Chapter 40: Sub Quest (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 40: Sub Quest (4)
Watching Prince Ellen, who had lost his mind, my first thought was, ‘What a waste.’
Ah. I should have been the one to lose my mind.
If I had, I could have beaten him up legally!
Sure, there’s the public aspect of our relationship, and privately, I still feel a bit of the distance dictated by our social status.
But regardless, Prince Ellen considers me a friend.
With his personality, he wouldn’t mercilessly pummel a friend being controlled by wicked dark magic.
So, it would have been a very entertaining situation where I was the only one dealing out one-sided attacks.
It makes me wonder if I should start living more virtuously, but then again...
“That’s not being virtuous; that’s a lapse in intelligence.”
A prince throwing his body on the line for someone he’s never met—no, for a beastkin—is definitely an intelligence issue.
The kid was always a bit of a pushover, but he wasn’t usually this bad.
This, too, must be the fault of Daisy, the RoFan heroine and the root of all evil.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s that if he’d do this for a stranger, he’d probably move heaven and earth if I were in danger.
“Sigh.”
I thought about it for a second, but the realization that he was the one who created this dangerous situation in the first place made a sigh escape my lips.
“How am I supposed to stop that?”
The future looks bleak.
His status as a prince alone is enough to make me groan, but according to Boradori, he’s the man destined to become the strongest swordsman in this world’s setting.
To make matters worse, thanks to Boradori’s early education, he went into seclusion to train just so he could be a match for Daisy—who had already skipped several years of the original plot.
And since I was the one dragged along to act as his sandbag during that seclusion, I knew better than anyone just how much Prince Ellen had grown.
“Seriously, I should just quit.”
Of course, I’m only saying that.
The class system of a medieval fantasy world isn't something to be trifled with.
Could an instructor who knows countless royal secrets simply retire whenever he wants?
Unless I was prepared to throw away everything I’d built and become a literal rogue ninja, retirement was next to impossible.
In the first place, the retirement jokes I trade with the Captain are just a bit of WWE—a performance to signal that I’m exhausted and want a reward.
Among people like us, the only one who talks about retirement in UFC terms is Senior Lucia.
“Should I ask the Royal Magic Tower to whip up some anesthetic?”
I had packed a ton of items before leaving for the Academy to prepare for future events.
But right now, there wasn't a single thing I could use.
They were all items prepared for the dark mages and villains that would appear later in this RoFan world.
I’d tried all the potions, but they had no effect, and I couldn't exactly use poison on the Prince.
I did have the doping drug I used during the Silence incident, but I’d heard it has a cooldown and is better for one's health to save for as late as possible.
“Is all I have left my sword and my body? I guess I really am a swordsman.”
People often say a swordsman only needs himself and his blade.
Unintentionally, I found myself having to stop the world’s strongest-to-be with nothing but a single sword.
“I’ll just have to hold out.”
I ran a few simulations in my head, but I lost all fifteen times.
With my current level of offense, I couldn't break through Prince Ellen’s solid defense.
The only saving grace was that the dark mages who were supposed to give him orders were all dead.
Even though we’d been in a standoff for over a minute, Prince Ellen hadn't moved.
It would be great if we could just stay like this until the experts from the Kingdom arrived.
“Prince Ellen!”
At that moment, the voices of the escort knights rushing toward us spurred Prince Ellen into motion.
“Sigh.”
In the end, I had no choice but to move to stop him.
The Defeat Sword was a style created for the royalty of the Leon Royal Family.
Paradoxically, it was also a swordsmanship that could be called a counter to the Royal Swordsmanship.
Since the very design of the Defeat Sword was rooted in the Royal style, it was engineered to make the royalty feel a sense of crisis the more they exchanged blows. Thus, the early forms of the Defeat Sword naturally "ate away" at the Royal Swordsmanship.
Of course, the downside was that the further the fight progressed, the more the Defeat Sword was consumed by the Royal style.
But since it was a style born to lose, rather than a flaw, it was more like the swordsmanship perfectly achieving its goal.
At least, that was the case until Senior Lucia and I came along.
Ellen and Hestia.
The emergence of these two geniuses, who far exceeded the Royal Family’s expectations, forced their instructors to seek victory rather than defeat.
Therefore, we forcibly modified the sword style—which was supposed to naturally lose in the later stages—into one that could win.
In other words, the Defeat Sword I knew was a complete counter to the Royal Swordsmanship from start to finish.
I knew the moment I learned it that I’d be leashed to the Royal Family for life, but I accepted it for the sake of my career.
“This is why fantasy protagonists always throw a fit about wanting to rest.”
The moment our swords first clashed, I realized it.
I thought it might be easier since he was being controlled by a dark mage.
But then I remembered—these dark mages were the kind of bastards who could craft magic swords that drew out a person's absolute limits.
Fortunately, unlike the Minor Sword Emperor wannabe, Prince Ellen seemed capable of drawing out his maximum potential even normally, so he didn't get a power-up from becoming an enemy.
However, if he was at his usual level, it just meant I’d barely win once out of dozens of fights, so it wasn't exactly good news.
“I really don't want to go to school.”
I ended up uttering the same words I’d said dozens of times in my past life.
To be precise, it’s an Academy, not a school.
And I’m not even at the Academy yet; I’m just on my way there.
If things are this annoying before the original plot even begins, I can only imagine how tedious the second semester will be—the time Boradori said the RoFan Academy life truly starts.
Parrying Ellen’s sword, dodging, and occasionally counterattacking.
As I engaged in this duel—which felt like half-WWE to me since it was so familiar—a thought suddenly occurred to me.
“Actually, this is manageable.”
Ellen wasn't the only one who improved over the break.
My skills as a sandbag had developed just as noticeably as his growth.
“……”
As I held my ground, a thought suddenly reared its head from deep within my chest.
Wait, is this actually doable?
Even now, when I ran simulations in my head, they all ended in miserable defeat.
But simulations are just simulations; reality might be different.
I cautiously shifted the direction of my blade.
My toes, which had been smoothly dodging Ellen’s attacks, now pointed toward him.
I read the flow.
Whether in theory or practice, I had already completely seen through the Royal Swordsmanship.
At this timing, he’ll make this attack, and then the development will follow like this.
I knew the possibilities of his movements when an attack succeeded and when it failed.
And among those, I knew which moves Ellen preferred.
On top of that, my physical specs and pure mana quantity were higher.
They say losing despite all that is the "difference in talent," but...
“If he’s not even in his right mind, it’s worth a shot.”
I lunged into an opening.
Perhaps because I struck at a timing when I would normally have defended, I felt Prince Ellen flinch through the tip of my sword.
“……”
But he counterattacked immediately. As expected of a cheat character blessed by the heavens.
Normally, I would have retreated into defense here, but I lunged in once more.
Attack, attack, and attack again.
The extreme aggressiveness that was the root of the Defeat Sword.
Though it had become more defensive because of Prince Ellen, what I had learned before hadn't vanished; I could pull it out whenever I wanted.
However, perhaps because my proficiency had dropped, or perhaps because of Ellen’s talent...
My offensive stalled, and Ellen’s attacks began to graze me.
“Still not enough?”
Normally, I would stop here.
Well, given the situation, I couldn't stop like I would in a sparring session.
If I went back to defending now, I could hold out a bit longer, and if I utilized the escort knights who were standing by after being briefed, I could probably resolve the incident somehow.
But it felt wasteful.
It felt like being blocked right in front of the finish line.
Usually, I would have taken the safe, "salaryman" approach and defended.
Ellen was the one causing the mess, and I was just the one cleaning it up.
“I can cause a little mess too, can’t I?”
The emotion called anger, buried deep in my heart, began to crawl upward.
“The Royal Dark Magic Response Team will arrive shortly!”
At that perfect timing—the news that I wouldn't have to deal with the aftermath—I decided to just go for it.
Garek, a Royal Escort Knight, thought to himself:
So those are the greatest geniuses of this generation.
Garek was also someone who had been called a genius.
He was called a genius in the arms of his family.
He was called a genius by his master.
Even after leaving his family and master to face the world, he was still called a genius.
And even at the Royal Academy, where such geniuses gathered, he was recognized as one.
It was only natural.
The Royal Escort Knights were a collection of such brilliant talents.
The knights who had been granted the most honorable mission in the Leon Kingdom, the Kingdom of Knights.
Those very men were now watching the fight between the two young swordsmen with their mouths agape.
“Is this okay?”
At the rookie’s words, Garek replied without even turning his head.
“Is what okay?”
“A fight like that against the Prince of a nation...”
He might be a rookie, but to enter the Royal Knights, one must have corresponding achievements and loyalty.
To a knight who had belonged to various orders and participated in numerous battles, the fight between Ellen and Adam looked dangerous.
“It’s definitely not okay.”
The same went for Garek, who had spent a long time as a Royal Knight.
However...
“But what can we do?”
“Pardon?”
“Are you going to jump in and stop them? I won't stop you if suicide is your hobby.”
“……”
The rookie knight thought to himself:
If he were to dive into that fight, how many exchanges could he last?
Five? Ten? He might not even last one.
“How precise.”
At Garek’s murmur, the rookie nodded unconsciously.
On the surface, it didn't look particularly flashy.
But the precision contained within forced an exclamation of admiration from him as a fellow swordsman.
Whether it was Prince Ellen, who parried attacks with incredibly delicate mana control, or Adam, who used feints and mana manipulation to break through that delicate control...
Both were incredible, but the victor continued to be Prince Ellen.
Was that why?
“Huh?”
Adam began to force his way through.
When Ellen’s "paper" beat his "rock," Adam started pushing forward as if to say that if the rock is heavy enough, the paper will tear.
“Isn't that really dangerous?”
The amount of mana exploding instantaneously was unusual.
The rookie looked at Garek, but Garek could only marvel.
“Look at the tip of his sword.”
The mana contained in Adam’s sword was very powerful, but it felt lacking compared to the momentum he was projecting.
It was exactly at the level of the maximum mana Prince Ellen could draw out.
As if proving this, when Ellen and Adam’s swords collided, a powerful gust of wind erupted, and the energy in both their blades vanished.
A perfect draw.
But in that state, Adam took one more step forward.
Abandoning his sword, he channeled the crudely drawn-out mana into his fist.
“It’s the Holy Punch you learned from your precious Daisy, you bastard!”
With those incomprehensible words, he punched down directly onto the sword of Prince Ellen, who was trying to counterattack.
“……”
A dull, heavy sound brushed past Garek’s ears.
The sound was so loud that he couldn't hear anything else.
After the ringing in his ears stopped, he saw Prince Ellen lying unconscious amidst a cloud of dust.
Fortunately, he didn't seem to have many injuries.
In terms of injuries alone, the winner looked to be in worse shape.
However, the fact remained that he had punched a member of the Royal Family. As a Royal Escort Knight, he couldn't just stand by.
But then again, it was also Prince Ellen’s fault for falling victim to dark magic.
“It’s the dark mage.”
“Pardon?”
“Prince Ellen was victimized by a dark mage.”
“…Oh, I see.”
The rookie, who was about to object, realized that wasn't exactly a lie either.
“Y-yes, sir. Understood.”
He had no choice but to nod at the words of his far-senior colleague.
And actually, this is the main point.
The finished piece of Daisy biting a crown daisy.
Seeing how the artist treats the readers like they don't know anything while asking "What even is a crown daisy?" as they draw it, I'm certain the artist is the one who doesn't know.
Additionally, they asked me to make it clear that they are absolutely not the official artist for Daisy, so I'm writing it here... but I think if you all consider them official, then they're official.