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

“If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it,” they say.
Of course, no sane person would enjoy dating a romance fantasy (ropan) heroine.
But it was possible to use the characteristics of a ropan heroine to my advantage.

A classic ropan heroine trait: like a Grim Reaper wearing glasses, chaos always happens around her.
If I used that, maybe I could find the criminals who would show up at the academy on their own.
Since I mostly moved through less populated areas, I figured I’d run into enemies with high probability just by wandering around.
Sure enough, I found a dark mage carving a magic circle in broad daylight.
Usually, dark mages are imagined to operate at night.
Honestly, the hardest workers in this ropan world might just be the dark mages.
“D-Dark mage?”
Daisy’s eyes widened as she saw the wild dark mage.
Come to think of it, as a saint, she had never actually encountered a dark mage before.
The first awakening was with Silence, a shaman rooted in magic.
After that, the main antagonists were corrupt clergy of the same religion.
So, Daisy meeting a fundamental dark mage for the first time was...

“Violet said that in cases like this, you have to strike quickly!”
With that, she delivered a surprise attack, confirming the rumor that Violet was the source of all evil.
“Damn, crazy!”
“Hah!”

The dark mage cursed briefly before being knocked out with a one-two punch.
“Why is there a dark mage at the academy...?”
Watching the fallen dark mage, Daisy frowned.
I thought it was natural for dark mages to appear at the academy, but for ordinary people, dark mages were figures from old tales, not something encountered in reality.

The reason such beings roamed the academy in broad daylight wasn’t because of Uncle Aerin’s incompetence... not really.
Before the founding festival, we had caught five dark mages, twenty of their minions, and over a hundred revolutionaries or revivalists.
Along the way, even corrupt nobles and professors at the academy were caught.
In other words, despite all the criticism, Uncle Aerin wasn’t incapable nor lazy.
He was just being unfairly blamed because this was a ropan story.
...Though that didn’t stop the criticism.
Dark mages preparing magic circles openly at the academy during the day—where civilians were present—was unbelievable.
“That happened before, too.”
“Ah.”

Daisy’s eyes widened, and she nodded at my reply.
Honestly, I wanted to say she was the culprit, but even the detective KoX couldn’t identify the real culprit.
...Though with so many crimes happening around, being a suspect wasn’t unreasonable.
“I never imagined this would happen twice.”
Daisy muttered seriously, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her it was just the beginning.
After all...

“Uh? Wait a moment.”
After handing the captured dark mage over to the academy, ten minutes later—
We found another dark mage suspiciously drawing a magic circle.
Indeed, the center of this ropan world and the eye of the storm for all events was a true ropan heroine.

“Another dark mage?”
When we found the second one, Daisy’s eyes widened in surprise.
“...Right. If there’s a second, there could be a third.”
When we found the third dark mage, she didn’t seem surprised, just clenched her fist.

“...That’s right. Since there are three, they clearly broke in as a group!”
By the time she saw the fourth, her expression was half resigned.
“Just die.”

The fifth one was immediately tackled and knocked out on sight.
“Daisy’s one hour equals Uncle Aerin’s two weeks...”
Uncle Aerin, backed by the empire’s intelligence agency, had been struggling for two weeks to catch these dark mages, but Daisy did it in one hour while dating her fake boyfriend.
Of course, hiding carefully before infiltrating the academy and the difficulty difference once inside, with magic circles appearing everywhere, was acknowledged.
But in front of such overwhelming results, all those nuances became meaningless.

“Are there... any more?”
Daisy’s eyes shook violently.
Even for a ropan protagonist, encountering a dark mage every ten minutes on a date was hard to get used to.
“I don’t know.”
“...The person who planned this dating route is irresponsible!”
Daisy frowned deeply, pouting, then suddenly exclaimed as if she realized something.

“Wait! You planned this route, Adam. So, you actually prepared all these dark mages!”
“Don’t treat me like the club president.”
“Club president? Are you talking about senior Belian? What do you mean ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ by that?”
Unable to admit I was the mastermind, I just said it was a misunderstanding and I was unfairly accused.
“Club president? I never got that feeling.”

Since she was the only one in the club who didn’t have romantic feelings for her, Daisy seemed to have quite a fondness for senior Real-eye.
“Anyway, it’s a misunderstanding. How could I prepare dark mages.”
“That’s true.”
Thinking it over, she nodded and snapped the neck of the fifth dark mage she caught.
Crack.

“Did you kill it?”
“No! I just knocked it out!”
She blushed denying it.
I guess she still had some reluctance about killing someone, though dark mages probably wouldn’t care if killed on the spot.
“This isn’t really a date.”

After confirming the knockout, Daisy sighed deeply and raised her holy power.
The warm light from her hands touched the magic circle the dark mage was drawing, and it began to disappear amid black smoke.
“Did you expect something else?”
“A little. It’s my first date, after all.”
“Well, it’s a memorable one.”
“Of course! How could I forget this?!”
Kicking the dark mage lying on the floor, Daisy shouted.

“The only memory I have from this date is hunting dark mages together!”
Daisy’s nightmare-like scream was somewhat pitiful, but misunderstandings had to be cleared.
“We didn’t hunt them together. You fought them all yourself.”
“Huh?”
“If they call you as a witness later, you have to go alone.”
“Is that how you treat me?!”

That was obvious.
I really just watched Daisy beat the dark mages with her bare hands.
Why get involved in troublesome matters unnecessarily?
“Of course.”
“Wow...”
Daisy was impressed at my shameless nod.

“If you have a complaint, say it now. I can stop being your boyfriend anytime.”
“That’s a bit rude, but I’m quite popular.”
“I know.”
Too popular—the members of our club had their heads in their hands over it.
“But you’re the first person to treat me like this.”
“...”

Chilling.
I wished she’d scowl as if upset, but why was she smiling while saying it?
“There was a line in a novel Violet showed me when she was young.”
“I don’t know it.”
Feigning ignorance, Daisy laughed brightly and shouted.

“That’s right! That line! You’re the first person to treat me this way!”
Seeing my expression sour, Daisy chuckled.
Despite being a battle saint who had just beaten a dark mage barehanded, she wasn’t like that usually.
“Want to extend our relationship?”
“Get lost.”

Radiating full ropan vibes, she said something that made my heart skip a beat like a shaky bridge effect, but—
“...You’re not serious, right?”
“I’m not.”
That atmosphere disappeared lightly thanks to another dark mage we met ten minutes later.

“Are you really not a spy?”
“I told you, I’m not.”
“If you’re honest now, the empire’s intelligence agency might recruit you.”
Three hours into the date with Daisy, we caught nine dark mages.
Luckily, we didn’t encounter revolutionaries or restorationists, but—
Meeting nine dark mages in three hours, when ordinary people and even those working underground like us might meet one a year, was beyond understanding even for the empire’s intelligence agency.
“Aren’t you the suspicious one rather than me?”
“To be honest, yes. But she’s the empire’s saint—the one who restored the Holy Nation.”

Though suspicious, she was blessed and vouched for by a goddess.
Naturally, suspicion fell on the person beside her.
Uncle Aerin explained this and added:
“If one day a swarm from the empire’s intelligence agency comes after you, know that it’s come.”
“Why a swarm?”
“Because they think they can’t beat you alone. How can the agency beat someone who even takes down the small Swordmaster?”
To us, he was Aslan, known as the Defeated Swordmaster or “small, small, small swordmaster.”
His growth was faster than in the original story.

“Is he really that highly rated?”
“He has to be. Did you know he’s on a 12-win streak at the first-day swordsmanship tournament?”
“No.”
Despite watching the ropan protagonist date and the heroine break dark mages with holy punches and beat them barehanded nine times, who cared about a swordsman’s 12 wins?
Besides—

“Our prince isn’t even participating.”
Prince Ellen was forcibly held back by Princess Hestia, worried about the upcoming exchange tournament, so he couldn’t join the founding festival swordsmanship competition.
Without Prince Ellen and me, it was Aslan’s world.
“If they fought now, it’d be different.”

The empire’s pride, the resurrection of the Swordmaster’s grandson!
Uncle Aerin wore a confident expression, but—
“Then Prince Ellen should enter the exchange as a Leon Academy student...”
“Hey! No matter the nationality, Ellen is part of this academy.”
Seeing him back down immediately, he clearly knew it was impossible.

“By the way, what’s wrong with them? Did they also meet a dark mage on their date?”
I asked without even glancing at the unusually humid side of the room I was in.
“Ah, well.”

Uncle Aerin glanced briefly toward the humid space and whispered.
“She got dumped.”
“...Really?”
I, a fire mage, approached the fire user who had created that almost rainy humidity and asked.

“Really got dumped?”
“Ugh!”
“Hey!”
The straightforward question made the fire user flail, and Uncle Aerin shouted, but it didn’t matter.
“At least he confessed!”

That frustrating guy had tried to confess, so I was proud of him.
But—
“Ah, well...”
The fire user averted his eyes momentarily, giving me a strange feeling.

“Was it not a love confession that got rejected?”
“I asked her to watch the festival with me.”
Seeing the fire user sniffle with a tragically unjust expression gave me a headache.
“No, how can you get denied at the entrance like that?”
“Well, I tried...”

Though pitiful in his sulking, the world judged by results, not effort.
“What about tomorrow?”
“I’m scared I’ll be discouraged if I get rejected again.”
“You have to try. Look at me. I set a date today, and another two days from now.”
Though the dates were forced rather than voluntary, I was a man with two dates during the founding festival week and spoke confidently.

“Go on more dates.”
“...?”
The very next day, one more date was added.
...Why?