WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈
Chapter 128
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Episode 128. The Professors Are Moving Too Fast.
* * *
Second semester had begun at Grand Hearts Academy, now that the Demon Kings' assault had passed.
Autumn, when maple leaves fell and dead leaves scattered on the wind.
A cool breeze blew as I stepped out after unpacking my things in the dormitory building, its repairs now finished.
The neatly cut stone path felt good underfoot with every step. Had they repaved it?
"Licht, you're back!"
"Greetings, Kainel."
The blond hero threw an arm around my shoulders from behind, appearing out of nowhere. Had Kainel and Ariel gone back to spend time in their hometown?
"Hey, Helmet guy!"
The red-haired mage had drawn slightly closer to the hero than before.
Seems like their affection level only rises when I'm the one making it happen. It hadn't budged at all over the break.
'It updates slowly, too, and I couldn't even check the gigolo bastard's name from here.'
Maybe the status window only shows it once I personally confirm or observe the relationship myself. It had been the same with Nex, and with Baek-Mokryeon and Dennis too.
While I was sorting through my questions about the status window, Ariel spoke to me.
"Helmet guy, where'd Mardol go?"
"Oh. Mardol?"
She was asking after Phine Gransia, who'd vanished from her side.
When it was just the two of us, we used the name Phine; in front of others, we'd agreed to go by the alias Mardol.
If word got out that she was a princess, she'd draw far too much attention. The other nobles at the academy would find her an easy target.
Even if it came out eventually, I figured it was only right to respect her wishes on the matter.
"..There she is."
I pointed toward the heavily armored Glass Knight standing among the trees in the distance. She'd been keeping way too much distance ever since that kiss on the cheek up north.
Phine flinched, her body trembling now that she knew I'd noticed her. We shared a mana circuit now, so I always knew exactly where she was.
I'd sent a few evening greetings her way through telepathy magic, but the only reply I ever got back was a cute little voice muttering, 'Perverted mutt….'
"Mardol, is something wrong? Come here!"
"Ariel.. stop it.."
Phine stood there clutching a leafy branch in both hands. Did she really think that would hide her? Ariel, unable to just watch, grabbed her arm and dragged her over.
"Hello, Mardol."
Embarrassed by what she'd just done, Phine clasped her hands behind her back to hide them. I lifted my visor to greet her, so she wouldn't feel afraid.
"Licht.. hi.."
Even though I'd deliberately shown her a gentle expression, Phine answered timidly, her voice trailing off to almost nothing.
"What, what's with you two..?"
"..."
Sharp as ever, Ariel's eyes went wide as she watched whatever was going on between Phine and me.
There was no easy answer to give. How was I supposed to explain that the two of us had bathed together at a hot spring up north and kissed on the cheek? I shut my visor again quickly, afraid she'd catch me blushing.
"..Licht, did you get your course registration sorted?"
"Ah, of course."
Yellow Dog changed the subject to break the awkward air that had settled over us. The university's course lineup had changed now that second semester had started.
"Just the required general-ed courses alone were enough to fill my schedule."
"Well, you're still a freshman. Come sophomore year, it'll probably line up with your own specialty."
Did that mean I'd be stuck with Master Drake all the way until graduation? The man looked down on mana manipulation for dulling your reflexes, so he'd probably just work me to death with drills.
"First period is Professor Dennis's class."
The class marking the start of the day was <Applications of Combat Magic>.
It was a course you could only take as a continuation after finishing the fundamentals in first semester, and now it was being taught by the original protagonist, free at last from the Demon King's authority, showing us the applications himself.
"Mardol. Let's go."
"Hnn.."
I took Phine's hand and walked with her toward the building where our class was held. If she was going to keep her distance, then this time I'd just have to be the one to close it.
Besides, I couldn't even use magic without her. Phine kept making strange little noises, but I decided to just ignore it. Maybe if I took the initiative a little like this, the hero couple would take a hint too.
* * *
Dennis, when I saw him in the lecture hall, looked better than I'd ever seen him. No longer pickled in liquor.
"Welcome, everyone. I'm Dennis, and I'll be teaching <Applications of Combat Magic> this semester."
The eyes that used to glow white had returned to their original blue, and his trademark drunken stagger was gone, replaced by confident, upright bearing.
"Most of you probably saw me first semester, but this course is going to take the specialty you learned back then to another level entirely. For example."
Dennis drew a crosshair with a piece of chalk.
"..The world we live in is made up of spatial coordinates along the x, y, and z axes, plus the timeline along the t axis."
Maybe because he'd quit drinking so abruptly, his hands trembled slightly, but a faint smile bloomed across his face. Of course it would, now that he'd been reunited with the Heavenly Demon.
"Theoretically, if you knew both the spatial coordinates and the timeline, travel to another world wouldn't even be impossible."
So did that mean I could go home without even finishing the Grand Route? I glanced at Phine sitting beside me for a moment, then shook my head and pushed the unworthy thought away.
There were still three Demon Kings left. I had to give everyone their happy ending before I went anywhere. Phine startled the moment our eyes met and snapped her textbook shut.
It looked like she'd been drawing something while looking at me instead of the blackboard. But the question that had just occurred to me vanished instantly the moment Dennis called out Kainel's name.
"Kainel."
"Yes."
Dennis broke off mid-sentence to point his chalk at the blond-haired hero. Kainel answered calmly.
"Kainel's affinity is light, and the swordsmanship he uses looks to be in that same vein."
"That's correct, Professor Dennis."
The blue-haired professor resumed his explanation, citing techniques like 「Shine Strike」 as an example. He opened one palm and conjured a three-dimensional magic circle.
"Kainel. If light could move faster than the speed of time, what do you think would happen?"
"..What would happen?"
As a hush settled over the lecture hall, Dennis smiled boldly and set the satellites of the magic circle spinning.
The satellites gathered speed until they looked like a single unbroken ring, tearing gashes around the massive magic circle and breaking it apart.
"See for yourself."
After a moment the spinning stopped, and what came into view was a three-dimensional magic circle with its surface chewed away, like a bug gnawing through a leaf.
"Like this, it's possible to scrape away at the timeline itself."
I'd seen something like this on TV a long time ago. There was that hero who wore red underwear over blue tights with a cape, right? Flying against the planet's rotation to turn back time, or something like that.
"What exactly do you mean by scraping the timeline?"
"It's still all theoretical for now. But it might be possible to alter, or even erase, a specific moment in time."
Dennis opened his palm once more and enlarged the magic circle. I noticed the ones he tended to favor.
"Huh..? One of the magic circles over there looks strange! Professor!"
Ariel was the first to notice something off, pointing at one of the altered circles. Dennis nodded, as if it were exactly what he'd intended.
"That's definitely the 「Heavy Rain」 magic circle, but something's different about it!"
"That's right, what Ariel said is correct."
It was like someone had carved just the crust out of a pizza, if that makes sense. The spell that once called down steady rain had been transformed into one that summoned a sudden downpour instead.
"This spell is unmistakably meant to bring rainfall. And yet it's changed into a sudden shower. Can anyone explain why?"
"Because you tampered with the 'time' it takes for the rain to fall, right? Professor!"
"Correct, Ariel."
A genuine genius mage, as always. Ariel solved even the toughest, most convoluted questions in a single stroke. Watching the protagonists talk to each other never got old.
"The limit Kainel, with his light magic, should aim for might just be this direction."
"Light that.. defies time.."
Kainel stared at it, frozen like someone who'd just been struck by something. And no wonder, since the very concept of light being 'fast' had just reached into an entirely different concept, that of 'time' itself.
"By the time this course is over, you'll be able to use your own specialties to touch other 'concepts' as well."
Professor Dennis rested both hands on the lectern as he laid out what we'd be learning next. Seeing him this sober, this clear-headed, was honestly kind of moving.
"Magic is a discipline that defies the physical laws of reality."
Dennis drew a breath and slowly picked up where he'd left off. You used mana to override the laws of nature. Wrap it around your body, and it let you move at speeds you never could otherwise,
"Challenge the limits alongside me, everyone."
Magic was what granted weapons and gear their attack or defense power. A hero of light who could scrape away the timeline itself, now that would be something.
'The Kainel I remembered from the game never had anything like that. Is it because I've twisted things too far off course?'
Honestly, even the fact that Dennis was already free of Head's curse didn't make sense as things stood.
According to the original timeline, he wasn't supposed to reunite with the Heavenly Demon until right around the ending of <Knight Heart>.
Well, good things are good things. It wasn't right for an entire history of shared happiness to just get erased by falling victim to the authority of Erasure of Knowledge.
Saving Phine was part of it, sure, but it was right for these two to meet each other early as well.
'If I hadn't been here, they wouldn't have reunited for at least another five years.'
If luck hadn't gone my way and I'd failed to take care of Head, the two of them might have gone on missing each other for ten more years. A sense of accomplishment lifted my shoulders a little, filling me with pride.
"This week, I'll be checking over the magic each of you has."
Just as Dennis was about to call students' names off the roll one by one, a mischievous look crossed his face, as if a good idea had suddenly occurred to him.
"Licht."
"Yes. Professor."
I was first up. Wasn't he supposed to go in alphabetical order?
Dennis called me up and looked me over head to toe. I couldn't cast magic on my own, but if I laced fingers with Phine, I'd manage just fine.
I finally had enough peace of mind to actually enjoy this class.
"What do you think the difference between a dragon and a human is?"
Dennis had been quiet for a long while before finally throwing this question my way. Was it because of the Dragon Heart implanted in my body?
"..I'd guess it's the difference in their mana capacity."
It wasn't like I'd ever played as a dragonkin. To someone who'd played the whole game as Licht, an ordinary human character, this wasn't exactly a familiar question.
I scraped together what game knowledge I had and answered as best I could. Dragons were, at their core, creatures that survived by preying on other mana-bearing beings.
The strong devouring the strong. That was what a dragon was.
"That's right. If the average human's mana capacity is about a single drop of wine,"
They also had a strong possessive streak, hoarding treasure in their lairs and the like, but that didn't seem to be the answer he was looking for. Dennis, after all, had to know exactly what was sitting inside my body.
"then a dragon's mana capacity is about the size of an oak barrel."
"That's quite a lot."
"The source of mana is the heart. Which is why a Dragon Heart fetches such a high price."
I'd known it was a pricey item to sell back at a shop, but I hadn't realized it was worth this much. It was a moment that left me grateful all over again to Phine, who'd gone and implanted something that precious in me without a second thought, just to save my life.
"Then again, it'd probably be better for you to meet the party in question directly, rather than just hearing an explanation from me."
"What do you mean…"
Fwiit. Dennis stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out a whistle. A black shadow fell across the academy.
"My wife tends to get pretty anxious if I leave her alone too long, you see."
"No way.."
"Everyone else, go ahead and say hello too. Ranked second among the Ten Greats."
The light outside brightened again, and a brown-haired woman flew in through the window. An Eastern dragon with a deer's antlers and a dragon's tail, transformed by polymorph.
"And this is currently my wife… Baek-Mokryeon."
"So, these are Dennis's disciples. What amusing faces you all bear!"
Baek-Mokryeon, my second teacher, had appeared, baring her teeth in a grin. A married couple co-teaching a class. Well, that one caught me off guard.
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