Every Morning, My Mirror Saves the World - Chapter 23

Chapter 23

After a brief black screen, the three of them could finally sit down and talk in a normal, uncensored state.

“Wait. I think you forgot to count one person,” Galahad said, raising a hand.

“A god who’s already dead doesn’t even count as a ghost,” Ruiyin answered without hesitation.

While they were busy with the personal attacks, the Black Knight simply sat there in silence. It was as though that dignity-shattering entrance had been nothing but an illusion. He sat quietly on the stone, arms resting casually on his knees, and his sheer presence overwhelmed everyone there.

“So, why are you here?” Ruiyin finally faced the Black Knight and asked.

“I heard your summons,” the Black Knight replied calmly.

“…I only mentioned your name while talking to myself.”

“You also knocked on the door,” the Black Knight reminded her.

How to summon the God of Darkness with a divine artifact: Step one, call his name. Step two, knock on the mirror.

Worldview shattered.

Galahad suddenly shivered and looked around in confusion. “Hey, did it suddenly get a lot colder to you guys…?”

“Yes.” Ruiyin drew in a deep breath. “I can also hear the wailing of countless souls who died unjustly.”

All those innocent cannon fodder who had thrown themselves, one after another, into the great cause of summoning…

“No one summoned you,” Lars, who had been silent until now, said abruptly. His voice was so sharp it almost rang out. His green eyes were fixed on the Black Knight like a bristling beast that had just been provoked.

“No one needs you,” Lars repeated coldly. “We will never summon an Undead god.”

The Black Knight turned his masked face toward Lars. Even without seeing his features, Lars seemed to feel the cruel gaze behind that cold metal. He gripped his sword tensely and glared back through clenched teeth, refusing to back down, as if the two men might start killing each other in the next second.

One second later, the Black Knight calmly turned his head away and continued speaking to Ruiyin as though nothing had happened. “My liege, is there anything you require of me?”

Ruiyin opened her mouth, somewhat speechless. “I don’t-”

“Anything at all. Judging by the timing of your summons, do you need me to serve you while you bathe and retire for the night? It is no problem. Even in my current soul state, I can find a way to manage it.”

“…” A dreadful silence fell.

A gust of wind swept past. The Black Knight raised his arm slightly, and with a sharp clang, a chipped blade sank deep into his armor. Lars’s eyes were bloodshot as he gripped his sword in both hands and roared, “No one needs you! Hurry up and go back where you came from!!!”

The Black Knight lifted his chin slightly, as if looking down at him from above. He ignored the Little Knight’s outburst. Only after a long moment did he extend two fingers, lightly pinch the blade, and pull it out with no effort at all. A deep gash had been left in the armor on his arm, and something like black, misty dust slowly drifted out from it.

Galahad hurried forward a few steps and grabbed the Little Knight before he could lose control again. He lowered his voice and scolded him, “Are you insane? That’s Mordova, the God of Darkness! If you make him angry…”

“Too weak,” the Black Knight said lightly, easily shattering Lars’s fragile young heart into icy shards. “My liege, there isn’t even a decent man at your side. Forgive me, but I cannot leave with peace of mind.”

Galahad froze for a moment before turning his head to ask Lars with a puzzled expression, “Um… is it just me? Why do I feel like he wasn’t only insulting you just now?”

“…”

“Enough.” Ruiyin raised a hand, her head aching. Although she still wasn’t entirely sure why this Mordova had appeared here, at least she could be certain of one thing: so far, this legendary God of Darkness did not seem to harbor any malice toward them.

“We really don’t need you,” Ruiyin said sincerely. “It’s very safe here. And I believe these two loyal fans of the God of War won’t want to travel with you either.”

Galahad, who had been named, lifted his face as if he wanted to say something, only for Lars to twist his waist viciously. With tears in his eyes, Galahad swallowed his words back down.

“You will need me,” the Black Knight said. “For example, I can tell you how to reach the temple at the center of the island.”

A moment of silence. Then the three of them spoke in unison. “The center of the island is a temple?”

The Black Knight: “…”

With that godlike ability to seize on the main point, these three truly deserved to be on the same team.

“Yes.” Outwardly, the Black Knight remained steady as a mountain. “That is territory belonging to the Dark Race. You have likely noticed as well. If you rely on your own two feet, you will never reach it.”

“We don’t necessarily have to go there,” Ruiyin said coldly. “I’m sorry, but we’re only looking for a certain idiot. We’re not foolish adventurers who want something from you.”

“It is there. You will find it.”

Another moment of silence.

“Why does Vigia (that ball) (that moron) get to go up there?!”

…I will take off my helmet and smash you all to death.

“Please allow me to explain that to you later,” the Black Knight said after a long pause, as if forcing himself to ignore this trio’s divine sense of priorities and divine coordination. He stared motionlessly at Ruiyin. “My liege, do you now have a use for me?”

The three exchanged complicated looks. Lars stepped forward and fixed the Black Knight with an aggressive stare. “Why should we trust you? Isn’t the Dark Race best at deception, curses, and betrayal?”

Compared to the towering, powerful Black Knight, the three people across from him were practically still children. Yet all of them stood on the opposite side from him, beyond a clear line of hostility. And in the way they looked at him, not a single gaze was friendly.
“Because you are my only liege.” He rose from the rock, then dropped to one knee before Ruiyin, the knee guard of one armored leg tapping softly against the ground.

“I will fight for you forever. I will never fear, never retreat, and never betray you. Even if the entire world becomes your enemy, I will… lay the map of all four continents at your feet.” He bent down, the armor over his forehead lightly touching the back of Ruiyin’s hand. The pure black metal was so cold that Ruiyin shivered on instinct, yet she found it strangely difficult to come up with a reason to pull her hand away.

Galahad was half-kneeling on the ground, clinging desperately to Lars’s waist. “Calm down! Lars, you have to calm down! Even if that guy’s level of creepiness is way more advanced than yours… you still have to hold it in!”

“Let go of me!” Veins bulged on Lars’s forehead. His feet stamped hard against the ground like a bull’s as he struggled to break free of Galahad’s grip. “I’m going to kill him! That bastard, when even I haven’t… when Ruiyin is clearly… let go! I’m going to kill him!”

After a very long period of thought (or after the scuffle finally calmed down), Ruiyin made her decision. “Fine. Take us there now. How are you going to do it?”

The Black Knight slipped into the jungle, and in only a few moments, returned with prey. Slung over his shoulder was a level-twelve magical beast, a Purple-Spotted Venomous Python. This creature, with scales shimmering an eerie, alluring purple, was exactly the sort of thing their group had gone to great lengths to avoid along the way. When the Black Knight casually tossed that plump, round thing onto the ground, every male present felt as if his face had been slapped over and over with a slipper.

With both hands, he easily tore open the giant python’s body. Its highly toxic, dark purple blood splashed and streamed onto the ground. The withered grass, instantly scorched black by the venom, spread outward in intricate, intersecting lines that gradually connected into a complete pattern.

“A teleportation array,” the Black Knight explained coldly. “The temple is sealed off from the outside world. Only a teleportation array of the Dark Race can reach the upper level.”

“But why is it so small?” Galahad, brimming with curiosity, raised his hand to ask. “Can this many of us go through at once?”

“Because only two people can go through.” After drawing the final stroke, the Black Knight stood and walked over with perfect naturalness, extending a hand toward Ruiyin. “My liege, please hold tightly to my hand.”

With a dark expression, Lars slammed his sword hard against that hand, then vigilantly dragged Ruiyin a large step back.

Ruiyin lowered her eyes, then suddenly looked up and asked, “Is this teleportation array safe? I don’t have any magical fluctuations in me at all. Can I still pass through safely?”

“Please rest assured. I have already infused all the magic into the materials. Even someone with no magic whatsoever can activate it.”

“Really? That’s good.” Ruiyin nodded. Holding Lars’s hand, she took a step back into the Magic Blood Array, then calmly waved goodbye to Galahad and the Black Knight. “In that case, we’ll head up first. You can wait for us to come back on the beach.”

Galahad: “…Wait, why am I always the one who gets left behind?!”

The Black Knight silently turned around and, carrying an air of bleak desolation, entered the jungle once more. A little while later, he reappeared with another venomous python over his shoulder, crouched down, and very seriously traced the teleportation array larger by another circle.

The teleportation process was nothing like a game with a loading bar and a complimentary scenic illustration. After rolling out of the teleportation array with a deathly pale face, Ruiyin understood perfectly how the stuffed bear she had once thrown into a front-loading washing machine must have felt.

What appeared before the three of them was none other than the temple they had been looking up at for so long.

It was as if the surroundings had changed along with the teleportation. Down below, the jungle had still been lush and green, but here, it had all been replaced by withered, dead trees. Their twisted branches were like desperate hands reaching toward the sky, silently half-concealing the endless black structure. It seemed to have been abandoned for a very long time. The mysterious characters carved into its massive black stones had already been mottled by the passage of years. Beneath the oppressive, low-hanging gray sky, a crow swept in panic past the towering archway, and its falling cry slowly rolled down the sloping black passage.

Galahad gazed up at the entrance with reverence on his face. “So this is the temple of the Dark Elves?”

Ruiyin murmured, “Yes, this is the Dark Elves’…”

She suddenly turned around and stared at Galahad. “What did you say? Dark Elves?”

The Silver Knight’s eyes were dazed with fascination, and he continued unconsciously, “Yeah, the Dark Elves’ territory. That night, Lars and I saw… Lars didn’t tell you?”

A moment of awkward silence followed. Everyone stared at one another.

“Oh, so it was the Dark Elves.” Ruiyin smiled brilliantly.

“Uh… Ruiyin, I… I can explain!” Lars broke out in a cold sweat and stepped forward, speaking in a rush. “We did it for your own good! The truth is…”

“Oh, so it was Lars too.” Ruiyin kept smiling with narrowed eyes. At the same time, her right hand drew the dagger from her waist, and with casual indifference, she stabbed to death a small, innocent lizard that had happened to be passing by on the tree beside her.

“…”

Trying to look cool was a skill that, sometimes, really wasn’t something just anyone could pull off…

Author’s Note:

Just imagining the Black Knight turning bleakly around with a little ahoge sticking out of his helmet to go hunting again…