WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
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◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈
Chapter 132
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Episode 132. The Gambler's Fallacy.
* * *
The next day. Drake called us to the large lecture hall. It was a place we'd arrived back at for the second semester, so it stirred up a sense of nostalgia. Wasn't this where I'd first used Shadow Slash?
"Hahahahaha!! Good to see you all!!"
His usual booming laugh rang through the lecture hall. Instinct born of experience made me cover my ears in advance.
"Welcome to Professor Drake's <Practical Sparring> class!!"
What's "Practical Sparring" supposed to be. Last semester he called it "the principles of the sword" and just taught stamina training and how to swing a blade, no mana involved. Very him, given how much he favors people with low mana.
'Honestly, magic can do almost anything, but the constraints are heavy.'
For one, reflexes suffer. Mana control means channeling mana through the body's blood vessels to explosively boost physical ability.
Like a car taking a sharp turn at full speed, it becomes hard to react to anything sudden.
That was the reason I'd been able to exploit an opening against Phine in the grade exam.
Second, it's heavily affected by elemental affinity. That's why some people, like Dennis, carved out an edge by twisting the whole concept to break past that weakness.
"Last class, you learned to move without mana! This time is different!"
Going by the class name alone, maybe he'd have the students wear mana protective gear and spar each other.
I stood with my arms crossed watching things unfold, and Drake pointed a thumb at the back door.
"You'll fight the assistant instructor! All of you!"
My brow furrowed. An assistant instructor? Was there someone in this academy I didn't know about?
Before long, the door clattered open and a woman walked in.
"Good to meet you. Juniors."
Her steps were so light they made no sound at all. She wore thin, body-hugging clothes with a cloak layered over them.
"My name is Blanc. I'm here because Professor Drake asked me to come."
Her outfit was shadow-dark from head to toe. A small woman with a bob cut and green eyes bowed toward us.
'A rogue class.'
Light gear built for mobility. I thought it over, looking at the two daggers at her waist. If Phine and I were on the knight side, she was the exact opposite.
It was a class skilled at assassinating opponents, known for near-acrobatic movement. Still, that name wasn't one I recognized as a character.
'Don't tell me, a player?'
The Northern Grand Duchess had brought up Gi-seok before, so there was no rule saying another player couldn't show up too. I'd possessed a character I myself had leveled up, after all.
The Black Knight, Licht. A playable character by that name. Back then I'd just picked him because he looked cool.
"Whoever I call will get one round against her!"
"I'll hand out mana protective gear, so don't worry about getting hurt."
"In the end, it'll show you where you're lacking or falling short! Everyone, do your best!"
But there was no character named Blanc.
My whole body tensed up stiff. What if she was here to steal a pairing away, the thought kept spinning into more thoughts.
"Blanc is strong enough to be counted among the very best! Strong enough to beat every first-year here!"
Drake's gaze landed on me. If someone like that existed, she could've helped out back when we were fighting Ache. I didn't remember seeing her there.
'Besides, if she were really that strong, there's no way I wouldn't know about her.'
I loved this world enough to have memorized the setting materials by heart. For Drake to boast about her like this, she'd have to be descended from the Ten Greats, nothing less.
'Setting aside Laplace's lover who'd suffered from an incurable illness, none of the human bloodlines should have a pairing established yet.'
The possibility kept growing. On top of that, as far as I knew, there was no rogue-related job among them. If she were a different race, at least some trace of it should show.
"Mardol. Do you sense anything off about her?"
"..Not particularly."
Just in case, I asked Phine for help. If something were off, she'd usually be the first to notice. Could even someone with her sharp eyes not make it out?
"I'm from Grand Hearts Academy too, same as you all."
"That's right! She used to be student council president, too!"
Former student council president. This was a romance fantasy academy story, after all. If a character with this much weight showed up out of nowhere, it had to be one of two things.
A player from the real world, or a new main character.
"Excuse me, are you really that strong? It's hard to believe."
I raised my hand. If she really was a player, she could go down an NTR route or a harem route and derail the Grand Route.
Phine's case, which never had an official happy ending, was even more dangerous. I had to check.
'From <Black Heart> onward, a player could insert themselves into a pairing and pull off a harem or an NTR route.'
The screenshots posted in the game community were flooded with every kind of outrageous stunt.
That was part of why I'd overreacted seeing the Forbidden NTR Knight before, and why I couldn't fully trust the affection level alone with Phine.
I knew most of the rest, but with Phine, I had no idea where or how things might go sideways.
According to something the creator once said, love comes in many forms, or whatever. Thankfully, back when she was the nameless saintess, Phine had been a side character, so there'd been no events like that.
But now she was undeniably a main character. If I were someone else, I'd absolutely target her. And if that someone came after me instead, they'd picked the wrong target.
"Pretty confident, aren't you? You're the rumored Black Knight?"
As if surprised by how boldly the question had landed, Blanc put a hand to her mouth and smiled.
"That's the one who supposedly took down the Demon King, right? The oddball who wears the black helmet."
"Honestly, I can't believe it. Didn't he just swoop in at the end while the Ten Greats did the real work?"
Murmur, murmur. Every student in the hall turned their eyes toward me. It amounted to picking a fight with an assistant instructor.
"I saw it. He really did it."
"On the training field too, we didn't get taken out by the apostle, thanks to Licht…."
"Ah, that was probably just a fluke!"
The general opinion split down the middle. The students who'd been nearby during the fight against the Demon King seemed to have some sense of my ability. Everyone else thought the opposite.
[I'm about to get angry, Licht. Should I purge them all?]
[Hold on, Phine.]
They simply couldn't believe an ordinary freshman had brought down the Demon King of Omniscience. I could feel Phine's heart beating a little faster. Whatever happens, no purging. Princess.
"Hmm. Want me to show you?"
Whoosh. Her black bob hair flaring, Blanc closed the distance on me. Too fast for my eyes to track. I needed to react. Before I could even use Wolf Fang, that smirking, punchable face was already right in front of me.
"Such a bold mouth on such a cute junior. And the one next to you, a friend?"
But what Blanc was really aiming for wasn't me, it was Phine. I saw a dagger streaking straight toward the chest, right where the Masterpiece's core sat.
"I'll teach you a lesson you won't forget."
I yanked the iron sword from my waist and struck it down. Clang! The dagger buried itself in the floor with the sound.
"You reacted to that?"
"Of course I would."
This is why I hate rogues. Every single one of them plays dirty. I'd expected her to come at me, and instead she threw a dagger at Phine. I glared up at Blanc.
"Those eyes. Pretty handsome."
That was when it happened. Fssh. Grains of sand scattered off the sword in my hand as its weight vanished. The steel had turned to sand in my grip in an instant.
'..The sword melted away.'
The iron sword had vanished without a trace, leaving only a handful of sand on the floor. A weapon that could change the state of its target?
'A dagger on the same tier as a Masterpiece. Or more likely, an artifact.'
The sheer strangeness of the sight startled me into an odd calm. While I stood there flustered with no weapon left to fight with, Blanc sent another dagger flying at Phine.
"One more left."
No. If that hit, the equipment would come undone and expose who was under the armor for everyone to see. The plating near the heart would melt away and break the linkage.
"Gh..!"
I blocked the dagger with the sheath I still had. If you've got no teeth, you use your gums. Looking at the sheath, pierced halfway through, I let out a sigh of relief. Any thinner and it would have gone straight through.
"Got you."
My wrist got caught in the gap I'd left. Blanc looked at me, now weaponless, and ran her tongue once across her bottom lip.
"Reacting to my movements like that. Now I'm curious what's under that helmet…."
Her fingers moved to lift my visor. Don't. I don't want that, there are burn scars under there. I was afraid people would be scared of me again, the way they used to be.
She was too fast. Too late to draw the Heart Sword. With no way left to respond, I squeezed my eyes shut.
"Stop."
Phine's voice came, cold and flat. When I opened my eyes, a wall of glass had risen up. Blanc's attack slid off it and went wide, an empty swipe through the air.
Thank you, Phine. I love you. My debt to her had grown by one more.
"Too bad. And here I thought today was a lucky one."
Blanc retrieved her dagger and hopped back to Drake's side.
"That was pretty interesting."
I wondered just how she managed that kind of speed. Her reflexes were too sharp to explain by mana control alone.
'Or maybe I'm still just weak.'
Then again, Ache's combat strength had been on the weaker side even among the Demon Kings. And with Magic Hat, we'd only just pushed her into her second phase without managing to take her down.
He'd also been the final boss of the original <Knight Heart>, and his main strategy was overwhelming opponents through information warfare.
"Junior. Seems like you're wondering why I couldn't make it to the fight with Ache. Well, there was Erasure of Knowledge laid over the academy grounds too…."
Blanc pulled something out from her cleavage and held it out. The way she acted, like she was trying to lure me in. I don't have eyes for anyone but Phine to begin with.
"I run hot and cold."
"..A die?"
What came out was a six-sided die, deep red as though carved from ruby, with every face showing a five. Don't tell me, a rogue who runs off a luck stat?
"That's right! Depending on the number the die shows, Blanc gets stronger or weaker for the whole day!"
There's no way she ever gets weaker. This is a gambler's skill.
Half right, half wrong. Sleight of hand could easily decide something like that. I'd know, since I ran a paladin's skill set alongside my own. My suspicion never let up.
"By the way, why is the person next to him wearing full plate armor during class? Professor?"
"..."
"Is that even allowed?"
Phine dropped her head and said nothing. The fact that the faculty cut her slack because she was the princess wasn't something that could be brought up here.
"I heard you won the grade exam wearing that too? Aren't you embarrassed?"
From a distance, Blanc mocked her, spinning a dagger on her finger, even sticking her tongue out as she needled at Phine. I wondered if someone who called herself an assistant instructor was really allowed to act like this.
Even without the Masterpiece, she would have overwhelmed Ariel easily enough. I knew, because I'd fought Phine myself.
"That's enough. You've crossed a line."
"I watched your exam, you know. Word is even the freshmen thought it was unfair~!"
You're one to talk, when you fight on dice luck yourself. Even the weapon you use is Masterpiece-tier.
"Blanc! That's enough now!"
Blanc kept stirring up the students, and Drake watched the scene, trying to smooth it over. If he kept getting involved, he risked giving away that Phine was the princess.
"..Mardol is strong even without the armor."
"Oh sure, I'll totally believe the runner-up. You think everyone else feels the same way?"
She'd been moving like she'd targeted Phine and me from the very start. Even if she turned out to be a player, it grated on me. She seemed like the biggest threat yet to the Grand Route.
"Why don't I prove it through this practical sparring class."
I had to beat Blanc here. Only then would my words carry any weight. I had one method in mind.
The Heart Sword. All I had to do was draw out a new one.
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