What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 911

…Life imprisonment.

They’re going to keep him in prison until he dies. Without executing him.

“Aaaaaah…!”

The crowd’s roar could be heard beyond the several layers of thick doors.

No sooner had we risen from our seats than Hilda and the Pantheon priests entered the dining hall.

It seemed the situation outside was turning quite serious.

“Your Highness, if you take out your wings, I will tidy them for you.”

“Thank you so much, Ghanael.”

“Mr. Mohren, teachers, please follow me!”

“Sir Mute. Lord, Lady. This way, please.”

The atmosphere in the sanctuary changed rapidly.

Cedric quickly straightened his attire with Benjamin’s assistance, while the Prince and I received Ghanael’s help.

While Gain and Sir John escorted the guests to the next room, Eva took care of Herrit and the divine beasts.

Princess Marguerite took the children to the guest room, the Dium sisters took charge of protecting Cornelice and Iseol, and Sir Martier Jeelstra escorted them all.

Elisabeth had already gone to work before eight in the morning and was nowhere to be seen.

With incredibly deft movements, Ghanael tidied our hair and clothes, even dabbing a touch of red rouge on our lips.

The Prince immediately pursed his lips and rubbed it off, so I awkwardly followed his lead.

Everyone’s footsteps were very busy heading to the room next to the dining hall, the reception room, and then the Pantheon lobby.

-Step, step, step…

“Archangel, it seems justice is finally coming to Venetian.”

“……”

Suddenly, Duke Leopold Lasso, who was walking with me, spoke.

I glanced at Gain and Cedric’s backs ahead of us, then looked up at him.

Leopold was literally dazzling.

His platinum blonde hair and golden eyes sparkled like a bouquet made of sunlight, and his earrings and other accessories seemed to show the dignity of a proper duke.

His dark skin and blue eye makeup also blended coolly and beautifully. He looked much healthier and more stable than when I last saw him.

And above all, he looked quite overwhelmed today.

“I hope the world becomes one where no one, no animal, is oppressed anymore. Criticizing someone as inadequate based on their own standards, trying to confine them to a frame…”

“……”

“I hope that kind of season never comes again.”

-Waaaaaaah…!

The moment he finished speaking and took his last step, a deafening cheer erupted, making me feel like my ears were popping.

It felt like emerging from an old underground passage.

The three-sided view unfolded between the Pantheon’s high entrance roof and the thick pillars like the fingers of God.

What filled my vision first and foremost was…

“Archangel! The Archangel is coming out!”

“Yaaaaaaah―!”

Surrounding the Saint Irene’s Fountain, filling the square, and covering even the canals, streets, and the tops of towers in black…

It was a crowd of at least tens of thousands of people.

“Good heavens, it’s really Prince Yeser! Blonde! He has blonde hair and purple eyes!”

“They are twin brothers appointed by God!”

“They came to see the end of the devil! Those precious people came to see off the devil!”

“Waaaaaaah…!”

It was truly a spectacle.

I could feel their anger, excitement, enthusiasm, and joy that filled me to the brim.

Every time the people shouted, it really felt like my cheeks were stinging.

Among them, I could easily recognize the people from the Empire, who were generally welcoming Cedric, Gain, and Sir John, showing a warm reaction.

The Crown Prince folded his hands behind his back with a noble posture, but the look in his eyes as he looked around at the people was not cold.

Marquis Leon Cesse, holding a large scroll, bowed politely to us. I finally looked down to examine the area right in front of the Pantheon.

“Lord! We must kill and judge those people! Lord―!”

“Kill them, kill them all!”

“Yaaaaaaah…!”

“……”

“……”

What was there was a prison wagon carrying the criminals in a row.

The main henchmen of Sneider, classified as war criminals, were all gathered together.

The densely lined imperial army was blocking them from the crowd, but it was not enough to stop the screams of the enraged people.

There was nowhere to hide in the mobile prison made of solid bars.

The prisoners were all dressed in tattered clothes and wore restraints, their hair either disheveled or messily cut.

However, their reactions were all different.

“You lowly things don’t know the plan of the Great One! Whose safety are you shouting about!”

“You will all face the end of the world! For not recognizing the true God! You will surely perish―!”

“I will never let you live! Never!”

“Aaaaaaack! Aaaaaaack!”

Thirty percent of the prisoners were, on the contrary, reddening their necks, claiming that they were wronged.

They constantly poured out curses and insults at the enraged people.

Another thirty percent were lying on the floor, shedding tears as if they had lost all hope, occasionally uttering pathetic cries such as, ‘Save me!’, ‘I’m taking care of my elderly parents! I have a family to support!’

The rest were just wearing blank expressions.

They seemed indifferent at first glance, or they seemed to have stopped thinking, terrified.

And at their center…

“Hey! That person is our new god! ‘Dumb―Shin’!”

“Wahahahaha…!”

“Dumb Shin! Dumb Shin! Dumb Shin! Dumb Shin!”

“Kaak, spit!”

“……”

There was Wilhelmina Sneider, with a face as calm as a rock, despite the boisterous mockery and pouring jeers.

I quietly looked down at the old woman sitting leaning against the bars, looking up.

“…That terrible season will never come again, Leopold.”

No, that’s definitely not a calm expression.

“Because we, everyone here… will remember that past as shameful and disgraceful.”

“Hey, Mr. Dumb Shin! Is it true that you lived with an inferiority complex because you had neither Ether nor Mana [magical energies]? Huh?”

“Hey! Stop it, stop it! They say she put her younger brother in the royal palace and still couldn’t overcome her greed, so she ended up like that!”

“No matter how great a Dumb Shin is, her belly will burst if she does that, you old hag!”

“Ehehehehe!”

“……”

The face of a person barely enduring unbearable insult and shame.

A tightly closed jaw and trembling shoulders.

The Venetian people, who had witnessed countless deaths, did not praise Wilhelmina at all, even while shedding tears of blood and anger.

They did not fear her sins, nor did they avoid eye contact or tremble, calling her a vicious murderer.

They just kept looking down on her and laughing at her.

“Future villains will be terrified of being ridiculed.”

Pointing and despising, mocking and teasing.

So that no one would revere Sneider’s actions.

So that no ignorant person would mistake the sins of the ducal family as ‘achievements’.

“…I see. It’s truly a welcome season.”

“Yes.”

I slightly raised the corners of my lips and met Leopold’s gaze.

His large features returned a wonderful smile.

Around that time, as Cedric reached out one hand, the crowd’s commotion subsided as if by magic.

Marquis Leon Cesse, the Speaker of the House of Lords, continued reading in the middle of the portico entrance.

“…The charges against the traitor Wilhelmina Sneider are as follows! First, the accused has extensively abused black magic, which is illegally regarded throughout the continent, to conduct bio-experiments to create holy knights, and for this purpose, she has imprisoned or exploited sacred objects for a long period of time, and ultimately attempted to realize the ‘God-slaying’ plan through the experiments to ascend to the position of a new unique god. In the process, she has massacred countless people and animals, and committed robbery, enticement, abduction, and trade…”

“Your Highness, have you come?”

A familiar voice called me from behind as the verdict containing terrible content echoed.

I knew who it was without turning around, so I greeted him with a smile.

“Second, the accused committed a terrible mass murder against her own soldiers in order to operate airships powered by black magic…”

“Francois. Thank you so much for your hard work.”

“No. Not only me, but all the great nobles stayed up all night discussing and writing the verdict.”

He kissed the back of my hand with a neat movement, then gave the same greeting to Cedric and Prince Yeser.

I looked into the Marquis’s slightly rough face and asked.

“Was it not easy to come to a conclusion even though there was so much evidence?”

“Third, the accused plotted treason against Princess Elysee Venetian of the Venetian theocracy, and has been poisoning King Christaena Venetian of the royal palace for many years, causing madness…”

“Oh, quite the opposite. We had no choice but to examine all that evidence and test each other’s values. It was a very fierce process.”

“If it’s values…”

“Half of them argued for Sneider’s death penalty—some mentioned dismemberment—the other half argued for her life imprisonment. The opposing argument was that the accused could not be allowed to close her eyes comfortably.”

“……I see.”

It was a debate that could be understood well enough.

Unlike the court trial, all penalties were decided solely by the judgment of the House of Lords.

His Majesty the Emperor did not interfere at all, except for appointing imperial representatives and guarantors and supervising their activities. I nodded and turned my gaze.

I saw people wailing and collapsing as they listened to Marquis Cesse’s loud announcement.

Old people hitting their chests, young people screaming. The families, friends, lovers, and colleagues of the victims…

“Seventh, the accused abandoned, concealed, or traded the bodies of old dead people, and brutally damaged them in order to use them in the aforementioned bio-experiments…”

Grieving for the future of those who were buried in the past and could not return.

“Ninth, the accused abandoned some of the so-called ‘fallen ones,’ which were by-products of the bio-experiments, causing them to die, and neglected many others, condoning murder, assault, and property damage…”

“After a continuous debate… we finally came to a conclusion.”

Francois turned to Sir John and said quietly.

His sentence did not continue for a while, so Gain and I looked at him with very nervous eyes.

“…Twelfth, the accused violated the principle that troops cannot be brought into neutral zones in peacetime, and in order to conceal the crime of Werner Venetian, the royal consort who crossed the desert accompanied by the royal guard…”

After a while. Marquis Cesse’s solemn voice echoed through the square.

“…Therefore, thirteen key aides, including the accused’s subordinate Keturah and six black magicians, are sentenced to death. Also.”

The crowd froze for a moment at the word ‘death penalty’.

This was closer to the pressure it brought than a reaction to the word itself.

For some reason, my tongue felt parched. I pressed my hands together tightly and waited for Lord Noh’s next words.

“Six thousand six hundred and sixty-four people who passively or indirectly assisted Sneider will be punished differently depending on the severity of their crimes. However, they, along with the thirteen people mentioned above, will be named as criminals in history. Lastly…”

Last.

The end of this season.

“…The accused, Wilhelmina Sneider, is sentenced to life imprisonment, working in the most arduous workplaces throughout the continent until the day she closes her eyes, and will be subject to the trust of a cardinal designated by the Riester House of Lords so that she cannot commit suicide. In addition, the accused has deceived and ruthlessly manipulated innocent people with words, so a magical tool restraint that prevents vocalization is always worn so that such unfortunate events do not occur during her service, and this cannot be lifted except in special cases approved by the House of Lords. Finally, the accused will witness all the executions of the thirteen people mentioned above.”

“……”

“……”

“……”

Rumble, rumble. Marquis Cesse’s scroll slowly descended.

I blinked slowly. How much time had passed since then. One second, two seconds, three seconds…

―The sound reaching my ears was faster than the movement reaching my eyes.

“Waaaaaaah!”

“Yaaaaaaah…!”

Tears, shouts, hugs, and sorrow―but life inevitably blooming within them.

I shook my wings at the cheers of the people spreading like a tidal wave throughout the royal capital.

Ether [a mystical energy], burst out of my heart, and golden light exploded from my whole body. Swaaaaa…!

Gain’s pink hair was scattering in all directions like wave droplets. As if admiring their freedom, their liberation.

The voices of the arch-criminals were no longer heard at all.

“Long live His Majesty the Emperor! Long live! Long live…!”

“Life imprisonment! Life imprisonment! Life imprisonment! Life imprisonment! Life imprisonment!”

It was not conveyed to anyone, and no one tried to listen to it.

We only looked ahead―at the square that continued endlessly beyond Venetian and the blue sky.

“Long live! Long live! Long live…!”

“…Please become a merciful Pope.”

At that moment, someone said that from inside the Pantheon’s entrance.

A slight unpleasant feeling arose. I finally turned around.

“I will pray for the blessing of the Lord.”

“……”

Ronald Lüpert, former Vicar General.

A clergyman who was dishonorably dismissed due to impeachment. A human who had appeared in my nightmares for a while.

A person who remained silent under the guise of ‘neutrality’ even while witnessing countless deaths and wars.

Who led him here? He’s still taking those young deacons around these days.

It was truly a reunion after a long time. I clenched my mouth shut the moment I saw him.

“No, I don’t need your blessing.”

…Impeachment, it would be a problem if that was the end of that person’s punishment.

I quickly scattered Ether and glared at him.

“I will not accept advice from a lowly coward. I will tear down all the foundations that you have supposedly protected.”

“……”

“Because a sandcastle built by a coward with only empty authority cannot be solid.”

-Swaaaaa…

As I faced him and withdrew my halo, some of the people who were watching were shocked and gasped.

The old man’s gaze was shaking greatly.

“…If I become Pope, you will not leave anything but disgrace. Since you have kept that position with inaction, watch your pride with inaction.”

“……”

“Please live like that until the day you close your eyes. This is my answer.”

“……”

A curse that is not a curse. A priest cannot curse someone with a divine message.

But it may be possible to simply say it with words.

“Take that person out of here immediately. I don’t want to see him anymore.”

I ordered the surrounding knights without hesitation, and soon Elisabeth appeared leading her subordinates and carried out the order.

The crowd, surprised to see the cardinal being taken away helplessly, exclaimed―even my friends looked quite surprised―but I had no intention of taking back my words. So…

It was only a matter of time before the rumor spread that ‘the Lord’s Archangel abandoned the contemporary Papal States.’

What Happens When the Sub-Male Lead Goes on Strike – Chapter 912