WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

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

Chapter 38: Side Quest (2)

──────

In fantasy novels, there was one group that always faced persecution: Dark Mages.

There were the occasional stories where dark magic was used for good, but in most novels, they proudly served as the forces of evil. This world was no different.

Honestly, they were pretty impressive bastards.

It depended on the situation, but defense was usually easier than offense.

And when the defenders were a massive force like the Empire, it should have been even harder for the attackers to succeed.

Yet despite being persecuted by every nation on the continent, they stubbornly survived, broke through the Empire's defenses, and invaded the Academy.

They were truly diligent bastards.

If they put that effort into something else, they would surely succeed.

I'd always wondered why they fell into dark magic and worked so hard at such dangerous things, risking their lives in the process.

"There's a Dark Mage here too?"

But apparently, those bastards were here as well.

What a goddamn mess.

It was common sense that Dark Mages gathered around romance-fantasy heroines. Why were they causing trouble all the way out in this backwater?

"Y-Yes, the reason is..."

The bandits.

No, the people claiming to be residents of Violet Village began explaining what had happened to their village.

"It happened a year ago."

It was a sad story for those involved.

But if this were a game, it would have been the kind of generic story that made you mash the skip button.

One day, travelers suddenly arrived.

They introduced themselves as pilgrims who had completed a holy pilgrimage and asked if they could stay for a few days.

Even in Leon, a remote village with little connection to swords was closer to the Goddess than to the sword.

And regardless of what else they believed in, a tale had spread across the continent that turning away those who had made a long journey for the Goddess would bring down her wrath.

The chief and villagers of Violet Village lent the pilgrims the village hall and provided them with food.

But that was the beginning of the tragedy.

They were not pilgrims. They were Dark Mages.

Using the village hall as their base, they cast mind-affecting magic on the villagers and turned them into slaves.

The beautiful village once covered in violets soon began blooming with another kind of flower.

"It's a flower called salvia..."

At the villager's words, I turned to Prince Ellen.

"Why?"

"You're in the Flower Arrangement Club. What kind of flower is it?"

"...I've only been there for half a year. I don't know that much yet."

Prince Ellen awkwardly looked away, and one of the villagers cautiously answered.

"It's used to make a drug that causes hallucinations."

I was dumbfounded.

This was a place only three or four days by carriage from the royal capital, even if it was somewhat removed from the city. Yet Dark Mages were cultivating drugs here?

I thought only the Empire was a mess, but our kingdom was in no better shape.

"That's how the villagers lost themselves, became slaves to the Dark Mages, and began producing hallucinogens."

"We don't know their purpose, but they certainly aren't gathering salvia flowers for anything good."

"Please save our village!"

The people prostrated themselves and begged us to save their village. Prince Ellen was about to accept the quest as if it were only natural.

"Wait."

I quickly grabbed Prince Ellen's arm, stopping him from pressing the accept button.

"Why?"

"First, there are three strange things."

"Like what?"

"First, if all the villagers were brainwashed and turned into the Dark Mages' slaves, why weren't these people brainwashed? How can they ask us for help?"

Unless they had awakened mana and developed some resistance to brainwashing.

But the people before us were ordinary country folk.

The whole village had supposedly been brainwashed, yet some people were able to seek help.

Without a reasonable explanation, it was more logical to see this as a Dark Mage trap.

"That was because we had left the village to buy necessities..."

The villagers gave a somewhat plausible excuse, but our party was full of sword-wielders. We had no way of knowing whether they were telling the truth or whether it was the Dark Mages' brainwashing at work.

"Second, how did you know we'd pass by here and wait for us?"

"We only intended to ask a passing noble for help by chance."

"Is that so?"

They had lost their village and lived like bandits, then resolved to seek a noble's help.

I could understand that much.

But.

"It would've been faster to find the local lord than attack passing carriages."

The territory where we were supposed to stay that day was only a little farther ahead.

Yet instead of going there, they had risked their lives pretending to be bandits and stopping carriages.

"W-Well..."

The villagers fell silent at my words.

A moment of silence passed.

I frowned.

"Answer me."

As I glared at the hesitant people, a girl who looked about fifteen stepped forward and began to tear up instead of answering.

"W-Well..."

Prince Ellen shot me a sharp look at the sudden tear attack.

"Crying won't solve everything."

We couldn't simply let it slide because a child was crying. A royal was involved.

Honestly, even if every villager before me died, it would be fine as long as Prince Ellen survived.

"Give me a proper reason."

I spoke not to the child, but to the adults behind her.

Perhaps they understood that I wouldn't tolerate them putting a child forward to appeal to our sympathy.

One adult sent the girl back, hesitated for a long while, then carefully spoke.

"Violet Village is a village of slash-and-burn settlers."

With those words alone, I understood why they couldn't go to the local lord.

The village had been built illegally in the first place. Even if they sought help from the nearby lord, they would only be punished.

"Is it a village of criminals?"

"No. It's just that we couldn't pay our taxes during a bad harvest long ago..."

That was what they said, but there was no way to verify whether it was true here and now.

Besides, failing to pay taxes was a crime too.

"Adam. I still want to go."

As I frowned, Prince Ellen spoke with the overflowing sense of justice expected from a romance-fantasy male lead.

The villagers' faces brightened.

"Then lastly, and most importantly, why does a prince of a kingdom intend to go beat up Dark Mages?"

At my next question, the villagers lowered their heads. Prince Ellen tilted his head in confusion.

"Huh?"

Why did this bastard look like it was the most obvious thing in the world?

"Isn't it obvious?"

He even said it himself.

"No, it isn't."

Leon royalty learned swordsmanship from childhood.

And Prince Ellen himself might be the strongest person in the setting, but there was no need to send him somewhere dangerous and make him take risks.

"Just send someone else to handle it."

We had left with plenty of time to return to the Academy, but if things got complicated here, our return would be delayed.

Sure, if it became urgent, we could use the Magic Tower's teleportation.

But wasn't it best not to create a situation that required it in the first place?

"If we contact the kingdom, specialists can arrive in as little as a day. There's no reason for Your Highness to personally step in."

Dark Mages were a problem throughout the continent.

Any proper nation operated specialized units to deal with them.

Leon also had specialists dedicated to beating up Dark Mages.

"We're on our way back to the Academy, not traveling around to hunt Dark Mages."

"No, but..."

"There's no urgent reason, either."

"Th-There is!"

Someone among the villagers shouted at my words.

Come to think of it, they kept interrupting while royalty and high-ranking nobles were talking.

Were they looking down on us because we were young, or was the matter truly urgent?

I was just starting to think I should show them how frightening nobles could be if it was the former.

"The reason we dared to be this rude is because those Dark Mages are about to offer the villagers as sacrifices!"

At the desperate cry, I met Prince Ellen's eyes.

"......"

"......"

Prince Ellen's expression, as though telling me, See?, was difficult to put into words.

Apparently, it really was urgent.

* * *

The defining trait of sorcery and Dark Mages was that they could draw out power beyond their own limits through sacrifices.

Unlike sorcery, which used sacrifices that belonged to the caster, Dark Mages could freely offer sacrifices that did not belong to them.

That was the greatest reason why Dark Mages were persecuted.

The greater the price of a sacrifice, the more powerful the force it could draw out.

Dark Mages seeking great power often caused incidents by offering other people's lives and souls as sacrifices.

"I've contacted the kingdom, so reinforcements will be coming."

That was why I immediately contacted the Commander, but we decided to go ahead and check the situation first.

"We're really only checking."

Prince Ellen nodded at my words.

"I get it. Don't you trust me?"

"No."

Prince Ellen's lips stuck out at my answer, which came without a moment's hesitation.

"I really do have something to go on, so just do as I say."

"Really?"

"Really."

It was true.

The center of the continent was currently the Empire.

And the Empire was naturally the main setting of the romance fantasy.

That meant all the important events occurring on the continent were supposed to take place in the Empire.

Dark Mages hiding in the backwoods and growing drugs couldn't possibly be strong enough to threaten us.

"Don't rush in first. If anything happens to Your Highness, we could all end up on the gallows."

"I said I get it."

With Prince Ellen's completely unreliable answer, we set out for Violet Village.

A young man from the village led the way, followed by Prince Ellen, me, and twenty guard knights.

"Fuck."

By the time the moon rose, we arrived at Violet Village, where anyone could see that a suspicious ritual was underway.

People dressed in black robes, as if advertising that they were Dark Mages, had tied people beneath an altar built in the middle of the village.

They had gathered purple flowers around it and set them burning.

"Beastkin?"

At the center of the altar lay a bloodied beastkin, unconscious.

It was obviously a Dark Mage ritual in full swing.

"Let's go!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Ellen began charging forward.

...Huh?

"Hey!"

As Ellen suddenly rushed out, the guards and I began chasing after him a step too late.

"You told me to trust you!"

"You said you didn't trust me anyway!"

So because I said I didn't trust him, he was just going to do whatever he wanted...?

He hadn't been like this as a child. No, he hadn't been like this before entering the Academy.

This was definitely all Daisy's fault.

"What do we do?!"

At the flustered guard knight's words from behind me, I answered by drawing my sword.

A Word from the Author

I'm glad crown daisy won.

Actually, I planned to give away chicken if number one won.

And if number two won, I was going to get an illustration of Daisy biting crown daisy.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried