WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈
Chapter 126
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Episode 126. How the Queen Captures the Knight.
My face was burning hot, like it might explode.
A person with pure white hair had come up right beside me. And with nothing but a single towel, she was practically naked.
"Licht, you have a lot of muscle.. it's fascinating."
"..."
Phine Gransia's golden eyes shone as she slowly looked over my body.
It's because I trained hard enough to actually put on muscle. When I first got possessed, I didn't have any at all.
Drake had told me at first that I just wasn't built to hold a sword. So I'd made the effort to swing it all through the night if that's what it took.
"Hehe, so firm.."
Splash. A damp, wet hand touched my arm. Phine's hand, small and soft.
She kept touching me lightly, like playing piano keys, checking over my muscles.
"Other men don't have much muscle, because of mana."
"It's because I train with Master Drake."
Even her wolf ears had drooped back. Phine. I'd noticed her sneaking glances for a while now. Guess she has a thing for muscles.
"I find you more fascinating, Phine."
"Why..?"
"How does a body like that have that much strength...."
I'm the one who finds you more fascinating. How is it that just because you're Emperor Rook's own daughter, you end up with that much raw strength?
In contrast to my own body, Phine's looked soft and pliant, without a single trace of muscle.
"..Pervert."
"I'm sorry."
My eyes had drifted to the most prominent part of Phine's body, and she'd pinched my arm for it lightly. I couldn't help it. It was force majeure.
"It's genetic."
"I know. You're His Majesty the Emperor's daughter."
Phine kept talking while now kneading my arm. A soft "hehe" sounded right beside my ear.
"Licht, no matter how I look at it, your body isn't built for swordsmanship at all."
"How did you know?"
It's what my teachers always told me. Wherever I'd rolled in from, they said I didn't have a shred of talent as a swordsman.
Since I couldn't even use mana, there was no way to make up for my lacking physical ability either.
They said I'd be better suited to farming out in some backwater than swinging a sword.
Some hint of potential had shown as training gradually brought out whatever talent I had, but the fact I never gave up on the sword until now was entirely thanks to Phine.
"My eyes are just a little better than most people's, Licht."
Ever since I fell into this world, maybe I'd been living just to see that expression on her face. Because this time, I wanted so badly to give her a happy ending.
Being the only one left unhappy is just sad, isn't it.
"You must have had it so rough.."
Phine was stroking my helmet. Maybe she was unhappy that the hard steel kept her from my hair, because she puffed her cheeks out a little like something didn't quite sit right with her.
"I just did what needed doing."
"But you took down a Demon King.. and dealt with an Apostle too…."
Phine listed off everything I'd done so far. She stopped petting me and spread her fingers, counting them off.
"You're my hero, Licht."
Honestly, compared to everything she'd given me, it was nothing, a drop in the bucket.
"It's nothing compared to the debt of gratitude I owe you."
"All I gave you was the Dragon Heart and some swordsmanship…."
Setting aside the fact she'd saved my life, I was falling more and more under the spell of Phine's warm heart.
"You bought me good food, and even gave me chocolate cake, didn't you?"
Honestly, even back when she was Mardol, I'd always had feelings for her, so I could never put up the same wall with her that I did with other women.
Even with the Heavenly Demon or Ariel, I always kept my distance.
"..No, it's still nowhere near enough compared to what you gave me."
Just then, Phine slowly closed the distance and pressed her shoulder against my arm.
"Licht, is it okay if I stay like this..?"
"Do as you like.."
Whether it was the hot spring's warmth melting away both body and mind, Phine closed in even closer beside me. Even now I could hear the sound of her breath right next to me.
"Licht…. what do you think of me?"
"Do I really have to say it out loud?"
Thud, her wet hair brushed against my shoulder.
The moment I felt a faint weight and something felt off, she leaned her head against my shoulder and spoke.
"Yeah, otherwise.. I get anxious."
"You don't have to be anxious."
Maybe this was the only way she could feel at ease. She'd done the same thing when she'd been drinking at the festival, always rubbing her head against me.
"But.. Licht, you worked so hard for that saintess person, didn't you?"
"It's not even really worth calling effort."
"Liaar.."
Was she still holding onto her doubts about the Nameless Saintess?
"I'm a princess, Licht."
"..."
"I always thought that in life, I could have anything I wanted."
A pang. Her words dug straight into me. Right now she wasn't the saintess, she was Phine Gransia, the princess.
"..And then you showed up."
She was slowly building toward it, like she was cornering me, closing off every way out. A man who carried the Drake style swordsmanship no one else had ever inherited.
"At first, I definitely.. I envied you for being strong. But now.."
She must have genuinely wanted it. Ironically, some trivial point of contact like that was what had ended up connecting the two of us.
"I envy you for being the Black Knight who fell for the Nameless Saintess and gave everything to her."
Phine's voice had started turning cold. It felt strange, like I'd become a criminal under interrogation.
Even if I told her the truth now, wouldn't she just end up putting on the saintess robes and imitating her polite speech?
I had to stop this. That wasn't pure love, or anything close to it.
"I'm your Black Knight right now, Phine."
"That's just words, Licht."
Even bringing back the same words I'd used to reassure her when she'd been caught by the Apostle of Wrath's power, it just came boomeranging right back at me.
"You only said that because of the Apostle, it was a lie."
"It wasn't, Phine."
Phine was gradually laying bare the feelings she'd kept bottled up, almost like she was pouting, as if scolding me for how I couldn't easily approach her and kept running from her because of my burn scar.
"Liar.. that saintess person. Is she really pretty? Or does she look like me?"
Her tone was getting more and more emotional. When I first went looking for you, I thought you'd be exactly the Nameless Saintess I knew.
I never expected I'd have to think of you as such a different person. Phine.
"The white hair matches exactly. As for being pretty…. yes, she's extremely beautiful."
She's literally the same person. Lying and saying she didn't look like her felt like it'd get found out anyway. She's the one who even showed up in my dreams to sternly warn me not to cheat.
"So in the end, Licht, you're just an idiot for a pretty face too, aren't you..?"
"Her face is lovely, sure, but it was her heart I fell for."
You, the actual saintess, made the worst first impression, honestly. Even after you transformed into the Glass Knight, it was your heart I fell for.
Sometimes you fall for a love interest based on looks, but sometimes it's the story or the setting that gets you.
"..I can tell from your face you mean it. That just makes me hate it more."
Her voice had turned sharp as a blade. A grinding sound, like she was gritting her molars, sent a chill down my spine.
"Then are you seeing me as a stand-in for her? No, if that were true.. you wouldn't have pushed me away either."
"..."
"I'm jealous of the Nameless Saintess.. Licht.. she gets your love.."
It felt exactly like being the boyfriend who has to soothe an angry girlfriend. The narrow way of thinking I'd picked up after getting badly burned was the real problem.
"You're the only one I have.. I want.. to have you, Licht.."
But Phine Gransia still didn't know love. Mixing up gratitude with affection, or obsession with love, that's a common enough mistake.
To become a saintess who preached the gospel of pure love, she knew too much, and her wounds ran too deep.
"Phine, what do you think love is?"
If I was the one making Phine anxious, then the fault was mine. Since we'd already come this far, I might as well ask something I'd been curious about for a while.
"I don't know things like that.."
The pure-white woman shook her head, showing her refusal.
"Is there some other reason you're so fixated on kissing?"
Even though she kept looking at me asking to kiss, and even tried to do the same thing when she'd been hit by the Apostle of Wrath.
"In the novels I used to read…. doing it means you treasure each other.."
Phine was a wolf who got scared and ran the moment I actually leaned in to do it myself. She'd even get so startled she'd start hiccuping.
"Love isn't some light feeling you can complete just by kissing."
"But, all men are wolves, aren't they.. my father said so.."
I turned to Phine and met her eyes. Please don't try to compare me to other men. To begin with, even knowing everything I knew about the game, I'd come all this way looking only at you.
"Do I really look the same as other men to you, Phine?"
"But the way you act is a total playboy's..?"
Of course, I was a man with a libido too, so my reason had lost the battle here and there.
Even so, even with her wearing nothing but a towel right now, I was doing everything I could not to cross the line.
Phine's figure was so devastating it was hard not to look.
The inside of my mouth was practically numb from biting down to keep my sanity.
"Even without anything like a kiss, I already treasure you."
"I know it's real.. but I'm anxious.."
Anyone else might have just tackled a wolf who didn't know love and made her a captive of desire, but I was straining every muscle to hold back.
Because that isn't love.
"I'm scared that if the saintess really shows up, I'll lose you, Licht.."
With her wet hair still clinging to her shoulder, Phine fidgeted, pressing her fingers together, showing her anxiety.
"What would it take to prove it to you, Phine?"
"A kiss…. is that really out of the question?"
Maybe she'd noticed that Phine the saintess and I had never had any real point of contact as lovers, because the princess had been pushing for physical closeness ever since before we even came north.
"Then, would you like to just feel like we did it?"
I had to make a decision, having come this far. Phine was so pure she genuinely believed that kissing without even dating would make her fall in love.
She wasn't a prince or princess out of a fairy tale, either. Being pure was fine and all, but she didn't know the way of the world to an almost extreme degree.
"Huh..? Another finger kiss?"
"No, that's not it."
I figured I'd better teach her a lesson, as an example. It'd be a problem if she reacted this way to bad men approaching her with impure intentions too.
"In another country I know of, apparently people greet each other with a kiss on the cheek."
"W-wait a second. Don't tell me you…."
The moment I said it, Phine startled so badly she even splashed the water with her feet.
The cute little wolf, who'd been asking for a kiss just a moment ago, shook her head now that even a cheek kiss was off the table.
"N-no.. Licht.."
I gently caught the wrist of the hand she tried to pull back with. She flinched, startled for a moment, and her cheeks flushed a little. Her gaze dropped down after that.
"Really.. a kiss on the cheek.. are you going to?"
It was strange, watching the tension slowly drain from her as she lowered her arm. Even her wolf ears folded back, showing she liked it.
"..."
I answered with silence instead.
Love is something words fall short of, and actions can't quite reach either. Maybe she understood what I meant, because Phine closed her eyes and waited for what I was about to do.
To meet that expectation, I brought my lips close to Phine's cheek, then,
Smack.
I made the sound with my mouth without any actual contact. A proper bisou cheek greeting has to be just the sound, without the lips ever touching.
I wasn't some blond-haired vampire out of some story, and I genuinely had no intention of stealing her first kiss.
Phine's shoulders were trembling faintly. Was she scared even from just the sound?
"..Nngh."
If she was already like this from just a bisou, how was I supposed to actually kiss her to teach her the difference between love and obsession?
I held her shoulders with both hands so Phine wouldn't feel anxious.
Smooch.
A bit of mischief kicked in, and I deliberately drew the sound out a little longer.
"Haahh.."
Phine's body jolted and shook. She was way too pure. Did she actually not even know how kissing worked?
"I think this should give you a sense of what it feels like."
I gave her shoulders a light squeeze to tell her not to be nervous, and successfully finished, in total, two contact-free cheek kisses.
"..Ah."
Phine let out a small breath, mouth still open. With her skin flushed red down to her neck and her hands covering her face, she looked exactly like a rabbit.
"My lips didn't actually touch your cheek, I just made the sound. That's how it's supposed to be done as a greeting."
"Ahh.."
Even as I kept talking, Phine still hadn't recovered from the shock, eyes squeezed shut, letting out one sigh after another.
"..Phine? Can you hear me?"
Worried she might be dizzy from staying in the hot spring too long, I anxiously asked if she was alright, and she jumped in surprise.
"I-is it over..?"
Only now did she finally peek at me through the gaps between her fingers. It had been over for a while already, yet the glass cannon was still trying to steady her ragged breathing.
"Yes. It's all over."
"Hic. Hup."
Phine had started hiccuping again. She kept fanning herself with her hand, turned away with her back to me. A complete reversal from her attitude a moment ago.
"So, from now on, please save that for someone you truly love, Phine."
That should have been more than enough to convey how much I treasured Phine. Even without ever kissing her, how I felt about her wouldn't change.
"Save kisses for a lover, not for me."
"Okay. Licht.."
A kiss is something you're supposed to do when you love each other. Watching Phine get completely wrecked by just a cheek kiss, I figured her obsession with me had probably finally faded, right around when I was thinking that.
"Licht. I, I'm going to head out first…. s-something urgent came up..!"
She dashed out of the hot spring ahead of me, heading outside. She'd run off in such a hurry she nearly tripped once. I wondered if she was really okay.
"..Was that too much?"
But it was just a sound, no actual contact at all. And besides, I'd taken down a whole Demon King, so I figured I deserved at least this much as a reward.
And honestly, I'd wanted to try it with our Phine at least once, too.
* * *
Phine Gransia couldn't get her pounding heart under control.
Carrying a heartbeat she couldn't tell was her own or Licht's, she ran toward the exit of the hot spring.
"A kiss on the cheek.."
"I actually did it.. with Licht.."
Phine sat down on the edge of something in some corner and replayed what had just happened. In truth, it had been a cheek kiss that never even touched her cheek, only the sound of it.
Every time the man in the Black Knight's helmet made that smacking sound, she'd felt dizzy, her head spinning, and for an instant it felt like every thread holding her reason together had snapped.
'From now on…. with someone you truly love….'
It was nothing like the kiss Phine had always imagined.
Even the paragraphs of description a romance novel would spend on it wouldn't have been enough space to capture the shock she'd just felt.
"What.... is love?"
The moment it occurred to her that people in love did things even more embarrassing than that, Phine shook her head over and over, trying to shake off the shameless fantasy.
"..."
Phine, who'd thought that if it went this far she'd surely win him over, felt a deep regret. Other men, after all, so often looked at her with lecherous eyes.
"He's.. different from other men.."
If they'd actually kissed, she could have had him locked up for life on the charge of touching a princess, made him hers for good.
Just as a queen alone struggles to capture a knight in chess, Licht had slipped away, skillfully.
"..So Licht really does treasure me, too."
Even with a cheek kiss that never touched. Just as the thought crossed her mind, that at this rate he really might have had an actual relationship with that saintess before,
"Phine?"
A familiar man's voice reached her, and when she lifted the head she'd had bowed low, she found a tall man in front of her, the long scar on his arm impossible to miss.
"Ah.. L-Licht?"
"Weren't you saying you had something urgent..?"
Even though Licht had deliberately spent a bit more time in the hot spring before coming out, Phine's embarrassment still hadn't faded, and she'd ended up sitting right at the entrance leading to the changing room.
"I-I'm going to my room right now!"
Not even sure what she was saying anymore, Phine bolted toward the women's changing room.
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