WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

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

Chapter 3: Became the Royal Family's Punching Bag (3)

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If I had to sum up my current situation in one word, “checkmate” would probably fit best.

“Raise your sword.”

The face glaring at me was very familiar.

This was the first time I’d seen her in person, but after being chosen as a royal instructor, the thing I’d studied most after Doomed Sword was the royal family’s faces. Of course I recognized her.

Princess Hestia.

Among the ten royals, she ranked in the top three when it came to swordsmanship talent.

At the same time, she was the least fond of pomp and ceremony.

That earned her plenty of attention and affection, but it also made her a source of concern for many people, including the commander.

Apparently, the king had sighed and said, “Who’s going to marry that one?” Her assigned instructor had submitted resignation letters several times, only for every one to be rejected.

Along with the Third Prince, she was known as one of the royals who caused the most trouble, so the information about Princess Hestia had stuck vividly in my mind.

After reading it all, I’d thought, Ah, I need to make sure I never run into this person!

So why was she picking a fight with me first?

I couldn’t even avoid it. The only people I’d ever encountered who wouldn’t let me avoid a fight were trainers in monster-catching games from my past life!

‘Please save me!’

I silently stared at the commander, pouring every ounce of my will into my gaze, but the damned man only shook his head apologetically.

I was screwed.

I was about to fight someone officially recognized as a prodigy in a country known as the kingdom of knights.

It would’ve been nice if I could just lose without a fuss, but...

“I can’t entrust my younger sibling to someone who doesn’t even meet my standards.”

With a glare, she declared that if my skills fell short, she wouldn’t recognize me as an instructor.

When I looked at the commander again, he avoided my eyes.

Damn old man.

I had no choice but to raise my sword.

That alone changed the atmosphere.

Her killing intent made it seem like she could cut me down at any moment.

By the standards of my past life, she was around the age to have just finished elementary school. It seemed ridiculous, but then I remembered the elementary school kids who made the news for crimes despite being too young for criminal punishment.

If kids like that had been born in a fantasy world, maybe one of them could turn out like our princess.

The problem was that I had to face someone that insane.

“Ready.”

Tears nearly sprang to my eyes, and my grip tightened around the wooden sword. Either unaware of that or simply not caring, the referee wasn’t stopping the fight between the princess and me. If anything, they were egging it on.

Well, they were probably only doing it because she told them to, but that hardly made it any less irritating from my perspective.

“Begin!”

The princess charged like a madwoman the instant the match began, leaving me no time to think about anything else.

“Hup.”

She took a quick breath, and her wooden sword came down in a furious barrage.

I vaguely remembered hearing in health class during my past life that girls developed faster than boys.

Even aside from that, I knew she was older than me, but her blows were heavier than those of most men. That surprised me once.

Then I barely managed to block them and met the Second Princess’s eyes, which surprised me again.

“You block well!”

Holy shit. She was crazy.

I knew she wasn’t normal from the moment she called out a complete stranger for a duel, but once she picked up a sword, I realized she’d seemed like an angel before.

“Let’s see if you can block this too!”

“This is a little...?!”

A red glow gathered around Princess Hestia’s wooden sword.

It was faint, but she had infused it with mana.

She truly was a prodigy recognized by the kingdom. At the same time, it seemed all her talent had been concentrated in that one area, leaving her lacking in others.

Did this person not understand why we were fighting with wooden swords?

“Haaap!”

A comic from my past life suddenly came to mind. Someone had bashed people over the head with the back of a sword, then claimed it wasn’t killing because they’d used the blunt side.

They gave us wooden swords so we could spar safely, and she infused mana into hers?

If our swords collided, mine would be reduced to splinters. If it hit my body, I might be split into Ad-am.

“You have no pride at all!”

I quickly rolled across the ground to avoid the incoming blow, but all I got in return was verbal abuse.

It was unfair.

Sure, it wasn’t very knightly, but shouldn’t I try to survive first?

“Die honorably!”

“...”

Excuse me, this is a spar.

The words rose to my throat, but being a royal instructor also meant not talking back to the royal family.

Maybe this was one of those times when I should just go along with her mood. Just like the prince’s education methods. A subordinate should keep their mouth shut.

-What if the prince is stronger than you expected? What a pointless question.

As the princess charged again, I remembered what the commander had told me.

-Then let your talent explode!

-...

-You can do it!

This man really was useless when it came to life advice.

What did it matter if he held a lofty position in the kingdom and was a swordsman renowned across the continent?

He was no help to me.

Even so, I gritted my teeth and raised my sword.

Right. I came to another world.

Maybe I had some talent I didn’t even know about!

Explode, my talent!

“Hup!”

I inhaled deeply, took my stance, and swung my sword.

One of the promised stances inscribed in Doomed Sword.

The proper way to lose after facing an opponent fairly.

The problem was that my opponent was overwhelmingly stronger than me, but maybe things would work out somehow if I was the protagonist.

“Ah.”

As I watched my talent explode... or rather, the fragments of my wooden sword explode, I became certain that I wasn’t the protagonist.

* * *

As Hestia watched the wooden fragments shatter and scatter through the air, she came to her senses.

‘I messed up!’

To be honest, he had passed the test long ago.

Even among those recognized by the kingdom as talented, countless people had failed to endure ten exchanges.

Yet he had already endured ten exchanges despite being two years younger, the same age as her younger brother.

That alone was enough to pass. Even after she got excited and infused mana into her sword, he had chosen the best course of action and endured.

She had only criticized him for rolling across the ground because she was momentarily upset that her attack had missed.

In fact, she had liked that he did everything he could to win.

Some nobles might have found it unsightly that he clenched his teeth and kept challenging her despite feeling such an overwhelming gap between them, but Hestia wasn’t one of them.

That was why she fought seriously.

To Hestia, giving her all against someone giving their all was a matter of courtesy.

After several more exchanges, she saw him continue to endure and became stubborn.

Let’s see if he can take this too. Oh? Then how about this?

After repeating that several times, she ended up attacking with all her strength.

“...”

And the result was the disaster before her.

Fragments of a wooden sword scattered across the floor.

Some of those fragments had embedded themselves in his neck, and blood flowed from the wound. For an ordinary person, it would have been traumatic enough to haunt them forever.

Of course, this was a place called the kingdom of knights, so it wasn’t exactly unheard of.

Accidents during training and sparring happened often enough.

Still, that was only forgivable when it happened between opponents of similar skill.

Anyone looking at the current situation would think she had used her authority to pressure a younger prospect, forced him into a fight, brutally beaten him one-sidedly, and then caused bloodshed by infusing mana into her sword.

Which was all true.

“...”

Even with the child twitching on the ground and frantic voices rising around her, Hestia couldn’t move.

Partly because she knew that, no matter if she was a princess, she had crossed a line.

Partly because this was the first time she had seen such a disaster.

No, more than that.

‘Me...’

Hestia’s eyes shook wildly at the realization that she had created this disaster with her own hands.

The sword in her hand felt heavy.

“To become a knight, you must be able to endure the weight of your sword.”

It was something one of the instructors who taught her swordsmanship always said.

Hestia would laugh brightly and swing her sword through the air, saying, “This isn’t heavy at all!”

But now, she understood.

The weight of the sword her instructor had spoken of wasn’t its physical weight.

Born in Leon, a kingdom called the land of knights, she had taken up a sword as though it were only natural. She had forgotten.

A sword was a weapon. A tool for taking lives.

It could be used to save people, but its primary purpose was undeniably to kill them.

When she truly felt that for the first time, fear washed over her.

The sword was heavy. The sword that had once felt so familiar, a friend she had always kept by her side, suddenly felt alien.

“Adam!”

Amid the surrounding commotion, the boy covered in blood rose to his feet.

He raised his half-destroyed sword as though he still had not lost.

Hestia’s eyes widened.

Why was he getting up?

He looked as though a light touch would make him collapse again.

What could he possibly gain by fighting any more?

“Ah.”

At that moment, a memory surfaced.

-A knight is one who raises their sword even knowing they will lose.

It was something her father had told her when he first placed a sword in her hands as a child.

Why had she forgotten?

Why had she forgotten only the things she must never forget?

The sword that had felt frightening and heavy returned to its usual weight.

No, it felt lighter than before.

Still, she released the now-light sword from her hand.

Because...

“I lost.”

Today’s match had been her defeat.

* * *

The moment Princess Hestia declared defeat, I collapsed.

Because it hurt like hell.

“Are you alive?”

The commander quietly asked as I was carried away on a stretcher.

Was I alive?

“I think I’m dead.”

“Then you’re alive.”

He nodded calmly, and something nearly surged up inside me.

“Don’t worry about treatment. The royal family will also provide compensation.”

“How much?”

The moment I heard the word compensation, the feeling went right back down.

As expected of the kingdom of knights. Even their compensation was generous.

“Is it really all right to give me this much?”

“It is. You’ve done quite a lot.”

Princess Hestia had never lost to anyone her age.

It wasn’t just that no one was willing to beat a princess. There simply wasn’t anyone who could defeat her through skill.

That had made her too arrogant.

To the point that one fall could bring everything crashing down.

And that moment had been today.

“If you hadn’t gotten back up at that moment, Princess Hestia wouldn’t have been able to hold a sword for some time.”

Was it really that serious? Even as I got up, I had been considering whether I should just stay down.

“You did well.”

“It hurts.”

A head pat filled with praise landed squarely on my head. It hurt. No, it seriously hurt.

“Hey, a fragment is stuck in there!”

“Hoho!”

I spent some time confined to a hospital room, but in the kingdom of knights, injuries were an everyday occurrence. After only a few days at the treatment facility, everything healed completely.

No, I became stronger than before after taking a restorative elixir bestowed by the royal family.

And with that, everything was perfect.

I was the greatest talent in history, acknowledged by the commander, and the benefactor who had reformed Princess Hestia, the royal family’s greatest concern.

There was no one left who could oppose me taking charge of the Fifth Prince!

...Or so I had thought.

“Huh?”

“Wow!”

Princess Hestia’s eyes widened as the tip of a sword pointed at her throat.

The Fifth Prince, who had defeated his older sister for the first time, widened his eyes in delight as well.

But no one was more shocked than the commander and I.

“What the fuck?”

A curse from my past life slipped out before I could stop it.

But it couldn’t be helped.

After learning the sword for one year, Princess Hestia, one of the royal family’s most gifted talents, had lost to her younger brother, who had only studied swordsmanship for a year.

There was no way to describe that result except as insane talent.

And the problem was... I had to be the pace setter for that insane talent.

Footnotes:

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