I Was Reincarnated as a Mob Noble, and I Swear I'll Protect the Villainess Who Got Married Off to Me No Matter What ~To Dodge Our Total Downfall, I Went All Out Training My Trash Skill [Super Recovery] Through Crazy Hard Work, and Before I Knew It, I Could Totally Wreck the Game Protagonist Who Condemned My Wife Easily - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Using Game Knowledge to Come Up with a Massive Turnaround Plan Against the Imperial Army

“Zenon-sama… y-you actually defeated that Soul Eater!?”

In the middle of the air still thick with the smell of blood and leftover magic residue, Felix and the guards who rushed in went wide-eyed in shock.

Valeria’s undead had been blocking the hallway, so they couldn’t get close earlier, but Valeria had just released all her summons.

“As you can see, Felix.”

Valeria snorted proudly as she answered.

“Zenon’s 【Miracle of Healing】 is also the natural enemy of undead, y’know. That’s how we managed to win.”

Felix and the others looked completely speechless from how insane it all was.

“I-I mean, beating an S-rank monster like that… as expected of you, young master! This Felix is just… overwhelmed with emotion!”

“Nah, it wasn’t just my power alone that did it.”

I looked straight at Felix quietly.

“The only reason I can even use this power now isn’t just because of Valeria’s help—it was also because of the support from you, Felix, and the uncle in the cafeteria, and everyone else.”

My father had given up on me, but Felix and the servants in this castle never abandoned me.

How much that had kept me going… man.

“I’m really glad you guys are all safe.”

One wrong move and everyone in the castle would’ve been slaughtered.

Even thinking back on it now gives me chills.

“Wh-what incredibly kind words!”

“Zenon-sama is our pride! B-but… what exactly is this 【Miracle of Healing】…?”

A few of the guards still seemed like they couldn’t fully process what had just happened right in front of them.

“About that…”

“Ahem.”

Right then, Valeria let out this meaningful little cough.

That’s when I noticed she was subtly avoiding looking straight at me.

Oh crap—I finally realized.

My clothes after taking that magic attack from Soul Eater were shredded to hell, especially the top half full of holes. Basically half-naked.

I panicked hard.

No way this was okay in front of Valeria.

She’s been blushing and sneaking glances at my chest this whole time, right?

She must be thinking this is some disgraceful noble behavior or something—she’s probably appalled.

“…Felix, get me some replacement clothes right now, quick!”

“Yes sir! I’ll prepare a change of clothes immediately!”

Felix gave quick orders to the maids who’d come along.

They bowed and stepped back for a moment.

“Here, for now, young master.”

Felix handed me his own jacket.

“Thanks… Anyway, the biggest reason we won was because Valeria supplied me with magic power. As a half-baked mage, there’s no way I could’ve stood up to Soul Eater on my own.”

“I see! Lady Valeria, thank you so much for lending your strength to young master Zenon!”

Felix bowed deeply and sincerely.

“No need for thanks. We’re engaged, after all.”

“Ooh…! W-wait, young master, does that mean you’ve already… sealed the deal!?”

“Huh…?”

Felix suddenly got this sparkle in his eyes, and I was totally thrown off.

“This Felix is so moved at the thought of seeing young master’s children someday! With this, our Greivan frontier count family is secure for generations!”

“Wh-what are you even misunderstanding? Nothing happened between me and Valeria!”

Felix was saying some wild stuff, so I shut it down hard.

Did this guy seriously put us in the same bed from day one just hoping for that?

“…Oh? Is that so?”

“Yeah, exactly.”

Valeria shrugged like she was kinda exasperated.

“But it’s not like absolutely nothing happened. Zenon saved my life, and we went through a life-or-death fight together.”

“Yeah, that’s it. And that’s why Valeria accepted me as her fiancé.”

“Hehe, seriously though… taking down an enemy that even the entire Schwarz Ritter combined couldn’t beat? You’re seriously scary, you know that?”

Even though Felix had gotten the totally wrong idea, Valeria didn’t seem annoyed at all. If anything, she looked kinda happy.

She continued in this bouncy voice.

“Plus, after this fight, your max MP went over 20, right?”

“You noticed from supplying me with magic?”

Yup, exactly.

My max MP had gone up to 21 during that battle.

“What insane growth speed. Now you can cast Heal twice without even needing me. Keep this up and eventually you might build the ultimate army centered around yourself—an immortal legion made up of S-rank-level soldiers.”

“An immortal legion, huh…”

If my max MP keeps growing steadily like this, my recovery magic should let us beat enemy armies with almost zero casualties on our side.

In the game, the key to winning was always maneuvering so your allies didn’t take losses.

“Even right now, if Valeria supplies me with magic, I feel like we can get pretty close to that. That’s basically how we won this time.”

“Right. Healing you up completely in an instant after your whole body was full of holes—that recovery power was way beyond a saintess. And on top of that, your body gets powered up too? That’s straight-up cheating.”

“Th-that’s amazing…! Is that really true!?”

Felix came rushing forward, clapping like crazy.

“With Lady Valeria’s help, you can spam 【Miracle of Healing】!?”

“C-could you explain it to us too!? Zenon-sama being able to use 【Miracle of Healing】 means…!?”

The guards looked desperate to hear the details.

“Basically, Zenon’s 【Super Recovery】is the perfect upgraded version of the saintess skill. Any wound Zenon takes heals automatically, and if I supply him with magic power, he can fire off 【Miracle of Healing】 as many times as we want. He can come back even from near-death, and the regenerated body ends up strong enough to fight S-rank monsters head-on.”

Valeria explained it for me instead, puffing out her chest all proud like “hmph.”

“So? Pretty amazing, right?”

“Wh-what!?”

“Th-this is… this is insane, isn’t it…!?”

“With Zenon-sama here, we can beat the imperial army… we can win!”

“Yeah, exactly!”

Everyone got super hyped, convinced victory was ours.

“We gotta report this to the lord right away! He’ll definitely be thrilled and hand over command of a full army to young master!”

“No…”

I held up my hand to stop the excited group.

“If things stay like this, I think we’re gonna lose. Saintess Alicia’s army is probably gonna get involved.”

“…Saintess Alicia’s army?”

Felix looked totally blank.

“To keep it short: the saintess wants to become queen. That’s why she tried to frame Valeria for crimes and kill her. Now she’s scared her evil deeds are gonna come out, so I bet she’s gonna lead her own troops here personally. If Father accepts her, we’re done for—we’ll get hit from both inside and outside. In the worst case, the saintess’s army will poison the drinking water. Same dirty trick they used to kill the Schwarz Ritter.”

Everyone in the room went dead silent.

Saintess Alicia was scary action-oriented, no matter what.

In the game, she organized her own volunteer army to act as her hands and feet, and in this world she even tried to take out Valeria herself.

Alicia had blabbed all about her crimes to Valeria while gloating, and since the assassination failed, next time she’d definitely go for something way more certain and direct.

Most likely, her volunteer army was gonna form in this world too.

A righteous legion led by the saintess to protect the weak from the imperial army and monster hordes.

There was a high chance they’d barge into this battle under the banner of justice.

“S-such a thing…?”

Felix looked at me like he couldn’t believe what I was saying.

“…I see. As expected of Zenon—that’s some sharp insight. I think your prediction is spot-on. Sword Saint Baldo already sent a request for reinforcements to the capital. The saintess will probably use that as her excuse to show up here leading a ton of followers, claiming to be reinforcements.”

Valeria nodded, tension clear in her voice.

“If we let that happen, it’s internal trouble and external threats at the same time. No matter how strong Zenon is, I think we’d be facing total annihilation. Saintess Alicia has the dark side of the Holy Church backing her. Those guys use underhanded stuff like poison and S-rank monsters.”

Exactly right.

In other words, the game’s protagonist and the final boss organization were teaming up to invade. No room to let our guard down even a little.

“Valeria’s right. That’s why we’re keeping the full details of my skill secret—even from our allies. That’s the only way we can pull off a massive turnaround against the imperial army.”

I declared it quietly.

“What I want right now isn’t command of one army… it’s command of the entire force—the position of supreme commander of the Greivan frontier count army. We need to rack up an overwhelming achievement all by ourselves that forces Father and the generals to acknowledge it.”

“Wh-what…!”

Felix sucked in a sharp breath.

“If Father ends up accepting Saintess Alicia, we’re finished. He’s already sent out the reinforcement request, so there’s basically zero chance he’ll refuse her troops now. Even if Valeria and I try to convince him, we still don’t have enough solid proof to declare Alicia guilty, so it’s gonna be tough.”

If the plan I set up against the enemy’s 【Necromancer】 works, we might be able to convict Saintess Alicia as a criminal and use that to convince Father…

But it’s a time-consuming plan, so whether it finishes in time is a gamble.

We can’t rely on that alone.

“Then we have no choice but to become supreme commander—or at the very least second-in-command—in a short time, like within a week. That way we can ban Alicia’s forces from entering our territory.”

Even if Saintess Alicia starts gathering troops right now, organizing an army would take at least three days no matter how fast she moves.

Travel time from the capital to here is about a week by carriage. Forced march could make it five days.

From that, it’s likely her army’s arrival will overlap with the imperial army’s full-scale attack.

Even if my prediction about the saintess’s army showing up turns out to be wrong, we still have to make a huge move here or we’ll stay on the brink of ruin.

“N-no, young master Zenon… no matter how you look at it, that’s like… telling the lord to hand over his position as ruler!”

“…Well, yeah, to put it bluntly, that’s exactly it.”

The supreme commander of the army basically is the ruler.

But to pull off something as outrageous as rejecting reinforcements after asking for them, you need at least that level of authority.

“Y-you’re saying… you actually have a secret plan to pull off that kind of huge achievement? The imperial army is massive. And the person you have to convince is Sword Saint Baldo himself. A half-baked result won’t—”

“Of course I do.”

I answered Valeria’s question with firm confidence.

Every single person in the room locked their eyes on me.

Yeah. To me—the ‘KimiKoi’ master who mastered every single combat part of this game—nothing is impossible.

* * *

Translator’s Note:
KimiKoi is the in-story name of the game that Zenon mastered