Chapter 9 of the Weapon Replicator of the Academy

Chapter 2: The Branch in the Coffin, Misteltain (5)

The largest museum in the Central Continent, 'Remus.'

It is a grand space that truly encapsulates the past, from high-level artworks like paintings and sculptures to ancient weapons and culture, all of which can be experienced at a glance.

Quini visited the Remus Museum as a combination of a hobby and study.

Viewing high-quality artworks can help cultivate an eye for the value of items.

However, today, she was a bit distracted by something, and she wore an ambiguous smile.

"You didn't have to come, you know."

"No, no, it's fun, it's really fun, really."

Anne, who was beside her, answered like an automatic response. From the way she added a word to every sentence, it seemed her soul was starting to leave her body.

"Why did you come along when you have no interest in this kind of thing?"

"My dad bought a painting recently, and it turned out to be a fake. He lost some face among his friends. After that, he suddenly came to me and said, 'Daughter, this kind of thing shouldn't happen to you,' and told me to study about artworks. Apparently, such incidents are becoming more common these days."

"He's a good person."

"......Well, I needed this anyway, and since it was my dad's request, I had no reason to refuse. I thought I'd learn a bit, you know?"

Anne twirled her hair as she spoke. Quini smiled at her.

......But if you don't like art, you can't cultivate an eye for it. An eye for art is about feeling 'beauty.'

Quini hesitated whether to say this but ultimately swallowed her words. Who knows, maybe she'll see things differently as she continues to look.

"......Oh."

Quini stopped in front of a painting while walking.

It was a depiction of a woman praying. However, it wasn't in a church or cathedral. She was praying amidst a field of golden wheat. The woman was smiling, and her face was bright and sunny, not solemn or serious.

All these elements, though different, harmonized with each other, creating a sense of both strangeness and grandeur.

Amazing. Quini was embarrassed that she might have said this out loud without realizing it.

"Qu, Quini, look, look."

"Yeah, I'm looking. If you get to this level, you can recognize it too,"

"No, no, not the painting, beside you!"

Quini furrowed her brow at Anne's barely audible whisper and then looked to her side.

Sure enough, she was even more surprised than before.

Frondeur was there.

Frondeur, who was not in Constel, Frondeur in the museum, Frondeur in front of an artwork.

None of it made any sense, and Quini froze.

Like Quini earlier, Frondeur didn't seem to notice her presence. His eyes were fixed on the painting.

Frondeur's face showed no particular emotion. It was the same lazy expression she always saw. From a different perspective, it looked like he was observing the painting.

Whether Frondeur had an eye for art was unknown, but spending so much time on one piece was certainly not ordinary. This piqued Quini's interest.

After all, Frondeur knew that Misteltain was a fake. He might have some expertise in art.

What do you think of this painting?

"......Amazing,"

Frondeur's lips moved softly. The sigh that accompanied his words seemed to confirm his admiration for the painting.

"A fake."

It was a brief comment.

Frondeur said nothing more and walked away.

His steps were as calm as always.

"......?"

Quini watched Frondeur pass by.

After watching him, and watching him again,

"Hey, wait! Wait a moment! Hey! Wait! Over there! Hey!"

She walked up to Frondeur, her speech alternating between formal and informal.

"Ah, Quini-senpai. I didn't expect to see you here."

Frondeur greeted her. His usual demeanor made Quini flinch for a moment, but she decided to return the greeting.

"Ah, yes, yes. What brings you here, Frondeur? You don't seem like the type to visit such a place."

"Hmm, I came to look at artifacts rather than artworks, but I was on my way to that section."

"Artifacts?"

"Yes, like weapons or armor."

Quini finally understood at Frondeur's words.

Frondeur, who knew that Misteltain was a fake, must be an otaku with a deep interest in old items!

But there was a more pressing issue at hand.

"F, Frondeur, what did you mean by what you just said?"

"Me? What did I say?"

"You called that painting a 'fake'! I heard it clearly!"

Quini pointed at the painting. She took the opportunity to look at it again.

It was still an excellent painting. It could easily stand among the greats.

"Ah, yes, I did."

Frondeur replied.

His tone was as calm as ever.

Is this guy in the habit of calling everything, including Misteltain, a fake?

"Do you know where we are? The Remus Museum! The best museum in the Central Continent! It's not normal for there to be fakes here!"

Frondeur touched his lips at her words, looking as if he was pondering something.

"......So, Quini-senpai, you're saying that I should have formally protested the presence of fakes in the museum, right?"

"That's not what I mean!"

What is this guy thinking?

Does he not even consider the possibility that he might be wrong?

"Calling the Remus Museum a place with fakes won't end well!"

"Whether it's the Remus Museum or the Louvre, a fake is still a fake."

Frondeur said.

His tone suggested he was stating the obvious.

While his words were indeed obvious,

But what is the Louvre?

"Is this a fake?"

"Yes. A fake."

"Really? You won't regret saying that? Really?"

"Really. Really. One hundred percent fake."

Quini looked at the painting again.

......Indeed, it's an excellent painting, no matter how you look at it.

While her standards for Frondeur had risen after the Misteltain incident,

She still trusted her own eyes more.

"......Then, do you want to bet?"

"A bet?"

"Yes. A bet on whether this painting is real or fake. If Frondeur wins, I'll send the price of this painting to the Roach family through the Viet Trading Company. If I win, the opposite will happen. What do you think?"

"How do you plan to verify whether it's real?"

"I'll buy it. This painting."

Anne, who had been standing quietly beside her, gasped in surprise.

Quini looked at Frondeur with a confident expression.

In fact, she had planned to buy something from the Remus Museum from the start. This painting would satisfy her.

......She was also angry at hearing it called a fake.

"Cancel it now, and we can pretend it never happened."

"Sure."

Frondeur said.

Quini was even more surprised, her mouth open and eyes wide.

But Frondeur said something even more surprising.

"However, instead of sending it to the Roach family, can you send it to me personally? In cash, perhaps?"

"You really are something, aren't you?"

* * *

The Viet Trading Company, currently at the peak of its success.

However, this is a recent evaluation. Before Quini took over, the Viet Trading Company had lost its former glory.

At the time, everyone thought the Viet Trading Company was beyond recovery. It was a realistic assessment.

Given the state of the Viet Trading Company, it was impossible to return it to its former glory.

So, Quini decided to start over from scratch.

She eliminated all unprofitable business relationships, laid off employees, and severed ties with long-time noble acquaintances.

After removing all the bubbles that had attached to the company, the deficit was resolved. However, the number of enemies increased accordingly.

The Viet Trading Company had conducted many transactions with other companies and families. Among them were those who would also go bankrupt if the Viet family fell.

But Quini cut them off without hesitation. Things like 'time' or 'sentiment' from long-term relationships were not considered. Naturally, the number of enemies increased.

Thus, she earned the nickname 'Little Devil Quini.'

After that, the Viet Trading Company grew rapidly. As the company grew, all the families Quini cut off declined.

This led to a change in the public's perception of Quini.

'Unfeeling, but with a discerning eye that chills the spine. Her ability to judge people and skills is comparable to a seer.'

Families that Quini did not cut off or reached out to first grew. Families that she cut off declined.

As this pattern repeated, the families that tried to bring Quini down found themselves in hot water.

Being cut off by Quini meant they lacked sufficient value. Naturally, their popularity declined, and they were labeled as incompetent.

Quini, with her ghost-like discerning eye for people.

While her ability is said to be comparable to a seer, she is not a seer.

Therefore, she cannot predict all sudden events.

This obvious fact was particularly annoying to Quini today.

"So, they're all mixed up?"

"T, that's right. By the time they arrived, it was already in this state."

"So, they're mixed up?"

Quini's questioning made the butler fumble for words.

Quini sighed.

"Let's go see. We need to see how bad it is."

With that, Quini led the butler to the front of the mansion.

In front of the mansion, the servants were already busy sorting out the items that had been unloaded.

"......Good grief."

The front of the mansion was a chaotic mess.

Quini could see items that were not recorded as purchased by the company.

"Recently, there's been a trend of fake item scams. Especially for companies like ours that buy items in bulk. They bring a similar vehicle, force the driver out, and swap similar items from both vehicles. They prepare high-quality fakes for expensive items."

"Preparing fakes means they knew what we were buying in advance."

"Yes. It seems someone stole records from galleries or museums."

Sigh, Quini sighed.

Only then did she remember Anne's words about her father being a victim of a fake item scam.

While it's too much to expect her to predict this situation from that one comment,

At least the Viet Trading Company was in a better position. They caught the criminals in the act.

The problem was that the criminals were in the middle of swapping items, and the items from both vehicles were mixed up.

They had brought both vehicles and were sorting the items at the mansion.

"......But what are they doing over there?"

While the employees and servants were sorting items, a group of people had gathered in another area.

"Oh, I hired a few appraisers. We found a significant number of fakes that were very similar to what we bought."

"Hmm."

Curious, Quini walked over to where they were gathered. She wanted to see how similar the fakes were.

However.

"Ah, wait, no way. No way this is it."

In front of Quini were two paintings. The painting she had bought from Remus. The painting of the praying girl.

'No way......'

The two paintings were identical. The only difference was the girl's expression. One was smiling, and the other was expressionless. Quini had definitely bought the one with the smiling girl.

"Have, have the appraisals been completed?"

"Ah, Quini-sama. I apologize. It was very difficult, but the appraisals are complete. I got so absorbed in the quality of the paintings. Ha ha."

The appraiser laughed awkwardly.

The appraisals were complete. Quini swallowed. Which one was the real one?

Quini looked at both paintings again. To her, the one with the smiling girl seemed more real. The act of praying and the girl's smile. The disharmony made it even more beautiful.

"So, which one is the real one? Which one has higher artistic value?"

"Hmm, those two questions have different answers."

"Really?"

The appraiser pointed to the painting of the smiling girl.

"The one with higher artistic value is this one. We all marveled at it. Not just the girl's expression, but the use of color, the effort in the underpainting, and the unique combination of beauty. It even refined the coloring technique used in the original. Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference from the original."

Then, the appraiser pointed to the painting of the expressionless girl.

"The real one is this one. This is also an excellent painting. However, the technique is a bit old-fashioned, and the girl's expression is disappointing. We initially thought this was the fake."

"But how did you determine it was the real one......?"

"Fortunately, one of us knew this work."

Another appraiser stepped forward.

"Alain Buisson's 'Prayer of the Girl.' Both the artist and the work are very obscure, and the artist has been dead for a long time. Only a few people would know. The scammers must have brought the real one, probably from a gallery where it was sold cheaply."

A fake with higher artistic value than the real one.

So, Frondeur called it an 'excellent fake.'

......No, then.

"Is there any way for an ordinary person to tell which one is the real one?"

"It would be difficult. The museum displayed the fake as the real one. To distinguish between the real and fake, one would need to have seen the real one from before the fakes were made, or have a comprehensive knowledge of almost all paintings on the continent."

Quini blinked a few times, as if thinking about something, and then spoke.

"Maybe it was just luck?"

"Excuse me?"

"So, maybe it was just luck? There's no other way to explain it,"

The appraisers were trying hard to explain something they couldn't understand.