Chapter 277
The never-ending night has come to an end.
Soft sensations felt from within my arms.
A thrilling scent of roses that could paralyze reason.
With the warm morning sunlight, the chirping of birds fills the air.
I woke up early due to the pain in my waist.
Until every drop of me is gone, until I can no longer recognize myself or Pina.
Holding hands, we whispered of eternal love, sharing expressions that no one else could see.
“…Umm.”
At the sound of a small whimper, I turned to see the wolf girl, resting her head on my arm, fast asleep.
Pina had me hugged tightly like a doll, not letting go.
Her snow-white hair, like pure snow, and wolf ears.
She wore a big oversized shirt that didn’t fit her body.
Since last night, she’s climbed a step up into adulthood, looking even more mature.
A kaleidoscope of past, present, and future all mixed up.
Each piece of vibrant and beautiful stained glass was “Pina.”
“Pina, wake up.”
“…I want to sleep more.”
If this keeps up, I won’t be able to prepare breakfast.
I gave Pina a gentle peck on her soft lips.
A playful kiss mixed with pride, cuteness, and adorableness.
“Ugh, huh….”
Pina scrunched her face and flailed her arms.
Maybe she hasn’t fully overcome the effects of last night; her eyes were slightly hazy when she woke up.
“Hehe, yesterday… it really wasn’t a dream after all…”
The fulfillment of becoming someone’s wife.
The satisfaction of being connected with her physically and mentally.
Pina’s face, smiling shyly while looking at me, showed confidence.
“Did you sleep well, Pina?”
“No… my waist still hurts… I can’t walk…”
“……”
Just an oversized shirt, which fluttered around, covering just Pina’s body.
The curves and colors visible in between felt tantalizing.
The traces of a stormy first night.
My back scratched by Pina’s nails like being whipped, and Pina could barely walk.
I easily picked Pina up and took her into the bathroom, where we washed each other’s bodies.
“Pina, I’m sorry…”
“Oh. I almost forgot this.”
While Pina enjoyed the gentle stroke on her head,
She leaned in towards me as if she remembered something.
“Um, what are you doing right now…?”
Kwahk!
She opened her mouth wide and sank her fangs into my shoulder.
She licked the little bit of blood that flowed to clean it up.
“Phew… now you’re really my male.”
Pina had marked me with an indelible badge on my body.
A sign that the Inrang Tribe has claimed a male, a scar that would remain forever.
Even if I wear clothes over it, forget my face or memories, it would still be known.
“…Thank you.”
I nodded slightly and expressed my gratitude to Pina.
“Huuh, don’t bite my shoulder!”
Her confidently smiling face was both audacious and cute.
I couldn’t help but playfully tease her.
A warm feeling began to paint the world that was once solitary.
Pina’s happy smiles while being with me.
A warm breakfast not eaten alone.
Skinship while watching a romance movie in a dark cinema.
A cute dress with frills bought from a clothing store.
While hiding her wolf ears with a hat, by the time Pina completely merges into the world I lived in.
“Oh, so this is the ‘game’ I was in?”
Pina reached for the [Night Heart Trilogy] I played.
10,000 hours.
Beneath the save file of half my life.
Grand Final Ending.
The dazzling words written in diamonds caught my eye.
“…It’s not just a game.”
A product simulated based on that world.
Crafted to catch the Demon King we couldn’t grasp and to find suitable heroes for the gods.
“It’s the legacy of you and me that made me who I am now.”
It was the reason Pina and I could meet, the object that saved my past.
Now, the trilogy in the [Grand Hertz Academy] game has completely come to an end.
[Loading save file.]
[The protagonists’ epilogues have been unlocked.]
─ Ariel and Kainel went back to their hometown and held their wedding.
─ Schartines and Nex had their wedding while gazing at the beautiful ocean view.
─ White Lily and Dennis spend happy days documenting the growth of their daughter, Mir.
─ Sophia and Giseok held their wedding in front of unmelting ice.
─ Drake and the Sage have only just begun holding hands.
─ Lee Soo-hyun and Pina Grancia are currently on their honeymoon in the real world.
─ You’ve collected all the happy endings.
Suddenly, celebratory fireworks blare.
System messages popping up in rapid succession, obscuring the screen.
“My dear has really been through so much…”
“Through much? I just did what I had to.”
When I look at it like this, it’s a bit overwhelming.
A photo of Ariel healing Kainel, who’s covered in wounds.
Schartines showing affection by biting Nex’s nape.
A voice of White Lily and Dennis reading a fairy tale to Mir.
A scene of Sophia and Giseok, merely wrapped in towels, encountering each other in a hot spring.
The awkward moment of Drake and the Sage trying to share their first kiss sequentially lead to.
The moment Pina and I crossed over to the real world.
And then the screen fades to black.
─ The story of [Night Heart Trilogy] continues.
Do these gods not know what privacy invasion is?
They turned everything Pina and I experienced into a game and spread it across the world.
Thanks to that, my guild’s membership requests flooded in, leaving me no choice but to pass the guild leader role to someone else.
With ‘NTR Banning’ sitting there, I guess it’ll manage itself.
With pink hair and a tanned body.
Despite her untrustworthy appearance, she shared many things in common with me.
She said she was a married man who succeeded in love and marriage since school days.
And her name, ‘Lee Soo-hyun,’ was just one character different from mine, which felt oddly familiar.
“It was when Su-hyun first saw my body. Haha, look at the nosebleed.”
“……”
As I opened the CG house, I could check the memories of the past.
A fateful encounter under an unrelenting downpour while sharing an umbrella.
The sight of me losing my armor after being defeated in a class exam.
Pina’s tear-streaked face as she looked at me resurrected.
Pure affection mixed with pure white, purity, and romance.
Looking back now, I really was clueless.
And at the grand finale, there was a photo I had never seen before.
─ Epilogue: Crown Prince Rufus is being pursued by a foreign princess.
“Could it be?”
“…Yes, a proposal came for Rufus too.”
With hair that shines like pale vanilla.
A fox girl with fox ears and tails, with strange green eyes.
“A princess from the east…? It seems she definitely likes Rufus.”
A two-tailed fox girl named Imiho secretly observing Rufus.
I couldn’t help but be surprised by the appearance of a princess I had never seen before.
Normally, Rufus wouldn’t have been able to find happiness after his sister Pina became the Nameless Saintess.
“Do these two know each other?”
“He saved her when she was young and told her that the two tails were cute.”
Looks like he saved her from being stigmatized in a foreign land.
Since he even called her tail, which seemed to be a complex, cute, he had raised flags since they were young.
“I remember her name was Yeonhwa…”
With ‘Connection’ denoting fate and ‘Flower’ denoting beauty.
A girl with the cute name of the flower that continues.
Yeonhwa blushes, unable to handle the fluttering feelings blooming in her heart.
“Should we help them?”
“Are you really asking that without knowing?”
Pina put down the pen she had been jotting something down with and smiled.
A thick book that looked full of many pages.
Even though she meticulously recorded up to the part where she captured the Magic Hat and had a wedding.
It looked tough for Pina to fill in all the remaining blanks.
“Our love, yours and mine, as well as others, is only just beginning.”
Even if the game has reached an ending, and everything is wrapped up.
The story of [Academy's Pure Love Black Knight] needed to continue.
“Our story… must be written by our hands, going forward, right?”
I still had things left to do.
The pounding of my heart echoed within me.
Warm morning sunlight filled the room from the window.
“Pina, how about names for our kids…?”
I told Pina the names I had thought of long ago.
“If it’s a boy, let’s go with Sei, if it’s a girl, let’s go with Eve.”
Sei and Eve.
To save.
The word that means to save implies saving as well.
The ‘save’ file of 10,000 hours on the screen.
If not for countless trials and errors, I wouldn’t have met or saved Pina.
“…Soo-hyun, if you say that… I won’t be able to hold back.”
“What? What do you mean by that?”
In that moment, Pina’s gaze shifted dangerously as she looked at me.
“Inrang Tribe knows that humans struggle to get pregnant, yet you’re talking about wanting both a son and daughter.”
Hearts formed in her eyes, and she cast glass magic.
Snap.
Two duplicates appeared next to Pina, who snapped her fingers.
“I didn’t expect to use what I bought earlier right away. Duh.”
A crass-looking black-haired Demon God in a cow bikini.
Underneath her pure saintess outfit, a devoted look with heart-shaped tattoos and demon horns was a Succubus Saintess.
Finally, Pina Grancia, wearing a dog collar, slowly unbuttoning her shirt.
“Pina, wait a minute… isn’t this something we shouldn’t do?”
I stepped back in shock.
The slow encroachment of three pairs of eyes began to close in.
“No, even your past self isn’t not you, right?”
“It’s just accepting the memories of the past and present, nothing more.”
“We’re all the same Pina Grancia.”
Pina placed my leash in my hand and smiled ecstatically.
“What I love is you as you are, not merely memories or appearances.”
She laid me back down on the bed and opened her mouth to kiss me.
“Even if our appearances differ, I’ve loved you.”
“Even if you’re from another world line, you haven’t changed.”
Three different tones melded into one.
The name and memories forgotten past Pina.
Pina of the present who lost her feelings.
Pina Grancia of the future who lost her love.
“We are here, you and I.”
A hero and a saintess.
A black knight and a glass knight.
The bizarre relationship of a Demon King and a Demon God.
Even through these tribulations, Pina’s heart has never faltered.
“Love me with all that you are, Soo-hyun.”
The past gathers to form the present.
The present gathers to form the future.
When I realized that the Pina Grancia I adored always loved me.
“…Were you trying to make me a really bad guy?”
“You won’t refuse now, right?”
I couldn’t find any way to express this other than pure affection.
─ [Academy's Pure Love Black Knight] Side Story (Completed).