WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈
Chapter 52: Two-Timing (1)
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The morning was peaceful.
With the whimpering bitch, no, Bell, serving as my alarm, I scooped human food into a dog bowl.
I skipped the training grounds because of the festival. Instead, I watched the poor breadwinner sleeping curled up in a corner of the clubroom while receiving the interrogation results from the Dark Mages caught yesterday.
Classes were officially still on, but the professor had naturally canceled them, so I went with the tide of students singing their praises and wandered through the streets of stalls.
Unlike in my previous life, I now had enough money to enjoy getting ripped off as part of the festival mood. I even bought a tornado potato, despite having no idea why an Academy full of nobles was selling them.
Then I spotted a crowd gathered in the distance, as if there were some kind of parade. I looked to see what was happening, saw Daisy at the front, and ran away at full speed.
That was how I’d been enjoying the festival.
“Should I watch the swordsmanship tournament this afternoon?”
I’d already met my Dark Mage quota yesterday, so I was just deciding to rest easy today in preparation for tomorrow’s hellish date.
“Oh.”
A crowd had gathered at a café some distance away.
It was nothing on Daisy’s parade scale, so I could tell who they were even from here.
“Senior Lorellia and the Flame-Slinger.”
People who looked like Senior Lorellia’s followers surrounded the two familiar figures.
I casually slipped into the crowd to see what they were discussing.
“I think you should give it a try. You still have a chance.”
“R-Really?”
“Of course. You should take a chance while the mood is right. When else will you?”
That was unexpected.
Since the two were together, I’d guessed it was about romance, but I hadn’t expected them to discuss it so openly in front of so many people.
“Don’t you all think so too?”
Senior Lorellia even asked the people around her. It made me realize that the romance-fantasy world was more open-minded than I’d thought.
“That’s right. Since ancient times, the Founding Festival has been a storied season for fostering couples at the Academy. If you don’t take a chance now, when will you?”
“I agree. Especially since the Magic Department is holding several events starting today, including the Magic Battle. Why not ask them to watch it together?”
Senior Lorellia’s followers showered the Flame-Slinger with encouragement.
Perhaps it gave her confidence, because her eyes sparkled.
“Uh?”
Then she met my eyes and stared at me, her own wide open.
“Oh my.”
Senior Lorellia looked at me for a moment too.
“I was just about to come find you.”
Her eyes curved beautifully as she smiled.
...I should’ve run then.
“Why are you asking me too, Senior?”
After dismissing her followers, Senior Lorellia said she had something to discuss and asked me on a date as though she’d already assigned me the task.
“We’re close, aren’t we? Can’t I ask you for a favor like this?”
The women around me had gotten pretty shameless lately.
“...I don’t think so?”
Senior Lorellia glanced away at my answer and muttered softly.
“I knew it.”
She’d acted shamelessly, but thankfully, she still had a conscience.
“Senior Lorellia is asking you!”
The Flame-Slinger, who seemed halfway to becoming one of her followers, growled with her brows drooping sadly.
She really did look like a typical romance-fantasy villainess’s follower.
“Quiet. Go prepare for your own date. Keep that up and you’ll get rejected again.”
“Urk!”
Someone who’d never even been on a date had no business sticking their nose into someone else’s dating life.
“Also, Senior, explain why we have to go on a date.”
“Hmm. Well.”
Senior Lorellia scratched her cheek as she considered it, then concisely explained why she needed a date.
“First, my house has settled on a course. We’ll maintain the mainstream faction’s position and break off my engagement to Prince Essid. But...”
There was one difference from before.
The imperial family had learned about it as well.
“The fault lies with Prince Essid, so the imperial family seems to understand the broken engagement.”
Yet there were people who couldn’t accept the engagement being broken off even when the imperial family and ducal house had agreed to it.
“The faction opposing the broken engagement has been causing trouble for all sorts of reasons.”
It was ridiculous that there were bastards opposing an agreement reached by the imperial family and a ducal house.
But something else was even more ridiculous.
“Senior, what does that have to do with dating me?”
No matter how I thought about it, there was no reason in that story for us to go on a date.
“Well, the reason is...”
Senior Lorellia pursed her lips as she considered how to explain it.
“Some of those opposing it claim... that the problem is that I lack charm.”
“...What?”
What kind of bullshit was that?
“They dress it up in other words, but to put it simply, they say Prince Essid fell for a woman already dating another man because I wasn’t charming enough.”
Was it just me?
Senior Lorellia was smiling as she said it, but she looked...
No, she looked very angry.
“A-Are you angry?”
So it wasn’t my imagination.
The Flame-Slinger seemed to have had the same thought, staring with round eyes as she spoke. Senior Lorellia tilted her head for a while, then nodded.
“A little?”
She definitely didn’t look only a little angry.
“Anyway, that got me thinking. What would be the best way to shut those people up?”
The answer was obvious.
“Why does that mean dating me...?”
“First, it would prove that I can seduce a man whenever I want.”
She was more shameless than I thought.
“Second, that man would officially be the Saintess’s man, the one who made Prince Essid fall for her.”
She was even publicly declaring her intention to NTR the Saintess, seemingly ready to properly embrace her original role as a romance-fantasy villainess.
“Lastly, you’re an expert, aren’t you?”
I was already in a fake relationship, so surely I could handle a fake date too.
That was what Senior Lorellia seemed to be saying. I narrowed my eyes at her.
“You’re making me sound like complete trash.”
“...So it really won’t work?”
“Do you think it would?”
“It really won’t?”
“Of course not.”
Senior Lorellia sagged as though dejected, then let out a deep sigh.
“There’s no one else I can ask for something like this.”
“There were a lot of people around earlier.”
They’d mostly been women, but there had been a few men as well.
If she asked them, they probably wouldn’t refuse.
“Those people tend to have loose lips. And taking the place beside me requires more courage than you’d think.”
She was still engaged to royalty.
Senior Lorellia muttered that, then looked at me with a resigned expression.
“I’m sorry for saying something unnecessary and making you worry.”
She said it had only been a passing thought, so I shouldn’t take it too seriously.
That should’ve been the end of the little incident.
So why...
“This is the person I’ve been seeing lately.”
Didn’t we settle this earlier?
When I looked down at her like that, Senior Lorellia gave me an apologetic smile.
A shameless smile asking me to play along.
“...”
Senior Lorellia suddenly hooked her arm through mine.
I hadn’t thought she was like that, but I realized something then.
This Senior really hated losing.
* * *
After parting ways with Senior Lorellia and the Flame-Slinger, I carried out my original plan.
What did that mean?
“Here, the Little Sword Emperor proves the reputation known across the continent!”
“Asran has won eighteen matches in a row! Incredible! Even after so many consecutive battles, his overwhelming skill shows why he is called the Little Sword Emperor!”
I was watching Asran’s matches.
“Not bad.”
I chewed popcorn as I watched Asran rack up his eighteenth consecutive victory.
When Violet had talked about the original story, I’d said I would raise him.
At the Academy, I’d actually crossed swords with Asran even more often than Prince Ellen.
I’d been busy lately, so I felt a little bad about making him auto-grind with a magic sword. Still, seeing him soar compared to when we first met made me oddly proud.
“Is this how the other Instructors feel?”
The other senior Instructors must have felt this way about their charges.
I’d been assigned to Prince Ellen, who leveled up all by himself, so even when my prince grew stronger, all I could think was, How am I supposed to catch up to that...?
Thanks to Asran, I felt a little vicarious satisfaction.
Which was why...
“Should I put him through an ordeal here?”
I hadn’t planned to, but I suddenly felt like entering the tournament.
The Commander said that dropping someone from the highest point made them want to grow stronger.
“Still, I’ll let him enjoy himself for now.”
That thought only lasted a moment.
It was better to let him collect some titles here, like a proper romance-fantasy male lead.
“I’m out of popcorn.”
I’d bought the largest size, but it was already gone.
What should I eat next?
I stood and was about to head for the stalls.
“So, you want to challenge the Little Sword Emperor?”
“That level of skill looks manageable enough for me, doesn’t it, Sister?”
I heard one familiar voice and one unfamiliar voice.
When I turned my head, Senior Lorellia stood there looking dumbfounded beside a man with an irritating face.
“Yes, Young Master.”
“You’ll be facing him from next year anyway. It would be good experience to face him now.”
Judging from the words of the men who looked like his escorts, he seemed to be someone entering the Academy next year.
“Is that bastard the villain?”
His face did look exactly like a villain’s.
...Though judging people by appearance was meaningless when the Flower Arrangement Club president looked like the mastermind behind all masterminds!
Still, considering Tinky Winky’s spoilers about next year’s story and Senior Lorellia’s talk about the branch family, that bastard had to be the villain.
“I can already see it.”
He would challenge the Little Sword Emperor here, get utterly crushed, then enroll at the Academy next year.
He would develop hostility toward Asran, pick fights with the romance-fantasy group, and get thoroughly schooled.
Senior Lorellia had said his family wielded considerable influence among the branch houses, making them troublesome.
Compared to the Flower Arrangement Club members, though, he was just a greenhorn.
“This should be fun.”
To prepare for watching him get utterly crushed by Asran, I obviously needed more popcorn.
I abandoned Senior Lorellia, who was holding her forehead like she had a headache, and turned toward the stalls.
“By the way, Sister.”
“I am not your sister.”
“When can I meet this lover you mentioned before?”
“...”
At that moment, I cursed my physical abilities, which had become close to superhuman.
I reacted to the sound and turned my head slightly.
“Ah.”
I met Senior Lorellia’s eyes as she bit her lip.
“There he is.”
Senior Lorellia, more shameless than I’d expected, caught me again.
Author’s Note
I dozed off for a moment and nearly missed an update.
Thankfully, a damned mosquito woke me up and saved me.
Not that I’m grateful... Drop dead, you bastard mosquito.
PS1. The images are setting art.
Of course, I didn’t devise them myself. I threatened my friend who draws the illustrations into giving me illustrations.
But setting art is setting art, and illustrations are illustrations, so the moment I got them, I started demanding illustrations too.
As a side note, the illustrator said they liked Lorellia from her first appearance, so I’ve been threatening to kill Kim Lorel if they don’t provide illustrations and extorting art from them.
If Lorellia dies, please assume she died because the illustrator wouldn’t give me illustrations.
PS2. Many people have been curious because there aren’t many tags. The reason is simply that I don’t want to think too hard about what tags to use, so I keep them as simple as possible.
As another side note, this novel contains far more improvised elements than you might think.
It nearly became a No Romance story, but after seeing the Gomsudal Lunchbox Incident story, I realized, “Wow, I really did like romance,” and increased the romance content.
Gomsudal is legendary for awakening romance cells that didn’t even exist.
PS3. By the time this goes up, I might hit one million... Should I do something like a Q&A to celebrate?
If nobody has any questions, I’ll just move on.
Footnotes:
Gomsudal is a nickname for a streamer pairing. [reference](https://namu.moe/w/%EA%B3%A0%EC%88%98%EB%8B%AC)
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