WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈
Chapter 138
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Episode 138. Public Displays of Affection Are Banned in the Library.
* * *
I woke up the next day to find my affection level with Phine had gone up.
[Lee Suhyun ♡ Phine Gransia 6% 'NEW!!']
Yesterday, Kainel had worn a satisfied smile while listening to my excuses. Now that the tables were turned, it was infuriating. Yellow Dog acted that way because he could sense Phine's true identity by instinct.
If I helped the hero couple's affection level along a bit more, they'd probably get all the way to a confession.
I'd also gone up north and resolved things between Nex and Chartiness. I'd caught Ache too, and restored Dennis and Baek-Mokryeon's relationship to how it used to be.
What was left for me to do from here?
'What I need right now is….'
I'd thought my schedule toward the Grand Route was going smoothly, but seeing someone named Blanc had changed my thinking quite a bit.
At the very least, I wasn't going to take the route where I ended up with a flower in each hand.
If I went the harem route, my Phine would end up left out in the cold, and to begin with, I didn't think it counted as pure love if you hadn't fallen for one person's heart specifically.
Any other couple would think the same way, easily enough.
'Ah, right, the Sage.'
Just then, something flashed through my mind.
I needed to look at the possibilities and prepare for what was coming. Considering things like whether or not I had a status window, and the fact that this was a prequel to the game.
Because becoming the Nameless Saintess might still be on the table.
"Licht, what are you thinking about?"
I froze. Phine had noticed my hurried pace and found it strange enough to ask. Her glass armor caught the sunlight and gleamed.
The heavily armored White Knight had been getting along more comfortably at the Academy ever since I'd solved her problem.
Free time after class ended.
"I need to step out to the restroom for a moment."
I lied to Phine.
It was a half-truth, since I'd stop by the restroom on my way to the library. If I didn't shake her off like this, she'd definitely tag along.
The last Sage who'd survived the Magic Tower. Asmodeus.
I ran to the Academy library to see her.
* * *
When I walked into the library, a woman with demon horns sat atop a pile of books, same as always.
"..You came."
Her purple hair and demonkin eyes marked her out as a demon. She turned a page and tilted her head at me as I entered the library.
"Good afternoon, Sage."
Well, even being demonkin, people unconnected to the Demon Kings weren't discriminated against. They were just a little more suited to black magic, that was all.
Servi was the unusual case. The Apostle of Wrath or the Apostle of Gluttony, for instance, weren't demons.
Come to think of it, why call them Demon Kings when they weren't even kings of the demonkin? It was one of those moments where the developers' edgy middle-school naming sense started to grate on me.
"This person called the Nameless Saintess. I found her."
The Sage said it indifferently, closing the book she'd been reading. The moment I heard those words, my heart sank like a lump of lead.
"Sage, what on earth are you talking about…."
"Found her," she'd said. Had I not managed to change Phine Gransia's bleak future after all, the way I'd worried about all this time?
This was a prequel, after all. Maybe something was missing that kept me from freely bending the fates of characters who appeared in the original and its sequel.
In the case of the Northern Grand Duchess, there'd been an Easter egg the developers had planted.
I felt it in my bones, once again, that there was no hope unless I reached the Grand Route.
"She's the person who was caught by every last one of the Demon Kings and experimented on, isn't she?"
The Sage looked at me with sad eyes. She'd been through something at the Demon Kings' hands herself, so there was sympathy in that gaze.
So my guess had been right. It wasn't the authority of one Demon King, but of several.
"It's a shame I can't pin down exactly who it is."
But Ache's Erasure of Knowledge should have vanished by now. So why wasn't Phine Gransia's name coming up?
"Wait a moment. Why can't you pin down who it is?"
"..I don't know. Whenever I try to get closer to the information, I get bounced right back out."
If Ache had regressed and come back, the information should be completely hidden. So why could she see Phine's future as the Saintess while not knowing her identity?
'..Is it because of Magic Hat?'
For whatever reason, the current Magic Hat had a fanatical obsession with me. If she'd done something to Phine, that would explain it easily enough.
"Most of the futures I see for this person called the Nameless Saintess turn out similar, Licht."
A magic circle appeared in the Sage's hand, and she held it up in front of my helmet.
"Ah, right, you wouldn't really know even as a hero, would you? This is what the futures I see look like."
Illusion magic. What had been the library a moment ago had turned into the middle of a forest.
The chirping of birds and the leaves scattering in the wind were as vivid as reality, and the instant change of scenery looked almost like a teleport spell had been used.
"Say, for instance, I saw a future where 'you're walking a forest path and run into a monster.'"
No sooner had she finished speaking than several goblins appeared before my eyes, holding small spears or tree branches.
"That could turn out to be goblins…."
With a whoosh, like a scene change in a movie, the Sage gestured and the pack of monsters in front of me began shifting into a different kind.
"Or it could be orcs, or trolls."
The enemies had turned into a mix of high-tier orcs and trolls. I figured my current skill was more than enough to handle them, so I raised my sword and struck down, but there was no feeling of it actually cutting anything.
"There's even a low chance you could run into a dragon."
The Sage went on, as if laughing at me.
Right away, a dragon boasting dark red scales came charging at me as if to devour me whole. It felt like she was sharing the futures she saw directly with me.
"..I was trying to scare you a little, but why doesn't illusion magic work on you?"
"It's probably because my mana circuits are tangled up."
The Sage looked surprised at how unfazed I stayed even with the dragon's jaws wide open.
"It's a foresight ability that lets me see possible futures visually. Well, anyway, that's the gist of it."
A character who could tell you every possible route that hadn't yet been decided.
Even if the Sage saw a route that turned out wrong, it could always be waved off with something like, 'the odds were low, so it led to a different future instead.'
"In every future I've seen, this person called the Nameless Saintess dies."
The Sage delivered the shocking news to me. My hands trembled and my breathing grew ragged.
"Her pure white Saintess robes end up soaked in blood. I couldn't make out her face, but she seems like someone different from Chartiness.."
No, was there really not even a chance? Just yesterday I'd even helped Phine make a clone of herself. Had even her survival flag already been snapped?
"..How does she die?"
"Killed by Magic Hat, from what I saw. Stitched through with hundreds of cards, one stitch at a…."
"Stop."
Damn it. Just as I thought, there was no happy ending without taking down Magic Hat. Those vicious developers. Once should've been enough, and here they were killing her again.
Factoring in that I also had to max out the affection level on top of everything else, it was a fairly demanding task.
The stress made my head throb. It started pounding like a woodpecker had gotten inside my skull.
'Wait, if she still can't pin down exactly who it is….'
That meant even the Sage hadn't recognized Phine's white hair and wolf ears.
The future kept cutting out in patches?
It was supposed to be an ability that saw every possible route. Something didn't add up.
Why wasn't there ever a mention of Phine, an imperial princess? It kept nagging at me.
If it was Magic Hat's authority covering it up in lies and hiding it from view, then there was still hope.
"Isn't there a future where I catch that bastard and kill her?"
"..Do you honestly think that's possible, Student Licht?"
Of course it was. I'd already caught her once before.
Even if my equipment and level fell short of when I'd been raising Licht in the game, there was still plenty of time, so there was no reason I couldn't do it.
"Obviously."
"Impossible. You get caught by Magic Hat too. Want me to tell you how you get tortured?"
"...."
Let's think. Was there really no countermeasure? The gear or skills I'd used to take down Magic Hat in <Black Heart> might make it possible.
"What about with Demon-King Slayer, or the Demonic Sword Horizon? Do you see a chance then, Sage?"
An item I'd bought off someone dumping it cheap at the auction house, and used as a stand-in for the Holy Sword.
A dark purple greatsword. An artifact that served as both armor and blade at once.
With this thing, I hadn't had to worry about defense in the game and could just trade blows head-on with the Demon Kings.
It was a broken item that deflected most physical attacks.
"Wait, were you a Demon King?!"
"As if. I'll just have to take someone else's and use it. Focus on that and look at the future again, please."
The moment I mentioned the demonic sword, the Sage shot up from her seat in shock. It was, after all, a hero's Holy Sword gone corrupt.
Even I had corrupted the Holy Sword of Light into spewing darkness when I fought Magic Hat. And there'd been guards who claimed they'd touched Ache's revolver, too.
"..I'm not so sure. This one's future is hazy. Let me look again from your point of view, Licht."
So there was a chance after all, with the item I'd used in the game. The Sage's ability wasn't omniscience, so she couldn't know everything at once.
Hazy probably meant Phine could still be saved. There were likely parts hidden away by Magic Hat's lies, too.
"Ah, but this…."
I was just about to breathe a sigh of relief, thinking I'd finally managed it, when a shocking statement followed from the Sage's mouth.
"Licht, why are you locked up by a black-haired werewolf woman?"
"....Excuse me?"
Her demon eyes narrowed as she asked, her tone accusing, as if she'd seen something she shouldn't have. Her cheeks were flushed red. What was that about?
This hadn't come up at all a moment ago, when she'd been asking about the Saintess.
Had I managed to block the future where Phine became the Nameless Saintess after all? The Sage spoke up as though she'd seen wolf ears and a tail.
"Chains on a bed.. black rose petals? Who did this….. Eek!"
The Sage, watching my future, startled and fell backward. The sudden loud scream drew glares from the students nearby.
We hadn't even cast a soundproofing spell. This was bad.
"That woman noticed me, and the vision cut off. What have you been doing..?!"
If it was a black-haired werewolf woman, it had to be Phine. She was, after all, someone who could even notice the Sage's precognition.
I gulped. The fear of being locked up beneath the imperial palace was apparently real.
A confinement-flavored pure love, declared outright by the future-seeing Sage.
So if Phine didn't become the Nameless Saintess, she'd turn obsessive instead?
A black-haired Phine instead of white-haired, something I'd only ever imagined in my head, was closing in on reality.
"Was there anything else you saw?"
"Sorry, it was really dark all around."
Maybe Phine's hair had turned black while practicing switching attributes. What I'd heard back in the Heavenly Demon's lesson must have become a flag.
It was a moment that made the game's own system genuinely frightening.
"..Thank you."
"So, you'll put in a good word with Drake, right? I really was helpful, wasn't I!"
"Of course."
I gave a quick farewell, eager to get out of there. Since our mana circuits were linked, we could sense roughly where each other was.
Even last time, when I'd noticed Phine's clone, it was because her position had felt too close for comfort.
"I'll be sure to pass it along."
If I lingered any longer, Phine would show up at the library. What was I supposed to do if she heard all that, got jealous, and tried to chain me up the exact same way?
As for finding the demonic sword, I could just ask Laplace. He knew about the past, so he'd surely know enough.
The moment I burst straight out through the library's front doors.
"Oh, Licht. Where'd you go…."
I came face to face with the very person who, in the future, had me locked up.
The image of Phine binding me in chains on a bed came flooding into my head without warning.
So I bolted for the Headmaster's office as fast as a mouse fleeing its natural predator.
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