Academy’s Pure Love Dark Knight - Chapter 104

WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈

Chapter 104

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Episode 104. Remember Me Beneath the Magnolia Tree.

There was a phrase I used to turn over in my mind every now and then, once upon a time.

That love cools with time. That no one can stand against time.

Looking back on it now, that's just nonsense. Those people's feelings simply weren't enough. An excuse to justify falling for someone else.

"Licht, slowly."

"Just a little, please give me just a little distance. Or maybe with magic...."

I was already living proof that flatly denied that saying.

Over the fifteen years that had passed, I'd never liked anyone besides Phine. To be precise, she simply couldn't be replaced.

"That, I can't allow. It makes me anxious."

I'd heard plenty of times that half the world was women, and that if you just kept living, you'd meet someone good eventually. But what was I supposed to do when that just wasn't true.

I hated the lyrics of common breakup songs, and love songs too. Something as heavy as pure devoted love was being consumed so lightly.

There used to be plenty of good songs, but these days everything that came out was pretty much unlistenable. Maybe I should say they lacked any real emotional throughline.

Love songs in spring, breakup songs come fall or winter. Always more or less the same.

"Licht, watch the step ahead."

"Ah.. right."

I looked at Phine, pressed right up against my side, supporting me. So close I could even hear her breathing.

'She's got such a beautiful heart.'

They said other people, once possessed or reincarnated, went off and started a whole new life with someone else. I never really understood that.

This woman's nice, that woman's nice too, and picking between them is so hard, or whatever. It was just absurd.

"Um, Lady Phine. Why do you have your tail wrapped around my leg?"

"..Do you not like it? I feel like this keeps me steady."

"It's nice and fluffy. Thank you."

"..Pervert."

There's only one person in the whole world as sweet as our Phine. Compare like with like. I let out a small laugh without meaning to.

"Licht..? Are you hurt somewhere?"

"I'm just happy, that's all."

I'd thought wearing my helmet would keep her from noticing. Just having her talk with me like this, just having her close, made me so happy.

'Wouldn't it be fine to die just like this.'

I'd thought it before too, but wasn't this really a happy way to go. A beautiful white-haired woman nursing me, even peeling fruit and feeding it to me.

"Actually, isn't this place heaven, Phine."

And her snow-white wolf ears, twitching this way and that every moment, so cute. I wanted to touch them again, but she'd probably get mad.

"You really are sick.."

Something soft kept brushing against me here and there, and I wasn't even sure if that was all right. So different from my own body, hardened by years of swordsmanship training.

How much time had passed, I wondered.

"We're almost there."

"Yeah, Licht."

We finally pushed open the last door and stepped out of the infirmary. The outside air, which I hadn't smelled in a while, was a little muggy.

"That's my teacher, Baek-Mokryeon, over there. Phine."

Far off at the end of the training field, a woman with long brown hair and a blue-haired man came into view. Baek-Mokryeon and Dennis, free now of Head's scheming.

Normally, the moment the seal broke, they'd have been crying and embracing each other. So why were they just standing there in silence, not saying a word.

"She's the one who saved my life before, when I nearly died to Magic Hat."

Had something happened? I stepped forward, trying to get a little closer.

"She's a woman. Licht."

Beside me, she was seething, her voice dropped low. Seemed like she'd gotten the wrong idea.

"She's just my teacher, nothing more. And she also happens to be Professor Dennis's lover."

"A womanizer.... All men are the same."

"What? What do you mean by that?"

What? I glanced over to see our Phine biting down on her lower lip, glaring at my second teacher. Was she jealous of Dennis and the Heavenly Demon's relationship?

"Phine, don't bite your lip. You'll hurt yourself."

"..But I won."

At that, Phine pushed her chest out slightly, just like I'd seen in that dream before. Just what did she mean, she'd won....

"Hehe. Just as I thought. Your heart's pounding."

"..."

Ah, the game's physics engine really was something else. Something bounced once, hard, up and down, and it brought back the exact sensation I'd felt earlier on the way out of the infirmary.

"Please, don't do this in front of anyone else.."

"I'll only do this for Licht."

I couldn't tell if I was hot because I was with Phine right now, or because I'd caught some kind of summer cold.

"..Because perverts need to be punished."

My face kept burning, blood rushing to it. Somebody, anybody, our Phine's turned into a fox.

"I'm sorry. Phine."

Was this the karma I had to pay for not recognizing her all this time? Foxes, like wolves, are monogamous animals too, though.

Reciting the Heart Sutra silently to myself, I watched <Knight Heart>'s protagonists reunite.

* * *

The Demon King's premise, that people forget love as time passes, didn't hold true for Dennis.

"Khahaha! So my audacious disciple has actually done it. Dennis."

"No, our disciple, Mokryeon."

"Oho? So you will not even yield to this one anymore?"

It had already been close to twenty years since he'd first wished to someday save her from what Head had done to her, though because of the Erasure of knowledge he couldn't even remember her face or name.

"That's right. I've grown a lot too. I even became a university professor...."

"It is because far too much time has passed."

Dennis had always longed for spring.

He'd cherished the boksucho (福壽草) flower she'd once given him, going so far as to use magic just to keep it alive, and after being summoned as the hero, he'd come to prefer the very coffee she used to enjoy drinking.

"..For one once called a boy soldier, you have become a man entirely."

"Then Mokryeon must be a full-grown auntie now, I guess."

"This one withdraws what she said a moment ago. You have become quite the old soul indeed. You rascal."

He'd done everything he could think of that let him remember Baek-Mokryeon. If anything, the things he hadn't tried could be counted on one hand.

"So then.. did you find another love, and fare well with her, Dennis?"

But the Heavenly Demon was voicing a possibility she couldn't shake. In the martial world she'd lived in, the men she'd known had always been wulin warriors who treated love lightly.

"Hm? What are you talking about?"

"Is it not obvious? A young puppy love is as light as air."

Simply because she was a female Heavenly Demon, men blinded by lust had come seeking her out to challenge her to duels, and it was simply the norm for strong men to keep several wives at once.

"..Guess you never heard about it from Licht, Mokryeon."

"Honestly, this one could not quite believe it."

Dennis let out a sigh. Some people say that love felt as a child isn't real love. And it was true that back when he'd been summoned here as the hero, he'd still been just a boy.

"If anything, that's exactly why first love is so pure. Because you pay less attention to details like the other person's looks or wealth."

The man spoke up, thinking she must have picked up that kind of talk somewhere and gotten the wrong idea. Because the first love Dennis still carried was, even now, his present love.

"'I still love magnolia blossoms, Heavenly Demon.' If I said that, would you believe me?"

He tried using formal speech, the way they used to talk back then. Actually, even using casual speech now might just be his own struggle to shake off the awkwardness between them.

No matter how much time had passed, the drunkard's love for the dragon hadn't changed. If anything, it was closer to having matured with age.

"..How devoted and pure. Khahaha."

At that, the Heavenly Demon spoke, meeting Dennis's eyes. No longer holding up any defensive spell now, her eyes were a deep sea blue.

"To think you waited nearly twenty years for a woman with so little charm as this one. Even rivers and mountains change within ten years."

"That's a strange thing to hear from someone I already have a marriage promise with. Mokryeon."

"..Dennis."

Watching him, her dragon-like irises curved into crescent moons, and as her lips parted slightly, her characteristic fangs showed.

In a rush, it was the Heavenly Demon who moved first. Baek-Mokryeon wrapped her arms around the blue-haired man's waist and held him close.

"Drink is no longer good for the body. And tobacco being harmful with no benefit at all goes without saying."

Her dragon tail was wagging fiercely, like a puppy's.

"Why bring that up all of a sudden...."

"Surely this one cannot be expected to look after a dragon's egg all alone, can she?"

"..."

"By nature, once a man and woman have joined hearts, they must become one body and one mind. Boy soldier of another world."

Belying his nickname as the drunkard, he no longer drank at all now. His hands trembled faintly from the lack of alcohol.

"Hold this one tighter. Can you not feel the trembling?"

"Understood. Heavenly Demon."

Noticing this, Baek-Mokryeon pressed her body even closer against Dennis, so he'd feel more at ease. Their heartbeats came through to each other as though the two had become one body.

"Let the world hear!!"

Drawing a curved smile at the corner of her mouth, the Heavenly Demon opened her mouth toward the sky, as if declaring that this reunion was not an ending but a beginning.

"The Cursed Dragon of Spring has fallen in love!!"

A voice that shook the ground and rang through the air.

A force befitting someone ranked second in combat power among the Ten Greats.

"Struck down by the Demon King of Omniscience's scheme, it became a fleeting spring dream, one that would vanish the instant a hand reached for it, yet now this one stands together with the man she loves!"

She kept on speaking. A moment of finally being repaid for a love that had gone unrewarded for nearly decades.

"Have the trials not been enough by now!"

She shouted, looking up at the blue summer sky. The drifting clouds came to a halt. Baek-Mokryeon and Dennis, wishing for no more misfortune.

"There is no longer any reason to keep apart a man and woman who long for and love each other so deeply!"

A faint moon rose in the daytime sky, its shape barely visible, and it moved to overlap with the sun. A motion that should have been impossible.

"So.... world, let the two of us be happy now, at last."

Through sheer force of will alone, the Heavenly Demon broke the sky. Everyone nearby simply stood frozen, mouths hanging open, watching the scene unfold.

"We will be happy. Mokryeon."

Dennis comforted her gently. Tears welled up at the corners of Baek-Mokryeon's eyes. The warmth of her beloved, felt again after eons of time.

It was so warm that even standing here now felt like nothing but a dream. The Heavenly Demon wept, holding tightly onto Dennis.

"..This is enough. This one could not be more satisfied."

"There's still one more thing left. Mokryeon."

That was when it happened. Still holding her in his embrace, Dennis raised his right arm toward the sky.

"What..?"

"Even if it's summer, shouldn't we still get a taste of spring?"

A three-dimensional magic circle appeared in his hand.

Several magic circles formed a perfect sphere, and a small orb, like a satellite, orbited around it, tracing a single line.

"Where did you ever learn something like this..?!"

"For our cute little magnolia blossom, is there anything I wouldn't do?"