WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈
Chapter 129
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Episode 129. The Professors Are Moving Too Fast.
Baek-Mokryeon looked over the students with a triumphant air. A woman with brown hair and a white magnolia ornament that caught the eye.
"This one is Dennis's lover. This one is called Baek-Mokryeon."
The male students stared at her, dazed by her beauty. So much so that they forgot they were drooling.
Kainel had changed a lot since meeting me, and now wore an unmoved expression even looking at another woman.
Ariel was glaring beside him anyway, and with me around, there was no way he was getting a harem route. The Hero of Light.
Watching the male students' attitudes change in an instant, I felt a sudden sense of unease.
'Is she really that pretty?'
She was famous on the community boards, sure.
Honestly, I couldn't really tell. Maybe it was because back in reality I'd eaten and slept with my eyes only on our Phine, right up until I got dragged into the game and possessed one of its characters.
I looked over at the Glass Knight sitting far off. The moment our eyes met, Phine flinched and trembled.
Right, that was exactly the sight I'd come all this way to see.
"Mokryeon, sorry for calling you in when your body must still be tired."
"Not at all. If it means this one gets to be with her husband, how could this one possibly stay still?"
Was this really the Heavenly Demon I knew? The temperature shift was shocking. She'd even called him "husband." I felt like ice water had been dumped over my head.
"If it really comes down to it, I'll just request parental leave. This will be the last time."
I was at a total loss for words. The lecture hall buzzed with the shock of it.
Phine and Kainel turned their heads and glanced around as if they had no idea what was being discussed.
"Hiyak.."
The sound of a pen dropping from someone's note-taking hand. Ariel, quickest on the uptake, buried her face in her desk in embarrassment. Same here, honestly.
'So the two of them finally made an egg.'
The male students who'd just been eyeing Baek-Mokryeon with leering looks now turned their gazes on Dennis instead.
Their expressions demanded to know how he'd managed to land a wife that beautiful.
"..."
Was a blue-haired dragonkin about to be born?
So that was why the corners of his mouth had been strangely lifted this whole time.
Look at him climbing the ladder, our protagonist. Even in the sequel, <Black Heart>, he never got to see a child.
I couldn't even tell how much of a butterfly effect I'd caused. It didn't feel real, and a hollow laugh kept slipping out of me. Good thing I was wearing my helmet.
"Let's get back to what we were saying earlier... I'll go on about the difference between dragons and humans."
The blue-haired professor settled the classroom back into lecture mode.
"The difference between dragons and humans might seem to come down mostly to mana capacity. Licht."
"That is a trait no one can overcome."
Baek-Mokryeon stuck close to his side, chattering away as if afraid someone might snatch Dennis from her. It matched the whole "dragons are possessive" trope pretty well.
"Well, say what you will, this one does not know much about magic and such sorcery anyway!"
Then why did you even come to lecture? Worried some female student might try to charm your husband? Just as I was wondering, Baek-Mokryeon made her move.
"But, there is a truth that holds true across all things."
The Heavenly Demon began writing on the blackboard.
The clack of chalk echoed quietly through the lecture hall.
The Dragon Gate (登龍門).
What was written on the blackboard was, without question, "Dragon Gate." Wasn't the difference between humans and dragons supposed to be about mana capacity?
"Boy."
The Heavenly Demon wore a soft smile, seemingly glad to see me after so long.
Was the formal address her way of hiding our closeness, since this was class time? If the other students noticed her playing favorites, it'd make them uncomfortable.
"Do you truly believe the only difference between humans and dragons is mana?"
"..."
I thought about the meaning behind what the Heavenly Demon had written. I was fairly sure it referred to the gate a carp had to pass through before ascending as a dragon. Why would that come up while explaining the difference between humans and dragons?
'The waterfall a carp passes through to become a dragon....'
So in this case, humans were the carp? I recalled what I'd been told during training, that the title "Heavenly Demon" was something decided by other people.
"Is it a difference in effort, Heavenly Demon?"
"Khahaha! That is the truth of it. The same reason an Eastern dragon and a dragon are different."
Maybe it was a metaphor for humans, who had to earn their qualifications through acquired effort. I blurted out the sentence that suddenly came to mind. Thankfully, her expression said I'd gotten it right.
"Humans are beings similar to the Eastern dragon."
The starting point could differ, of course. There were cases like Ariel, born with a naturally large mana pool, or like Kainel, chosen by the holy sword as a hero.
"Lowly creatures striving to earn their qualifications."
But even so, they strove. The hero and the mage, wounded by the Heroic Cult, hadn't broken even in the decisive battle against Ache.
Heroes equally chosen by the holy sword had ended up at opposite poles. One trusted too much in his own power and believed only in omniscience,
'..After I pointed out the blind spot in the Holy Sword of Light, Kainel came to trust people instead.'
If not for them, I might never have been able to save Phine. The fact that I was standing here listening to this lecture at all was thanks to the hero couple.
"An Eastern dragon starts out as a snake, then becomes an imugi, a serpent not yet worthy of the name dragon, before finally becoming a dragon. But these arrogant dragons skip all of that!"
Maybe this was the part Dennis had wanted his students to hear. The blue-eyed man nodded slowly.
"The moment they hatch from the egg, they start out already called a hatchling. That is the one thing this one could not help but lament most, since coming to this world."
Thump. Baek-Mokryeon slammed a fist against the blackboard. The spot where "Dragon Gate" had been written cracked apart. Seemed a bit much, honestly.
Then again, there were plenty of grim old legends about an imugi that lived a thousand years turning into a vengeful spirit, so maybe it made sense.
"To become a higher being, one must put in effort to match. That is the fundamental difference between dragons and humans."
She'd used the Eastern dragon as an example to explain the difference between dragons and humans. In the end, being born already "qualified" and earning that qualification through one's own effort were worlds apart.
"Now you understand why I brought along an Eastern dragon, the being closest to a dragon and yet different from one. Licht."
Once Baek-Mokryeon's explanation ended, Dennis picked up the thread in a calm tone.
"To reach the extreme, you need to dig into your own magic and make the effort to understand it."
He conjured golden magic circles in both hands and brought them close to my body. It was the same thing he'd done back at the club. A spell for checking one's mana circuits.
"Licht's affinity is darkness."
I'd vaguely sensed as much fighting Magic Hat. Kainel's and Phine's attacks hadn't landed well, but my skills, once I transformed into the Demon King, had scored real hits.
"Then how do you think you could take this 'darkness' to its extreme?"
"I suppose, since I'm the Black Knight, leaning toward protection might be better?"
My Qi-infused Shadow Fang had hidden Phine's identity before, so defensive spells seemed like the way to go.
In the game, there'd been skills like slipping into shadow, or dark magic and the like.
"Go a bit more specific than that."
"Is there not also the saying 'Who touches ink turns black' (近墨者黑)? Boy."
The story had diverged from what I knew. A spell recommended by the protagonist couple of <Knight Heart>. Who touches ink turns black. Turning your surroundings dark. If I applied that....
"...Turn other attributes into the darkness attribute. Is that what you mean?"
If I could spread darkness through the surroundings the way ink bleeds through water, it could give Kainel an edge whenever he attacked.
It would also work against enemies who tried to counter by switching their own attribute.
'Or I could just steal the light away entirely. That would shut down Magic Hat's tricks at the source.'
Back in the reality I'd lived in, there had been black dyes that absorbed almost all light. I could turn a disadvantageous situation into a favorable one.
"Now you seem to be getting the hang of it, Licht."
Satisfied with my answer, Dennis let out a low chuckle. I hadn't expected to be taught like this.
"Let's make that your goal to accomplish this semester, Licht."
The peak of water magic, huh, figures. But wait, if I have to use magic, don't I need to interlock hands with someone? Wouldn't that mean our Phine gets dyed with the darkness attribute?
Black-haired Phine. That sounded gorgeous. Just imagining it made my heart race. My mind automatically played out a scene of her long black hair streaming like a black rose.
"Next. Mardol."
As if he'd caught wind of my inner thoughts, Dennis called Phine's name, and I stepped out of the way of the heavily armored Glass Knight approaching and sat back down.
* * *
"Mardol's 「Mirror Mirage.」 It summons illusions with real substance, doesn't it?"
Dennis said, looking at Phine as he opened the topic.
A spell she'd shown during the grade exam. Watching her make copies out of glass twisted from the earth attribute, Dennis had a question about it.
"Why limit such a good spell to offense alone?"
"...What?"
It was versatile enough that it could have supported Licht even in the decisive battle against Ache. For now, Phine followed his advice and tried making a copy.
"...It is hard. Does it really need to be?"
Baek-Mokryeon prodded at the copy and pointed out another flaw on top of it. Was being hard actually a problem? Phine wondered.
"Is that wrong...?"
"This one is saying it could stand to be softer."
Softer. Phine Gransia had never once thought of applying it that way in all her life. She'd always believed the empress had been kidnapped because she herself was weak.
"A mirror reflects 'substance.' What if it could reproduce even the texture of that 'substance'?"
"Even something soft?"
"That's right. Does that make more sense now, Mardol?"
The idea was that she could create something like a true doppelganger, not just a glass statue.
"It's not a spell only useful in combat. If you can create a copy convincing enough to fool even your allies, you can fool your enemies too."
"But... is there really a need to..."
Phine couldn't quite see the need for it. What good would a copy be in swordplay if it was soft and could be wounded?
"Is there not someone around you whose heart you would like to catch? You devoted wife-to-be, you."
As if she'd seen through to the person inside even with Phine wearing her Masterpiece disguise.
Unable to just watch any longer, Baek-Mokryeon leaned in and whispered, and the golden-eyed wolf's gaze drifted toward Licht sitting behind her.
"...There is."
Gulp. Without realizing it, Phine swallowed hard and began preparing once more to capture her prey.
If the glass cannon's durability was weak, she could just overwhelm with sheer volume instead.
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