The Romance Fantasy Novel MC is Only Into Me

Kaaaang—!
A sharp, explosive sound burst out without pause. Just hearing it made one feel breathless.
“Master……”

At the start of the fight, the knights firmly believed in Adelhardt’s victory without doubt.
After all, he was always the one attacking, and Ransell seemed to be only dodging and retreating.
But as one minute, two minutes, then five minutes passed, the knights’ expressions began to crumble little by little.

“Ugh!”
A groan escaped Adelhardt’s lips. For some reason, his entire body was covered in wounds.
With every charge, small scratches accumulated, soaking his whole body in blood. And yet, Ransell was still only defending.

“Sure, he’s a genius, but he’s still far from it, Adelhardt.”
Ransell’s eyes coldly stared at him.
“Your sword is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction complete.”

Ransell looked somewhat disappointed, even a bit bored that his opponent was much weaker than expected.
Adelhardt was overwhelmed by feelings he had never experienced before in his life.
“Kraaah!”

A roar erupted from his mouth. It was a desperate scream to release the anger piled up in his chest. At that moment, blazing magical power surged through his entire body.
Adelhardt’s blade began to vibrate, glowing with a bluish light.
“Adelhardt!”

The Count of Runter’s urgent shout failed to stop him. His only thought was to cut down the opponent before his eyes.
Ka-ga-ga-gang—!
The blades clashed again.
That was the end. Adelhardt’s grip was torn apart, and his blade split into three pieces. Only the hilt remained as the broken sword handle fell heavily to the ground.

Sweat and blood soaked Adelhardt’s knees buckled. The Count of Runter arrived belatedly.
“Adelhardt.”
The Count’s face was filled with anger.

It was not directed at Ransell.
It was aimed at his son.
“To use magic in a knight’s duel… I suppose I taught you wrong.”

“…I’m sorry, Father. I couldn’t control my emotions in the moment…”
“You foolish boy. Passion for a knight is an act that calls death. How dare you harbor hatred toward a man who risked his honor? Are you going to tarnish the name of this father? Do you still see the great name of Runter as something trivial?”
“…I’m ashamed.”

“I will hold you strictly accountable. Prepare yourself.”
“……”
The voices of the Runter father and son stirred the knights, whose eyes were bloodshot as if moved.

‘Hmm.’
Ransell silently watched the somber atmosphere without a word.
“Ransell Dante.”

The Count of Runter spoke, fixing his gaze on his son.
“You have won. Take what you want.”
Concession.

The Count admitted defeat.
He seemed more troubled by his son’s mistake than by his own loss. Ransell felt he understood the absolute meaning of ‘knighthood’ to him.
Without a word, Ransell placed his hand over his chest in respect.

‘Such a man will become a traitor in the near future.’
How strange the world is.
Not something he should worry about.

“Ransell, sir!”
“Welcome back, Clerk Merry.”
Not long after, Marigold was freed from the tower.

In her hand was a report returned by the Count of Runter and, for some reason, a bowl of oat porridge. A lunchbox?
“Ugh!”
“What’s wrong?”

Ransell quickly picked up the one who collapsed, her legs giving out.
 
When Ransell carried Marigold on his back and left the lord’s castle, dawn was already breaking on the distant horizon.
The two remained silent for a while. The only sensations were the beating of Marigold’s heart against his back and the gentle warmth of the arm wrapped around her neck.

Marigold clung tightly.
“You must smell a lot of sweat.”
“I’m fine.”

Instead, she buried her face even deeper.
“Why did you decide to become an administrative officer, Clerk Merry?”
“Huh?”

“If you were top of the academy, wouldn’t it have been easier? Why did you insist on working for the Imperial Administration Bureau?”
It was a pure question.
In the previous iteration, she had walked the barbarian path, but now she suddenly became an elite administrator, and he had never heard why.

“I have a dream.”
“Everyone has dreams.”
“Not that kind of dream. Something……”

Marigold paused briefly before continuing.
“Sometimes… I dream that this world is becoming more and more unhappy and heading toward destruction.”
“That sounds like a nightmare.”

“I know! It’s not often, but I always have the same dream. Always the exact same dream.”
Marigold wrapped her arm around him in agreement.
Ransell felt his throat tighten.

“I just wish the world I live in wouldn’t become like that. But I can’t do anything. Even if I join the capital, with just my body, I can’t do anything.”
“You must have cleaned the inn or something. You’re a commoner after all.”
“How do you know?”

“There are ways to know.”
“…Anyway, so as soon as I saw the academy recruiting people, I jumped in. I thought being an administrator would be different.”
“You wanted to change the world by becoming an administrator? That’s quite an ambitious goal.”

Ransell chuckled.
“It’s hard for a mere administrator to change the world, Clerk Merry. It’s better to give up big dreams early.”
“I know that too. I just want to do what I can.”

If not for Ransell this time, she would have been detained much longer.
No, she probably would have gone astray when caught by the militia.
‘Then why did she keep her distance from me at first?’

Just as Ransell was about to ask, suddenly—
“Watch me, Ransell, sir.”
Marigold’s voice came out determined.

“What?”
“Even though I’m like this now, someday I’ll rise high enough that you’ll cling to me.”
“…I doubt I’ll ever cling to Clerk Merry…”

“You never know. If I become the highest administrator in the Empire, that might happen.”
Is this a declaration of intent to become a high-ranking official?
“If that happens, I’ll grant you one wish.”

“Really?!”
“Yes. Anything.”
“Anything…!”

Marigold’s voice trembled.
“Really anything? For real?”
“That’s right.”

“No backing out later!”
“…Now that you say that, I want to back out.”
“Eek! No! Please keep your promise once you say it!”

It was an empty promise anyway, but Marigold seemed happy.
The matter at the Runter Count’s manor ended that very day.
Not long after returning to the capital, Marigold successfully submitted her report. It was about violations of imperial law centered around the Count of Runter.

“Don’t send it to the Administration Bureau. Send it to the imperial palace. That’ll be faster.”
Following Ransell’s advice, Marigold’s report was swiftly delivered directly to the Emperor (fake), skipping all intermediate steps. Ransell had pulled strings behind the scenes.
The bureaucracy collapsed in chaos for a while because a rookie administrator sent a report to the imperial palace without any confirmation from superiors. It was impossible to keep quiet.

But that chaos soon settled.
“Clerk Merry has been awarded the Emperor’s commendation!”
The Emperor (fake), as if waiting for a reason to set an example for the local nobility, immediately gave Marigold a prize and medal.

“From today, Clerk Merry is promoted three ranks to Administration Records Officer. Along with ten gold coins and the imperial badge, this is the Emperor’s decree.”
Soon after, an investigative team was assembled.
They headed to the Count of Runter’s territory and, after months, confirmed that Marigold’s report was entirely accurate.

The Count of Runter was lightly reprimanded.
“His Majesty requests you take care to prevent such incidents from happening again, Count Runter.”
It seemed minor but carried huge meaning. The lord’s honor was diminished, and nothing was more important for a noble, especially the Count of Runter.

In any case, Marigold was on the road to success from that day.
“To be promoted from clerk to records officer in less than a year…?”
“Quite a rise in status.”

“Well deserved, considering she caught the Emperor’s attention.”
It was the start of a hard path as well.
Since becoming a records officer, Marigold began to suffer from overwhelming workloads daily.

 
“The Baron of Dirk insists that my garden is on his land! Do you think this is reasonable? Send a request to the palace to mediate immediately! I can’t tolerate this anymore!”
“P-please calm down and submit a complaint first…”
“Have you finished? Why do you think that’s your garden! My butlers measured it all, and yet you still insist!”

“Calm down, let’s talk more first…”
“Fine, you’ve met your match. Set a date immediately! We’ll settle this with a duel!”
“Eeek! You can’t draw your sword here!”

“That’s exactly what I wanted, old man. I’ve been waiting to open a hole in your body! Clerk Merry, please prepare a place right now. No fuss, we’ll settle it with swords!”
“Stop it, stop! Please stop!”
Whenever Ransell visited the Administration Bureau, he saw the dark circles under Marigold’s eyes deepen more and more.

Though the title of records officer was to supervise administrative problems in the capital, in reality it wasn’t like that.
She was an administrator harassed by nobles.
A shrimp caught between whales.

“Clerk Merry, I think His Highness the Prince likes me. The atmosphere was good at the last banquet. But he hasn’t approached me first.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Can you send a signal to His Highness for me? Let him know I like him too.”

“……”
“It’d be awkward if I said it first. He’d think I’m too easy, and it wouldn’t be fun for him. Okay? Please, Clerk Merry.”
From trivial romantic troubles—

“Adel is missing! Adel! Clerk Merry! Quickly call the administrators and guards to find him! Hurry!”
“Adel? Who is Adel?”
“My family!”

“Huh? Your child?”
“I raised him like a child!”
“Like a child…?”

“A mouse, a mouse!”
“Eek?”
—to small errands.

Marigold was thoroughly being used as a punching bag for the nobles’ malicious complaints.
“Are you alive?”
At night, Ransell found her sitting in her office with a dazed face.

“Hey.”
“……”
Marigold’s eyes were dead, her consciousness half gone. Pinching her cheek or lifting her nose didn’t elicit any reaction.

Ransell had to stifle a laugh inside watching her struggle.
‘Now you understand. The Administration Bureau is a black company.’
There were no labor laws in the Empire.

Many nobles treated the Administration Bureau like half-servants or a thieves’ guild. Marigold had no day off.
What could she do? The opponents were nobles and royal family. If ordered, she had to obey.
120 hours a week, 7 days a week. No holidays, just work, work, work.

“Ughhh, Ransell, sir, I just want to quit!”
“Where’s the eighteen-year-old administrator who said she’d change the world?”
“Aaaahhh!”

“Your ear hurts.”
“I need rest, ugh…”
“Just take a vacation.”

“Denied.”
“Oh dear.”
“Aaaahhhhhhhh!”

One year.
Two years.
Three years.

By the time Marigold was twenty-one—
“Ransell! Did you hear?!”
Baron Evil Shen came to Ransell, his face soaked in sweat.

 
“War! It’s war, war!”
“War?”
Baron Evil Shen’s face was full of excitement from what he had seen outside.

“Something happened in the Count of Runter’s territory. Imperial troops are streaming in. Looks like a big war’s about to break out. The price of the horses I raise will go up! Ha ha ha!”
“……”
Ransell thought, Has it already come to this?

Then Baron Evil Shen’s next words snapped him back to attention.
“Ah, Clerk Merry went along too?”
“…What?”

“I saw Clerk Merry among the reinforcements earlier. She’s close with Lord Ransell, isn’t she? Or not? I often saw the two of them together.”
“…That’s true. But why would she be there suddenly?”
“That’s what’s strange.”

Baron Evil Shen shrugged.
“The commander leading the forces is the Fifth Prince. He specifically called out to Clerk Merry. Seems he likes her.”
What the hell?

“Thinking about it, Clerk Merry is going to rise. I’d better make a good impression now. There must be a reason Lord Ransell is friendly with her.”
Ransell felt his brain freeze.
Why was the Fifth Prince suddenly involved?

Why was Marigold tangled up in this?
Although Ransell had exchanged greetings with Marigold daily for the past three years, he had never heard of any connection between them.
When he went to the Administration Bureau, he received the same news.

“Have you seen Clerk ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) Merry?”
“She went on an urgent business trip to the Count of Runter’s territory. She even asked to send news…”
What on earth was going on?

Ransell only understood the situation that afternoon.
============
— Affection event! Fifth Prince Erwin Cole Freesia shows interest in Marigold. Current affection level: ‘Favor’.

※ She has joined the rebel suppression forces. This is a perfect opportunity to build achievements, isn’t it?
============
“That bastard?”

The Empress Marigold route?
Just like that?
‘I won’t let that happen.’

He’d rather abandon this iteration than make Marigold empress. Having realized that would make her unhappy, it was a reason he couldn’t end this cycle.
Ransell finished preparations and headed out from the mansion.