Chapter 20: New Colleagues Are Always Welcome (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 20: New Colleagues Are Always Welcome (1)
Smack!
My eyes snapped open at the crisp sound. For a second, I wondered if someone had set a physical alarm for me.
"Who told you to do that?!"
I heard Violet’s voice, shrill with resentment.
I sat up and pulled back the curtain surrounding my bed just a crack.
"Oh."
There stood Daisy, clutching her right cheek as if she’d just been slapped.
"What if you had died?!"
Violet was glaring at Daisy, her eyes brimming with tears.
I’d barely woken up from being knocked out, and already a tear-jerking melodrama was unfolding. Usually, in a situation like this, Daisy would burst into tears and apologize.
Thwack!
"Ack!"
Instead, Daisy chose to retaliate for the opening strike.
Holy crap. I didn't see it clearly, but was that a punch to the jaw rather than a slap?
Watching this unexpectedly entertaining scene made me miss the popcorn from my past life.
"Who was the one trying to die first?! Who do you think you're yelling at?!"
Regardless of my thoughts, Daisy growled, her voice thick with rage.
Come to think of it, she had a point. Violet was the one who’d been ready to get a hole put in her gut first. If you slap someone for stopping you from being a human shield, you can't really complain if they punch you back.
That’s what I thought, but apparently, Violet disagreed.
Thud!
"I was confident I could dodge it!"
"Urgh!"
Violet’s fist buried itself in Daisy’s side.
At least she had the decency to aim for the side opposite the one Silence had slashed? After the Saintess Awakening event, a wide-area healing field had been deployed, but considering the state of my own body, I knew we still needed more recovery. Usually, you’d aim for the injury to win, but I guess she still had a conscience.
"Stop bullshitting me!"
However, letting your conscience dictate a fight is a surefire way to lose.
Daisy, her eyes still teary, let out a cry and swung. She didn't hit the wounded area, but it was a heavy blow nonetheless. She’d tanked the damage and immediately fired off a counter-punch!
"Gah!"
Daisy’s fist caught Violet square in the jaw.
A clean, picture-perfect uppercut!
Caught off guard by the counter, Violet let out a short scream and collapsed backward.
"Damn."
It was truly a pity. Why did a talent like her go to the Magic Department instead of the Swordsmanship Department? Should I recommend she change majors right now? I felt like I’d discovered a diamond in the rough—someone who, with a little polishing, could easily take down the Minor Sword Emperor in a fistfight.
Well, even if they fought now, I doubt the Minor Sword Emperor could beat Daisy. Not even Ellen, the supposed strongest in this world, could beat Daisy, so what could he do?
"Don't mess with me when you're weaker than I am," the victor, Daisy, growled down at the unconscious Violet.
Then, her face crumpled, and tears began to stream down her face.
"Who... who do you think you're looking out for...?"
She grabbed the fallen Violet and sobbed piteously, looking every bit the tragic heroine. But having witnessed the clean exchange of blows, they both just looked like lunatics to me.
"Yikes."
The show seemed to be over, so I carefully closed the curtain and lay back down so as not to be caught.
Closing my eyes, a thought occurred to me.
...Wait, wasn't this a private room?
I was assigned a private room at the Academy. Why were these crazy women having a brawl in someone else's hospital room?
Just as I was about to pull the curtain back again in disbelief—
"...Oh, when did you wake up?"
Daisy had pulled the curtain back first and was looking down at me with an awkward expression. My eyes immediately darted to her other fist, which was held in a rather ambiguous position.
"Just now."
I couldn't exactly tell her I’d been awake and watching the whole time. If I did, I had a feeling that fist would come flying straight at me.
"Uh, um. Well..."
Daisy blinked, hesitating for a moment, and then her fist began to glow.
What was that? A Holy Punch? Did she realize I was a witness and decided to silence me?
"I've awakened a healing power."
Fortunately, that wasn't the case. Honestly, I was about five times more nervous than when I was fighting that Minor Sword Emperor brat.
"Ah, I see."
"I might as well use it when I can."
Her fist unclenched, and a warm energy from her palm began to envelop my body.
"I heard. That you stayed until the very end to fight."
"That's just my job."
Being a royal sandbag didn't just mean getting beaten up by the prince. It also meant the duty of taking hits intended for royalty.
"I did hear something about that. Ellen's bodyguard? Something like that?"
"Close enough. Though it's a bit of a problem that I'm weaker than the person I'm guarding."
It felt a bit wrong to think this about a miracle from the Goddess, but for some reason, it reminded me of the "physical therapy" from my previous life. It was like my whole body was melting under the warm light.
"But thanks to you, everyone survived."
My body felt limp and relaxed in the warm glow. Then came that soft, gentle voice.
As expected of a RoFan Female Lead. She really knew how to make a person melt.
"Thank you."
As the healing light faded, her warm voice lingered.
"..."
It was all going so well until then.
"...?"
Daisy noticed my silence and followed my gaze.
"Ah."
There, in the corner, lay Violet, stretched out perfectly straight.
"T-That! We came here together earlier. Since you hadn't woken up yet, Adam! We were waiting, and she was pretty badly hurt, you know? So she said she’d just nap for a bit!"
"Ah, I see."
I guess she was too embarrassed to admit she’d sent her friend to the shadow realm with a single uppercut. Her frantic excuses were fine and all, but nobody sleeps like that.
"W-Well then, I've done what I came for!"
Realizing how thin her excuse was, Daisy hurriedly made her exit.
"...Take her with you."
She left her half-dead childhood friend behind.
"S-So..."
We were alone in the room. Violet, who had finally woken up, avoided my gaze and tried to apolo—
"You crazy bastard, this is all your fault!"
Wait, no. It looked like she was trying to pick another fight.
What was with this girl? She just got wrecked by Daisy; did she really think she could take me?
"I had a whole plan! Would it have killed you to just cooperate until we finished the Academy?!"
I stared at her in disbelief as she shouted with a tearful face.
"Hey, you're the one who ruined your own plan."
"Well, that's true, but still!"
Even if I was the one who landed the finishing blow, she was the one playing Jujutsu Kaisen with Silence. Looking at how things were going, it would have been impossible to catch Silence without an understanding of "Sorcery." If she had used that power—which even the Magic Department Head Professor couldn't counter—Silence’s escape from the Academy would have been a breeze.
Silence, the Mage Slayer. Contrary to the name, he was a lethal existence for swordsmen as well. That’s probably why he remained active until the mid-to-late stages of the story despite Prince Ellen and the Minor Sword Emperor being around.
Fine, I’ll admit it. This world is a real piece of work for a RoFan.
And because of that...
Tap. Tap.
I tapped the spot on the bed next to me, signaling her to sit.
"What are you doing?"
"We need to talk."
I’d heard the gist of the story, but I needed more details. The more information, the better.
"And if I... if I don't want to?"
She looked like she’d talk if I pushed her just one more time, but I hadn't fully recovered from my mental fatigue yet. So, I got out of bed and walked toward the door.
Click.
"Hey, what... what are you doing?"
I locked the door, just in case.
What am I doing?
"Torture."
"Huh?"
She’d asked for a fight; there was no reason to back down. I wondered if she’d seen that movie too.
"Now, say hello. This is our kingdom's legal counsel, Attorney Jeon."
Zap!
Seeing Violet’s face turn pale at the brief spark of electricity, I knew.
"Hey, hey!"
As expected of a movie with ten million viewers. She’d definitely seen it.
"...And that's basically what's going to happen," Violet said, having given up all resistance at the sound of the crackling sparks.
Honestly, I could have just treated her like a problem child and talked it out, but I was too tired to be her emotional garbage can.
"I see."
Hearing the whole story, I could understand why she was so obsessed with the original work.
"The continent is doomed."
Apparently, around the time the kids graduate from the Academy, the Demonic Realm will explode and space will warp. As a result, the area of the Demonic Realm bordering parts of the Empire will expand, touching several kingdoms, including ours.
"It's scheduled to be doomed," Violet grumbled, her lip pouting with dissatisfaction.
Zap!
"Hieee!"
Of course, Attorney Jeon took care of that attitude.
"Is there really no way to stop it?"
"None. It's described as a natural disaster."
If dark mages were opening a dimensional gate, we could stop it by crushing them. But the explosion of the Demonic Realm was a natural phenomenon caused by the instability of this world. Even as a possessor, it was something that was bound to happen.
The problem was that three or four kingdoms would be wiped out in the process. The continent would be shaken by the magical beasts filling the vacuum, and then the Demon Tribe would appear, turning the whole place into a mess. That was the story.
"I thought I’d read my fair share of RoFan, but I don't remember a plot like that."
"I haven't seen many like it either, but they do exist."
I guess they do. RoFan is a scary world.
"If it's a romance, they should just stick to dating."
"Oh, they manage to squeeze in the romance perfectly even while fighting."
"What's the point? You said the Demon King takes her away anyway."
"...I've made preparations for that, so don't worry."
I’ll give her that. She did train them pretty well.
"And you die in the process?"
"In the original work."
"Can't you just give up?"
From what I heard, as long as she didn't follow Daisy, she probably wouldn't die.
"Give up on Daisy? It's already too late for that."
My eyes narrowed as she gave a hollow chuckle.
"Is this a GL Drift?"
"Don't talk shit. We're just pure friends, okay?"
They were "friends" who took stabs for each other, but remembering the brawl I saw earlier, I was inclined to believe her.
"Then are you on Team Esid?"
"......How did you know?"
"I told you, I've read some RoFan."
It was obvious from the way she subtly talked up Prince Esid. It was clear who she was rooting for.
"And you're pushing Prince Ellen?"
"Are you crazy? The royal family is trying to block that. Same with the Dale side."
"Well, they were always like that."
"Speaking of things being 'always like that,' what happens now?"
The villain Silence seemed to have a pretty big role later on.
"What else? We're truly screwed."
She said it, but her expression looked relieved.
"I don't know anymore. All my plans are ruined."
"Didn't you have a Plan B?"
"I had Plan B, C, D, and E. But none of those plans accounted for this."
She began to vent about her plans. They ranged from operations that only someone with a head full of flowers would think of—though they seemed plausible in a RoFan—to plans that were quite realistic or had several failure contingencies.
"But I poured in all the main power I’d gathered for nearly ten years. I'm completely tapped out now."
Apparently, that sorcery was also a one-time thing she’d spent nearly a decade preparing. To use something of that level again, she’d need another ten years.
"You really are useless."
"Yeah. So from now on, I'm just going to grab some popcorn and watch from the front row of this RoFan."
"But you said you'd die."
"I don't know. It's all your fault anyway. You take responsibility."
It was nonsense, but it gave me a pretty good idea. Since she was a friend of the RoFan heroine and a possessor who was currently overflowing with emotion, I figured I could play along a little.
"Fine, I'll take responsibility."
"......Really?"
She looked incredibly suspicious.
"Well, there's a bit of a problem since I belong to the kingdom, but..."
I was tired, but I leaned into the emotional atmosphere. After talking about this and that, laughing and empathizing with her...
"Say hello. This is my Captain."
—Hello! So you're our new agent!
"...Son of a bitch."
And just like that, I had myself a field spy.