Black Knight Licht. His real name is Lee Soo-hyun.
Actually, Pina has only known him for just three months.
“..Schartines sister.”
The icy and emotionless Glass Knight.
Like an empty glass without anything, the princess had always thought that if she wasn’t strong, she was useless due to the trauma she experienced in her childhood.
Because of that, she even used the pseudonym Mardol and now attends the academy.
“Licht, junior, just like last time, the healing isn’t working.”
“Schart, sister..!! Please..!!”
In the healing center of Grand Hertz Academy, she was desperately pleading with the black-haired saintess, her face scrunched up and tears rolling down.
“We can’t let Licht die like this..”
“Nex is using the Phoenix’s cradle outside, so he’s barely holding on to life but….”
The state of the man who collapsed from a bullet wound to the heart was useless, even with Schartines using Divine Power beside him.
The extent of the injuries was severe. There wasn’t a part of his body that was sound; his arm was grotesquely twisted, and both legs were broken.
“..Pina. Prepare yourself mentally.”
“No way. I don’t want that..!!”
Professor Beatrice, who just stepped out after attempting to heal him, said it would be better to give up.
“You already know. You searched the Library of Truth..”
The danjeon had already been used once to heal him, and even if the Celestial Demon arrived, the situation wouldn’t change, as Laplace said.
“The Demon King doesn’t die gracefully, does he?”
Who would have thought he’d pretend to be dead until the last moment to attack?
The second saintess sighed deeply. Despite continuously pouring large amounts of blood into Licht’s body, it felt like pouring water into a bottomless pit.
“..Pina. The issue is the damaged circuits, right?”
It was then. After a long silence, Pina removed her glass helmet on her own.
Schartines felt puzzled as to why she suddenly took off her helmet, but due to the urgency of the situation, she answered her question.
“That’s right. But the condition of your junior is serious.”
“If the heart and blood vessels are intact, we can heal him, right..?”
Pina’s beautiful white hair fell loose down to her waist, and her golden wolf-like eyes glinted. Her gaze was solely on Licht.
“If we don’t completely rebuild the blood vessels… Wait a second, could it be?”
The pure white girl drew a sword from behind her. The transparent sword that mirrored her heart.
“Then, my blood, along with the Dragon Heart.”
As she slightly gripped the blade, the inside of her palm was cut, and blood flowed out. Drop. Drop. The crimson blood spilled into Licht’s punctured heart.
“..Isn’t it possible to save Licht?”
“It’s impossible, Pina.”
Among the things that Pina had brought when she asked Schartines to save him was the Dragon Heart, a prize for winning the year’s exam.
“Even if we completely replace the destroyed heart and fill it with new blood…”
The unique red eyes of the vampire race sparkled. The vampire saintess looked down at the man in the black knight’s helmet and examined his body carefully.
“How do you expect to put a dead dragon’s heart into a living person and make it beat?”
“There’s a way.”
Pina placed the Dragon Heart beside her, like she had something in mind, and laid her hand on her chest. A magic circle began to unfold from her palm.
“I’ll link it with my heart and make it beat.”
“..Huh? Pina, did I hear you wrong?”
Seeing her, Schartines could only wear a face of shock, while determination was etched on Pina’s face.
“That’s way too reckless!! Pina!! If you fail, we’ll both die!!”
She was saying that she wanted to link her living heart with a dead dragon’s heart, then try to transplant it into the body of a person whose life was fading.
Anyone would recognize that this was nonsensical.
Gripping Pina’s shoulders clad in glass armor, the second saintess tried to dissuade her.
“..I don’t care. The blood vessels can be remade using glass magic.”
“No, that’s not it…!”
Pina Grancia had already made up her mind. Putting her blood into Licht’s body had been to use the magic better.
“The chance of success is at most 1 percent, Pina. Are you really going to do this..?!”
“…”
From behind her, the Glass Knight appeared with multiple arms, a vision carrying many tools, akin to a surgeon.
“..Licht tried to save me without calculating the risks.”
She slightly closed her eyes and reopened them, searching for what was wrong with the man’s body.
“Were my good eyes necessary for this moment, Schartines?”
Pina’s eyes were no longer a curse for her.
The last remaining means to save Licht.
The princess held onto that meager hope tightly.
“Ha.. really..”
Schartines furrowed her brows. A princess of a nation risking her life for a mere male student of the academy, not even a noble?
It was indeed a serious matter. While he was a hero who killed the Demon King that even the Ten Heroes couldn’t capture.
“How much does our Pina cherish Licht, her junior….”
If she died like this, what would it even mean? The best hope was that the Emperor might not go after the families of those involved.
But she couldn’t just stand by and watch her close younger sibling, who lost a precious person to the Demon King in the past.
The platinum wolf was slowly regaining its bright demeanor. She couldn’t let this all end in a muddy failure.
Pina Grancia had already made up her mind. There was no point in saying anything further now, and she was well aware of the risks of putting her life on the line.
“..I’ll help you on the side. Just know that you’ll really get scolded later, Pina.”
“Thank you, Schart sister.”
The black-haired saintess finished her thoughts and, using Divine Power, assisted with the surgery, driven by the tormenting instincts of a vampire.
*
Even she herself thought it was incomprehensible.
‘..Licht.’
Why was she so concerned?
Why did she feel pain when this man was injured?
The first emotion she had toward the man in the black knight’s helmet was curiosity.
‘Why do you always risk your life? Just say it hurts if it hurts.’
Emotions damn near spilled out, so many gaps in his facade.
‘Why wield a sword if you can’t even use mana properly?’
She gazed at the twisted blood vessels with her good eyes, looking at the scars everywhere with sorrowful eyes.
‘I can’t watch you sacrifice yourself any longer.. Licht..’
The weight of the words that he had once been weak bore down on her. Pina’s heart tightened painfully. If this wasn’t the case, he wouldn’t treat his own life so lightly.
He must have experienced many things in the battles between life and death.
‘..Or perhaps he had a desire to die.’
She saw a fire scene through his trauma—this was the same dark past she had unknowingly harbored as well.
For the first time, she witnessed his bare face. While anyone might call it hideous, that never bothered her.
‘I wish he’d be more confident, Licht.’
Rather, if she looked closer, there were many handsome aspects about him, and most importantly, it was a person’s inner self that mattered, not their appearance.
‘You’re allowed to be yourself.’
While he saved her mother, she felt as if she had been saved by the warm heart of the Black Knight too.
He had healed various wounds and even shared with her the heavy guilt that felt like it would crush her.
Now, if people were to gossip about him when he walked around without his helmet, she’d want to use her power to scold them right away.
‘..I’m okay, so it’s fine. The burn marks.’
He had become someone infinitely precious within Pina Grancia. No matter how many others may have helped him or accomplished feats against the Demon King.
Her heart knew there was no altering the priority that Lee Soo-hyun held. The precious people who stood in that place were Nex and Schartines.
Now, even with Kainel and Ariel, she had formed close friendships. The hero who protected them all was only him.
‘You won’t need to worry about anything.’
Knowing that she was a princess, he neither sought her power nor desired anything, and even after learning about her gender, he had continued to accept her as is.
Whether handsome or ugly made no difference.
‘You don’t need to be strong. Just stay alive for me.’
Black Knight Lee Soo-hyun. If it wasn’t him, the cold sensation of anxiety coursed through Pina’s neck.
At first, she hadn’t thought he was weak. After all, she believed him to be strong from the get-go.
‘A person strong enough to capture the Demon King of All Knowledge. But at the same time….’
He was a weak person. The purest and most innocent person of all.
The man named Soo-hyun, as Pina saw him beside her, always carried that aura. Like a drenched puppy that couldn’t just be left alone.
‘You really can’t lie well, can you.. Licht..’
She cast a glance at the blue rose placed on the side table.
With prowess strong enough to win the year’s exam, even achieving second place due to time constraints in wanting the Mana Rose.
‘A good liar.’
He had even used it for her sake, to mend her injuries sustained from the Head’s Holy Sword. How foolish an act it had been. Wasn’t it something precious to him?
‘Where could the Nameless Saintess be? Really.’
It looked like a flower prepared for that person. She was willing to use her Divine Power for him, regardless of whether thorns pierced her palm.
Had it not been for him, she might have fallen victim to ignorance and been left in a state of utter confusion. At this moment, while the Head was dead, it had been dangerous back then.
“..Licht.”
She looked at the many injuries left on the man’s hands. Wounds from pricking and slicing by plants. He had fought with those wounds, wielded a sword, and fought against the Demon King to victory.
‘How much must it have hurt?’
She watched from a distance, with her good eyes, during the battle with Head Ake. She was genuinely shocked when he was struck by the large metal, when his body lay in tatters.
‘Professor Dennis saved him though..’
The blue-haired mage had stopped Pina from rushing out and told her that a surprise attack was necessary. When fighting the “All-Knowing,” one shouldn’t reveal predictable movements.
The Glass Wings that enabled the Black Knight’s escape from the trap had stemmed from Dennis’s advice, but her decision to retaliate back then using Demon King Kill had come solely from Pina’s judgment.
‘Perverted Licht.. please wake up..’
As she watched Soo-hyun lying helplessly, she thought.
‘I find it adorable when you startle easily..’
Pina had sometimes teased him for that very reason. It was enjoyable seeing the gloomy puppy get startled and act cutely.
Honestly, he also didn’t seem too inclined toward women.
If he had, he would have acted flirtatiously toward other girls within the academy or gazed at them with lecherous eyes, but he never did.
During festive events, he didn’t drink with the other female students nor did he bring up their worries quietly.
‘Above all.. he never harbored any ulterior motives towards Ariel.’
An elf famous for her beauty. Even when he was with Ariel, he was aware of Kainel’s feelings and didn’t intrude on their space.
You could say he seemed more inclined to support their romance. Even the time at the bakery had felt like that.
Plus, Pina Grancia herself never once asked him to remove his helmet or to want to see his face.
‘Why Licht, when you saw my body, made you so flustered.. I don’t understand…’
Pina glanced down. Normally, the view would be blocked by her contoured form, but right now the Masterpiece covered her figure.
‘When you wake up, I’ll tease you even more.’
She was so focused on healing that she didn’t realize the sweat flowing down her face.
The air inside the frozen healing center. As she battled against time to save Soo-hyun, Pina exclaimed.
“..You’re precious to me. Licht.”
Unintentionally, her true feelings slipped out. Emotions that not even armor could conceal.
“Pina? What did you just say?”
Now the glass surrounding her became no obstruction.
