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

#5 Holy Kingdom Correspondent, Codename Boradol.
I condemn 00.
It’s a scene that often appears when defeating the villainous noblewoman in romance fantasy stories, effectively ending the opponent’s life.
Of course, as is typical for romance fantasy, it’s a social death, not a real one.
Well, if someone committed a serious crime, they might be dragged to the guillotine.
But usually, villainous noblewomen in romance fantasy may harass the heroine but don’t send assassins.

So when the condemnation happened, the opponent didn’t thrash about in desperation.
They tried to seize any chance to refute the accusations and turn the tables.
In the original story, the cardinals retreated a step under the condemnation of Daisy and the pope, looking for a chance.
That failed, and they were all imprisoned.
But at least there was no massive conflict during that process.
However, execution was different.
It meant they would be killed on the spot.
No chance, no second chances — if they gave up here, the cardinals would simply die.
A cornered rat bites the cat, but the cardinals weren’t rats—they were cats, and in their own home.
"Kill those who deceived the pope with evil tricks and reclaim the pope!"

They raged and mobilized paladins to push forward.
Most paladins seemed confused, but those who did dirty deeds with the cardinals charged us without hesitation to kill.
That was a long time ago.
Half-mad, I struggled terribly alongside the romance fantasy protagonists.
Luckily, as befits romance fantasy leads, they fought dirty well.
Especially Aslan, who seemed to have improved beyond what I remembered from the original story, perhaps because he had been beaten by Ellen and even Adam.
"Ugh!"

But it was only a slight improvement.
Not enough to perform miracles.
We kept felling paladins like waves, again and again.
The forces in the Holy Kingdom that sympathized with reform, including the romance fantasy party, were too weak.
In the endless battles, Aslan’s sword was knocked away and fell at our feet.
Aslan picked up the fallen sword and defended the frontline, but it was clear he wouldn’t last long.
For a swordsman like Aslan to drop his sword meant he had reached his limit.
I was the same.
Having already scraped my magic reserves dry, my heart prickled painfully.
Defeat was looming.
"……"

Quietly, Daisy picked up Aslan’s fallen sword.
"Daisy?"
Though Daisy’s close combat stats seemed raised quite a bit, martial arts and swordsmanship are different.
Adam had been pushing Daisy’s sword skills and record hard.
I knew that, under Adam’s recommendation, the sword department’s head professor, Geomje, had tried to push for her to switch majors, but Professor MacGregor from the magic department had adamantly opposed, so Daisy probably never learned swordsmanship.
That’s what I thought.

"Goddess, grant me strength."
But for the romance fantasy heroine, swordsmanship wasn’t important.
With just a small prayer, the sword glowed with a light even more brilliant than Geomje’s Aura Blade.
"…Is that even possible?"

I gaped at the brightly shining sword.
Granted, divine power wasn’t as destructively strong as aura, but with that amount of light, it would certainly draw aggro...
"Goddess, I am your first servant."
"…Huh?"
As Daisy drew attention with her aggro, the pope beside her quietly approached and reached out his small hand to touch the sword, beginning a prayer to the goddess.

"Goddess."
"Goddess."
"Huh? Huh? Huh?"
The light pillar growing on the sword grew large and beautiful, stretching toward the sky.
"……"
"……"
"……"
The chaotic battlefield grew quiet.
The cardinals who were yelling in fury.
The paladins of both the cardinal and reform factions shouting and fighting.
The romance fantasy party who had been fighting desperately within it all.
Everyone stopped fighting and could only stare at one place.

"…How big will that get?"
The moment the pillar of light, which was turning into a tower rather than a sword, stopped growing,
the world was bathed in light.
"Is that the legendary holy sword only seen in myths?"
"No, that’s just a cheap sword..."

Aslan’s muttering annoyed me, but the voices ringing out shortly afterward made me focus again.
"On behalf of the goddess, I ask you."
"On behalf of the goddess, I ask you."
Daisy and the pope simultaneously posed the same question.
The giant pillar of light shimmered and began to assert its presence.

"Wow..."
As if the goddess recognized Daisy and the pope as her representatives,
a sacred light beyond description began to envelop the world.
"Goddess..."
"Ah."

The saint and the pope gathered, miracles converged, and a scene from mythology was completed.
All followers of the goddess fell silent.
Even I, without any faith, felt a sudden surge of belief just from witnessing it.
If Daisy urged me now, I would become a faithful servant of the goddess.
Who could refuse when such a spectacle is presented?
Honestly... if the demon king were here right now,
if Daisy threatened with that sword, wouldn’t I convert to the goddess’s religion?
The power of that sword wasn’t revealed in the original, so I don’t know for sure, but the impact was enough.
Even I, who pushed the useless goddess theory, was impressed—how much more would the faithful in the Holy Kingdom feel?
"Ah..."
"I'm sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry..."
"The sinner is here."
"Goddess..."

All paladins laid down their swords and bowed their heads to the ground.
Some trembled in fear, atoning for their sins.
"……"
Others were the same.
Only a few high-profile sinners, including Cardinal Sergio, who could no longer undo their karma, gaped in shock, powerless.

"Where is the will of God?"
Daisy’s cold voice echoed across the world.
If there were comments, they’d be flooded with "Sis, you’re awesome."
Seeing that in person made my heart race.
Sorry to the male leads, but if she confessed like that, a GL drift might even be possible.
Would Prince Ellen be happy his role was discarded? Thank goodness it never happened.
Anyway.
"This is the will of the goddess."

Daisy’s sword emitted brilliant light as she swung it, bringing the Holy Kingdom arc, which was advanced by two years, to its climax.
"So, that’s what happened..."
If it were private matters, maybe not.
But when public, it was Boradol, not Violet.
And I was just Boradol’s supervisor, not Adam.
So usually, when Boradol was around, formal speech was expected.
But this time, I couldn’t even bring myself to speak politely.

"So much happened. I’m exhausted..."
I kept quiet at Boradol’s downcast voice.
If I said, "But didn’t you bring all this disaster on yourself?" a capable person might have quit.
Yeah, I admit, it was rough.
The original three-year story finished in about a week.
"But now they’re trying to make her a cardinal?"
"How did that go..."

I was starting to get scared.
Wasn’t the vacation just about a month old?
I teleported repeatedly to prevent Ellen from messing up, taking half a day to return to the royal palace.
The romance fantasy party probably traveled by carriage to the Holy Kingdom.
Before I knew it, my junior colleague was about to get the cardinal title in the Holy Kingdom.
"I don’t know... the pope says it can’t happen. Daisy’s fine with it, she says. And when I said that made no sense, the pope claimed the goddess had ordained that Daisy could do whatever she wanted..."
From the manga, I guess that dizzy-eyed expression means this scene?
She was half out of her mind, rambling, but the content was serious.

"The goddess said to let her do whatever she wants?"
"That’s what they say."
Apparently, the incompetent goddess in heaven really «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» liked Daisy’s cleansing.
Come to think of it, in the Bible, the monkey wrench of Nazareth once held a whip and restored a temple.
Maybe the goddess saw Daisy as someone like that.
A proxy to restore the broken Holy Kingdom!
No matter what she did, it would look good.

"Save me!"
I wanted to cut the communication immediately but couldn’t.
"Uh, um. Good work."
"Not good work, save me!"
"The commander says you’ll be well compensated."
"I don’t need money, save me now!"
"They say even sword masters can’t teleport with swords... not even the old sword master..."
"Ahhh!"

It’s true. Even Geomje could slice the sky or sea but couldn’t teleport through space.
"If this goes on, you’ll become a cardinal!"
It sounds like a joke, but the horror is that it could really happen.
Most cardinals in the Holy Kingdom are currently dismissed and imprisoned underground.
The huge pillar of light created by the pope and Daisy had no physical force matching its size.
If divine power had such destructive force, everyone would be clerics, not knights.
But in the Holy Kingdom, it was a blow even scarier than Geomje’s sword.

The Sword of Judgment.
The name Violet gave to Daisy’s slash.
A strike that steals all divine power from the condemned, essentially a death blow to clerics.
If the user wasn’t the pope or saint, the sword would be deemed heretical.
But since the user was who they were, and everyone in the Holy Kingdom saw that brilliant light...
The pope and saint became the goddess’s executors, cutting down all the corrupt sinners.
As a result, the cardinals dropped from twelve to two.
They need to pick ten new cardinals, but with the pope and Daisy parachuting in, no one in the Holy Kingdom could stop them now.
"But if I become a cardinal, can I leave the academy?"
"Ahhh!"

Looks like not.
I couldn’t bring myself to turn off the communication device that now only transmitted screams, so I tucked it away briefly.
I summarized everything I’d heard and reported to the commander.
Summary:
Our prince fell for the saint who conquered the Holy Kingdom with a sword.
Our agent is about to become a cardinal.
The end.

"Don’t joke."
The commander’s expression twisted at my short summary.
"I’m not joking."

Though brief, it was the most accurate way to put it.
"Please tell me it’s a joke..."
The commander rarely looked so distressed as he pleaded.

"I didn’t turn off the communication device in the room. Do you want to hear it yourself?"
"No..."
You can escape reality, but you can’t change it.