What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 768

The Pawnbroker (7)

-Fzzzt!

“Is this enough?”

Ugh! I shrieked and quickly hid my phone in my bosom.

The man, who was making sparks fly from his fingertips, openly clicked his tongue.

“No, no! My phone will turn into a brick if you do that. I’m sorry, but could you please make it a little weaker?”

“What? You should have told me you had a transformation spell on it. That’s high-level, so there might be interference.”

“Yes? Oh, that’s not what I meant. By ‘brick,’ I mean it’ll literally break down and turn into a stone.”

As I mumbled, sheepishly taking out my phone again, Djibril Diop glanced at me with a look that said he’d seen all sorts of trash.

It’s been six years since it was released, but I’ve been using it pretty cleanly so far—though Eunseo Jung always cringes when she sees my phone—but getting that kind of look here made me feel a little bad.

I made my final defense.

“Still, when this first came out, it was quite… popular. Probably.”

Hyunseo Jung even sent me money to change my phone, but I just gratefully put it into savings.

Well, it’s not like I do anything fancy with my phone.

I just use KakaoTalk [a popular Korean messaging app], open office documents, and read web novels on my way to and from work.

I get attached to things I’ve used for a long time, so I can’t change them easily.

“Popular? It’s clunky and ugly. Looks like a cuttlefish run over by a carriage wheel.”

“How can you say that…”

-Squeak…

“If you think this looks pretty, there’s something seriously wrong with your aesthetic sense.”

“No, really, how can you say that…”

-Squeeee…

-Clop, clop, clop…

Even amidst all that, we were diligently moving through the alley.

The path grew narrower, and the gap between Arnhardt and Fondue became the width of an arm. The densely packed stone buildings stretched upwards and outwards without a single window.

I could hear faint sounds of water somewhere, so it seemed like there was a canal nearby.

I pleaded with Diop again before he turned my phone into a grilled cuttlefish—no, a brick.

“Gongja, gently, please. So gently that it barely feels like anything. As weak as possible, please.”

“You have quite the picky taste.”

“I’ll be in real trouble if this breaks…”

Wait, would I really be in trouble? Most of my important files are saved in the cloud.

Every time Gongja smacked his lips and snapped his fingers, pale blue flames sparked, and the visible power clearly weakened.

I swallowed hard and handed him my phone.

Finally, his fingertips touched the edge of the electronic device!

-Zzzzt…

“…”

But… will it even charge like this?

Even in a fantasy world, isn’t this a bit of a stretch?

Is it too late to have these fundamental doubts?

What if the inside of the phone just burns black?

That’s when it happened.

‘Samsung

GALAXY S5

android’.

Oh oh oh oh!

“It turned on! It works! It’s charging, Gongja! This is crazy, awesome! Thank you!”

-Kihwoo!

“Ha, easier than grilling a cuttlefish.”

-Thud!

I flinched! I quickly raised my head at the sound from afar.

The empire’s strongest charger, who had revived my dead phone, also quickly turned his gaze.

Leah wiggled her belly once. Our silence was very short.

“…Thief! Thief!”

“That guy stole our chicken, catch him!”

-Clatter, clatter! Clang!

It was the sound of someone running away, stepping on something like a plank.

Gongja continued charging while leading Fondue to pick up speed. I pulled the robe hood down so much that it covered my eyes and followed behind him.

It was very unfortunate that a theft had occurred, but I swear, if this were the empire, I would have helped without hesitation—but now we were in the royal capital, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible and moving with as much cunning as we could muster.

Before long, the long alley ended, and dazzling moonlight poured down from above.

I stroked Arnhardt’s mane and quickly looked around.

Is that thief still around? It couldn’t be Yef, could it?

With such a rough atmosphere in the city, it would be difficult for a child to come out on their own…

“Catch that guy!”

“That person is a repeat offender, they stole our cheese yesterday too! There’s nothing to eat during the war…!”

“Catch him! Throw him in jail no matter what!”

The voices echoed loudly through the wide street.

Several royal capital residents with clubs were running in the same direction. I instinctively followed the person they were chasing with my eyes.

A person with a spider-like, skinny body, wearing a dark rag, was desperately running through the night as if dodging arrows of death. They were definitely holding something in their arms.

Some people gritted their teeth and threw stones and sticks at the person.

Then the thief threw themselves under a tall arched bridge that crossed the canal. Whoosh—!

“Huh?”

I widened my eyes.

-Splash!

“Damn it!”

“Damn! We missed him!”

“See, I knew it! We should have called the constabulary from the start!”

“The constabulary is so busy, forget it, forget it! Just bad luck.”

The residents who had failed to catch the thief cursed for a while, then shook their hands and turned back.

We hid in the shadow of a small tree until they disappeared…

“Gongja, did you see that person’s face just now?”

“You saw the thief’s face, right?”

“Yes, that ragged girl! She came to the Pantheon too!”

I hurriedly headed towards the canal with Arnhardt.

Diop quickly followed and put his forearm in front of my upper body like a barrier.

Wait a minute, I can’t see!

“The Crown Prince was right. That person is suspicious!”

“Suspicious or not, let’s find the missing kid first.”

“No, Gongja. Really. That girl ate quite heartily at the Pantheon and went back. Don’t you remember?”

I quickly whispered. Only then did a short light flash in his ruby-colored eyes.

“…Someone with a place to rely on wouldn’t steal?”

“Yes. She wasn’t treated poorly or given the cold shoulder at the Pantheon, so there’s no reason for her to risk stealing other people’s food like that. Maybe that girl…”

“Unless she’s protecting someone. Not a bad hypothesis, but Gungju, there are usually many homeless people in the royal capital’s canals.”

‘The ragged girl must have companions,’ the magician retorted coldly.

That’s… true.

It’s difficult to do something impulsive based solely on a hunch. Especially several times in one night.

“…Gongja is right. Then let’s check the buildings across the street first. It seems like there are quite a few empty houses because of the war, so there’s a possibility that Yef is hiding somewhere here…”

“Wait.”

Diop, who had been staring in the direction the thief disappeared for a while, suddenly got off his horse and walked towards the canal.

I was startled and called out to him.

“Gongja Diop?”

“…It is strange.”

The cool night air shook his hair like scenery.

The dark blue water reflected the pale face of the moon.

I rubbed my arms, which were inexplicably getting goosebumps. Why, why all of a sudden?

“What is?”

“…That thief is going towards the wealthy neighborhood north of the royal castle.”

“…”

“It’s a residential area for nobles with hardly any homeless people.”

The man tilted his head, holding the phone in his hand and rolling it around.

I leaned against the strange night breeze and stroked Fondue’s neck.

Something that felt like a clue and bad luck was pouring out like a candy basket in all directions.

At the same time, south of the royal castle. In front of the Royal Opera House.

The legendary three holy knights stood looking up at the great architecture of the Divine Nation.

“…”

“Wow… so this is it. It’s definitely amazing.”

‘It’s a very different kind of cool from Liester Imperial Palace,’ Gain admired the dizzyingly soaring spires of the royal castle.

Teacher Johan had said that he had never been inside the royal castle even once in his life, and seeing it in person like this made me clearly understand what he meant.

With a fortress of this scale, it seemed impossible to succeed in something like illegal intrusion even in a dream.

The white and massive barriers stretched out in all directions like the tentacles of a poisonous jellyfish, and in the middle of the barriers, elaborately embossed commemorative towers, unrealistic aerial gardens, and silver statues that sparkled in the moonlight were spaced out at regular intervals like gatekeepers of the royal family.

Half of the perfectly circular royal castle was surrounded by a deep canal like a moat, and as soon as Gain saw it, she could sense it.

In order to break through that terrifying descending iron bar door and enter, you would have to put in several times more effort than a normal fortress.

“Ugh… that bridge crossing the moat. Just by looking at it, you can tell that it’s structured to open wide downwards when you turn the key from the inside. To drown all the approaching enemies. It’s going to be difficult to capture.”

Without the slightest exaggeration, it was a spectacle that made it hard to breathe just by looking at it.

It was several times more serious and overwhelming than what I had witnessed when I first entered the royal capital.

And decisively…

“No way, are they crazy? How many people are there? I just saw them. I thought it was just a wall until just now.”

“…It seems they have stationed all the manpower defending the capital here.”

Crown Prince Cedrick Liester swallowed a sigh as he looked at the army lined up around the fortress’s main gate.

It was exactly as the Pantheon’s priest had said.

The royal castle guards were densely packed like an ant colony, surrounding the castle walls in multiple layers, and everyone was covered in sugar coating [heavily armored] and stood frozen in place without moving.

Perhaps because it was night, even small changes in expression could not be detected.

It was a sight that put pressure on you in many ways. Infiltration would not be easy.

“…”

Johan silently looked back at his disciples, then subtly turned his gaze to the entrance of the opera house.

It was wartime now. Of course, there were no guests, and there were no plays being performed.

However, his mint-colored gaze was fixed on one spot.

‘Coatroom’.

“…”

In the wide theater lobby, there was a reception desk where valuable items and outerwear of noble guests were received and stored.

As if sensing the man’s persistent gaze, someone walked out of the coatroom to greet the three masters and disciples.

“Hello, guests. Our theater is not currently open. Are you looking for something or have you lost something?”

“…I left a hat from the West Coast. Last April.”