WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈

Chapter 108

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Episode 108. The Wolf's Love Is Surprisingly Heavy.

* * *

The next day came, and I faced Phine with a lingering sense of embarrassment.

"Oh, Licht."

"Phine... did you get home all right last night?"

"Yeah, thanks to you."

These days, whenever no one from the Academy was around, she'd often take off the Masterpiece or her glass helmet.

"Let's go together."

It was good that she'd become this cheerful, but she was awfully forward about it.

She grabbed my hand right away and laced our fingers together tightly, and I flinched, my hand trembling,

"Oh, did you get a new hair ornament?"

"...Something like that. How does it look?"

"It's pretty. Really pretty."

With the blue rose tucked into her hair, she was so beautiful it was hard to even speak.

"It really is that pretty, hm? Fufu..."

Phine closed the distance between us even more after I complimented her. Our skin touched, and I could feel how soft it was.

I got that she was doing this partly to help me, since I still hadn't adjusted to the Dragon Heart.

'What's she going to do if people get the wrong idea, carrying on like this.'

Maybe I should call it too much intimacy. It had only been one percent, and she'd already tried to kiss me. Just as I was starting to wonder about it,

[Lee Suhyun ♡ Phine Gransia: 2% 'NEW!']

a translucent status window shimmered into view in front of me, a heart pulsing across it.

Right, at this level it could just be the alcohol talking. Probably some event was pushing the affection meter up.

"Licht, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

The corners of my mouth kept twitching upward like crazy. At this rate, I might actually end up dating Phine for real....

No. Love isn't something you can reduce to a number. This could just be the developer messing with me again.

Confess at forty-nine percent, get rejected, and end up crashing to negative one hundred percent, that could happen too.

'Look at Nex and Chartiness, their affection had dropped out of nowhere too.'

Love, or romance, whatever you want to call it, shouldn't be reduced to some common, throwaway word.

Isn't there a saying that you can know the depths of the sea but never a person's true heart?

If I misread the situation and blurted out a confession, we could end up strangers starting the very next day,

and yet I couldn't leave her side either. The unhappy future waiting ahead wouldn't change unless I completed the Grand Route.

After all, it was always going to take meeting the conditions before it showed a new ending.

Besides, putting my own feelings first and using them to justify whatever means necessary was the worst thing I could do.

'Her happiness matters more than my own affection meter.'

At least until everything was resolved, I had to stop caring about something as trivial as my affection meter.

If things were headed down the right, happy path, it would surely keep climbing slowly, just like this.

'Even that time I nearly fell to Ache's Erasure of knowledge, it would have been dangerous if I hadn't used the Mana Rose.'

I used to think of it as simple, but seeing how carefully the developer had buried all this, there were probably still plenty of trials left to get through.

To begin with, she wasn't the saintess from <Knight Heart> or <Black Heart>, the games I'd played. She was a princess now.

A princess with a name. Phine Gransia.

I couldn't let myself get caught up in old memories and superimpose her over someone else.

It's not like I'm hopeless with romance or anything. If I could just ask some woman I knew for advice, I'd probably figure out why Phine was acting like this with me.

'Would it help to talk to Ariel about it?'

But wait, those two haven't even started dating yet, have they?

'Hiyaaah!! Helmet guy! What are you even talking about!' she'd probably say, panicking that I might expose her feelings for Kainel.

And if I told Chartiness or the Heavenly Demon, it would definitely get back to Phine and I'd just become a laughingstock.

"Phine, why do you always lace your fingers with mine like this?"

"Does it bother you...?"

I'd never once dated anyone in my whole life, but I tried to work out, with the cold logic in my head, what other reason she might have for doing this.

If it was just her playful personality, that would make sense.

Or maybe it was a drinking habit, the kind where you cling to whoever's nearby or want to be close to them.

I'd have to stay by her side every time she drank from now on. Some scheming bastard could target her, no matter how many Imperial Guards she had around.

'They can't handle every sudden situation.'

Not with Magic Hat, and not during Ache's attack on the Academy either, the Imperial Guard hadn't made it in time. In the end, I was the one who had to protect her.

I put all my strength into my unsteady legs. There was still so much left to do. I had at least three more Demon Kings to take down.

"Yes, it bothers me a lot."

"Holding hands like this puts me at ease. Licht."

Watching her smile shyly like that, my reason was melting away. No, don't, having her wolf ears lay flat like that on top of it is just cheating.

Even in soccer, this would be offside. The striker shouldn't be breaking through when there's no defender there.

"What exactly about it is so reassuring..."

"Yours, it's big, and thick.... and firm."

Ugh, please don't say things like that, someone's going to get the wrong idea. You sound like a character out of an adult game.

"Phine, please be a little more careful with your word choice."

"Fufu, look at you getting embarrassed. Licht."

Like a predator that had already marked its prey, she'd wrapped her white tail around one of my legs, worried I might trip.

The memory of nearly being kissed last night started replaying vividly in my head, like a cassette tape rewinding.

"...Do you hate it, when I do this? Licht."

No. I like it a lot, actually.

There was an instinctive little shiver running down my spine, but if it was Phine, anything was fine by me.

"I don't hate it."

"Oh, thank goodness..."

Even if her feelings were heavy, all I had to do was match them and accept them.

Love was supposed to be something two people walked forward together, adjusting to each other.

If, by some one-in-ten-thousand chance, she actually liked me,

'then something like this wouldn't be so bad.'

At least now, being locked up in the imperial dungeon might not be so bad. Maybe I could even endure a captive pure-love scenario.

"Sorry for being a little mean. Your reactions are just so much fun...."

That small smile of hers was a huge happiness to me, the kind of smile I wanted to protect even if it meant burning myself up to do it.

"You can keep doing it, if you want."

"Really...? I knew it, Licht, you really are a pervert."

I could stand being falsely branded a bit of a pervert. It was better than Phine still being that unhappy, emotionless Glass Knight.

"So this is the kind of thing you like...."

"I'm only letting it slide because it's you, Phine."

"Pervert, pervert Licht. Fuheh..."

After all, a Black Knight was someone who sacrificed for the person he loved.

"...Huh?"

This time, I decided to let it go by poking her cheek lightly with my finger. A firm little poke, since I didn't much feel like just sitting there and taking it either.

"If you keep this up, I won't have any choice but to do this back."

"..."

Phine's cheek pushed back against my finger with a springy resistance. Wow, it's really soft, is this what a woman's cheek feels like.

With Phine suddenly gone quiet like that, I held her hand and we made our slow way toward the imperial palace. I guess unauthorized physical contact wasn't really her thing after all.

"Phine? Are you okay?"

"Oh, mm-hm. Licht... what is it...?"

Watching her stare off into the distance and answer a beat too late, a wave of feeling like I'd made a mistake washed over me.

* * *

The imperial palace we arrived at had a massive, resplendent wolf statue guarding its entrance, an enormous palace that gave off a gorgeous impression with its blend of white and gold.

"Let's go in. Father should be waiting for us."

Was this really the kind of place Phine lived? Seeing it with my own eyes, the gap between us was unmistakable.

Back when she was the Nameless Saintess, maybe we'd have been on similar footing, but now she was a nation's princess.

"Licht...? Come on."

"Just a moment. Just give me a moment...."

There was no way she was on the same level as me. I was nothing but a plain commoner. I was in the middle of worrying whether someone without even a noble title had any business being this close to her, when,

she pulled me along, walking straight into the palace.

Ah, she's really strong. I wish I'd had a little more time to brace myself.

Creak. Thud.

Was there some kind of spell on it? The massive door opened the instant I tried to step through, and the moment I walked inside, it shut right behind me.

"...Phine? Are you still beside me?"

Darkness spread out before my eyes without warning.

I couldn't even feel Phine anymore, though she'd been holding tight to my arm and hand just a moment ago. Total emptiness was all that greeted me.

"Who are you."

At that moment, a deep, weighty voice rang out, shaking the entire dark space.

I felt the cold, razor-sharp edge of steel against my throat.

'This voice.... I've heard it before.'

It was the Emperor's voice. The voice of the Wolf King himself, Rook Gransia.

Was he trying to test me? This was the first time I'd actually met him in person. In the game I used to play, my reputation score had always been too low for our paths to cross.

I'd only ever seen him in the trailers whenever a new season or event started.

"I am the Black Knight, Licht."

I gave him that name and title. At the very least, calling myself the Hero of Conviction, the title Ache once pinned on me, would be the wrong answer here.

"Wrong."

He was, by nature, someone who despised heroes. Of course he would, given that his own Empress, Bellin Gransia, had been turned into a card by Magic Hat.

"Who are you. You have two chances left."

There was a heavy thud, something striking the floor. His hand axe, maybe. An overwhelming pressure bore down on me.

If that wasn't the right answer, then what on earth was?

"I am Licht, Your Majesty."

The Black Knight was just my class title, not 'me.' In the end, it was only the shell wrapped around who I really was.

I thought that had to be the answer, but what came back at me was the cold, needle-sharp smell of steel.

The axe blade struck the floor again with another resounding thud.

"...Last chance. Who are you?"

Think. That's my strength. In the end, this was a Zen riddle with a fixed answer.

"I am Lee Suhyun."

I had to answer without hiding anything. If I tried to deceive him even a little, he might just behead me on the spot.

"Correct."

At that, I heard a small, huffed laugh. It seemed I hadn't offended the Emperor's temper.

"I hope you won't hold it against me, testing you like this."

"There would be nothing wrong with it, Your Majesty."

"You've got more backbone than I'd heard. I like it."

Seeing this side of him, he was the spitting image of Phine when she chuckled like that. Maybe, in some ways, she took after her father too.

"I welcome you, Lee Suhyun."

A chill ran through me, my nerves jolting as if electricity were coursing through my whole body, and I couldn't move. Lights flickered on with a series of clicks and crackles.

My vision brightened all at once. Standing before me was Emperor Rook Gransia.

"What could I possibly not do for the hero who saved my daughter and my wife?"

A werewolf man with black hair and black wolf ears and tail.

Rook sat on a throne adorned in gold, looking down at me. I immediately knelt to show proper respect.

"I greet the wolf who bites into the sun and swallows the moon."

"Rise. There's no reason for you, of all people, to kneel before me."

Rook smiled gently with his eyes, as though he'd just seen something interesting, and stopped me from continuing.

"...I'm the one who's received far more from you, Lee Suhyun."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Glory to the Gransia Empire."

Only after receiving the Emperor's permission did I get back to my feet. The sheer weight of his presence was no joke.

More than anything, standing in front of him, I couldn't imagine winning a fight against him.

'He's ranked first among the Ten Greats.'

The atmosphere itself was an insurmountable wall. I could see now why even the Demon Kings of the Hero's Church had hidden themselves out of fear of the Emperor.

"Do you understand why I chose to test you? Lee Suhyun."

"Because I am not something else, Your Majesty."

"That's right. You are Lee Suhyun."

Even looking at the Heavenly Demon, I'd rarely felt this kind of awe. I hid my trembling hands behind my back to try to steady them.

"The Imperial Guard assigned to my daughter passed word of you to me, and the other members of the Ten Greats sang your praises in one voice as well."

The Wolf King rose from his seat and slowly descended the steps, his long cloak trailing behind him. His lavish attire looked, to anyone's eyes, exactly like an empire's emperor.

"In the end, I found myself wondering, who is this hero wearing the Black Knight's helmet."

The wolf, black from head to toe, stepped closer to me. The Emperor had a long scar running across one eye.

His fierce expression bore down on me, and just from him coming closer, the sense of death began washing over me again in slow waves.

"Lee Suhyun, I wanted to hear from your own mouth the reason you saved my daughter and my wife."

"..."

His footsteps stopped with a soft tap, right at my feet.

"What was the reason? Was it a hunger for power or honor, after all?"

His hand axe, his primary weapon, was hanging on the wall behind the throne, and yet I felt like my artery had already been cut, and I answered with my hand pressed lightly to my own throat.

"It was because it was the right thing to do, Your Majesty."

"Hm, the right thing. Why was it the right thing?"

My breath climbed all the way up to my chin. Under the suffocating weight of his relentless questions, my knees began to buckle on their own.

"Family... should return to family's arms, and..."

Thud. Unable to withstand the Emperor's pressure, my hand hit the floor on its own.

"Making sure no one... gets hurt by a Demon King.... that's the right thing to do."

I barely managed to keep talking, gasping for breath. He'd told me I didn't need to kneel, and yet him testing me again after a delay like this filled me with fear.

"It wasn't something I did hoping for reward or honor, Your Majesty."

Still, I forced myself back up through sheer will. None of it had been done with some ulterior motive. I'd done it genuinely to save people.

All of it done without even knowing Phine was the Nameless Saintess.

I didn't want to become some shameless person demanding a betrothal or love just because I'd saved someone's life. Even if I went back to that moment again, I'd still sacrifice myself to protect people.

My convictions weren't going to waver. This was the right thing to do, and that was that.

"...Well, this is unexpected."

Watching my unyielding eyes, the Emperor nodded, looking almost surprised.

"I'll trust those words. Lee Suhyun."

The crushing pressure that had been squeezing my body vanished in an instant. Rook, now wearing a satisfied expression, sat back down on his throne.

"Now then, let's start talking properly. Sorry for frightening you."

"It's all right, Emperor Gransia."

Just when I thought I'd finally managed to catch my breath,

"So then, exactly what is your relationship with my daughter?"

The worst possible question I could imagine came crashing down on me.

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