WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel ◈
Chapter 75: While Everyone Sleeps (5)
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Taylor took great pride in Rias. He could not accept filthy beings setting foot on his homeland.
So, the moment he discovered the heretics, Dark Mages, and their followers, he fought with everything he had.
But how should he describe the scene before him?
Beyond the Dark Mages and heretics who worshiped Evil Gods...
A Demonkin he had only ever heard about in legends stood before him.
‘Why does the Demonkin look pitiful?’
Something utterly incomprehensible was happening.
“...”
He watched the scene unfold before his eyes.
“Graaah!”
The Demonkin, pierced by divine light and pinned down like an insect specimen, screamed.
Well, that much made sense.
Demonkin had been enemies of humanity since the age of myths.
Considering what those filthy heretics and Dark Mages had said, that Demonkin’s existence could only be an enormous threat.
And the one who had incapacitated such a being was the avatar of the Goddess, who was said to have sealed even the Demonkin’s god. That much, he could accept.
The problem was...
“Lord Bellon!”
“Now, now. Don’t move. Who knows what’ll happen to Bellon or Melon if you do.”
Why was Adam using that Demonkin to threaten the heretics?
“You despicable bastard!”
“Don’t take hostages like a coward! Fight us fairly!”
Taylor had never imagined he would hear words like despicable and fight us fairly coming from heretics and Dark Mages.
But what was even more ridiculous was that he could understand their feelings.
“Graaah!”
“A heretic talking back? Does our Bellon need to become Mel/on before you come to your senses?”
“Ghk!”
“Don’t say it after you’ve already stabbed them!”
“What does it matter? Our Demonkin friend is tough, aren’t they?”
Seeing that Adam would stab the Demonkin without hesitation over mere words, Taylor could not help sympathizing with the heretics.
It could not be helped.
In situations like this, Taylor was usually in the same position the heretics and Dark Mages were in now. Emotionally, he could not help relating to them!
“W-What do you want?!”
The heretics and Dark Mages were not threatening the agents. The agents were threatening them.
And so, the heretics and Dark Mages were asking the agents for their terms.
“First, take down the barrier.”
“The barrier?”
At Adam’s demand, Daisy blinked.
“There’s a barrier centered around the Demonkin that prevents anyone from leaving a certain area.”
When Adam explained that there was a barrier centered on the Demonkin...
“Is that so? Then wouldn’t it be faster to just purify it?”
“Should we?”
Daisy immediately gathered divine power in both hands without a moment’s hesitation, and screams erupted from the heretics.
“A-All right! We accept your terms!”
“...”
As the enemies hurriedly dismantled the barrier, Taylor thought to himself.
‘That is certainly the proper behavior for a Saintess...’
The Saintess trying to eliminate an evil Demonkin was certainly fitting for her role.
But seeing Adam beside her...
And adding the fact that they were supposedly lovers, even if it was fake, made an indescribably strange feeling well up inside him.
But the finishing touch came from elsewhere.
“Taylor. I finished talking with Adam.”
“When did you do that?”
“While everyone was focused on him stabbing the Demonkin, he secretly threw me a piece of paper.”
Aryn approached Taylor and pressed a crumpled piece of paper into his hand.
Written on it were the words:
-There seems to be a barrier around us. Once it comes down, let’s kill them all.
“...”
It was exactly what he had intended to do, and undoubtedly the right thing for the continent.
“Why does it feel like we’re the villains?”
When Taylor asked Aryn, unsettled by the feeling that they had somehow become the bad guys...
“Being villains... is familiar, isn’t it?”
Fortunately, it did not seem to be Taylor’s thought alone. Aryn gazed into the distance and muttered.
* * *
“Cowards.”
The moment we felt the barrier break, we immediately dealt with the heretics and Dark Mages.
Perhaps it had been no ordinary barrier. The heretics and Dark Mages, who had been concentrating all their attention on it, could not properly respond to our sudden attack and went down more easily than expected.
“Ghk! Lord Bellon!”
“A-Ah...”
As the last heretic died while reaching for the Demonkin, Bellon groaned.
“Useless human bastards! Even if you die, you should save me first!”
“What a demonic personality.”
As expected of a Demonkin. There was not a shred of decency in Bellon.
“Be quiet.”
“Graaah!”
Perhaps Daisy felt the same way. She roasted Bellon with divine power even more readily than before.
She inflicted pain, but stopped whenever it looked like Bellon might die. Her control was good enough to put most agents to shame.
Damn it, Daisy. Do you learn even this so quickly?!
At this point, I was beginning to think the root of all evil was not Tinky Winky, but Daisy’s talent.
...Of course, that did not mean Tinky Winky would stop being the root of all evil.
“We can leave this to Rias, right?”
“Of course.”
“Don’t let your guard down. Someone might suddenly revive or sacrifice their own soul to pull some stupid stunt.”
“Rias is... Hm. No. We’ll be careful.”
Taylor had been about to insist, as usual, that Rias was different from the Academy!
But their defenses had already been breached several times, so he merely nodded quietly.
“The problem is that Demonkin.”
At my words, everyone turned to Bellon, who was being roasted by Daisy every time Bellon tried to speak.
Dark Mages had become regular visitors lately.
Humans crazy enough to worship the god of the Demonkin were not easy to encounter, but history contained quite a few records of the trouble they had caused.
But Demonkin were different.
They were beings from myths and legends, not history.
It was said that the Goddess had sealed them in deep darkness together with the Evil Gods.
The fact that one had revived and was wandering the human world would have been an enormous shock to anyone who did not know the original story.
“Let’s... take Bellon with us for now.”
“They... don’t seem dangerous.”
Bellon was still pierced through by Daisy’s magic sword and screaming beneath a divine-power heat treatment. There was not a trace of dignity or danger left in them.
With uneasy expressions, Uncle Aryn and Taylor chose to take Bellon into custody for now.
* * *
#1 The Morning Everyone Woke Up
The night that may have marked the beginning of a great change in this world came to an end.
Most ordinary people, aside from a small handful, began a peaceful day.
But a few people could not.
“...Hey. What’s wrong with Asran?”
“No idea. Maybe he got beaten again.”
“When? Training was banned yesterday because of the Night of Demonic Energy.”
“I heard from his roommate that he snuck out to meet some club friends.”
“Did he get wrecked in a game?”
“Or did he finally confess and...”
“That makes... sense!”
They spoke quietly, but to Asran, a swordsman of his level, it might as well have been said right next to him unless they used a mana-based trick.
Normally, he would have snapped at the last remark.
But...
“...”
Perhaps it was because he had stayed up all night. Or perhaps what he had seen yesterday had shocked him too deeply.
Asran simply swung his sword mechanically, his expression vacant.
‘Yesterday. What was it that I saw?’
Last night, while following Adam and Daisy on their date, he had seen them.
The Dark Mages who had suddenly appeared, and the evil heretics controlling them.
He had joined that fight and fought reasonably well, too.
But the moment he saw the Demonkin, he understood.
Fighting that thing was impossible.
It was not a question of whether he could win.
The instincts of a living creature. No, something deeper than that. His very soul felt as though it refused to fight the Demonkin.
As he was overwhelmed by an emotion that went beyond simple fear, Asran saw someone inflicting that very feeling upon the Demonkin.
Adam Smith.
What Adam had shown yesterday went beyond admiration. It was frightening.
But the problem was...
“Daisy... looked used to it.”
While everyone else’s minds had stopped at Adam’s actions...
Daisy naturally stabbed the Demonkin and tortured... no, sealed the Demonkin beside Adam!
“Ghk.”
At the time, he had not been able to think about anything.
But after the incident was settled, after he underwent a brief examination with the other club members to see whether they had been infected with demonic energy, and after he returned...
Asran could only blankly watch the sun rise and dwell on his defeat.
He could not win.
He knew they were fake lovers.
But after seeing them yesterday, Asran could no longer imagine himself standing beside Daisy in Adam’s place.
That was why he had unconsciously picked up his sword and headed to the training grounds at dawn.
If he became stronger. Stronger than Adam. Stronger than Ellen. No, if he broke through the wall and became a Sword Master, truly inheriting his grandfather’s title instead of merely being the Little Sword Emperor...
“Then could I win?”
Asran lifted his head and stared blankly at the sky.
If he became the Sword Emperor, could he take Adam’s place beside Daisy?
The sky was impossibly clear and blue, without even a trace of demonic energy, as if last night had been a dream.
Just as Asran despaired in defeat...
“Asran.”
“Ellen?”
Asran shook his head when he saw Ellen’s expression, which was similar to his own.
No, Ellen must have been even more shocked, since Adam had been his closest friend.
“What is it?”
Seeing some life return to Asran’s eyes, Ellen showed him his sword.
“I’ve been thinking too much.”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s clear our heads.”
“Sounds good.”
They said swordsmen spoke with their swords when they had worries.
“What is this pressure?”
“What? Is that static electricity? My whole body’s tingling.”
“You crazy bastards! Don’t coat your swords in sword aura without warning! Did you sell off the basic rules of the training grounds?!”
As the first and third-ranked students of the Swordsmanship Department poured their hearts into it and swung their swords at full power from the very beginning, the Swordsmanship Department training grounds became a complete mess. No one could tell whether it was training or a real duel.
“Is it really right that five of us still can’t beat him?”
“Damn it, he can use water magic to this extent where there’s no water!”
“Find more fire mages!”
In the Magic Department, where he had no rivals, several students struggled to stop the Prince of Dale.
“Aryn. What happened last night?”
“We are investigating it.”
“You’re always investigating. You’re always like this.”
“No, Your Highness. It happened at dawn. This time, we really are investigating...”
“This time? Then what about last time...?”
“You misunderstand!”
The imperial prince with no talent for combat called in the person responsible and chewed him out.
“Taylor.”
“Yes, Lord Gerard...”
“Taylor...”
“...”
Gerard, the second son of Rias, was also lamenting to the person responsible in a similar manner.
“Should we simply eliminate Bellon?”
“Not yet, Saintess. Until the Church confirms the Demonkin’s existence...!”
The Rias clergy had to do their utmost to stop the Saintess from simply eliminating the Demonkin before the personnel dispatched from the Holy Kingdom arrived.
“The sun’s been up for ages, male! Wake up!”
“Shut up. I’m off duty today.”
“Yelp!”
After subduing Bell, who pounced on him the moment he lay down, with a pillow, Adam sought compensation for last night’s hellish suffering.
“Hey! I heard something happened yesterday! Daisy still hasn’t come back... Aaargh!”
“Yelp!”
He threw the doggy at Tinky Winky.
Author’s Note
Some people saw the announcement and thought I hit the gacha jackpot, but I did not.
120 pulls, six pink envelopes! Seia, Kyo-suna!
But the illustrator gets angry because they did not get the pickup character despite getting more than ten pink envelopes in a hundred pulls.
It makes me angry.
They even got two more pink envelopes this morning, but they are angry because they got Misaki and Azusa.
I could understand if their unique weapon were three-star, but even Azusa is only four-star. How can someone not be grateful for pinks?
And seeing how the illustrator has not even given me illustrations lately, it makes me angry.
Therefore, I will say yesterday’s break was the illustrator’s fault.
P.S. My keyboard suddenly died, so I panicked.
Fortunately, I had six spare keyboards, so I survived.
Footnotes:
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