WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈
Chapter 18: Anyway, I'll Serve You Like a King (7)
──────
“Daisy!”
“Daisy!”
Ah, fuck.
The romance-fantasy male leads had completely lost it.
For the first time we’d worked together, our coordination had been pretty good.
But now that their rage had overcome reason, if I stepped in at the wrong moment, I was liable to get stabbed before the enemy did.
“Damn it.”
Our hastily assembled group-project team had fallen apart.
So I fell back and turned toward Violet.
No, fuck.
Wasn’t this supposed to go according to the original story?
Why was Daisy the one getting stabbed?
“What?”
Things weren’t looking good over there either.
Violet clutched Daisy’s bleeding side with lifeless eyes, muttering something under her breath.
She looked crazy to anyone watching, but the force surrounding her was anything but normal.
Wasn’t mana unable to move right now?
Then what was that?
I tried moving the mana within me just in case, but it wouldn’t budge.
Looking ahead, Prince Ellen and the Little Sword Emperor, who were starting to get thoroughly beaten, didn’t seem to be using mana either.
What was this, some kind of previous-life perk for possessors?
I didn’t have anything like that.
“I’ll kill him.”
Violet’s murderous voice rang out.
Hadn’t she said there was absolutely no way she could win right now?
If she had a way to kill him, she should’ve used it sooner.
“Kgh!”
If I’d had any room to spare, I would’ve made a comment from the sidelines.
But seeing Ellen flying through the air like an out-of-control brat, I couldn’t return to the front line.
Still...
“Damn it.”
I barely caught Ellen, but my face twisted on its own.
My mana had already been taken away, leaving me with plenty of restrictions.
And I could feel my body growing heavier by the second.
Judging from my web-novel experience, Daisy must’ve been maintaining some kind of area-of-effect skill.
Silence must have realized that and targeted Daisy.
“Sorry, Adam!”
We were out of time.
Even if I had to push myself, I needed to finish this quickly.
So while Ellen charged forward again, I moved a step farther back.
Then I took a small steel case from inside my clothes and opened it.
Drip. Drip.
I carefully tilted the bottle and smeared its contents across my sword.
“...”
My eyes met Silence’s.
Wasn’t Ellen supposed to have talent on the level of the world’s strongest?
Buy me some time.
“...What is that?”
What else would it be? Poison.
They said ordinary knights had no reason to use poison, so no one would think someone from Leon would use it.
It could become a bit of a problem if I got caught this openly, but...
“...”
So what?
I was an Instructor, not a knight.
“Kids these days really are frightening.”
Silence knocked away a dagger thrown from his blind spot and rushed at me.
That was a good sign.
He had all kinds of bullshit skills, so I’d been worried he might be immune to poison too.
But if he saw me as a threat, it seemed he didn’t have any resistance to poison.
“Hm?”
That was what I thought as our swords clashed.
Then he redirected my blade and aimed behind me.
Did this bastard see me as an extra too?
I looked behind me, following Silence’s gaze.
“What the fuck?”
Ah, this couldn’t be helped.
I would’ve ignored me too.
“Die.”
Dark crimson flames surged around Violet and engulfed Silence, which was all well and good.
“None of these bastards know how to work as a team.”
Was this a group project or what?
The flames rampaged wildly without distinguishing friend from foe, so I had no choice but to jump away in a hurry.
* * *
Silence versus Violet.
Was this actually happening?
My chest swelled with awe.
Watching the dark crimson flames clash, I spoke to Prince Ellen, whose eyes had regained their focus.
“Don’t jump in.”
“Y-Yeah.”
“You too.”
“I know.”
The weakness draining from my body stopped.
It seemed Silence couldn’t use his ability properly anymore.
The proof was in Silence’s eyes.
“How can you use ancient sorcery?”
The narrow-eyed bastard had opened his eyes.
His poker face was gone, and he looked genuinely flustered.
“Shut up.”
Violet ignored him and gritted her teeth.
Her eyes were bloodshot, and blood streamed from her nose.
Even her purple hair was gradually losing its color. Anyone could see she wasn’t in a normal state.
But even if I wanted to help, I couldn’t.
Those two violent forces were raging beyond our reach, and without mana, there was nothing we could do.
At least we quickly gathered up the other problem children and avoided a catastrophe.
I could probably shake down Uncle Aryn and that fire-slinger for a hefty sum later.
“You two take care of the others first. Be ready to carry them and run if you have to.”
“Adam, what about you?”
“I’d like to run too, but you don’t plan to leave Daisy behind, do you?”
The romance-fantasy male leads’ eyes were fixed on Daisy, who had collapsed behind Violet. Would they really leave just because I told them to?
“I’ll take Daisy and run.”
“You can’t do that alone.”
“Neither of you would be any help.”
“Argh!”
I never imagined the day would come when I’d say something like that to Prince Ellen, but he was paying the full price for charging in without thinking.
“What are you planning to do with that arm?”
His left arm was broken.
I’d squeezed it pretty hard with plenty of personal feelings behind it, but if Prince Ellen was making noises like that...
“No, wouldn’t this hurt normally too?”
He gave me an aggrieved look, so I frowned deeply.
“I’m telling the Queen everything, so don’t die now. Save dying for later.”
“...Wouldn’t it be better to die fighting beside you?”
“Not a chance.”
I had no intention of dying.
Even now, money was steadily piling up back in the kingdom.
I couldn’t die until I retired and spent all of it.
“There’s a potion. If I can just get close, I can heal her.”
It was an emergency potion meant for the worst-case scenario, but since Daisy was going to awaken as the Saintess, there was no need to save it.
Once she awakened, she’d probably cough up a few bottles of holy water for me.
Daisy might be oblivious, but she wasn’t shameless.
“No, just run now.”
I’d be better off without these bastards.
If there were no witnesses, I’d have more room to improvise.
“You can’t!”
“Damn it, just go when I tell you to go.”
They still wouldn’t leave even when I kicked at their legs, so I had no choice but to pull out a bottle from inside my clothes.
“What is that?”
“Assassination poison.”
“...Really?”
Ellen’s eyes blinked at my words.
“Why would I lie?”
“What are you going to do with that?”
“Obviously, I’m going to throw it at that bastard.”
“At them?”
“Yes.”
“Wouldn’t Violet be in danger too?”
“If she’s unlucky.”
“What about Daisy?”
“If she’s lucky, she’ll live.”
“And if she isn’t?”
“Then she’ll die, obviously.”
Ellen and the Little Sword Emperor blinked at that.
It seemed they didn’t understand what I was saying.
“It’s a hostage situation. If you don’t take these useless corpses and get out right now, we’re all dying together.”
They still wouldn’t run?
Then Daisy would die.
For people who couldn’t be persuaded, a warning was faster than persuasion.
“Right?”
“Whether Daisy dies or not doesn’t matter to me. I’m responsible for Prince Ellen’s life right now.”
Maybe they sensed the sincerity in my words. Ellen and the Little Sword Emperor rushed toward me, but they were both half-dead themselves.
“Thirty.”
“Ellen.”
“Twenty-nine.”
As the countdown grew shorter, their eyes met.
“O-Okay!”
“We’ll take everyone out first!”
I watched the two of them hurriedly drag the fallen people outside.
Then I turned back toward Silence and Violet, who were still locked in their grand confrontation.
Judging from the situation alone, it looked evenly matched.
But looking at Violet’s condition, she was clearly being overwhelmed.
There seemed to be more blood on the floor from her than from Daisy.
“Or not?”
Looking closer, it wasn’t that the blood was flowing out.
It felt more like she was drawing it out herself.
The dark crimson energy was growing stronger as it flowed through that blood.
“Is that dark magic?”
As someone from the Leon Kingdom, I didn’t know much about magic.
But I honestly couldn’t tell what made that any different from dark magic.
“Damn it.”
After confirming Ellen and the Little Sword Emperor had gone outside, I bit down on the bottle I’d claimed was poison.
In truth, the poison on my sword was all I had.
Even as a royal agent, it wasn’t easy to smuggle deadly poison into the academy.
This was a pure doping drug.
It was different from a restorative elixir that enhanced mana. This was the kind of drug that enhanced physical ability, the sort that occasionally became an issue in the sports world of my previous life.
Of course, its effects were incredibly powerful, as befitting a fantasy world.
And dealing with the aftermath would be even worse.
“Seriously, I’m getting all of this back later.”
Even if I didn’t care about her, the romance-fantasy heroine dying here could cause problems for me too.
So I swallowed the trump card I’d prepared for Prince Ellen and charged in.
* * *
Snap.
Something broke in my head.
After that, only one thought remained.
Kill that bastard quickly and take Daisy away.
The wound wasn’t fatal.
I staunched the bleeding.
The mana circuits inside my body screamed, but I didn’t care.
Sorcery.
A power similar to magic, yet entirely different from it.
If magic borrowed power by using mana...
Sorcery borrowed power in exchange for a sacrifice of equivalent value.
It was later revealed to be the source of Silence’s power.
I knew that power through the original story.
That ability from the distant ancient age before magic had been systematized was my trump card.
I hadn’t wanted to use it here.
But who cared?
I’d kill that bastard first.
I didn’t give a shit about the original story or the future anymore.
As Daisy’s last words kept circling through my mind and I ran wild...
“Kgh!”
Blood burst out behind the grimacing Silence.
Someone had burst through the space where the sorceries collided.
“Fucking hurts.”
Someone stood there, covered in blood with a grimace on their face.
Who was that?
Ah, right.
“Adam.”
“Shut up.”
He gritted his teeth as if enduring the pain and gave me a meaningful look.
Ah, right.
There wasn’t even time to talk.
“My blood is a part of my soul.”
A pool of blood burst from the wound I had opened.
The absolute law of sorcery.
The price of sorcery had to be something the caster owned.
That was the greatest difference between dark magic, which offered anything as a sacrifice, and sorcery.
That was why sorcery was a discipline that could be even more dangerous than dark magic.
My head spun.
If I lost any more blood, I might die.
But who cared?
“Die.”
“Ah, fuck.”
Uncontrolled power swept over everything.
Adam frowned and moved to avoid it.
We didn’t coordinate at all.
Each of us attacked as we pleased and dodged as we pleased.
There was no helping each other.
If anyone else saw it, they would think it wasn’t a two-on-one battle, but a one-on-one-on-one battle.
Swords swung, and sorcery flew.
The concealed weapons that occasionally came flying almost killed me.
But the same went for them, so I let it go.
Even after several clashes, Silence didn’t fall.
He really was an antagonist worthy of only being defeated in the final chapter of Part Three.
“Arcline Dale.”
But the moment Adam spoke the most important name at the most important moment...
“How do you know that?!”
Silence’s composure shattered when he heard his true name.
“Now die already.”
Adam’s sword pierced his heart.
Author’s Note
I need to change the subtitle, but I can’t think of anything...
Tomorrow is my regular day off.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
