Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Preparing for Romance ‘Fantasy’

A romance fantasy! As the name obviously suggests, it is a romance fantasy. And, just as obviously, it is a ‘romance’ fantasy. Meaning romance takes center stage.

“So why does that matter?”

Rose sat in front of me, listening to my special lecture on ‘What Is Romance Fantasy?’

“Focus! This part is important!”

I smacked the blackboard hard and pointed at the section labeled protagonist.

“It’s hard...”

“How much did you understand?”

“That Henry is a reincarnator? And that there’s something wrong with your head?”

“You went off the rails from the very beginning.”

“I think Henry is the weird one.”

“Should I just abandon you and run? I feel like that might be better.”

“No. Now that I think about it, maybe I’m the weird one. I heard pretty people are supposed to be a little crazy.”

“I don’t know about pretty, but I definitely see the crazy part.”

A little while ago, I revealed that I was a reincarnator. Of course, only to the two people closest to me.

At first, Rose thought something was wrong with my head and apologized profusely, but she ended up believing me pretty quickly.

“You really do believe me, right?”

Honestly, proving that I was a reincarnator from another world was incredibly difficult. It was basically proving a negative. So I could understand if Rose didn’t believe me.

“Of course! So tell me that story again! The Revengers!”

“So you just want to hear the stories I tell you. If you listen properly to today’s lesson... or whatever this is, I’ll tell you.”

“Okay!”

Later, I should probably bring some magical artifact for detecting lies and prove it properly.

“All right, let me explain again. Romance fantasy is fantasy, but romance is the main focus. Dating and love are the central themes.”

“Like princes and princesses?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Gasp! I love that~!”

“Do you really?”

“No?”

“In the end, romance fantasy is still fantasy.”

Ah, this wasn’t meant to represent every romance fantasy out there. I barely knew anything about the genre in the first place.

“So you might defeat a Demon King, fight an Outer God, have something suddenly appear, or randomly start an alchemy arc that drags on forever.”

Of course, all of those things also happened in fantasy novels and games. Yahoo~.

“And you fall in love while all that’s happening?”

“Correct. You catch on fast. As expected of a romance-fantasy heroine.”

I put my hand on Rose’s head and gave her a pat, and she grinned as she cupped her cheeks with both hands.

But only for a moment. Rose tilted her head, then looked at me.

“But I’m Rose?”

“Yeah.”

“Why am I a romance-fantasy heroine?”

“Aha, you see!”

Finally, she was looking this way!

With delight, I eagerly fed Rose the red pill that this place was the world of a web novel from my old world, and that she was its protagonist.

At some point, her sanity must have taken a hit, because she went pale and tried to run away, but naturally, she failed. I caught her and forced her back into her seat.

“I’m... fake?”

“Real.”

“But you said I’m someone from a story...”

“A web novel.”

“Isn’t that the same thing? But you, someone who read it, are here now. Then doesn’t that make this place real?”

Oh, our little Rose. Already pondering the nature of existence. You’ve got the makings of a philosopher. But that wasn’t what mattered right now.

“Does that matter?”

“Doesn’t it?”

“Well... if you look at the bigger picture, sure. Whether I entered a web novel and created another story, or whether the world of that web novel actually became a real world.”

But the important part was the same thing the director told me before.

“But we can’t change that. So shouldn’t we just do our best in the situation we’re in now?”

“Uh... I guess so!”

This is what’s great about children. Their moods change in an instant. Ah, I’m a child too. Yahoo! I’m young again.

“Then, then!”

“Yeah, yeah. Go ahead, Rose.”

“Am I going to have lots of romances later too?”

“That won’t be all.”

Let’s see. This was a stereotypical romance fantasy too. What kinds of male leads usually appeared in those?

“The Crown Prince, a candidate for Master of the Magic Tower, the head of a merchant guild, the Grand Duke of the North, and so on?”

“That’s a lot. And compared to me, they’re all old men!”

“Right?”

“Then what are you trying to teach me? How to seduce them properly? How to date?”

Rose looked at me with sparkling eyes, and I shook my head with a laugh.

“Like I said earlier, romance fantasy is still fantasy. And Rosey-Rose, I’m thirty-five years old this year and have never dated...”

Cough. Countless pains closed in around me. What had I even done with my life at this age? But don’t worry. I’m a child now.

“What does ‘never dated’ mean?”

“It means... I’ve never been in a relationship even once.”

“Heehee, so Henry’s never dated anyone.”

Rose looked at me through half-lidded eyes with that famous smug expression from some anime character.

“That’s not the important part!”

“Heehee, our Henry... you’re so old, too.”

“I’m a kid right now, you know?”

“Really?”

“Adult Henry will be leaving now. Have a good life.”

“No! Henry is definitely a kid! Yeah, yeah! You were reborn!”

“Good. A wise choice.”

Scratching the back of my head, I sat back down beside Rose and continued.

“Anyway, that means I have zero dating advice to give you. And given the nature of romance-fantasy heroines, you’ll probably seduce everyone just by smiling.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“You’re not surprised?”

“Well~ I’m super, super pretty. Henry? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m trying to suppress my murderous intent.”

“At a girl this pretty?”

“Hey, stop me. Stop me! Otherwise, I’m going to bury this young lady and get executed!”

After calming down again some time later, I finally regained my composure.

A child’s body really was great. And at the same time, being a child was exhausting. The conversation wandered off at the slightest thing, and she got curious about everything.

“Anyway, the world we live in is ultimately a fantasy world.”

I had heard that most romance fantasies glossed over combat with, ‘The heroine fought! She was insanely strong, so she won!’ But this was reality. People could actually die here.

“I’m a commoner, and even in my past life, I had absolutely nothing to do with romance, elegance, or high society.”

It wasn’t even that I’d put up a wall between myself and those things. I’d been completely disconnected from them.

“But there’s one thing I do know.”

“What?”

“You. A romance-fantasy heroine.”

“What exactly is a romance-fantasy heroine?”

“A human weapon, someone who monopolizes every fortuitous encounter, someone who never dies no matter the danger, a toxic liquor that wrecks the minds of perfectly sane people, the most beautiful... well, not you, and someone who finds rewards everywhere she goes.”

“Wait, that’s too many things. And there was something weird in the middle!”

“Someone who doesn’t seek trials, but has trials come looking for her no matter where she goes, someone loved by the world, someone proficient in everything from magic to swordsmanship.”

That was a romance-fantasy heroine! Why? Because web novels were ultimately a place where people escaped reality and fulfilled their desires. That didn’t apply only to romance fantasy, but to every kind of novel.

So excluding certain genres, protagonists were generally like that.

Though our dear Rose was looking more than a little fed up by now.

“It’s hard...”

“Just think of it as being insanely overpowered.”

“Okay!”

“All right, that was a long introduction. So what’s the conclusion?”

“The conclusion is!”

“That’s why we need to prepare.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve been telling you stories from web novels I read in my previous life lately, right?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Among them were academy stories. Remember?”

“Yeah! All kinds of incidents happened at the academy, and it sounded really dangerous!”

“That’s our future.”

“Huh?”

Rosey-Rose, I remember. When you were seven, you made a huge fuss about growing up, entering the academy, and making your parents proud. Congratulations. Looks like your dream will come true someday.

“Basically, this world also has elements of an academy story.”

“Which means...”

“Right. Once we go to the academy, all kinds of incidents will break out and our lives will be in danger. Of course, you probably won’t die. You, specifically.”

“What about Henry?”

“No idea. I might die. I might not.”

“Then we can all just not go to the academy!”

“Rose. What did I tell you? This world is a romance fantasy. Sure, maybe we can avoid the academy. But what about the Demon King?”

“The Demon King...”

“Of course! Going even further, this place might not be a romance fantasy at all! All of this could just be my delusion, and there could actually be some other protagonist instead.”

“Right?”

“But what if it isn’t?”

Then everything was over.

“Rose, I’m sorry. I’ll apologize in advance. No one knows the future. If I hadn’t told you any of this, maybe we would’ve only found out once it was time to go to the academy. Or maybe by not going, I would’ve discovered that I was wrong.”

So I was a sinner. Someone who revealed all the truth to a person who might not be the protagonist, while also being the protagonist. A sinner who divulged heaven’s secrets and burdened her with knowledge of what awaited her.

But, my friend. If that really is the future and you’re destined to suffer, then I’ll reach out to you too, just like you once reached out to an orphan without hesitation. And I’ll share your pain.

If the future I saw was real, then sending you forward as you were would mean letting you suffer terribly. My friend, I’d rather you suffer less. And paradoxically, that meant I had no choice but to make you suffer now.

As I lowered my head and my expression darkened, Rose grabbed my hand and looked me straight in the face.

Her eyes sparkled, and without losing her bright smile, she said to me.

“Henry... it’s okay! Who am I! Who are we! We’re the great trio! No matter what happens, we’ll beat anything! And you said it yourself. I’m the protagonist. So don’t worry.”

“Yeah, now that’s a romance-fantasy heroine!”

She looked so admirable that all I could do was smile.

“Rose. Our lives are both an academy story and a romance fantasy. So what do you think we should do?”

“Polish my beauty even more.”

“Wrong. We’re going to face every trial and every ridiculous stroke of bad luck this world can throw at us, and there will be people who die because of those incidents.”

We had no responsibility to shoulder that burden. It was the world’s fault.

“But Rose. You know it too, right? We hate things like that.”

We laughed at happy endings and cried at sad ones. We cried when the old man next door, whom we’d been close to, died, and smiled when the lady next door gave birth to another child.

“So...”

“Yeah, Henry.”

“Let’s work out.”

“Huh?”

“For starters, we’ll train our bodies for about four years. This world seems surprisingly lenient about that sort of thing, so four years from now, we’ll leave home, travel around, and use your romance-fantasy-heroine tendency to attract fortuitous encounters so we can collect as many as possible.”

“Henry? This conversation is getting weird.”

“Wouldn’t that get us at least close to Sword Master?”

Sword Masters existed in this world. And just like in plenty of other stories, becoming one was ridiculously difficult. You had to overcome your inner demons, forge your own mental image, wield sword aura, and all that.

“So our goal is... for all of us to get close to Sword Master before entering the academy, and since the romance-fantasy heroine has heroine buffs, you’ll also become an Archmage, a Thief Master, and whatever else we can stack on top.”

“Henry? That conclusion is weird. Henry?”

“All right! Rose! Time to exercise!”

“P-please... spare me!”