WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈

Chapter 82

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Episode 82. Who Is the Uninvited Guest?

The magic club's horror experience booth was going quite well.

"What's even scary about this…"

"Aaargh!!"

"...Didn't you just say it wasn't scary, senior?"

These were the harpy and the oni from before. The horned man, who'd seemed fearless, yelped in fright and latched onto his female underclassman when a yellow Cerberus leapt out at his side.

"Eeek! It's a cat that's just a floating mouth!"

Inside the dim booth, where only a little light got in.

On top of that, Mardol's glass walls and ceiling distorted everything, making the costumes look even scarier.

"Grrrrrrgh."

"Aaaaaah! W-water ball!"

Occasionally some startled student would fire off a spell. I drew my sword and cut down the water orb flying at Mardol before it could land.

"No magic."

"Ah… I'm sorry. I got so startled that I just…"

As if. If the princess had gotten drenched, it would've been a disaster. I hadn't personally witnessed the event where the imperial guard showed up and slaughtered the player, but still.

"Thanks, Licht."

"Don't mention it."

Emperor Rook probably cherished his child the same way any parent would. The fact that Mardol's identity hadn't even been made public was proof enough of that.

'If something went wrong, I could lose my head.'

I swallowed hard. Honestly, I was curious myself why she never took off her helmet.

'Now that I think about it, I've never seen Mardol's face.'

Mine I could chalk up to a bonus item I couldn't remove, but hers was strange. I wasn't supposed to think about any woman besides our Saintess, so why did I keep doing this?

'It's probably because of Magic Hat. Don't think too much about it, Lee Suhyun.'

Seeing the princess's hidden face for the first time? Anyone could tell that'd lock in the Mardol route. I only had our Saintess. I had zero intention of building a harem, not even if it killed me.

My feelings belonged to her and her alone. I shook my head to cut the thought off.

"I'm afraid you'll have to leave now."

I pointed toward the exit. Better to send them out before things got worse. After seeing the one off, she spoke to me from beside me.

"Licht, is something wrong?"

"...It's nothing. So, does your arm not hurt?"

"No. Because I'm strong."

A tree monster, cradling her spare helmet in her arms like something precious. My voice hummed out of my equipment, wreathed in flickering blue flame.

"So, Mardol. I've got a riddle I thought up, want to try it?"

"I'll try. Tell me."

"...Do you know what metal makes the gear with the highest evasion rate?"

No matter how I thought about it, her affection level was way too high. A joke like this should be enough to knock it down some, so let's try to keep things strictly on the companion route.

She mulled over the answer for a long while, then,

"I don't know."

She looked at me with bright, expectant eyes, as if asking for a hint.

"What's the answer…? Licht?"

"Mithril."

"Ah."

Mardol covered her mouth as if shocked. Even you must think it's ridiculous. It was a joke our adorable Saintess used to love.

"Ouch, that hurts, Mardol."

"..."

Maybe she was a little annoyed, because she even swatted at me lightly. It didn't actually hurt, more like play-fighting, but I liked it when she expressed herself like this.

"Hmph, a joke like that… no one could ever guess it."

"Of course. It's not the kind of thing you're supposed to actually guess."

A joke that flops needs explaining, after all. I'd already prepared a trap to use once she got it wrong. I looked over at the deep hole dug beside us.

"So… did you fill this with training slimes?"

"Yeah. I thought that'd be better, Licht."

A mass of gurgling, slimy monsters. They were harmless, so it'd be fine. If anything went wrong, at worst someone's clothes would just get wet, slick, and damp.

Walk straight through and you'd end up back at the booth's entrance. It was called a haunted house, after all, so it needed at least this much.

'Ariel seems… to be doing well too.'

In the distance, I saw a cat laughing "hehe!" as it vanished into flames and reappeared. Under her feet, a fire that gave off no heat burned.

'I shouldn't keep doing this.'

Dizziness hit me again. My hand rose reflexively to the part hidden by glass magic. Lately the trauma had been getting worse.

"Licht, are you okay…?"

"...I'm fine. I'll rest for a moment, so could you let me know if a customer comes?"

That was when it happened. Mardol suddenly set her helmet down on the ground and pulled me in against her side. Her grip was strong, and I couldn't resist.

"Want to… lean on me?"

I was already leaning on someone because of her. The tree monster beside me matched my eye level. It looked like someone dozing off against a stranger's shoulder on the subway or a bus.

"No! I'm fine now!"

It really was just like that. I startled and straightened up at once. Honestly, I could never let my guard down around this person.

"Good. Licht. You seem to have your energy back."

"You startled me. Why'd you suddenly do that?"

"...Because Licht's a pervert."

All I'd felt was hard wood, so why was I being called a pervert? The karma from the grade exam ran deep. When had Mardol turned into the one who teased me like this?

'I can't tell whether it's good or bad that she only acts this way toward me.'

It was a good thing that a character who used to seem numb and sad had turned a little more positive, at least.

But why did it have to be me, an extra, of all people, instead of one of the other male leads? There had to be plenty of better people in this world than me.

I sighed. Was I really going to end up locked in some imperial dungeon at this rate? Say I kept sticking close to the Saintess, then,

'she might lock me up, claiming her only friend hadn't been seen around lately… No, wait, that's going too far.'

In Black Heart, Lupus had ended up doing exactly that if he started dating someone from the imperial guard.

But now, since I'd rescued the Empress who'd been captured by Magic Hat, there was no way he'd do that. The problem was here instead, a person I had almost no prior information on.

"Licht."

The imperial princess. The female lead of Grand Hearts Academy. Mardol Gransia. I genuinely couldn't predict what she'd do next.

During the grade exam she'd shown an odd streak by bowing to a sword, and just now she'd told me to lean on her.

I wished I could at least figure out a pattern, the way I could with Kainel or Ariel, whose companion routes were easy to manage.

"That thing from earlier. Could you tell me more?"

For a second I was surprised she'd spoken in a full sentence. Wait, the dad joke? Wasn't it not funny? The unexpected reaction gave me chills.

"The h-horned duck's favorite mineral, what is it?"

"...Orichalcum."

Mardol flashed a V-sign at me, showing off her victory.

"..."

"You got it right."

I'd been read. Same as last time, how did she keep knowing these things? It was the kind of stale material from old joke magazines that kids these days wouldn't even recognize…

"Ah, here you are. My precious graduate student."

That was when, flustered by Mardol and trying to think of a way to redirect the flag elsewhere,

"...Professor Dennis?"

"Hello, Professor."

A blue-haired man reeking of alcohol came looking for Mardol and me.

* * *

Dennis approached with a waddling, pigeon-toed gait. Wearing a good-natured smile, he exhaled a hot breath thick with drink.

"You two are doing a fine job."

"Did you come to check on the club's booth?"

"That's right. Can't have any problems, after all."

He nodded in agreement with me, and with a click of a cap popping open, pulled a small bottle from his coat and wet his throat right away.

"Anything else you'd like to ask of me?"

"Ah, could you make it so magic can't be used inside the booth?"

"Sure, and the reason?"

He looked around the glass maze here and there, waving a hand in front of it as things grew larger and smaller, inspecting the booth.

"It seems some people get so scared they end up attacking with magic…"

"Anything else you need?"

A humming voice sounded beside me. Mardol, dressed up as Quercus, spoke up.

"...A fatigue-recovery magic circle. We need one."

"That much I can manage. Here you go."

As soon as he finished speaking, he traced a magic circle out of water droplets. Just standing on it was enough to feel the fatigue melt from my whole body.

"Licht, does it feel good?"

"...It's nice. Thank you."

"Good."

Something about her saying that felt strange, but she'd probably just been worried about me stumbling earlier, so let's let it go.

"The anti-magic measure's taken care of now too."

With a flash, the ring of the three-dimensional magic circle in his hand expanded and spun around the booth. A single ring formed, dividing outside from inside like Saturn's rings.

Water droplets pattered and splashed into the booth. A cool sensation seeped through my visor.

"...Thank you."

"Ah, right. Licht."

"What is it?"

Having finished everything, he'd turned to leave, but spoke to me again. What now? Was there another event?

"Did you know there's a night market opening this evening? Plenty of food, and there'll even be a play or two."

"That sounds good. Will you be there too, Professor?"

"I'll be at some nearby tavern. Any booth selling alcohol, I'll go wherever it is."

A drunkard's a drunkard, through and through. Hearing a line he used to say often in the original for the first time in a while,

'Thankfully, this man is exactly as I remembered him.'

A smile crept onto my face without my meaning it to. Good thing the helmet hid my expression.

'It'd be good for raising Kainel and Ariel's affection too.'

A night market date had a certain romance to it. As I turned my gaze, I saw a Cerberus and a Cheshire Cat roughhousing in the distance.

"Grrrrr..! Ariel, well? Scary, right?"

"N-not scary at all! You idiot, Kai...!!"

"Oh, there's a cockroach over there!"

"Hiyaaah!!"

As if flaunting the fact that they were childhood friends, they clearly knew each other inside and out. Lying about a bug, seriously, Ariel's practically in tears. Hurry up and comfort her.

"...Licht, that."

At that moment, Mardol pointed a finger at the hero couple and asked me a question. Oh, you've noticed too now?

"...Why aren't they dating?"

"Who knows. Though the answer's simple enough."

Loving each other means respecting each other, after all. That's just how it is. They probably just weren't ready yet. Reality can be cruel that way too.

Something as white as fresh snow is easy to stain. Without resolve, a pure love breaks easily.

In the sequel, they were the pair who'd even run off together in an elopement right before the final battle with Magic Hat, so in a way, I suppose that was just like them.

"I don't get it…"

Mardol tilted her head as if baffled, and the branches of her costume blocked my view.

* * *

Just as Dennis stepped out of the magic club's booth,

"Ah, sorry about that."

"I wasn't looking where I was going."

He lightly bumped into a passerby who'd been about to enter the booth. The two men's shoulders merely brushed as they passed.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm fine. You?"

"I'm fine too. Sorry about that."

"No, I'm the one who should apologize. Young man."

And so the brief encounter ended. Both of them had been equally careless. A chance meeting that passed without any ill feeling, a bond that was also, perhaps, a curse.

"...Dennis, huh. It's been a while."

Watching the blue-haired man walk away, Head murmured briefly. Gazing blankly at a small pamphlet marked "Horror Experience Booth,"

"If it hadn't been for Magic Hat, this really could've turned dangerous."

He carefully put back on the mask that had nearly come off in the collision moments ago.

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