I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel - Chapter 24

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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

Chapter 24: The Academy Is Shutting Down (2)

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One mass-produced magic sword had broken, but the Dark Mages here seemed more capable than I’d expected.

They had already completed quite a few magic swords, so I was able to get another from Uncle Aryn as compensation for the damage.

I probably shouldn’t say this, but if our kingdom’s mages had been even half as capable as the Dark Mages who had been shot dead, Leon wouldn’t be called a magical wasteland.

Of course, having so many Dark Mages meant the Empire would keep suffering their attacks.

And when I considered that most of them would be drawn to the Academy by Daisy, the bewitching romance-fantasy heroine, my head began to ache.

Still, for something made by Dark Mages, it wasn’t all that dangerous, so I put it to practical use right away.

“Have you got a minute?”

“I do, but...”

My target was the Little Sword Emperor, the romance-fantasy male lead who did the least to live up to his name.

According to Agent Tinky Winky, he was running away because he was ashamed of having been controlled by a magic sword.

Since the practical classes, he had even cut back on Flower Arrangement Club activities.

Apparently, he’d been moving around alone under the guise of personal training, just like me.

It was utterly outrageous.

Someone who genuinely needed personal training was still working because of the midterm terror attack and the Dark Mages.

I’d given him a pass because he was a romance-fantasy male lead, only for him to act like anything but one.

If he was embarrassed, he should’ve gotten comforted by Daisy.

Honestly, it was a little ridiculous.

It was like someone had applied a balance patch. Ellen, who should’ve been on the outskirts, was now glued to Daisy’s side.

And the Little Sword Emperor, who had originally been by her side, had started getting left out.

It would be a disaster if the focus of the Academy arc shifted like this.

If Ellen went, I’d have to go too...

I’d heard the Church of Light arc would start as soon as summer vacation began.

I couldn’t let myself get dragged there and suffer like hell.

“What is this?”

That was why I handed Asran the magic sword we’d obtained from the Empire.

At this rate, he wouldn’t even make it to Little Little Sword Emperor.

“The magic sword you used last time.”

“Argh!”

The moment he received it, he threw it away.

His PTSD had clearly been triggered.

“Jeez.”

I barely caught the sword and frowned.

“What if it breaks?”

One magic sword had already broken when I fought an imaginary Prince Ellen.

It was fragile enough to break just from imagining a fight, so I had to handle it carefully.

“B-But Daisy purified that one!”

“It was purified and returned to the Empire.”

“Then what is this?”

The Little Sword Emperor stared at the mass-produced magic sword in my hand with a baffled expression.

“A fake magic sword mass-produced using that one as its model.”

I gave him a short, simple explanation of its effects.

It couldn’t raise someone’s level by a full step like the real thing, but it used mind control to draw out the user’s limits.

As long as someone protected their mind with mana while using it, they could use the magic sword’s effects without any problem.

“No, how do you do that?”

“Just think of it as protecting your head with mana.”

“...No, how do you actually do that?”

What was wrong with this bastard?

He could coat his sword with mana.

He just had to apply that skill and block the mana coming from the magic sword around his head.

“Just think of it as applying what you already know and try it.”

“You’re serious?”

“What would I even do by controlling you?”

A guy weaker than me.

I barely held that part back. If I said it out loud, he might not even come to the training grounds anymore.

“Huff.”

After thinking it over for a while, the Little Sword Emperor drew the magic sword from its sheath.

He’d fallen for my claim that he could draw out the power hidden within him if he used it properly.

Then...

“Aaargh!”

“Jeez.”

The moment the magic sword controlled him, I knocked him unconscious.

He still had a long way to go.

* * *

On the fourth attempt, the Little Sword Emperor managed to resist being controlled by the magic sword.

Of course, that was only possible because it was mass-produced.

In the original novel, he was said to have overcome it even while wielding the original.

He really had a long way to go.

“W-What... do I do now?”

He was gritting his teeth and barely holding out against the magic sword. I almost sighed, but held it in.

Our Little Little Little Sword Emperor probably didn’t want this either.

He needed to get stronger soon, so that one day he could confidently win Daisy over.

“Talk to the magic sword.”

“Talk to it? To the magic sword?”

“Yeah. It keeps asking whether you want power, right?”

“It does.”

“If you say you want power, it tells you to imagine a specific enemy. Pick your target first.”

Then I remembered something and quickly added a warning.

“Oh, but Ellen is no good. It broke when I tried it.”

It had broken when I tried it, so this Little Little Little Little Sword Emperor, who was weaker than me, would definitely break it too.

“I wasn’t even thinking about him.”

It seemed the Nano Sword Emperor at least knew his place.

“You can’t beat Ellen without surpassing me first.”

“Oh.”

Did he think I believed he could do it?

If I’d been a swordsman who devoted my life to the sword like Princess Hestia, I might’ve taken that as a provocation.

But the sword was a means, not an end, for me.

Honestly, I started getting curious too.

Would the magic sword think Asran could beat me?

If it could, I’d need to upgrade him from Nano Sword Emperor to Little Little Sword Emperor.

And the result was...

“It says I can.”

The Little Little Sword Emperor smirked and raised his sword.

“Oh...”

I decided to test the magic sword’s performance myself.

* * *

The magic sword’s performance was certainly useful.

Asran’s sword path, which pushed beyond his limits and pressured me along the most efficient route, was undeniably fierce.

If we’d sparred like this from the beginning, I wouldn’t have been disappointed in him.

The mass-produced magic sword couldn’t draw out an increase in rank.

That meant this was all the strength the Little Sword Emperor could draw out at present.

In other words, what he lacked was mental strength, not physical strength.

“I lost again...”

Look at him. He’d fought so well, yet he was shrinking just because he’d lost.

That was why a magic sword could steal his mind the moment he held one.

“You fought well.”

“What good is that? I still lost.”

He’d even used a magic sword.

As he muttered and shriveled up, I let out a sigh.

“What kind of man makes such a fuss over that?”

For a moment, his expression flared up.

I clearly hadn’t beaten this bastard enough yet.

“Will you be able to impress Daisy like that?”

“Uh...”

He froze in place as though he’d been hit by a petrification spell.

“H-How did you know?”

“You’d have to be an idiot not to.”

It had been that obvious. Anyone who didn’t know was an idiot.

For the record, every Flower Arrangement Club member except Agent Tinky Winky and the club president, who was destined to become a mastermind, was an idiot.

Why?

“B-But the club members don’t know.”

They were a gathering of romance-fantasy idiots who wholeheartedly believed everyone’s denials.

“I don’t know if they really don’t know or are pretending not to, but they’re keeping each other in check. Keep doing that, and someone will snatch her away.”

The Little Sword Emperor’s eyes widened, as though he’d realized something.

“D-Don’t tell me you too?”

“Do you want to die?”

How dare he try to put me beside a romance-fantasy heroine surrounded by a horde of male leads?

Killing intent billowed from the blade I’d slightly drawn from its sheath.

“O-Oh, you’re not.”

They said swordsmen spoke with their swords.

It seemed my sincerity had reached the Little Sword Emperor too.

“R-Right. Honestly, you seem more interested in Violet than Daisy... Sorry. That was a joke. I apologize.”

We sparred often, but he was acting far too familiar.

There were things one could say to a person and things one could not.

“Well, you apologized within three seconds, so I won’t cut you this time.”

“Were you really planning to cut me...?”

Of course.

If he casually said something like that, even if he were the Little Sword Emperor’s grandfather... Well, I couldn’t cut the Sword Emperor.

Come to think of it, my father was also a Sword Master, so the Little Sword Emperor was the only one I could cut anyway.

“Anyway, you’re mistaken about something.”

Daisy was kind.

Her character setting had always been that of a Saintess who embraced everyone.

...She embraced so many people that none of the romance-fantasy male leads were eliminated even in the latter half, and the romantic competition became a complete mess.

Still, her kind nature would never look down on someone’s failure or frustration.

Instead, she would help them overcome their failures and setbacks, and she’d be happy to see them grow because of it.

“In other words, if you want to get closer to Daisy, defeat is more important than an overwhelming victory.”

“Defeat?”

They said the world was a filthy place that only remembered first place, but that only applied when there was no story behind it.

An underdog story built through hardship could sometimes draw more attention than first place.

What mattered was an unbreakable spirit.

“Think about it. I learned and grew up beside Prince Ellen from childhood. How many times do you think I lost?”

Of course, even in a world line where I was stronger than Ellen, I’d still lose because of my role as an Instructor.

But losing on purpose and getting your ass kicked were completely different matters.

Even so, I took no damage from it.

I only worried about what I would do if that bastard got even stronger.

Because that was my job.

Naturally, I couldn’t force that on the Little Sword Emperor.

Getting his ass kicked wasn’t his job.

But I could give him something else to aim for.

“Trust me. I’ll make it so you can talk with Daisy all day.”

Not work, but romance.

And the heroine was a romance-fantasy heroine.

She was a being I couldn’t understand, nor did I want to understand.

Still, it was probably enough to make a romance-fantasy male lead’s eyes roll back.

“R-Really?”

Look at those sparkling eyes.

“Of course. I have the dating experience of sixty-eight people.”

Asran looked at me with admiration in his eyes.

He hadn’t even looked at me like that when I beat him senseless for the first time.

The truth was that those sixty-eight people’s dating experiences belonged to the royal Instructors.

But he’d misunderstood on his own, so there was no need to tell him.

* * *

“You’ve been spending time with Asran lately.”

Prince Ellen’s whining reached my ears.

If he’d been a princess instead of a prince, I might’ve taken it more pleasantly, but even in a romance fantasy, it was best to shut down any chance of the plot swerving in that direction.

“I’m still upset with you, Prince Ellen.”

“...Still?”

He looked at me as though to ask whether I was still sulking at my age, but he was still a brat himself.

He would turn twenty this year. People in their twenties were still brats.

Some people treated me like an old man by adding my previous life’s age, but I saw things differently.

I’d died at roughly the same age in my previous life, so I was a super-brat who had experienced being a brat twice.

“Isn’t the reason similar this time too?”

“What do you mean?”

“The reason I’m with Asran.”

Honestly, it wasn’t as though I was avoiding Prince Ellen.

Recent incidents had simply made me meet more often with people who served as the shadow hands of other factions.

And whenever I had time left over, I trained on my own.