This World Was a Romance Fantasy All Along
The moment I heard the name Paulia Empire, everything finally clicked into place. Mt. Ksir. Blood Crow. All of it came rushing back. They were names straight out of the romance fantasy game I used to play—Romance Tale.
Strangely enough, even though the game marketed itself as a romance fantasy, it became far more famous for everything except the romance. If you followed the standard route, it was a perfectly normal rofan game where you built love lines between the heroine and the male leads inside the academy. The real problem was that when you played as one of the male characters, depending on your choices, you could shove the romance aside and go full world-exploration maniac instead.
It was the kind of game where, instead of rescuing the princess like the GOTY winner told you to, you’d assemble a road roller, build a massive mobile fortress, or whip up a carpet-bombing airship and proceed to annihilate every monster in sight until you became the walking apocalypse of the world. The game ended up attracting way more bored, unhinged gamers than its original female target audience, and that’s how it blew up.
Obviously, I was one of those unhinged players.
If you played it like a normal romance story, you’d have to devour every single book object in the academy library and squeeze every last bit of dialogue out of the NPCs just to hear the names Mt. Ksir and Blood Crow mentioned in passing. But if you played like a lunatic, those names popped up everywhere.
Mt. Ksir was the one location in the entire game that you literally could not enter. No wonder the name hadn’t rung any bells at first—there was nothing to remember because you couldn’t go there. And the Blood Crows were the Emperor’s personal secret agents. Most people dismissed them as nothing more than urban legends, but the high nobility knew they were very, very real.
Even when I played through the RPG routes, I never actually saw a Blood Crow in person. Still, every noble I ran into seemed to fear the Blood Crows far more than they feared the Emperor himself. According to the lore, these guys handled infiltration, sabotage, disguise, incitement, espionage, intelligence gathering, and even assassination…
Now that I think about it, this rotten old bastard really is abnormally strong.
I quietly sized up the old man sitting across from me. Ever since I was a kid, I’d tried every trick in the book to assassinate him, but every single attempt had failed spectacularly. Back then I’d told myself it was because I was too young and weak. But even after I grew into a late-teen beast, I still couldn’t lay a single finger on him.
When I’d tried to slit his throat while he was sleeping, he’d somehow sensed it, opened his eyes like a ghost, and knocked me out cold. When I’d swung a mace at the back of his head, he’d caught it without even looking. I used to wonder what the hell this guy ate and how he trained to be that strong. Hearing that he was a Blood Crow suddenly made a lot more sense.
Even though I’d never seen one in-game, the way high-ranking dukes would tremble at the mere mention of the name told me exactly how terrifying their reputation was. If this old monster was one of them…
Wait. Hold on. Isn’t this actually an opportunity?
A different thought slowly crept into my head. I now knew this world was the same one from the rofan game I’d played. And I knew this world extremely well. I knew which herbs were rare and which ones sold for a fortune. I knew exactly where to find them. I knew how to mine rare ores, where the veins were, and every single detail about monster ecology.
I didn’t know the exact year in game terms, but since we were riding a mana train—the main long-distance transport in the game—the timeline probably wasn’t that different. Which meant I didn’t actually have to listen to this old fart and become the Emperor’s errand boy.
If I just stepped outside and did literally anything, I could make a ridiculous amount of money and live like a king. So why the hell would I?
A nasty little smirk tugged at my lips as I asked, “Hey, old man. You told me to come to the imperial palace and work for the Empire, right?”
“That is correct.”
The second he answered, I leaned forward, twisted my body like a snake, and put on the most perfect☆ angelic expression I could manage while speaking in a mocking, syrupy voice.
“No~ thank~ you~”
“Is that so?”
“Someone like me can go out there, do whatever the hell I want, and still eat and live well. Why should I listen to a single word you say? I’ll give you a polite greeting out of respect for your face, but working under you? Hard pass. The second I say hello to the Emperor, I’m out of there and living my own life.”
“You would refuse the final wish of this old man who doesn’t have many days left, Aran?”
“Aaaahng? If you’re really about to kick the bucket, stop acting so pathetic and just go build your own coffin already.”
The old man shook his head with a sigh.
“Just whose personality did this brat take after to turn out like this?”
“Gee, I wonder? Who’s the only human I’ve seen every single day of my life? Huh? If you really want me to take the job that badly, why don’t you get down on your knees right now and say, ‘Aran-nim, may this dirty, disgusting, dementia-ridden old man humbly beg for you to grant his wish? Would that be acceptable?’ Then maybe—just maybe—I’ll have a change of heart. Of course…”
I twisted my entire body into a pretzel until my head was practically upside down and flipped him a perfect middle finger.
“I’ll only listen to it! Kehehehe!”
“......”
When I finally untangled myself, the old man muttered with a sorrowful expression, “It seems I have truly committed a grave sin.”
“Oh ho, so now that death’s knocking at the door, your life is flashing before your eyes? Too bad, wrong address. Go confess at a temple, you old fart.”
“It is my fault for failing to teach you proper etiquette. Across the sea in the Eastern Continent, they say masters teach their disciples the virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and loyalty to the sovereign. Yet I have taught you none of them.”
The mood suddenly got really heavy…
The old man looked at me with a sad smile and slowly rose from his seat.
“As atonement for raising you so poorly, I must now give you one final lesson. I will carve the five virtues—benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and loyalty—into your very soul. Prepare yourself to receive your master’s final Five Teachings.”
…
After several days of travel, the train staff were cleaning out the now-empty cars and chatting among themselves.
“This compartment is unusually clean. Oh, is this the one that was privately reserved?”
“Yeah. It’s clean, which is nice, but the whole time there were these weird ‘Daaahng!’ screaming noises coming from inside. We had to keep the soundproofing magic up the entire trip so the other passengers wouldn’t hear. I was sweating bullets.”
“Screaming? Wasn’t that dangerous?”
“I thought something bad had happened and rushed in, but this old man was just in the middle of disciplining someone and told me not to worry. He’d paid for the whole car, and when I looked, the kid was only getting punished—no real accident or anything—so I just left it alone like he said.”
“Well, as long as nothing serious happened, that’s fine. Still, ‘Daaahng’ screams? Just hearing about it sounds weird as hell.”
When we finally arrived at the capital of the Paulia Empire, we headed straight for the Imperial Palace.
“Aran, I will ask you one more time. Will you grant this old man’s wish?”
“Ever since I was young, I have carried the deep desire in my heart to serve His Imperial Majesty and become his loyal right hand.”
“To volunteer yourself for the Empire and His Majesty… What a truly admirable mindset. Of course, the imperial family will not exploit you for free. We will provide you with generous compensation and accommodations that will leave you more than satisfied.”
“Wow, I’m so happy.”
When we reached the main gate of the Imperial Palace, the knights standing guard recognized the old man and immediately snapped to attention.
“S-Sir Luke!”
“Welcome back, Sir Luke!”
Since the knights who worked at the palace knew about the Blood Crows, the moment they saw the old man, they stood ramrod straight with perfect discipline. Unlike the way he treated me, the old man gave them a very gentle smile and lightly raised his hand to acknowledge their salute.
“You’ve all worked hard. Is His Majesty doing well?”
“Yes, Sir Luke. As far as we know, His Majesty has no major external schedule today.”
“Perfect timing, then. I’ll be heading inside.”
When the old man tried to bring me in with him, the knights looked extremely uncomfortable and asked, “Um… Sir Luke, we’re very sorry, but for procedural reasons… may we ask who the person beside you is?”
The old man placed his hand on top of my head.
“Ah, this one? He’s my disciple. I picked him up and raised him seventeen years ago.”
At his words, the knights’ faces went completely pale with shock.
“What? A disciple… you have a disciple?”
“Sir Luke took on a disciple? Is that true?”
“Indeed. I’ve never spoken of him to anyone except His Majesty. This is my disciple. His name is Aran. Aran, greet them properly.”
I shot the old man a quick glare, but when I saw the look in his eyes that clearly said, ‘If you make a mistake here, I’ll give you another round of the Five Teachings,’ I instantly changed my expression.
“My name is Aran. I was taken in by my… m-master when I was very young and have been training under him ever since.”
Just saying the word ‘master’ made the corners of my eyes and mouth twitch like crazy. After I shook hands with the knights, they stared at me with their mouths hanging open in disbelief before finally stepping aside.
“P-Please excuse us. You may enter.”
Up until that point, I’d thought I could just fake some basic etiquette, avoid getting on the Emperor’s bad side, and everything would be fine.
What a ridiculously naïve thought that was.