Every Morning, My Mirror Saves the World - Chapter 53

A pitch-black helmet without a single feature. Black mist seemed to seep faintly from every edge of the armor. Just as he had when they first met, the tall and imposing Black Knight stood there in silence.

…No. This was nothing like their first meeting!

He was still frozen in whatever pose he had held before being summoned: bent halfway over, balanced on one leg, both hands suspended in midair. It looked very much as though he had been…

Putting on his pants…

Even Lars was staring blankly at the Black Knight. Mordova stood barefoot on the floor. Above his ankles rose two long legs, smoothly defined and packed with firm muscle. The taut lines of his calves curved beautifully, leading to thighs that radiated explosive strength. Farther up from those thighs… oh. Still smoke. What a terrible shame that nothing could be seen. (Hey.)

The Black Knight—who might have been using the bathroom before his summoning—found himself surrounded and collectively ogled by a crowd of Dark Elves and humans.

But the Black Knight was worthy of his position as the undisputed grandmaster with the highest combined intelligence and combat power to appear in the story thus far. One spell conjured armor over his lower body. Then, calm and unhurried, he knelt on one knee before Ruiyin and saluted.

“My liege, Mordova has answered your summons.”

“…So it really is you. But didn’t you lose your body? How did you suddenly…” Startled, Ruiyin took a step back and looked the Black Knight up and down, lingering on the lower half now concealed inside his armor.

“Please do not concern yourself with minor details,” Mordova cut in at top speed. “What do you require of me conquering the world is acceptable or was this merely another misunderstanding and should I disappear immediately?”

He was so sensitive about it that he had forgotten to bring his punctuation…

Dark lines practically covering her face, Ruiyin retreated another step. “Neither. An ally simply wanted to know how you’ve been. You should know her, right?”

The Black Knight paused. Only then did he slowly raise his head. The cold mask, devoid of expression or features, turned toward Tio.

The lunatic queen who had been flaunting her power moments ago was now deathly pale. She stared at the Black Knight as though the sky had collapsed.

He gave a short laugh of indeterminate meaning.

“Heh.”

In the blink of an eye, the Black Knight was directly in front of Tio. No one saw what he did. A massive black sword nearly as large as Tio herself thrust straight toward her chest.

Her beautiful face draining of color, Tio crouched and screamed, “Hey! You don’t have to go that far! I used to follow you back in the day! Don’t try to kill me the moment we meet, you bastard!”

“You actually dared to escape?” the Black Knight said flatly. “There is no reason to show mercy to a traitor.”

“I didn’t escape QAQ!” Tio covered her head with both hands and curled into a ball. “Didn’t you know? Kandaru was released! He broke the pact first, and…”

Her eyes suddenly lit up. Pointing at Ruiyin as though she had discovered her savior, she cried, “Right! I’m currently allied with your summoner! Don’t kill me, please!”

Snot and tears everywhere, she latched onto Ruiyin’s leg.

Tio clung to her like an exceptionally stubborn piece of taffy, shamelessly hugging her thigh. Nothing about her genuine sobbing suggested that this person had still been Her Majesty the Queen mere seconds ago.

“Kandaru…” The Black Knight slowly turned his head. At last, his gaze landed on Lars.

“You did it.”

It was a blunt statement, not a question.

“That’s right,” Lars admitted calmly.

“Why?”

“Because it was the only way I could see Ruiyin.”

The Black Knight studied him for a long time. Lars met his gaze without flinching. At length, Mordova slowly lowered the greatsword and rested its tip lightly against the floor.

“Too weak. War God Xisaluo could have done it without ever waking Kandaru. The Sword of Shadow is truly pitiful to have a master like you.”

Lars clenched his teeth. For one instant, Ruiyin almost thought he would lunge at Mordova. In the end, however, he merely asked in a level voice, “Is that so? Then could you have done it easily?”

“I would never have allowed my liege to fall into such danger in the first place,” the Black Knight said with cutting contempt. “You are as weak as a child.”

“He’s only twenty.” Seeing Lars’s fist tighten abruptly, Ruiyin leaped to her cub’s defense without hesitation. She frowned at the Black Knight in considerable displeasure. “Compared to an undying old fossil like you, of course he’s a child.”

“Exactly the tastiest age…” Tio hid recklessly behind Ruiyin, biting one finger and drooling over Lars. “Don’t listen to him. How could a dried-up old bone like Mordova understand the appeal of youth?”

*Undying old fossil.*

*Dried-up.*

*Old bone.*

Three arrows in a row pierced the Black Knight’s mature, steady heart and riddled it with holes. He staggered back, swaying on his feet, and barely managed to prop up his dizzy body with his greatsword.

“I am not…” the Black Knight explained with difficulty. “I merely…”

“Enough!”

The sudden shout startled everyone. Ruiyin looked toward the source and was shocked to discover Lars had been the one to yell.

The young man’s hands were clenched into fists, trembling faintly at his sides. He had kept his head lowered, so Ruiyin had failed to notice when his eyes filled with hurt and anger.

“I don’t need excuses. I don’t need comfort, and I don’t need reasons… Mordova is right. I’m too weak. I… don’t need you to defend me. Why can’t you understand? I’m not a child anymore…”

Lars looked at her with a sorrow Ruiyin had never seen before. The pain in his emerald eyes made her forget how to respond. While she stood frozen, he turned and ran out as fast as he could, almost petulantly.

“Ohohoho~ He ran away~~” Tio covered her mouth and gloated at Ruiyin’s misfortune. “What are you going to do?”

Ruiyin raised her head and stared expressionlessly at her.

“Weak and childish,” the Black Knight commented mercilessly, folding his arms. “He left his own liege surrounded by dangerous people of unknown intent, abandoning you over his personal feelings. When your only knight is such a man, my liege, how can you expect me to leave with any peace of mind?”

Ruiyin shifted her gaze upward and glared at the Black Knight…

One had skin thicker than a city wall. The other came equipped with a fully reflective helmet covering his face.

Her killing glare was completely useless.

“It’s just an ordinary adolescent phase. He’ll come back on his own.” Ruiyin rose and casually brushed cake crumbs from her clothes. “For now, we can sit down and discuss what happened between all of you back then.”

Lars had no idea how long he ran. By the time he realized he had left Ruiyin alone among Dark Elves and the Undead God of Darkness, he discovered he could no longer find the way back.

Overcome with misery, he bit his lip and dropped dejectedly to the ground.

He had not felt this exhausted in a very long time. Even when he had been trapped alone in the Nightmare not long ago, single-handedly cutting down an army of tens of thousands of Orcs, he had never felt so powerless.

It seemed he had always been trying to prove to her that he was grown. His rapidly improving swordsmanship. His increasingly strong body. The steadiness and reliability he worked constantly to learn…

He had acquired a divine weapon. He had become Deputy Commander of the Allied Forces. Yet she did not seem to notice any of it.

In her eyes, he would always be the child who could not be allowed to suffer even the slightest injury.

Frustrated, Lars slammed a fist hard against the ground.

A tiny tavern stood in front of him. After a moment’s hesitation, he went inside, hoping to ask someone for directions out of the area.

He had never visited a place like this. Back when he still belonged to the knight order, its regulations had been strict. Besides, he had been an innocent child then, and no one would ever have brought him here.

Lars stood foolishly in the doorway, staring at the colorful assortment of patrons within. For a moment, he nearly turned and fled.

“A-another drink! Ugh… Curse him! How dare he reject the adorable Lord Vigia!”

“Rejection is perfectly normal in matters of love, Vigia. Waaaah… Even someone as outstanding as the great Silver Knight was rejected many times in the past!”

The familiar conversation caught Lars’s attention. He squeezed through the crowd with some effort and, sure enough, found Galahad and Vigia tucked into a corner, each clutching a cup and drinking heavily.

“Galahad?” Lars asked, baffled. “What are you doing here?”

The Silver Knight looked up blearily. “Oh, Lars. Vigia got his heart broken. I had my heart broken once. Did you get your heart broken too?”

In a certain sense, the blade struck dead center.

“…No. Anyway, do you know how to get back from here? Ruiyin is still there. I have to—”

Before he could finish, an enormous mug was shoved against his chest. Vigia, in human form and holding an identical mug, dropped drunkenly into the seat opposite him. Sobbing, he buried his face against Lars’s chest and rubbed.

“Lord Vigia wants to drink! That hateful human actually rejected Lord Vigia’s confession! He’s only a captain of the guard! He obviously loved holding me before, so why did he say he was already married after I returned to human form?! Fickle! Faithless! Perverted! Hmph, I’ll never let him hold me again!”

Snot and tears flowing, Vigia denounced the ball-obsessed captain of the guard for deceiving his innocent heart. On the other side, Galahad wore a tragic expression as he reminisced over the history of his romantic life—or, more accurately, his history as a backup option.

Wedged between the two of them, Lars was soon plied with so much alcohol that the world began to spin.

“By the way, Lars, have you ever been in love?” Galahad slurred.

“N-no!” Lars shouted, his tongue thick.

“Then is there anyone you like?” Vigia asked with reddened eyes.

“Ruiyin!” Lars bellowed without a moment’s hesitation. “I like Ruiyin! Waaaah… Ruiyin, don’t you want me anymore? Waaaah…”

“But it’s strange.” Galahad propped up his head, struggling to locate the last surviving scrap of his reason. “The two of you have never shared any particularly deep connection. Why do you like her? And this much… Don’t you find it odd, Lars?”

This time, the young man did not answer at once. The tavern’s clamor swallowed Vigia’s sobs. After an unknown length of time, Lars’s faint voice finally drifted through the noise.

“Of course I find it strange…”

“But what can I do? It was as if I suddenly started liking her one day. I want to protect her. I want to stay with her. I want to hold hands with her, hug her… Whenever I can’t see her, it feels like the whole world has been destroyed. Only she can save me.

“I think it’s strange too. But… the pain of knowing I might never see her again was unbearable. It hurt so badly that I gave up struggling against it a long time ago…”

“I want to keep looking at Ruiyin forever. I wouldn’t even mind dying… If it means I never have to feel that pain again, why does it matter if I don’t know the reason?”

Lars sat in the corner hugging his mug, his vision sharpening and blurring by turns. Snatches of conversation drifted into his ears. He pressed his burning face against the cool cup and closed his eyes in discomfort.

He did not know how much time passed. Slowly, the noise around him faded, and a cool hand came to rest against his forehead.

The familiar scent made Lars roll over without hesitation and seize that hand tightly. Eyes closed, he pressed his face against it and whispered with wounded contrition, “I’m sorry…”

“Who let you drink? Those two idiots? Passing out drunk in a place like this—what a moron.”

“I was wrong. I won’t ever be that willful again. I’ll study swordsmanship properly, fight seriously, and become a hero. I’ll listen to everything Ruiyin says, so please don’t abandon me, all right?”

The person sighed helplessly. Then someone hooked an arm around him and hauled him onto a slender shoulder. They staggered under his weight before bracing him and starting forward.

“I love Ruiyin more than anything… I want to stay with Ruiyin forever… I’ll do anything. I can sign a Soul Contract. I can surrender my Soul Crystal the way Tio did. Can’t you trust me just a little more?”

Lars kept rambling unconsciously. The person carrying him walked more and more slowly. At last, seemingly irritated, they gave him a light kick.

“Idiot. You’re so heavy!”

The thoroughly unconscious deputy commander wisely shut his mouth. He merely nuzzled closer in satisfaction and allowed himself to sink into the land of dreams.

Through the haze, it seemed someone was gently stroking his hair and speaking.

“…If even you don’t understand your own heart, what right do you have to demand that someone else entrust themselves to you completely?”

Author’s Note: