WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈
Chapter 73: While Everyone Sleeps (3)
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“Ugh, this is exhausting.”
Getting separated from Daisy so suddenly had put me on an unexpected time limit.
If all the divine power in my body ran out, I couldn’t guarantee I’d win either.
So I drew aggro by waving around my I-Caught-Silence-d’Or trophy, then dealt with anyone who looked like they were about to try something.
Fortunately, I defeated all the enemies in phase one without moving on to phase two.
“But why hasn’t a single person come?”
There should have been Imperial agents watching Daisy and me.
Yet not one had come to support me.
Of course, it made more sense for them to stick with the missing romance-fantasy group rather than me.
You could see it as proof that they trusted me that much.
Still, they could have left at least one agent behind to clean up.
“This is kind of hurtful.”
Uncle Aryn, I didn’t think you were like this.
As I grumbled and looted the enemies’ corpses, I was about to go look for Prince Ellen and Daisy.
Bang.
“Huh?”
Bang! Bang!
“Wait.”
Something translucent was blocking my way.
“So Uncle didn’t just abandon me.”
I poured mana into my sword.
Pushing myself pretty hard, I compressed it to the limit and brought my sword down.
Clang!
“...”
But even my full-powered strike did nothing.
“No wonder it was so easy.”
Tinky Winky had said that Dark Mages with exceptional close-combat ability were rare among named characters.
That was why Silence had appeared so often, like a civil servant, until he died.
Other than Silence, Bell was supposedly at the level of a quasi-civil servant, but she was fine now.
Until Demonkin appeared, she had said most enemies capable of close combat were nothing special.
When I asked why, she said,
“The obvious reason is that they’re Dark ‘Mages.’ Why would mages be good at close combat?”
“And the not-so-obvious reason?”
“Obviously, it’s because of the story. The leads in the early parts are Prince Essid and Little Sword Emperor Asran, whose combat power isn’t that great.”
In short, the enemies had to be dealt with at Asran’s level, so strong enemies couldn’t appear early on. I had no choice but to agree.
That was why I hadn’t questioned why the sword-wielding bastards were weaker than expected.
I had beaten them before they could pull off something like a second transformation.
Who knew they’d stab me in the back like this?
“I don’t know magic.”
Clang! Clang!
I repeatedly struck the translucent boundary with my sword, but it didn’t even get scratched.
“Ha.”
How was I supposed to get out of here?
* * *
#Daisy - First Strike Wins.
The sudden appearance of my club friends had already been confusing enough.
But when black energy surrounded us, all I could do was...
“Hup!”
I gathered as much divine power as I could from the hand that had held Adam’s.
More precisely, from the hand that had shared divine power with him.
Then I threw a punch.
“Daisy?!”
My club friends looked startled, but there was no time to answer.
The instant my fist touched the black energy, a sharp sensation ran through it.
Crackle!
So I poured even more divine power into my fist, and the black energy reacted against it.
“Hup!”
When I put more strength into it, the black energy gradually began to disappear.
Just as I thought, sinister energy could not defeat the power bestowed by the Goddess!
“Phew.”
I let out a sigh and looked for Adam, who had been a short distance away.
“Huh?”
The scenery around me had changed.
What was going on?
As I looked around to assess the situation, I saw people running toward us in a panic from far away.
“How did you interrupt the forced transfer?!”
They wore black robes.
Anyone could see how suspicious they looked as they rushed toward us, their voices full of shock.
They were probably the enemies.
When we read fairy tales as children, Violet used to say this.
If people who looked like that were not enemies, that was a crime.
So I drew my sword without hesitation.
And I offered a prayer to the Goddess as a bonus.
‘Goddess, please allow me to be a righteous swordfighter today as well!’
The Goddess immediately answered me.
-Our Daisy, do whatever you want!
I poured the explosively increased divine power filling my entire body into my sword.
“Phew.”
Without divine power, the sword would not function properly, so no one could use it without my permission.
But as long as I filled it with divine power, this sword displayed enough strength to astonish even the Sword Emperor and Adam.
I entered battle mode, and just before the fight began...
“Daisy. What’s going on?”
Essid still had not grasped the situation.
He looked very confused, so I explained it briefly and simply.
“They’re Cultists.”
“What?”
“I think the Dark Mages are just an extra.”
“What does that...?”
Instead of trying to persuade the confused Essid, I stood in front of him with my sword raised.
“Be careful.”
I had originally been told that I only needed to act as bait and then leave.
But the person who had said that had disappeared after abandoning his lover.
...More accurately, it seemed like I had been transferred away.
But that was a minor issue.
“If you’re going to take responsibility, you should do it properly.”
My lips naturally pushed out into a small pout, but what came from my mouth was a magic chant.
Violet had told me something when we were young.
-First, if they’re definitely enemies...
“Don’t hesitate. Hit them first.”
Its name was First Strike Wins.
When I asked what that meant, she said it meant that if you hit first, you always win.
“Kill them!”
“You idiot! We’re supposed to capture them alive!”
Once we attacked first, the other side began to fight back.
My club friends looked flustered, but they steadily started fighting back.
Violet had told me this too.
In an emergency, persuading people took a long time.
But when death was right in front of them, they would struggle to survive without needing persuasion.
As expected of Violet.
Our Vi is rarely wrong.
“Hup!”
I blocked the incoming magic with my sword.
Then part of the mana was torn away and absorbed through the blade.
Having absorbed mana and grown larger, the sword could block the enemy’s magic more easily.
Of course, since our opponents were Dark Mages, the absorbed mana contained demonic energy.
But the divine power within the sword kept that energy from reaching me.
As I continued growing the sword with pure mana...
“There!”
More people in black clothing appeared behind us.
So, without hesitation, I attacked!
“Aaah! Saintess! We’re not the enemy!”
I could not be fooled.
Violet had told me that Dark Mages stabbed careless enemies after saying things like that...
“Aryn?”
“Your Highness! Please save us!”
But then...
...Sometimes she could be wrong.
* * *
The faster you gave up, the better.
My mana would not run out easily, but the divine power Daisy had given me was different.
I did not know how much I had received.
And I did not know how to use it.
Rather than waste it carelessly, I decided to preserve my strength and look around to assess the situation.
First of all...
“There’s nothing useful.”
I checked the items I had looted from the fallen assassins, but none were related to the barrier.
So I checked places that might have been the center of the barrier.
“I have no idea.”
There was no way a non-specialist like me could tell what was wrong.
“If I knew this would happen, I should’ve brought Violet along.”
She was near the top of the Magic Department and even knew sorcery. She would have been useful in a situation like this.
Since this was not in the original story, I had just left her behind.
She was probably playing with Bell in her room right now.
“The communication orb doesn’t work either, so there’s definitely something going on.”
I put away the communication device linked to Violet and walked for quite a while longer.
The barrier covered a larger area than expected, so it took some time.
“Is this about it?”
After following the edge of the barrier while touching it, I eventually managed to return to my starting point.
“Normally, I’d have to destroy something at the center, or defeat the person who created the barrier from inside or outside.”
I searched thoroughly, but there was no one inside.
I had long since made sure to finish off anything that had once been human, just in case.
Which meant...
“Is this another romance-fantasy development?”
Was I stuck here until the romance-fantasy group elsewhere defeated the boss?!
“But why me?”
Normally, the romance-fantasy heroine was the one who got trapped like this.
Why was someone completely unrelated trapped instead?
“Is this the result of dumping annoying work on someone else?”
If I had not sent Daisy because it was troublesome, and had gone to explain things myself even if it was more complicated, Daisy would be here instead of me.
Judging by their abilities, they were not strong enough for Daisy with a magic sword to lose against.
My suspicion gradually became certainty.
“Ugh.”
Still, their side had gained more fighting power, so they should be able to deal with the enemies more easily.
Thinking that, I lay down roughly on the ground and waited for the barrier to break.
“...”
Something met my gaze in the sky above.
“...”
“...”
I was startled by the rather large red eye floating in the sky.
But it seemed the other side was just as startled.
“I don’t know what you are, but die.”
“Gah!”
I immediately sprang to my feet, kicked off the ground with mana, and leaped up.
Then I filled my sword with divine power and stabbed the eye.
The eye screamed.
“You crazy human bastard! You attack the moment you see someone?!”
“Of course.”
A flying eyeball in the sky.
Unless I was some Dark Mage bastard, it had to be an enemy.
“This is why humans are...!”
The sheer weariness in its voice made me certain that this bastard was not human.
“Then you are...?”
“Yes. My true identity is... You damned bastard! What the hell are you doing all of a sudden?!”
“You’re an enemy, so I’m attacking.”
“Any intelligent being should be capable of conversation! Do you not have any intelligence?!”
“Swordsmen don’t know about that.”
The eyeball tried to introduce itself, but I immediately continued attacking.
Honestly, it did seem like something important.
But I had a feeling that even if I heard its name, I would not know what it was.
I was not Tinky Winky.
I did not know the original story!
“Aaargh!”
Blood tears began to flow from the eye under my repeated attacks.
“You bastard!”
When I tested it by attacking with pure mana alone, it did not take proper damage.
So it was clearly not ordinary.
The flowing blood tears gradually took shape.
Meanwhile, the eyeball shrank until it embedded itself in the face formed from congealed blood.
“The incompetent bastards couldn’t even do their job. I ordered them to trap the Saintess, so where did this crazy bastard come from?”
The eyeball had become an adult man with a few noticeable features.
One was the two horns on his head, proving to anyone that he was not human.
The other was the eyepatch over the eye opposite the one shedding blood tears.
An eyepatch.
Unless it was sealing a Dark Flame Dragon, he had probably lost that eye.
In that case...
“I’ll make you completely blind!”
“You insane human?!”
At my blatant attacks aimed at his remaining eye, he panicked and began to flee.
Author’s Note
My stomach was upset from the morning, so I considered taking the day off.
But the little Sensei inside me whispered to me.
“Hey. Blue Archive’s limited banner and Double Fes start the day after tomorrow.”
I did not have enough saved currency. With tears in my eyes, I could not take a break.
So please let me get everything within one pity.
Footnotes:
In Blue Archive gacha terminology, “one pity” refers to reaching the banner’s guaranteed-reward threshold.
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