I Became a Swordsmanship Instructor in a Romance Novel

Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop—

A giant carriage, drawn by a sturdy-looking black horse.

The carriage was finished with blackwood that had grown in the cold northern winter winds, adding to its imposing presence.

And around the carriage, knights with huge bodies and black hair surrounded it with stern expressions, forming an ironclad defense.

Thus, bandits or monsters who approached, hoping for a rare guest to rob, often found themselves unable to even consider attacking the carriage and instead made way for it.

A very small girl, in stark contrast to the enormous carriage.

Lillie, the Princess of the Ira Dukedom, was enduring a journey that made her stomach churn.

Literally, it felt like her stomach was turning inside out.

Thump.

Thump.

“Ugh! Fuck.”

The distance between the capital city, Ramielli, and the North was about two weeks on horseback.

However, the Princess’s stamina was so poor that the journey had already been delayed, and they had been riding in the carriage for three weeks.

“Ugh……”

Lillie lay sprawled out in the carriage, groaning.

Her maid looked at Lillie with worried eyes.

“Are you alright?”

Her tone was as stiff as a soldier’s.

Lillie, with a dying look on her face, rolled her eyes to look at Karen.

She had a sturdy physique, no different from a man’s, despite being a maid.

Even after seeing her for so long, Lillie couldn’t get used to it.

“……Ha, I really think I’m going to die……. Are we still far?”

“We’re almost there. Just a little further.”

“Fuck……. You said that yesterday too.

At this rate, this carriage will become my coffin…….

It’s perfect since the coffin will be made of blackwood anyway.

Fuck. If I die here, just bury me with the carriage.

Ah, but it’s too cold in the North, so bury me in Ramielli.”

Her body was so much weaker than when she was on the Dave Continent.

She would get out of breath with the slightest movement, and if she used her powers excessively, she would faint.

On top of climbing the Lyos Mountains right before heading to Ramielli Academy, she had scraped the bottom of the barrel, using all her powers, so there was no way her body could be okay.

Even now, her joints felt like they were misaligned and creaking.

“Princess Lillie. That’s why I told you. It’s all because you don’t exercise. Look at your skinny arms! Are those even human arms!?”

“……Fuck……. Are yours human arms? They’re like an ogre’s.”

“Oh! As expected……. Your colorful curses are as good as any Northener’s!

You even compliment with curses! Thank you.

However, how about starting the basic training you’ve been putting off from today?”

Lillie narrowed her eyes and glared at Karen.

‘These damn muscle fanatics……. If only my body wasn’t like this!

If it were back on the Dave Continent, I could have dealt with you with just my finger……!’

The mana here was so thin compared to the Dave Continent.

If only the mana were abundant, her body wouldn’t have become this weak.

She was like a deep-sea fish that had been dragged onto land from the bottom of the sea.

“I’ll do it myself……. So please just shut up……. It’s my lifelong wish.”

“You say that, but you didn’t even eat your lunch properly earlier! Meals are also a part of training!”

Lillie looked at her maid with cold eyes.

‘No……. Fuck.

What kind of a meal is it when each person eats a whole pig?

When I was on the Dave Continent, if we caught even one rabbit, we’d make soup and thirty people would gather to eat it, you bastard, no, you bitch…….’

She really didn’t want to reminisce about the old days, but at times like these, Lillie couldn’t help but think about her time on the Dave Continent.

Thinking of the North, one might imagine snow-covered mountains and people starving and struggling, but that wasn’t the reality.

The Northeners, born with black hair, had an innate immunity to magic and had been eating monsters as their staple food since ancient times.

“……Ah, of course, I understand why you don’t have an appetite, Princess.

Really, the meat we had for lunch was so bland! It was the first time in my life that I’ve tasted such flavorless meat!”

Karen frowned, recalling the lunch they had just eaten.

No matter how good bland food was for the body, the South took it too far.

With resistance to magic as a basic passive skill, they considered even magic, which was highly toxic to ordinary people, to be the original taste of meat.

“Southerners……. Do they really eat such meat every day…….”

Then, her eyes widened as if a good idea had struck her.

“Ah!! Then, if we sell Orc meat cooked with Northern recipes here! We can make a fortune!”

“……You idiot, ordinary people would die if they ate that……. And does the North even have any recipes besides grilling and burning?”

Lillie recalled the Fallen Angel’s wings that Zeke Clayman had brought, claiming they were chicken.

Back then, she had some resistance to magic, so she had considered the tingling sensation to be a unique flavor.

However, the current Lillie wasn’t born with such a convenient ability.

Thanks to that, she had almost died several times from being forced to eat monster meat since she was young.

Moreover, the Northeners’ main motto was perseverance and spirit, so if she got sick from eating meat, they would shove even more meat into her mouth, saying it would help her overcome the illness.

Lillie’s body shuddered.

If she hadn’t figured out how to detoxify magic, she would have died in the world she had painstakingly rebuilt, not even living for 10 years.

“……Ha, just how messed up is this?”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing……. Never mind.”

Lillie shook her head.

‘In the novel I wrote, monsters didn’t even exist…….’

What she had written was a romance fantasy.

A cliché-filled novel about several men fighting over one woman, nothing special.

During their journey to capture the prehistoric bard, Zeke had often told her something.

That he would never play ‘games’ again.

It had been his only hobby, but……. If he had known he would go through such hardship, he would never have played games.

─ Then, what are you going to do when we go back……?

The Saintess had asked him back then.

─ Nothing. I’m just going to rest.

─ Wouldn’t that be incredibly boring? In that case, just……. Stay here with me…….

─ Eh, why would it be boring? I have my phone, I can read novels on my phone……. Ah, right. That’s dangerous too. Hmm……. I wonder what I should do……?

Zeke Clayman had pondered with the most serious expression in the world, thinking about something silly.

─ First, what I shouldn’t do. Writing novels……. Well, I obviously won’t do that. I should avoid anything related to games too……. Hmm……. Maybe TV or movies……? Hmm……. But as long as there’s no killing or blood, it should be fine, right?

─ There’s a world like that!?

She had asked in surprise.

Among the things Zeke had muttered to himself, there was something she couldn’t just ignore.

A world where no one dies and no blood is shed.

─ Yeah, that kind of world is called a romance fantasy.

Zeke had answered the Saintess’s sudden outburst with a hesitant expression.

─ Romance fantasy?

The Saintess’s eyes had sparkled.

─ Th-then, people don’t die there?

─ Hmm, that’s not true. There are novels where death scenes appear sometimes……. But it’s only one or two characters at most? In that world, being sent to a monastery to do chores is a huge punishment.

─ That kind of thing……. Is a huge punishment?

─ Yeah, anyway, the main theme of romance fantasy is love.

The Saintess had been born with a mission too heavy for a girl to bear, from the moment she entered this world.

She had never heard of or seen a world where trivial and sweet love between people was the main theme.

She had to give her first thanks for waking up every day.

And her second thanks for the fact that the number of corpses hadn’t increased.

She couldn’t give her third thanks because there was no food.

That was the Dave Continent.

So, death was a very common and natural thing for her.

She had never even imagined a world without bloodshed.

From that moment on, the Saintess had pestered Zeke every day to tell her about romance fantasy whenever he had free time.

Zeke had refused, saying it wasn’t a genre he particularly enjoyed, but if she persisted, he would reluctantly tell her about various clichés.

At those times, the Saintess could forget the harsh reality and dream in a sweet fantasy.

“Princess! Princess!”

“Gasp!”

Lillie’s eyes flew open as her maid shook her shoulder vigorously.

She must have fainted again because she wasn’t feeling well.

“……Sigh, really…….

This is why His Excellency didn’t want to let you out of the Dukedom…….

After lying down for so long without moving, the first things you do are…….

Mountain climbing and entering the academy……”

Karen scolded her master with a worried look.

“That’s over. Shut up.

And the reason Father didn’t want to let me out was because of my hair and eyes.

How about it, do I still look gold to you?”

“……No. It’s a beautiful black. But maintaining that is……”

“I said I’ll take care of it. Don’t say anything more.”

Sigh—

Lillie let out a deep sigh.

“We’ve arrived in Ramielli!!”

At the loud shout from outside, Lillie clenched her small fist tightly.

‘Zeke Clayman……. Just you wait……. You bastard.’