WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Academy’s Pure Love Dark Knight

Chapter 44

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Episode 44. What Came Out of the Magic Hat Was a White Rabbit.

Kainel on the Demon King route possesses skill names that are the exact opposite of the skills he originally used.

For example, Shine Strike is replaced like this.

「Dusk Edge.」

A jet-black sword energy flew and pierced Magic Hat. Now that I'm using the Holy Sword, it's possible to fight her.

“Hehe… The wounds my darling gave me… Am I being overwritten by my darling’s things like this too? How fun! More, please give me more!”

Magic Hat, with her upper body slashed and bleeding, still didn't stop her frantic words towards me. Her mental strength is astonishing, but is it because it's still Phase 1?

“..Shut up.”

My mind can't settle. The condition to become a Demon King, it seems, must have started with something happening to our Saintess. I charged in with Wolf Fang, exploiting an opening.

“This is a bit… dangerous, isn't it?”

“You’re just as I knew you would be, aren't you? You.”

“I was always the same… darling!”

The pattern is identical. It seems targeting the blind spots is best. A frontal upward slash was blocked. Then I should try a combo attack.

“Darling, such attacks are meaningless. I can't use my authority on you, but…”

“...”

“I can use it on myself, you see? To make things false.”

Swoosh. With a sound, the magician's wounds were healing. So this kind of utilization is possible? Then I should be able to do it too.

“Thanks for the good tip.”

I unleashed Dusk Edge once more, creating an opening. I took a stance. Combining the technique I used against Servi and Reverse Scale Pierce.

I put the essence of all the swordsmanship I learned, excluding the defensive Third Form, into this.

“Is it that same swordsmanship you showed earlier? It won't work if it's not a Holy Sword technique, will it…?”

That's not true. This is my first time on the Demon King route. I gritted my teeth. I stomped hard on the ground. Wind pressure surged from my right hand.

I endured the strain with my entire body. It seems I'm overexerting myself by using three techniques at once. Drrr-drrr-drrr, the ground rumbled.

I simultaneously unleashed Void Slash, Reverse Scale Pierce, and Shadow Slash.

-Clang!

“My darling, you still have quite a cute side…! This time, you'll definitely be by my side…!”

Magic Hat casually blocked the wind I created with a trump card.

Even if the Holy Sword is corrupted, what kind of card is that tough? To induce complacency, I attacked head-on again.

“It's useless. With such swordsmanship…”

-Clang!

But that wasn't my real aim. I closed the distance. This is why Wolf Fang, being a charge skill, is good. A gap of offense and defense, less than a span wide, continued.

I slashed, blocked, parried, thrust, and swung.

In that fleeting moment,

I found a way. I used the authority to cover the world in darkness.

“This is gonna hurt a bit.”

-*Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!!*

“Huh… Huh? Kyaaaah!!”

I aimed for a blind spot and brought my sword down hard. Blood splattered on my helmet. I aimed for her heart but missed, unfortunately. She probably wouldn't die from this anyway.

“How fascinating..! What's the principle behind this?”

Shadows can be easily created. In the game, Shadow Slash wouldn't work on her, as even shadows were considered false, but,

“Well? Can't your brain handle even that much?”

I tapped the temple of my helmet with my finger. In my hand right now is Kainel's Holy Sword. Since it's an artifact-grade item personally crafted by a god,

it's similar to the weapon I originally used in the game.

“..Darling, you’re so mean… You know I'm light-attribute and you're doing this, aren't you?!”

Moreover, she's a Demon King, yet she's light-attribute. That's probably why the hero's party found it difficult to fight her. The white-haired woman put some distance between us.

Now, Magic Hat was looking at me, clenching both fists and stomping her feet in frustration.

‘Because if it's not dark-attribute, there's nothing I can stab.’

Perhaps that was why I, unlike others, succeeded in achieving a first-kill on her in <Black Heart>.

“Of course I know. So, what are you going to do now?”

“Hehe, then… wouldn't it be enough to just change my attribute?”

The line signaling entry into Phase 2. In the game, a warning would pop up if party members weren't composed of all attributes, and even attempting it wasn't recommended.

“Hehe… Then what should I change it to? Fire? Water? Ah… Like the Glass Knight earlier, Earth would be good!”

“You’re annoying, can’t you just die already?”

“If it's with my darling, at the same time and day, I'll consider it!”

On top of that, she's a crazy person who even copies skills. I sighed deeply. Is she going to use the Glass Knight's magic too?

「Mirror Mirage.」

Clap, clap-clap. The sound of applause echoed.

At the same time, figures wearing black magic hats increased.

“..Now you're even using fakes with physical substance?”

I didn't expect this either. The Crown Prince must have been quite a cheat. The plan was starting to go awry. It might be hard to cope with an unknown pattern.

“Yes! You didn't seem like a hero, but you were quite an interesting opponent!”

Watching the magician with her twisted smile, I gripped my sword tightly once more.

***

In the forest, where Licht had vanished without a trace, Kainel's party was left standing alone.

“..Licht? Where did you go?!”

“Helmet Guy… Is he really facing the Demon King alone? What do we do! Kai…!”

“Let's trust and wait. He told us to run… but I don't want to.”

Phine calmed the others and spoke. Then, their heads nodded in agreement.

‘He was definitely a Demon King.’

Her keen eyes recalled the situation from a moment ago. Looking back at historical records, Demon Kings have been diverse.

“..Black Knight. He definitely was, right? Ariel.”

Among them, a characteristic is that Demon Kings adopt the attire of their profession. In Magic Hat's case, it was inferred from her magician's attire.

“Oh, yeah! Mardol. Still, I guess it’s typical of Helmet Guy… He seemed somewhat sad.”

The glass helmet clinked. No matter how she thought about it, it was strange. If the man named Licht had been a Demon King from the start, too many things wouldn't make sense.

“..I called Professor Dennis for now. He said he’d be here soon.”

She rested her hand on her chin, like someone else, and began to unravel the mystery. She had already used telepathic magic and, just in case, even called the Imperial Guards. Because the authority was now released.

‘If he really was someone from The Heroic Cult…’

He wouldn't have saved the lives of Chartiness and Nex, her elder sister and brother whom she knew. Clearly, that incident had involved the Demon King of Omniscience.

“...”

Anyone living in this world would undoubtedly believe in the Head's omniscience. It might be judged better to betray Nex or side with The Heroic Cult.

“What exactly did junior Licht do? It was amazing. He just solved puzzles that seemed like authorities, didn't he?”

“Junior Black Knight… What kind of person is he, really, Nex?”

“He might be the new hero chosen by the God of Wisdom Akasa! Char.”

If he were an ordinary person, that is. He might have panicked and fled the dungeon.

‘And he even healed Kainel and Ariel…’

Watching the blond-haired hero and the red-haired mage, she continued to feel a sense of incongruity. If his true identity was a Demon King, it made no sense.

“Ariel, I'm also in favor of waiting. That Licht fellow, I need to pay him back for disappearing without a word last time.”

“..Helmet Guy healed our Kai and Mardol, so I'll do that too…”

Emotions that couldn't be hidden were revealed on their faces. What her golden wolf eyes perceived was that they, like her, were worried about Licht.

“..He'll be fine. Licht is strong.”

Actually, a part of her heart was aching. It was filled with worry about whether that peculiar man could truly win.

‘It's my first time seeing Demon Kings hostile to each other.’

Her mind became complicated. Weren't Demon Kings all supposed to be bad? The question arose. Her past memories made her feel strange.

‘Even the spirits tried to protect me…’

A Demon King in the form of a Black Knight.

‘Last time, he even worried about me…’

Licht, who had admonished her for obsessing over strength due to the trauma of her mother suffering at Magic Hat's hands when she was young.

‘He even healed my injuries. He didn't have to. If he had noticed I was a princess from the start…’

The power she possessed was very strong. She held the right of succession to the throne, surpassing her younger brother Lupus.

He could have even taken her hostage or used that fact maliciously to harm her.

“...”

Does he like the Nameless Saintess?

Thinking of Licht, who had asked her to take care of things to the very end and then vanished to confront Magic Hat, she felt dumbfounded.

How could he be such a contradictory and naive person? Even though he was strong, he didn't flaunt his power, maintaining only the fresh emotions like the protagonists in the romance novels she read.

“Haa…”

She sighed inside her glass helmet. A genuine worry. For such a person to be a Demon King, honestly, she no longer knew what to think.

“..Licht, you liar.”

She hoped the time would come when that man would tell her himself. Phine was secretly worrying, her ears and tail drooping inside her armor.

***

My blood flowed on the ground. Half of my armor was already gone. My ribs were broken. Breathing was difficult. Was I caught off guard like this because I didn't know the pattern?

“Gah…”

I was gasping for breath in a corner of the Dark Dimension. Sitting down, I activated the Holy Sword to keep the approaching enemies at bay.

“Oh my, darling… You endured quite a bit, but… it seems you still can't, can you?”

There are too many clones. I killed a few, but their numbers were ignorantly increasing to the point where I couldn't even touch the main body.

“Then… from now on, I’ll take you to where I live! How about it? We’ll start over from the beginning! Us!”

Glass magic, each with a physical form. The shattered pieces crawled towards me like zombies. It's disgusting. Not fun at all.

“Absolutely… not…”

“Aww~ Playing hard to get isn't popular these days, darling…!”

I tightly closed my eyes. I wasn't doing this because I wanted to deny reality. It was partly due to the pain, but there was another reason.

Actually, the status window I'd been seeing was strange since earlier.

[A contradiction has occurred in <Black Heart>!!]

[A contradiction has occurred in <Black Heart>..]

[A contradiction in <Black Heart>..]

[<Black Heart>..]

[...]

A translucent window, warning in red. It had been appearing like this continuously ever since I was separated from Kainel's party.

Messages that overlapped and multiplied as time went on.

What on earth is it? Wasn't the contradiction already resolved? I wondered, even amidst severe bleeding.

‘Ah, then perhaps Kainel and Ariel's escape in <Black Heart> was…’

It's truly malicious in itself. If I hadn't been there, they would have all been defeated by Magic Hat, just like a moment ago.

This is why I thought the status window was useless. Even in this grim situation, it's only giving unsolicited advice instead of help.

“...”

Originally, did the hero couple perhaps suffer something terrible and develop trauma after being defeated here?

That's why it was described as a lack of love, leading to their escape.

Even if it's "just a game," this is reality where lives are truly at stake. Contradiction or not, I must protect them. I braced my hand on the ground and pushed with my legs.

[A contradiction has occurred in <Black Heart>!! Lee Suhyun, please cease combat!]

For the developer to explain it directly through the status window like this, it was ironically easy to understand.

“..Go screw yourself.”

I ignored the status window.

The characters were more precious to me than myself, and,

honestly, I never liked the idea of quantifying love from the start.

Romance? Affection points? In reality, none of that matters, does it?

Because love isn't a game of numbers played with hearts, nor is it easily defined just by defining it.

I barely managed to get up, without even glancing at the countless notifications popping up before my eyes.

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