WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈

Chapter 87

──────

Episode 87. Everyone Needs a Headache Pill.

* * *

A corridor lit by a chandelier. Within that space sat several distinctly unusual figures.

"So, Ache. Why did you gather us here...?"

"Head, if you called us here over something trivial, I'll kill you."

A girl with striking blue hair and a red-haired man spoke up toward the gentleman wearing a monocle,

"Ha, so this is how the children from beyond the world are. So then, Demon King of Omniscience. What do you have to say?"

"I called you because a new hero has appeared."

"That's talk about my darling husband! Head!"

A woman in a magician's hat and a figure in a long black robe cut into the conversation.

"Yes, his name is Licht. No matter how thoroughly I search with omniscience, his past doesn't turn up."

"Then he's definitely a summoned hero? How long has it been since the last one. This calls for a bit of a warm-up..."

"No, Fin. You mustn't step in."

The demon king named Fin cracked his knuckles, showing a competitive itch over Licht, but Head shook his head and held him back.

"We don't know how far our powers will work on him. It's dangerous if the others learn our abilities too."

"After all, he's the one who saw through my lies!"

Magic Hat's cheeks flushed as she twirled a lock of hair with one hand, wearing a bright expression, as though talking about her own lover.

"The way to hold the advantage in a war of information is, fundamentally, to never reveal the cards you're holding."

He let out a small sigh and explained his reason for stopping the demon king named Fin,

"...The holy sword. Does he carry the holy sword?"

A man who sensed something off about the scene, antlered Heogun, asked. At that, the monocled gentleman's mouth curled slightly upward as he continued.

"He doesn't have one, I'd wager. If he had the holy sword, Tardun would have given it to him in the end, and I saw no sign of that in the prophecy."

"...Then it's a case similar to Dennis. He used magic to block our power."

At Head's remark, the blue-haired woman with a ponytail answered in a slightly quiet voice,

"Intinium. Well said. You mean that blue-haired one who resembles you?"

"Hehe... that's right. Thanks for the compliment, Fin."

The two, who looked like siblings, pieced together what each of them knew and agreed that Licht resembled Dennis, one of the Ten Greats.

"Without the holy sword, he's bound to lose to a demon king eventually. He lacks the qualities a hero ought to have."

"...Is that really so, Head?"

"What is it, Magic Hat. Do you have something to say?"

"No, no! This way's more fun, don't you think!"

Unlike what Licht knew, it wasn't four demon kings gathered here but five in total, exchanging opinions and devising a way to counter him.

"I intend to gather the Apostle of Gluttony and the bare minimum number of Heroic Cult followers, and attempt an infiltration of Grand Hearts Academy."

"Won't that place be hard to break into because of Laplace? Should I lend you my mask again?"

"No, according to my omniscience, walking in openly gives the higher odds."

Head pulled a book from inside his coat and looked at the passage stating this method carried the highest probability. It read 99%.

"There's no hitch in fate. First, we hold off Drake and Dennis, and then..."

"...Is abducting Licht and the princess the best option, Head?"

The magician drew a single card from her pocket. It was a tarot card marked Fool, an unmistakable jab aimed at Head.

"Yes. Magic Hat. That smile of yours has been bothering me for a while now, is there something you want to say?"

"Nothing at all~! You're the Demon King of Omniscience, so surely there's nothing you don't know?"

The Demon King of Truth's grinning stare had been thoroughly irritating him for a while, but Head drew a red revolver from inside his coat and loaded it.

"Drake's ultimate skill is a nuisance, but at this point in time, Dennis shouldn't have mastered the three-dimensional magic circle yet. There's a chance we can win."

He wrapped up his words to the other demon kings there. The thought had suddenly struck him that saying any more might let them see through him instead.

"...That makes seven."

He spoke briefly, looking at the gun whose eight-round cylinder held only a single empty chamber. It looked built for a game of Russian roulette.

"If this doesn't work, there's still one last chance remaining."

He gazed at it and let a faint, bitter smile cross his lips.

"Fate won't go astray. Hero of Will."

His face wore the look of someone utterly sick of this sort of thing by now. His footsteps echoed through the corridor as he left the Demon King's Castle.

* * *

The afternoon at Grand Hearts Academy was peaceful. Peaceful enough that the quiet itself was starting to feel unsettling.

"Swordsmanship is the study of will. In the end, as long as you hold the will that says 'I can cut it,' there's nothing you can't cut!"

A man with short yellow hair and a face marked by numerous sword scars. A Grand Sword Master you could say resembled me, with my own burn scars.

"Because a person's will cannot be broken! Ha-ha-hah!!"

It was Drake, my first swordsmanship teacher. This man was a hidden class instructor who never even showed up in data mining.

"Even armor made of Orichalcum or Adamantium!"

He stood before a wooden dummy dressed in armor and drew his sword. Silver steel caught the light.

"Can be cut!"

He cut straight downward with a crisp shhk. Drake sliced through it as easily as cutting vegetables.

"...So Licht was the same."

"Excuse me...? What are you talking about, Mardol."

Mardol whispered right in my ear as she watched. Was she talking about the time I stripped off her glass armor?

"My body.... You wanted to see it that badly, hm. Licht."

"Please stop saying things that'll make anyone listening get the wrong idea..."

"...You're such a pervert."

"..."

I couldn't break the Masterpiece, so I'd resorted to a workaround.

Maybe some resentment still lingered, because behind the glass helmet, her golden eyes had narrowed into thin crescents. It was my own doing too, I supposed I had to accept it.

"Like this, among the swordsmanship techniques I can use, there's even one that can cut through the very 'concept' of a dragon!"

Drake was referring to his own ultimate skill, Dragon Slaying. He thumped his own chest with his fist as if showing off, looking thoroughly confident.

'An ultimate skill capable of standing against a demon king is, at its core, always tied to a concept.'

The same went for Dennis's three-dimensional magic circle. A magic circle that broke past the limits of the concept of 'flatness' to be realized in three dimensions was effective even against a demon king.

"So don't rely on mana alone, find your own method. Find your own strength and cut the world down with it!"

He walked back to the podium and slammed his hand on it as he continued.

"A healthy mana dwells in a healthy body, everyone!!"

He shouted his usual line,

"It's this Drake's dream that among the students who graduate from this academy, a hero capable of defeating a demon king will be born!"

With the look of a man weighed down by guilt over the demon kings his own generation had failed to finish off, he voiced his humble wish to the hope of the future standing before him.

"It's because your will is strong that you beat Magic Hat too, I'd guess. Licht."

"...Probably. I got lucky."

It was then. She'd been listening closely to Drake and spoke to me again. Honestly, since I'd gone into that fight ready to die, she was about half right.

Demon-King Slaying fundamentally requires being ready to die. It's a poor choice to use outside a one-on-one fight.

Even if I managed to take one enemy down, if another appeared and the fighting dragged on...

'I would have died from running out of time.'

Recalling that memory like that made my head throb.

It felt like I was missing something. What exactly was this nagging sense of wrongness. I could dimly recall stepping out for some air during the festival.

'I definitely ran into someone at the cocktail bar...'

Who was it, again. Their face slipped from my grasp like grains of sand through fingers. Someone I'd seen plenty of somewhere before, though.

"Mardol. Do you happen to know what I did last night?"

"...When you stepped out for some air?"

"Yes, that time. My memory's hazy."

"...Probably. You were stumbling."

Stumbling, huh. At the very least, I had no memory of that. Think. Who exactly had I met?

What kind of person would leave a memory feeling this wrong, information contradicting itself like this...

Ah, don't tell me.

'...the Demon King of Omniscience?'

Bang-!

The instant my thought finished. A single gunshot rang out from outside the academy.

[The defensive barrier surrounding the academy has been broken! Students, I repeat. This is a real situation....]

Right after, Laplace's voice came over the school-wide broadcast, announcing the emergency, but the students didn't move, as though not a single one of them had heard it.

"...Mardol. Did you hear that, by any chance?"

"I heard it. Licht."

The Glass Knight looked fine, maybe thanks to the Masterpiece, and I immediately bolted from my seat to check on Ariel and Kainel.

"Helmet guy. What's going on? That announcement just now...!"

"...Licht, don't tell me it's the thing I'm thinking of?"

Kainel activated the Holy Sword of Light and threw up a barrier around the mage right away. Fortunately, neither of them had fallen to the power.

'Think, Lee Suhyun. This is similar to the final battle of <Knight Heart>.'

The only time he unleashed the power of Erasure of knowledge this indiscriminately, in every direction, was when he was carrying out his own plan.

"Drake!! This is going to sound crazy, but hear me out!! The Heroic Cult is about to attack! The Demon King of Omniscience is..."

I shouted at Drake, who already looked to have sensed something wrong and stood gripping his sword, wary of his surroundings. It was a situation where I couldn't even begin to guess who might die.

'This is different from when it was Magic Hat...!'

With a shattering crash of glass, figures in white garments covering their faces and bodies burst into the academy auditorium.

A crest of four crossed swords in the shape of a hash mark. A cult following the four fallen heroes. The Heroic Cult.

"Death to the false heroes!!"

"Glory to the Heroic Cult!! Hold Drake back!!"

"I'll burn this body of mine!!"

A figure who had set themselves ablaze charged at him, and Drake clicked his tongue and cut the cultist down with his sword at once.

"These guys haven't changed a bit from ten years ago..."

He wiped the blood off his face and looked over the other enemies. His gaze swept over the ones who had pushed their way in among the students.

"Drake Style, First Form, Shadow Cut... no,"

「Light-and-Shadow Cut.」

He closed his eyes for a moment and unleashed a single horizontal slash. And only the cultists in white were cut down, with precision.

The entire auditorium was cut in a single stroke, yet not a single hair on any academy student was harmed. A judgment made and executed in an instant. Restraint given form as swordsmanship itself.

'Drake wasn't affected by Erasure of knowledge.'

As expected of one of the Ten Greats. No tragedy of students being killed occurred. He kept holding off most of the sheer numbers pouring in,

"Something's off. Licht. Why are only the four of us and the professor okay...?"

"Right, Licht. Ariel's trying to dispel it, but it won't work!"

Mardol and I together knocked away the weapons the cultists who hadn't made it inside kept hurling at the students. She even used the Mirror Shield to repair the shattered windows.

"...It's not magic."

Despite this being an emergency, everyone except Drake and the four of us sat there still, as if they had no idea anything was even happening.

"Because it's the power of Erasure of knowledge."

Calm, perceiving nothing at all. They just sat in their seats, staring off into the distance. A power that completely neutralized a person's intellect like this. What on earth was it for.

There was only one person who could pull off an invasion here with such an insane idea.

'Head Ache.'

I'd probably met him at the cocktail bar during the festival. And the fact that he hadn't bothered to neutralize Drake, letting him fight to save lives like this, too.

'Even you're coming out for this.'

It showed his obsession with preserving life clearly. Using the Corrupted Route glitch now would put me at a disadvantage. There was no telling what the Demon King of Omniscience had prepared.

I could only win by striking his blind spot with a card he didn't know about. Even within the original game, he'd reference save files,

'the kind of bastard who came prepared with countermeasures tailored to the player.'

A highly sophisticated algorithm. Or maybe I should call it a leveling system. He was a strange demon king, one who had to be approached differently and differently again the stronger the player grew.

"My student. Run. I'll handle the Heroic Cult..."

"I can't do that. Drake."

A headache washed over me. I looked at the fallen cultists and thought. This whole situation was probably already within the palm of his hand.

"If Head Ache has come here, he'll be after me."

The Grim Reaper summoned as a hero from another world. The Demon King of Omniscience's footsteps were headed toward the academy.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried