I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel - Chapter 33

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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

Chapter 33: The Romance Fantasy Heroine Is Strong (3)

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Seeing the battle-crazed princess charge at me and demand a fight right off the bat, I could really feel that I was back in the Leon Kingdom.

“Are you confident?”

“I’m a woman who grows stronger every day!”

Judging by how confident she looked, she must have gained some sort of insight.

Her usual wild energy did seem more focused now, so she had definitely improved.

“I beat Prince Ellen in the final exam, though.”

“What?”

Princess Hestia’s eyes wavered violently at those few words.

She looked like she simply couldn’t believe it.

“No, I won the overall first-semester rankings!”

That was true.

Unfortunately, Prince Ellen had taken the highest score among the Swordsmanship Department’s first-years by a narrow margin.

I had expected extra credit for resolving the terrorist attack, but they planned to reward us separately, so the bonus points had been kept fairly modest.

“...Really?”

Prince Ellen, who had taken first place, muttered with an unhappy expression. Princess Hestia, on the other hand, looked even more shocked.

If he had won the overall rankings, that meant he acknowledged his loss in the finals.

Given Princess Hestia’s mindset that only the final victory mattered, it must have felt as though Ellen had lost to me.

“N-No...”

Unlike Ellen, who had become impossible for her to gauge, I had still been someone she could size up and challenge.

But then she heard that I had beaten Ellen while we were apart.

“I-Is this the Sword Emperor’s power?”

In a sense, I couldn’t deny it. The Sword Emperor’s help had played a huge part.

He had treated me like a punching bag, but that had still improved my skills.

The only reason I had lasted during the finals was because I had experienced the Sword Emperor’s swordsmanship so many times.

If I hadn’t known his sword, I would have gone down about two minutes earlier.

“I-I should study abroad too...”

“Do you think that’ll be possible?”

Even putting aside the fact that she was a princess of Leon, she was due to graduate from the academy in the second semester. There was no way she could suddenly study abroad halfway through her final year.

“Urgh...”

She glared at me with a face full of frustration, but there was only one thing she could do.

“Let’s see those amazing skills of yours!”

I sighed softly at the competitive look in her eyes and nodded.

“Gah!”

Then I thoroughly defeated Princess Hestia by lightly bonking the top of her head about fifteen times.

* * *

“You could’ve gone easier on her.”

After easily beating Princess Hestia’s challenge, she fled like Team Rocket while declaring that she would definitely win next time.

With that, I began the formal process of returning to the kingdom.

Prince Ellen was dragged off by the King and Queen.

As for me, I had to meet the Commander and handle everything I had been unable to deal with.

“That’s what works for Princess Hestia.”

Princess Hestia was like a weed.

It wasn’t exactly a fitting description for a princess, but the more she was stepped on, the more determined she became to win.

That was why I couldn’t understand the original timeline, where she had given up her sword after being crushed by Prince Ellen.

What on earth did Ellen do to become some cold, arrogant male lead and make Princess Hestia put down her sword?

“I know that too. Just don’t overdo it. You’ve come back to the kingdom after half a year. Do you want Lucia to grab you by the collar?”

The reality in front of me mattered more than the original timeline, which was completely useless now.

Sighing, I asked the Commander about the situation in the kingdom after he mentioned Lucia.

“Come to think of it, I heard Lucia is running for student council president. Is that true?”

Even before entering the academy, I had heard that academies competed with one another. Once I actually attended one, though, I realized they cared far more than I expected.

The Swordsmanship Department especially paid close attention to Leon’s Royal Academy, while the Magic Department watched Dale’s Royal Academy.

Even while I was doing nothing in the middle of the Empire, information about my home academy still made its way to me.

“That’s right.”

“Lucia doesn’t seem like the type to do something like that.”

“Of course not. Do you think that kid would step up and take on a bothersome job? Princess Hestia forced Lucia to run because she wanted all the perks without any of the responsibility.”

I could roughly picture what had happened.

Princess Hestia probably hated the troublesome work that came with being student council president, but there must have been something she wanted to do with that position.

“Still, won’t it be difficult?”

“No. The problem is that it’s too easy.”

“Really?”

“The students’ support is no joke.”

It wouldn’t normally be easy, even with a princess backing her.

“Is Lucia that popular?”

“She is. Lucia stops Princess Hestia before she causes trouble, and Lucia cleans up afterward when she does cause trouble.”

“Ah.”

In short, she was the person who prevented natural disasters and minimized the damage when she failed to prevent one.

“Why doesn’t the Empire have someone like Lucia?”

“That’s what you’re doing.”

“That’s the problem.”

I wanted to live an easy life, but I had studied abroad in the Empire and become the restraint keeping everyone in check.

The more I thought about it, the more annoyed I got. What the hell were these Imperial bastards doing?

“You’ve had it rough. Still, do you think incidents like that will keep happening?”

For a moment, the Commander’s carefree words made me want to snap, but I quickly calmed down.

Honestly, that was the normal reaction.

Who would think that an academy in the heart of the Empire was about to be breached over and over like an automatic door?

“There’s no rule saying something that happened once can’t happen again.”

“Come on, it’s not like the Empire is run by idiots.”

The Commander laughed playfully, but I didn’t know whether he would still be able to laugh like that a few months later.

“Anyway, it sounds like Lucia is practically confirmed for the Royal Academy. I heard Dale is planning to have the Blue Tower Master’s disciple run?”

“How did you know that?”

“The rumor’s all over the academy.”

Judging by his expression, the information had been accurate.

“I heard your student council president is expected to win another term. Is that right?”

“Unless something major happens.”

According to Violet, the current student council president would remain in office until next year’s election.

In other words, the president would not change until a few members of the romance-fantasy group ran for the position.

What a tragedy.

Considering how they must have been worked like dogs because of the first-semester terrorist attack, they would probably keep getting worked like dogs whenever another incident happened.

They had to serve as student council president until graduation without being able to run away.

“You’re not thinking of running, are you?”

“Do I look insane?”

There was no way I would voluntarily take on something as annoying as being student council president.

Even if Prince Ellen suddenly nominated me like Princess Hestia had nominated Lucia, I was a foreign exchange student at the Imperial Academy, not Leon’s Royal Academy. There was almost no chance I could become student council president.

“So, is that true?”

I narrowed my eyes at the Commander.

There was a reason I had started talking about academies the moment I returned to the kingdom.

“Are they really holding an Academy Exchange Program?”

A strange rumor had been circulating among the academies.

There was talk of an event centered on the Imperial Academy, where students from renowned academies across the continent, including Leon and Dale, would interact.

Violet, our original-story obsessive, had snorted when she heard it, saying it had never happened in the original.

Still, the original story had already gone off the rails, so it wouldn’t have been strange for us to pay the price.

And my suspicion...

“...That’s what they’re saying.”

Unfortunately, it seemed I had been exactly right.

“There is someone strongly supporting the Academy Exchange Program at the Royal Academy too.”

Unfortunately, the person behind it immediately came to mind.

“Lucia?”

“More precisely, Princess Hestia, with Lucia at the front.”

“...”

It was an insolent thought, but perhaps it would have been better if Princess Hestia had followed the original story.

According to Tinky Winky, Princess Hestia had become a demure character after giving up the sword.

“What about Dale’s response?”

“They seem more positive about it than expected.”

“When would it be? This year? Next year?”

“It was nearly decided for this autumn, but it was put on hold because of incidents like the terrorist attack.”

From what I heard, it sounded like the Academy Exchange Program had probably been in progress in the original story too.

But then incidents occurred at the Imperial Academy, delaying it. More incidents followed, and it had eventually been canceled.

In this timeline, however, Silence had been forced into early retirement instead of continuing to cause trouble. On top of that, several influential figures from other academies, including Princess Hestia, supported the Academy Exchange Program.

“It’ll probably be held in the Empire during the Imperial Founding Festival.”

If the Commander was saying that, it meant the royal family was considering it positively too.

Of course, it was an Academy Exchange Program involving several academies, so it would not go ahead just because our royal family supported it.

For some reason, Dale seemed to support it strongly as well.

The Empire was also said to be spreading its influence to other kingdoms in order to recover its wounded pride after the terrorist attack.

“Unless something happens, it looks like it’ll go ahead.”

It looked like another ticking time bomb guaranteed to cause trouble was about to be added to my life.

#2 Holy Kingdom Correspondent, Codename Tinky Winky.

It was common sense in fantasy stories that the Holy Kingdom was rotten to the core.

Of course, it was common sense that was hard to understand.

If I thought of the Middle Ages from my previous life, corrupt clergy were nothing unusual.

But unlike my previous life, the Goddess was alive and active here.

I even knew that she occasionally appeared to give Daisy prophecies. With those abilities, she should be beating up rotten clergymen instead.

As expected, the Goddess of this world really was incompetent.

Compared to her, our Daisy was very capable.

Even in the original story, Daisy noticed the Holy Kingdom’s corruption and tried to set things right.

Now, too, she had noticed its current corruption and was trying to fix it.

Yet despite the same description...

The process was unfolding in the complete opposite way.

“...Daisy?”

In the original story, Daisy discovered the Holy Kingdom’s rot with her friends, then tried to expose it with the male leads’ help.

“Confess your sins.”

“Urgh!”

The current Daisy saw a corrupt clergyman at the scene and immediately launched herself at him.

She grabbed him by the collar and squeezed his throat so tightly that he could barely breathe.

With cold eyes and an icy voice, she spoke to the clergyman she had caught red-handed.

“Have you no shame beneath the heavens?”

For a moment, I was left speechless.

No, Daisy. You’re being way too radical...

You’re still in the process of becoming the Saintess, and that bastard still has room to wriggle out of this.

Even in the original story, she had struggled with that, spending this summer vacation laying the groundwork. She could only finish reforming the Holy Kingdom in the second semester of her second year!

“In the Goddess’s name, I will condemn you!”

Brilliant light began to fill the space around Daisy.

It was certainly a dazzling light, enough to make even someone with no faith feel reverence just by looking at it.

Then the light gathered in the hand not gripping the clergyman by the collar.

In other words, Daisy’s left fist.

“S-Saintess!”

“Please, wait!”

The other clergymen seemed to realize what Daisy was about to do.

They rushed toward her in a panic, trying to stop her.

“The Goddess’s Judgment!”

“Arrrgh!”

According to Adam, the Holy Punch began judging the corrupt clergymen.