WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈

Chapter 116

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Episode 116. Even a Rose Made of Glass Has Thorns.

* * *

Phine Gransia was lying more and more often these days.

Naturally poor at expressing her feelings, she'd always been the blunt, straightforward type, but lately she couldn't adjust to the change taking hold inside her.

"Huh...? Phine, that man from yesterday didn't come?"

"Yeah, Licht.. said he was sick."

She didn't know the reason herself, either.

Was it because, whenever Licht talked about another woman, or looked like he missed the Nameless Saintess, some corner of her chest kept aching?

A heart that froze solid, its fluttering stopping cold, just from seeing someone precious to her look close with somebody else.

The pain in her chest, like something cold and needle-sharp lodged inside it,

came far too cruelly to a princess who didn't even understand what love was.

In fact, this was exactly why Emperor Rook worried about his daughter.

Wolves, like the long-lived elves, loved only one person for their entire lives.

Because for them, the option of loving someone else simply didn't exist. Once a werewolf fell in love, that feeling carried real weight.

But there was no way the Phine Gransia of now could have known that. Whenever she was near the Black Knight, her heart raced differently than usual, or

"He had such a fever.. burning up something awful. Licht."

She found herself thinking about it all day, on the days he'd said something kind to her,

but since that always happened right after they'd nearly died to a demon king, she'd told herself it was just a small worry, or gratitude.

Sparks kept flying across her glass-empty emotions, and a flame had settled into her once coldly frozen heart, slowly widening the space it occupied.

"It was cold, so.. I think he caught a cold.."

She trailed off as she told her lie. She didn't want him falling for an apostle's scheme again, or getting hurt,

and seeing him sacrifice himself for someone else again made her feel like her heart was being torn out, so she stopped it.

Even though she didn't know exactly what her own feelings were, Phine was trying.

They'd carried similar childhood trauma, and had saved each other from it.

They'd become irreplaceable to each other, in a world all their own, close enough to even share a heartbeat, but

of all people, neither of them understood love.

"My disciple.. is sick?!"

"He didn't look like the type. How, in a single day…."

Hearing the sudden news that Licht was too sick to come out, they couldn't help but raise a little suspicion toward the princess.

"Phine, you do know our palace has a warming spell on it, right..?"

"..."

A situation whose pieces just didn't add up, one that left even Drake, Sophitia, and Asha Aureus unable to help but suspect something.

They were dying to go check for themselves, but with Phine's eyes flashing sharp and threatening, no one dared push the subject any further.

"I was worried he'd push himself too hard, so I made sure he couldn't come out."

Phine figured that no matter how strong he was, there was no way he'd break out of the northern palace to escape,

"Guess I'll just have to train him even harder later!!"

and despite everyone's suspicion, she brushed it off with idle chatter and asked to be shown to the front line where they were holding back the monsters in the North.

A place where the cold cut sharp enough to pierce the lungs, and every breath came out as a pure white cloud.

"Here it is. Drake, Princess Phine Gransia."

Once they arrived, Asha lifted the enormous phoenix wing aside a little, showing just how many demonic beasts waited outside.

"Groaaargh!!"

"Grrrrrrrk!!"

At the foot of a mountain in the North,

a scene was unfolding of enraged monsters charging and slamming their bodies against the impossibly tall wall.

Yeti-like snowmen, and monsters shaped like wolves or bears that lived in the snowfields.

Every last one of them had unfocused, empty eyes, and no matter how bloodied they became, they all seemed single-mindedly obsessed with breaking into where people lived.

Their frenzied howls called out to more monsters, a chain reaction where each new arrival threw itself at the wall to bring it down all over again.

"The monsters keep coming down toward the northern territories where people live like this, so for now we're holding them back like this, but…."

Just as Licht had told them before, it did seem to be the work of the Apostle of Wrath.

"In the end, if we don't deal with the apostle, we're in danger."

"The Living Sun is a spirit user, after all. Abilities dealing with emotion aren't her strong suit."

Barely holding steady as it was, the situation was desperate enough that the Emperor had sent Licht and Drake to help.

"We greet the Heart of Iron and Blood!"

"It's Her Highness Sophitia Coldheart!! Show proper respect!"

The northerners saluted at the sight of the reinforcements who'd come with Sophitia.

Every face looked worn and exhausted from the long, drawn-out fighting.

Among them, a man with brown hair and bear ears stepped forward before the Northern Grand Duchess and knelt.

"Captain of the Guard, has the apostle still not shown itself today?"

"That's correct, my lady!"

Even rolling stones and hurling spears down from atop the sturdy walls did nothing to slow the monsters' relentless assault,

"Thanks to the Phoenix Cradle there shouldn't be any wounded, but is the food supply still holding up?"

"We have about a month's worth left."

Word was that the attacks came without a moment's rest to breathe, day or night.

"It's cold.."

With a feeling like her fingertips might drop clean off, Phine put her Masterpiece back on, and noticing this, the golden-haired woman conjured a small sun.

"Princess Phine Gransia, this should keep you warm."

"..Duchess Asha Aureus."

Watching her smile like a fox, just like Nex did, Phine suddenly remembered what Licht had told her yesterday.

"Then what about the relationship between Duchess Asha and Senior Nex?"

The Nex that Phine actually remembered had been a kind child, but after she'd shut herself away in her trauma and cut off contact, the word that reached her was that he'd turned into a delinquent.

All because his spirit had never manifested, and his own family had cast him out for it.

"Are you saying it's fine if Senior Nex and Senior Chartiness end up unhappy?"

When she'd later reunited with him alongside Chartiness, he'd turned into the meekest lamb imaginable, always joking around and playing pranks, so much so she'd thought he was a different person entirely.

Was an engagement really so important?

Getting married didn't necessarily mean becoming happy, either. The white-haired girl, Phine, couldn't find the reason the Black Knight insisted existed, for going and convincing Asha.

"If a parent can't be honest with her own child, that's something that needs fixing."

She tilted her head. The woman standing in front of her looked confident. One of the Ten Greats, protecting the people of the North without hiding a thing.

What secret could someone like Asha Aureus possibly be keeping, that she couldn't just be honest?

"Asha, spirits are creatures born from emotion.. right?"

"Ah.. yes, if you mean my phoenix, that's correct, Princess Gransia."

Watching the phoenix feathers scattering in the wind, Phine felt a flicker of doubt.

It meant that even one of the Ten Greats could awaken her emotions and come to wield a spirit, so there was no reason for her to have shut her own son out like that.

If anything, it was unnatural, contradictory even, that the very person who understood better than anyone why his spirit hadn't manifested had still tried to force him into an arranged marriage with other noble ladies.

Around the time Phine was starting to piece together what felt off, based on what Licht had told her the day before,

"Man, there sure are a lot of monsters!!"

Drake let out a booming laugh as he counted the swarming horde gathering at his feet.

"Guess I'll just have to hunt my way up the mountain, killing as I go!!"

With those words, the Grand Sword Master leapt down off the wall. He dropped in a downward-slashing stance, splitting a huge snowman's head clean in half.

"Who's gonna stop this body, huh!! Hahahaha!!"

With silver blade-strikes that cut flesh and shattered bone, blood scattered in an instant, painting the white snowfield red. The horde of monsters was being wiped away.

Watching the Dragon Slayer dive straight into battle the moment he arrived, the Living Sun pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed.

"That idiot.. still at it...."

As if this were nothing new to her, the golden-haired woman rubbed her temples, while Sophitia calculated the scene with a cold gaze, revising her strategy in real time.

"Lady Asha, Phine, let's go down too. We'll have to deal with the apostle eventually, after all."

"Yeah, got it. Sophie."

Because a spirit user became dangerous once their emotions slipped out of control,

she arranged them with Asha Aureus in the rear, Drake up front, and herself and Phine in the middle.

"It would've been perfect if that man Licht had stood up front alongside the Dragon Slayer. Too bad. Phine."

"Y-yeah, guess so."

The Northern Grand Duchess, who'd watched over the princess since childhood and had always been close with her, caught the awkwardness in Phine's lie and gave her a small, knowing look.

Because it was obvious that Phine was, on her own authority alone, keeping a capable ally locked away, one who'd slain a demon king and even received orders directly from the Emperor.

"Phine, let's talk later, okay?"

"..Huh? Talk about what..?"

Startled, Sophie watched Phine Gransia flinch like a cat caught mid-theft, and knew for certain.

A girl with snow-white wolf ears and a tail, unable to hold back feelings of love that went well beyond mere infatuation at first sight.

"Oh, nothing, just talking about a new romance novel that came out."

Just as the gigolo bastard once had for the Black Knight, the scheming Grand Duchess found her footing to offer advice to the self-righteous princess.

The Glass Knight, who'd been perfectly healthy just yesterday and suddenly caught a cold, or who used her tail to flaunt her possessiveness, claiming him as her own.

In truth, a tail was an important part of the body among beastfolk.

Letting someone wrap a hand around it, or pet it, was something almost never permitted to anyone but a mate.

Whether Phine Gransia didn't know this, or knew and was deliberately keeping the truth from the man named Licht, was another matter.

"Bearchess's book recommendations, don't they interest you? Our dear Platinum Wolf?"

"Sophie's taste has always been reliable."

If Emperor Rook had seen this, he might've flown into a rage and reached for an axe, but Sophitia couldn't help but smile a little, watching her friend flounder helplessly in love.

"So what's it about, then..?"

"A queen protecting a knight, in a game of chess."

Speaking too directly could ruin everything. Weighing the situation as it stood, it was plain to see that her friend's beloved was shut up in a room somewhere.

"..What? What's that. Weird."

Better to speak slowly, in metaphor. One wrong step here, and Phine might resort to using her power.

"Just give it a read sometime later. It's good."

"Sure, if you're the one recommending it.. maybe it's worth it."

Once she'd finished thinking it through, the black-haired bear beastfolk pulled the spear from her back and tapped the ground with it, and instantly a staircase carved of ice formed.

"Here, Princess, after you."

"Heh, thanks. Sophie."

The heavily armored Glass Knight nodded and focused her mind on clearing out the enemies ahead.

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