Every Morning, My Mirror Saves the World - Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Ruiyin stood amid the boundless black fog. There was no light around her. Countless pearl-white Undead brushed past her, all sorts of strange creatures beyond imagination, their expressions numb and rigid as they pressed shoulder to shoulder. Yet all of them consciously avoided her, then threw themselves one after another into the battle beyond the fog.

Expressionless, Ruiyin watched the crowd over there fight so fiercely that dust flew everywhere.

Lars stabbed one of the Dark Elves to death. Lars stabbed a zombie to death. Lars stabbed a dragon to death. Lars stabbed a fleeing Galahad…

Bored, Ruiyin tossed the dagger in her hand up and down. As a tragic protagonist without any cheats unlocked, she naturally had no hope of earning awesome titles like “Martial Saint!” “Demon Lord!” or “Killed seven with one blow!” But fortunately, she had at least mastered this little game to pass the time…

Her current situation was rather strange. She could see Lars and Galahad, but neither of them could see her. It was as though some invisible membrane had completely separated the two spaces. Aside from being bored, she could not find a single thing to do.

She yawned out of sheer boredom and watched Lars drag Galahad, who had failed to escape for the fifth time, back into the battle circle. At last, the Silver Knight, pushed past endurance, finally roared at him.

“What are you trying to do? You still haven’t given up?! Ruiyin disappeared together with Mordova. There’s no point in us staying here tangled up with these Undead! Didn’t you hear what he said? There are seventy-nine thousand of the strongest Undead warriors here. You…”

“Then I’ll kill them all.” Lars mechanically repeated the motion of swinging his sword, forcing the five words out through clenched teeth.

Galahad froze in a daze in the middle of his escape.

Another pangolin-shaped magical beast Undead turned into white smoke beneath Lars’s sword. No flesh or blood splattered, yet Lars’s eyes were stained red by some nameless emotion.

“Since Mordova took her away, then I’ll just kill every last one of these things. If I do that, he’ll come out, won’t he?” Lars calmly described something utterly insane. “It’s fine. I’ll finish as quickly as I can, and then…”

“Idiot!” Galahad unreservedly handed over the name Ruiyin usually used for him to Lars. “You’re only an Apprentice Knight, aren’t you? Never mind that every Undead here was once the strongest fighting force of their respective races. Just their numbers alone are enough to get the two of us killed several times over! And if you really care about her that much, why didn’t you stop her just now? I don’t need to tell you what the cost is for making a contract with the God of Darkness, do I?!”

“I know!” Lars shouted in pain. “But I also know how powerful the God of Darkness is! Compared to an Apprentice Knight like me, he is the truly powerful knight who can stand beside Ruiyin! I couldn’t save her in the Mermaid Sea. I couldn’t protect her in the forest of the Dark Elves. I’m just an idiot who still needs her to look after me. How could I deserve to stay at her side?!”

“But… that is the God of Darkness. Have you never thought about what price would have to be paid?”

Lars smiled faintly. “I can take her place. My soul, my body, or anything else. As long as I can stop dragging her down, I can pay any price. But you’re right. That is the God of Darkness, the most cunning and deceitful of gods. So I won’t do that anymore.”

He abruptly turned and drove his sword through the head of an Undead that had been ambushing him from behind. Combined with the power of light magic, the strike dealt the enemy a grievous wound that would be difficult to heal.

“She can only be my responsibility. I won’t hand her over to anyone again.”

Galahad looked weakly at Lars, who seemed ready to conquer the world with one man and one sword, and asked feebly, “I want to know, why are you doing this? Ruiyin… she isn’t your liege, is she?”

“No, she isn’t.” The Little Knight wiped the sweat blurring his vision and said softly, “She is my god.”

The scene before Ruiyin’s eyes gradually blurred. All the sounds sank away, until in the end, no more silver-white Undead brushed past her. Her world returned once more to absolute, silent darkness.

The Black Knight’s tall figure appeared soundlessly behind her. He still maintained the kneeling posture from before, head bowed motionlessly. As though sensing the chill behind her, Ruiyin slowly turned around while tossing her dagger.

“My liege,” the Black Knight said respectfully.

“…” She looked at him expressionlessly, tossing the dagger all the while.

“You do not seem surprised by my appearance.”

Ruiyin said, “I’m not. From the moment everything around me turned into sewage-black protective coloring, I pretty much knew something with these surface characteristics was about to make an entrance.”

“I apologize for bringing you here. I once thought that the instant you saw me, you would point your blade at my chest.”

Ruiyin continued flinging the knife with perfect calm. “Oh, it’s not ‘once.’ I’m thinking that right now too.”

“Thank you for your mercy.”

Ruiyin lightly brushed the subject aside. “You’re welcome. If it weren’t for the fact that I can’t beat you, do you think I’d choose to just amuse myself alone?”

“…” Although every sentence was terribly polite, why did it feel like every word came with a jab?

The Black Knight finally stood. He took one step forward, but as though he had seen the wariness hidden in the eyes across from him, he stopped again.

He lowered his head and said with particular respect, “I did not mean to frighten you. It is only… there are certain things I wished for you to see with your own eyes.”

Ruiyin gave a careless “mm.”

“Regarding what that Apprentice Knight said… what do you think?”

“Utterly stupid,” Ruiyin said without hesitation.

“Oh?” The Black Knight seemed somewhat surprised. “Why would you think so?”

“First, he has absolutely no idea how to gauge his own strength before setting a goal, and he bares his heart to strangers at the drop of a hat. Second, he’s extreme, impulsive, childish, and has no grasp of the situation.” Ruiyin sneered as she listed his crimes one by one. “And third, my affairs are mine. What right does he have to decide anything on my behalf?”
Then she brought her palm down with finality. “He is a reckless, willful, hopeless idiot!”

After a long silence, the Black Knight said quietly, “Is that so? But, my liege… you do not seem to hate him as much as you claim.”

“Your brain is broken.” Ruiyin looked at him with contempt. “I’d have to be insane to get genuinely angry at an idiot like that. He’s just a kid in his edgelord phase. Sooner or later, I’ll straighten him out. As for whether I hate him, ha. Since when did our affairs become your business to question?”

By the end, she had lifted her chin impatiently. “I definitely can’t beat you. So if you’re not planning to kill me or hit me, hurry up and let me out.”

“My liege, is he… the only knight you acknowledge?”

“No. I don’t need knights.”

She stood there with a slightly cold attitude, yet for the first time, she was looking at him seriously as she spoke. What she said was a rejection.

She did not want cities, armies, glory, or power, and she likewise rejected anyone’s protection or loyalty. He was even more pitiful than Lars, because she had not even granted him the right to accompany her.

The Black Knight drew in a deep breath.

“I understand. Then, my liege, what is it that you want?”

Ruiyin tilted her head and thought for a while, then clenched her fist with determination. “I want… to go home and take my exams.”

“…”

The Black Knight did not ask any more strange questions, but neither did he open the door back to the real world. Left with no choice, Ruiyin sat down beside him and waited patiently for his next decision.

Ruiyin’s build belonged to the category of “normal young woman.” In the past, there had occasionally been moments when she compared physiques with Galahad, but the result could always be beaten from “abnormal demon” back into “normal young woman.”

But now… she finally understood the sorrow of having a combat stat that was too low.

The Black Knight sat on the ground, arms resting on his raised knees. Even in such a casual posture, he radiated a powerful, imposing strength. Ruiyin curled up beside him and genuinely felt as if she were only as tall as his kneecap.

…This is so frustrating! This feeling of being unable to change someone’s stats by beating them up is so frustrating! Galahad, I miss you so much!

While all sorts of dark thoughts surged through her mind, Ruiyin suddenly heard the person beside her speak softly.

“You are right. He is only an Apprentice Knight. His swordsmanship is poor, his strength is small, his magic is weak, his thinking is not meticulous, and he acts too impulsively. He has no strength, no wealth, no bearing, no power. Of the things a man ought to possess, he has not a single one.”

A wave of irritated impatience welled up in Ruiyin’s heart. In a certain sense, the Black Knight was completely right. There were even times when she herself thought the same.

But still, no matter how lacking her own kid was, only she was allowed to criticize him!

Driven by staunch protectiveness, she impulsively turned her head and looked at the Black Knight with provocation, opening her mouth to snap back at him. But before she could speak, he had already continued.

“But… please do not give up on him.”

…Huh?

“Right now, he is only a young hawk. But there will come a day when he soars above the highest mountains, when the entire sky is the territory he commands and the entire earth is the hunting ground beneath his wings. He will offer you the world’s most precious wealth, the richest lands, and the most wondrous treasures.”

The Black Knight’s voice had gone very soft. Ever since meeting him, Ruiyin had never heard him speak so gently. It was like a mermaid’s tears falling into water in the dead of night, each drop splashing with the clear ring of pearls and jade.

“Please do not give up on him. There will come a day when he can truly become the greatest strength protecting you.”

The Black Knight turned his head to look at her. Unlike ordinary helmet designs, the Black Knight’s helmet had no ornamentation at all, not even air holes. It was only a blank mask embossed with natural metallic patterns, and it faced her just like that.

“Who exactly are you?” Ruiyin asked softly. “Why are you following me? Why are you saying these things to me?”

After a moment of contemplation, the Black Knight said, “…I am the family member who understands him best in this world.”

“Oh. I’ll remember that, Father.”

“…”

Mordova. Male. Identity: Fallen Knight.

Adding together all the time he had spent alive, dead, and alive again, this was the first time he had ever received a pure-gold “Dad Card.” Current mood: extremely complicated.

Ruiyin glanced at the Black Knight, whose aura had instantly turned gloomy, and vaguely felt a little sorry. She scratched her hair. “Sorry. You’re just Lars’s father. It was only a slip of the tongue, Uncle.”

“…” His aura immediately grew even darker.

At last, the Black Knight relied on his formidable self-control to overcome his negative emotions. He raised his head. “I am not…”

He had only just begun when, without the slightest warning, the darkness surrounding Ruiyin and the Black Knight shattered in an instant. Blinding light tore the darkness into countless fragments like a sharp blade.

Ruiyin raised her head in shock, just in time to see Lars stepping toward them, covered in wounds. All the Undead she had seen earlier had completely vanished. Only Galahad remained, lying on the ground and panting with exhaustion, and… Lars, drenched in blood, his eyes dark and cold.

It was the first time she had ever seen Lars like this: silent, cold, sharp, and formidable, with an excessively intense aura of violence shrouding his entire body. Even the World-Destroying Holy Archmage Lars she had once seen in the mirror had never possessed such a cruel presence.

He walked up to the two of them and stopped. He studied Ruiyin carefully, and only after confirming that she had not been hurt anywhere did his gaze soften slightly.

Ruiyin let out a breath of relief. “Lars, you…”

The next second, the young man raised the sword in his hand and, without the slightest hesitation, cut off the Black Knight’s head with one stroke.

Author’s Note: To avoid getting beaten up, I must state this clearly: the Black Knight isn’t dead! And he isn’t the dad!

The female lead is a tsundere! She’s obviously moved inside but insists on pretending she’s impatient. A tsundere!