Title: ABC Demote Me Part 2

Summary: I am clearly not noble material, so demote me to baronet. (E-H)

It was the first long break, and I was currently exploring a high-level dungeon I remembered. More accurately, I was escorting Angelica and several of her followers through a dungeon well beyond what they should be capable of.

After finding out I was to be her newest vassal, Angelica used her position to constantly hound me for the details of my adventures. Her requests were rather tame since I had expected her to abuse her authority. It was an oddity for sure since she was supposed to be the villainess. I suppose she really wasn't that bad when one wasn't trying to steal her love.

Regardless, her insistence on listening to my tales of adventures revealed a rather interesting bit of info about her. It was easy to figure out she wanted to go on a grand adventure of her own. It made sense given how much the Kingdom idolized the profession.

Unfortunately for her, her position barred her from following her dreams... normally. More unfortunately for her, I was willing to realize that dream for her.

"Ahhh!" the villainess screamed in primal rage as she bludgeoned a monster to death with the butt of her rifle. She had run out of aether and bullets a long time ago.

I could help her, but that would ruin Plan E-endangerment. The Duke would surely demote me if his precious daughter was irresponsibly put through a life or death situation. Even if that was not enough, I figured endangering the current future queen would be enough. At the very least, Angelica should be able to convince the Queen to demote me from the sour experience.

I at least made sure to stop her and her followers from triggering any immediately lethal traps. No need to kill the villainess and be accused of murder, negligence, or whatever else they would tag on me.

"A little help?!" one of the followers screamed frantically as she shook me in pure despair.

Looking over to the fighting, I saw Angelica's rifle lay broken as she was being chased by a berserk vampire bat.

With a sigh, I punched the wall. The impact caused a few debris to fall off. I slowly picked up a small pebble. Looking at it slowly, I deemed it suitable. With Luxion's help, I shot the pebble like a railgun. The bat and the wall behind it ceased to exist.

Was it overkill? Yes, but it was cool to use powers from a certain manga I used to read. Plus, showing such a demonstration of power should piss everyone off more. After all, I could have stepped in at anytime. I knew I would have been pissed if anyone did that to me.

Looking at Angelica sitting on the ground to rest, I decided to drive in the knife further. I tossed her a shovel and said, "Here's a replacement weapon. I expect to get this back afterwards."

Rather than looking pissed, she looking excited.

Goddamnit!

Out of all the arrogantly useless blue-blood nobles, I just had to find the one noble who wasn't incompetent and actually relished real challenges. Not only had she conquered the dungeon, she used the shovel to both bury and kill the boss... in that order. It was now her weapon of choice (I did not have the heart or courage to separate the two) and earned her the moniker Grave Princess.

Angie absolutely loved the experience and begged for me to take her on another expedition in the future. She thought my deliberate choice to let her suffer was a sign of respect, and my Tsundere way to show my affection/loyalty to her specifically. She also got it in her head that I was trying to cheer her up to forget about how Marie (non-canon named protagonist?) and Julius were a little too close to be considered proper.

Lord Redgrave also took no issue with me endangering his daughter. We succeeded in plundering a dungeon that had a reputation for just outright killing everyone stupid enough to go in. Angie's, and by extension the Redgrave's, popularity and political influence had skyrocketed. That was also ignoring how proud he was of his little Grave Princess's success.

The worst part was that, despite doing the bare minimum, my court rank went up again for leading a party of novices through one of the toughest dungeons and creating a new legend. I was lower rank four now.

I also made a ludicrous sum of money from the venture. My share was 0.01% of the gross treasure, and it still dwarfed what my original official assets were. I couldn't enjoy the boon since Luxion made me so much money so such a prize was meaningless. I suppose the only silver lining was that it wasn't enough for another feudal rank promotion.

Whatever. What's done was done. I just have to focus on my next plan.

I was currently sitting with Lord Redgrave and Angie as we waited for the Alzer nobles to enter the room. Normally this was something the prime minister was supposed to handle, but the big honcho from Alzer was supposed to be arriving. It was something about his heir wanting to see the Kingdom renowned for its adventurers. The boy had taken it up as a hobby.

Due to the dignitaries position, Redgrave was chosen as our representative as a sign of respect. Angie was specifically requested by the heir. I was forced to come along. Officially, Vincent wanted me to come along since I was the party leader. Unofficially, I think he wanted me to remind the boy to be respectful. I didn't feel it was necessary since Angie could take care of herself, but I would gladly step forward... especially since I could work it into my plan to get demoted.

Plan F-oreign will require a delicate hand. I needed to beat the shit out of the foreign dignitary's son just enough to be disgraced, but not enough for them to pull their support and give it to Fanoss.

When we heard the door open, the Redgraves and I stood up to greet the two men who crossed the threshold.

"Leon!?" both yelped. Though, one had a look of sheer anger while the other surprise.

"Yes?" I reactively responded.

I didn't have much time to figure out how they knew me when the younger one launched himself at me.

Before I could defend myself, the older man grabbed the younger and hurled him into the wall before rushing to hold and stretch my face.

I never had a chance with Plan F. Duke Redgrave was an utter bastard. He knew I looked like Albergue's dead son. He used my image as a means to manipulate the man.

The worst part was that I could not bring myself to fault him. It was a genius move, and for the most part, everyone walked out with a victory. Albergue was happily under the delusion that his real son was alive, and Alzer no longer did business with Fanoss.

The only ones hit by this were Serge and me. Serge had his traumas about being a mere inferior substitute reopened, and my court rank increased to upper fourth rank since I was now officially Holfort's liaison with Alzer.

I officially held a position in government now. I was now a Fia instead of Fou. How cruelly stupid this world was to appoint a simple man like me into such a position. I was just a baronet less than a year ago.

Screw it all, it was time for Plan G-rave Princess. Surely my liege would not take kindly to me trying to court his daughter and potentially endanger the Redgrave's chances for the throne. Angie was surely not going to take kindly to me trying to woo her away from her true love.

Plan G failed spectacularly. I should have known given how Angie had taken to me after I took her on that excursion. How was I that dense?

While I fortunately did not get promoted to become more socially acceptable to marry Angie, I found a formal contract in front of me soon after I tried courting her. Reading over it, I came to the realization I was being setup as Angie's rebound engagement. What's more, it was approved by Vincent, Gilbert, and my dad.

It stipulated that while I could not formally court her in the Academy or the capital, I was expected to do so during my stay in the Redgrave territory... which was stipulated to be all of my time outside of the Academy. Given I was Angie's vassal, it meant I was expected to be in her presence everyday for the rest of my life.

I had conflicted feelings about all this. Angie was the hottest girl I had ever seen, but what the hell was with these circumstances. Who was the cuck in this situation? Was I cucking Julius or the other way around? Could either of us even be cucked when neither of us was truly pursuing Angie?

Snap out of it, Leon! It doesn't matter who was cucking who. I would be the loser in the end. I was the rebound, and I would never be the one Angie truly loved. Even if Angie miraculously married Julius, that still left me loveless.

Just focus on getting that coveted demotion. At least this weird set of circumstances gave me a new way to get demoted.

Plan H-eroine would require me to pursue the protagonist.

It was perfect. I didn't need to truly romance her, but merely show a passing interest. Angie would no doubt ruin me for this slight. It was her role. How ironic that the game I hated most would serve to give me what I truly wanted.

I would be free from this nightmare.

Since when was the protagonist named Olivia and not Marie?!

AN:

1) If I make another part for ABC Demote Me, I'll make this its own fic.

2) G and H were a bit brief since I was more focused of E and F.

Review Response:

PersonaNinja Lux: I don't think Brad's relationship with Olivia/Marie kickstarts the war. Sure the removal of the political block was scandalous enough to appear as an opportune moment to strike, but I don't believe it would have made a difference in the relative time of when the war would start.

I think there was a lot of preparation and background politics going on that caused the war, but because we see the story from the main casts' perspectives, are lead to believe their actions are responsible. Remember, Frampton has been conspiring with Fanoss for an unspecified amount of time with the goal of ridding Holfort of unwanted nobles. War also takes time, planning, and resources. It is my belief that the war was going to happen regardless if Stephanie and her pirates were eliminated. Chances are that Fanoss was going to invade, regardless of any interference of the protagonist, before Julius graduated or gets married. Those times seem like the most reasonable times to make the assault since it would at least destabilize the kingdom during the next king's reign.

babaga he who laughs at anime: Maybe this is due to a difference in translations, but I don't recall the engagement being mentioned to be a reward for the Offreys. From what I understood, the Offreys had some diplomatic relationship with the Principality. As a result of this, the Fields submitted a marriage proposal, but they never expected the Offreys to accept. My interpretation was that the Fields specifically tried for the engagement with the hopes that the marriage would give reason to Fanoss to stop attacking, but ultimately they did not expect much since Offrey's relationship with Fanoss might just make such an engagement impossible. The fact that the Fields did not have to worry about the black knight anymore after the engagement shows the plot worked to a degree. So yes, the Offreys did ward off Fanoss through diplomatic relations rather than military force.

Frost Wolf: Huh, this the first time I have ever heard of someone pitying the boys. Most of the time I hear people wish worse happened to them.

LuxEterna1: Except there's nothing distinguishing Leon's wealth from his family. The only person they are likely to receive information regarding where the wealth is coming from or who owns it is from Jenna, who has a track record of claiming things as hers. It is very likely she would misinform anyone curious enough by saying the wealth belonged to her family rather than her little brother. If anyone a little more inquisitive goes asking, they might ask Zola and her children. We already know how they think.

As for the size of the partner, I was certain at some point they stated the Partner wasn't big and actually gave measurements. Maybe I got the numbers seitched since machine translations can be pretty awful. I do concede the military looked down upon it for its cannon placement. I had forgotten that was the reason.

As for the rural barons, do keep in mind that they are literally asking their families to lend warships and armors to possibly instigate a civil war for the benefit of an impoverished viscount daughter (no expected monetary/political benefits) before any royal court approval. The fact that they could accrue any amount of military force is insane. So for them to get as many as they tells me that they more than likely had several if they could spare what they did.

Jenna's increased spending habits are the norm though. I also doubt her spending increased that much since Leon has forced Jenna to do tasks for him before paying up and Jenna often complains how she isn't keeping up with trends. So even if someone noticed the difference and specifically attributed it to Leon, he still would seem poor since Jenna is not keeping up.

Also something to keep in mind, Leon's increased wealth is likely perceived as a one-time deal. It's not as if he found a magic stone mine that is expected to accrue wealth continuously. To most people, he is unlikely to gain any more substantial wealth. Even with his jackpot, his land is still undeveloped, not within the capital region, and below the minimum of a barony. So even if his family's perceived wealth has increased, people likely just expect it and see nothing special about it.

Btw, these discussions are quite nice since they do give more insight of potential thought processes. Thanks for taking the time to lay out your thoughts. After these past few chapters discussing Leon's perceived wealth, I'm curious how a story where the girl who attended the first tea party snagging Leon would go had she taken a more thorough look at Leon.