I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel - Chapter 13

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈

Chapter 13: Anyway, I'll Serve You Like a King (2)

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There was an unwritten rule in long-established web novel genres.

-If everyone already knows it, just skip it.

Gate stories were the best example among modern-setting genres.

-One day, gates opened.

When the genre first emerged, authors had to explain what gates were, why they had appeared, and how they had changed society. Once gate stories became commonplace, though, those few words explained it all.

Readers had built up enough experience to understand immediately.

And from my conversation with Violet, I could tell she'd devoured web novels about as much as I had.

Even when I skipped the obvious parts, she understood perfectly.

She did the same when explaining things, skipping everything that could be skipped.

"Do we really need to do that?"

The slight frown on her face gave me my answer.

This bastard had been trying to use me on the sly.

"We do."

Did we really need to raise the Little Sword Emperor?

Coldly speaking, no.

From Violet's explanation, the character known as the Little Sword Emperor was someone with fairly decent martial ability.

Of course, that "fairly decent" was by the standards of the male leads. By ordinary standards, he was more than superhuman.

He was probably written that way because, during the academy arc, unlike Prince Ellen, who drifted around Daisy, he stayed by her side, faced crises with her, and overcame them together.

Which meant that now that Prince Ellen was glued to Daisy's side, unlike in the original, the Little Sword Emperor's role was practically nonexistent.

And even without Prince Ellen, I was stronger than the Little Sword Emperor.

Still.

"Why do we have to fill the Little Sword Emperor's absence ourselves?"

It was one of the standard web novel premises.

Possessing an extra in a novel and helping the protagonist.

Since you had read the original and knew the future, you could make the plot unfold satisfyingly fast.

"Why should we work ourselves to death?"

It might be fun for an outsider, but for the people involved, it meant getting swept into the main story and suffering alongside the protagonist.

"We...?"

See? She immediately understood what I meant, and her expression stiffened.

She knew that "we" meant her and me.

"You don't mean you and Prince Ellen, do you?"

"That's exactly who I mean."

We were both people who had possessed characters in a novel, but there was a major difference between us.

She had possessed a character in a novel she loved and hated. Until I entered the academy, I had thought I'd simply possessed someone in a fantasy world.

"Hey, Prince Ellen was originally supposed to be part of this."

"You said he barely does anything in the academy arc anyway."

She apparently wasn't even trying to hide it anymore.

Just as I thought, she planned to use me for the original story, just like herself.

"This is for the good of the world."

It wasn't that I didn't understand.

A novel she'd stuck with for over four hundred chapters had gone off the rails.

Then she'd entered that novel and been given a chance to change it.

I might have done the same.

"I keep telling you, this has nothing to do with us."

Still, that was her problem. I had no feelings toward the original at all.

"From what I've heard, it's the Empire where disasters keep happening in the original, right? Its influence will reach the Leon Kingdom, but will it necessarily be bad for us?"

An empire wasn't simply a nation with vast territory and powerful troops.

It was called an empire because it embraced countless peoples and cultures and had the capacity to sustain them.

That was why, once it began to shake, all kinds of things could happen there.

If we made good use of that situation, the Leon Kingdom might benefit.

"Ha. You're really going to be like this?"

"Wasn't it you who first tried to gaslight me by saying everything was ruined because of me?"

And who said I was abandoning anyone? I said I'd take responsibility.

Just as I had given Prince Ellen better direction, I might be able to have a positive influence on the Little Sword Emperor too.

I also said I would fill the prince's absence.

I'd have to deal with anything concerning Prince Ellen anyway, but I wasn't abandoning him.

"Maybe the Little Sword Emperor will grow like crazy and defeat the Demon King for us."

If Prince Ellen went off to cut down the Demon King, I would have to go too.

I'd go if the world was ending, but if someone else could do it, I had no intention of going out of my way.

"So you're picking a fight with someone who knows the future?"

She growled with a decent amount of menace, but I'd heard almost everything I needed.

There was a good chance she hadn't told me everything either, but people normally didn't know the future.

I'd been spoiled on at least some of it, so I could decide on a general direction.

Smiling, I raised my middle finger.

"Yeah. It's not like you know how it ends either."

She didn't know everything, after all.

No one knew whether Ellen, after getting NTR'd, would cut off the Demon King's head, or whether the Demon King would realize what love was, repent, and get a happy ending with Daisy.

"You'll regret this."

Violet returned the gesture, bringing the historic first meeting of possessors to an end.

* * *

Know your enemy and know yourself.

No phrase could have suited the ultimate principle of the Doomed Sword better.

You had to know your enemy and yourself.

In that sense, my first encounter with Asran, called the Little Sword Emperor, had been the lesser evil.

I hadn't known the Little Sword Emperor's skill, nor had I assessed myself objectively.

It hadn't been the worst outcome only because the Little Sword Emperor had been crushed too quickly.

People had reputations to live up to.

The Little Sword Emperor was one of the ten most notable newcomers at the academy.

And he had lost without being able to put up a fight against a classmate whose name was barely known.

That would leave people with three possible conclusions.

The first was that the Little Sword Emperor had been overrated.

Worth a try.

Those who thought so challenged the Little Sword Emperor.

"Winner, Asran."

Asran accepted forty-two challenges and won every one of them decisively, proving himself.

The Little Sword Emperor's reputation had been proven.

Then the second thought would be that I must be incredible for defeating him.

Those people couldn't help but wonder.

"That guy is undefeated too."

"But nothing about him really stands out, does it?"

They clearly had no eye for talent.

My techniques were the very model of the fundamentals.

And they couldn't recognize that.

Still, it wasn't bad.

The Little Sword Emperor's flashy swordsmanship looked more impressive at a glance, so people started to wonder.

Maybe the Little Sword Emperor, who had only just entered the academy, had been too careless.

And so.

"Winner, Adam Smith."

During the fourth Practical Swordsmanship Basics lecture, I won again and proved that theory true.

* * *

When people thought of throwing a match, they usually thought only of letting someone win.

Yet the ultimate purpose of defeat was the royal family's growth.

So you pressured them with a narrow defeat, and once they became accustomed to that pressure, you gave them a sense of crisis through victory.

The crisis of realizing that someone who had always been around their level had surpassed them.

With that in mind, what should I do against the Little Sword Emperor, whose story had begun with a crushing defeat?

"That was a good match."

I just had to make him push himself harder through a frustrating loss.

"Ah, that was so close!"

"It really came down to a hair!"

The spar lasted a long time, and I won by the narrowest margin, enough for every spectator to let out such disappointed cries.

Naturally, I'd arranged the entire thing.

Still, the Little Sword Emperor had grown far more than last time.

It seemed he had truly been careless during our previous fight.

On top of that, he appeared to have dwelled on his defeat and worked harder.

...Though I didn't particularly like the fact that he had faithfully attended the Flower Arrangement Club.

Still, he was doing what a romance fantasy male lead was supposed to do, so I could let it slide.

"Good work, Adam. The Little Sword Emperor really was a great fighter."

When I returned to my seat, Prince Ellen beamed at me, so it seemed he hadn't noticed anything after all.

"Our styles don't match well. I think I lost every tactical exchange."

Since duels between top-ranked students happened often in class, I decided to lay some groundwork before Prince Ellen faced the Little Sword Emperor himself and became suspicious.

"Your rhythm was a little off today. But you still won with the fundamentals, didn't you?"

"I should have won much more easily."

"Still, a win is a win, isn't it?"

When I grimaced, Prince Ellen tried to comfort me.

It was a strange feeling.

I had acted out the reverse of my usual dynamic with Prince Ellen.

Of course, when it came to technical precision, I hadn't even managed a quarter of what Prince Ellen could do.

But to the others, it must have looked like I calmly blocked the Little Sword Emperor's dazzling attacks, winning through solidity and precision.

"It'll be different next time."

That was true.

Next time, I would improve a little more and beat the Little Sword Emperor.

After that, I would leave a small opening. The Little Sword Emperor would exploit it and nearly win, only to lose again by the narrowest margin.

I should keep winning through the first semester.

After seeing him today, he didn't seem like someone who would be easily discouraged, so it was possible.

Once the second semester began, I could let him win once after seeing how hard he worked.

Something around the same ratio as Prince Ellen and me should be fine.

"Excuse me, Student Adam."

Then one of the assistant professors who had served as the class referee quietly approached and dropped a bomb.

"Yes?"

"The head professor said to tell you to come to his office once today's classes are over."

"Me?"

"You, yes."

Why?

I had a feeling I knew why, which made me not want to go.

"Understood."

Refusing didn't seem possible, so I had no choice but to nod.

* * *

Knock, knock.

I lightly knocked twice and spoke.

"Adam Smith, first-year student of the Swordsmanship Department."

"Come in."

It was a quiet voice, yet it lodged in my ears.

I carefully opened the door and entered, finding a desk sitting alone in an enormous room.

"......"

The place felt oddly empty.

Usually, there would at least be books on a desk for decoration.

Other than a few documents that appeared work-related, the Sword Emperor's desk held nothing at all.

"Sit."

The Sword Emperor and I faced each other across that desk.

Despite being the head professor's office, it contained only the Sword Emperor and me.

I'd heard the head professor of magic had more than twenty assistant professors.

There were barely any signs of people here.

Seeing polishing compound and whetstones on a couple of desks in the corner, perhaps the two assistant professors who appeared in class were all there were.

At most, there couldn't be more than four.

"......"

He only stared at me intently, so I looked around to avoid his gaze.

But a drawn-out standoff wouldn't benefit me, so I decided to confront it head-on.

"What did you call me here for, Professor?"

"Professor."

It was a perfectly natural form of address. Had something been wrong with it?

Then again, he seemed pleased.

"Good."

Apparently, he had liked it after all.

"Everyone sees me as the Sword Emperor, not as a professor."

Was that his complaint?