What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 123

#123 The Crown Prince, 100m Away (3)

“Ugh…”

I groaned and slowly opened my eyes.

I would have loved a fluffy bed, but such convenient developments didn’t unfold.

I saw the faces of two people in front of me.

Bright, clear gray-blue eyes and deeply sunken orange eyes.

“Huh?”

The moment I jumped up in surprise,

-Thud!

I headbutted Kristel!

“Ouch!”

“Oww…”

While Kristel groaned and rubbed her forehead, I was in shock and staggered back.

Wow, that hurts so much. It feels like my head is splitting. A true big-headed general [a Korean slang term for someone with a large head]!

-Squeak!

-Chirp!

Demi and Dduk-ssim, who were lying next to me, were startled and made loud noises.

They immediately rubbed my forehead with their paws and wings.

I must have looked pretty painful. So, you guys came too…

“Are you trying to knock me out again?”

Prince Cedrick, who was standing and looking down at me, sneered at Kristel.

Our protagonist, who had recovered from the shock, glared at him.

I rubbed my throbbing skull on the ground and was startled to realize that her blue jacket was under me.

It seemed they had laid me down after I fainted from the portal.

“That must have snapped you awake. Have you already been scouting?”

“I can’t go far because of the fog.”

The two bickered.

I slowly sat up, feeling the pain subside and a slight dizziness.

As the Prince said, the surroundings were foggy.

The background was clearly a forest, but the type and height of the trees were completely different from where we were last standing.

It was truly an unfamiliar place. I held Demi and Dduk-ssim in my arms and asked.

“Did we move through a portal?”

“I think so. Sir Johan, Herrit, and Princess Eva came with us. The three of them went to scout in the opposite direction.”

Kristel answered clearly. Six people and two animals!

I thought I would be moving alone, but thinking about it, there was no way the portal would be that small.

It seemed that everyone who was close to me had been moved.

I felt a little relieved that I wasn’t alone.

“Why on earth is there a portal in such a place…”

“It’s a relic from the war era.”

The Prince said in a low voice. His eyes met mine.

In the he gave me, there were no details about what kind of transportation they used back then.

But I had a hunch based on his words.

The story that Sir Elizabeth and Marquis Dhiem were sharing in the Imperial Palace garden flashed through my mind.

Portals, armies, support.

“Was it made to support military supplies or troops?”

“You know well.”

He replied.

If so, it made sense that the portal was not in a busy area but on the way to the Imperial City.

When there was a shortage of troops there, they needed to be able to quickly come to help from other routes, and when other routes were pushed back, they needed to be able to quickly provide support in reverse.

They would have had to defend every entrance from the enemy.

“If there were portals all over the Empire like that… The reason most of them were closed is because they were useless in peacetime.”

“They only add to the confusion. Like now.”

He said that, but his voice was calm. I gritted my teeth involuntarily.

Why did there have to be an injured roe deer there, so I got out of the carriage, but it was a monster’s trick, and in the end, the Prince used magic, but his mana was embedded in the portal under the ground, and what are the odds that the portal would work properly? Huh?

I struggled to suppress the author’s curse that was about to come out.

If I entrusted myself to the original work, it would flow according to the author’s intention, but it felt a bit unfair that things went wrong even when I acted differently from the original work.

That was the case with the polo match last time, and it was the same now.

Seeing that the protagonists were involved in both cases, the author must have been involved.

“Ha…”

I rubbed my face roughly. I decided to focus on what had happened.

Blaming the author wouldn’t get me back to the Imperial City right away.

“What happened to the injured roe deer?”

“I thought you’d ask that.”

Kristel smirked at my question.

“It was all better. As soon as we arrived here, it jumped away. I don’t know if it will survive.”

I nodded awkwardly.

I felt sorry for the little one, wondering how long it would last here without its family. It was then.

-Whoosh!

“Your Highness, you’re awake.”

A soft voice was heard from the sky.

The ground fog receded with the wind, and Sir Johan, holding Herrit in his arms, landed gently with Eva.

The young princess grabbed her dress and stomped her boots with a flushed face.

Seeing that, I couldn’t help but laugh inappropriately.

“Did you have a good trip?”

“Yes! Sir Haines floated me up. At first, I was annoyed that he did that without asking for permission, but it was so much fun!”

Her curly hair, which had been hit by the wind, was as frizzy as ramen [a popular type of noodle dish].

It seemed that only Sir Johan had scouted, and Eva had enjoyed a fun aerial walk.

Herrit also smiled at me. At my gaze, Sir Johan opened his mouth with a troubled expression.

“There is a mountain in front, and the Imperial City is not visible. The nearby village is difficult to confirm due to the heavy fog and wind.”

Damn it.

“Gasp.”

Eva was surprised as if she had never heard of it before.

Kristel frowned, and the Prince stared at the middle of the narrow road.

“We’ll have to wait here.”

“Yes. Sir Mute will report to the Imperial Palace as soon as he defeats the monsters.”

Sir Johan agreed. I nodded.

I had only seen one wolf monster, and I didn’t know how many more there were, but Sir Elizabeth was an 8th-level swordsman.

There were also more than twenty guards, including knights, at the scene.

It wouldn’t be difficult to handle the situation, so it seemed that the Imperial Palace would soon bring a wizard to resolve the situation.

“Then shall we wait about three or four hours?”

I said. It would take about that long to notify the Emperor and make a round trip.

Everyone except the Prince nodded and sat together.

Perhaps because my complexion was still not good, Kristel created a palm-sized water droplet for me.

“Thank you.”

I gulped down the clear water and looked up at the towering Prince.

Even the thick fog was reduced to a floating correction effect around him.

Right, his coronation ceremony is in three days… Surely we can go back today.

*

Silence filled the Emperor’s office.

Orelly Boutier sighed softly and sipped her coffee.

Elizabeth blankly wiped the monster’s blood on her cheek with her sleeve.

It was impossible for such an incident to happen three days before the Crown Prince’s coronation ceremony.

But in fact, it was generally like this when Cedrick, Prince Yesuh, and Princess Kristel got together.

It had just been strangely quiet for the past fifteen days or so.

“Say it again.”

Frederique Liester ordered.

Francois Dhiem swallowed dryly and looked at her.

Her light pink eyes shone with determination.

“Your Majesty, the ruler of my breath, that would be difficult.”

“Why.”

“If I tell you again, you’ll hit me, oh my god!”

The Emperor jumped up and grabbed her sword. Francois quickly jumped to the window.

He looked at his master with one leg hanging out the window as if he was about to jump out.

Those who were passing through the Imperial Palace garden were horrified and pretended not to see it.

“Frederique, only with the scabbard.”

Orelly said gently.

The Emperor accepted the contractor’s advice and aimed at the loyalist with the scabbard.

“Do you think this makes sense?”

“It’s unfair. It’s not my fault that His Highness the Prince took the portal!”

“I never said it was your fault.”

Cherry-colored eyes flashed nervously.

“Why don’t you know where that damn portal leads?”

“Because the records are lost?”

-Thwack!

In the end, the scabbard flew into the man’s back.

Francois cried out, “Ouch, ouch!” while bending his back like a shrimp.

“Your Majesty, it’s too much. It’s not like I burned them!”

“I gave you all the historical materials about the portals from the war era because you said you were going to study portals. But now you say there are no records?”

“The late Emperor Celine burned them all. Ugh! Even if the records remained, the risk of leakage would only increase!”

The Emperor stopped moving. The sun was already setting outside the window.

Dust scattered from the marquis’s body, who had been beaten hard. The voice of the Supreme Being became eerily low.

“Are you making excuses for my mother?”

“I swear to God, it’s true. Didn’t the late Emperor hate the traces of the war era? The historical materials were very few when I received them. At most, only the location and name of the portal remained.”

“Tsk.”

Frederique clicked her tongue and put away the scabbard.

However, still unable to relieve her anger, she took a long sigh and swept back her hair.

Francois did not leave the window just in case.

Orelly put her coffee cup on the table.

“Then there’s only one way. Francois, you have to go and analyze the magic formula of the portal yourself.”

“Yes. Even if it’s a portal under the ground, if you sprinkle mana, the magic formula itself will be clearly visible. If you take a wizard to assist you, the work will be even faster.”

Francois said, setting his fallen hair.

Then Elizabeth hesitantly confessed.

“Your Majesty, Your Highness. There is something I need to tell you about that.”

“Speak comfortably, Elizabeth.”

The Cardinal said kindly. The young countess glanced at the Emperor’s sword, ‘Durandal.’

“I told you that the portal was broken by my swordsmanship.”

“You did.”

That was a fact that she already knew from the report a little while ago.

Elizabeth led the guards in the forest and fought against a dozen mid-level monsters.

Thanks to her fighting with the dignity of an 8th-level swordsman, there were no casualties.

Although she broke the portal in question during the battle, if it was only slightly cracked,

“The ground is completely split.”

“Huh?”

Orelly’s voice also cracked.

“Where the portal was… There is a crack two spans wide [a span is the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger when the hand is stretched out].”

“…”

Elizabeth barely finished speaking. A deathly silence swept through the office.

The Emperor stared at the young countess with dark eyes. Sweat broke out on the young man’s palm.

She was ignorant of magic, but she knew that a portal damaged to that extent would not respond even if mana was applied.

“It can happen when a swordsman uses their strength.”

“Yes?”

“Yes?”

At the Emperor’s words, the young countess and the marquis raised their heads at the same time.

A dramatic despair spread across Francois’s face.

“Your Majesty, why do you only persecute me? Is this a cruel form of love?”

“You go and dig up the dirt, Francois.”

Frederique gestured and sat down on the sofa.

Durandal was carelessly placed where her hand could reach it.

The marquis’s eyes widened.

“That imperial order,”

“If there’s not even a magic formula reaction, what can we do? Take the soldiers and do some digging, and draw and analyze the portal magic formula under the ground yourself. The Sarnese and Blanquer ducal families will also cooperate. You should be able to find out where my son disappeared to.”

The Emperor said languidly. Francois’s face brightened dazzlingly at the last sentence.

“If my lord believes in me and wants me!”

The marquis, who came down from the window frame with an elegant gesture, bowed deeply.

As he retreated with Elizabeth, the Emperor chuckled and threw off his cravat.

Orelly soothed him gently.

“Don’t worry too much. The kids will be fine.”

“They will be. The problem is the coronation ceremony.”

It was a blunt reply, unlike her heart. The Cardinal laughed briefly.

*

Even when the sun set in the west and the fog cleared, no one came to find us.

It seemed that today was not the day. But we should be able to return to the Imperial Palace tomorrow.

Because the Emperor will send troops in all directions.

I thought positively and diligently dug up the potatoes that Demi had grown with the Prince’s dagger.

It was to prepare dinner. I also gathered the fruits to eat for dessert in one place.

They spoil quickly when they come into contact with water, so I only washed some and left the rest for tomorrow morning…

-Thud!

I flinched and turned to the side. It was a dead boar!

“Ah!”

As I grabbed my surprised heart and made a face, the Prince looked down at me with a dissatisfied look.

What, you crazy bastard. What do you want me to do! Why did you catch a pig and throw it here?

-Squeak, squeak, squeak

“Demi?”

Then Demi opened its mouth, grabbed my leg, and cried sadly. I was embarrassed.

This is what it does when it wants me to praise it, but I had already given it plenty of thanks and compliments a little while ago.

Is it lacking aether [a magical energy or life force]?

“I am! A natural person!”

At that time, Kristel walked in refreshingly, shouting a line I had heard a lot.

She was carrying a deer as tall as herself on her back.

She had no mercy on the adult deer, even though she let the baby roe deer go.

“If we camp for one more day, the forest will be ruined…”

I muttered in shock.

Sir Johan, who was sharpening his knife to prepare to butcher the meat, smiled happily.