WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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◈ Academy's Pure Love Dark Knight ◈

Chapter 90

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Episode 90. Christmas carols rang out.

* * *

The academy training grounds, thick with black fog.

Thanks to Licht's instructions, aside from a few, most had avoided the apostle's attack. But the enemy surged forward immediately.

"The glass wall's broken!!"

"Now! Everyone, charge!"

"For the Hero of Omniscience!"

The mob of cultists charged toward the students, who were holding their breath.

Weapons, magic, divine power, and spirit arts flew into a place where not even an inch ahead could be seen,

"Bad luck, Heroic Cult."

Reinforcements arrived at last. Professor Dennis appeared out of nowhere, spinning a three-dimensional magic circle, and deflected every attack.

"..Using a spatial-control ability against a mage who twists the water attribute into alcohol."

He had reached the point of using teleportation magic at will.

"The fundamental 'concept' of water is volatility."

With a sudden thoom, the three-dimensional magic circle above his hand swelled larger, turning blood-red.

"Seems you didn't attend our academy's orientation, Metus."

The moment he finished speaking, the magic circle vanished like a popped balloon, and the scent of alcohol and grapes spread out, driving away the black smoke around them.

"You can breathe now, everyone."

Just as he'd explained in the first magic lecture, he vaporized alcohol to render the opponent's ability useless.

At the same moment, the charging Heroic Cult members staggered as if drunk, and soon, as though overcome by sleep, began sinking to the ground or collapsing where they stood.

"Anyone hurt?"

Except for the academy's students, the thud of bodies dropping echoed from every direction.

Watching from far away, the Apostle of Gluttony stared at the spherical magic circle spinning in the man's hand and doubted his own eyes.

"How? According to what the Demon King said, Dennis shouldn't have anything like that right now..?"

The order he'd received was to be wary of the boy wearing the Black Knight's helmet, Licht, and to simply avoid the central hall, since Dennis would be tied up there.

How had that blue-haired man, his eyes glowing white, escaped a barrier made from a water spirit? The question flashed through the apostle's mind.

"Professor!!"

"Professor Dennis!"

Only now able to breathe freely, the academy's students shouted for the professor and pointed at the toad-like man revealed as the fog cleared.

"I know. First, I'll have to catch that one!"

Dennis launched one of the spinning magic circles. A ring-shaped circle sliced through the air.

"Gu, gueek."

The instant it touched Metus, the Apostle of Gluttony, it transformed into a binding curse. Chains made of water droplets wrapped around his stout, middle-aged body.

"Did you really think you could touch my precious students and keep your life, Heroic Cult?"

Dennis walked steadily toward the captured apostle. His tone and stride carried a force that made him look furious.

"..Wait! Wait a moment!! If you kill me, the student caught in the nightmare will die too..!"

Like a frog caught in a human's grip, Metus thrashed against the chains and let out a shriek.

But he couldn't budge, and only dust rose from the ground.

"The status ailment has already been lifted with healing magic."

One of the Ten Greats shot down the apostle's clumsy attempt to rattle him with threats,

"Kukuk.. That student doesn't look like it, though."

Grinning wide enough to split his mouth, the toad-like villain pointed a grease-slicked hand at someone.

"..What did you say?"

"Just as I thought, the Demon King's plan has no margin for error!"

The blue-haired man immediately turned around. The other students who had collapsed had all gotten back up and come to their senses.

"Licht, why isn't he getting up?"

"Licht..? Hey, pull yourself together!"

"Helmet guy!!"

Only the student wearing the Black Knight's helmet, Licht, showed no sign of movement at all. Phine Gransia shook him, trying to wake him, but.

"..No response. Licht."

Looking at him slumped and limp, Phine's sharp eyes made a quick judgment. At that moment, Dennis's hand, which had been about to deal with the Apostle of Gluttony, faltered and dropped.

A student whose mana circuits were tangled, immune to healing. The Black Knight Licht. Head must have known about everything he'd accomplished since enrolling at the academy.

"Now, what will you do? You fake, who couldn't even become a true hero!!"

Sensing victory, the apostle shouted triumphantly.

"This should do it, Metus."

He was thinking fast. The Heroic Cult's true target couldn't have been him from the start.

They'd probably been after Licht, who was most likely the one chosen as the hero.

He was someone who had driven off even Magic Hat and broken through a dungeon presumed to be Head's own creation. There was no way that student wasn't the hero.

"Student Mardol. Are you close with Licht?"

He swallowed hard. If things kept going this way, they'd all fall right into Head's scheme. He might well appear soon and wipe out everyone here.

"..Yes, I suppose."

To throw off his calculations, there was no choice but to make the most unexpected move possible. Dennis spoke bluntly to the princess.

"Then there's something only you can do."

The daughter of Emperor Rook. Among everyone he knew, she had the highest mana reserves, someone who could affect another person through touch alone.

"Go into the nightmare and save Licht."

"Understood, Professor."

Dennis made the request looking at her, and inside her glass armor, Phine nodded immediately.

"No way. Wait, this isn't what I was told..!"

Metus, who had already been told the identity hidden beneath the Masterpiece, wore a look of shock, but the princess wasn't shaken.

"..Licht."

She laid the fallen Black Knight down comfortably. Her golden wolf eyes studied the man, who looked like a puppet with its strings cut.

"What on earth are you dreaming about...."

Watching Licht grimace beneath his helmet, breaking into a cold sweat and groaning, she looked at him with sad eyes.

It was as though looking into a mirror, she understood better than anyone what he was feeling.

Trauma is like a person's shadow. Everyone has to live carrying one, but some people's shadows are dark enough to blot out even the light.

Carrying something like that for an entire lifetime crushes the heart.

A person who feared fire. The burn scars she'd glimpsed before had looked severe. He was probably reliving that past in real time right now.

"..It must hurt so much. But just hold on a little longer."

If not for Licht, she probably wouldn't have overcome the trauma Magic Hat had inflicted on her. It was the card he'd actually risked his life to reclaim for her.

Because her mother, Empress Bellin Gransia, was no longer held hostage, the Glass Knight had been able to show a somewhat brighter side of herself lately.

"You'll be all right soon, Licht. Just like you once saved me."

Phine took one of the sleeping Licht's hands in both of hers, taking on the posture of prayer. Without the armor, she might have been mistaken for a cleric.

She shut her eyes tightly. The thought that an immensely dark past must be dissolved somewhere inside this man crossed her mind, briefly, but

"This time, it's my turn to."

None of that mattered to Phine anymore. Just like the Black Knight who hadn't retreated even in front of the Demon King,

"..save you."

because she had to become the Black Rose.

* * *

When you think of Christmas, what comes to mind?

Carols ringing through the streets, maybe, or a white-haired old man in red climbing down chimneys to hand out presents.

Someone else might mention a sky full of falling snow, and another might point to a green tree decorated with colorful little lights.

But there's one memory burned vividly into my mind.

'This is....'

Snow had piled up thick, turning the whole world white,

"Mom! Santa's definitely coming tonight, right?"

"That's right, Youngmin. So you have to listen well to what the doctor says today, okay?"

"Okay! Got it!"

A place much like that, where children in pure white clothes gathered. The pediatric ward where the real me had once been.

'I've been caught by the Apostle of Gluttony.'

I opened my hand and looked down. My body and hands had shrunk smaller. I'd been pulled back into a hopeless moment from my past.

"..."

I tried to open my mouth, but no words came out. The past was the past, it seemed I couldn't change wounds and facts that wouldn't change.

Because this was my past, from before I'd been possessed into the game.

It was an ability that recreated the target's trauma exactly. Unlike with Servi, I had no sword this time, and even trying to bite down on my tongue was impossible.

Nothing moved according to my will. I needed to tell them to run, but I couldn't.

'I was supposed to be discharged the very next day.'

With nothing I could do, I started racking my brain as hard as I could.

Like flipping a book back open to reread it, I began piecing together the broken fragments left in my memory.

I'd been hospitalized after a minor collision with a car while riding my bike. My father, a firefighter, had been too busy to stay by my side the whole time.

Tonight, a fire would break out, and I, waking in the middle of the night, would be led out by hospital staff.

'..I'd hear a child screaming for help and run back into that place.'

I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut. In a world where only my consciousness remained intact, I felt like I was going to lose my mind.

"Suhyun! Aren't you excited about Santa tonight?"

The child in the same room, smiling without any idea of what was coming. I looked at that boy and felt a wave of despair.

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