Story of a Cannon Fodder who Firmly Believed He was the Protagonist, Misunderstood the Actual Protagonist as the Cannon Fodder, and Ended up Victorious
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Derpy
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 008 – Fay’s Hidden Talent
A month had passed since Fay, Tlue, Arthur, and Bouran joined the special unit. Fay and the others trained every day to become official paladins.
And Fay received corporal punishment almost every day, doing ten laps around the capital on his hands after training.
“Ah! It’s upside down nii-chan!”
“Hey hey, why are you always doing that?”
“Tell me about it too!”
“Annoying… don’t disturb me.”
“I wonder what annoying means-?”
“He means you’re being noisy.”
At a corner of the wide royal capital, Fay passing by upside down already became some sort of boom and was drawing attention.
“Oh, since that boy has arrived… I guess it’s about time for the croquettes to go on sale.”
“Ah, it’s already that time? I have to return quickly and prepare for dinner.”
“Kuh- I’m addicted to drinking while watching him lap. Give me another serving.”
Children looked at him with pure curiosity while the adults treated him as a human watch, an entertainment to go with their drinks, a signal to launch their sales, and various other things. Obviously, not everyone treated his presence favorably. Fay was well aware that some people gossiped about him and laughed behind his back.
But he continued doing this for a month…
Fay had been doing his swordsmanship training with Yururu every morning. She had fixed his weird habits and, as he gained more experience, his efforts piled up.
Then, Yururu noticed a certain thing.
…I didn’t notice when we first began… but I think Fay-kun does possess a talent for swordsmanship.
She felt somewhat astonished at this fact. When she saw how his swordsmanship was initially, she thought that this boy was not talented since it was so ugly.
I did think that his swordsmanship was weird when we first started… but as his quirks got fixed, his skill improved at a tremendous rate…
However, that’s not all. What makes Fay-kun so amazing… is the fact that he isn’t afraid to change and dares to destroy everything he has built up so far for further improvement.
Most tenacious people like Fay-kun tend to refuse change… but he is different. He kept breaking himself down and steadily rebuilt his prowess over and over. He easily abandons his past effort as long as there is progress…
Fay was a serious person, more so than most. He misunderstood and thought that Yururu was the master character so he seriously listened to what she told him and did as she says. It was the first time Yururu had such an understanding and honest student, despite him being deadpan most of the time, so she was motivated to teach well.
…Why did he develop such weird habits to begin with?
The morning training was over so Yururu decided to ask Fay about it.
“Uhm, was Fay-kun originally self-taught?”
“Aah… that’s right.”
“I see…”
Even if you were self-taught, one shouldn’t develop so many quirks though… somehow, in Fay-kun’s case, I feel that he was influenced by some sort of non-existant swordsmanship style…
Yururu thought. However, her guess that Fay’s swordsmanship was being influenced by an non-existing swordsmanship style was actually true. 1
Fay was originally a cannon fodder character who served as the protagonist’s stepping stone. He was supposed to hinder the protagonist from time to time over the course of the plot. That was why he actually possessed decent stats like a great talent for swordsmanship, to the point that it was comparable to protagonists like Arthur and Tlue.
However, despite his talent for swords, it wasn’t enough for him to defeat those two.
There were two reasons for this. First, Fay was originally an arrogant character who hated putting in effort. That was why he didn’t properly make use of his amazing talent. Second, Fay only possessed tremendous talent for swordsmanship, none for magic at all. The latter especially, played a major role in his defeat. That was why he would beat down people in the same generation, who made fun of him with his sword. And every time it happened, Tlue would come to stop him.
Arthur and Tlue were anomalous characters. A person with moderate talent wouldn’t be able to win against them no matter how hard they tried. Even if the character was talented, they would still lose to those who properly put in the effort to polish their abilities. That was why the character known as Fay originally had an inferior mentality, was fooled by outrageous people, and ended up going berserk as dark art affected him.
That was how Arthur and Tlue came out victorious against him. That was his original role.
However, the boy who took over the character named Fay was capable of putting in the effort. But his efforts didn’t bear fruit all this time because Fay, who was self-taught, had a weird mind filled with things like:
It would be cool if I managed sixteen consecutive slashes.
I will make a cross slash become more stylish!
Won’t I look as cool as a shinobi if I held my sword with my back hand?
He spent his days in the orphanage with such thoughts in mind. The original Fay didn’t do that since Maria didn’t hide the proper instruction manual in that situation, which allowed him to learn the basics and to perform decently in swordsmanship.
However, this Fay, with such weird thoughts, made Maria hide the proper instruction manual and prevent him from improving. Tlue learned the basics long before Fay, thus it allowed him to grow further and beyond. Because of that, the difference between the two only widened.
Fay’s situation was like a latest smartphone being misused: to have browsed adult sites out of curiosity and infected with viruses which prevented him from showing off his supposed capability. His poor performance made nobody but one person understand his supposed talent.
Maria actually had an inkling of his talent. That was why she hid the proper instruction manual. In other words, everything that happened was basically Maria’s fault.
Once the virus was cleaned out and one looked at his present state, Yururu who earnestly taught him could feel his talent.
“Uhm, I think Fay-kun does possess a great talent for swordsmanship…”
“I see…”
“Yes… but can I ask something? Why did Fay-kun want to grow stronger?”
“…”
Yururu’s question made Fay turn to look above.
“Why, huh…”
It seemed he was looking to some place that wasn’t visible from here. His eyes felt similar to that of someone she knew.
“If I have to say my reason… Let’s see… I just want to become stronger… to be the strongest in this world. That’s all there is to it.”
“—gh.”
“…”
“How much stronger are you intending to be…?”
“—As much as possible.”
Nii-sama…
An old memory burned once more into the back of Yururu’s eyelids. She, Yururu Garethia, was originally an aristocrat and lived happily with her parents and three older brothers.
Every member of her family were paladins; that was why she also chased after that dream.
However, her third brother killed their mother. Her second brother slaughtered twelve paladins. And her eldest brother… murdered their father.
[“Wh-y… did you kill… tou-sama?”]
[“…Why? I just wanted to grow stronger. He just happened to block my way there. I merely cut down my obstacle…”]
There laid their decapitated father, the smell of iron saturated in the air, and his blood pooled into a large puddle. Bile burned her throat and the sight made her vomit. Her eldest brother, Gawain Garethia only stared blankly at her, muttering like a machine.
[“This thing… is only understood by people who fall into the depths. There was no way you could understand. At least not with your current self.”]
Nii-sama has fallen into the abyss of strength. He forged on the path of a shura and could never return. He abandoned everything he deemed as important and cut them all down to grow stronger…
There is neither purpose nor dignity. He already abandoned his path as a human being and only kept going deeper in. And Fay-kun happens to feel similar to him.
The figure of Fay who exerted his body and trained like crazy made her remember such a thing. Those abyss-like muddy eyes reminded her of her older brother.
Maybe… Is it possible for Fay-kun to turn out like nii-sama? He didn’t care about the method as long as it made him grow stronger. He wasn’t a person who grew stronger as a means to reach his goal, but growing stronger in and of itself was his goal.
He might have fallen into the abyss of strength… and turned into a shura…
Yururu’s chest ached with worry as she looked at the expressionless boy who was only interested in growing stronger.
◆◆
Recently, I felt that I was steadily growing stronger. As expected, Yururu-sensei sure was amazing. She said I might possess a great talent for swordsmanship?
As expected, people who understand could see the potential. So I had the talent for swordsmanship, huh… Yururu-sensei sure was amazing. (Second time)
Well, I have no talent for magic at all though. Since I had the talent for swordsmanship, I was thinking I had some sort of hidden talent for magic as well. (Random thought)
“Yes… but can I ask something? Why did Fay-kun want to grow stronger?”
“…”
Why did I want to grow stronger, huh. Sensei asked me such a thing.
Uh-m. Well, I didn’t think I needed any particular reason to grow stronger. In my case, I was the protagonist. Wasn’t it natural for me to grow as strong as possible?
But let’s see… I doubted she would understand if I said I was the protagonist. Since I was a cool-type character, saying too many words at once also seemed weird, but I think it would be good once in a while… I would seem cool with this kind of response.
{I don’t have any particular reason.}
↓
“If I have to say my reason… Let’s see… I just wanted to become stronger… to be the strongest in this world. That’s all there is to it.”
The autocorrect worked on its own. It properly made me appear cool.
“—gh.”
“…”
“How much stronger are you intending to be…?”
{“—As much as possible.”}
That last sentence didn’t get corrected. After all, I did have to grow as strong as possible to save the world. That was an obvious thing to do. After that, we crossed our swords and began another round again.
Want early access to Cannon Fodder, Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer, and I Was a Man Before Reincarnating, So I Refuse a Reverse Harem? Support the translator on Patreon!
So my phone is Fey
Fау’ѕ ѕіtuаtіоn wаѕ lіkе а lаtеѕt ѕmаrtрhоnе bеіng mіѕuѕеd: tо hаvе brоwѕеd аdult ѕіtеѕ оut оf сurіоѕіtу аnd іnfесtеd wіth vіruѕеѕ whісh рrеvеntеd hіm frоm ѕhоwіng оff hіѕ ѕuрроѕеd сараbіlіtу.
>Mi padre. XD
Thanks for chap
You know there’s something wrong with her family or the environment when not 1 but 3 ppl do the same kind of incident for the same goal.
Let’s hope mc awakens a self made cool magic talent too. And yep maria’s fault again being pointed out, she’s even compared to a virus
So Sir Gawain is an enemy in this story huh…
so is agravain… and gaheris
Lol 3 itachis
itachi at least do it for greater good of the village, they don’t, just poor victim of manipulation
Gawain Gareth-ia
ok wtf?
there is also Agravain Gareth-ia
I love those rare moment in stories like these where the autocorrect doesn’t kick in.
things that happen when his thought in line with character