What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 22

#022 Handling (1)

At that moment, I truly realized why I was a ‘sub’ male lead and the prince was the ‘main’ male lead.

Once, Ganael had embarrassingly praised Prince Yeser, saying, ‘Prince Yeser is a noble being whom ten out of ten people would turn to look at on the street.’

However, Cedric was the kind of person whose appearance would make people not only turn to look but also drop whatever they were doing and chase after him.

Even from below, he looked at least 10cm taller than me. It was a huge difference in specs.

I struggled to clear my momentarily dazed mind.

The prince and I exchanged a long gaze.

“······.”

“······.”

When I met Christel, there was at least a broken wooden window between us.

The confessional was a bit dark, so it was easy to hide even if I couldn’t manage my expression.

The fact that Christel came and left in a hurry was also advantageous for me.

It wasn’t a bad situation for hiding my embarrassment.

But I was facing this man head-on.

On an open balcony where red torches and magical lights illuminated the garden.

It wasn’t like Stroda Palace only had one balcony, but I couldn’t help but resent the prince for wanting to get some air here.

“Yes, I’ll take care of this one. That’s what will be reported to Cardinal Boutier.”

I opened my mouth with the most natural smile I could muster.

We didn’t exchange greetings or pleasantries at our first meeting, but I wouldn’t miss it at all, considering I hoped this would be our last encounter.

I held out both arms to the red panda.

Then, the prince, who had been looking down at me and the creature, suddenly spoke.

“I heard you weren’t attending the ball.”

“I didn’t. I just happened to see this little one while passing by.”

Anyone could see that Jack was hanging off the balcony like he was climbing a beanstalk, so what ball was he talking about?

I was annoyed that the prince kept speaking informally to me from the start.

In the meantime, even the red panda wasn’t listening to me anymore.

The creature seemed curious about the new character and turned away from me, approaching the prince.

The prince clearly saw me trying to draw out the divine beast, but instead of helping, he wore an intrigued expression.

Indeed, he lived up to his handsome face.

Of all times for an obstacle to appear when I didn’t even have snacks in my sleeves.

Since I really wanted to go and rest, I sighed and released aether [a powerful, magical energy].

The sanctuary grew, and the ground beneath my feet brightened.

[······‘Demi’.]

Then, I whispered the creature’s name.

During the confession earlier, the noble who came to ask for help naming his daughter had said something like that.

‘They say if you call them by a good name, they’ll respond with good intentions.’

It was a plausible statement.

I had never heard that in Korea, but if there was such a saying in the empire, I thought I should use it too.

Since it was an earth attribute, I took the name from Demeter [the Greek goddess of agriculture and harvest].

Since it was a divine beast, the prefix (demi-) meant god.

Even though the creature might leave this place tomorrow······.

I hoped that if I gave it the best name I could think of right now, it would come to me with good intentions.

-Kkiiiiii!

At my oracle [a sacred utterance], the red panda cried out louder than ever.

To be exact, it was a sound somewhere between ‘Bbi!’ and ‘Kki!’

It looked at me again and mouthed something, its face looking like it was smiling, which brightened my mood.

The creature busily scurried towards me as if it had never been distracted.

Soon, it climbed over the railing and fearlessly started climbing up my arm, causing me to finally burst into laughter.

“Demi, let’s go now.”

The creature stood up, placing its hind legs near my neck.

I carefully held onto Demi’s black front paws, which were trying to climb up the back of my head.

“What does it mean?”

Then the prince asked this question.

He kept omitting the subject from the beginning, so it seemed like he had bad language habits from childhood.

“What do you mean, what does it mean?”

“The name.”

He couldn’t suddenly be curious about my name, so he must be asking about the meaning of ‘Demi.’

“Well, um. It’s because it has a similar color to demi-glace sauce [a rich brown sauce in French cuisine].”

It was difficult to talk about Demeter in a world without Greek mythology, and I didn’t know what the language system was like here, so I couldn’t suddenly bring up prefixes.

As I blurted out whatever came to mind, Cedric let out a hollow laugh, saying, ‘Ha.’

“You must really like food.”

“I do eat well. Well, I’ll be going.”

There was nothing more to say.

I had secured the red panda, Demi, so my role here was over.

After confirming that Demi had settled on my shoulder, I slowly moved my feet······.

Wait a minute.

How did he know I liked food?

“······.”

A chilling feeling washed over me.

I talked about the color of demi-glace sauce, but I didn’t say I liked the sauce so much that I named it after it.

I felt strange. I knew I was being overly sensitive, but the fact that he immediately grasped my appetite was scratching at a corner of my mind.

I slowly raised my eyes, which had been measuring where to step, and looked at the prince.

The young man was still watching me.

“Is there anything else you need?”

Just then, the clouds cleared. Clear moonlight poured down on his silhouette.

The irises that received the light had a distinct orange tint.

The slightly curly shape of his hair, like black satin, was very familiar.

“Could it be······.”

-Deng, Deng······.

I was startled and lowered my gaze.

I saw Benjamin holding up nine fingers. The 9 o’clock bell was ringing.

“No, I’ll be going.”

I spat out the words like a machine gun and stepped down one step.

It seemed too personal to voice my guess.

My mind was in turmoil with all sorts of thoughts.

The prince simply tilted his head without any particular reaction.

-Squeak, click.

At that moment, I heard the sound of the balcony door opening and closing.

The voices of the guests and the waltz music grew closer and then faded away.

Then, someone’s light footsteps struck my ears.

I ignored all the noise and carefully moved my feet so that Demi wouldn’t shake.

“Greetings to His Highness the noble Prince.”

“Duchess Sarnese.”

What?

-Kkii

“Sorry, sorry. My mistake.”

Demi complained at my misstep.

I was flustered and grabbed the vine in front of me tightly.

Why is that person here?

“The Sarnese heiress has not arrived yet.”

“Yes······. She sent word that her dress was uncomfortable and she would change before coming.”

The duchess’s voice trembled.

The prince was using polite language to her, but the coldness dripping from his tone made him seem more like a loan shark than a prospective son-in-law.

Demi wagged its tail in front of my eyes.

I rebooted my body, which had stopped for a moment due to shock.

Fortunately, the two people were already out of my sight.

“Greetings to Prince Yeser Venetian as well.”

However, Isabel de Sarnese spoke to me.

“I didn’t expect the two of you to be together······.”

It seemed like she could only see the top of my head, but when I thought about it, I was wearing a tall bishop’s hat.

I felt like a pheasant.

Even though I couldn’t feel the weight or the heat, I was a pheasant, not a human.

“······Hello.”

I forced the words out.

I wanted to say she had mistaken me for someone else, but I couldn’t do that in this situation.

Fully dressed in formal attire with purple eyes.

From now on, there was no other way but to face it head-on.

“First, I would like to express my gratitude.”

With those words, the duchess approached the railing.

When her shadow fell over me, I raised my head and saw a woman with a much younger face than I had expected looking down at me.

Her jade-like face, which looked to be in her mid-thirties at most, was stained with guilt and fear.

“You are a precious person······. I know how rude it is to make an appointment unilaterally. Nevertheless, for your grace in coming, I am······.”

“No, Duchess. I’m sorry, but I didn’t come to meet you.”

“Yes?”

A drop of the duchess’s tears brushed past my cheek. I gritted my teeth.

“I came to save the divine beast. This one. If I wanted to meet you, I would have gone to the balcony at the far right.”

She blinked. She had an expression that said she didn’t understand my words.

“Your Highness, this is the balcony at the far right······.”

“It’s the far left.”

I sharply cut her off.

Then, the prince, who had been quietly listening from behind, chuckled and said,

“It would be the left if you looked from the back door.”

*

The red panda Demi’s spectacular personal skill, ‘Creating a staircase for humans with thick vines,’ was successfully performed.

I knew it was too late to scold it for not using this ability sooner.

I put the creature around my neck and stepped into the balcony with the most serene expression I could muster.

Showing that I was embarrassed meant I was losing.

I ignored the obvious mockery I felt in Cedric’s gaze as he looked at me.

The duchess was kind enough not to ask if I had a poor sense of direction.

“Shall we begin then? The confession.”

Since I had entered the novel, I hoped that everything would be resolved dramatically.

Even if I failed, I wanted to fail spectacularly in a dramatic way.

A mistake that would make you want to scroll down and admire it, making you curious about the character’s growth.

Not a mistake like not being able to distinguish the front and back doors of the building and showing up on time for an appointment you had planned to blow off.

No wonder I couldn’t see a carriage in front of Stroda Palace.

Since guests don’t enter through the back door, there was no reason to park there.

No, the more I thought about it, the more absurd it was.

“Didn’t you say you came for the divine beast?”

Don’t talk if you can help it, it’s frustrating to listen to.

The prince didn’t even blink at my glaring gaze.

I suppressed the shame that was washing over me again and turned to Duchess Sarnese.

She was worried that someone might open the balcony door and enter, but she seemed a little brighter at my words that I would hear her confession.

“Thank you, Your Highness. I would have had nothing to say even if you had returned as you were······.”

It’s okay, this is for my last bit of dignity.

Those words lingered on the tip of my tongue before disappearing.

It would have been even more foolish to say, ‘I may have confused the front, back, left, and right, but I’ll still go back.’

Now that it had come to this, it was much better to coolly accept the confession and leave.

I was also curious about the story of the divine artifact that had disappeared from the ‘Temple of the Boundary.’

“Then, Your Highness, please step out onto the balcony. The confession must be conducted one-on-one, under the principle of confidentiality.”

The prince slightly raised one eyebrow at my expulsion, intentionally omitting the title ‘Your Highness.’

His reply was unexpected.

“I’ll be needed.”

Following that, he raised his left hand, which was wearing a black glove.

As he drew a short horizontal line in the air, the balcony door clicked shut from the inside.

The duchess was calm, but I couldn’t hide my shock.

“What was that just now······.”

“I guess you haven’t heard the rumors about me being a magic swordsman.”

I hadn’t.

But I clearly remembered Eunseo calling him a ‘Sword Master.’

I could swear I hadn’t confused it with the settings of another novel.

I naturally assumed that was correct since he only wielded a sword all day, but a magic swordsman?

Besides, the magic was a bit different from what I had imagined.

Is this ? Is he a mutant?

“Your Highness, I’m fine. I believe it is the grace of the main god just to be able to confess to Your Highness. And······.”

The duchess intervened as if to stop the confrontation between me and the prince.

Her voice was still trembling, but there was a hint of determination in her black eyes.

“His Highness the Prince is the one who is qualified to know my sins in detail.”