Chapter 39
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: First Real Battle, Lightly (2)
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A week had passed since then. In between shoving the students through advanced boot camp training, I'd been observing Alice, the true protagonist of this novel.
Just for reference, half the trainees had already dropped out within that week. Mostly the kids from high-ranking noble families. They had their family names backing them up, so they had nothing to lose.
The ones who remained were either fallen nobles with nowhere left to retreat or commoner special admits who had to succeed in this cutthroat jungle through sheer talent alone.
'Doesn't matter anyway.'
I clicked my tongue as I watched the survivors rolling around on the training grounds. What I needed wasn't a hundred ragtag soldiers. I needed a small elite force to eventually take responsibility for those knight order bastards.
Now that only the core had remained, it was much easier to train them. In my spare moments, I kept an eye on her.
The female protagonist of this romance fantasy, Alice.
I'd expected her to have some hidden extraordinary qualities since she was kidnapped and chosen as a sacrifice for the final boss.
My old comrade, the hero Kyle, seemed like a nice pushover on the surface, but he'd once shattered a ghoul's skull with his bare hands as a kid. He was that kind of guy.
That's how protagonists are. They're the ones who overcome all the bullshit the world throws at them and charge toward victory.
But my expectations shattered after just a short time observing her.
Her as the protagonist? A slime popping out of the bushes turning into the demon king would make more sense.
During lunch, as I sat on the platform staring at Alice, who was gazing at some distant flower, I asked Dane.
"Hey, Dane."
"Y-Yes... ugh... Senior... please spare me..."
Dane answered in a voice like he was on the verge of death. The result of this morning's "one-on-one guidance," which was really just a beatdown disguised as sparring.
"What's with her?"
"Huh? Alice? Why? She's super... ugh... cute and kind."
"Yeah, she's kind. Too kind, that's the problem."
I flipped open my notebook and reread my assessment of Alice so far.
[Crisis Detection: Zero. Would follow a suspicious stranger offering candy.]
[Physical Ability: Hopeless. Seems cursed to trip on flat ground.]
[Special Ability: Affinity with Light Spirits. Great as a streetlamp at night.]
[Empathy: "Tweet tweet, are you hungry too?" Shared her sandwich crumbs.]
Infinite positive energy, high affinity, outwardly gentle but inwardly strong enough not to bow to nobles, and honest to a fault.
In a way, she had that classic healing romance fantasy heroine vibe.
"Conclusion reached."
I snapped my notebook shut.
"W-What... what'd it say? See any potential? If she awakens, can I get a break?"
Dane looked up with hopeful eyes. He figured if Alice turned out useful, his training might lighten up a bit. Shallow hopes.
But I took my quill and boldly wrote a line on the very first page of the notebook.
[Overall Evaluation: Top-Tier Bait (S-Rank)]
"She'd be great for fishing. Pulls aggro like nobody's business."
"You're too harsh. Treating a person like an earthworm... She's still the protagonist! My friend!"
"Friend?"
I smirked and looked down at Dane.
"Don't delude yourself, extra. Do they even know you? Know your name?"
"......No."
"Ever talked to her?"
"I heard her say 'sorry' once when we bumped into each other at lunch."
"See? That's not a friend, that's just passerby number one. You're background graphics in her life."
"......"
Dane hung his head dejectedly. The sorrow of an extra.
"But Senior... look at those male leads over there striking poses. See? The young master from the swordmaster duke family, the mage tower lord's daughter!"
Dane shouted, overflowing with injustice. Her finger pointed at a group of pretty boys parading around the garden center with fan clubs in tow.
"They've got insane specs, right? In the setting, they're the youngest sword master candidates, genius mana circle prodigies! Why not drag them off? Why me?!"
The bloodcurdling cry of an extra wondering why she alone had to suffer.
"Gotta keep the story moving."
I answered nonchalantly.
"This world's still a romance fantasy, right? They need to do their romance to keep the genre alive. Missing one extra is no big deal, but if the male leads get dragged to boot camp and rolling in the dirt, who's gonna flirt with the heroine?"
"......Ah."
"If I train them too, who knows what variables pop up. So let them flower in their greenhouse romances. Besides, you're way more skilled than them, you or Yuria."
This was the disciple of a legendary archmage and the bloodline of the world-saving hero, after all.
Compare apples to apples.
"So you roll twice as hard instead. You're an extra who won't be missed anyway."
"You demonic bastard...!"
Dane's wail echoed through the peaceful lunchtime garden. The male and female leads romanced inside, while extras trained in hell outside. The unfair underbelly of romance fantasy.
And that night. In the dense forest near the academy girls' dorms.
We crouched in the bushes, surveilling the dorm entrance. Fall mosquitoes were rampant. Dane kept slapping her arms, grimacing.
"Hey, Dane. Time exact?"
"Ow, damn... mosquitoes... Yeah. According to my original novel memory."
Dane grumbled, scratching mosquito bites into crosses with her nails.
"Tonight at midnight. She forgets materials for tomorrow's first-period basic magic class and heads to the forest alone to gather. Then kidnapped by lurking black mages."
"What does she need? Mandrake? Something rare?"
"No. Just starlight moss or whatever... Common weeds that glow at night."
"......"
I let out a disbelieving chuckle.
"Moss? For fucking moss?"
"Yeah. Gotta pick fresh ones for good grades, apparently."
"Doesn't make sense. A noble lady at the empire's top academy sneaking out past curfew without guards for a scrap of moss?"
Screeech—
Right then, as if mocking my common sense, the dorm's heavy door creaked open.
A female student emerged cautiously, wearing a thin white lace nightgown topped with a pink cardigan. Her hair was cotton-candy pink.
Alice.
"......."
Holy shit, she actually came out?
"Wow, she's really something. Fucking suicidal."
"Ah, Senior. You don't get romance fantasy vibes. The heroine has to get in danger alone for the male leads to have an excuse to save her. Romance blooming in crisis! That's the rule."
"Bullshit. Where'd you sell the logic?"
"Logic gets filled in by the male leads' faces. Faces are logic and narrative. What's the problem?"
"....."
Heading into the forest alone at night half-naked? Common sense much?
Alice glanced around, humming a tune as she started down the dark forest path.
"Let's go."
"Huh? Now? To save her?"
"Bait's thrown. Gotta see what bites. Check out the kidnappers' faces. You don't know their hideout? How? Weren't you a reader?"
"No, the novel just describes it as a dark, damp cave! I'm not a GPS."
We tailed Alice. Basic stealth tracking, but luckily she was so oblivious with zero awareness that she noticed nothing.
"Where is it..."
Alice stopped in a moonlit clearing in the forest center.
"Ah! Found it!"
The moment she reached for glowing moss in a rock crevice.
Shoooo...
Black mist rose from the tree shadows behind her. Artificially manipulated turbid demonic energy flow.
"They're here."
Dane gripped my sleeve tight.
"Black mages."
[Black Magic: Invisible Hand]
"......."
Not invisible at all—pitch black and obvious—but that's what the spell was called.
"Huh...?"
Too late when Alice sensed it and turned.
Whoosh!
"Kyaa?!"
The black hand seized her waist and mouth simultaneously. No time to scream as her body lifted into the air.
"Mmph! Mmmph!!"
Alice struggled, but the black magic grip was beyond a frail girl's strength. Her lamp clattered to the ground.
"Kekeke... Just as intel said. Came out alone."
Three men in black robes emerged from the darkness.
"Fresher than expected? Light spiritist... She'll please the master."
"Move quick. Guards might come."
The black mages bound Alice with magic, slung her over like luggage. Watching from the bushes, I swallowed a laugh.
'Invisible Hand, huh...'
A basic black magic I'd used back then to grab arrogant nobles by the collar or strangle assassination targets. They're using it right.
Difference? Mine was truly invisible; theirs was blatantly visible.
"Those guys... the romance fantasy final boss faction... right...?"
"Yeah. Probably Black Dawn Society executives...?"
"....."
I quietly drew the demon sword from my coat. The crimson blade gleamed, exuding demonic energy.
"Get ready. Gonna crush them all. Dry their seed completely."
Dane eyed the vibrating sword in my hand and asked quietly.
"...Um, Senior?"
"What."
"We're... going to save the heroine, right?"
"Mm... Probably?"
I shrugged and gripped the demon sword firmer.
"Let's go. Male leads might show if we're late."
We followed the guys vanishing into the forest with Alice like baggage. Tracking was a yawn.
Stealth magic? Leaking demonic energy like that was handing my demon sword a GPS signal.
"Ugh... smell."
Dane, following beside me, pinched her nose and scowled.
"Why's it suddenly smell like rotten sewage? No hygiene?"
"Smell?"
I chuckled and slowed my pace.
"You smell it too?"
"Huh? This smell? Obviously. Nose would have to be dead not to."
Dane replied matter-of-factly.
"Normal people can't sense it, idiot. You think detecting demonic energy is easy?"
"...Demonic energy?"
"Yeah. Regular knights barely notice it up close. But you're sensing it instinctively."
I flicked her forehead with my index finger.
"Took me a year to distinguish it by smell. You do it naturally? Hero bloodline's busted. Built-in demonic detector."
"......"
Dane realized her ability was abnormal—and that it'd drag her deeper into the muck—staring blankly.
How much farther did we go...?
"It's really here. Just like the novel. Lair of evil at the cliff base where darkness opens its maw... Supposed to appear mid-to-late game."
"Just a damp cave, what..."
I eyed the cave. Tunnel stretching inward, chill wind from deep within carrying a fishy blood scent.
Not natural, at least. Pretty deep too? Perfect training dummy spot.
"Good. Stealth from here."
I gripped the demon sword hilt.
"Dane."
"Yes, sir! Stealth? But I can't do invisibility..."
"No witnesses, that's stealth. Punch through the entrance first."
"Sh-Should I... do it...?"
Dane drew her sword tensely.
"Just watch. I'm way faster."
I snapped my fingers.
[Black Magic: Shadow Spike]
The shadows under the two cultists guarding the entrance rippled instantly.
"Huh? What's with the ground..."
"Wha— Gurk?!"
Puke! Thunk!
A gruesome rupture shattered the forest silence. Black shadows surged from the ground, sharpening into spears that pierced the two cultists from jaw to crown in one thrust.
"Guh... glurk..."
No screams. They dangled midair like bandits on spits, twitching. I walked up casually, drew the demon sword beneath the hanging corpses.
[Kieeeek!! Blood!]
"Shut up, you parasite."
Clang!
[Kyuu...]
One stone to the side quieted it. I jammed it into the hilt.
Rumble—!
With a creepy sound, the sword glowed red. Blood from the shadow-speared corpses sucked into the blade.
"Wha— wh-what...?"
Before Dane's eyes, the burly cultists shriveled like mummies drained of fluids, twisting dry.
Crackle.
Demon sword sated, pulled free; the dried corpses crumbled to dust on the ground.
"P-People... turned to mummies... What's that...?"
"Ah, this? Demon sword. Gift from a demon back in the day. Annoying when it whines for food, but top performance. Perfect for cleanup."
"Gift? Or loot?!"
"Same difference. He handed it over either way."
I dusted the sheath nonchalantly.
"Poison counters poison anyway. Mine saves the empire—justice. Theirs is criminal. History's written by winners, didn't you know?"
"......"
Dane speechless at my brazen double standard.
"Plus, I use it to protect humanity; they use it to ruin the world. Different purposes. Purposes."
"......"
As Kasian shouldered the demon sword and headed for the cave, one thought circled Dane's mind.
'How the hell... was that guy in the hero party...?'