WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈
Chapter 61: Your Name (2)
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“I’ve been defiled...”
As Bell muttered weakly, as if she had given up on everything, I looked at Violet.
“Finally, a GL drift...”
I always thought it might happen someday, but who knew it would be today?
“Shut up. Go put her back in her room.”
Violet frowned deeply, clearly not in the mood for jokes, so I took the dog back to the dormitory.
“So, what is it?”
Why was she suddenly putting on such a serious expression?
“She’s a mid-boss.”
“How strong?”
“Just below Silence?”
We could have handled that.
“She didn’t look like it at all.”
That bitch had been panting and pretending to be a dog, and she was actually a vicious romance-fantasy villain?
What the hell had happened...
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, the Dark Mages had been sacrificing innocent people to try to do something.
After failing again and again, they had struggled desperately, and Ellen, one of the romance-fantasy male leads, ended up being controlled.
“Our little bitch was that strong?”
“Never get involved in naming your kids after you get married. What’s with calling her a little bitch?”
After grumbling at me, Violet explained Bell’s role in the original story, along with an important piece of information that still mattered even though the original had been thoroughly wrecked.
“She might look like that, but she’s the Wolfkin warrior captain’s daughter.”
“No wonder she’s strong.”
A warrior captain was roughly equivalent to a knight commander among humans.
If Bell’s parent was the warrior captain of the Wolfkin, one of the more influential beastkin factions, it made sense that she claimed to know a princess.
“What happened in the original?”
“To save Bell, the Wolfkin and other beastkin joined them. But they never managed to break the mind control, and she died.”
“Wow.”
We really were her lifesavers.
“So what should we do?”
“The study trip? I think we should take her with us for now. Most places called forbidden are inhabited by other races. She said there was another beastkin village there.”
I nodded at Violet’s suggestion that it would be good to build connections in advance if we could.
“But what the hell did you do to leave her looking completely wrecked?”
“I just told her to transform into her human form and checked her body to make sure.”
“...”
“Aren’t you going to lower your eyes?”
Violet snapped at my subtle look.
“My vacation’s over.”
“...”
Tinky Winky realized that she, not I, was the one who should lower her eyes.
* * *
Having confirmed that our little dog was actually SSR-ranked, I had no choice but to put her on a leash and keep her instead of abandoning her.
So the first thing I did was this.
“Uncle, the dog I found a while ago is the Wolfkin warrior captain’s daughter, and beastkin are going to visit the Academy. I’m planning to take her on the study trip for now, so tell them to come there when the beastkin delegation arrives.”
Aryn, whose dark circles were getting worse as the study trip drew closer, blinked about fifteen times after hearing me. After thinking for a long time, he sighed.
“Did I fall asleep?”
It felt like he had just had some weird dog dream.
To Aryn, who muttered that to himself, I said it again.
“Uncle, the dog I found a while ago is the Wolfkin warrior captain’s daughter, and beastkin are going to visit the Academy. I’m planning to take her on the study trip for now, so tell them to come there when the beastkin delegation arrives.”
“You son of a bitch! What the hell does that even mean?!”
“What do you mean? I’m raising a dog, and the dog’s family is coming to find her, so I’m asking you to tell them where to find the dog...”
“She’s not a dog?!”
“She imitates a dog herself, so isn’t it right to treat her like one?”
“Argh!”
I watched Aryn slam his head onto the desk.
Thank goodness.
At least he still had all his hair.
“Slowly. Only answer what I ask.”
“Yes.”
“You said you found this dog a while ago, right? When did you find her?”
“During break, when I was coming back. I think I mentioned it.”
“You bastard. What were we doing while you were enjoying a comfortable vacation in the Leon Kingdom?”
“Working.”
“Yeah, working! In the Holy Kingdom! Getting dragged into that dogshit incident!”
Rather than getting dragged into it, had not their problem children volunteered themselves?
“Ah...”
“Dogshit...”
Other people were suffering from PTSD too, so I decided to stay quiet.
“I got called all over the place after I came back because of that. Do you think I’d remember you picked up a dog?”
“Why does the past matter? What matters is now.”
“Ha... Fine. Let’s move on. So this dog is the Wolfkin warrior captain’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“I only found out this morning.”
“...”
He looked like he had a fucking lot to say, but was holding it in.
I understood, but I felt a little wronged.
I really had only found out this morning.
“...Fine. Moving on. Beastkin are going to visit the Academy?”
“I sent word while I was in the kingdom, but they’re pretty far away, so I guess the message took a long time to reach them.”
“Right. Beastkin may have sorcerers, but they don’t have mages. They need to use primitive methods to communicate, so it takes time.”
Aryn nodded, then suddenly stopped.
“Hey, wait. If the Leon royal family sent word, couldn’t Leon just handle this? Why are beastkin coming all the way to the Academy?!”
“She said she didn’t want to go. She said she doesn’t listen to anyone weaker than her.”
“Then you, someone stronger, should’ve ordered her to go!”
“I already tried. She said not listening to someone weaker than her didn’t mean she’d listen to someone stronger.”
“How is there someone else just like you...?”
What did he mean, someone like me?
That was a ridiculous accusation.
“So you’re taking her on the study trip? Why?”
“She said there’s a beastkin tribe she knows there.”
At that, Aryn looked at Taylor.
“There are two beastkin tribes and an elven village near Rias.”
Taylor nodded, confirming that Bell had been telling the truth.
“You’re in charge of the Empire, and you didn’t know that?”
“I specialize in the imperial capital. It’s more efficient to leave external intelligence to external agents.”
“No wonder the Academy gets breached every time...”
“You think Rias will be any different?!”
“You sound like you’re praying for it to get breached?!”
The two imperial agents started arguing over my one comment.
According to Violet, more supporting characters would be added next year.
There would probably be more people here too.
I thought it would be fun if more imperial people joined us, so I could watch a three-way or four-way fight.
“Well, fine. You want me to tell the beastkin who arrive about this? That’s easy.”
After huffing at Taylor for a while, Aryn nodded more readily than expected and agreed to do me the favor.
“It was that easy?”
“Yeah. It’s so absurd that reporting it is hard. Entertaining beastkin who come looking for someone is easy.”
“Really?”
I had never met any beastkin other than Bell, but the beastkin I had heard about through rumors did not sound easy to deal with.
No, Bell herself was already a difficult bitch to handle.
“Really.”
Unlike usual, Aryn smiled broadly.
“It’s not like I’m the one dealing with them.”
Apparently, he planned to dump the work on someone else.
* * *
Tap. Tap. Click.
Watching coffee drip into a glass, the green-haired woman took off her glasses and set them on her desk.
“They should be arriving soon.”
With a deep sigh, she untied her hair and leaned back in her soft chair.
She ran her fingers through hair that had gone unwashed for days and let out another quiet sigh.
“At least things should be quiet for a while now.”
She looked about the same age as the Academy students.
Yet in truth, she was a Grand Mage who used magic to suppress her aging as much as possible, and the Director of an Academy personally managed by the imperial family.
Joan Helias.
Having sent the first-years on their study trip, Joan had not slept for nearly a week. She maintained her skin with mana as she lifted freshly brewed coffee to her lips.
“I’m sick of coffee now. I want something sweet. Once I send this to the imperial family, I’ll finish all my work before noon, leave early, and sleep like a corpse all day...”
At the level of a Grand Mage, one could use mana to maintain superhuman mental strength and go without sleep for about a week.
Being able to do it did not mean anyone wanted to.
“I’m taking a vacation. Those fucking imperial family bastards brought in all those old people because they wanted to show off how great the Empire was. They were thrilled when royalty from other countries showed up, but when the Academy gets breached, suddenly it’s all my fault. I told them to spend some money preparing beforehand.”
Should one admire Joan as a Grand Mage if they saw her holding a cup of coffee in both hands and sipping it while using magic to process dozens of documents at once?
Or should they lament that she used those abilities for something like this?
“They give me a pathetic budget, then expect everything. And when we get breached, it’s my responsibility again. Screw it, let’s raise it. If they refuse, then when we get breached later, I’ll blame the bastard who cut the budget.”
The Academy maintenance budget was gaining another zero, but Joan did not care in the slightest.
“I hope Rias gets breached too. I hope all the bastards at the Academy go there instead.”
Muttering something similar to Aryn, Joan finished her coffee, put down the cup, and clapped her hands.
Clap!
Mana spread from Joan’s body, and the sheets of paper floating in the air multiplied from dozens to nearly a hundred.
“...”
Her red eyes turned toward the floating papers.
It did not even take one second to check the countless words written on them.
With a quick glance, she checked every detail. Her official seal flew through the air and stamped the papers.
Unnecessary documents, or those needing revisions, were returned to one corner of the desk.
The stamped documents were neatly placed on the other side.
After finishing work that would have required dozens of people in such a short time, Joan jumped to her feet and stretched.
“I’m done!”
Just as she shed tears of both joy and sorrow after finishing all her work...
“Going home...”
“Director!”
No one can stop me from going home!
The moment she adopted that mindset, the door opened without a knock, and Joan’s eyes trembled wildly.
“The imperial family?”
Even though she treated her secretaries casually, there was no idiot who took her kindness for granted.
Or rather, it was more accurate to say she had made sure none existed.
“No!”
So she had thought the imperial family had caused some new bullshit, but apparently not.
“Then Leon? Dale? Or another country?”
Had some diplomatic incident occurred? Damn it, what was it this time?
Joan frowned at the countless possibilities flashing through her mind.
“Not that either!”
Then there was only one possibility left.
“Did something happen in Rias?!”
Something had happened while the first-years on their study trip were nearing their destination!
“Not that either!”
“Then what is it?!”
If it wasn’t any of those, I’ll kill you for keeping me from going home.
Joan glared at the secretary with that resolve.
“Beastkin have arrived. They said you would understand if we told you the Wolfkin warrior unit had come?!”
“...How would I know that?”
Why were you people here?
Joan wore a blank expression as she received a report from an Intelligence Bureau agent stating that beastkin were expected to arrive.
That happened two hours later.
Author’s Note
I formed an encirclement and annihilation formation, prepared myself, and went into battle.
But the war changed genres. It became a mystery rather than a victory or defeat.
That’s right.
I searched every room, but didn’t find even a cockroach corpse.
Was the one I shot down in the living room yesterday the same one that had appeared in my room?
Was the shadow I saw yesterday simply fear created by the cockroach in my imagination?
Or was it hiding somewhere, still alive, setting up a hatchery and expanding to another base?
All I can do is prepare thoroughly for a future invasion.
Footnotes:
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