WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈

Chapter 89

──────

Episode 89. Everyone Needs a Headache Pill.

* * *

A building where mostly second-years were stationed, inside the academy.

There, Nex Aureus drew out a violet phoenix and stood facing off against The Heroic Cult,

"Nex, more of them, up ahead!"

Behind him, the black-haired saintess stood back to back with him.

".. As expected, they're trash."

A fanatic had pretended to beg for their life a moment ago, then pulled out a weapon and swung it, leaving a shallow cut on Chartiness's cheek.

"No one's hurt now, right? Everyone!"

Bearing the traits of a vampire, she wrapped her fists in holy power and struck down anyone who came close,

"Thank you, Chartiness.."

"Don't mention it!"

At the same time, she scanned around, checking for any injured classmates and healing them, looking extremely busy.

"Nex, I'm fine. So don't act rashly."

"Got it. Char. I'm trying too, you know."

He immediately activated Helios Midnight, meaning to neutralize their spells and weapons and protect the students, but,

"There he is, Nex Aureus!!"

"Spirit magic against spirit magic! Get into position, quick!"

"If the prophecy holds true, there's no way we lose!!"

As if his technique had already been figured out, a crowd in white robes drew out water-attribute spirits and closed in.

".. So, the Demon King of Omniscience, huh. A half-measure won't work on this."

His violet eyes gleamed as he assessed the enemy strength before him. If he activated the Phoenix Cradle, he wouldn't be able to go save anyone else.

Judging from what his junior Licht had said, and from watching what the head of his house did, he knew that using it left him unable to move. It had been the same when he'd practiced alone.

'At least until reinforcements arrive, the Cradle's off the table.'

He didn't even know how much strength was waiting outside. No matter how strong the spirit magic passed down by a descendant of the Ten Greats was, it wasn't without weaknesses.

The thought crossed his mind, wasn't the very act of activating the Cradle here exactly what the enemy was counting on?

Use the strongest defensive technique a second-year could currently manage to pin him down, then strike elsewhere, that possibility stood before Nex as a fork in the road.

"Magnolia Sword Art. Fourth Form. Cheongryu (淸流)."

That was the moment. Like a tide rolling in from the sea, a surge of water rushed down the hallway. A blue wave, crashing like surf. It flowed around the students, sweeping away half the enemies in one stroke.

".. Junior Licht!"

Licht, wearing the black knight's helmet, appeared from somewhere. Seeing the fanatics attacking the students with spells and weapons,

"Their formation's broken..! We almost had Nex using the Cradle!"

"That black knight's helmet, is that what the Demon King meant by..."

He rushed in fast, cutting down the enemies around Nex and Chartiness. An arrow flew straight at him, but Licht knocked it aside without so much as pausing for breath.

"What, I heard he was supposed to be weak against ranged attacks-"

The apostle holding the bow stared at Licht in shock. What on earth was that monster. Because from what they'd heard, no one had said this man possessed strength anywhere near this.

When it came to swordsmanship, he'd clearly reached a certain level.

Sword Master would be the accurate description. When he swung his sword once more, not a single student so much as lost a hair, while only the white-robed Heroic Cultists went down, with precision.

".. Senior Nex. You're still all right, I see."

"Still? What do you mean by that?"

Licht, having cut down every last enemy, stood before Nex and Chartiness. Nex questioned the strange choice of words.

At that, the brown eyes inside the black knight's helmet narrowed, as though expressing discomfort.

"These people, they're probably after you two and Mardol."

"Mardol? Don't tell me, like before..!"

The Second Saintess. Chartiness knew of Phine Gransia's past connection to Magic Hat, and she cried out, both hands flying to cover her mouth.

"So that's why you said 'still.' In case something had already happened to her."

"Yes, she's been taken hostage before."

"Absolute bastards. Trying to touch our Char again?"

The violet-haired man bit his lower lip, venting his fury. His huffing manner had shed every trace of coldness.

"Senior Nex. Use the Phoenix Cradle to cover this entire building."

".. Is that okay? Judging from what The Heroic Cult was doing earlier, it looked like they were counting on me using the Cradle."

"I'll be here. Fate, prophecy, whatever they're spouting."

Seeing that, Licht looked Nex straight in the eye and spoke. His resolve reached Nex, and it brought him a strange sense of relief instead.

"People can overcome anything."

"Right, if that's what our Hero of Wisdom says, then I should."

As though satisfied by his junior's attitude, Nex flashed a foxlike grin and activated the Phoenix Cradle.

"Screeeee!"

The great violet phoenix soared up once, then swelled in size, doubling over,

".. I keep telling you I'm not the hero, Senior."

wrapping its enormous wings around one of the academy buildings, forming a completely impregnable barrier. Licht offered words denying that he was the hero, but,

"Judging by what you're doing right now, junior, you're a hero all right."

"..."

"I think being a hero means living up to the name."

"Is that so...."

Nex patted his junior's shoulder lightly, offering encouragement. He hesitated as if about to say something, then stopped himself.

"Oh, and if Senior Nex starts to tire, Senior Chartiness, please help him out."

"Got it, Junior Licht!"

At Licht's suggestion, the saintess, black from head to toe, immediately pressed close to the violet-haired man's side and began healing him.

"This looks good, you two."

"You're cracking jokes in this situation? Junior Licht..?"

"Well, if I don't joke around like this, it's too sad."

Licht spoke briefly, looking at the violet-haired man whose neck and cheeks had flushed red from the physical contact. Dried blood clung to his hands and helmet.

"Junior Licht, we're going to go save our Mardol, right?"

"You caught me. How'd you know."

".. If that weren't the case, there's no way you'd have made our Nex use the Cradle."

Her red irises glinted faintly, showing off her vampiric trait. Struck right at the heart of it, he lowered his head as if he had no choice.

"Like I said before, please take good care of our Mardol."

"..."

The black knight lifted his head again. Unlike before, something more mature showed in his eyes.

"You didn't have to say that. I'll protect Mardol no matter what."

Hearing Licht's answer, Chartiness let out an "Oh," unable to hide her surprise, but unlike before, he didn't show any sign of denying it.

* * *

With that brief meeting over, I received another teleport from Dennis and moved to where Mardol was.

".. Licht?"

"Mardol, you're safe.... Thank goodness."

The moment I saw the heavily armored Glass Knight, a sigh of relief escaped me. Kainel and Ariel were nearby too.

Looks like they haven't run into the Demon King of Omniscience yet. But where on earth is this place.

".. The field?"

Over the Grand Hearts Academy's field stretched a huge dome-shaped glass wall, and inside, dozens of magic circles had been drawn across the ground, giving it the look of an air raid shelter.

"Ta-da, I drew all of this! Helmet guy!"

As I fixed my gaze on the floor with a suspicious look, the mage with red twintails came fluttering up to me.

"Hehe, I copied what I saw in the swordsmanship training hall! They can't get in with this!"

"Ariel.. you're way too excited. We haven't even beaten The Heroic Cult yet."

Kainel scolded her from the side. Our oblivious retriever and tsundere cat both seem to be doing fine. I'd figured if they'd run into the Demon King, they'd have fled somewhere.

"Kainel."

"What, Licht?"

".. Honestly, I thought you'd run away. Sorry for not trusting you."

I apologized, looking at the blond-haired hero. Because in the sequel, when the hero who could stand against the Demon King ran off, it put things in a badly disadvantaged position.

I hadn't trusted my friends nearly enough. I didn't have broken cheat items now, nor a top-level party made up of a whole team of the Ten Greats, not this time.

"Licht. You're pretty oblivious yourself, you know. Do you really think 'Hero of Light Kainel' would run off somewhere?"

"I'm not thrilled to hear that from you, honestly...."

"So trust people a little more, Licht."

I had experience to draw on by now, and a track record I'd walked out for myself.

He'd turned my own words back on me. Kainel was getting more and more smug, taking after Ariel.

"Licht, blood."

As we were talking like that, a low, humming voice sounded from beside me.

"I'm fine. Mardol. Honestly, I'm not hurt."

It wasn't my blood to begin with. Looking at the Heroic Cultist blood staining my helmet and hands, she showed worry for me.

".. It really isn't. Thank goodness. Licht."

Mardol really is such a warm person. Maybe deep down, she's more thoughtful than she lets on.

Leaving her to be played around by the Demon King's whims like this, that had become something I couldn't allow.

'She even tried to be considerate about my fear of fire.'

She kept checking on me, touching me over and over, and I wanted to say something about it, but I let it go. The old me would've mistaken it for the crown prince and bolted in a panic.

'You've really changed a lot, Lee Suhyun.'

I'd really ended up inside the game now, and made friends here. I'd met the characters from beyond the screen and shared friendship with them.

I'd built a bond with Dennis and Drake too, and with the hero-and-mage couple, Kainel and Ariel.

"Licht, you scared me, disappearing like that."

"Sorry. I was late because I went to protect Senior Chartiness and Senior Nex."

".. I figured that's what it was. You're always the same, Licht."

And I'd grown close with Mardol Gransia too. What kind of life would she have lived, if I hadn't been here. She probably wouldn't even have had any contact with the hero couple.

She'd always been someone lonely and cold, sharp as glass, refusing to let anyone else get close.

They say that's how friendships tend to go, but even now, I honestly can't quite say how we got this close.

"Mardol, I keep telling you I'm fine. Stop touching me already."

"This is payback for before, you pervert Licht."

"..."

I was a little unhappy that our nameless saintess wasn't here, but even as things stood, wasn't this happiness enough? Right at the moment that thought crossed my mind,

'What is.. that?'

Something strange entered my field of view.

".. An Apostle of Gluttony?"

Far off, a man shaped like a toad appeared and began spraying black smoke. Just the opposite of when I use Shadow Fang, everything outside began to go pitch dark.

Bang.

Once the world had gone dark enough that I couldn't make out what was happening outside, a third gunshot rang out immediately, and the glass wall shattered into pieces,

and the smoke the toad-man had sprayed was closing in to swallow the field whole. Smoke should move slowly, but this was moving at an abnormal speed.

"Everyone, hold your breath!!"

I raised a gust of wind with Void Slash, trying to counter the apostle's attack, but it was a meaningless swing. The wind pressure couldn't push back the translucent black smoke.

'An illusion that passes straight through. Yeah, I recognize this feeling....'

An apostle whose ability recreates people's trauma and feeds off the fear it produces to strengthen itself. Only Metus of Gluttony could do this.

Much like the time with Servi, the Apostle of Lust, I lost consciousness and collapsed onto the gritty sand.

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