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

Watching Prince Ellen, who had lost his composure, the first thought that crossed my mind was, "What a shame."
Ah. I should have been the one to lose my composure.
If that had happened, I could have beaten him legally!

Of course, there are official matters to consider, and personally, I still feel some aversion due to the difference in status.
But anyway, Prince Ellen thinks of me as a friend.
With that personality, he wouldn’t mercilessly beat a friend who was being controlled by some evil black magician.
So it would have been a very interesting situation where only I could attack unilaterally.
Sometimes I wonder if that’s why I have to live kindly.
"That’s not kindness; it’s a problem with his intelligence."

For a prince to throw himself for a stranger—or rather, for a beastkin—that’s definitely an intelligence problem.
He seems a bit like a pushover, but he wasn’t like that originally.
This must be because of Daisy, the root of all evil in this romance fantasy novel.
The only somewhat positive thought is that if he acts like that even for strangers, maybe he will do his best to protect me when I’m in danger.
Ha.
I had such thoughts, but I couldn’t help sighing at the fact that he himself created this dangerous situation.

"How am I supposed to stop that?"
Tears clouded my vision.
Just being a prince would make anyone sigh, but according to Boradori’s assessment, this guy was going to be the strongest in the entire world.
Thanks to Boradori’s early training, Daisy—who had skipped several years of the original story—had even gone so far as to close her dojo to keep up.
Because I was dragged into that closed-door training and played the role of a punching bag, I was the one who knew Prince Ellen’s growth better than anyone else.
"Really, I should just quit."

Of course, that was just talk.
The class system in a medieval fantasy world was no joke.
Could an instructor who knew so many royal secrets just retire freely because he wanted to?
Unless I gave up everything I had built up and prepared to become a real runaway ninja, retirement was nearly impossible.
The retirement jokes between me and the commander were just WWE-like cries for compensation because it was so hard.
Among people like us, only Senior Lucia ever seriously talked about retiring through the UFC.
"Should I ask the royal magic tower to make an anesthetic or something?"
I had packed a bunch of things to prepare for what was to come before leaving the academy.
But none of those items could be used in this situation.
They were all prepared for the romance fantasy world villains, including black magicians who would come later.
I had already tried all kinds of potions, but none worked, and I certainly couldn’t use poisons on the prince.
There was a doping agent I’d used back when I sparred with Sai, but it had a cooldown, so I heard it was better for my health to save it as long as possible.

"Is all that’s left my sword and my body? Guess I really am a swordsman."
People often say that a swordsman always has only himself and his sword.
Unintentionally, I was now holding only my sword to block the strongest in the world.
"I have to hold out."

I ran simulations in my head several times, but I lost all fifteen.
With my current attacks, I couldn’t break through Prince Ellen’s defense.
The only fortunate thing was maybe that all the black magicians who had to input commands were dead?
Even after more than a minute of standoff, Prince Ellen didn’t move.
I wished we could just stay still like this until experts from the kingdom arrived.
"Prince Ellen!"
At that moment, voices of urgently running royal guard knights sounded, and Prince Ellen moved.

Ha.
In the end, I had no choice but to move to stop Prince Ellen.
The Defeat Sword was created for the royal family of the Leon Kingdom.
Paradoxically, it was a swordsmanship style designed to counter royal swordsmanship.
Because the Defeat Sword was based on royal swordsmanship from the start,
the initial style naturally overwhelmed royal swordsmanship by forcing the royal family to feel threatened the more the swords clashed.
Of course, the downside was that later on, the Defeat Sword got overwhelmed by royal swordsmanship.
But since it was a sword that had to lose, it wasn’t a downside—it perfectly fulfilled the goal of the sword style.
At least, that was true until Senior Lucia and I came along.
Ellen and Hestia.
The arrival of these two geniuses who exceeded the royal expectations forced the instructors to demand victory instead of defeat.
Therefore, they forcibly remodeled the Defeat Sword from a sword that naturally loses in the late phase to one that could win.
In other words, the Defeat Sword I knew was a perfect royal swordsmanship counter from start to finish,
and from the moment I learned it, I knew I’d be tied to the royal family for life.
I accepted that risk for advancement.

"This is why fantasy protagonists always complain about wanting to rest."
I realized this the moment our swords clashed for the first time.
I thought maybe the black magician controlling him would make him fall easily,
but then I remembered these guys even make cursed swords that bring out their own limits.
Fortunately, unlike the small swordmaster Hosoin, Prince Ellen seemed able to push his limits to the max even in normal times.
He didn’t power up because I became his enemy,
but if he fought at his usual level, winning even once out of dozens of fights was just barely possible, so it wasn’t good news.

"Really don’t want to go to school."
I ended up saying what I had said dozens of times in my previous life again in this one.
Strictly speaking, it’s not school but the academy.
Not even the academy itself, but the process of going to the academy.
And this kind of trouble didn’t even exist in ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) the original story.
Boradori says the second semester when the real romance fantasy academy life starts will be even more annoying.
Dodging and parrying Ellen’s sword, sometimes counterattacking,
it felt like the usual sparring had turned into half WWE for me, and suddenly I thought:
"But hey, I can hold out."

It wasn’t only Ellen who improved over the vacation.
My punching bag skills had noticeably improved as much as his growth.
"……"
As I held out, a thought quietly surfaced deep in my chest.
This might be doable.
Even though all the simulations in my head ended with me getting utterly defeated,
simulations are simulations; reality might be different.

I carefully shifted the direction of my sword.
My toes, which had been smoothly avoiding Ellen’s attacks, now pointed toward him.
I read the flow.
I had already thoroughly understood royal swordsmanship, both in theory and practice.
At this timing, this attack would come, then the next move would unfold like this.
I knew all the possible moves if the attack succeeded or failed.
I also knew which moves Ellen preferred.
On top of that, my physical specs and pure mana were greater than his.
Still losing, they said, was just a matter of talent difference.
"If I’m not out of my mind, this might be doable."

I pierced the gap and advanced.
Maybe because I attacked when Ellen would normally defend,
I felt him flinch through the tip of my sword.
"……"
But then he immediately counterattacked—truly a cheat character blessed by the heavens.
Normally, he would defend here again, but he stabbed forward once more.

Attack, attack, and attack again.
The extreme aggression, the root of the Defeat Sword.
Thanks to Prince Ellen, it had turned more defensive.
What I learned before hadn’t disappeared, so I could always bring it back.
But maybe my proficiency had dropped somewhat.
Or maybe it was because of Prince Ellen’s talent.
His offense paused, and his attacks slowly began landing on me.
"Still no good?"
Normally, I would have stopped here.
Well, given the situation, I couldn’t stop like in sparring.
If I defended again here, I could hold out a little longer.
With the royal guards who were waiting and listening, I thought we could somehow solve the incident.
But it was frustrating.

So close to the finish line, I felt stuck.
Normally, I would have safely switched to defense with a proper office worker mindset here.
Ellen was the one causing accidents, and I was just cleaning them up.
"I want to cause some accidents too."
The feeling of anger, buried deep in my heart, slowly started rising.

"The royal black magician response team is arriving soon!"
Perfect timing—hearing that no cleanup would be needed, I decided to just go all out.
Royal guard knight Gerik thought,

‘These must be the greatest geniuses of this generation.’
Gerik himself had been called a genius.
He was called a genius by his family.
By his master.
Even after leaving family and master, the world still called him a genius.
Even in the royal academy, where such geniuses gathered, he was recognized as a genius.
It was only natural.
Such brilliant talents were gathered in the royal guard corps.
Knights who received the most glorious missions in the Leon Kingdom, the kingdom of knights.
They stood there, mouths agape, dazed as they watched the fight between the two young swordsmen.

"Are you alright?"
Gerik answered without even turning his gaze at the newcomer.
"What do you mean?
A fight like that against a prince of a nation..."

The so-called newcomer had to have the achievements and loyalty to match entering the royal guard.
From the perspective of a knight who had belonged to various orders and participated in many battles, Ellen and Adam’s fight looked dangerous.
"It’s not alright."
Gerik, who had spent a long time as a royal knight, felt the same.
But—

"What can we do?
Huh?
Are we supposed to jump in and stop them? If you enjoy suicide, go ahead."
"……"
The newcomer wondered how many moves he could survive if he jumped into that fight.
Five moves? A match? Maybe not even one move.
"How precise."

At Gerik’s murmur, the newcomer nodded without realizing it.
On the surface, the fight didn’t look flashy,
but the finesse inside was enough to make a fellow swordsman admire it.
Prince Ellen, who repelled attacks with delicate mana control,
and Adam, who used feints and mana control to break through that delicacy.
Both were amazing, but the winner kept being Prince Ellen.
Maybe that was why—
"Huh?"
Adam started whining.
When Ellen defeated his fists like a handkerchief,
he pushed forward as if the rock would tear the handkerchief.

"Isn’t that really dangerous?"
The amount of mana exploding at that moment was no joke.
The newcomer looked at Gerik, who couldn’t help but admire it.
"Look at the tip of the sword."

Adam’s sword was infused with powerful mana, but compared to the aura he gave off, it felt lacking.
It was exactly the level of mana that Prince Ellen pulled out at maximum.
As proof, when their swords clashed, a strong gale blew, and the energy in both swords vanished.
A perfect draw.
But Adam stepped forward one step from that state.
He dropped his sword and recklessly put the mana he pulled out into his fist.
"This is the holy punch I learned from the Daisy you like so much, you bastard!"

With incomprehensible words, he slammed his fist down on Prince Ellen’s sword, which was trying to counterattack.
"……"
The ridiculous noise brushed past Gerik’s ears.
It was so loud that nothing else could be heard.
After the ringing stopped, dust settled and Prince Ellen fell as if unconscious.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem seriously injured.
Looking at the wounds alone, it felt like the winner was more seriously hurt.
But since it was true that the royal family got hit, the royal guard knights couldn’t just stand by.
Still, Prince Ellen had been affected by black magic as well.

"He’s been hit by a black magician."
"Huh?"
"Prince Ellen was taken down by a black magician."
"…Well, that’s…"
The newcomer tried to object, but it wasn’t entirely wrong.
"Ah, I understand."

He could only nod at the words of the much more experienced senior.
And actually, here’s the main point.
This is the finished product of Mugwort Daisy.
Even while drawing this, I think the person who said “what mugwort?” and treated readers like idiots must be clearly clueless.
Also, the author insists that this is definitely not the official Daisy formula. But if you want, just think of it as official.