Academy’s Pure Love Dark Knight – Chapter 92

EP.93 26-4. The Christmas carol echoed.

***

The hospital becomes quiet with a chill descending at night.

‘So, the time has come, Lee Soo-hyun.’

I secretly slipped out of the hospital room and ran. In the end, someone had to sacrifice themselves.

White hallway, pure white ceiling. Passing through the slope where the twilight was thickly laid,

“I’m celebrating the last Christmas of my life here.”

I arrived at the place to decorate the finale. The place where I met Santa with the boy named Youngmin a little while ago. The grand auditorium.

I looked up at the large tree on the stage. A tree decorated with small light bulbs of all colors, and a sparkling large star placed on top.

I can’t escape if I’m in this place. I already know it in my head too. I held the cold steel in my hand and relocked the latch.

I don’t know why the boy named Youngmin was in this place in the past.

“Just in case. I’ll lock the door too….”

Maybe he wanted to see Santa one more time, or maybe he was waiting in this place to really see Rudolf, like the lie I made up.

I got goosebumps seeing the door open. It would have been okay if it had been properly locked.

Fate seems light, but one day it comes to people in such a cruel form.

And most of the scapegoats.

‘It’s only those who aren’t ready to accept it.’

But if it’s going to take the life of that tiny little child,

Wouldn’t it be better to take the fly-like life of a coward who had tried to give up on life at least once?

Youngmin hadn’t even tried the hamburger he wanted to eat, and he hadn’t even played with the newly gifted combining robot.

“…”

If I can sacrifice my life to protect the child’s smile and happiness, it’s quite a cheap price.

The guilt that I hadn’t been able to save someone was great. If I hadn’t known the Saintess, I would have felt like I was living in muddy water all along.

“It’s a bit chilly. Is it because it’s winter?”

That’s why I gave Mardol Gransia useless comfort.

Apologizing to her now was just a cowardly excuse, and it was a mistake not to consider her wounds, but

What could she, who was just a child, do against the Demon Lord called Magic Hat? It’s strange that it’s possible in the first place.

Whether it’s the bloodline of the Wolf King, or the descendant of the Ten Greats, everyone has times when they are weak.

The ruthless reality where I can’t do anything. I would have felt guilty and resentful of my powerless self.

It might actually be cheap sympathy. Moreover, I might be forcibly empathizing by fitting myself into her situation without knowing her situation well.

‘It’s pathetic. Lee Soo-hyun.’

It didn’t matter anyway. Deep wounds, like my burn scars, will only fester and rot if they aren’t taken out and treated in time.

People can rely on people. I learned that through the Nameless Saintess.

I wanted to fill Mardol’s heart, which had become empty like glass. You can curse me as a predictable and common hypocrite.

‘..I didn’t know I’d be finishing things off like this.’

I plopped down next to the Christmas tree. The outside air I smelled after a long time tousled my hair.

The small hands were noticeable. My body became smaller similarly when I first possessed the game. Thinking about it now, a lot has happened.

“I met the drunken Dennis.”

<Knight Heart>, which I only saw as a game. The main character of the first installment.

A blue-haired man with impressive white eyes, drunk on alcohol.

I knew that he had suffered a bad incident from the Demon Lord.

Of course, because I teamed up with Dennis and fought Head in the last part of the original work.

The Demon Lord of Omniscience, who prepares in advance by referring to the player’s save file.

Because of that, as a countermeasure, I told Dennis about the three-dimensional magic circle in advance. I thought there might be an incident where the academy would be attacked like today.

In games, events where enemies suddenly invade were common,

Because it’s a world where you don’t know what will happen. I had to do my best.

‘I hope Master White Magnolia… will have this end well without me.’

An Eastern dragon with brown hair and deer antlers.

A person who polymorphs and walks around as a human woman, and

My second master who has a somewhat unconventional setting that the Heavenly Demon from another world was summoned as a hero.

She was Dennis’ lover, but she was forgotten through Ignorance, and traces of her could not be found in the world.

‘No, to be exact… it was ambiguous to find.’

The Demon Lord’s power wasn’t perfect, so traces remained everywhere that the Heavenly Demon existed as one of the Ten Greats, but only Dennis was desperately remembering her.

‘I still remember the last words Dennis said in the bad ending.’

The male protagonist who was dying from Head’s attack, unable to remember his lover’s name, only barely longing for the season of spring.

‘He still seems to be growing the Adonis amurensis.’

From the beginning, the golden flower in the club room itself is a foreshadowing. A flower called Adonis amurensis.

It’s dangerous because it has poison and can be toxic if you touch it without knowing.

Commonly, if you only look at the name, it seems like revenge which means to take revenge on someone.

‘..But that’s not actually it.’

It uses the character for good fortune and the character for lifespan. Like the Heavenly Demon’s name, Magnolia, it’s a plant that blooms in spring.

I remember reading in the setting book that Dennis was given it as a gift from her in the past, so he was carefully growing the poisonous plant while setting up a barrier with magic.

‘What was the flower’s meaning….’

A yellow flower blooming from the snow.

It was a plant similar to Dennis’s fate, where spring came only after overcoming the hardships of winter.

It’s a couple with a guaranteed happy ending if they only catch Head Eike. Even in the sequel, Dennis was only by her side like a sunflower without any other routes.

“The heater isn’t working either.”

The cold and quiet hospital air pierced my lungs because I was wearing thin patient clothes. I gathered the Santa clothes next to me and covered myself.

“Come to think of it, I also tried to raise Kainel and Ariel’s romance.”

The protagonists of the sequel, <Black Heart>.

These guys are childhood friends, but they’re characters who can’t be honest about their feelings.

If you look somewhere, you can say that they’ve put in all the characteristics of a romantic comedy genre manga from the 2000s.

A tsundere female character who snaps, and a popular blond-haired guy who has no clue.

‘But they both have good personalities.’

Kainel and Ariel were also involved with the Demon Lord. The reason he was chosen as the hero of light and despised, and the reason the World Tree Forest burned down were all because of

“..Hero Cult.”

If you think about it, it was because of the heroes who had become corrupted into Demon Lords.

There were also many NPCs who had radical thoughts such as cutting off the buds in advance before the Holy Sword turned into a Demon Sword.

“It’s a real axis of evil. If you think about it like this.”

I think that the title of hero is given to those who act accordingly. Being chosen by the goddess, or hearing the voice from the Holy Sword.

‘It’s not proof that you’re qualified enough.’

By the way, a hero is a hero who runs to save people, contrary to when everyone else is running away.

It’s a bit cheesy, but I’ve always repeated it in my heart. A smile spread on my lips.

I couldn’t protect it last time because I didn’t know, but I did it this time. I reached out and stroked my smooth face, recalling old memories.

The scar on my face was a wound caused by being swept away by the flames due to a backdraft.

The hospital I ran back into after hearing the screams. The moment I grabbed and turned a doorknob while looking for Youngmin, who couldn’t get out, bang. and fire poured out, greatly injuring only my face.

Now the situation has changed and my whole body will be burning like crazy, but I quietly sighed, thinking, “Can I wash away my sins with this much?”

***

The time was close to the hour when Christmas was ending.

“Evacuate here!!”

“Quickly!! Evacuate through the stairs!”

“Patient, you must leave quickly!”

Contrary to the words quiet and holy night, the hospital was noisy.

This was because acrid black smoke was rising, and flickering fire was gradually engulfing the pure white building.

“Licht..! Where on earth are you!”

Phine Gransia ran while scattering her long white hair. Moving in the opposite direction from the people leaving the hospital, she cut through the chaotic crowd, and.

“Cough, cough! What’s going on..!”

“Where did the fire start..?!”

The platinum wolf was going deeper and deeper into the hospital.

“Soo-hyun hyung isn’t here! Soo-hyun hyung..!”

“Youngmin, let’s get out of here quickly. It’s dangerous if we stay here!”

“He’s probably in the grand auditorium! He said he’d show me Rudolf!!”

And, she met a young-looking boy sitting in a chair with wheels.

“Santa noona!! Please save our Soo-hyun hyung, even if it’s you!!”

The boy wearing a red hat was shouting towards Phine even while being led away by someone else’s hand.

“..You, can you see me?”

Her good eyes didn’t miss it and felt a sense of incongruity. The fact that she can be seen in this nightmare means that he’s an important person.

“Yeah! You’re Santa, right..? Your hair is white too..!”

There was no masterpiece, armor or glass armor to protect her, and her sense of smell was already paralyzed because of the smoke.

Phine had to make a choice. She momentarily wondered if she should believe this boy’s words and go to the place called the grand auditorium as is, but

‘Lee Soo-hyun..? Licht..?’

Soon she was convinced. If it was Licht she knew, she realized from her experiences together that he would be alone in a place like that, saving the children.

“Cough, the grand auditorium is over there! Noona..! So please, be sure to bring our Soo-hyun hyung out!”

“Okay.”

The boy wearing the red hat smiled even though he looked sick, and it was also because he asked her for a favor.

Even while evacuating, she felt grateful to Youngmin, who pointed to that far away place with his finger, and nodded.

“..I’ll definitely protect Licht. Little boy.”

The only person who didn’t escape even in this situation and did something alone was him.

She ran in that direction. She ran. She didn’t use mana manipulation, so her legs felt pain.

‘I have to endure. Not with just this much..!’

Sometimes dusty ashes got into her mouth and tasted bitter, and her lungs were painfully burning due to the hot heat. Her esophagus was already burned.

“Licht!!”

But she didn’t care. No matter how much it hurt and she got hurt, her desire to save Licht, who was suffering in the nightmare, was greater.

Phine faced a large iron door. The end of the place that the boy had pointed to, no matter who looked at it.

“Cough, ke-cough.”

A dry cough was spat out. She grabbed the doorknob and tried to push it, but it made a clanging metal sound and didn’t move.

“Licht!! Are you there?!”

She knocked on the door hard, but there was no response from inside. Actually, this is different from what Phine had heard in the first place.

‘There’s no response. Is it not here?’

She definitely heard that he went back in after hearing screams and got burned, but is it not here?

“No, Phine Gransia.”

She was briefly frightened by the fire approaching from behind, but she slapped her cheeks with both hands to calm her trembling heart.

The man who wore the Dark Knight helmet.

Stronger than anyone else, but sometimes weaker than anyone else.

A grateful person who awakened her emotions, which were like cold glass, and relieved her guilt.

A lonely wolf who piled up lies because he didn’t want to hurt others, and fought alone.

Also, an innocent and cute person who blushed just by looking at her figure, maybe because he didn’t have any experience with women.

“This man…. is here.”

The man who gave her all the emotions she was feeling now was beyond that door, her instincts were howling like a wolf.

***

The fire alarm had been ringing for a long time, and now smoke was starting to flow in little by little through the cracks in the door.

“I can’t see our Saintess until the end.”

I thought I wouldn’t have any regrets until the end of this life, but there are things I regret, shamefully.

I didn’t meet her with white hair, wolf ears, and a tail.

‘I couldn’t tell others about her characteristics, because I was afraid that Head would detect her.’

I was scared when I heard that Head could find her when fighting Servi.

The problem will be half solved if only the Demon Lord of Omniscience is solved. He is also the final boss of the first installment, so I couldn’t let him harm her with any possible variables.

No matter how much I searched the game community, I couldn’t find anything about the Saintess’ past or name.

I also read an article by another player who entered the Imperial Palace and searched the records, but there was no information about the Platinum Wolf anywhere.

‘If there’s a next life… will I be able to meet you?’

Cold sweat flowed as the approaching fire came closer. I still haven’t fixed my trauma.

Looking at the clock on the wall, it was already trying to pass midnight. Was there no miracle on Christmas?

The moment I closed my eyes, giving up everything.

“Licht!!”

The iron door blocking the entrance to the grand auditorium flew away with a bang.

It’s not a backdraft. What just happened?

“You were here after all..!”

I heard a voice calling me desperately. At the end of that source, the woman I had only imagined until just now,

“..Saintess?”

Appeared with a slightly different appearance from my memories, wearing a pure white academy uniform.

‘Her height and voice.. are the same as what I know. How on earth?’

White hair falling to her waist, small moving white wolf ears and tail, golden shining irises.

This time, it’s not an attack by the Hero Cult like during Servi’s time, nor is it a fake imitating her appearance. I recognized at a glance that she was the Nameless Saintess.