Chapter 51: Negotiation (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 51: Negotiation (3)
They say if you can’t avoid it, you might as well enjoy it.
Of course, no one in their right mind could actually enjoy a date with a RoFan heroine. However, I could certainly exploit her unique traits.
A typical RoFan heroine is like a spectacled reaper—incidents just happen wherever she goes. If I used that to my advantage, wouldn't I be able to track down all the criminals lurking in the Academy without even trying?
Since we were mostly sticking to secluded areas anyway, I figured there was a high probability of enemies appearing if we just wandered around. Sure enough, it didn't take long to spot a Dark Mage inscribing a magic circle in broad daylight.
By the way, I always had this image of Dark Mages being active at night. It made me realize that the hardest-working people in this RoFan world might actually be the Dark Mages.
"A-A Dark Mage?"
Daisy’s eyes widened at the sight of a wild Dark Mage. Come to think of it, for a Saintess, she hadn't actually encountered a proper Dark Mage yet.
Silence, who appeared during her initial Awakening, was a sorcerer rooted in magic. After that, the major antagonists were corrupt priests from her own religion. Thus, this was Daisy’s first time meeting a Dark Mage—the bread and butter of fantasy villains.
"Violet said that in times like this, you have to launch a swift surprise attack!"
Making a comment that practically confirmed Violet was the root of all evil, Daisy immediately ambushed the Dark Mage.
"What the—you crazy—!"
Thwack!
The Dark Mage, who barely managed a short curse, was instantly KO’d by a one-two punch.
"Why is there a Dark Mage in the Academy...?"
Daisy frowned as she looked down at the collapsed mage. I took it for granted that Dark Mages would infest the Academy, but for ordinary people, they were creatures from old fairy tales—beings you’d never expect to encounter in real life.
The reason such a being was roaming the Academy in the middle of the day wasn't entirely due to Uncle Aeryun’s incompetence... well, maybe a little.
Up until the Founding Festival, they had captured five Dark Mages and twenty of their underlings. On top of that, the number of revolutionaries and "revival movement" fanatics reached into the hundreds. In the process, they even caught several corrupt nobles and professors.
In other words, even though he gets flak all the time, Uncle Aeryun isn't talentless, nor is he lazy. He’s just a victim of forced RoFan plot developments.
...Of course, that doesn't mean I’m going to stop giving him flak.
A world where a Dark Mage prepares a magic circle in the Academy during the day? And while the Academy is open to the public, no less!
"The security was breached last time, too."
"Ah."
Daisy blinked and nodded at my answer. Honestly, I wanted to tell her she was the culprit, but even in Detective Conan*, no one ever realizes that the kid is the real harbinger of doom.
...Seriously, though, if crimes happen this often around you, you’d think people would start treating you as a suspect.
"Still, I never thought something like this would happen twice."
I couldn't bring myself to tell the muttering, serious-faced Daisy that this was only the beginning. And for good reason.
"Huh? Wait a minute."
Ten minutes after handing the captured mage over to the Academy, we found another one—like clockwork—drawing a magic circle.
As expected of a RoFan heroine, the center of this world and the eye of every storm.
"There's another Dark Mage?"
Daisy’s eyes were wide with shock when we found the second one.
"...Right. If there's a second, there could be a third."
By the time we found the third, she didn't even look surprised; she just clenched her fists.
"...I see. Seeing as there are three of them, it must be a coordinated infiltration!"
By the fourth, she looked half-enlightened, as if she’d transcended worldly concerns.
"Just die."
And by the fifth, she just charged in and beat the guy senseless the moment she saw him.
"One hour of Daisy’s time is equal to two weeks of Uncle Aeryun’s..."
The number of Dark Mages Uncle Aeryun had busted his ass for two weeks to catch with the backing of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, Daisy had matched in a single hour while on a date with a fake boyfriend.
Of course, I knew the difficulty of finding them was different—Aeryun was looking for people hiding to infiltrate, while we were finding them after they’d already broken in and started working. But in the face of such overwhelming results, such distinctions felt meaningless.
"There... won't be any more, right?"
Daisy’s eyes were shaking violently. Even for a RoFan protagonist, encountering a Dark Mage every ten minutes on a date seemed hard to process.
"I wouldn't know."
"...The person who planned this route shouldn't say something so irresponsible!"
Daisy pouted and scowled, then suddenly let out a gasp as if she’d realized something.
"...Wait! Adam, you planned this route. Don't tell me you prepared these Dark Mages yourself?!"
"Don't treat me like your club president."
"The club president? You mean Senior Bellian? What does that even mean, 'treating you like him'?"
I couldn't exactly tell her he was a planned mastermind, so I just brushed it off by saying I felt like I was being unfairly misunderstood.
"The President? I never got that vibe from him."
Perhaps it was because he was the only person in the clubroom who didn't have romantic feelings for her, but her opinion of the narrow-eyed senior seemed quite high.
"Anyway, it's a misunderstanding. How would I even 'prepare' Dark Mages?"
"I guess that's true."
Deciding that was indeed unlikely, she nodded and snapped the neck of the fifth captured mage.
Crack.
"Did you kill him?"
"I didn't! I just knocked him out!"
I wouldn't have cared if she’d killed a Dark Mage on the spot, but seeing her blush and shout a denial, it seemed she still had an aversion to taking lives.
"This isn't what a date is supposed to be like."
Daisy, having performed a "confirmation knockout," sighed deeply and channeled her divine power. As the warm light from her hands touched the magic circle the mage had been drawing, it began to dissolve into black smoke.
"Were you expecting something?"
"A little. It's technically my first date ever."
"Well, it's certainly a date you won't forget."
"Of course! How could I possibly forget this?!"
Daisy shouted, giving the unconscious mage on the ground a frustrated kick.
"My only memory of this date is going to be catching Dark Mages together!"
It was a bit pitiful to see her screaming about it being a nightmare, but I had to clear up one thing.
"What do you mean 'together'? You beat them all up by yourself."
"Pardon?"
"If they call for witnesses later, you're going on your own."
"Are you really going to be like this?!"
It was only natural. I had literally just stood there and watched her beat them up. Why would I want to get dragged into annoying paperwork?
"Of course."
"Wow..."
Daisy let out a gasp of disbelief at my shameless nodding.
"What? If you're unhappy, say so now. I can stop being your boyfriend whenever you want."
"I hate to say this myself, but I'm actually quite popular, you know."
"I know."
She was so popular that the people in our club were losing sleep over it.
"But you're the first person to ever treat me like this."
"......"
I felt a chill. It would have been fine if she’d said that with a scowl, looking offended. Why was she saying it with a smile?
"In a novel Violet showed me when we were kids, there was a line like this..."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
I played dumb, but Daisy laughed brightly and shouted.
"That's it! That line! 'You're the first person to treat me like this!'"
Daisy burst into a fit of giggles at my grimace. Then, looking nothing like the battle-hardened Saintess who had just beaten Dark Mages with her bare hands, she spoke.
"Want to extend our time as a couple?"
"Get lost."
She was radiating a pure RoFan aura, dropping a heart-stopping line as if aiming for the suspension bridge effect.
"...You didn't actually plan that, did you?"
"I told you, I didn't."
That atmosphere was promptly blown away ten minutes later when we encountered yet another Dark Mage.
"You're really not a spy?"
"I told you, no."
"If you come clean now, I heard the Imperial Intelligence Bureau is willing to scout you."
Three hours of dating Daisy. In that time—short or long, depending on how you look at it—we had caught nine Dark Mages.
Fortunately, we didn't run into any of the ones shouting about revolution or the restoration of old kingdoms. But even for the Intelligence Bureau, encountering nine Dark Mages in three hours—beings that even people in the underworld might only see once a year—was beyond comprehension.
"Don't you think Daisy is more suspicious than me?"
"To be honest, yeah, a little. But she's the Empire's Saintess. She's the one who normalized the Holy Kingdom."
They had their suspicions, but she was a person personally favored and guaranteed by the Goddess herself. Naturally, the suspicion fell on the person standing next to her.
Uncle Aeryun explained it that way, then added one more thing.
"If a swarm of Intelligence agents suddenly surrounds you one day, just know that the time has come."
"Why a swarm?"
"Because I don't think they can beat you with just a few people. How is the Bureau supposed to take down the guy who beat the Minor Sword Emperor?"
To us, Asran was just the "Defeated Sword Emperor" or the "So-so-so-so-so Minor Sword Emperor," but his growth rate was actually faster than in the original work.
"Is his reputation really that high?"
"It has to be. Do you know the Minor Sword Emperor has already won twelve consecutive matches on the first day of the Swordsmanship Tournament?"
"I wouldn't know."
I’d been on a date with a RoFan heroine, watching her shatter dark magic with Holy Punches and beat up Dark Mages nine times. Why would I care about some swordsman’s twelve-win streak?
Besides.
"Our Prince didn't even enter."
Prince Ellen had been practically held hostage by Princess Hestia to focus on the upcoming Exchange Tournament. Thus, he wasn't participating in the festival's swordsmanship competition.
With no Prince Ellen and no me, it was Asran’s world.
"It would be different if they fought now."
The pride of the Empire, the revival of the Sword Emperor’s grandson! Uncle Aeryun looked confident, but...
"Then maybe Prince Ellen should represent Leon Academy in the exchange..."
"Ahem! Regardless of nationality, Student Ellen belongs to this institution."
Seeing him back down immediately, it seemed he knew the truth as well.
"Anyway, what's wrong with that guy? Did he run into a Dark Mage on a date too?"
I asked, without even looking toward the corner of the room that was unusually damp despite being indoors.
"Ah, that."
Glance.
Unlike me, Uncle Aeryun stole a look at the soggy area and whispered back.
"He got dumped."
"...Really?"
Startled by the answer, I walked over to the Fire Spammer, who was turning the area into a humid rainy season despite being a fire mage.
"You really got dumped?"
"Gah!"
"Hey!"
The Fire Spammer flailed at my blunt question, and Uncle Aeryun shouted, but I didn't care.
"At least you actually confessed!"
I was proud of this frustrating guy for finally attempting a confession. However...
"N-No, it's not that..."
Seeing the Fire Spammer dodge my gaze, I got a bad feeling.
"The rejection wasn't for a love confession?"
"...I just asked her to go see the festival with me."
My head began to ache as I watched the Fire Spammer sniffle with the most wronged expression in the world.
"How do you get shut down at the entrance like that?"
"I-I tried my best..."
His pathetic, shrinking form was pitiable, but the world cares about results, not effort.
"What about tomorrow?"
"...I'm scared my heart will break if I get rejected again."
"You still have to try. Look at me. I had a date today, and I have another one the day after tomorrow."
It was a date forced upon me by others, but as a man with two dates scheduled during the week-long Founding Festival, I spoke with confidence.
"Let's go on a date."
"......?"
And just like that, the very next day, my date schedule increased by one.
...Why?