The Academy’s Weapon Replicator - Chapter 93

Academy’s Weapon Replicator Episode 93

Chapter 26 Sacred Forest (5)

[…No.]

Then a gloomy voice was heard.

That rough, muddy voice came from Merlin’s mouth.

[You can’t take that sword!]

[Now wait a minute, Lord Merlin!]

Ignoring Nimue’s dissuasion, Merlin rushed at me. It was Sura’s face.

I rolled to my side, got up, and picked up Excalibur.

As if he had lost his mind, Merlin raised up all the nearby tree branches and shot them at me. It was a completely different number than before and it was a fierce force.

I faced Merlin, who was approaching me with a ferocious force, and said,

“I won’t take it.”

Excalibur’s weave was undone.

Quad deud deuk!

Merlin’s branches went straight through me and into the ground. Selena’s eyes widened next to her.

[Oops…]

Merlin was uncharacteristically embarrassed. He had no intention of killing me.

However, I did not die as I thought. There were no injuries.

“It doesn’t work.”

I don’t get hurt by Merlin’s branches or anything.

Because in my eyes, Merlin’s ‘dream’ appears to be a clear illusion.

[How could this be…]

“I can see it with my eyes. Because what I create is also an illusion. “Draw the trees and wild animals you created.”

I saw Nimue. With a warning look.

“Even Excalibur.”

[…!]

Nimue’s eyes widened at my words.

[What does that mean?]

Merlin asked. It was a much lower tone.

“…Lord Merlin.”

I was silent for a moment. The moment I tried to tell this story, a confused feeling clouded my insides.

“For whom does Lord Merlin guard the lake?”

[What does that mean?]

“The sword sleeping in the lake, who are you guarding to deliver it to?”

Merlin looked at me and blinked his wrinkled eyes.

He spoke to me with a look on his face as if I was asking something obvious.

[That’s King Arthur. I am waiting for him to come.]

“Huh?”

It was Selena who made the sound. Merlin’s answer wouldn’t make sense to her.

I closed my eyes and opened them.

“Lord Merlin.”

And said.

“King Arthur is dead.”

* * *

Merlin was a great wizard, wise man, and prophet.

He received a prophecy.

There will come a time when King Arthur will need a ‘second sword’.

When that time comes, you have to wait for him so that you can hand him the sword.

However, Merlin doesn’t know how long he will live. What if he isn’t dead when Arthur comes to visit? If there is no one to guard the lake then.

That’s why Merlin carved his ‘dream’ into the lake.

To fulfill his promise even if he had to die.

To protect the lake, to become the last sword that supports the king’s back.

“You are the being created in that dream.”

I said to Merlin.

The Merlin before my eyes is a single personality installed in a ‘dream’ by Merlin, a former Grand Wizard.

…In other words, it is an illusion. I just believe that I am Merlin.

[…Huh.]

Merlin let out a laugh.

[I thought I was controlling dreams, but even I am an illusion.]

[Merlin. Don’t believe it. This is a ploy to confuse you. That’s nonsense, right? Sir Merlin, have you forgotten your promise to King Arthur?]

Nimue said quickly.

I approached Merlin. Meanwhile, Nimue was talking loudly about something.

“Would you like to try it? “Please touch me.”

Now I can recognize Merlin as a complete illusion.

If it were anyone else, Merlin would be able to touch it without a problem, but not me.

[….]

Merlin moved his hands without saying a word.

I stirred from top to bottom to touch the hand I held out for him.

Sigh –

Merlin’s hand just passed through me.

Literally like a ghost.

“….”

Everyone who watched the scene was speechless. Even Nimue, who had been talking loudly next to her, remained silent.

I saw Nimue.

“Mr. Nimue. “It’s the sword stuck at the bottom of the lake.”

“Tsk,” Nimue looked at me and gasped.

“You said it yourself. ‘The sword cannot be pulled out. ‘Nobody.’”

[That of course excludes King Arthur─]

“In this era without King Arthur, who are you waiting for?”

Nimue bit her lip at my rebuttal. I tried to say something with those trembling lips, but ended up saying nothing. That repetition.

Selena, who was watching, opened her mouth.

“Then the sword stuck in the lake ends up being…?”

“It’s fake. “The two traditions got mixed up.”

The lake is real.

In other words, the only thing that exists here is the lake.

The sword King Arthur pulls from the rock and the sword handed to him by the Lady of the Lake are clearly different.

Although they are both called ‘Excalibur’, that is just a nickname.

[…Everyone.]

At that time, Merlin’s tightly closed lips opened.

[Do you all know? You.]

“Well, roughly.”

[Then please tell me everything. The truth.]

Merlin remained calm even though he was told he was a ‘fake’.

Is he really a great wizard? Even Merlin, born within him, maintained an attitude of wisdom and contemplation.

I took a quick breath and started talking.

The target of the message was Selena. It was really too much of a burden to talk to Merlin.

“This is a dream that Merlin created, but it wasn’t supposed to grow this big originally. “At that time, there was a complete forest here and it must have been human territory.”

However, as time passes, called an ‘era’, the situation changes.

As the human realm shrinks and the power of monsters grows stronger, Merlin expands his dream to protect the lake.

“The trees, plants and animals in this forest are all extremely pretty and beautiful. But none of these things exist in reality. As time passes, dreams also change. “It’s a trace of ‘beautification.’”

Monsters do not enter this forest. Rather than not coming in, there is no reason to come in.

Monsters are also creatures that eat and live, but there is no point in eating the things here. Moreover, Merlin himself chased him out.

“Monsters won’t come in, the forest will remain a forest, and now all we have to do is wait for King Arthur to come here someday, and everything will be resolved. But there was one problem.”

“What is it?”

“That Merlin doesn’t have Excalibur.”

“…!”

In the Arthurian legend, Merlin was not originally given Excalibur. He is King Arthur’s companion and advisor, and is like a light that illuminates his path.

Selena asked again.

“Then why did Merlin of the past design the ‘dream’? “How can you hand over Excalibur if you don’t have it?”

“…I trusted Nimue. “Because she has Excalibur.”

During his lifetime, Merlin believed in Nimue and designed his dreams. To defeat others who invade the lake before King Arthur arrives and to select people suitable for Excalibur if King Arthur dies.

“But Nimue lied. ‘It’s stuck at the bottom of the black lake. Only those who are worthy will obtain that sword.’ “It must have been something like this.”

[It’s all you! If you don’t do it in moderation…!]

Hiss!

I fired a spear into the air. The spear grazed Nimue’s side.

“Just shut up. Because I already know that you are ‘real’. “I bet you never thought you could fake it forever, did you?”

I said it in a threatening tone, but of course I really have no intention of killing Nimue. Even though she is a witch, she is a necessary witch.

“Anyway, Merlin believed that. Merlin, the master of dreams, believed the lie, and a sword was truly born at the bottom of the lake. At least in this forest, the Excalibur in the lake is ‘real’. Of course, I can’t pull it out.”

“…But the real Excalibur belongs to Nimue.”

“okay. “Even now.”

Nimueh heard our conversation and walked away. It went backwards on the lake and stood in a fighting stance.

[It’s all you. If you plan on taking Excalibur, you will never—]

“I will not take it.”

I answered straight away. Nimue made a stupid noise.

“You saw it earlier. “I already got it.”

After saying that, I weaved Excalibur once again. And immediately canceled it.

I pretended to be calm, but I was worried about Mana.

“Merlin can’t leave this forest. Because it exists in a dream. But not in Nimue. As a fairy, she knows how the world has changed. But I didn’t tell Merlin. “King Arthur kept saying that he was still alive and that he would come here someday.”

Here, Merlin is a character created simply to protect the lake. Therefore, their thinking is not as perfect as that of humans.

Just as when we are in a dream we do not doubt anything about the dream.

In his dreams, Merlin does not suspect anything as long as he is in the forest.

“And then I ordered a monster to attack Tayvon.”

“yes? To Nimue?”

“okay. No, more accurately, rather than attacking Tayvon, I would say that we adjusted the timing of the monsters that were going to attack anyway.”

Regardless of whether Nimue is present or not, it is planned that monsters from outside will invade Tavern.

However, like the recent incident, there were frequent small-scale attacks that prevented the restoration of the wall, and Nimue instigated a general offensive that penetrated when the wall was at its weakest.

There is no need to be on the monster’s side or take on the position of leader. If you use magic to give useful information to monsters, the highly intelligent monsters outside will move on their own.

“Why why do you do that?”

“That’s right. “Because you can see the wall in the forest.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Then Merlin finds it strange. ‘Why has the human realm been restored so far, but King Arthur can’t come?’”

“…ah.”

To stop it, Nimue attacked Tayburn.

To prevent any more human territory from coming to the North. ‘King Arthur is unable to come to the forest because he is too busy trying to stop the monsters outside.’ So that this kind of lie can work.

…In the game, Nimue’s actions take a turn for the worst, causing the monsters to break through the barrier and swallow Tayvon.

Of course, Nimue didn’t intend to go that far, but the anger of gamers who found out the truth was enormous at the time.

“So the only thing that really exists in reality is the lake and Nimue, who is called the Lady of the Lake. “Everything other than this is an illusion created by Merlin and fostered by Nimue.”

After putting it all together, I looked at Merlin.

“This is the truth.”

There was no reaction from Merlin after hearing those words.

However, after a while, he lifted his old eyes and looked into the air with eyes that had become even more transparent.

[I see.]

That was all.

He had been living without existence and meaning for a long time, but even after learning the whole truth, Merlin remained calm.

“…Let’s go Selena.”

“yes? Like this?”

“There is nothing for us to do now. After all, I don’t have time. “This is a dream, so time passes a little slowly, but it’s still dangerous.”

Even now, the wall is probably bleeding from the monsters’ all-out attack.

Even if Nimue stops contacting the monsters, the monsters just don’t use their strategies, but they still flock to her.

At least this offensive must be stopped.

I climbed on Cassian’s back. Selena glanced at Merlin and Nimue, then got on the back of me.

“Let’s go Cassian.”

Cassian wasted no time in moving and I glanced behind me as I ran.

The sight of Merlin and Nimue moving away was like a frozen screen.