WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
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◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈
Chapter 136
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Episode 136. No Matter How I Look at This, It Doesn't Seem Like a Duplicate.
* * *
My reputation within the academy had changed.
"Is that him? The one who wears that Black Knight helmet…."
"Didn't he save some second-year cadets too? And beat the assistant instructor on top of it."
I could see crowds whispering in the hallway.
Ever since the practical sparring match, rumors about me had spread out of control.
Either as the freshman who took down the Head, or as the delinquent who beat an assistant instructor senseless.
"They say he even killed a Demon King. Isn't he the newly chosen hero?"
Had Drake known this would happen and told me to break through it with my own strength? No wonder he hadn't stopped me.
Showing doubters directly was the best way to handle it. He probably hadn't even considered the possibility that I'd lose.
"There are so many Helmet guys! Mardol..!"
"That one's different.."
Words really did travel faster than feet, there were even male students who'd bought knight helmets from somewhere and started wearing them around. A few of them just looked like generic medieval knights, though.
Click. I opened my locker as usual, to take out my major textbook.
"...."
The moment I opened the door, letters came tumbling out in a rush.
"Licht, seems like you've gotten kind of famous."
"When was I not famous, Kainel?"
Judging by the noble seals stamped on them, word that I'd subjugated the Head must have spread across the empire.
Obviously. Since I was clearly some kind of hero, they wanted to tie me down through a marriage engagement.
'Using love as a means to recruit talented people, huh.'
Some damn game company somewhere came to mind. Sorry, but I had no intention of fooling around with any woman besides my Phine.
"..These are invitations to a social gathering."
Still, it was only polite to read the letters addressed to me. The moment I tore one open, Phine let out an "Ah." beside me.
"The young lady of House Mirgeta.. the heir of House Harvester…."
They were all names of the main heroines from the game.
One was the villainess, and the other was the sickly beauty, I think. She'd be fine if she just drank an elixir, but she kept acting sick on purpose.
Showing weakness was supposed to make the other party let their guard down. That's what her line in the PV had said.
None of them had an official pairing, they all ended up with the player. If I brought this letter and showed up at the social gathering, I'd probably end up on the harem route.
An event where dancing with a partner triggered a special CG.
That gigolo bastard used to brag endlessly about how pretty the Grand Duchess looked in it. My fame level had been too low, though, so I hadn't been able to go with Phine back when she was the Saintess.
"There's nothing much in these."
I gathered the papers and pushed them into the corner of my locker. I'd have to throw these away in secret later.
"I'll gratefully accept just the sentiment."
If I threw them straight in the trash, some other heroine might show up shouting "Don't treat love so carelessly!" It was one of the common clichés.
A heroine who tries to teach the protagonist about true love and ends up falling for him instead. I glanced sideways at Phine.
There was even a letter sent under Blanc's name mixed in. It had a red kiss mark stamped on it, which gave me chills. I'd better not read that one.
"Don't even accept the sentiment."
At that moment, Phine reached her arm into my locker.
"Mardol? What are you doing…."
Phine pulled out every letter and crushed them into a ball. With tremendous grip strength, the papers balled up like a soccer ball and, with a bang!, flew straight into the trash can.
"..These are all just tricks."
At the loud noise, every student nearby turned to look at me and the Glass Knight. Despite all the eyes on her, Phine said what she had to say.
If it's you doing it, I guess there's no problem.
Watching the romance flags get brutally smashed, I felt strangely at ease.
Still, I did need to go to the social gathering.
Getting approval for Nex and Chartiness's engagement required a three-way meeting, after all.
It seemed better to let them talk it out at the social gathering. Asha probably wouldn't be able to slip away from there either.
"Mardol, would you like to come to the next social gathering with me?"
I opened my mouth to make the proposal to Phine. If bringing a partner was going to be an issue, I could just escort our princess instead, couldn't I?
I was the Black Knight who protected her, after all. I could keep bad men from flirting with her too.
"Wha..? Wai, wait a minute…. Ju, just with me..?"
"Of course, along with Ariel and Kainel too."
These invitations had come addressed to me in the first place, so there was nothing wrong with bringing a few people I knew. Phine's golden eyes trembled behind her helmet.
"I'm fine with it. But is it okay for someone of commoner birth to go?"
Kainel asked, slinging an arm around my shoulders. I could tell he wanted things with Ariel to move forward.
These two's affection level would probably go up together too. Two birds, one stone.
"The Ten Greats come from all kinds of backgrounds anyway. It's nothing."
"H, Helmet guy…. You just wear a dress and dance there, right..? I, I don't have anything like that.."
Ariel cupped her face, which had turned red as a carrot.
Was she fantasizing about dancing under the moonlight with the blond hero? She'd apparently gotten hot from the thought, and was fanning herself with her hand over and over.
"Ariel, I happen to know a pretty wolf."
"...."
"If I ask her, she could probably solve the dress problem…. Ow. Mardol."
Flinch. Phine's body jolted, and she was jabbing her armored elbow into my side. Even just one compliment could set off a reaction this big.
Why hadn't I realized before that this was my Phine?
"Idiot. Pervert. Beast."
Phine didn't even give me a chance to respond before hurling insults at me. It was bad enough that even Kainel gave me a look of sympathetic understanding.
She really did resemble that tsundere elf.
* * *
The next class was Beatrice's lecture on <The History of Divine Power>.
"What do you little lambs think a miracle is?"
The narrow-eyed blonde professor asked the question. It was surprising that she hadn't turned out to be a villain.
A miracle, huh.
Wasn't a miracle just what people called a stroke of luck too unlikely to happen in reality? Here, though, it seemed to involve using divine power.
Something like the healing magic of the Savior Sword was probably in the same category. A sword that healed every ally around it, practically a miracle in itself.
"It's a type of skill, made by gathering a person's strong sense of reason."
I raised my hand and answered. I'd actually seen high-ranking clerics use skills like that a lot in the game.
Like Munk, who split the sky with a punch, or the paladin who conquered the world on faith alone, that kind of thing. The sight of them wiping out entire hordes of demonkin at once had been incredible.
An ultimate skill was a means of standing against a Demon King.
It was possible through magic, swordsmanship, even spirit arts, so there was no reason divine power couldn't work the same way.
"That's correct, little lamb."
Hearing my answer, Beatrice smiled slightly, and as she drew a human-like figure on the blackboard, she began her explanation.
"This happened even before the imperial calendar existed."
She drew a white star right in the center. The textbook said it was meant to represent the reason said to exist within a person.
"The war was already on the verge of being lost. There were many people who'd forgotten everything to Erasure of Knowledge, and many knights and mages who barely clung to life after losing their limbs."
The star flickered on the blackboard. It seemed to be infused with divine power. Was that what a miracle looked like?
"But at that time, people saw the first Saintess healing the sick, and the word 'miracle' spread among the people."
Was she talking about the Saintess, one of the Ten Greats? I understood she was dead now. I thought of the statue standing in front of the academy.
"In the temple, she raised the soldiers up completely clean, as if they'd never been injured at all."
As Beatrice spoke, the surroundings darkened like nighttime. At the sudden darkness, a few students made murmuring noises.
"Even in a hopeless situation where there was no light in sight…."
At that moment, a single beam of light began to appear before our eyes. The light brightening the surroundings was the star.
"A person's reason, capable of changing the world."
Plop. The star peeled off the blackboard like a sticker and floated in Beatrice's hand. The fake star hovering in the air shone just like a real one twinkling in the night sky.
"That is a miracle."
Beatrice closed her hand into a fist around the star, and it made a crunch as it burst. Once she'd finished, the light returned to the room around us.
"Now, you little lambs can manage at least this much, can't you?"
The professor carefully looked over the students in front of her. How was anyone supposed to do that? This seemed like way too advanced material for a first-year.
"Draw the same picture I did, and try to make it shine."
Professor Beatrice really was the hands-on type after all. Last semester I hadn't been able to use divine power, but this time I had a way.
"I'm going to hold your hand, Mardol."
"A, ah…. Yeah. Okay.."
I laced my fingers with hers under the desk. This should let our mana circuits link, making it possible to use divine power. Phine seemed so startled that she hiccupped.
While I drew the star with my other hand, Phine's fingers kept squirming restlessly.
Doing this made me feel strange, like I was doing something bad during class.
Phine bent her head down over her desk, drawing something. Her hand was shaking way too much for it to be a star, though.
"..I'm done."
I drew the star quickly, so she wouldn't get startled any further. A star glowing gold on my textbook. The color of Phine's eyes.
My reason, unshaken by any harem, existed because of Phine Gransia. Maybe that was what got reflected in it.
I sat back, satisfied that I'd finally managed to do it. Now even just holding hands made my heart pound.
"Licht. Look at this."
"This is..?"
After a while, Phine pushed her book toward me. What had she drawn to keep her hand so busy….
"Ta-da. Glow-in-the-dark Kkamangi.."
"...."
Phine showed off her drawing proudly. What she showed me was a Pomeranian glowing green.
She'd drawn the spirit, its shape closer to a fur ball than an actual dog, but cute all the same.
"Hehe, well..? Pretty, right."
"It's pretty. Really."
Probably because it matched Phine's love of cute things. It was tied directly to my own feelings too, which was probably why it even followed her so well.
I was wondering whether I should go learn how to awaken a spirit somewhere, when.
"..Then I'll do one for you too. Licht."
Satisfied by my reaction, Phine grabbed my wrist and pulled it toward her.
"Wa, wait a second. Just like that?"
"You need to hold still.. puppy.."
It tickled. Every time Phine's small finger traced letters on the back of my hand, it felt like a jolt of electricity ran through me.
For every time my face burned hot, another glowing letter appeared, written one at a time.
'Duplication magic. Could you help me, Licht.'
The sentence written on the back of my hand was an invitation. I looked at Phine with startled eyes, but she said nothing, only tracing circles with her finger round and round.
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