had no choice but to treat Lunia with care.

So, the choice Lunia could make now was simple.

To conserve as much stamina as possible. She still had no clue what these guys were trying to do with her, but if she couldn't use her strength when the crucial moment came, then there would be no excuse.

"Water!! Quickly!!!"

"Ah, alright! Humans drink water like hippos."

Soon, the devil at the door shoved a water bottle into the room through the small gap. Lunia took it.

Of course, she wasn't thirsty.

'Even if I can't use mana, there are things a magician can do.'

First, Lunia turned her back and drank the water. The devil could see her at any time, and the blind spot in his vision was too narrow.

First, she hid the water bottle with her body and spilled a little as she drank. The water she lightly caught with her hand flowed down, making almost no sound when it reached the ground.

Occasionally, the sound of water droplets could be heard, but it wasn't strange since Lunia was drinking water anyway.

Drip, drip. Once enough water had flowed onto the floor, Lunia closed the water bottle and placed it next to the door.

Even if the devil could look around inside, he couldn't see the water bottle placed right under the door.

The water bottle the devil carelessly handed over still contained the water Lunia hadn't finished drinking.

Thump, thump.

Lunia paced around irritably, as she had been doing.

Annoying, depressing, embarrassing, and so on. She grumbled to herself, ignoring whatever the devil said.

The water trampled by her shoes was erased by her voice, absorbed deeply into the ground, and tap, tap, as Lunia tapped the ground with her shoe heels, it was etched even deeper.

'...This completes the pillar.'

Lunia was currently engraving a mark.

She had a natural talent for mana manipulation. Being able to perform more delicate manipulations than others allowed her to handle more complex and difficult rituals, and naturally, she was relatively free with higher-difficulty magic compared to others.

In other words, she was far ahead of others in her ability to complete rituals and magic.

This ability was particularly well-suited for runes. Even if the rune was drawn somewhat incorrectly or symbols were omitted, as long as it was perfectly formed in Lunia's mind, she could activate the rune while 'correcting' it.

'What is dropped is a dot, what is drawn is a line, what is tapped is a symbol.'

Right now, without any mana, there were just countless faint marks on the floor. It was simply covered in meaningless traces.

However, within her seemingly aimless footsteps, she had already engraved a rune.

A rune that could be activated with even a single ounce of mana.

None of the lines, dots, or symbols were properly drawn, and Lunia had never activated such a messy rune before, but...

The structure and components of the rune were already in place.

'Everyone has grown tremendously in that short period of time.'

And above all,

'There's nothing I can't do either.'

Her pride had been deeply wounded.

* * *

When Aster arrived at the abandoned village where Lunia was captured...

"...I see."

Aster felt a strong conviction as soon as he arrived. It wasn't just Aster. All his companions felt the same way.

Satan's devils were somewhere here. Lunia was being held captive.

"They're somewhere in this abandoned village."

"They might not be staying in just one house. This place has been abandoned for a long time, so there are hardly any people who know the layout of the village."

Even though it was abandoned, it was still a village. It had its own size.

"If possible, it would be good if Selena could approach before they know we're here."

Aster said, looking around. He was looking for an easy infiltration route.

Selena also narrowed her eyes slightly and surveyed the entire village.

And before Aster could say anything else,

"Then I'll go first."

"Huh? Are you sure?"

"Yes. I have good eyesight. And good senses."

It wasn't just good; in fact, before Frondier gained his 'sixth sense,' Selena's senses were the most outstanding among his companions.

Even now, she was the undisputed number one when it came to the five senses. She could even detect the weight of a single needle.

Selena, who had been trained and raised as an assassin. This kind of experience was something Aster couldn't possibly catch up to.

"Then I'll leave it to you."

Aster readily entrusted the task to Selena because he knew that.

Aster and Frondier were at opposite extremes when it came to trust.

One who tended to trust and one who tended to doubt. This was the fundamental difference in their approaches.

Even after they had come to understand each other, the reason Aster moved with others while Frondier acted alone was ultimately due to the unavoidable difference in their personalities.

Selena went in first. They agreed that she would give a signal when the time came.

In the meantime, Aster and the others held their breath and checked the situation once more.

"Since Frondier defeated the leader of these devils, the devils here must have noticed something strange."

"They probably don't know exactly what's going on."

The only information the devils probably had right now was that 'Marco hasn't returned by the appointed time' and 'Marco is out of contact.'

It was certainly an unsettling situation for them, but they couldn't do anything about Lunia either. They probably thought someone had gone to the place where Marco was supposed to meet Frondier.

"The devils' plan had more flaws than we thought."

Elodie said.

Looking at it this way, they had relied almost entirely on Marco. Originally, it was he who was supposed to kidnap Aten, negotiate with Frondier, and bring him back.

"Hmm, I think it was flawless in theory."

But Sybil tilted her head and said.

"Huh? Why?"

"They wouldn't have considered the possibility of 'not hearing back from Marco.'"

Elodie tilted her head at those words, then realized.

"...That's right. He was an immortal devil."

Aten nodded in agreement.

"We don't know if he was truly immortal, but he had incredible regenerative abilities. Even if they weren't sure that Marco was stronger than Mr. Frondier, they would have believed that he would contact them immediately if something went wrong. He didn't hesitate to cut off his own body parts, so it was difficult to restrain him. And even if he was restrained, he could still convey some information as long as he had a magical trigger set."

Marco regenerated even if his head was blown off or he was cut into pieces.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

If he's an immortal demon, he typically wouldn't faint.

In reality, Marco is more insensitive to pain than others. He probably has never fainted even once. So, he doesn't prepare for such things.

"......I didn't ask because no one would know, and I was too scared to ask."

Aster, who had been quietly listening, opened his mouth.

"Frondier, what did he do to that demon?"

"......"

"......"

Of course, everyone was silent, as there was no way they could know.

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