Chapter 47 of the Academy's Weapon Replicator

Chapter 12: The Traitor (1)

Aten quickly approached and checked on Frontier's condition.

Panic was only momentary.

She quickly calmed her mind.

Frontier appeared to be just unconscious.

However.

‘The pulse…’

When she checked the pulse, it was too faint.

So faint that she could barely feel it unless she focused all her senses.

The breathing was the same.

“I will check.”

A healer from the royal knight squad approached.

The healer extended her hand to assess Frontier's condition.

She was using mana to penetrate and examine the internal state of the body.

“…This is…”

The healer's eyes widened in disbelief.

Despair and fear clouded her eyes.

“What is the condition?”

“…All parts of the body are deficient.”

“Deficient, you say?”

“The internal organs, such as the heart, lungs, liver, and stomach, as well as bones, nerves, and muscles, are all lacking.”

Lacking.

Aten recalled the words of Renzo.

-Indeed, indeed! Doping! No matter what he did, it's unbelievable mana!

Doping.

That's what Renzo said.

Certainly, it was an unbelievable amount of mana.

How he did it, she didn't know.

But if this was the price, it was too cruel.

“What should we do then?”

“…”

“Can healing magic restore him?”

“…”

Despite Aten's question, the healer remained silent, looking troubled.

“Why aren't you saying anything?”

Aten's expression turned cold.

She was not one to panic.

In such times, she became even more composed.

“…Aten-sama. Healing is a means to recover from injuries. However, the only injury this person has is a bruise on the side. While it is serious, even if we heal this injury….”

“Even if we heal it?”

“…We cannot restore the deficient parts.”

Aten closed her eyes tightly at the healer's words.

When she opened them again, she looked at her mother, Filly.

“Then take Frontier to the hospital immediately, Mother.”

“…Aten.”

“Hurry. The surgery might be delayed.”

“Aten.”

“Hurry—”

Filly grabbed Aten's shoulder.

“This child cannot be moved right now.”

“…”

“You heard, didn't you? Not only the internal organs, but also the muscles, bones, and nerves are deficient. We don't know what might happen during the move.”

Frontier's body is weaker than a child's.

With more deficiencies than a child, yet a much larger volume.

Even if we carefully move him on a stretcher and in a car, we cannot guarantee his safety.

“Even if we perform surgery, even if it goes well, he will have to live with severe disabilities.”

Aten looked at Frontier's face, as Filly spoke.

It was the face she always saw.

The face that always followed her in Constel.

The face, the shoulders, the body.

“…Then what should we do?”

No one answered Aten.

“…Aten-sama, it's unfortunate, but he….”

A knight approached Aten.

Aten looked at him with emotionless eyes.

“He did his best to save you. As the imperial princess, it is a great honor for him—”

Crack!

Aten slapped the knight's cheek mercilessly, cutting off his unfinished consolation.

A cold frost formed on his cheek where she hit.

“Shut up. Frontier didn't save the imperial princess.”

“A, Aten-sama.”

“It's not like that.”

Honorable?

Because I am the princess?

Did Frontier de Loach save me because I am the princess?

No.

If that were the case, Frontier wouldn't have treated me so casually.

He would have bowed and used formal titles like everyone else.

No.

Frontier didn't save the princess.

To him, Aten was just another person.

He saved an ordinary person.

That was Frontier's choice.

Aten knelt on both knees.

She looked at Frontier with her icy eyes.

“…Aten-sama?”

…The royal family stands above the people to protect them.

What was the purpose of the excessive wealth and power, and the extensive education based on it?

Save him.

That's what you have to do, Aten.

Aten's mana rose.

The temperature around her dropped.

Aten, who was originally skilled in ice magic.

But even more so.

As if freezing her very breath, Aten gradually grew colder.

“…Aten-sama! It's dangerous!”

The knight's voice trying to stop her.

She didn't hear it.

It sounded distant, like words from the other side of the water.

Aten had reached a certain state.

‘Think.’

Find a way.

How can we save Frontier?

I've never learned healing magic.

Even if I had, it wouldn't work.

We can't restore what's lost.

‘…Unless it's not lost.’

Frontier increased his mana.

In doing so, he lost many parts of his body.

In other words, those parts were converted into mana.

What needs to be done is not to heal the injuries.

It's to convert the body back from mana.

In other words, ‘reduction.’

She had never done this before, and she didn't know if it was possible.

But for some reason, Aten had a premonition that it was possible.

Aten's hands moved over Frontier's body.

Each movement made the air shimmer.

The particles of air were freezing.

The cold mana seeped into Frontier's body.

‘…I see.’

Through this process, Aten understood Frontier's condition.

She had just performed a technique that healers take years to master.

By examining the inside, she could directly see how dangerous Frontier's condition was.

He wasn't dead.

He was definitely alive.

However, his life was gradually fading.

The lost organs, muscles, blood, and bones.

To maintain Frontier's life, everything was too ‘small.’

‘Good, if I spread the mana evenly…’

Aten slowly sent mana to the deficient parts of Frontier's body.

The precision of the mana manipulation, almost like threads, was astonishing.

However.

‘…It's too much, Aten.’

Filly, watching, swallowed her complicated feelings.

Even if Aten could contain her mana with her amazing manipulation.

Even if Aten could really convert mana back into a body.

She would ultimately be blocked by knowledge.

“…!”

Aten's fingertips trembled.

As Filly had thought.

She succeeded in containing the mana but that was it.

Aten had a premonition that she could ‘reduce’ with her abilities.

But she couldn't do what she didn't know.

“…Aten-sama….”

Everyone was looking at Aten.

Her cold face, now tinged with pain.

Blood trickled from her tightly bitten lower lip.

‘Find…’

Find a way, Aten.

You are the princess.

You are the one who should save people.

‘…No.’

That's not it.

After coming this far, after reaching this point, are you still going to lie?

Not as a princess.

Just as Frontier saved Aten Terst, not as a princess.

I want to save Frontier.

I,

I, Aten Terst, want to save

Frontier de Loach!

…Huh?

At that moment, she saw something.

A scene that only reached her eyes, not reality.

Thud.

Filly took a step forward.

She would stop Aten.

Later, Filly would tell Aten about her foresight.

That Aten would have a future where she could ‘reduce.’

Then Aten would surely hate her.

Why didn't she tell her earlier?

If she had, Frontier could have been saved.

Aten, her life's purpose, would curse her for a long time.

But it's okay.

Such hatred, she had long prepared for.

“…Aten, that's enough—”

Filly stopped speaking.

Aten was looking not at Frontier but at the air.

Curious about this strange behavior, Filly looked into Aten's eyes.

Filly understood.

What Aten was seeing.

‘Aten, could it be…!’

-I am a descendant of Bala.

-My mother said she could.

-I hope my daughters don't have this ability.

Filly told Frontier.

She could see the future because she was a descendant of Bala.

Filly's mother could also see the future.

Then, her daughter Aten—!

‘…Ah.’

Aten saw.

Not like Filly, who could sense all futures.

The blood of Bala thinned with each generation.

What Aten could see now was only her own future.

Only her own future.

‘I see.’

In the future, she saw herself standing as a healer,

and the knowledge.

Aten poured her mana.

The cold mana poured into Frontier without a gap.

In the cold where the air froze and shattered into light, Aten's eyes looked at Frontier warmly.

As if gently waking him from sleep.

Frontier, Frontier.

Wake up.

Frontier's eyelids trembled.

His eyes slowly opened, and he saw Aten, smiling and crying.

“…Aten.”

“Mr. Frontier.”

“…Why are you smiling, or crying?”

Seeing Frontier scolding her as usual, Aten laughed a little, uncharacteristically.

“I, I saw the future.”

“…Aten.”

Frontier sighed at her answer.

“You never understood me, from the moment we met until now.”

* * *

Renzo's intrusion put the entire Constel area on high alert.

The scale of the damage and the cause were still being analyzed, so all