The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 207

Chapter 68 Reaction (4)

Frondier sat in the passenger seat and Ajie drove the car himself.

“…Don’t you use a driver?”

Frondier remembered Ampere’s driver and asked: It seemed awkward to be driven by someone other than the driver, as he often only rode in Ampere or Fili’s vehicles.

“I hired one person before.”

Ajie spoke while skillfully moving the steering wheel.

“But he died.”

“…That can’t be right.”

“He died in the line of duty. It’s because I was careless. “Since then, we have not hired any drivers.”

Hearing those words, Frondier recalled the time he had previously ridden in Philly’s vehicle.

The driver, who was being controlled by the ‘business card’ at the time, crashed the car into the guardrail. At that time, not only Frontier but also Philly was in danger.

In a prestigious family or imperial family, the driver is in a vulnerable position. So, usually in a prestigious family, they don’t choose just anyone as a driver, but it would be difficult to follow the duties of someone of Ajie’s level.

Ajie’s expression did not show much emotion when talking about the death of his former driver.

I couldn’t even tell if it was controlling my emotions or not actually feeling any emotions.

Perhaps Atjie feels more responsibility for not being able to protect the driver than sadness for the driver. Because he is that kind of person.

“Where are we going now?”

“We are going to the headquarters of Phenomenon, one of the professional organizations. It’s easy for the imperial family to get involved in useless politics, and while Constell is already distracted, rumors could spread even further. This is not something students will listen to. “The professional headquarters is appropriate because it has enough space to accommodate the personnel.”

After graduating, most of Constell’s students go on to become professionals.

Naturally, it is impossible to manage so many people in one place, so there are many organizations where professionals gather, and even now, they appear and disappear like mushrooms.

Those who are united in their desire to exterminate the monsters outside and expand their reach into the human realm are an important force on the continent other than knights and police.

If the police resolve disputes between people and the knight protects the lord and the land, then the professional literally protects humans from things other than humans.

In other words, the involvement of a professional in this mana injection incident can be inferred as the involvement of a ‘monster’.

“Has a monster intervened? “In this case?”

Frondier said in a tense tone. Atjie quieted his eyes for a moment at the question.

“Based on the research so far, it is highly likely that the opposite is true.”

“the opposite…?”

“The Frontier Mana Injection incident is as simple as the name suggests. The story is that someone received a mana injection and their mana is amplified. Then a simple problem arises. “Where on earth do you get the mana from?”

“…Then what about the monster’s mana?”

“That is one possibility, but it is not realistic. What is more likely is that Professional and the Imperial Family speculate that the human side joined hands with monsters.”

Atjie had a rare thing to say to Frondier. This was to convey as much of the current situation and information to Frontier as possible.

“Does holding hands mean that monsters are helping humans in addition to mana?”

“Humans’ pursuit of mana has been around for a very long time. Because that means stronger power. Humans tried to obtain mana by any means possible, such as through sacrifices, prayers to the witch god, and astrology. “Was this the first time you had the simple and ignorant idea of putting someone else’s mana into your own body?”

That can’t be possible.

This is the first thing anyone who wants mana would do.

However, the reason why such cases have not occurred so far is clear.

“…It’s a rejection.”

“yes. When humans inject another person’s mana into their bodies, they experience a tremendous rejection reaction. If you remove the area as soon as it is put in, your life may be saved, but if the blood circulates around the body, it usually leads to death. Even if you do well, you will end up in ruins. Even if you put in the mana of a human, you get a rejection reaction, so the idea of putting in the mana of a monster is too dangerous. “It makes more sense to adjust the mana of the same person.”

“Then what kind of help are the monsters providing?”

“To develop a mana injection without side effects, of course we need test subjects. A test subject who will continue to receive mana injections ‘until the side effects disappear.’”

“…I guess they used humans.”

“okay.”

It was a creepy story. Atjie answered calmly.

“And the problem starts from there. “It was from there that we inferred a connection with monsters.”

“problem…?”

“If you have seen it yourself, you would know that people who have received mana injections show visible symptoms, but they are not serious enough to cause death. In other words, we can say that we have eliminated a lot of rejection reactions. “A significant amount of test subjects would have been used to refine mana to that level.”

Jacob I saw at the department store.

He is currently still unconscious after Frontier hit him on the back of the head, but his life is not in danger. In fact, Frondier hit him so hard that he is considered unconscious.

In other words, it should be seen that rejection is almost no longer a threat to one’s life.

“But.”

Atjie said.

“It’s not noticeable.”

“yes?”

“We keep hearing reports about mana injection incidents. However, despite the use of such a large number of test subjects, there was little increase in missing or death reports. Most of those used as test subjects were probably orphans from the poor class who had no relatives or family. But how do they bring him in without being discovered in the first place, and what do they do with the body after he dies?”

“…is that a monster?”

Atjie nodded to Frondier’s guess.

“I ate it.”

“…!”

“Usually, monsters are better at kidnapping people than humans. Constell’s students often imagine mythical monsters as monsters, but most monsters are much more sinister than that. “It was the same with last year’s incident, and it’s the same this time as well.”

“…those two-legged wolves may have intervened.”

“yes. ‘A real group of external monsters that have not been eliminated’. A human hands over a list of people who will not be detected even if they disappear, and the monster kidnaps the human based on that information. “Wolves may have eaten the discarded corpses after the experiment, and depending on the situation, humans may have offered appropriate compensation to the monsters.”

Frondier nodded at Ajie’s words.

I understood why Constel could not be a meeting place. It’s definitely not something kids would listen to.

“…If you think about it that way, me too.”

“You are an exception. Frontier.”

There was a brief protest that was lightly ignored.

* * *

Frondier, Azier, and Fili entered Phenomenon’s headquarters, escorted by the imperial knights.

At the empress’s entrance, everyone in the headquarters knelt down to greet Fili.

“We at Phenomenon are honored to be able to welcome Her Majesty the Empress.”

and.

Seeing the man approaching Fili, Frondier closed his eyes for a moment.

“Greetings as the representative of Eden Hamelot Phenomenon.”

Eden was standing in front of Fili.

He looked the same as a year ago and welcomed Philly with a normal face and a normal voice.

“I told you this when I came, right? “Kneeling is prohibited.”

“But it is true that it is easier said than done.”

“It won’t work if everyone I meet kneels before me.”

Fili took a deep breath. Her eyes sank deeply.

“Everyone at headquarters, please listen.”

The voice was not high or loud, but it was a voice that resonated throughout the building.

It was a manifestation of an auror.

“From now on, you are prohibited from kneeling in front of me, Fili. Anyone who violates this will be severely punished. The deadline for this order is one week. “Please count the days of the week.”

Eden looked at that with admiration.

“I was surprised. “Your Majesty was able to use it even as an Auror.”

“Well, it’s just about raising your voice loudly.”

Fili shrugged. Eden shook his head, knowing that it was not easy.

“You are so wonderful. “Now, please eat inside.”

Eden led Fili into the conference room. They were followed by Atjie and Frondier.

Eden gave a light greeting to Ajie, who was coming from behind, and then made eye contact with Frondier.

“…uh! Frontier!”

Eden was surprised to see Frondier’s face and smiled widely.

“Yes, the first year student who stopped Renzo from running away! Frontier de Roach! “It’s nice to meet you. I was indebted to you a lot back then.”

Frondier chuckled. He slightly lowered his head with that small smile.

“I’m honored that you remember.”

Ajie, who was walking away, glanced at those words.

“Stop Renzo’s rampage? “Frondier, what on earth is that?”

Eden hurriedly said in response to Ajie’s question.

“Oh no. Frondier discovered Renzo’s intrusion into Constell and reported it to us. “Thanks to you, I was able to prevent something big from happening.”

Eden recited the false truth that Frontier had told others at the time. Atjie looked at Frondier for a moment as if he were skeptical and then walked away.

As Ajie walked away a little, Eden sighed and whispered.

“I’m sorry, I almost got into big trouble.”

“it’s okay.”

Now Frontier’s answer was literal.

This meant that it was okay for Ajie to be caught.

However, Eden simply accepted it as a formal answer and smiled mischievously.

“You have a lot of secrets too, Frontier.”

At those words, Frondier did his best to maintain a poker face.

“──That’s right.”

I answered Eden with my perfect everyday face and voice.

* * *

In the conference room, people were already gathered and talking about their own stories.

There have been eyewitness reports of mana injection in so many different regions, so everyone has different information.

The process of gathering and discarding this information alone will take a considerable amount of time.

When they saw Fili’s face, they were about to kneel in surprise, but then remembered Fili’s voice a while ago and bowed lightly. Fili smiled and nodded in satisfaction.

“The first priority is the synthesis of information.”

“It’s difficult not to have any reports, but too much information can also make your head hurt.”

Fili muttered in a sighing voice in response to Eden’s words.

Meanwhile, Frondier briefly glanced at the materials spread out on the desk.

“…Eden.”

“huh?”

“Are the dots marked on that map a sighting report?”

“Oh yeah. Blue indicates a simple discovery, red indicates a case in which a victim was found, and yellow indicates a level of suspicion. Symptoms of mana injection include fever, rough breathing, and red eyes. “It is difficult to pinpoint this symptom because it can be caused by any number of factors in any human being.”

“…okay. “Does synthesis mean gathering all that information?”

“okay. “People who discover where sightings are particularly frequent and which sighting information is real or fake need to know where they were discovered and where they moved to be able to capture key points.”

Eden answered Frontier’s questions faithfully.

Actually, it was a bit strange that Frontier suddenly asked him this question, but it was also something to be curious about.

But.

“Then how can I check the north, south, east and west on that map?”

“Is the scale indicated?”

“Do all the materials posted here use the same type of map?”

Frontier asked all sorts of questions. To anyone looking at him, he looked like a person with a strange obsession with maps.

Eden answered everything. Of course, he was also puzzled by Frondier’s questions, but it seemed quicker to just answer them than to ask the reason.

──And Frontier.

“…okay.”

After answering all the questions, he answered calmly and held up the sighting maps piled up on his desk one by one.

It took less than a second to see it, and

Frontier repeated it indefinitely until the meeting began.