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

Honestly, it wasn’t that I didn’t expect Prince Ellen’s sudden reckless behavior.

That’s typical of romance fantasy leads.
They don’t consider their status and try to solve problems themselves when something happens.
Even knowing this, I kept telling Prince Ellen not to do it, for the sake of the future.
He’s still a human after all; if I keep racking up points now, maybe someday he’ll actually listen?
…Though with these precious romance fantasy princes, they might never listen.
Still, I had no choice but to keep reminding him to earn points so he wouldn’t forget.
If that didn’t work, I’d have to seriously think about retiring.
Though thinking of Senior Lucia, even if I started now, it might already be too late.

“No hesitation at all, really.”
By the time we arrived one step late, the altar was already soaked in blood.
I didn’t think he’d ever killed anyone before.
Maybe the kingdom’s education was bad, or perhaps Prince Ellen was just a reckless punk.
Or maybe it was the continent’s early education system that didn’t consider dark mages as human that shined through.
“Handle this thoroughly.”

But it wasn’t over yet.
Thanks to Violet’s spoiler on life, I’d investigated these bastards we would keep meeting.
The more you deal with dark mages, the more they are surrounded by terrifying rumors.
Among those, the most important to remember is: dark mages are most dangerous when they appear to be dead.
Usually, they use themselves as a resource, sacrificing others to fuel their magic.
But right before their own death, they’ll sacrifice themselves to take everyone down with them.
That’s the kind of bastard a dark mage is.
Therefore, you must double-check the kill and even after confirming death, keep the body in a visible place.
The corpse could suddenly explode with a magic circle or spread curses around.
But our busy prince couldn’t bother with that, so the cleanup fell to the underlings.
“I’ll tail the prince.”

After assigning other knights to confirm the kill and rescue the brainwashed villagers,
I walked toward the altar’s center, where ominous magic power was emanating.
“Ugh!”
There lay someone who looked like a villain, coughing up blood and collapsing.
Among the villains I’ve seen, he looked second worst after the flower-arranging club leader, spewing third-rate villain lines.

“To think you’d find us here. But you’re already too late. This altar we built...”
Why can’t our precious prince just hit the skip button?
He just listens to everything the enemy says.
“Gah!”

So I hit the skip button for him.
“Adam?!”
Prince Ellen looked shocked as a person’s head suddenly flew off, but I frowned deeply and pulled him away from the corpse.

“Didn’t you learn during royal training? Magic users talk to buy time.”
“No, those kids don’t do that.”
By “those kids,” he meant the romance fantasy male leads.
“Are they the enemy?”
“No, not really.”
“But this guy is a dark mage. Talking to buy time and trying to do something... Ah, damn.”
Though his head and body were separated, purple light began shooting from his eyes.
That’s why you grab dark mages as soon as you see them and rough them up.

“I don’t know what’s going on, so let’s run.”
“But!”
I turned my head, thinking he was talking nonsense, when some sort of writing appeared on the wall hit by the eye beams.
It twisted into chains and headed toward the altar’s center.
And there, at the center, was the beastkin girl we saw from afar.
“I don’t think we can save her.”

Sadly, trying to save her might get us killed.
So, I swung my sword without hesitation, ready to stop Prince Ellen’s advance.
“Sorry!”
“If you’re sorry, listen to me.”
Like he expected this, Ellen parried the sword and rushed to the beastkin girl.
I gritted my teeth and had no choice but to follow.

Bang!
It was ridiculous.
The clash of rope and sword sounded like hitting a chunk of metal.
“Cut it quickly.”

Or else I’ll hit your back and take you away.
“Ah, got it.”
Maybe understanding my look, Ellen began delivering precise magic-infused strikes.
Before long, we rescued the beastkin girl from the altar’s center.

“Let’s get out of here quickly if we’re done.”
“Got it.”
Carrying the beastkin girl on my shoulder like a sack, we ran at full speed.
Even now, the purple magic filling the walls was heading toward the altar’s center...
“They’re following us?”
“You can tell just by looking!”

No, they started rushing at us.
“Prince!”
“Run!”
“Huh?”
“Run!”
Ignoring the knights who came to join us, we ran full speed.
The knights wisely started following us at full speed too, but the magic’s speed was increasing.

So.
“Split up!”
To understand what the magic was, I divided our group in half.

“They’re only following us?”
“Next!”
Half again. Half again.
Eventually, it was just Ellen and me left.
I had no choice but to give up.
“Leave her behind?”

The magic following us was definitely the beastkin girl.
I suggested abandoning her first, but...
“No. I’ll stop them!”
Suddenly, he turned around and ran back.

“This guy’s crazy.”
He sharply changed direction, but the body with speed couldn’t turn easily.
“Damn it.”

By the time he barely changed direction, Ellen was already hit by purple magic and collapsed.
Hurriedly, I poured healing potions on Prince Ellen, but they had no effect.
At least he was still breathing.
He was quietly breathing like asleep, so I left him and forced half the potions into the beastkin girl’s mouth, pouring the rest on her face.
“Hey, hey. Wake up. Wake up.”

I slapped the beastkin girl’s cheek to wake her.
Though unthinkable in my previous life, in a medieval fantasy world, hitting a stranger from another race was less repulsive than hitting a prince.
I had already done this to a romance fantasy heroine, so hesitation was nonexistent.
“Ugh...”
As her cheeks reddened, the beastkin opened her eyes.

“Kyahhh... huh?”
The moment her eyes opened and pupils dilated, they filled with hostility.
I understood.
No matter how she got captured, no one politely offers to be a sacrifice at an altar.
She must have experienced something horrible and maxed out her hatred of humans.
So even if the person who saved her was human, her initial reaction would be hostility.

She probably didn’t even realize if I was a rescuer or an enemy.
But since she was full of hostility, I figured we’d have to fight once, explain everything afterward, and wait quite a while until she trusted us—like most novels go.
But time was short.
“If you don’t want to die, listen.”
“...”
Here’s where Leon-style persuasion comes in.
The sword.

Having a cold blade at her throat increases persuasion by 100%.
I held the sword at her throat, quickly grabbed her from behind, and whispered in her ear:
“First, we rescued you.”
That was pure truth.

“Wh-what?”
It was a shame she didn’t understand, but it couldn’t be helped.
“I also healed all your wounds.”

That was true as well.
The potions were expensive and hard to get from the empire and the Dale royal family.
“But why does your cheek hurt so much...”
“Maybe the wicked dark mages hit you.”
That was a little white lie for kindness’s sake, but cheap compared to the potions’ cost.

“During that, our prince collapsed.”
I gently tapped her cheek with my bare hand.
Her eyes flicked briefly to the tied-up Prince Ellen, glowing with purple magic.
“Oh, that.”

Luckily, she seemed to know what it was.
“The magic chasing you. The prince sacrificed himself to protect you.”
Honestly, it was more like he threw himself in alone.
But since it already happened, I tried to put a good spin on it.

“Healing potions don’t help. Can you tell us what it is?”
I asked politely but with the sword still at her throat.
“But first, I have a question.”

Still, she asked a question instead of answering.
Despite her appearance, she had quite some backbone.
“What is it?”
“Is that guy strong?”
“Our prince?”
“Yeah. That... prince?”
Her frankness seemed to embarrass her, but I answered anyway.

“He’s basically unbeatable. Why?”
In the future, he really had no match, and even now was close to that level.
She shuddered a little and muttered bitterly:
“That’s bad...”

Her ominous words gave me goosebumps.
A storyline flashed through my mind.
It couldn’t be, right?
“Is it brainwashing ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) or something?”
Violet Village. Dark mages. Brainwashing. Salvia. Hallucinogens. Sacrificial altar...
All these keywords together made me recall a common trope from my previous life:
A troll who was weak as an ally but became a terrifying monster as an enemy—common in subculture stories.
Or maybe the opposite? Usually, strong as enemy, weak as ally.

“That’s right. They tried to control and manipulate me.”
That was true.
The worst possible development.
“How do we stop that?”

I asked for a solution.
“Well, I’m a martial artist, so I don’t know about dark magic.”
Sadly, she was a fist-fighter cousin to the swordsmen.
Even if ignorant swordsmen and fist-fighters teamed up,
they couldn’t stop the damned dark magic.
I quickly sheathed my sword and asked her to cooperate.

“First, keep him from moving.”
“Huh? Huh?”
She was confused that the sword at her throat disappeared, so I ran back to where the ropes binding her were.
The altar was a mess, and the ritual was ruined.
With Prince Ellen down, we had to tie the dark mage up and wait for the experts.
“Kyah!”
“...”

But as soon as I grabbed the ropes, a flying beastkin appeared, forcing me to drop the ropes and draw my sword again.
[Image note from the original:
“This is Daisy holding crown daisy leaves.
Those unfamiliar with crown daisy are free slaves suffering horribly.”]