What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 450

#450

Stranger Winds and the Black Wizard’s Mansion (5)

Once?

– Squeak, squeak, squeak.

I rubbed the top of the dial diligently, thinking I might have misread it because of the dust.

But the letters before my eyes remained unchanged.

‘One chance.
Mansion explodes upon input error.’

“…Seriously?”

Just one chance? Seriously, how rude!

“This is insane. Hey, Grand Preceptor, release my restraints.”

Zibril Diop held out his hands.

I couldn’t hide my bewilderment and stammered.

Even amidst all this, my mind, reaching its peak excitement, began to spin noisily.

The mansion explodes upon one input error—could this really be true?

Or is it just a bluff to scare off intruders?

“Your Grace.”

The Cardinal called to me softly, indicating that Gongza’s treatment was also up to me.

I quickly finished calculating.

“…Yes, Sir Johann. Please release Gongza’s mana restraints. I need to know at least roughly what kind of magic is cast here. I would also appreciate it if you could return his staff. He will have to inspect all the way to the end of the hallway alone.”

“I must say, you’re quite cunning at times like these.”

“I ask for your favor.”

Gongza twisted his freed wrists and received his staff from Sir Johann.

Only then did his complexion seem to brighten a little.

Unlike François’ staff, which was in the form of a mace, his was a short wand with a ruby embedded in the end of the handle, as red as blood.

Whoosh…! Soon, bright red mana bloomed from the man’s fingertips and weapon.

Sir Johann watched his movements with hawk-like eyes.

Meanwhile, Rophy climbed down my shoulder and sniffed at the dial.

“If you feel anything strange, let me know right away, Rophy. We’ll do our best.”

– Nyaa.

“Hoo…”

I don’t know if it’s true that we only have one chance, but if I think about it calmly, it doesn’t matter.

We have already chosen the ‘Portrait Hallway’ among the many hallways and entered here.

We can’t move to another hallway now, and for now, the opposite path seems completely blocked.

Gongza’s final confirmation is needed, but….

Then there’s no choice, is there?

“We can either wait for someone to appear here, or we can actively push forward this time as well. But the former is a method we can never choose.”

“Yes. It could be Madame Morhan’s scheme to trap us here, or it’s just a waste of time. Any operation that catches the opponent off guard is best.”

Sir Johann replied gently.

I continued to organize my thoughts and put them into words.

Just like Mom once taught me.

‘Yeseo, take a deep breath and look at the situation calmly. Calmly. Then a way will appear.’

‘You’re smart, so you can do it, right?’

“…This place is such a secret space that it even has Morhan and Noe’s private portraits hanging. Not only the door across from the Ether of the Divine Object, but the entire hallway should be considered as such. With that logic, the fact that we are only given one input attempt is also somewhat reasonable. The only person who can reach here from the warehouse is Madame Morhan, and she would never get the password wrong no matter what.”

Then Father Herrit tilted his head. He looked like he was accepting my opinion.

“If you look at it that way…. It makes sense that this hallway was wandering through the darkness in a twisted direction. All the workers are ordinary people, so they can’t fly here like us.”

“Yes. Putting the fate of the mansion on this rotary dial is in the same vein. Since Morhan is the only one who can access this place anyway, she has set up the most powerful security equipment. Even if the mansion doesn’t explode, there will definitely be a commotion equivalent to that. Conversely, if it were a space that anyone could come and go from, she wouldn’t have installed such a trap. That’s too dangerous.”

‘We’ve come to the right place,’ I added neatly.

Sir Johann nodded and carefully examined the dial.

Meanwhile, the Lightning Man was deploying a magic circle over there.

Charrrrr, clang, clang, clang! A total of eight squares opened like a fan, upholding the man’s will.

The blood-red eyes looked more serious than ever.

He does what he’s told without complaint. Is that why His Majesty continues to employ him because of his personality?

– Clatter, clatter….

“I’ve seen many vaults in my life, but this is the first time I’ve seen such a rotary dial. I didn’t know that the black wizards of the black market invented such sophisticated machines.”

Sir Johann admired the decorations on the door and the engravings on the dial.

The iron door, delicately carved with grape leaves and vines, was as beautiful as a work of art.

Even though it was an overall rusty iron door, the decorative parts were particularly clean, giving it a feeling of being brand new.

“François, who set up his own laboratory, creates such great things every year. If there are those who have lived in groups in this underground for hundreds of years, their achievements must be great. The problem is….”

“It’s illegal. It’s a technology obtained by plundering the life force of a Divine Object, not their own.”

The man added softly. I nodded my head and examined the vault entrance with him.

First, on the dial, which was as big as Sir Johann’s torso, all the Roman letters and numbers were engraved in a circle like a clock.

At the top of the head, there were four small blank spaces.

So, if you turn this to fill in the password one space at a time, and finally press the grape bunch button in the center of the dial….

It seems like it will be ‘entered’.

“There will be a clue.”

I said like a spell. But in fact, I had ‘no’ confidence at all.

It’s fortunate and truly grateful that there is no distinction between upper and lower case and no special characters, but there are still too many possibilities.

Even if I calculate roughly, there are 26 alphabets plus 10 numbers in one space, for a total of 36.

If you allow duplicates, it’s 36 times 36 times 36 times 36! That’s well over a million!

“Please calm down, Your Grace.”

“…Is it that obvious?”

“You are very skilled at controlling Ether these days, but when you are with people you know, you are still….”

“I’m sorry.”

I quickly apologized while cleaning up the Ether that had spread out in a mess.

Then, as I lowered my gaze, the first clue came into view by chance.

…No, really. It’s not my imagination!

“Sir Johann, here it is! There are no traces of the rotary dial moving towards the numbers!”

“…Oh.”

I opened my eyes wide and pointed to one side of the dial. It really was.

Since it was such an old door, the marks left by the dial needle were still on the iron plate, but strangely, the area where the numbers were gathered had overwhelmingly fewer marks.

The Roman letter section was relatively rougher, and there were even traces of slight scraping on this side.

Meanwhile, Diop came to our side and was projecting a red magic circle onto the safe.

– Zzzzzing…!

“The numbers are probably the password used by Madame Morhan’s predecessor. It’s the rule to change the password when the user changes.”

“What is ‘rule,’ Your Grace?”

Sir Johann blinked and asked. Oops.

“National… a rule that is universally accepted nationwide?”

“I see. Rule.”

He repeated the word in his mouth. I quickly returned to the starting point.

“In short, it is a four-digit code that only uses letters. And here… there are particularly many scratches between M and N.”

“You’ve already narrowed down the range quite a bit. We can assume that one of the two must be included.”

“Yes. Then, the reason why there are so many traces here….”

What could it be? Could it be because it’s a code made up of only M and N? No, that’s too easy.

It didn’t seem that simple. I shook my head and concentrated.

Let’s go a little deeper. Let’s think from the basics.

When do people or things usually get scratched and injured?

“…When hit hard.”

“Strong force.”

Sir Johann and I muttered at the same time. Then our eyes met.

And the case where a strong force is applied is usually….

“When moving for the first time.”

“First letter.”

Yes, that’s it! I smiled brightly and grabbed the round key of the dial.

To move such an old handle, you naturally have to apply a strong force at first, and if you do, one place will inevitably be severely gnawed.

So the first letter of the code is either M or N!

“Since it’s Madame Morgan, isn’t it more likely to be M?”

I said excitedly. Then Sir Johann’s hair fell to one side.

“I don’t know. That’s a bit cliché.”

“…I admit it.”

You are so sharp. I thought as I watched Rophy tapping the dial decoration with his front paws.

The guy glanced at the grape pattern, looked at me, wiggled his ears, and then looked over my shoulder.

A code that starts with M or N and that a black wizard who keeps a portrait of a clergyman would use….

– Nyaaao.

Huh?

“…Sir Johann, this. Are all the decorations here grape fruits and vines?”

I asked urgently, using gestures.

That thrilling intuition from before, this is it.

“Yes. It’s not very suitable for this place.”

“Not suitable?”

“Grapevines are usually symbols of monasteries. It’s no exaggeration to say that all good wines are made in monasteries. There is an old monastery in Yeriho, so maybe it’s influenced by that side… Ah.”

Realization dawned on the man’s drooping eyes.

I ran to where the portrait was in a hurry. Our Rophy is a genius detective!

“Piggy Princess! Where are you going?”

– Meow.

“Just a moment!”

‘Tap!’ In an instant, I stood in front of Noe and Morhan’s portraits.

I rolled my eyes without even taking a breath. Grapes, grapes, grapes….

“There.”

Looking again, the clue was subtly hidden. The grape pattern on the teacup that Noe was holding.

A lamp with grape leaf-shaped decorations. And….

The distant monastery outside the window and the vineyard background. I got goosebumps.

“Sir Johann, the code is related to Noe. I’m sure of it. That’s why the door and rotary dial decorations look relatively new. The iron door is older than that, but Madame Morhan added decorations after becoming the owner of the mansion.”

I argued almost breathlessly. A strange light flickered in my mint-colored eyes.

“Indeed, that makes sense. But Noe is only three letters….”

“There’s an explosion magic on that rotary dial.”

“Okay, I understand for now… What?!”

Diop Gongza, who had approached at some point, threw it out casually.

My shoulders jumped up like oil in a frying pan!

“It’s not accurate. Black magic has never been my research subject. But generally, there are bits and pieces of formulas included in ‘explosion’ and ‘attack’ magic. If you touch that wrong, you won’t see a good outcome.”

Tock! Gongza took out a candy from his pocket and threw it into his mouth.

I stared blankly at him, listening to the crunching sound.

“And this hallway, judging from the fact that it’s not under surveillance magic, seems to be the private space of that Morhan person. It would take all my life force to break through that wall, so give up on escaping. That’s all, pure Princess.”

“Haa….”

I sighed, supporting Rophy’s butt.

The Lightning Man hid his staff in his sleeve and asked.

“By the way, what is it? Looks like you two have made a lot of progress in the meantime?”

“A 4-digit code starting with M or N. It’s a code related to the clergyman Noe, who is known as the ‘Abbot’.”

“Ah, is that so?”

He frowned and crossed his arms.

Around that time, I was thinking of words like ‘MAMA’ in my head.

No, how about just ‘MANA’? It’s not related to Noe, but suddenly it seems plausible?

“Hmm… If we consider this portrait as the only clue, it seems easier than eating divorce [very easy]. Hey, Grand Preceptor.”

“Yes.”

“How do you say ‘mine’ in the language of the Divine Kingdom?”

At that moment, everyone’s eyes were on Gongza. He shrugged his thick shoulders.

“It starts with M in Liester. It shouldn’t be much different there, right?”

“…It’s written as M-I-J-N.”

Finally, Sir Johann answered. My eyes gradually widened.

“And ‘mijn’ also means ‘mine’. Your Grace.”

Oh my god.

That’s it. ‘A place to extract’ the life force of the Divine Object.

*

At that moment.

In one part of the mansion cursed with black magic, a commotion was taking place that could not be explained even by the mysterious and impure principles of black magic.

– Kwang!

“Oh, sir! You can’t do this! The master has already gone to bed!”

“What does it matter to me that your master is asleep? There is a distinguished guest who cannot sleep due to phantom pain that cannot be relieved even with painkillers! Do you not know who I am?!”

– Crash! Clang, clang!

A greatly excited Werner swept away all the teapots and teacups on the table.

Morhan’s servants fell flat on the floor.

They couldn’t possibly not know that the guests who came to see the lord were all picky and unique.

This place was the fortress of the head black wizard, so usually only those who could handle that much power came and went.

Several high-ranking officials from Venetian came and went, and several merchants who controlled the western and central commercial districts also visited.

But I swear, this was the first time I had ever seen such a guest.

“I have intelligence that my servants have obtained, so why are you dawdling like this! Have you forgotten that this is wartime?!”

He was a man beautiful enough to make your eyes roll, but whenever he opened his mouth, he spewed out words as sharp as nails.

During the time he was sweating from the pain, he seemed to feel relieved by grabbing anyone and venting his anger.

Anyone would be intimidated and turn pale by his innate authority and taken-for-granted condescension.

Morhan’s frightened workers trembled.

“The, the intelligence you mentioned….”

“A large amount of high-grade magic stones has come in! Do you think I wouldn’t know? In a situation where it is urgent to cut off the ‘Devil’s Claw’ with that―”

“That’s enough.”

At that moment, a woman’s heavy voice flew in from the doorway.

Werner’s gaze shot out like snake venom.

“…”

The black wizard Madame Morhan appeared, wearing only a flimsy gown.