It Was a Romance Fantasy (2)
The black mages, having their aggro completely pulled by the Saintess (presumed female lead), were in the middle of getting slaughtered by me when it was later revealed that Levia Gloria, the second-ranked student in the Magic department, had taken down a magic beast summoned by the black mages somewhere else.
I’d wondered why she hadn’t participated in the battle against the black mages for some unknown reason, but it turned out she’d been secretly doing that. In the end, all I’d done was typical third-place behavior again.
While the strongest ones fight the boss mob, the third-ranker cleans up the small fry. It was an inescapably third-place kind of action.
Once the situation was wrapped up, the faculty members hauled away the corpses of the black mages I’d taken down along with the subdued Scavengers. Following the professors’ orders, they even collected the corpse of the magic beast Levia had fought.
I’d only seen it from afar, but I could make out the creature’s general shape. It had a long snout like a crocodile, packed with rows of razor-sharp teeth. Instead of legs, it had countless long, slender arms. The body alone looked at least ten meters long. Its many arms were torn to shreds, and its lower jaw was twisted more than ninety degrees.
Considering Levia hadn’t had a single scratch when I saw her earlier, the beast had probably been one-sidedly beaten into the ground. I didn’t think the magic beast itself had been weak. It was just that Levia was insanely strong.
“….”
As I stared silently at the magic beast’s corpse, someone placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Are you okay? You’re not hurt anywhere, right?”
It was Louis, who had returned after finishing up the rescue efforts for the civilians.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t get hurt at all.”
I’d been a little tense when the black mages suddenly showed up working with the Scavengers, but they turned out to be far weaker than I expected, so I never even had a chance to get injured. I even spread both arms wide to show him I was fine, but Louis still scanned every inch of my body with a worried expression.
This guy really worries too much for his own good.
After a thorough inspection, Louis finally let out a relieved smile.
“You really aren’t hurt at all?”
“The black mages were weaker than I thought.”
I’d imagined an intense battle where I’d have to use my unfinished gauntlet to its maximum potential, but the so-called walking nightmares known as black mages had been pathetically weak. I’d heard that black mages usually stab their own hearts and self-destruct before they die, so I’d made sure to hit them with a paralysis dart first. I never expected they wouldn’t even have a counter for that.
‘Anyway, the black mages aren’t what’s important right now.’
What mattered most at this moment was the white-haired female student over there. The Saintess (presumed female lead).
‘Is this really a romance fantasy world?’
I’d already pegged her as the female lead of a RoFan story—a suspiciously beautiful new student who suddenly awakened as the Saintess during a crisis. But just to be sure, I needed to look into it a bit more. For all I knew, she could be a double protagonist or just one of the heroines.
That was why I decided to take another look back at the world I’d been living in.
This was definitely a romance fantasy world. That was the conclusion I reached after reflecting on my life.
When I thought about it, there were suspiciously many date-friendly locations for a fantasy world, and hygiene standards seemed unusually high. But beyond that, the evidence that this was a RoFan world was hidden all over my life in places that were hard to notice unless you looked closely.
Now that I knew the world I was living in was a romance fantasy, what was I supposed to do?
‘I don’t know.’
I really didn’t. It wasn’t like knowing it was a RoFan world suddenly gave me knowledge of the future. If I’d been transported into a novel I’d actually read, that would be one thing, but none of the novels I’d read had this kind of setting. Besides, I never really read female-oriented romance fantasy in the first place….
I had a hard time getting immersed if the protagonist wasn’t a guy.
So I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to do. The only thing I could do was prepare myself so I wouldn’t get hurt whenever those typical RoFan incidents happened, and make sure I could keep growing stronger.
“Guess I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing.”
In other words, I should live pretty much the same as before. After all, I’d always thrown my whole heart into everything I did.
…Even though that somehow still only got me third place. Fuck.
Anyway, through this fight with the black mages and Scavengers, I realized my gauntlet was already at a level where it could be used in real combat without any problems. But I’d already been confident about its durability and operability for a while, so the only reason it was still unfinished was because I hadn’t installed the “functions” I had planned yet.
Right now it only had the paralysis dart and magic power conductivity enhancement, but once I added a few more of the functions I had in mind, it would truly be complete.
Conveniently, the Academy was shutting down temporarily due to the unprecedented event of black mages and Scavengers launching a joint attack. So I threw myself completely into working on the gauntlet during the break.
It really felt like I only needed a little more, so I ate the meals Louis brought me, slept the bare minimum, and kept working.
One day before classes resumed at the Academy.
“Whoa! Just one more function and it’s done!”
I had successfully installed every function I wanted except for one. The problem was that this last function was ridiculously difficult to add. There was no way I could finish it in a single day, so I’d have to work on it bit by bit while attending classes.
Having spent the past six days completely focused on the gauntlet, my whole body was stiff. I lightly stretched my back.
“Oof, my back. Still, it’s nice that my body’s so sturdy.”
Thanks to the body I’d trained in swordsmanship, the stiffness was only mild. I didn’t feel any real pain or heaviness. And because I’d learned magic, my mind didn’t feel fatigued from the work either.
-Knock knock.
I was thinking about lying down on the bed for the first time in a while when I heard a knock. It was probably Louis. I got up immediately and opened the door. Sure enough, Louis was standing there.
Since the pretty-looking kid was also on the short side, I lowered my gaze slightly as I spoke.
“Is it already dinner time?”
“…Looking at the state of you, it seems like you finished your work, but did you even look outside the window?”
“There’s still one function left to add. But I can work on that gradually while attending classes, so I was planning to take it easy today.”
“Sigh… That habit of yours where you focus on one thing and ignore everything else hasn’t changed since we were kids.”
“You always say that whenever I concentrate on something. Doesn’t it get old?”
“Well, I keep saying it because you never change no matter how many times I tell you…”
At my words, Louis shook his head like he was fed up, then pointed behind him with his thumb.
“If you’re not busy, let’s go out and look around the area. We’re going to be here for the next four years, so it wouldn’t hurt to check out what’s nearby in advance, right?”
“Sure, why not.”
“I’ll wait outside. Hurry up and change.”
“Got it.”
As soon as Louis closed the door and left, I opened my wardrobe and changed clothes. A typical noble would have ordered their servant to help them change, but as someone from Earth, I found that a bit uncomfortable. Plus, Louis seemed a little embarrassed about it too, so I’d already told him he didn’t have to do it.
Once I finished changing, I stepped outside the Academy grounds with Louis. It was just about dinner time, so as we looked around, Louis pointed out a suitable restaurant and suggested we eat there.
Since I’d always left menu decisions to Louis, I followed him into the shop he chose.
The place Louis picked was a grilled fish restaurant. The two of us ordered the restaurant’s signature dish and chatted while we waited.
“They’re doing club recruitment promotions at the Academy tomorrow.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. People from each club will come out and promote like crazy to the new students.”
“Clubs, huh…”
“I heard the Magic Research Club is already aiming for the top two in the Magic department, and the Swordsmanship Club is targeting the top two in the Knight department.”
“How do you even know that?”
“The servants all share information with each other.”
Like some kind of office worker network? Anyway.
“What about me?”
“Huh?”
“I’m asking if there’s any club targeting Ashen Serdis, who’s third in the Knight department, third in Magic, third in Magic Engineering, and third in Economics.”
“Uh… well…”
Louis, why won’t you look me in the eye? Actually, I already had a feeling.
“What a dirty world that only remembers the first place.”
“W-well, second place also—”
“A dirty world that only remembers first and second place! Did you really have to say it like that to feel satisfied?!”
“No, that wasn’t my intention…”
Fuck. Being third place really makes life hard. Honestly, if I were them, I’d probably only remember first place, and maybe second if they tried a bit harder. I wouldn’t bother remembering third place and inviting them to a club.
I thought I’d built up a pretty good image by slicing up those black mages, but unfortunately, the birth of the Saintess and Levia’s defeat of the magic beast stole all the spotlight.
“Oh right, that student who became the Saintess… I heard her name is Ella Seviang, the top student in the Economics department.”
“Ella Seviang…”
‘Wait a second.’
“Her name is Ella?”
“Yeah? Is there a problem with that?”
“No, the Ella I know is definitely…”
Since I was also third in the Economics department, I’d naturally looked up the ones ranked above me. The second place right above me was a guy who looked like a total model student. And first place was definitely…
“Huh.”
Come to think of it, I’d never seen her in any lectures. Did the female lead skip the very first class?
“Damn it.”
I only knew her name and not her face, but it turned out that the top student in Economics, Ella, was her.
“She’s my enemy starting now too.”
“Huh…?”
As long as you’re standing above me, you’re my rival from this moment on. I don’t care if you’re the RoFan female lead or whatever. I won’t go easy on you.