WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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

Chapter 30: The Academy Is Shutting Down (8)

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Any fight could broadly be divided into two types.

The aggressive kind and the defensive kind.

The same went for games that had existed since ancient times, like Go, Korean chess, and chess.

The distinction was even clearer in PC games like space warfare, which had practically become a folk pastime by now.

And swordsmanship, where people fought with their lives on the line, made that tendency even more apparent.

As for the Doomed Sword, it was an extremely aggressive style of swordsmanship.

“That makes it easier to lose.”

I nodded at the Commander’s words.

There were many advantages to attacking.

The best was that you could beat the other person senseless until it was over.

The fact that it created a situation where I was having fun while the other person got pissed off was explanation enough.

There was also the high chance of seizing the initiative, and if you wanted to be generous, its flashy appearance could count as an advantage too.

Still, one drawback swallowed up all those benefits.

It was unstable.

“You launch a stylish offensive, then lose because of one mistake. For the Doomed Sword, that’s the ideal outcome.”

At a low level, being aggressive was good.

If both offense and defense were clumsy, the one who pressed forward first had the advantage.

But for those who had reached the realm of masters, defense became more important than offense.

That tendency stood out even more in a world of swords, where one mistake could cost you your life.

That was why the Doomed Sword was an aggressive form of swordsmanship.

You pressured your opponent relentlessly and made them feel threatened.

Then you lost after getting caught in the opening that pressure created. Just as the Commander said, that was the ideal outcome.

“But you can’t do that.”

Yet I, who had perfectly mastered the Doomed Sword recognized by the Commander, couldn’t do that.

Was that my problem? No.

“There’s a fundamental issue with the Doomed Sword. Do you know what it is?”

“…You have to be stronger than your opponent.”

“That’s right. The Doomed Sword only has meaning if you’re stronger than your opponent.”

The essence of the Doomed Sword was losing on purpose.

Not simply losing, but losing narrowly. By the tiniest margin!

Its purpose was to push the opponent’s exhilaration at victory to its absolute limit, while constantly making them feel that if they stayed complacent, I might catch up with them as soon as tomorrow.

Or that today’s victory had only come because they were lucky, so they needed to work even harder.

“If you lose, you just lose.”

That was why the Doomed Sword became useless if the opponent was stronger than its user.

The true use of the Doomed Sword lay in using the royal family’s and Instructors’ precise analysis to control both victory and defeat for royalty.

Based on a royal’s disposition, recent actions, and state of mind...

If they were too motivated, you knocked them down a peg.

If they lacked motivation, you gave them a boost.

That was the goal.

Since Prince Ellen had become too strong for me to control, I could no longer properly fulfill my role as an Instructor.

Even so, the reason I wasn’t fired was...

“The problem, Adam, is that you’ve exceeded our expectations.”

Even the royal family, who should have reprimanded me for it, couldn’t say anything.

“Humans can’t do anything about a natural disaster, after all.”

Ellen himself was simply a monster on the level of a natural disaster.

So...

“We decided to alter your swordsmanship a little.”

The day Ellen experienced genuine defeat for the first time, I had to learn the Doomed Sword all over again.

It was called the Defensive Doomed Sword.

A swordsmanship refined solely for me.

“By the way, it includes a little Leon Royal Swordsmanship, so leaking it outside means execution.”

“Can’t I just not learn it?”

The name sounded stupid, but it was a secret technique with a bit of Leon Royal Swordsmanship mixed in.

* * *

The most important thing in the Doomed Sword was knowing your opponent’s sword.

In that sense, every royal Instructor was a counter to Leon Royal Swordsmanship.

There was a reason they had to live near the capital even after retirement, remain under royal surveillance, and face restrictions on traveling abroad.

Of course, they received compensation and treatment to match.

There was also a reason I could easily obtain mansions and buildings near the capital, which were difficult to buy even with money at my age.

In that sense, the Sword Emperor’s test was relatively easy for me.

The Sword Emperor was the founder of a school of swordsmanship, someone who had completed a sword all his own.

There weren’t many chances in this era to see his sword directly.

Normally, I shouldn’t have known his swordsmanship.

Yet the person I had fought most often at the academy was the Little Sword Emperor, who was learning that sword more perfectly than anyone.

And lately, I had been experiencing life as the Sword Emperor’s punching bag every three days.

So I was starting to grow familiar with the Sword Emperor’s sword.

“Hup.”

“Good.”

Of course, becoming familiar with it didn’t mean I could win.

Still, if I gritted my teeth, I could at least hold out.

That was possible because the Sword Emperor’s sword, like Leon’s swordsmanship, was based on defense.

People watched the Little Sword Emperor’s flashy swordplay and said the Sword Emperor’s family practiced aggressive swordsmanship.

That was only because Asran hadn’t completed Aren-style Swordsmanship yet.

Sword Emperor Aren’s sword might look flashy on the surface, but its movements were more static than one would expect.

It moved quickly, but every action slipped into gaps in the opponent’s movements and blade paths.

Because of that, the opponent slowly withered away without ever accomplishing what they wanted.

He watched the opponent’s movements, then struck at their weakness.

To a third party, it might look like the Sword Emperor was attacking one-sidedly, but to the person facing him, every movement felt like being met with a counter.

“Come.”

“No, thanks.”

The countermeasure was simple.

Don’t move first.

That alone could buy a fair amount of time.

“It’s a test. I’m going easy on you, so display your swordsmanship however you wish.”

That was true, but it was also bullshit.

The Sword Emperor had to go easy on me for this to be a proper test, so that part was true.

But the old man got excited and gradually raised the power of his sword whenever someone held out against it for even a little while.

“You think I’ve only fallen for that once or twice?”

I’d been beaten up as a punching bag enough times to know better.

And...

“Besides, the swordsmanship I learned is the Guardian Sword.”

The first rule of guarding.

Just hang on.

At that, the Sword Emperor frowned slightly, then nodded.

“Well, you are Carix’s disciple.”

Not really.

When someone asked what swordsmanship I had learned, I couldn’t exactly say the Doomed Sword, could I?

Instructors were publicly treated more like royal attendants. I couldn’t give such a stupid answer.

So the internal procedure was to say we had learned something impressive-sounding, like the Guardian Sword.

That cover story was helping me out right now.

“Then I suppose it can’t be helped.”

About three minutes had passed since the test began.

I thought I had held out for quite a while, but the unfair part of this test was that the people who went early had no basis for judging their score.

If I lasted three minutes and everyone else lasted three minutes too, a remedial test might be waiting for me.

Aside from the people in a league of their own, theory scores were all more or less the same.

I was in the upper-middle ranks, but the Swordsmanship Department placed far more weight on practical exams.

A small difference in practical score could throw me straight into the lower ranks.

Of course, that was unlikely.

“Still, I should be careful.”

I had to return to my beloved homeland during break.

It wasn’t homesickness or anything. First of all, a diplomatic disaster where the Queen stormed the academy absolutely could not happen.

And if I stayed, I might get dragged into the Holy Kingdom expedition party and worked like a dog alongside Tinky Winky.

Getting run ragged by the original romance fantasy was already more than enough during the unavoidable Silence arc.

I talked big, but a terrorist attack was also scheduled for the second semester, so getting worked to the bone was already my guaranteed future.

Let me rest during break.

With that thought in mind, I did my best to block the Sword Emperor’s sword.

“Oho.”

I heard a pleased hum.

It was a very familiar signal that we were moving into the next phase.

“…Hah.”

I barely managed to breathe while blocking the Sword Emperor’s increasingly accelerating sword.

It was getting to the point where I needed permission just to take a breath.

No matter how much Aren-style Swordsmanship was fundamentally defensive and built around counters, my opponent was the Sword Emperor, called the sovereign of swords.

With such a difference in skill, it didn’t matter whether the other person used aggressive or defensive swordsmanship.

Thirty seconds passed, longer than the previous three minutes had felt.

My limit was approaching, so I had no choice but to think.

“Hup.”

My deliberation was short, and my action was quick.

I seized a momentary opportunity and immediately infused my sword with mana.

“Good.”

That was the signal flare.

As if he had been waiting for it, sword aura began rippling from the Sword Emperor’s sword as well.

He had gathered far less mana than I had, but his sword aura was overwhelmingly more complete.

It looked as though he were teaching me that sword aura could be wielded like this too.

“You’re acting like a professor.”

“I am a professor.”

Ah, right.

He grabbed me every few days and beat me up like a punching bag, so I thought he was a member of our gym.

“Then act like a professor and give your student a little encouragement.”

“You should have handled things like that when you were a teacher. I learned that professors need to be stricter with their students.”

He was a first-year rookie professor, but anyone listening would think he had been one for ten years.

Sword aura clashed against sword aura, and mana began to surge through our bodies.

The amount of mana being consumed rapidly increased, but I didn’t care.

The moment I used mana, it became a battle of speed anyway.

I boasted an overwhelming natural physique, but that was only compared to people my age.

For someone like the Sword Emperor, it was simply one of the realms he had already passed through long ago.

Even if he used less mana than I did as a professor...

The difference in optimization and refinement alone allowed him to overwhelm me while I used more mana.

So I raised the gear first.

Again and again, one step ahead. I struggled desperately to win somehow.

At a glance, it looked like the path to losing even faster.

But the Sword Emperor could judge that this was my limit if he saw no further rise in my ability, then end the test.

“Enough.”

Just like now.

Tap.

A light thrust from his sword sent me falling backward.

It had clearly looked like sharp sword aura, yet it felt as though I had been lightly bumped by a rolling stone.

“Haa... Haa...”

Having burned through most of my mana, I lay on the floor and breathed roughly.

How long had I lasted?

I had no choice but to give up counting after four minutes, so I waited for the examiner to announce the result while catching my breath.

“Adam Smith. Five minutes and twenty-one seconds.”

I lasted longer than I thought.

The moment I thought that...

“Hmm...”

A brief sigh escaped, one that somehow sounded dissatisfied.

I gathered what little strength I had left and raised my upper body.

“You’ve been playing around too much.”

The Sword Emperor’s crumpled expression, full of dissatisfaction, came into view.

“Fuck.”

I sensed that something had gone wrong.

But I wasn’t the one who paid the price.

“Argh!”

“Asran. Two minutes and eleven seconds!”

Unlike me, Asran was swiftly sent flying.

But instead of calling him the Doomed Sword Emperor or the Little Little Little Sword Emperor as usual, the other students stared silently at me.

“Adam... The test got harder...”

At Prince Ellen’s voice, full of grievance, I answered by raising my middle finger at everyone around me.

If you don’t like it, why don’t you take the test first?

“Ah.”

...Come to think of it, that was exactly what they had been trying to do.

What a shame.

Author’s Note (Afterword)

My family left for Jeju Island on a family trip this afternoon.

I stayed behind to meet my deadline.

Dobby is... a slave.

Footnotes:

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