WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈
Chapter 4: Became the Royal Family's Punching Bag (4)
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When I first met the Fifth Prince, only one thought came to mind.
“M-My name is Ellen.”
Thank goodness.
Those of us who specialized in serving royalty had to devote our entire lives to a single royal unless we were dismissed.
Leon was known as the kingdom of knights, and its royals learned chivalry from childhood, but there was no guarantee I would not end up serving someone like Princess Hestia.
Fortunately, the Fifth Prince assigned to me looked timid at a glance.
Despite being royalty, he could barely meet my eyes.
Of course, being too timid was also a problem for a royal.
Still, it was better than having a rotten personality.
Besides, I could fix his timidity by giving him confidence through my fantastic defeat.
That was why I existed, and why the kingdom trained specialists like me.
For that, the most important thing was for me to be slightly stronger than the Fifth Prince, or at least nearly as skilled.
I could not just lose.
No one could know who would win until the very last moment.
After a truly fierce exchange of blows, I had to create a scene where he barely managed to prevail.
I had to give the Fifth Prince a match that would make his heart burn when he recalled it before falling asleep that night.
Through that, I had to serve as a pacemaker who kept him working steadily without becoming arrogant!
“Emergency! This is a serious emergency!”
The moment Princess Hestia lost, I dragged the commander into a meeting.
“I-It must've been luck.”
The commander's eyes shook wildly.
This was Princess Hestia, of all people.
She was a swordswoman whose name was beginning to spread beyond Leon, and her obsession with the sword was even more famous than her skill.
Talent and hard work, the two things most difficult to possess together. Princess Hestia possessed them both.
And she had lost.
Only once, and she had become somewhat gentler after sparring with me, but still!
A loss was a loss!
What was more...
“There wasn't anything wrong with how he won, was there?!”
“Urgh...”
Our Fifth Prince's skill was real.
If he fought Princess Hestia ten times, he would still lose nine.
But he had reached the point where he could win once if things went well.
That was huge.
It might only be once, but zero and one were completely different realms.
He had gone from never being able to win to being able to win once if things went well.
Then all we had to do was turn that one win into two, then two into three.
Making that possible was my goal, so this victory could have been considered a good thing.
“It's obvious he's been secretly learning swordsmanship for a long time!”
“...”
“Please tell me that's what happened!”
The commander avoided my desperate gaze.
I fell into despair.
“But Prince Ellen has only been learning the sword for one year!”
He had only been learning for one year.
Our goal had been victory three years from now, not victory today.
“I suppose His Highness is just a genius.”
The commander replied while looking away.
A genius.
Well, the royal family had produced generations of sword geniuses, so it was possible.
“Isn't Princess Hestia a genius too?”
The problem was that Princess Hestia, his opponent, was also a genius acknowledged by everyone.
“Maybe he's a genius beyond geniuses.”
“Ah!”
A genius beyond geniuses.
That was why he could defeat the genius Princess Hestia after only one year!
“I resign.”
After quickly assessing the situation, I pulled out the resignation letter I had kept hidden deep in my heart.
The position of royal instructor was regrettable to give up, but the Fifth Prince seemed to have a capacity too great for me to handle.
Well, I was only eleven.
My future was still bright. Even if I was not a royal instructor, I would live well enough.
“Not a chance!”
The commander tore my resignation letter to shreds the moment he took it.
It was absurd, but I had expected it.
If handing in a resignation letter meant you could resign, Lucia, the royal instructor assigned to Princess Hestia, would have escaped long ago and be enjoying a happy life.
“Commander.”
“What?”
You learn by watching your seniors' backs.
That was the proper attitude for a junior.
“I have more.”
Who was I? Adam Smith, the prepared man.
After watching Senior Lucia submit resignation letters at least once a week, I carried three copies of my own.
“You little...!”
He snatched up the next resignation letter and shredded it too.
Maybe I should make the next one out of steel instead of paper.
It probably would not make much difference whether it was paper or steel in the hands of a Sword Master, but it would at least make a statement.
“I have more.”
“...”
The commander stared at the freshly resurrected resignation letter with an incredulous expression, but I had plenty to say too.
“I don't think I have the capacity to handle Prince Ellen's potential.”
Even after receiving considerable training as a royal instructor, if I fought Princess Hestia ten times, I could barely win twice.
That was only because she had not used sword aura since our first spar, though.
Still, reaching this point had taken my blood, sweat, and tears.
Yet he had caught up to me.
He had not overtaken me yet, and he was still far behind me, but...
In only one year, the Fifth Prince had reached the point where he could see my back.
“Some people are fast starters.”
“That's true.”
In the long marathon called life, there were sometimes people who burst ahead quickly at the beginning.
Quite a few lacked staying power and fell behind later.
But you could tell when you saw one.
No, you could not help but know.
“But that doesn't apply to Prince Ellen, does it?”
As someone who crossed swords with him directly, I knew.
This bastard was on another level.
On the first day, he could barely hold a sword. The next day, he was already swinging one with ease.
After a month, he carried himself like someone who had studied swordsmanship for a year.
After half a year, I started getting nervous.
“Our prince will be fast at the beginning, the middle, and the end.”
Compared to him, all I had going for me was being a very fast starter.
It was not that I had no talent for the sword, but my mental age had mattered more. I had not wasted my childhood acting like a little brat.
While others had not even started crawling, I had been running hard.
“Unfortunately, I think this is as far as my abilities can take me.”
My talent had reached its limit here.
That was why I could hand over my resignation letter with confidence and no regrets.
* * *
Watching Adam politely offer his resignation letter, Commander Carix thought to himself.
‘He's right.’
Carix had reached Sword Master, the dream of all swordsmen.
Even in his eyes, the Fifth Prince, Ellen, possessed talent great enough to be called a monster beyond a genius.
Adam's talent for the sword, on the other hand, fell a little short of being called genius-level.
He could only stand beside those called geniuses because of his effort and a temperament that did not suit his age.
That was why Carix could be certain.
‘Ellen needs Adam.’
Many children learned the sword in the kingdom of knights.
That was why many discovered their own talent from a young age and came to be called geniuses.
But genius was ultimately relative.
If Ellen continued growing as he was now, no, even at half his current pace, even the kingdom's famed geniuses would become ordinary people.
‘The higher you fall from, the more it hurts.’
Many of the kingdom's geniuses would despair before Ellen's talent.
Some would get back up and move farther ahead, of course, but it would take them a considerable amount of time.
Adam was different.
‘He's not despairing over his own ability.’
He had simply reached a rational conclusion because he could no longer fulfill his role.
In other words, he had merely judged that his talent was insufficient to serve as the prince's rival.
Even after seeing and feeling that dazzling talent from so close, he had not broken.
Was that a good mindset for a knight? Absolutely not.
Not breaking meant he had never possessed a swordsman's pride or competitive spirit to begin with.
‘But...’
Was there anyone in their kingdom, or even in this era, with talent comparable to Prince Ellen's?
‘It won't be easy.’
Even if such a genius existed, they would dream of making a name for themselves, not becoming a prince's punching bag.
‘We can't let him go!’
What mattered was an unbreakable punching bag. No, mental strength that would not shatter even before that overwhelming talent!
Adam had demonstrated exactly that, even as he handed in his resignation letter.
Therefore...
“Double your base salary.”
“...”
Carix set aside the resignation letter and pulled out a contract.
“Are you trying to buy me with money?”
“Triple.”
“...That won't suddenly give me talent.”
“I'll provide top-grade restorative elixirs.”
“Ahem. Even so...”
“I'll arrange the finest instructors just for you.”
“No matter what, talent is...”
“If you can match the prince's level, there'll be a separate performance bonus.”
“...”
Adam's eyes began darting around.
He looked as though he was considering whether this was worth taking on.
‘Is House Smith really that poor?’
According to the royal family's investigation, it was a lesser house compared to famous count families.
Still, a count was a count.
It was the first gateway into the ranks of high nobility and one of only forty-eight such houses in the kingdom.
Unless they did something truly terrible, they could spend three generations doing nothing and still not go bankrupt.
‘Why?’
Carix found it strange that someone born into such a well-off family cared so much about money.
Still, people motivated by money were the easiest kind to handle.
“Even if you fail the mission, I won't take anything back.”
If this level of support still was not enough, then it had simply been impossible.
Carix knew Adam was the type to work for every bit of what he received.
“Just stay by His Highness's side and keep him from growing lazy.”
The Fifth Prince Ellen did not seem to have that kind of disposition, but you never knew what could happen.
It was not unheard of for someone with overwhelming talent to lose interest in the sword or go down the wrong path.
Even if Adam could not serve as a pacemaker, it would be enough if he was a good friend who had a positive influence.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
Adam looked far from confident, and that only made Carix more satisfied.
No senior royal instructor worked as hard as Adam did.
Many swordsmen were full of scholarly enthusiasm.
Yet none properly cared about the duties of being a royal instructor.
‘Put another way, I thought treating it too much like work was a bit of a problem.’
Considering Prince Ellen's potential, though, it was actually a good thing.
‘He won't break like Lucia.’
Lucia Artien, the royal instructor assigned to Princess Hestia.
She was a swordswoman recognized even by Princess Hestia, a skilled fighter with few rivals among people her age regardless of gender.
Yet unlike her swordsmanship, her mental strength was lacking. Did she not come by every week with a resignation letter in hand?
Adam, however, was different.
“The work will be difficult, so you'll have to suffer a little.”
“I'm being paid well. Of course I should work hard.”
Carix smiled and clasped Adam's outstretched hand. Adam was smiling as though he had never submitted a resignation letter at all.
Footnotes:
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