The Male Leads Were Stolen By The Extra [EN]: Chapter 98

“MacRian.”

“How could you……”

Why do I feel the Grand Duke’s aura from Celonia? The aura of the monster that the Griffin possesses?

After a moment of bewilderment, MacRian glared with ruthless eyes, his expression hardening coldly.

His hand was already drawing his sword from its scabbard. He had to catch that Griffin.

It was obvious. He had to win this hunting festival. That was the only way Grace wouldn’t get hurt.

Originally, monsters were evil beings that had to be killed.

“Get out of the way. I will kill it.”

MacRian spat out those words like a warning and leaped forward in an instant.

He jumped high and swung his sword in a smooth, horizontal arc towards the Griffin.

Clang!

However, his attack was stopped by a sharp metallic sound.

“What is this……!”

MacRian’s eyes widened. The one who stopped him wasn’t Tan, but Celonia.

“Stop it.”

Celonia was glaring, her sword clashing against MacRian’s.

She was also panicking inside. In the first place, it was impossible for her skills to block MacRian’s sword.

But now, she was not only facing his rapidly approaching sword, but she was also not being pushed back in terms of strength.

*Is this because of Tan’s power?*

“……”

Seeing the two confronting each other, Tan restrained the excited Griffin and slowly lowered the sword he was holding.

Tan was quite surprised. He thought Celonia would still hesitate a bit when facing MacRian.

But she didn’t.

She didn’t hesitate at all to draw her sword against MacRian to protect the Griffin.

Moreover, her blue eyes, fiercely staring at MacRian, were unwavering and firm.

That meant Celonia really didn’t have any feelings or lingering attachments to the Saviors.

In this serious situation, the corners of Tan’s lips twitched upwards. He couldn’t control his expression because he was so happy.

Because the Saviors no longer meant anything to her, and because he had taken that place next to her.

“You, are you protecting this monster in front of me right now?”

MacRian couldn’t believe the reality unfolding before him, and he questioned her, putting more strength into the sword that was clashing with hers.

“I found it first. You’re the one trying to take it without permission,” Celonia retorted, struggling not to be pushed back by MacRian’s brute force.

The two glared at each other, neither giving an inch, their swords pressed against each other.

She knew MacRian had seen her stroking the Griffin’s head, but she decided to act as if nothing had happened and brazen it out.

The moment she admitted she had an affinity with the monster, things would get even more complicated.

“I saw you stroking the monster just now. Do you think I didn’t see it?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Ha! I can feel the same energy as that guy from you right now. The energy of a monster!”

MacRian, who was furious because Celonia kept denying it, shouted.

Celonia was surprised inside at those words, but she never showed it.

*He seemed to have read the energy of Tan flowing through her body, even though he only saw the scene. What else would you expect from a dragon?*

“Stop daydreaming.”

“I am a being who sees through even your lies. No matter how many empty words you utter, you cannot deceive me!”

MacRian, who was annoyed by her continued denial, pushed her sword away as if to shake it off. The swords of the two, which had been tightly pressed together, fell apart.

Celonia’s feet were dragged along the ground as she was pushed back so hard, but fortunately, she didn’t fall over.

Moreover, Tan, who had approached in an instant, wrapped his arm around Celonia’s shoulder.

“Purrrr!”

Even the Griffin supported Celonia’s back with its head.

“How could you do this? This is betrayal!”

MacRian, who clearly saw the scene, was furious and shouted.

Celonia, with the Grand Duke who exuded the energy of a monster next to her and the Griffin behind her, was so hateful that he felt betrayed to the point of shivering.

He had almost died because of the monsters during the six months he had entered the Monster Forest to defeat the Demon King, so how could she side with them?

Had the Saviors, even himself, forgotten the memory of being hurt by monsters?

MacRian didn’t know how she had gained the energy of a monster, but he was sure of one thing.

She was now abandoning the duty of a Savior and even betraying the Empire.

“Betrayal? Are you saying the word betrayal in front of me right now?”

Celonia frowned, dumbfounded, at the words that should never have come out of his mouth.

“If you’re talking about Grace, there’s no way. You’re committing a heinous act that can’t be compared to that.”

MacRian bit his lip and drew a clear line.

He was a dragon, a sacred and divine being that had been passed down since ancient times. A transcendent being, and the last remaining member of the dragon clan, revered by the Empire as a sacred and noble spirit.

A noble and sacred being that could not be compared to the evil monsters.

Such a noble being had joined hands with mere humans and saved this land once again, just like hundreds of years ago when monsters and the Demon King occupied this land.

Long ago, dragons harmonized with humans, drove out the evil and misguided monsters who occupied this land, sealed the Demon King, and established the Empire.

But now, Celonia was protecting the misguided, unnecessary, and vicious beings.

This was no different from insulting himself and his predecessors and stabbing them in the back.

“Who is it that didn’t notice the truly heinous scheme?”

Celonia scoffed in disbelief.

MacRian was so good at sensing the energy of monsters, but it was ridiculous and funny that he didn’t feel anything about Grace, who was actually using a truly heinous scheme.

Of course, she didn’t fail to understand why he was so angry right now.

In any case, monsters were a threat to humans. But conversely, humans were also a threat to monsters.

It was humans who captured and dragged monsters from the forest to satisfy their own selfish desires.

Celonia could no longer make a clear judgment about who was right and wrong.

“Ha. To associate with trash like monsters. If I had known you would be like this, I wouldn’t have bothered protecting you!”

“What?”

“We were pathetic for carrying around your unnecessary existence like baggage.”

“……”

At that moment, Celonia’s face hardened.

“I’m going to tear that bastard’s mouth apart.”

“No.”

She grabbed Tan, who was about to rush towards MacRian.

*What did I just hear?*

MacRian was arrogantly raising his head with a face full of anger, so much so that she couldn’t dismiss it as a misunderstanding.

His remarks, which were not only mocking but also contemptuous, completely belittled her six months of being together as a colleague.

“Baggage, you say.”

“Yes. What have you done?”

MacRian, reading Celonia’s agitation, sneered and mocked her. As if there was no more mercy to be given to her, who was no longer a colleague but siding with monsters.

“So that was your true feeling.”

Celonia’s lips twisted up in a dejected smile.

To MacRian, she was just baggage, not an equal colleague. That’s what he had been thinking all along.

She honestly admitted that her swordsmanship was far worse than Ian, MacRian, and Reyev.

She knew very well that the three of them had been considerate because she was also much weaker than them physically.

That’s why she always stepped up to help with anything she could.

When it came to healing, she took care of them before herself. That’s why she threw herself to pick the Silkia flower blooming on the cliff.

Having that flower, which was especially effective in treating wounds, would be more useful in healing them.

When Ian’s arm was torn by a monster attack, when Reyev was delirious from poison, and when MacRian’s Achilles tendon was severed, she naturally healed them.

The reason why she recovered more slowly than them on the way back after finishing the subjugation was because she had exhausted her healing abilities to heal them first.

She didn’t take care of herself, but she thought it was natural.

*Because they are stronger than me. Because this is all I can do.*

That’s why she volunteered to be bait for the Demon King.

* * *

“Absolutely not!”

“……Bait?”

“Yes. This is the only way.”

Celonia nodded with more determination than ever before towards Reyev, who was shouting, and MacRian, who was flustered.

*This is the only option now. To directly become bait, win the Demon King’s favor, and look for an opening.*

If the three of them could tie up even the Demon King’s legs in that gap, there was a chance of winning.

“It’s dangerous! I can never drive you to your death.”

“Reyev! Are we all going to die like this then?”

Celonia frowned in frustration at Reyev, who was being stubborn.

“There will be a way. If we hold on a little longer…….”

“We’ll all die before that.”

She knew very well that everyone no longer had the strength to hold on, so she fearlessly approached the Demon King, limping on one leg.

Her body was a wreck. It wasn’t visible because it was covered by her clothes, but there were countless minor sword wounds, not to mention large wounds here and there.

It wasn’t just her. The male leads were the same.

So this would be the last chance.

“Hahaha. To think that men are hiding behind a woman.”

The Demon King looked at the male leads standing behind Celonia like small fries and laughed in disdain.

That’s when it started. The Demon King’s red eyes, which had been boringly dead, began to come alive like a beating heart.

* * *

“……”

Celonia looked at MacRian in front of her with cold, sunken eyes.

After that, she was almost strangled to death by the Demon King.

In the midst of her vision blurring as her airway was blocked, she emitted a light of healing to create an opening.

The Demon King was flustered, and the three of them rushed in during that gap, eventually leading to victory.

Knowing that she was in danger, and even with the fear that she might actually die unlike in the original story, she volunteered to be bait because she wanted to go back with them.

Although it started with the compulsion of the original story, the Saviors had become such precious colleagues to her.

But Celonia realized what MacRian had revealed.

To MacRian, she was just an object of affection, not an equal colleague.