I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel

“No, you should have just told me if that was the case!”

Kyah!
Though Violet was unusually fierce, I couldn’t help but understand.
“I really thought you were going to die?!”

After experiencing the full course of the basement and thinking she was headed for the execution block, she had every right to howl like that.
“I told you I’d handle everything.”
Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be solved this way.

But in the end, it was true that I solved it.
“Should I… be grateful for that? Who dragged me along?!”
“The commander said they’re reviewing salary raises this time.”

“Thank you! I pledge my loyalty!”
Such an honest guy, full of desire. The best quality for a spy.
“But what about Daisy?”
“They said the main character of this part is Hedric. So I threw it at Hedric.”

“Wow…”
It looked like he was staring at trash, but I felt wronged.
“She’s fake.”

“Even if she’s fake, your girlfriend going to another man…”
No, saying it like that makes you sound like real trash.
…Is that right?

“So if you meet her anyway, does that make you the mistress?”
“…You want to throw someone just released from the Empire’s agents right back into hell?!”
He jumped up in shock, clearly hating the idea.

“I won’t die alone.”
“Just die alone!”
“Daisy is your friend.”

“The closer the friend, the less you should care about their dating!”
This bastard, before, was willing to take a hole in his stomach from Silence.
Right after that, they slapped each other like Pikachu in a certain Pokémon movie.

And now, the moment the romance fantasy heroine starts dating, he tries to cut ties.
“Are you afraid of the romance fantasy heroine’s dating!”
“Fucking terrified!”
Really, he’s scared.

“Me too!”
Honestly, I was scared too, so I had to admit it.
When I entered the club room, two people were slumped there.

“Life…”
“...sigh.”
“Wow.”

“Adam! You finally came. It’s been a while. What’s going on here?”
As I admired the scene, a man who had been quietly sitting in the corner suddenly stood up and approached to ask.
“Really, it has been a while.”

Unlike Hedric, who got a proper role this time, this was Taylor, the second son of the Marquis and Gerard’s bodyguard and shadow.
Unlike us, he stayed close to Gerard except during club activities, so he rarely came to the club room.
Seeing two pieces of seaweed soaked in the club room after a long time seemed to confuse him.

“Well, Uncle Aerin knows why. It’s just that some really annoying stuff happened.”
“What kind of stuff, someone of that stature?”
Since he was also from the Empire, Taylor highly respected Uncle Aerin.

How could he explain why such a person was in that state?
“The details are secret… but roughly, Gerard was unhappy with me, Daisy’s lover, and he challenged me to a duel. After losing, he ran away from the academy — that’s how Taylor feels.”
“Just hearing that sounds like bullshit!”
“That’s it.”

Along with the admiration, Taylor’s gaze toward Uncle Aerin softened.
“So then, why is Marie acting like that?”
“Probably a ruined date.”

“Waaah!”
“That was the right answer…”

“Honestly, I thought you’d be the most broken one. You’re the most okay.”
“Why?”
“From a third party’s point of view, hearing that the guy who used to be called the Saint’s lover became Princess Lorelia’s boyfriend at the start of the semester — what would you think?”

“Crazy bastard?”
“Yeah, you crazy bastard. And a friend from the Empire intelligence agency told me. After the Founding Festival started, you caught at least three dark mages a day. ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) How the hell did you do that?”
How to do it? I was just dating Daisy.

Unable to say that, I pointed at Uncle Aerin and said,
“That guy was incompetent, so dark mages flooded the academy.”
“Gyaaah!”

“…The man named Aerin I heard about wasn’t like that.”
Taylor’s words sounded strangely soft, and I narrowed my eyes.
“By the way. While someone from another country is suffering, what were you doing?”

“What do you mean, I was working.”
Working meant just following the Marquis’s second son who was watching the festival or participating in events.
“Honestly, Adam, you’re the weird one. I’m the normal one. You should stay by the person we serve. Why go around catching dark mages separately?”

“……”
His words were too reasonable; I was momentarily speechless.
Yeah… why wasn’t I helping Prince Ellen at the Leon exchange, but chasing dark mages instead?

“Well… because dark mages showed up right in front of me?”
“What?”
Thinking carefully, I hadn’t specifically looked for dark mages to fight.

They just came to me.
“Besides, I didn’t even catch them.”
It was true. Daisy caught all of them.

“Is the Saint actually a spy?”
For a moment, he must have wondered if the woman his master fell for was a spy for dark mages.
If he didn’t know this world was a romance fantasy, it would be a realistic thought.

“That can’t be.”
But no matter how much I thought, there was no reason for the Saint to be a spy.
And there was no reason for a spy to catch dark mages.

“Then what’s left…”
Taylor looked at me suspiciously without hiding it.
“Are you serious?”

“Just kidding.”
Smirking, Taylor immediately dropped it, put his arm around my shoulder, and whispered secret information in my ear apologetically.
“In the second semester, the school trip is combined with the final exams.”

“What? What kind of crazy talk is that?”
Violet, or Boradori, didn’t even say that.
“I didn’t come here for nothing. I came to tell you everything.”

He wasn’t the type to lie, but also not someone who could bring information unknown even to Uncle Aerin.
That meant—
“No way…”

The place was—
“Yeah. It’s happening in our territory.”
It was the Marquis’s territory.

“What?”
The next morning.
Without time to fix her hair, dragged out with messy hair, Violet’s eyes were half closed.

When I told her what I heard yesterday, she immediately snapped her eyes wide open and grabbed my collar.
“No, what do you mean! Really? We’re really going to the Marquis’s territory?!”
Judging by her reaction, she really didn’t know.

“I heard it from Gerard’s people, so it should be true.”
“No, why?!”
I summarized roughly what I heard yesterday for the raging Violet.

“There have been a lot of incidents lately.”
“That was in the original too?”
“Yeah. But there are a lot of differences between the original and now.”

Silence, who was supposed to defeat the protagonist party, died at our hands.
Dark mages who were supposed to cause chaos with artificial magic swords were suppressed beforehand by the Empire and had their swords confiscated.
The Holy Nation is out of the question, and in this incident, which should have caused a big firework show at the academy, only a few warehouses caught fire.

Even—
“The warehouses that caught fire were flower warehouses, right?”
“That’s right…”

I checked what was in the warehouses — it was full of flowers.
So I thought the flowers were prepared for the event… but they were just flowers imported for Daisy’s flower arranging club.
…Damn romance fantasy male lead.

How hard must one work at flower arranging to buy flowers by the warehouse when there aren’t even ten club members?
“Your club works that hard?”
“…The club president does it all alone.”

Since the academy’s event was the Founding Festival, the flower arranging club was participating.
Prince Acid acted as the royal figurehead.
Gerard was in a similar situation.

Hedric was probably still checking all the staff sent to the academy to handle incidents.
Prince Ellen was also active with the people from Leon Kingdom attending the exchange.
Daisy was probably going around with the Pope as well.

“But what about you and the Magic User?”
Well, the Magic User prince refused to go on a date with the Flame User.
And Boradori was just sleeping in late with nothing to do.

If their club leader was working hard, shouldn’t they help?
No wonder, the magic users are socially awkward.
“The club leader told us not to come.”

“But why?”
“Because if Daisy comes, the disguise will hurt. She said she’d handle it herself, so just go away.”
Hmm, that makes sense. Thinking about it, the romance fantasy precious kids only hindered flower arranging activities, not helped.

I would have told them not to come too.
“This is getting off-topic.”
“This guy has nothing to say…”

Violet scowled and muttered.
“Short-tempered?”
“If nothing happens, I’m on vacation until the Founding Festival ends!”

Since I was given vacation as a reward for doing well lately, unfortunately, I couldn’t summon Boradori.
“Enjoy your vacation, then don’t complain.”
“Yes, yes.”

“Hah. Anyway, the big events from the original were well handled this time. So the academy seems to highly evaluate the skills of the new students.”
Indeed, Aslan, who is called a minor Swordmaster or Defeat Sword master in the swordsmanship department, defeated every challenger until Prince Ellen appeared, proving why he was called a minor Swordmaster.
The prince from Dale, who refused the Flame User’s date, also showed performance at the magic competition comparable to Aslan, proving why Dale is called a strong magic country.

“Well. The academy event had many external challengers. Some were quite famous, but they were defeated by the students…”
“Right. Unlike the original where they got completely crushed. This time it was solved internally. The academy chose overcoming, not protection.”
If big incidents had continued like in the original, the academy would have felt external pressure.

But previous magic sword and terrorism incidents were minor accidents.
So the academy thought:
‘The students’ skills are better than expected…’

‘The top professor of swordsmanship is Swordmaster…’
‘Only Silence was a variable; the top professor of magic is McGregor…’
‘Better to send students out to train.’

‘If they can carry out academy renovations while students are gone…!’
“Based on that decision, they’re holding the school trip and finals in Rias territory, where students can be trusted and gain diverse experiences.”
Violet frowned for a long time and shouted,

“…Isn’t that just pushing Gerard’s role aside because he has no lines?!”
“Who on earth…”
“The damn author!”

No way.
“…Right?”
I wanted to say no, but in a romance fantasy world where absurd things are created for the male lead’s turn-based fight, it wasn’t impossible.

“...So enjoy your vacation well. When the Founding Festival ends, get ready to work your ass off.”
“You sure have a nice vacation!”
“I don’t have one.”

“…Good luck.”
Even during the festival, I had no choice but to head to the club room to attend Taylor instructor’s class in Rias territory.