WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈

Chapter 123

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Episode 123. How the Queen Captures the Knight.

I went into my room and put away a few clothes.

[Chartiness ♡ Nex: 64% 'NEW!!']

Looking at the status window floating in front of me, I felt relieved. Good, it worked out the way I planned.

Honestly, what I'd said to Asha had been fairly serious.

The fact that she hadn't found it particularly strange was probably thanks to precedents like Laplace or the Sage.

This status window really is a strange thing. Given everything that's happened so far, I doubt it's tracking some simple number.

"..Still got a long way to go."

I sighed at the affection level still so far from complete, wondering what these numbers actually meant.

'They told me to protect the previous work's couplings.'

But did that "previous work" include Black Heart too? This one was the third installment, after all.

Then would a harem the player built count as a coupling too? Most of the users in the game's community had done exactly that.

If the heroines could all be duplicated, why not, they'd say.

Honestly, I'd heard it made the party stronger, gave you more content to enjoy in the game.

But I never did that. The reason was simple. Phine, the Saintess, would automatically get left out in the cold.

The Saintess route falls apart completely the moment you build a harem. As if a glass wall had gone up around her, she'd become a supporting character unable to squeeze in among the leads,

A date? Some lovey-dovey display of affection? None of that.

[Lee Suhyun ♡ Phine Gransia: 3%]

"..."

Feeling like I'd overlooked something else, I sank into thought, staring at the lettering that looked strangely different from the rest.

Since it wasn't marked as the Nameless Saintess, I had definitely twisted the future after all. So why did I feel so uneasy?

"Phine, I know you're there, so come out."

"How? I erased my presence completely with magic.."

Just then, feeling a gaze on me, I fixed my eyes on the wall of the room. Only that one spot had a slightly warped pattern.

"We share a mana circuit, remember? I can tell roughly where you are."

"Ah, ngh.. I messed up.."

Phine had followed me into my room and had been secretly watching me. She'd been hiding behind a mirror that distorted whatever stood in front of it.

I closed the distance so she couldn't run. Maybe it was some side effect of the finger-kiss, but she'd become a cowardly wolf who backed away the moment she saw me.

"Please don't run away, Phine."

Was that three percent with Phine Gransia bothering me? What kind of feeling did she actually have for me?

Even if she wasn't the Saintess anymore, meaning the narrative I'd built up so far had collapsed, and even if that meant she might hate me now.

"There's something I need to confirm."

I couldn't afford to overlook this affection level.

To save her from dying at Magic Hat's hands, the Grand Route was the only way. The developers had said as much themselves.

Personally I hated reducing love to a number, but this was the only thing I could actually trust.

"Aah, Licht. Don't scratch my chin.. it feels weird.."

"Don't dogs usually like this?"

So I decided to run one experiment, to see if the number really did rise with actual displays of affection.

I gently stroked the wolf-eared girl's chin with my finger. For a moment she flinched hard, then let herself relax into it.

"I'm... a wolf, though…."

If someone this cute counted as a wolf, then every hunter in the world would fall for her. Honestly, wasn't she more of a nine-tailed fox? Where had that shy blushing from earlier gone?

"You're a dog, alright."

"That's rich, coming from a perverted mutt…. never mind."

Phine smiled, her golden eyes curving softly. Moments like this made me think this whole beta-tester possession thing was worth it after all.

But even after all that, the affection level didn't budge. Guess Phine and I really were hard to bring together.

"This is way too smooth.. you playboy.."

"No way. Do I really look like that kind of person to you?"

The person who had saved a life I'd already thrown away once.

My body and soul might as well already be hers to decide what to do with.

Being called a playboy stung. I moved my fingers a bit more, as if tickling her.

"You like the Nameless Saintess."

"..."

Snap. She grabbed my wrist. My movement stopped under her grip.

"..Really, you're not a playboy?"

"I'm sorry."

I apologized to Phine, who looked upset.

This one really was my fault. I couldn't even tell her plainly that she herself was the person from the future.

"You should be sorry. Yeah, Licht should be very sorry."

The princess spoke as though scolding me. With her wolf ears and tail standing on end, she even looked a little sulky.

Maybe I should pet her head a lot later to make up for it. Just as I thought that,

"Licht, can we talk for a moment…."

the door burst open, and the black-haired Northern Grand Duchess stood there, horrified at what she saw Phine and me doing.

"What are you two doing..?"

"We weren't doing anything."

Purely wholesome chin-scratching, that's all. I hastily pulled my captured hand free and hid it behind my back, trying to act like nothing was going on. But,

"..Hic."

Phine's hiccups started up again, and I broke into a cold sweat.

Did she eat something bad today? She kept doing that. I should get her a cup of warm water later.

After moving to Sophitia's office, I was hit with an unexpected question.

"Licht. That thing you said earlier. Where did you hear it?"

"If you mean what I said talking with Duchess Asha?"

A place piled with mountains of paperwork, evidence everywhere of someone running the north alone.

"No, I mean what you said about looking at a person's true nature."

Her iron-blooded black eyes bored through me as if seeing straight through, and she pointed her quill pen at me like something had clicked.

"I heard it from a friend of mine."

It was something that gigolo bastard used to say to me all the time. Why would Sophitia, at this point in time, be asking about it?

"Actually, some weird guy who came to the north a few days ago said the exact same thing."

"What do you mean by weird guy?"

Come to think of it, the Grand Duchess's manner was oddly gentle. She'd always been the kind of character who stayed cold since her affection hadn't unlocked yet.

Could there be another player in this world besides me?

"A weird guy who knew there was poison in his food and ate it anyway, calling it a reward."

Ah, well, it wasn't Gi-seok, at least. Not with his personality, there was no way. He was thoroughly calculating and almost never did anything that put him at a disadvantage.

He'd advised me to try to match the person I loved, sure, but he'd also called me insane for….

"That guy actually tipped me off about you too, Licht. Said something about you being an even bigger lunatic than him."

"..Could I ask his name?"

With a hunch that it might be Kwon Gi-seok, I asked for the name. But what came out of the Grand Duchess's mouth was a nickname I'd never heard before.

"Flinz."

Flinz? Don't tell me a love line had already formed with someone else.

"..He was an interesting person. Though he left the north with some strange excuse about a possible problem with my heart."

Sophitia wore a faint smile at her mouth, as though reminiscing over a pleasant memory.

It seemed some other player or possessed soul who'd read the Northern Grand Duchess's Husband's guide post might have gotten to Sophitia first.

"By any chance, would you be open to being introduced to someone? Grand Duchess."

This was something that gigolo bastard would sob over if he ever found out, so I asked hastily. That Flinz guy even knew about the Coldheart family's hereditary heart disease.

'He'd probably been the very first to develop the cure and walk the salvation route.'

He'd even left behind a line that became legendary in the community, "if there's no event, just make one,"

He was the kind of guy who'd traveled across the entire country just to unlock her affection, and now even the chance encounter and bond he'd cultivated were about to be stolen from him. I almost felt sorry for the poor Husband guy.

"I'll decline. Nobody but someone like Flinz would satisfy me."

"..."

Despite my expectations, what came back was a cold, flat rejection. The Bearchess was back to the attitude I'd always known.

Maybe she'd been going easy on me for seeming close with Phine. Now that the white-haired princess wasn't around, she showed the imposing face of a ruler.

Was it even right for me to go stitching this love line together on my own?

'Right, if Sophitia already had someone in mind, then that gigolo bastard should just step aside.'

I decided to back off here. A person's feelings weren't something to meddle with carelessly, and that was also why I hadn't told Phine about the Nameless Saintess.

'In the end, what matters in love is the person's own will. Lee Suhyun.'

If I clung to a bond from the past and tried to manipulate the feeling called love, that wouldn't be pure love at all. Sorry, Gi-seok.

"..I'm sorry for that careless remark, Grand Duchess."

This was the right thing to do.

I was the Pure Love Black Knight, after all. I had no intention of forcing a love line together without even respecting someone else's heart.

Honestly, wasn't that basically the same as NTR?

I didn't want to believe in talk of a future lover, of fate. That was also always the reason I'd tried to keep a certain distance from Phine.

'Even if I said, "I loved your future self," it wouldn't sound convincing to whoever's hearing it.'

In the end, it would just look like I was overlaying someone else onto her present self instead.

"Alright, good, as long as you understand. I've got a question for you too. Licht."

"What question would that be? Duchess."

As if her head throbbed, Sophitia stopped her moving quill and pressed a hand to her forehead.

"Are you, by any chance, dating Phine?"

"There's no way that could be true."

Turned the tables on me there. Guess that's karma for trying to force a connection into being. I checked first whether Phine was listening.

"Then why does that girl keep clinging to you?"

I couldn't sense her nearby, but just in case, I glanced around.

"Princess Gransia. No, my friend Phine, was the brightest child you'd ever meet, back when she was little."

The Grand Duchess watched my reaction, let out a long sigh, and began telling me about Phine Gransia.

"But around ten years ago, everything changed. Licht."

A chill filled the room we were talking in. Whether it was magic, or just the effect of hearing a dark story, I couldn't say.

"Her hair, which used to be black, turned white, and the letters we used to exchange all the time just stopped."

She spoke with a chill cold enough to freeze the lungs.

So that was why Phine's hair was white despite carrying imperial blood.

I'd read a few times in books that extreme stress could do that in a single day.

"You know it was all because of Magic Hat's attack, right?"

"I know, Duchess."

It had to be the Demon King of Truth's doing.

Probably trying to seize Bellin Gransia to strengthen her own attacks. That lunatic who kept people trapped inside cards.

"That was when Phine's mother was killed too, and every servant she'd been close with, maids, butlers, all of them, died except Dizur."

Sophitia apparently didn't know Bellin Gransia had been turned into a card. The Grand Duchess rose from her seat, took up her spear, and let killing intent slowly bleed out.

"..When I saw Phine again after everything she'd gone through, she'd turned into something like an empty glass."

She said it broke her heart, watching her friend, who now always wore a Masterpiece, turn into a heavily armored Glass Knight.

Even when she suggested they have tea and talk about novels the way they used to, Phine would only say "I have to become stronger" and throw herself into sword or magic training.

"That friend of mine, Phine. She sent me a letter a few days ago. Read it."

As I read the letter the Northern Grand Duchess handed me, she leveled her spear at my throat.

"About the new hero who defeated Head…."

The cold edge of an ice-formed blade pressed against my skin, and I swallowed hard. Phine really wasn't nearby, then.

"Hi, Sophie.. Do you happen to know how to transplant a Dragon Heart…."

Don't tell me she'd written to Sophitia just to save me. I already owed her more than I could repay for the precious dragon heart she'd transplanted into me without a second thought.

"She wrote to me herself for the first time in years, for your sake, Licht."

Watching my dazed expression, the Grand Duchess kept casting her ice magic as though offended. My body started freezing from the tips of my toes.

"Tell me honestly. What do you think of our Phine?"

She was checking whether I was some rotten friend, as it turned out.

Then again, from Sophitia's perspective, I probably looked like a playboy monopolizing Phine Gransia's attention while bleeding her dry.

"What I think of Phine Gransia.. isn't that obvious?"

Already frozen up to my throat, I answered calmly anyway. My pure devotion toward Phine wasn't going to change, and it wasn't about to cool off from a chill like this.

"..I adore her."

A feeling as pure as flame.

That was exactly why I'd been avoiding her, unable to approach easily, afraid she'd get scared if she knew, afraid she'd get hurt. My answer must have satisfied her, because,

"Good. So at least you're on Phine's side, then."

The Grand Duchess dispelled all the ice magic surrounding me, gave a short laugh, and drew her spear back.

"Sorry. I thought you were some playboy using our naive Phine."

"I understand completely."

Warmth returned once more.

Being magic, the ice melted without leaving even a puddle behind, and everything from a moment ago vanished without a trace.

"So, when are you going to confess to Phine? When are you two dating? Actually, wait, who fell for who first…."

Sophitia's sudden barrage of questions made me choke.

"Gack, cough."

I'd swallowed wrong badly enough to tear up. It hurt like hell. Why was she suddenly acting like this? Was this the same person who'd nearly killed me a minute ago?

"Grand Duchess Sophitia.. there's no way a commoner and a princess could end up together.."

"Do you really believe that? This won't do."

Looking at me like I was hopeless, she pulled a book off the shelf and started reading. The title read something about famous spots in the north.

"..Guess I'll have to pull some strings as Grand Duchess."

As if some good idea had struck her, the Northern Grand Duchess smiled meaningfully, wearing a devilish grin.

Something told me it'd be bad news if I kept talking to her.

After coughing kept up until my choking finally eased, the soft sunlight filling the office made me glance to the side.

Something glinting caught my eye, and

"What's that chess set?"

"Ah, Flinz brought that here."

Looking at the black-and-white chess pieces carved from crystal, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu. That was the same set I'd seen while fighting the Demon King of Harmlessness.

"What kind of person is this Flinz? Duchess."

On the hunch that he might be someone I knew, I asked the bear-eared woman in front of me,

"He's a bit eccentric, but a brilliant strategist."

"By any chance, does he rarely leave his room and seem like the type to pull people's strings from behind the scenes?"

I listed off the traits I remembered of him from our guild days. If I was the type who cleared bosses with mechanical skill and memorized strategy,

he was the type who solved puzzles and mazes through pure calculation and logic. Good enough that even a developer who loved hiding easter eggs had acknowledged him for it.

"Right? At first I thought he was just some bear mooching off free meals in my palace."

"Good at chess too? Good enough to force even you into a stalemate, Duchess?"

"That's right. Even I was surprised."

Sophitia nodded vigorously, and I threw one last question at her, wide-eyed like a startled rabbit, to confirm it for certain.

"What color was his hair? And his eyes?"

"White hair…. and red eyes. Don't tell me you know him?"

Yeah, that's definitely the bastard I know.

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