WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈
Chapter 16: Anyway, I'll Serve You Like a King (5)
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The first morning of the academy exams.
“Adam, did you study?”
Prince Ellen asked as he looked at my confident expression.
Did I study?
“I’ve finished preparing perfectly for the exams.”
Private tutoring had existed from kindergarten onward in my previous life.
I had lived in a world where twelve years of elementary, middle, and high school education were standard, and college was practically a given.
So I knew better than anyone what truly mattered.
“The Swordsmanship Department weighs practical scores more heavily.”
The department’s grades were thirty percent theory and seventy percent practical.
That meant I could still graduate as long as I did well on the practical exam, even if my theory score was completely wrecked.
“…So you didn’t study.”
“Why would I?”
It was all about priorities.
It wasn’t like I needed good grades at the Imperial Academy to get a job.
I already worked for the Leon royal household, a corporate giant among corporate giants. As long as my grades weren’t bad enough to make me repeat a year or get expelled, I’d be fine.
Besides, I hadn’t had time to study in the first place.
It was common sense that incidents happened during academy events.
For the daily life of this damned romance-fantasy male lead, a royal worker was fated to work their ass off.
“Students are supposed to study.”
“…That applies to ordinary students. What are you planning to do with good grades at the Imperial Academy? Abandon the kingdom and get a job in the Empire?”
I’d said it casually, but I couldn’t help freezing for a moment.
Come to think of it, hadn’t this bastard said he’d roam the Empire after graduating instead of returning to the kingdom?
“W-Why are you looking at me like that?”
His flustered reaction only made him more suspicious.
Should I submit a written opinion to the royal family suggesting they summon him home under the pretext of the academy attack?
“I was just hoping you’d do well on your exams.”
“That wasn’t the expression you had at all.”
If you know that, then start acting right.
I couldn’t bring myself to say it, so I headed toward the lecture hall. Prince Ellen followed, saying we should go together.
Soon, it was time for the exam.
I received the test paper.
“Hmm.”
For a moment, I despaired at the paper’s complete lack of multiple-choice questions.
Then, with the mindset that anything above zero was enough, I wrote down answers that sounded as plausible as possible.
I hadn’t studied for the exams, but I had listened diligently enough in class.
Out of every three questions, I knew the answer to one and could write something passable for another.
Would they give partial credit? It didn’t matter if they didn’t.
After three subjects, the day was already over.
The next day went much the same way.
Then came the third day of exams.
All the theory exams had ended, and the practical-focused exams were about to begin.
Boom!
With a thunderous explosion, gray smoke began rising from the far side of the academy.
“Did the Magic Department screw up again?”
The professors reacted as though they were thinking, They did it again.
Apparently, things like this often happened during Magic Department exams. Still, since I already knew the academy would be attacked, I had no choice but to respond.
“Do you think Daisy’s okay?”
At the news that something had happened in the Magic Department, the first person he worried about was the romance-fantasy heroine.
He was really down bad.
“You look ready to go find her.”
“…No way.”
This bastard actually considered it for a second.
He looked away and muttered that he wouldn’t do something like that during an exam. If I told him this wasn’t an accident but an incident, he looked ready to run straight out.
“Don’t worry too much. If it’s a Magic Department exam, Violet and the prince of Dale are there too, aren’t they?”
“……”
He nodded at Violet’s name, then pouted at the mention of Dale’s prince. He was painfully transparent.
“Why don’t you transfer to the Magic Department next year instead of staying in the Swordsmanship Department?”
“Should I?”
I wondered what kind of nonsense that was, but thinking about it, this bastard didn’t seem to have much left to learn in the Swordsmanship Department.
The department’s only advantage was the Sword Emperor, but there wasn’t much difference between what he learned in class and what he learned during club activities.
Wouldn’t it be more beneficial academically to learn how to deal with magic in the Magic Department instead?
“…Still, there’s the dignity of the Leon Kingdom to consider.”
The thought crossed my mind, but I quickly came to my senses.
A prince of Leon becoming a magic-slinger?
The royal instructor might get summoned to the palace immediately for dereliction of duty.
“I was joking.”
We’d known each other long enough.
I’d stake my instructor’s salary on the fact that this bastard had seriously considered it.
“Then why did you come here? Isn’t it almost your turn?”
“I had a little time left.”
No matter how much stronger Prince Ellen was than me, protecting him was my duty.
The king of our country was a Sword Master, and the king of Dale was a powerful Grand Mage.
Even such powerful figures were escorted by royal guards weaker than themselves whenever they moved, simply because they bore the title of king.
So.
“It’s an attack!”
At that shout, I grabbed Prince Ellen’s wrist as he tried to dash outside.
A prince is supposed to think about being protected when there’s an attack, you bastard.
Look at him, trying to run out straight away.
“It’s an attack.”
His blazing eyes were burning with excitement.
He looked ready to run to Daisy right this second.
“I heard.”
“I have to go.”
“You’ll only make things worse if you do. Good students listen to their professors and stay put.”
“Daisy might be in danger.”
“It’s a Magic Department exam. There are several High Mages there, including the former head of the White Tower. Even assistant professors are considered at least Intermediate Mages.”
That much force was stronger than the Leon Royal Mage Corps.
The Leon Kingdom was practically a magic-free nation, but its Royal Mage Corps wasn’t made up of useless fools.
“I-Is that so?”
“It is. If you scatter for no reason and end up being taken hostage, it’ll be a disaster.”
Prince Ellen would probably take the terrorists hostage instead.
Still, it wouldn’t be good to give him unnecessary information while trying to persuade him.
Just in case, I needed to brace my legs and prepare to hold my ground.
The technique known as the Ten-Thousand-Pound Drop!
“Asran!”
Just as I was about to use it, one of those romance-fantasy male leads bolted out of class.
“Hup!”
Seeing that, our prince, another romance-fantasy male lead, dashed out after him, leaving me dangling from his arm.
* * *
Had I somehow learned flight magic?
I held Prince Ellen’s wrist as I flew through the air at a perfect right angle, utterly dumbfounded.
Even in a fantasy world, this was ridiculous.
I was experiencing a scene that would barely appear in a comic.
If I let go of his arm here, I could avoid looking ridiculous.
But I had to keep holding on for an excuse.
I’d turned on the black box function of my magical artifact long ago.
Once the commander saw this footage, surely he wouldn’t be able to say anything to me.
I was doing my best!
For that excuse, I had to endure even this.
After flying around for about three minutes, I finally managed to set foot on the ground.
“Ellen.”
“W-Wow, you’re not calling me Your Highness.”
Prince Ellen seemed to come to his senses at my icy voice and began to read the room.
“Since we’re already here, let’s leave the scolding for later.”
“So I am getting scolded…”
Of course you are, bastard.
Though I wouldn’t be the one scolding him.
I planned to report this directly to the queen.
She might only hold the position in name, but in the Royal Educational Knights’ chain of command, the queen ranked directly above the commander.
The commander would get scolded for failing to report this separately, but for Prince Ellen’s sake, it was the right choice.
“It looks like things really got out of hand.”
“Huh?”
There was already no one at the Magic Department exam site.
Was this the power of a romance-fantasy heroine?
I wondered how a terrorist attack could happen right in front of her, but then I remembered that people treated accidents in the Magic Department as nothing unusual.
More importantly, more important people, including the imperial prince, were in the Magic Department than in the Swordsmanship Department.
Of course, it was probably the romance-fantasy heroine who made the imperial prince and the margrave’s son, both people for whom prioritizing the Swordsmanship Department would have been perfectly natural, choose the Magic Department for everything except the Sword Emperor’s class.
“What happened?”
At the Little Sword Emperor’s vacant question, I frowned and answered.
“What happened? They got pushed out.”
There were traces of battle, but it had been one-sided.
Since the trail led outward rather than deeper into the academy, the terrorists who had charged in so confidently must have been forced back out.
“Then?”
“They probably evacuated somewhere safe.”
The Empire already knew about the terrorist attack.
Aryn, the Empire’s agent, was flawlessly competent in every way except for looking like he was at least in his thirties.
He hadn’t been assigned to the imperial prince for nothing.
If a man like him had said everything was fine, yet the attack had happened anyway, then either he had lost to the god of romance fantasy, or it was an operation to lure the enemies in.
Not that there was any real need to lure them in.
Still, there was no reason to tell that to these romance-fantasy male leads who had lost their heads.
“Then?”
“Why don’t we evacuate somewhere safe too?”
I pointed toward the academy’s interior, where a massive hole had been blown open.
These bastards really were romance-fantasy male leads.
Someone attacked, and instead of thinking about escaping, why did they keep trying to do something themselves?
“Still, the academy has been attacked.”
“Exactly. So why are first-year academy students trying to solve it? There are professors, knights, and guards all over this place.”
“Still…”
The Little Sword Emperor kept trying to do something, so unfortunately, I had to give him a dose of reality.
“You’re weaker than I am…”
“……”
He looked deeply shocked, but there was nothing I could do.
“I…”
“Don’t say another word before I send the royal family a recall request for you.”
“……”
After shutting both male leads up, I grabbed one wrist each and dragged them away.
“Stop frowning. I don’t want to drag men around either, you know?”
Perhaps they had enough conscience to follow without resisting, but that didn’t last long.
“Isn’t that a Magic Department professor?”
Someone was lying in the middle of the corridor.
“…Did they get sleepy after eating?”
They were sprawled on the floor as though dead, yet there were no wounds.
When I walked closer to check, they truly looked as if they were asleep.
“In a situation like this?”
I couldn’t argue with the look that told me to stop talking nonsense.
“…Let’s keep going.”
I roughly dumped the professor into a nearby classroom.
As we went farther, we found more and more people collapsed on the ground.
“That looks like a student.”
“I can see an assistant professor over there too.”
“Let’s move them out of the way first.”
…Mr. Aryn. I trusted you!
Even as a special agent of the Empire, had he been unable to stop the romance-fantasy scenario?
“Fuck.”
After walking for a while, I saw an elderly person collapsed as though dead and swore without thinking.
Whatever Mr. Aryn had done, he couldn’t have stopped this.
“…The Magic Department’s head professor, McGregor?”
Even the former Magic Tower Master was down. What could an Imperial agent possibly have done?
“Where’s Daisy…?”
“She hasn’t been among them so far.”
With the Magic Department’s restraining force down, the two romance-fantasy male leads lost their heads.
“Where is she?”
I wanted to ask why they were asking me that, but I could make a rough guess.
Where else would the romance-fantasy heroine be?
She would be caught up at the center of the incident.
“None of the other Flower Arrangement Club members are here either, right?”
I couldn’t bring myself to say it outright, so I phrased it indirectly.
“Ah…!”
“Then!”
I wanted to tell them to stay still, but if they had listened to me, we wouldn’t be here now.
Which meant what I needed was this.
“I have a rough idea where they might be.”
“Where?”
“Quickly!”
A well-intentioned lie.
I would take them somewhere unrelated to the romance-fantasy heroine, then say, “It’s not here after all.”
“Who is it?!”
“It’s us!”
But fuck. Why are they here…?
Author’s Note
I had a wisdom tooth removed yesterday.
It wasn’t just impacted. They called it completely impacted, which sounded incredibly powerful.
Then the dentist doing my root canal was replaced by the clinic director.
I’d already received several anesthetic injections for the root canal, but they said they would give me more just in case.
They said there was a chance I could suffer permanent nerve damage if something went wrong…
They scared me half to death, then told me not to be too nervous…
Then they said the last one took five minutes, but this had already gone past five minutes and would take another fifteen… They asked someone to see another patient in their place…
The clinic director kept muttering that it was difficult, then proudly announced that it was finished and told me it would hurt a lot through tomorrow.
And it really hurts. It still hurts. T_T
What did I do wrong in my previous life for my wisdom tooth to be like this…
Footnotes:
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