WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈
Chapter 48: The Whole World Is Against Me (3)
──────
There was supposedly one date pass per month.
I had told her to let me know in advance, but still!
A date during an event like the Founding Festival?
“Don’t you have a lot to do?”
For one thing, Daisy was an Imperial noble.
On top of that, founding celebrations in every country tended to draw delegates from various religious orders, including the Holy Kingdom.
Even Leon’s Founding Festival had a Cardinal from the Holy Kingdom in attendance.
...Though I heard that Cardinal had been executed after Daisy’s reforms.
Either way, someone like Daisy would be run ragged at an Imperial founding celebration.
She wasn’t in a position to enjoy the carefree days of youth by going on dates.
“I thought so too.”
Daisy said, avoiding my gaze.
That was what she did whenever something was bothering her.
So she did know!
The romance-fantasy male leads would probably think there had to be some reason behind it.
I did too.
Violet might have made her a little shameless, but Daisy wasn’t bad at heart.
She was simply fated to make the people around her suffer because she was the romance-fantasy heroine, whether she meant to or not.
The romance-fantasy male leads would gladly share Daisy’s hardships, but I wasn’t one of them.
I wasn’t a romance-fantasy male lead, and I was the only person Daisy had personally dragged into trouble.
“What is it, exactly?”
My voice couldn’t help coming out curt.
“Um, the Pope is coming from the Holy Kingdom for this Founding Festival.”
“The Pope?”
Even if it was the Empire’s Founding Festival, there was no reason for the Pope to personally visit the Empire.
Her arrival alone would require countless Holy Knights and other personnel from the Holy Kingdom to mobilize.
The Pope was also treated with protocol equivalent to that of a sovereign ruler, so it would inevitably burden the Empire as well.
That told me everything I needed to know.
“Don’t tell me this was the Pope’s unilateral decision?”
“...Yes.”
This wasn’t some politically significant event with a grand secret behind it.
It was simply one of those inexplicable romance-fantasy actions.
The basis for that conclusion was Uncle Aryn’s hair.
If Uncle Aryn knew the Pope was visiting the Empire, there was no way his hair would still be intact.
“The Empire hasn’t officially discussed this yet, right?”
“Probably not.”
“If the Pope doesn’t come, there’s no reason for us to go on a date, right?”
“Yes.”
That brought one skilled professional to mind.
“I’ll try to resolve this first.”
Codename: Tinky Winky.
Deploy.
* * *
Two days passed.
-I’m sorry. I failed.
“Ah.”
Remembering Tinky Winky, who had fled after leaving behind only a single letter, I had no choice but to despair.
“Tinky Winky failed?”
An agent who had boasted a one-hundred-percent success rate had failed.
That meant the Pope’s resolve was just that firm.
“...She’s coming even though she knows it’s fake?”
Daisy said the Pope was coming all the way to the Empire purely because she wanted to see Daisy and me, with Violet as an added bonus.
Somehow, that bonus felt like it carried more weight.
Either way, if things continued like this, I would have to face two major events: a date with Daisy and a meeting with the Pope.
“Emergency! Extreme emergency!”
After school, I kicked open the door to the familiar warehouse.
“W-What is it?”
The Commander and Tinky Winky were used to this, but the other shadows were seeing me like this for the first time and looked flustered.
“The Pope is coming to the Academy!”
“What?”
“What kind of insane nonsense is that...?”
“...Save me.”
While everyone else looked like I was spouting nonsense, only Uncle Aryn wore a despairing expression and muttered for someone to save him.
“Uncle Aryn! Stop her!”
“That’s what I want to ask you! You stop her!”
“It’s the Empire’s business!”
“I have a bad feeling! If you know something even the Imperial Intelligence Bureau doesn’t, that means you heard it directly from Miss Daisy! You’re the culprit, aren’t you?!”
Damn it, he really was an Imperial special agent.
Even in a situation like this, he had immediately gotten close to the truth.
Still, this was a little unfair.
“Daisy is the culprit.”
The Pope being free already and Daisy forcing me to become her fake boyfriend, it was all Daisy’s fault.
Well, if we were getting to the root of things, it was really the snowball Violet had started rolling.
I couldn’t tell him that much, though.
“A couple is one body and soul.”
“Coming from someone with a wife, that’s oddly convincing.”
“...There’s no way a student has a wife!”
He angrily dismissed it as nonsense, but during that moment of silence, the others exchanged looks.
“Just as I thought...”
“If you ask me, he probably has a son and daughter too.”
“Even if he’s loyal to the Empire and the ducal house, he couldn’t work that hard without children.”
“Is that the weight of being a family man?”
At the voices that only pretended to be quiet, Uncle Aryn’s face turned red.
“So why is the Pope coming?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“Just answer me!”
He squeezed his eyes shut and shouted. He looked a little pitiful, so I gave him a brief explanation of the Pope’s plans and reasons for visiting.
“She wants to see the Saintess’s fake boyfriend, and she wants to make the Saintess’s childhood friend a Cardinal.”
Uncle Aryn clutched his head and muttered, “Of course it’s you again...” at the mention of the fake boyfriend. Then his eyes suddenly widened.
“A Cardinal? What are you talking about?”
“You know Violet. Daisy’s friend.”
“Of course I know that! A Cardinal! Why is Violet suddenly becoming a Cardinal?!”
He looked like he genuinely had no idea, so I told him what little I knew.
“Because she caught the Pope’s eye?”
“Why?”
“During the Holy Kingdom incident, Violet was the one who rescued the Pope from the Cardinals.”
“What? Not the Saintess?”
“The Saintess was busy beating up the Cardinals and Holy Knights.”
“I thought she rescued the Pope during all that...”
It seemed the Empire didn’t know the full details of what had happened in the Holy Kingdom.
“But Prince Essid participated too.”
“...His Highness did not say a word about what happened then.”
So he had exercised his right to remain silent. This lot really was something else.
“But didn’t you go there too, Uncle Aryn?”
Not just Uncle Aryn. I knew more than half the people here had gone.
“Back then...”
“Ah...”
“This lousy, unfair job. I ought to quit this lousy, unfair job...”
Uncle Aryn started reminiscing with a distant expression, the Flame-Slinger stared vacantly at the ceiling, and someone who seemed to have been hit by PTSD muttered about quitting a job they couldn’t even quit.
I really was lucky not to have gone.
“Still, why do you know things even we don’t know?”
After muttering for a while, Uncle Aryn suddenly snapped out of it and looked at me suspiciously.
“I heard it from Violet.”
“What? I heard you met often, but don’t tell me you’re two-timing?!”
“What?”
I wasn’t two-timing. I wasn’t even one-timing.
There were things people should and shouldn’t say.
“I said something to someone else last time.”
“W-What was it?”
“I said I’d rather confess to an Imperial Princess than date the Saintess...”
“What?”
“I heard an Imperial Princess is enrolling next year...”
“How do you know that?!”
Uncle Aryn looked horrified, while the others looked fairly surprised as they glanced between us.
“Do you want to see things turn into a complete shitshow?”
I felt bad using an Imperial Princess I didn’t even know, but an Imperial underling had crossed the line, so it couldn’t be helped.
“N-No, you bastard!”
Uncle Aryn cried out at my threat to blow up an Academy that was already a complete mess.
“Then hurry up and stop the Pope from coming out of the Holy Kingdom!”
That was how I achieved my goal.
* * *
Two more days passed.
-I’m sorry. I failed.
Fuck.
* * *
The roots of the Holy Kingdom were rotten.
The Goddess in the heavens always watched over them.
But she only watched.
Some clergy who realized that fact forgot what shame was.
Instead, they began to fall further into corruption, spouting the absurd claim that the Goddess approved of their actions.
Several generations passed.
The office of Cardinal, once a symbol of devotion, became no different from the worldly powers that ruled the land.
Every branch of the tree was rotten, and all the water flowing into it was stagnant and foul.
In the end, it could bear no fruit, and its roots could only continue to rot.
Still, there were people who wished to revive the enormous tree called the Holy Kingdom.
Their numbers were small, and their strength was even weaker.
All they could do was wait for an opportunity that might one day come.
Then that opportunity arrived.
The Cardinals had summoned a young Saintess, who had suddenly appeared, to the Holy Kingdom so they could turn her into their puppet, just as they had done with the Pope.
But the Saintess’s character was far too noble to fall for their temptations.
After confirming the injustice and sins they had committed, she began punishing them without hesitation.
Some of the reformist faction, who had wanted to change the Holy Kingdom, chose to stand and fight alongside the Saintess.
They joined because they believed that if they did not act now, they would never even have another chance for a desperate struggle.
Not everyone thought that way.
It truly was a desperate struggle, and they believed that if everyone fell here, there would be no next opportunity.
That judgment was half right.
There would be no next opportunity.
The Saintess used her incredible connections, overwhelming martial strength and miracles that surpassed even those connections, to subdue every Holy Knight and seize the Cardinals.
Her judgments afterward were perfect as well.
She ordered the execution of Cardinals whose sins were severe, imposed harsh punishments on those who did not deserve death, dismissed some from their offices, and gave those deemed worthy a chance to repent.
She could have become the supreme ruler of the Holy Kingdom, a nation capable of wielding immense influence across the continent, if she had wished.
“Vacation is ending soon.”
With only those words, she left without regret.
She trusted that they could guide the confused Holy Kingdom well.
That was why Cardinal Inas, a member of the reformist faction who had newly become a Cardinal, shed tears and apologized to the Saintess.
“I’m sorry, Saintess.”
Then Inas prayed to the Goddess.
“Goddess, please grant us the power to change the Pope’s mind.”
But it was impossible.
The Pope had no intention of changing her mind.
Even the diplomats of the vast Empire could not persuade her.
Not even Violet’s persuasion could move the Pope, despite the Pope usually trying harder to heed Violet than even the Goddess.
The Pope’s resolve was that firm.
“My first trip ever!”
The Pope’s eyes sparkled as she began cramming things into her luggage.
There was still more than a month before the Founding Festival began.
Still, her heart pounded at the thought of visiting the places where her precious people had been born and now lived.
“This too, and that. This can be a gift too.”
She filled containers with holy water as though she were collecting spring water.
She packed gifts for Violet, Daisy, and the club members who had helped them.
“And.”
There was even the Saintess’s boyfriend.
He was fake, but the Pope knew who he was.
After all...
“He was the person Violet contacted in an emergency... I’m sure of it!”
The Pope recalled a book she had seen in the Holy Kingdom’s secret library, back when the Cardinals had nearly imprisoned her by force.
In a library filled with nothing but boring scriptures, it had been the only romance novel to capture the young girl’s interest.
“A love triangle!”
The magical beast of romance novels was about to pounce on another victim.
Author’s Note
Thank you as always for reading WeTried.
Actually, I was curious about the function, so I tried using it.
My eyes were blurry, so I thought it was [] and wondered why it wasn’t working, but it was {}...
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
