WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈

Chapter 117

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Episode 117. Even a Rose Made of Glass Has Thorns.

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The Northern Grand Duchess and her reinforcements were absorbed in the search for the Apostle of Wrath.

A mountain where the snow had fallen white, turning the whole world pure white.

In that place, four figures were cutting through a horde of monsters closing in violently.

Even deer and rabbits, ordinarily gentle creatures, seemed to have fallen prey to the apostle's power, charging in to sink their teeth into them,

"If we get surrounded, it's dangerous!"

The strategist Grand Duchess took command at the front. It was a moment where her quick, brilliant mind truly shone.

"Bwahahahaha!! I know that already!!"

Drake drew a longsword as tall as he was from his back, and with a booming laugh, brought the monsters to a halt.

The swordsmanship the Dragon Slayer used was subtly different from Licht's, more like a variation on what he'd originally practiced.

「Light-and-Shadow Cut!!」

He was, after all, the founder of the Drake Style swordsmanship, and he'd once even shown Licht that it could be applied this way.

Not as strong as his ultimate technique, but a reinforced version of the same "concept" as Shadow Slash, cutting a dark target to inflict damage on something bright.

"This should clear out what's in front!!"

With that long, horizontal slash, the monsters before him were snuffed out like candles in the wind.

"Thank you, Dragon Slayer..!"

"You're the daughter of Iron and Blood, no need for thanks!"

The Northern Grand Duchess swung her spear, its tip formed of ice, blocking the fangs and claws of bears and wolves alike, her long black hair whipping in the wind,

"Sophie, watch out."

"Thanks, Phine."

Beside her, Princess Phine Gransia conjured glass duplicates of herself to guard her, sword strikes landing from clones that looked like transparent illusions.

"..She really is Rook's daughter."

Watching dozens of heavily armored knights hold the flanks, Asha Aureus murmured quietly, too soft for anyone to hear.

Power that could pulverize even a solid ice golem in an instant, resembling the might of Emperor Rook she'd once witnessed in war long ago.

It made no sense that such raw strength could come from a frame so slight, but if she carried the blood of one of the Ten Greats, it was plausible enough.

Nex, too, had a natural gift for spirits, he simply hadn't awakened it yet.

「Helios Midnight.」

Asha, just like someone else she knew, floated a massive sun into the air, its heat keeping the surrounding monsters from being able to close in.

"This should hold them off here for now, everyone."

Since her golden phoenix spirit was currently patrolling the North's defensive line to block any enemies from breaking through, she could only use weaker techniques here.

It would've been nice to use the Phoenix Cradle like before Licht's group arrived, but that would tie her to its fixed range, unable to move.

In the end, unless the apostle was dealt with, this was bound to become a war of attrition. Unable to use her spirit properly, the Living Sun stayed in the rear.

At that moment, golden wolf eyes inside a glass helmet had already sensed something wrong.

"Sophie. Every single one of these things, something's off about them."

"Phine? What's off?"

Something a little unnatural for creatures supposedly consumed by rage had caught Phine's eye. Weren't they attacking almost like a trained army?

They looked like nothing more than a disorganized rabble of low-level monsters, but the speed of their charge was consistent. And on top of that, they never fought among themselves.

"..Someone's giving them orders."

"So you thought so too, huh."

Hearing that, the Grand Duchess's black bear ears drooped as a bad feeling settled over her.

"They even tried to bring down Kaprostia's walls, after all."

In fact, it had seemed suspicious from the start, the way they slammed their heads against the walls the North had built, trying to bring them down. If it were simple, mindless rage, they'd have had no reason to come down from the mountain at all.

"If they ever broke into the northern territory and enraged the people there, it'd be dangerous, so…."

Sophitia, who'd already noticed this beforehand, spoke up. The movements of her whirling spear grew faster,

"..That's part of why I asked the Empire for help."

She took the basic stance Licht had once shown her, then immediately flowed into a variation, shifting into a downward strike.

「White Bear Smash.」

Craaack. A bear carved of ice formed from the tip of Sophitia Coldheart's spear, and the stark white bear raked its claws across the ground with tremendous force, tearing into the enemy.

It was an attack powerful enough to shake the earth, but the enemy's assault showed no sign of letting up.

"Phine, honestly, the area around us should have been more or less cleared out by now."

Watching the monsters throw themselves forward without any fear of death, undeterred by Asha's spirit magic, Drake's swordsmanship, Phine's glass magic, or her own spearwork, she spoke in a calm tone.

"But no, that's not it!! These things don't know the fear of death!! Just like that disciple of mine!!"

"..Licht."

The Grand Sword Master kept unleashing sword strikes similar to a Reverse Scale Pierce, popping enemies like balloons one after another, but the enraged monsters just kept climbing over the growing pile of corpses.

"Asha, let's just burn out this whole area."

"Understood, Grand Duchess."

Sophitia pulled a small bottle from inside her coat, a hip flask that looked like it held liquor. With a click, the cap popped open, and

"That smells like vodka, Sophie."

The princess, a werewolf with a keen nose, caught the scent of what was inside.

"So what? We're not kids anymore like back then, we're adults now, Phine."

Vodka. Northerners, living in the cold, sometimes drank strong liquor to forget the chill.

"I always liked beer better…."

Watching her friend catch on, the Northern Grand Duchess smiled a little. Phine felt a strange sense of unfamiliarity at that expression, but

"Dragon Slayer, catch!"

the Grand Duchess immediately threw the bottle toward Drake, leaving no time to dwell on that brief, odd shift.

"Bwahahaha!! Oh, I know this one!"

Drake reset his stance to use a slightly twisted variant of the Void Slash. The weakness of the swordsmanship he'd created was that it took a long time to wind up and required a telegraphed motion beforehand.

「Void Dragon Slash!!」

Unlike the version Licht used, blades of wind flew out shaped like dragons. Hydra-like, many-headed dragons appeared,

"Drake, I've told you this before, give some kind of signal."

The bottle the Northern Grand Duchess had thrown earlier was sliced clean through by the sword energy, like paper. In that instant, its contents scattered forward on the wind.

"It's hard to sync up with a meathead."

Asha Aureus snapped her fingers, summoning a small flame. At the same moment, a little sparrow shot forward like a bird of fire.

「Phoenix Ignition.」

Whoosh. Golden feathers scattered through the air as the two techniques merged. Blades of wind turned to flame swept forward and burned every monster in front of them at once.

"This is dangerous. The fire's spreading.."

As sparks flew off into places they shouldn't and the fire threatened to spread, Phine put up a wall of glass to hold it back,

and the monsters that kept pouring in from all around were now blocked by the wall and flames, so no matter how many charged in, blind with rage, they just kept burning to death, over and over.

As soon as a moment's breathing room finally opened up,

"Phine, you seem different somehow."

"So do you, Sophie."

Seeing that, the Northern Grand Duchess perked her bear ears, showing interest. Not to be outdone, the princess noticed the change in her friend's demeanor too and shot right back.

"You caught it? Someone new came to the North."

A smile unlike anything you'd expect from a woman with a heart of ice like Sophitia.

"..Who is it?"

Watching her, Phine felt a small flicker of kinship. Her once-cold friend suddenly seemed so much brighter.

After all, if the Black Knight hadn't come into her own life, she'd probably have ended up as lonely and sad as the Sophitia she remembered.

"How should I put it, a strange man who's amazing at chess?"

"A strange man..?"

Still not quite able to accept this sudden change in Sophitia, Phine kept tilting her head, trying to figure out who this person could be.

A man good at chess. Well, it wasn't Licht, at least. He'd never played chess when he was with her, and he hadn't seemed to know the Northern Grand Duchess at all.

The Glass Knight, who'd nearly let jealousy slip out, barely managed to calm herself.

"Right, at first I thought he was just some bear of a man, holed up in my palace, eating me out of house and home."

Sophitia, surveying the cleared monsters and gathering her bearings, smiled as she thought of the man who'd left such a strong impression in her memory,

"I invited him to dinner meaning to poison him.. and he said the strangest thing."

"Sophie, you were trying to do that again..?"

She brought up a chilling story that didn't match her expression at all. Goosebumps rising, Phine wrapped her arms around her own shoulders and shuddered.

This was simply how Sophitia Coldheart operated, the ruler of the North who dealt with anyone she judged not to be on her side, exactly this way.

Having lost her father in a war long ago, she'd grown ruthless toward people in general, and quickly.

"At first I thought the apostle was up at the summit, Phine."

Her explanation continued along the lines that it was the only reason monsters who mostly lived near the peak would come all the way down to the foot of the mountain. But Sophie shook her head.

"But then that guy told me, something about how the Apostle of Wrath was probably using bait, or whatever."

"Huh? Sophie..? Over there…."

Phine pointed at a cave that had been revealed once the great blaze burned away everything around it. No monsters came pouring out of it,

"We talked it over and came to an agreement, that it was probably hiding somewhere deep in the mountain, somewhere safe."

and only powerful enemies were stationed around it, as if determined to hold that ground.

"Guess it turned out just like that guy said.."

Only then did the Northern Grand Duchess nod, as if things had finally gone as expected. Weighing the enemy, she judged that a surprise strike could finish it off.

"Anyway, once the conversation ended, he shoveled the poisoned food straight into his mouth. I tried to stop him right away, but it was too late."

"Ugh. What did you do..?"

Pointing at the cave, the Northern Grand Duchess signaled to Drake and Asha nearby and readied herself to move in.

"He collapsed right at the table. I barely managed to get the poison out of him."

"Sophie, that's awful.."

"Me? Ha, Phine, that's because you didn't see what that bastard did."

The other enraged monsters couldn't cross over, blocked by the glass wall and flames. Watching them, she let out a short laugh and tossed a remark at the Glass Knight.

"Turns out he was a lunatic who ate it even after realizing it was poisoned."

"..."

"Said something about how poison from me, the Grand Duchess, was a reward or whatever…. Strange man, that one, in any case."

She frowned as if reliving the memory, but a faint curve had drawn itself across her lips. It didn't seem to be a memory she disliked.

"..Sounds a lot like Licht."

"And then he suddenly said he had to go fix my heart, and up and left the North just like that. An idiot, too."

Sophitia drove her spear hard into the ground once more.

As if showing the dignity of the one who ruled the Land of Iron and Blood.

"I'm perfectly fine, though. I have no idea what he's up to by now. Honestly."

With a crack, a single flower of ice bloomed and froze solid the high-ranking monsters blocking the cave entrance.

"He mentioned that Licht guy, or whatever his name was, that hero before too. Phine."

"What..? Seriously..?"

Leaving the enemies now turned to ice sculptures behind her, she took a step into the dim, bottomless-looking cave.

"Said the one who looks like the Black Knight is even crazier than he is, so watch out."

"Crazier than the man you're talking about..?"

The black-haired girl with a ponytail badmouthed a certain Black Knight who wasn't even there to defend himself.

"Yeah, that's why I tested him out last time."

Feeling like her precious person was being talked down, Phine puffed out her cheeks and sulked inside her glass helmet, but

"Can't have a pervert hanging around our noble princess, after all."

"..Guess that's fair, too."

In the end, since it was a fair point, she had no choice but to agree.

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