Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The First Incident in the Romance Fantasy

Three years had passed since then. We were now thirteen, and Rose was either truly a romance-fantasy heroine, or a born martial prodigy.

Otherwise, this made no sense.

“Why can you already use sword aura?”

“Am I not supposed to?”

“It’s not that you’re not supposed to... Actually, it’s a good thing.”

But does that make any sense?

That was my reaction as I stared at Rose’s sword, wrapped in a brilliant blue glow.

We had certainly worked ourselves to the bone for the past three years. We swung swords every day, exercised, studied books to train our mana, pestered Rose’s father into giving us even the lowest-grade elixirs, and so on.

But still, isn’t this a little ridiculous? She really is a romance-fantasy heroine, isn’t she?

From what I researched, swordsmen are divided into six stages.

Stage 1 is when you can use mana, basically a beginner who has just started drawing it in.

Stage 2 is when you can reinforce your body with mana.

Stage 3 is when you can reinforce weapons with mana and strengthen your body more skillfully than those at Stage 2.

Stage 4 is finally sword aura. From this point on, people become extremely rare. If I reach it before entering the academy, I’ll thank the heavens.

Stage 5 is when you can use sword force, condensed sword aura. From here on, the aura gains a unique property. Of course, that property is arbitrary and cannot be chosen by the user.

Stage 6 is finally Sword Master. You overcome your inner demons, freely control the property of your sword force, and essentially become a tactical nuclear weapon.

Looking at it like this, it kind of resembles second-rate to Transformation Realm in wuxia. Anyway, even at Stage 3 most noble knight orders would welcome you with open arms, at Stage 4 even imperial knight orders would beckon you over, and at Stage 5 I heard their elite divisions would do the same.

Stage 6? You’re simply among the strongest alive, so places like that hardly matter anymore. I heard there are further differences in strength even within that level, though.

More importantly, why is someone who’d have noble knight orders welcoming her with open arms standing right in front of me?

“So Henry, how strong am I now?”

“Hmm, you’d probably rank near the top in swordsmanship at the academy?”

She had only just discovered sword aura, so maintaining it should still be difficult. Even so, wouldn’t she be around Stage 3.8?

When I said, Let’s get close to Sword Master before the academy! I only meant it would be nice if we could. I thought it was unrealistic. Maybe after entering the academy and starting to encounter opportunities.

“Really? That’s disappointing. Can Henry do it?”

“Not yet. Remember the six stages I explained before?”

“A little? You know my memory’s bad.”

“Remember them. I’m at Stage 2. I’ll catch up soon...”

Can I really catch up? Why isn’t that thing disappearing? Why is it staying so stable? Huh? Even a total amateur like me can tell. That’s Stage 4.

“Correction. The academy will probably throw open its gates and say ‘Welcome!’ when you arrive.”

Even great nobles who fed their children elixirs like meals probably couldn’t pull this off. And we only took cheap ones, while training ourselves half to death!

On top of that, it’s only been three years since we started training seriously. Three years! Hey, romance-fantasy author, what kind of shameless plot convenience is this?! Zehahaha! My head is overheating!

No joke, I genuinely think she could reach Stage 5 before the academy. No, maybe even Stage 6.

“Really? Then going to the academy is basically guaranteed! What about you, Henry?”

“I...”

I looked down at my pathetic wooden sword. There wasn’t even the slightest sign of sword aura.

“Ugh... Maybe you could kill the Demon King without even going to the academy?”

Rose, you’re definitely an F-type. Trying to comfort me like this. But I prefer a T-type bastard.

“Rose, that’s not as positive as you think. In academy stories, all the opportunities and connections are concentrated at the academy.”

Naturally, opportunities get placed wherever the academy is, and enemies conveniently target it too. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.

“I know, I know. You’ve told me so many times my ears are about to fall off. The academy gets attacked because the heroine is there, but it also gets attacked simply because it’s the academy.”

“Exactly. You could say those two things create a chemical reaction when combined.”

Normal academy: Extremely secure. Impossible to breach. Enemies know that, so they don’t charge in.

Academy with the heroine inside: Gates wide open. Enemies charge in despite knowing they can’t break through.

Beautiful. Truly worthy of the heroine.

“Don’t you treat me way too much like some walking plague?”

“But you are? That’s why when I get married and have kids someday, I’m not letting you meet them.”

“Hey!”

“I’m joking, joking. By then things will be peaceful, so it’ll probably feel like a romance-fantasy side story. At least nothing like that happens in the side stories.”

“Then what if.”

“Hmm? What if?”

“What will you do once the side story starts?”

A world after the side story began. I had actually imagined it quite often.

I sat down on the dirt for a moment, looked up at the sky, and spoke about my future.

“By then I’ll have suffered and trained enough to become really strong. So I should be able to make a living anywhere.”

“Then will you leave?”

“No. It’s a romance fantasy, right? I should experience romance at least once too. I’ll stay near you and pick up whatever scraps fall my way, stop worrying about future Demon Kings or some Outer God introduced for pointless serialization padding, and live a happy everyday life.”

“What will I be doing?”

“No idea. You’ll probably have plenty of guys who like you.”

At those words, Rose grumbled, sat down beside me, and pinched my arm.

“Ow!”

“It was supposed to hurt. Seriously... You said this is a romance fantasy. That means tons of people are going to come after me. Aren’t you worried at all?”

“You’ll handle it yourself. Loving someone is your freedom. So you should choose whoever you want and live your life.”

Rose was the heroine of a romance fantasy. That meant plenty of outstanding people would gather around her, and among them there would probably be someone she genuinely liked.

Of course, as her friend, I was perfectly willing to storm in and beat the guy senseless regardless of his status.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Pick up your sword. Let’s fight.”

“Out of nowhere?”

“Yeah.”

While I chuckled to myself imagining Rose’s happy future, Rose stood up, raised her sword, and pointed it at me.

“All right, all right.”

Practice was always good. Of course, we were still frogs in a well here. No matter how good your sword was or how much power you had, without real combat experience you were lacking...

“Why do you have sword aura, Young Lady?”

“Good question. Why do I?”

“May I ask if I’ve done something wrong? And I’m pretty sure you only started using sword aura less than fifteen minutes ago, so why are you already this proficient?”

“Good question. Why am I?”

“I seriously don’t know?”

“Henry. According to you, stronger people than this will target us in the future, right?”

“R-right?”

“Then practicing how to dodge attacks in advance wouldn’t be a bad outcome!”

At the same time, Rose raised her sword and began chasing me.

Why the hell?!

***

After coaxing Rose into calming down, we began patrolling the mountain like we usually did.

This routine existed because of my forceful insistence that bandits or dark mages might someday invade through the mountains.

“Henry.”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“The academy is usually open to people of high status, right?”

“Right, unless you have incredible talent.”

Rose and I regularly gathered information about the academy. Admission requirements, recent incidents, things like that.

“Then can Henry get in?”

“Me?”

I was a commoner. And whether I had talent or not, I honestly had no idea.

“I don’t know. Still, I’ll try.”

“Henry, if you can’t get into the academy, then I’ll...”

“That won’t happen. You’re the heroine of a romance fantasy. The world loves you. So as long as I stay with you, I’ll grow stronger too.”

To begin with, it already made no sense for an ordinary commoner like me to reach Stage 2 in only two years. Even now, my growth was fast enough that I was already nearing Stage 3.

Maybe it was because the romance-fantasy heroine wanted it, because I trained alongside her, or perhaps because I genuinely had talent.

“One year left.”

“Until we leave here?”

“Yeah. But I don’t know if this is really right. If we stay, we’ll be frogs in a well. Our growth will slow down.”

“Then we should leave.”

“But.”

“Henry. I already told them. I know that in your previous life, people our age were considered young and immature. And I know my family will worry about me.”

“That’s why.”

“Henry. I trust you. And even if you’re wrong, we can grow up, earn lots of money, and become incredibly successful. If Father refuses to let me go, I can always run away from home.”

“I’m sorry.”

“If you’re sorry.”

Rose twisted her face this way and that as she stared at me. Whenever she made that face, she was thinking about something dangerous.

More importantly, a romance-fantasy heroine really is something else. Even when she scrunches her face up like that, she’s still pretty.

“Henry, if you’re sorry, then stay by my side until I die.”

“Okay. When I get married, I’ll live in the house next door.”

The moment I said that, Rose kicked me in the shin.

“Ow!”

“Yeah, yeah. Go find that gloomy, big-breasted black-haired beauty you never stop singing about!”

“No, why are you suddenly bringing that up? And that’s not even right!”

“What part isn’t right?”

“She doesn’t have to be black-haired! White hair is fine too!”

My tastes had changed slightly after three years of suffering.

“Die, Henry. Seriously, die. Of course, I’ll die with you.”

“Sorry, Rose.”

“Go on. Say it.”

“Protagonists aren’t allowed to die easily.”

At the same time, a powerful impact slammed into my stomach, and I collapsed face-first.

“Guh...”

“Die.”

“Wait...”

“Fine. Let’s hear it.”

Fortunately, I had managed to reinforce my stomach the instant her fist came flying, so I survived.

And then.

“Follow me.”

I took Rose with me and pushed straight through the undergrowth.

“Does anyone else come this far?”

“No. Even the old herbalist retired recently.”

“Then what is this?”

Halfway up the mountain, deep in the forest where only the two of us should have been wandering, were countless human footprints.