WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈
Chapter 60: Your Name (1)
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There was something I’d seen in an interview with people in the game industry a long time ago.
Overseas game developers, who mostly made console games, apparently threw a celebratory party whenever they finished a project to commemorate the end of it all.
But Korean games were mostly live-service games, so they said that when development ended, that was actually when things began.
It was similar for people like us.
After the festival ended, everyone else was asleep, recovering the energy they’d spent during it.
Because someone had to clean up afterward.
“There appears to be an organization gathering people who harbor resentment toward the Empire.”
At Uncle Aryn’s grave words, everyone turned to look at me.
“What? Why?”
Anyone watching would think I was the leader of that group.
“You don’t know?”
“How would I know?”
Actually, I did.
According to Tinky Winky, Dark Mages stood behind several organizations.
And behind those Dark Mages were Cultists who worshiped Evil Gods.
The Evil God worshipers were probably pulling the strings behind the Dark Mages.
Though according to Tinky Winky, they might be called Evil God worshipers, but they were basically just higher-level Dark Mages.
She said this development came around the end of the Academy arc, so even the Empire probably wouldn’t know about it yet.
Not that anything would change even if they did.
“You really don’t know?”
I nodded at Uncle Aryn’s serious question.
“If I knew, wouldn’t I actually be a spy? Aren’t they just some assholes worshiping Evil Gods or something?”
I tossed out a little hint.
Whether Uncle Aryn and the Empire picked it up was up to them.
“What a shame. If you’d answered, I could’ve arrested you right away.”
Uncle Aryn knew that too, so he was joking... right? Why was he smacking his lips?
“Well, Adam, you made things easier for us.”
At Uncle Aryn’s words, Flame-Slinger’s eyes widened in surprise.
“What did you do this time?”
“I caught Dark Mages for them.”
What did I do, my ass.
“Oh, right?”
Flame-Slinger sounded like they’d forgotten because it was such an obvious thing. Uncle Aryn shook his head.
“Not that. I mean dealing with Silence. I heard it caused some confusion in their chain of command.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, Tinky Winky had called Silence a villain civil servant.
He had enough narrative importance to serve as a villain civil servant, and he was skilled enough to survive no matter how often he showed up.
She had said the enemy wouldn’t easily find someone to fill that gap.
“Isn’t the Empire giving me a performance bonus or something?”
“Stop shaking us down already. We gave you plenty last time!”
“How many Dark Mages did we catch this time?”
“I heard Daisy caught them!”
That was true. If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have handed all the credit to Daisy.
“You people take everything you can get for yourselves.”
“Don’t worry! We got breached again this time, so everyone’s pay got cut!”
“You too, Uncle?”
“Yeah, me too!”
Then there was nothing I could do.
I’d have to work hard to recover that deducted money into my own pocket during the next incident.
Patriotic service through earning foreign currency!
Where else would the Kingdom find a loyal subject like me?
“Since that’s how things are, you should prepare for the study trip ahead of time. If there’s a force targeting the Empire, they won’t leave this trip alone.”
Uncle Aryn spoke of danger with a grave expression, but Flame-Slinger looked utterly unable to understand.
“Then can’t we just not go?”
“I want to do that too! But the Academy Director says we’re going!”
“What a stupid Flame-Slinger.”
“You’re calling me stupid?”
“What a stupid Flame-Slinger who can’t even date.”
“...Sob.”
Flame-Slinger gave me a look that said, What does some swordsman think he is?, but I shut them down immediately and explained what the Academy Director was thinking.
“You don’t understand the Academy Director’s grand plan?”
“What is it? What grand plan could possibly justify sending first-years somewhere dangerous like Rias Territory?”
“What’s wrong with our territory...?”
At Uncle Aryn’s voice, practically begging me to tell him, I gave them the plain truth.
“Wouldn’t the Academy get breached either way?”
“......”
“If getting breached is dangerous anyway, doesn’t the Director just want to dump us on Rias?”
“N-No, even so...”
That’s not it.
Uncle Aryn seemed about to say that, but his head gradually drooped.
“...Could that be it?”
“Breached, my ass! What kind of place do you think Rias is?”
Taylor shouted that Rias was different, but well.
Why did I feel like Rias would have holes all over it, just like the Academy?
“Adam, what’s with that expression?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Who would believe that face!”
You trust the Empire more than you trust my face...? Thankfully, I managed to keep that nasty thought to myself.
* * *
I spent the weekend taking care of a few things in preparation for the study trip.
Then Monday arrived, hated by most people except for a certain yellow sponge.
The Monday immediately after the festival.
The students who had spent so long lazing around were all sluggish at their first class in a while.
“A study trip? To Rias Territory?”
“Isn’t that basically a forbidden territory?”
“We’re really going?”
At the sudden news of the study trip, they started buzzing as though they’d never been sluggish at all.
“Rias is about as dangerous as one of the Kingdom’s forbidden areas, right?”
“Not quite.”
Compared to forbidden areas in the Leon Kingdom, its monsters and dungeons might be more dangerous.
But unlike Leon, which half-abandoned those regions aside from periodically sending knight orders there, the Empire had entrusted Rias Territory to House Rias and kept it managed.
In other words, no matter what anyone said, people lived in House Rias’s territory.
...Or so Taylor had stressed several times.
“Really?”
Prince Ellen looked around with sparkling eyes.
“Then it sounds fun.”
His smile was refreshing, but the Hestia genes contained within it sent a chill down my spine.
No, we were going somewhere only slightly less dangerous than a forbidden area, and he thought it sounded fun?
Naturally, I recalled Princess Hestia’s expression as she left yesterday with Leon’s Academy Exchange Program group.
After getting beaten senselessly in front of the Sword Emperor, she had glared at me with a face full of irritation.
Honestly, Senior Lucia glaring beside her with the most wronged expression in the world had been even scarier.
“There are still two weeks left.”
“Ah, right.”
No matter how irresponsibly the Academy tried to run a romance-fantasy-style study trip, they couldn’t simply leave the students alone.
So they had no choice but to make some preparations.
In general education classes, they began teaching us about Rias Territory, as well as the wild beasts and monsters frequently found nearby.
“Today’s lesson is simple.”
As for Swordsmanship Department class...
“Defeat me.”
The Sword Emperor, the Head Professor, declared that he would beat students up with a sword.
“No!”
He was clearly fighting ten students at once.
Why was mine a one-on-one?
“Wow. Is the fight between Adam and the Sword Emperor actually happening?”
“My heart is swelling with pride...”
“Trash like us would only get in the way.”
“To think we can learn just by watching. Adam really is amazing!”
“Don’t lose! You’re the pride of our Swordsmanship Department!”
“Just help me, you bastards!”
The Sword Emperor beat up the other groups first whenever they acted like that, so why did he leave them alone as if he actually liked it when I was the one fighting?
“Urgh!”
“Adam has fallen.”
“That guy was only the second-in-command of our Swordsmanship Department.”
“But if the second-in-command fell, what are we supposed to do?”
“Get beaten up, obviously.”
Of course, the Sword Emperor only wanted to screw me over.
Apparently, he had no intention of going easy on the other students either. Before long, the people watching were rolling around on the ground like me.
“Next!”
Several days passed with Prince Ellen and the Little Sword Emperor rolling around on the floor too.
“What do I do with this?”
“Pant, pant!”
On Saturday morning, the bitch who woke me... Bell, I mean. I could only frown as I grabbed her front paw and lifted it.
“It’s a little weird to make that face while staring so openly at someone else’s chest, isn’t it?”
This damn dog.
“...You’ve acted like a dog this whole time, so why am I only considered human at times like this?”
Just a moment ago, she’d been sticking out her tongue and panting, but now she was giving me a look in dog form as if I were pathetic.
“You want to look at my chest in human form too? Even if you did save my life, that’s too far...!”
“Fine, abandoning you is the answer.”
I’d been wondering whether I should bring her to Rias Territory.
Now I decided to abandon her near the Academy marketplace instead.
“I’m joking, I’m joking.”
Maybe she sensed my sincerity. She said that, then began panting again as she resumed acting like a dog.
“Ugh.”
She even showed me her belly and whined. A sigh escaped me.
“When exactly are they coming to get you?”
“Hmm. Unlike humans, we have to run here ourselves, so it takes some time.”
“Even so, it’s taking too long.”
“We travel in the middle of the night, so there are a lot of dangers.”
“Why do you travel at night?”
“Because we’d get hunted if we moved around in animal form during the day?”
That was pretty convincing.
“The problem is that they’re way too late!”
“Aaagh! Save the wolf!”
I grabbed her hind legs and shook her with all my anger. Bell screamed.
“Y-You can just bring me with you! You’re going to Rias, right? There’s a tribe I know near there! You can send them word to come there!”
“You said they were coming to the Academy. Who am I supposed to tell?”
“Don’t you know anyone at the Academy?”
“I do. But there’s only one person who knows you’re beastkin.”
“Then tell that person!”
“That one person is coming with us too.”
“Ah-ha?”
Bell nodded stupidly, and I suddenly remembered something I’d forgotten.
“Come to think of it, that person wanted to see you.”
She’d even asked me to tell her Bell’s name, but I had forgotten.
Well, a lot had happened in between. It couldn’t be helped.
“Is it a woman?”
“She is.”
“A woman who shares our secret... I see! Your girlfriend... Aaagh!”
I gave the puppy spouting bullshit a few giant swings.
Since I’d remembered, I decided to show Bell to Tinky Winky today, since I had nothing else to do.
“Her name is... Bell?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Why are you only telling me that now?”
Tinky... no, Violet was giving us a strangely sharp look. Bell and I could only tread carefully around her.
“What is it?”
“......”
She looked like she had a fucking lot to say but was holding it in, so I shut my mouth.
“It’s not certain yet. I’ll take this kid with me.”
“M-Me?”
Bell had even forgotten her dog act, looking as though she were asking if Violet really meant her. Violet nodded expressionlessly.
“You.”
Save me.
Even in dog form, Bell’s expression clearly conveyed what she wanted to say.
“Then I’m taking her?”
“Y-Yeah, go ahead.”
“Yelp!”
The atmosphere reminded me of the time Violet had said someone was about to get their stomach pierced by Silence.
So I ignored Bell’s pleading gaze as Violet held her in her arms.
“Should I go train?”
“Woof! Woof woof!”
Listening to the dog’s nonsense, I headed for the training grounds.
Author’s Note
This happened after I met yesterday’s deadline.
I heard the victorious news that my mother had caught something similar to what I’d seen in the living room.
Then I heard another one had crawled beneath a drawer, so I thought the one in my room must have gotten out...
I couldn’t see the little ones, only the enormous ones. Thankfully, it seemed the ones outside rather than in the house had fled because of the heavy rain.
I thought it would be fine as long as they didn’t lay eggs...
Then, when I went to the bathroom, I saw a black shadow slip behind the desk right next to the entrance.
That’s right. Mr. Roach in my room was still hiding.
After that, I trembled in fear of an imagined gank from Mr. Roach. Every time I sensed something, I couldn’t stay focused and had no choice but to fight the invisible Mr. Roach.
It wasn’t a huge room, but it held thousands of books and all sorts of merchandise. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it had reached the limits of SimCity, so catching Mr. Roach once he was determined to hide was difficult.
The tools I bought at dawn yesterday arrived around eight. I blocked off every escape route and used residual insecticide to prepare an encirclement-and-annihilation formation around where he was hiding.
Once this chapter goes up, the war with Mr. Roach will begin.
Please pray for news of victory.
P.S. I hounded the illustrator and wrung an illustration out of them.
Compared to fighting Mr. Roach, it was very easy.
Footnotes:
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