WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈
Chapter 44: New Semester (4)
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The theory I had firmly believed in, that Daisy was the source of all evil, was starting to crumble.
Maybe the true source of all evil was not Daisy.
Maybe it was Tinky Winky.
No, could it be that bastard Violet?
It was not as though there were no romance-fantasy heroines good at blackmailing people.
Still, considering the original story Violet had told me about, Daisy definitely was not supposed to be this kind of character.
Just what kind of early education had Violet given her? The oblivious, innocent romance-fantasy heroine had turned into this.
“Is that a threat?”
“Yes, it is.”
Her bright smile was refreshing enough for a romance-fantasy heroine, but what she was saying was anything but refreshing.
“Why would that be a threat?”
I played dumb and tossed out the question.
“You do not like me being with Ellen, do you?”
Daisy answered at once, wearing an expression that said she knew everything.
“What makes you think that?”
“I could kind of tell?”
This was the awareness of a romance-fantasy heroine?
What the hell had that damned Tinky Winky created?!
That Tinky Winky bastard had wrecked the original story all on her own, then only complained about me.
I wanted to show the current Daisy to the girl who had told me to preserve the original story accurately when we first met.
“You think I will do it?”
“You seem like the kind of person who would really hate something like this, so I honestly do not think you will. But I also get the feeling that if I push the right buttons, you might agree? So if I use Ellen as bait and negotiate well first... do you think it could work?”
Could work, my ass.
“Do you know that what you just said makes you sound like trash?”
My words slipped out unfiltered, and Daisy awkwardly scratched her head.
“Does it really come off that way?”
“Of course it does. Forget the guys bothering you. What about the people around you who like you?”
Romance-fantasy heroines were not oblivious for no reason.
If they knew and still acted that way, then the moment even one part was written badly, they would become trashy women who strung men along.
That was why, unless the male lead had been firmly decided from the beginning, even romance-fantasy heroines with good social awareness were written as oblivious when it came to romance.
“But...”
Daisy answered my question with a troubled expression.
Anything she said here would probably make her look awful.
“If one of them confessed first, that would be different... But I cannot suddenly go up to someone when I know they like me and say I do not like them back.”
“...”
I was left speechless.
I had been waiting to hear some excuse, but when I actually heard her out, she was right.
It was not just one or two guys. More than half her club liked her.
If she went around to each of them and said, “I do not like you,” would that not make her look like a crazy bitch?
Besides, were they not good friends on the surface?
“To be honest, they are really good friends. But as romantic partners, they feel a little overwhelming. And we have not known each other long enough for it to become love...”
She had a point.
I was not going to deny love at first sight, but hoping the person you had fallen for at first sight would like you back was clearly greedy.
And it was not even one person who had fallen for her. It was several.
Pretending not to know when she did know they liked her would be stringing them along, but accepting every confession would just make her a complete bitch.
“Maybe, after more time passes, I could come to like someone. But not now. That is why I cannot ask someone like that to play my fake boyfriend...”
In other words, there was no one better suited for this than me, someone who was not going to fall for her and who, if anything, hated this sort of thing.
“So, this is a little embarrassing to say...”
Ahem.
Daisy cleared her throat softly and looked off into the distance.
“You will not fall for me, right?”
“...”
The romance-fantasy heroine in our world really was trash, no matter how I looked at it.
* * *
Now that I had realized Daisy was far from the romance-fantasy heroine I had imagined, I could not be sure what would happen if I simply sent her away.
“Let us hear you out first.”
I had no choice but to sit at the negotiation table.
“Thank you. The only people I know well enough to ask something like this are you, Adam, and Bellian. But I think Bellian would just run away.”
For a moment, I wondered who Bellian was, then remembered it was the name of the narrow-eyed club president.
Well, Bellian was the only person in the Flower Arrangement Club who actually arranged flowers.
If the leader of a group project got chased off by a wave of confessions, the remaining club time was bound to become a complete mess.
“Is there no one else?”
“The guys I am close enough to ask... are all club members. So if you do not accept, Adam, I will inevitably have to ask Ellen.”
“...”
“Ah, this is technically a threat! But I am not saying it just to threaten you. If you were not around, Adam, I really would have asked Ellen.”
What was that supposed to mean?
“Why?”
“Well... Ellen is comparatively the furthest from me.”
After hearing her explanation, I realized this was not Violet’s fault. It was mine.
I had stubbornly kept Ellen away from every important event, including those in the Holy Kingdom. Ironically, that meant he had the least narrative buildup, making him the male lead candidate best suited to be a fake boyfriend.
“Is there not Gerard too?”
I brought up the name of the Border Margrave’s son, one of the nobodies from the original story alongside Ellen, according to Tinky Winky.
“Ah! Gerard is third priority.”
Sadly, he was third.
“...”
Should I take this as my efforts finally being rewarded?
“So, will you do it?”
On the outside, she looked exactly like a romance-fantasy heroine as she stared at me with sparkling eyes. Inside, she was nothing but a terrorist from an academy story.
A romance-fantasy heroine was holding someone hostage and threatening to blow things up if I did not cooperate with her terrorism.
“Stop looking at me like that. If you keep looking at me like that...”
“Like what?”
“I might fall for you.”
“Wonderful. Then you will play my boyfriend, right?”
I thought she would refuse if I said I might fall for her.
Apparently, that would not work on a quick-witted terrorist.
“You hate it that much?”
“Yes. Isn’t it a little much to ask someone who hates this sort of thing?”
“To be honest, that just makes my heart flutter more. It feels fresh.”
Damn Tinky Winky. What the hell had she made?
Daisy smoothly dodged every one of my attempts, and I eventually had no choice but to raise the white flag.
This little bastard was serious. If I said I would not do it, she really would ask Prince Ellen, the next in line.
No, she was a bitch.
“Let us make it one month.”
That was why I immediately moved on to negotiations.
No matter how formidable a romance-fantasy heroine was, she could not defeat someone who had signed a contract with the royal family at ten years old.
“Until break. If it only lasts a month, people will take the relationship lightly and keep coming after me.”
“Then until midterms. Since we are in different departments, we can say we broke up because we were too busy with exams to meet.”
“Absolutely until break. If necessary, I am even willing to transfer departments.”
“...Really?”
“I have been getting plenty of requests to transfer out of the Swordsmanship Department since before break.”
I had made the request myself, but it seemed the Sword Emperor had promoted the idea more than I expected.
“And the rumors from the Holy Kingdom... have become far more exaggerated than I thought. Even if I transfer now, I think everyone will understand.”
I had heard the rumors too.
They seemed different depending on the region, but unlike in the Leon Kingdom, the Academy’s most famous rumor was that Daisy had split the sky.
There were others too...
“The Sword of Light reached the heavens and split the sky. The Goddess rained down swords of light to judge the fallen. And you cut down a thousand Holy Knights in a single strike, right?”
When all the information spreading across the continent, obtained through the Intelligence Bureau, was put together, it created that kind of absurd legend.
If that were true, why would anyone even become a swordsman?
They should become a Holy Knight.
“Ah, n-no, that is...”
She seemed to think so too. Her face turned red as she shouted.
“Most of that is exaggerated, so do not actually believe it.”
“Most?”
Then did that mean some of it was true?
I remembered all the effort I had put in to beat even Ellen once.
...Why had I learned swordsmanship? I was starting to feel miserable and pathetic.
“A-Anyway! What matters right now is that we will be dating until break, so just understand that!”
“Understand what? I said we should only do it until midterms.”
“You do not have a girlfriend anyway! We only need the rumor to last for half a year! I will not expect anything else from you!”
“No, the rumor is the problem.”
“Ah, is there someone you like? I heard you have been seeing Violet often lately, so surely...”
The way she widened her eyes and covered her mouth was truly infuriating.
If this had been yesterday, no, even this morning, I might have misunderstood and thought she genuinely believed that.
“You know that is not true, and you are saying it anyway, are you not?”
“You are pretending it is not!”
The way she kept subtly getting under my skin made it obvious who she had learned it from.
* * *
The negotiations went on longer than I expected.
Daisy ignored everything a romance-fantasy heroine was supposed to uphold, yet she had retained the romance-fantasy heroine’s unshakable resolve.
What did that mean?
“Then until winter break.”
She absolutely refused to give in on the duration.
That bitch Daisy also knew far too well that she had the advantage in this negotiation.
When I refused to yield, she immediately declared a year and a half.
In other words, she threatened that if I did not give in, she would fake-date Ellen until next year.
“But you have to keep the conditions properly.”
“Of course.”
I did manage to pile on all the other conditions.
First, she had to tell the romance-fantasy male leads, including Prince Ellen.
In other words, everyone in the Flower Arrangement Club had to be told beforehand that we were fake dating.
And the second condition was...
“I never knew my first boyfriend would be so jealous!”
“Ha...”
During our fake relationship, she had to minimize contact with Prince Ellen.
I had added that condition so I could at least think of this as work, but seeing her grin as if she had gotten hold of a wonderful weakness made me regret bringing it up.
“But you have to listen to my condition too.”
“Fine. Just tell me at least a week ahead of time. I have my own schedule.”
Her condition was the right to request one date per month.
She called it a date, but it meant that whenever there was some bothersome event, she would use me as a scarecrow to chase men away.
I was a punching bag to the men, and now I was a scarecrow to a woman.
I was already worried about how the Commander would react.
* * *
Rumors traveled quickly at the Academy.
That remained true during break, even on a Saturday.
It was break, but plenty of students were already attending the Academy.
Some Academy classes were difficult for an ordinary person to keep up with unless they were a genius.
Professors or teaching assistants sometimes held private lessons in unused classrooms during break.
Even when that was not the case, people often attended classes as an excuse to meet others and build connections.
“Where have you been?”
“Ah, well...”
Smiling brightly, Daisy thought,
‘Who is this?’
Even before becoming the Saintess, strangers often acted familiar with her because of her Flower Arrangement Club friends.
After she became the Saintess, that number rapidly increased.
Ever since returning from the Holy Kingdom, most people at the Academy had acted close to her. That was not anything new.
It still felt awkward to Daisy when someone whose face she did not remember acted familiar with her.
‘But people like this would be better for spreading the rumor, right?’
Without any hesitation, Daisy said,
“The new semester at the Academy is coming up, so I went and confessed to someone I like.”
“...What?”
The aftershock of the nuclear bomb she had dropped in the Holy Kingdom had not even faded yet.
And she had dropped another massive nuclear bomb at the Academy.
The Author’s Note
More illustrations are planned for the future.
The person drawing the illustrations is also a reader, so I am extorting illustrations from them by threatening to go on hiatus if they do not give me any.
From now on, whenever you see a hiatus notice, you can think, “The illustrator slave did not provide an illustration, so they are on hiatus!” and leave a comment on the illustrator’s Twitter.
P.S. After writing Daisy’s “He’s my boyfriend” at the end of Chapter 42, I thought:
Wow, it would be hilarious to go on hiatus here.
Fortunately, I only thought about it and did not do it.
Footnotes:
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