I Became the Second-in-Command in a Romance Fantasy Novel

“There’s no presence.”
That was the evaluation given by Belian Erik, the head of the Flower Arrangement Club.

No, more precisely, that was the consensus among the students called the General Department.
The various departments grouped under the General Department mostly consisted of commoners or lower nobility, and the majority of their students prepared for the imperial civil service exam.
In reality, it was more accurate to consider them civil service exam candidates rather than true academy students.

Belian Erik was a typical General Department student, both in the positive and negative sense.
His magic skills were limited to a few everyday spells that were barely even considered basic magic.
He didn’t know anything about swordsmanship at all.

For reasons unknown and even incomprehensible, even though the advisor professor for the club—who had only lent his name to keep the club officially running—had been replaced by the famous Swordmaster,
and despite having the chance to learn from the Swordmaster himself, a dream for all swordsmen, Erik outright refused.
For the ordinary academy student Erik was, receiving the Swordmaster’s teaching was an overwhelming burden, and he never expected to ever wield a sword anyway.

Therefore, even as the head of the popular first-year Flower Arrangement Club, almost no one bothered Erik.
He was already a fourth-year student about to graduate, and his acquaintances were the same—busy preparing for the imperial civil service exam they would take after graduation.
When the Empire’s academy underwent a major reform and talent recruitment effort to surpass the Kingdoms of Leon and Dale, the General Department remained unchanged.

Belian expected the same for the second semester.
“Hey, Belian. Is it true the Saint got a boyfriend?”
“I really don’t know…”

But from the first day of the new semester, he had to admit his assumptions were wrong.
‘How many times has this been now?’
He had predicted some annoyance today during vacation, staying behind alone at the academy managing the clubroom’s flowers and learning about happenings in the Holy Nation from newspapers and rumors.

He expected some nuisance to last maybe a day or up to a week.
‘But not like this!’
Belian wanted to cry.
At least with the Holy Nation incident, he had some time to prepare mentally.

But the weekend’s sudden news about the Saint’s romance broke out just as the semester began.
In other words, he didn’t even have time to brace himself.
‘The semester’s started, so can we at least get on with classes!’

Moreover, the academy’s unwritten rule was to ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) lightly breeze through the first class.
Professors would take attendance, ask if everyone survived vacation, and then leave students to self-study under that name.
But students quietly gathered around Belian, interrogating him with questions.

“Sigh.”
After being harassed for three classes, Belian stumbled to open the clubroom door.
That was his biggest mistake.

‘What the hell?’
The moment he opened the door, he felt his breath get stuck.
It was something Belian could not understand at all.

The flower arrangement clubroom was the only place where he felt at ease in this bleak imperial academy.
‘So why...?’
When he raised his head and looked straight ahead from his downward gaze—

“Ah.”
Belian realized why he was out of breath.
‘I-I need to run away.’

If this wasn’t hell right before his eyes, what else could it be?
Seeing the academy’s ecosystem destroyers sitting there with grave expressions, Belian had intended to skip club activities for the day.
“Captain?”

Still that lively voice as when they first met, but his opinion of that person changed monthly.
At first meeting, she was a noble lady from a rural lower noble family in the Empire’s outskirts, inferior to him.
Right after, she became the savior who saved the precious Flower Arrangement Club.

About a month later, she was the enchanting woman who had charmed all the famous first-years.
A month after that, she became the Saint.
During the break, she transformed into the revolutionary who reformed the Holy Nation.

And now, she was entering this room filled with people who liked her, as if she had just found a lover.
“What are you doing not going in?”
“Ah, well…”

Belian could only see her as the demon who turned his precious clubroom into hell.
It was chilling.
A huge sword, more like a dagger to the chest, was about to stab into him.

“Ugh.”
Of course, it wouldn’t really stab him.
But even with that aura alone, Belian felt like he had died several times over.

“Dodge well.”
“I’m usually pretty good at it.”
“Yeah, because you’re Adam.”

Since the semester began, it was a continuous series of escapes.
Unlike Prince Ellen, who didn’t understand the mind or swordsmanship of others,
I, having mastered the Defeat Sword, knew how to naturally lose to weaker opponents if I set my mind to it.

In other words, I could train at a slightly superior level than the opponent.
As a result of actively promoting this, there wasn’t a single fencing or swordsmanship student who refused to spar with the second-best swordsman who had even defeated the junior Swordmaster.
In short, I was quite popular.

Most were guys, and sometimes girls, but true to swordsmanship, the training grounds were filled with sword maniacs resembling Hesti and a princess’s fanbase!
When I appeared at the training ground, students who had taken numbered tickets eagerly rushed over.
The swordsmanship club even wooed me daily to recruit me for their next club membership period.

Of course, all of this was for work purposes.
After training, chatting over a glass of water sometimes brought unexpected info that couldn’t be obtained from the intelligence agency.
Also, cultivating this image would help me later.

However, this popularity became a curse this time.
Everyone started asking about my romance with Daisy.
And the atmosphere between Prince Ellen and the junior Swordmaster was tense every time.

I had no choice but to run away to avoid questions about Daisy.
Thankfully, the academy’s first class didn’t have actual lessons, like in my previous life’s university.
Once attendance was checked, I could escape.

But,
Both in my past life and here, a rule-breaking, principle-obsessed old professor existed.
“Then let’s go right away.”

That professor’s name was Aren.
The famous Swordmaster and our swordsmanship department’s head professor.
And since that class was a one-on-one sword-demon style lesson, I was inevitably caught by Prince Ellen, who was looking for an opportunity.

“When does class end?”
After becoming Prince Ellen’s punching bag again for the first time in a while, I lay on the floor sighing.
Thinking back, it wasn’t that long ago.

The last time I got beaten up was when I was in the kingdom.
“Next up is me.”
“Don’t you have any conscience?”

“…Someone said that it’s important not to miss your chance when you have one.”
It sounded somewhat reasonable, but basically meant now that he got trashed by Prince Ellen, he felt confident enough to fight back.
That bastard seemed to try to maintain his dignity as junior Swordmaster even when losing to me and Prince Ellen early in the semester.

But with women distracting him, he’d completely lost it.
By the way,
“…Did Violet say that?”

“Uh, how did you know?”
I poked roughly at the familiar wording, and Aslan was startled and flustered.
“I just had a feeling.”

Once a person gets weird, Violet is usually nearby.
Possessing the original character, but messing up the whole story.
And that rule was damn well followed!

“C-could it be… after Daisy, Violet too?”
At the junior Swordmaster’s innocent question, I immediately jumped up.
“Good, you’re dead.”

There are things you can say to a person and things you can’t.
No matter how much my body screamed after getting beaten by Prince Ellen,
when insulted like that, it’s a man’s duty to fight with his life on the line!

“As expected, you really like Daisy…”
Apparently, the junior Swordmaster misunderstood my reaction as a jealous lover’s anger.
He stared at me shaking his eyes like I was his rival.

“Just do one thing, please.”
Even after revealing the truth that I was fake, this was the reaction.
I shuddered thinking about what would have happened if it were a real secret.

A week passed.
By now, the Empire’s Founding Anniversary was approaching with various events being prepared.
Since our academy was the Empire’s public academy,

during the empire festival period, it would start holding exchange meetings with other academies and open the usually rather closed academy to the public.
In other words, big romance-fantasy incidents were about to erupt.
So, I expected that news about my romance with the Saint would gradually die down as preparations for the founding festival got underway.

“But why do more and more strange rumors keep popping up?”
This had to be someone’s conspiracy.
I glared at the warehouse that was gradually becoming the real home of the clubroom.

“Ahem.”
And just as expected, it was a conspiracy.
An imperial conspiracy.

“Sorry.”
“You always say the same thing.”
Everyone around me nodded unconsciously.

Since the academy started, Mr. Aryn, who looked like he had rejuvenated to his mid-40s, often started conversations with apologies and regret.
“Why do you keep doing this to me?”
I was really hurt and frustrated.

I had a purpose, but I had also stopped academy terror attacks.
I even gave away the location of the dark mages in advance.
And I cleaned up the demonic sword left behind, even after that.

“Is it because you didn’t warn me there were still bastards planning terror for the founding anniversary?”
“That’s not it… Wait, what? What bastards?”
Mr. Aryn, who was apologizing with his head bowed as if he had nothing to say, suddenly raised his head in surprise.

“You’re kidding?”
“I wish it were a joke too.”
Unfortunately, this academy was doomed to be caught up in various terror attacks and incidents until the main romance-fantasy protagonists graduated.

“No, even if I concede a hundred times! Even if there’s terror, how do you know?!”
The Empire’s intelligence agency was known to be top-notch compared to other nations.
Still, it was no wonder cognitive dissonance happened when they were outdone by their own country’s information.

For example,
“You’re really not planning a terror, right?”
“I kind of want to these days.”

Especially with those romance-fantasy male leads. I wanted to terrorize them, but
since I wasn’t going to do it, it would all be done for free by outsourced contractors anyway, so I could hold back.
“So, tell me. Why did you do that to me?”

Prince Essid was probably insulted and that was why.
Even if I came face-to-face with the terrorists this time, I was prepared to surrender and be taken hostage.
“Well… there was a request from the Holy Nation.”

“The Holy Nation?”
“Yeah.”
“The Empire isn’t that concerned about the Holy Nation.”

Even though the majority of Empire citizens believed in the Goddess, the imperial family didn’t really care about the Holy Nation.
Except one person.
“They said it was a request from the Pope.”

“…What kind of request?”
“If the Saint gets married at the academy, he wants to officiate…”
Damn it, wasn’t there a Holy Nation terrorist faction among the cultists?

If there was, I wanted to help a bit.
Today was one of those days when I could somewhat understand why romance-fantasy villains turn out the way they do.