WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈
Chapter 130
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Episode 130. The Professors Are Moving Too Fast.
* * *
The next lecture was Professor Maria's <Advanced Spirit Arts>.
In the first semester, it had been a lecture course, which I liked. So why was this one advanced instead of basic? With mild curiosity, I headed to where the outdoor class was being held.
"Helmet guy."
"What is it, Ariel?"
A place where the maple leaves and ginkgo trees had turned color. The red-haired mage called my name as she climbed the hill behind the school.
"You and Mardol.. are you really that close? Why do you keep holding hands?"
"..."
As expected of Ariel, nicknamed the sharp-eyed cat.
It's just that tree roots and jutting stones are dangerous, so I'm holding her hand to guide her along. Even in heavy armor, she could still get hurt.
"The path is rough."
"Th-that's right.."
I answered confidently, and Phine, looking embarrassed, kept her head down and her eyes on the ground. She seemed to like it when I laced our fingers together, so I kept doing it.
"Aren't the two of you walking along holding hands as well?"
I shot back with a smirk. Ariel herself was sticking right by Kainel's side, after all.
If even childhood friends did that much, was there some rule saying we couldn't?
"Th-this is.. because clumsy Kai might trip and fall!!"
"I'm doing it because I'm worried you'll have a hard time, Ariel."
Ariel, ever the tsundere, couldn't express her true feelings well and turned bright red, while Kainel, knowing full well the real reason, played it off with a smooth line.
Watching them, a question I'd been turning over for a while now started resurfacing.
'They're just like me.'
Lately, Phine's reactions had been strangely off. Were her emotions gradually coming back to her? Her cold, blunt edge was slowly starting to melt away.
"Phine."
"Y-yes..? What is it.. Licht..?"
It was like watching the Tin Man get his heart back. The obsessive side of her from the north had vanished without a trace, and now she reacted like this every time I said her name.
Obsession and love had to be told apart. No matter how inseparable the two feelings might seem, they were worth thinking through separately, at least once.
'If it had been any other man, he'd have said yes the moment she asked for a kiss....'
I was the Black Knight. I had no intention of taking advantage of someone who didn't understand love yet.
Honestly, judging by how huge her reaction had been at the hot springs just from the sound of a peck on the cheek, she was an innocent wolf who probably didn't even know how kissing worked. If I wasn't there watching over her, she'd be in trouble.
An innocent wolf who'd only ever picked up the strange stuff from books, at that.
Since coming back from the north, I'd steadied my resolve. I'd run from her before, because I'd been the one to erase the bleak future of the Nameless Saintess with my own hands.
But with Phine coming at me so aggressively, I'd needed a way to handle it too.
'If she ever came to properly understand the feeling called love....'
Since this was, after all, a game, the odds were high that she'd grow distant from me, but wasn't there also the faintest chance she might choose me?
Running away alone wasn't going to solve anything anymore, after all.
Just as Phine had saved me back when she was the Saintess, I too had started, little by little, to change.
"Watch your step. Even if we go slowly, I'll keep pace with you."
I gave the hand clasped in mine a light squeeze, then let go a little. With her glass gauntlet on, all I could feel was something hard and smooth, but even that was enough to make me happy.
She'd been someone I liked, someone I'd only ever seen through a monitor screen. Who in the world would turn down the chance to walk hand in hand with the person they'd once loved from afar?
"Licht.. stop teasing me.."
I stopped Phine as her steps kept quickening. A red maple leaf had drifted down onto her shoulder and settled there like a bookmark tucked into place, and I brushed it off with my hand.
"I was just trying to get this off you."
"..."
Phine's body gave a small jolt, as if flinching. She seemed to be afraid of a man's touch, it had been the same back when I'd had her dress up as a Quercus, too.
Aside from me, she didn't seem to interact with other men at all.
The people who seemed like close friends, like Sophitia or Chartiness, were all women. Nex or Kainel felt more like an acquaintance or an older brother figure to her.
Judging by how Rook got angry when I was introduced as her boyfriend, that was probably right.
'..Still, it's a relief I'm not hated, at least.'
If Phine took off her glass armor and attended the academy as herself, the male students would definitely try to make her theirs. Even the flirting aimed at Ariel, an elf, was something Kainel could barely fend off as it was.
There'd been men who claimed to be the eldest sons of noble families, and others who used a handsome face to press her, begging for just one date.
Every time it happened, I'd silently chant 'Sic 'em, Yellow Dog!' in my head and watch the blonde hero take care of it.
And if Phine, the prettiest woman by my own standard, went through the same, it would only be worse, never less, I realized, down to the bone.
"We're here."
Walking slowly while my mind wandered, the forest clearing where classes had been held back in the first semester came into view through the trees.
"Welcome, everyone."
As we made our way through the woods and arrived at the class site, the pink-haired dryad standing on the platform called out to us.
"Good day, Professor Maria."
"Oh my, it seems everyone's gotten a little more honest with their feelings?"
Professor Maria looked at me and smiled with her eyes, covering her mouth. The hamster spirits nearby scurried over to gather at Phine's and my feet.
"What do you mean by that...."
"You're all holding hands right now. Like two couples in love."
Professor Maria smiled, looking between the hero couple and Phine and me. Was she really saying that just because we'd walked here with our fingers laced together? Phine, startled, waved her hands in denial.
"Licht and I.. aren't lovers.."
"Eek! Professor, you're teasing way too much!!"
Before Kainel and I could even get a word of explanation out, we were cut off by the girls. The moment I turned my head to look at the blonde hero,
'Let's just stay quiet, Kainel.'
'Yeah, let's do that.'
Our eyes met and sent each other a wordless signal. Even without using a telepathy spell, I could feel what he was thinking. After all, Phine and Ariel both getting flustered at once was a rare sight worth savoring.
* * *
Only a few minutes after Maria started the lecture, I understood why the class had been renamed "Advanced."
"Starting with this lecture, we've received permission from the head of House Aureus, so we'll be able to demonstrate spirit empathy magic!"
Asha must have gone back to the family estate and talked things over with her son. The affection level shown on the status window had climbed to 62 percent.
'Maybe Nex told his mother the truth about his spirit having grown.'
Even if permission for his engagement to Chartiness, the second Saintess, had been put off for later, there'd still been progress between mother and son. He'd confessed a past he'd spent his whole life hiding, after all.
"She's also your vice principal, you know. Since she's come back to the academy this semester, you might just run into her sometime!"
If I ever saw that golden-haired woman, I'd better run. I'd carelessly talked about someone else's family business and poked at a trauma.
But in the end, a wound left covered up and ignored only festers. Parents are mirrors that reflect their children, so it's easy for them to make the mistake of conflating the two.
A tiny hamster climbed onto each student's hand, carrying something in its mouth.
"Ta-da! Once the hamsters hand out the scrolls, everyone press one to the center of your chest...."
Maria pulled a small parchment scroll etched with a magic circle out from inside her robe. It looked similar to the one Nex had once pressed against my back, but the shape was different.
"For the incantation, please chant, 「Be reborn from the flames.」"
Empathy magic, done as a group. She really was one of the Ten Greats, nicknamed the Living Sun. Who'd have thought she'd offer such fiery support.
Phine liked my spirit because she found it cute, so maybe I'd give it a try, even if I ended up collapsing like usual.
"Be reborn from the flames."
I pressed the scroll to my chest and chanted, and a ball of black fur popped out in front of me.
It looked bigger than the last time I'd seen it.... No, it just had so much fur it looked chubby.
The other students nearby were summoning their spirits one by one too. Kainel and Ariel's turned out to be a dog and a cat, as expected.
"Woof!"
"Good to see you, Kkamangi."
Surprisingly, I had no side effects this time. Was it thanks to sharing a mana circuit with Phine?
The Pomeranian-like spirit seemed glad to see me again after so long, tongue out and panting. Standing on its two short legs, it protested fiercely for me to pet it.
"..It's Kkamangi."
"Yip!"
Unable to help it, I gently stroked its fur to calm it down, and Phine, in her glass armor, came up beside me.
"So cute.."
At that, Kkamangi bolted straight into Phine's arms, as if I weren't even its owner.
Reduced to leftovers, I realized there was something I'd overlooked before.
'..Spirits can see through a Masterpiece disguise, apparently.'
I'd seen it mentioned somewhere once, as a caution for PvP. Since I never hid my identity, it hadn't applied to me, so I'd skipped right past it.
Black armor and a knight's helmet always meant it was me, no exceptions.
Also, every time I summoned my spirit I passed out, so I'd missed it that way too. This little guy must have known Mardol was Phine before I ever did.
Kkamangi lay flat on its back on the ground, showing its belly in a full display of submission. Its ears were pinned back so flat it looked almost like a seal.
"Hehe, Kkamangi doesn't take after you at all, Licht."
"That's.. a compliment, right..?"
For some reason, her soft laugh sounded unusually cold today, so I started watching her closely.
"If only Licht listened to me this well too...."
A chill ran through me. The light had drained from her eyes as she stroked Kkamangi's belly. My instincts told me she was picturing me, its owner, as she touched it.
'The yandere route..?'
There'd been a time in the north when she'd locked me up, too. I thought for a moment about what kind of scene would unfold if she used even the princess's authority to try to hold onto me.
"Kkamangi. Don't lick me there.. it reminds me of what I did with Licht.."
"Pant, pant."
When the spirit licked her glass helmet, the tickle seemed to bring the light back into her eyes.
Good job. Kkamangi, thankfully, had switched Phine right back off.
I'd imagined for a second what it would be like if one wrong move branded me a criminal for laying a hand on the princess, forced to live out my life forever at Phine's side alone.
'Might actually be fine, though.'
I shook my head at the wicked thought that had flashed through my mind. I didn't care if I could never comfortably step into the town square again, but it would ruin Phine's image.
At the very least, if Phine didn't want it, I had to avoid that kind of thing....
"Awoo.."
Just then, I felt something grab at my trouser leg and turned around.
"A wolf..?"
A spirit with the look of a pure white wolf, blended with the alluring air of a fox, had its teeth in my clothes. It obviously looked like it belonged to someone I knew.
Unlike Kkamangi, it looked a bit bigger. The difference between a dog and a wolf, maybe.
"..Is this okay?"
As I slowly stroked the head of the white-furred, golden-eyed wolf, a rose scent drifted up, one that reminded me of someone. The spirit even let out a low, purring sound in its delight.
Didn't canines usually dislike having their heads touched? Its ears, just like Kkamangi's, were pinned all the way back.
When I carefully scratched under its chin, the platinum-furred wolf rubbed its face against my hand.
"Hayangi.. don't do that to Licht..! It's embarrassing!"
So it really was Phine's, after all. She called out at the sight of Hayangi following me around, tail wagging furiously.
Kkamangi and Hayangi. The way she named them was cute, so very Phine, and I loved it.
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