What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 16

#016 The Duke’s Family is Suspicious (2)

“The weather is lovely today. Perfect for a stroll, don’t you think?”

Cardinal Orelly Boutier asked softly. There was no reply.

She hadn’t come all the way to the Romero Palace’s garden today to enjoy a picnic with her beloved godson.

But since she was here, there was no reason not to enjoy it.

She looked at the Prince, who was silently walking beside her.

The two were moving without a single attendant.

Knowing it was the Prince’s walking time, all the gardeners had also left their places.

“This way.”

The young man, who spoke after a long while, led her to a corner of the garden that felt vast and expansive.

It was a place where shrubs, reaching up to the Cardinal’s head, were neatly maintained.

Indeed, it was not a bad environment to hide something.

“Who else knows you’re here?”

“His Majesty knows. I’ve also told Capuchon.”

“Amazing. That only four people know.”

“You’ll understand when you see it.”

Beneath her monocle, the Cardinal’s beige eyes sparkled with curiosity.

She was at an age called middle age, but it was her first time actually seeing a Divine Creature.

The Cardinals of the Holy Nation and the bishops of the provinces had reported sightings several times, but that was all.

That was because the Imperial Palace, where she resided, had no sacred object for a Divine Creature to linger and protect.

Across the vast territory of the Empire, there were only four sacred objects.

“Godmother, please step back for a moment.”

Cedric said quietly. The Cardinal obediently stepped back a few paces.

After confirming that the surroundings were quiet, the Prince slowly removed the black glove from his left hand.

– Snap!

With a crisp snap of his fingers, a vivid orange flame bloomed at his fingertips.

Orelly Boutier quietly gasped.

This child’s ability was always dazzlingly beautiful.

She knew very well that he didn’t think so, but she believed that this was a blessing, not a curse.

From a long time ago.

– Whoosh!

Cedric swung his arm with a precise gesture.

Then, the flame that had been like a flower bud instantly spread out like a huge fan and fell to the ground.

– Swish······

The red sparks met the fresh spring grass and began to glow gold.

The Cardinal observed the scene with interest. This was by no means an ordinary reaction.

Instead of turning black in the hot fire, the green grass was producing yellow lumps like forsythia [a flowering shrub with bright yellow blossoms] in the air.

Things that had not been awake were reacting to the Prince’s ether [a magical energy or essence] and rising from his feet, grain by grain.

– Squeak!

“Huh······?”

One lump made a sound that didn’t match the grand name of ‘Divine Creature.’

The Cardinal looked at the Prince with a puzzled face. Cedric silently accepted her gaze.

– Squeak!

“Seidi?”

The second lump also made such a sound. The flustered Cardinal called the Prince by his childhood name.

“They don’t bite.”

“That’s not it······.”

Orelly Boutier watched the process of the holy Divine Creature descending before her eyes with a somewhat bewildered expression.

The two lumps, which no longer emitted light, were slowly changing their appearance and taking on the complete form of animals.

The light gradually faded, and the shape became clearer.

– Squeak!

– Squeak!

The four legs are black, but the torso is reddish-brown.

The tail, attached to the short stature, is just the right length and plump.

The tip of the nose and the tip of the ears were white as if dipped in powdered sugar, and the round eyes were as black as if they had been studded with black beans.

Overall, it was a fluffy and cute impression.

“My goodness.”

“······.”

She hadn’t expected a dragon or a griffin, but this was too unexpected.

The two stuffed animals—no, the two Divine Creatures—seemed happy to see Cedric, who had awakened them from their sleep, and circled around him, making their presence known.

Soon, the young man’s slender black boots began to get dirty with soil.

“To think they would be such… lovely children.”

The Cardinal bent down, narrowing the distance with the beasts.

She, who had traveled every corner of the Empire with the Emperor in her youth, had never seen such a creature even once.

She laughed in disbelief.

The creatures that had suddenly appeared in the Romero Palace’s garden and surprised the Prince, the animals that were afraid of the Prince’s flames but followed him without fail, the Divine Creatures of the earth attribute that freely bloomed flowers and grass…

She couldn’t even imagine that they would be such adorable children.

“Are you going to take them to the Sarnese manor tonight? Elizabeth said so.”

The Cardinal asked, raising her head. But the Prince’s atmosphere was unusual.

A shadow was cast over his beautiful face.

“······One is missing.”

“What?”

Her composure, which she had barely regained, wavered again.

The smallest of the three was not visible.

Cedric Liester raised his confused eyes and stared at the building in front of him.

The Juliette Palace looked as peaceful as ever.

*

“So, the content is that she wants to meet me someday, right?”

I asked, sitting still, for confirmation. Benjamin nodded.

He was reading the letter from Duchess Isabel de Sarnese, which had been delivered to me during lunch with the Cardinal.

I had been so worried about that blank sheet of paper that I couldn’t even go to confession and had been holed up in my room.

“There’s nothing special in the writing itself. After asking about your well-being, she says she wants to have a private audience with the Prince on a good day. That’s all.”

I sighed lightly.

I had read it that way too, but I showed it to Benjamin in case there might be some kind of code among the Liester nobles.

I was worried that the greetings might not be greetings, or the audience might not be an audience, but fortunately, it seemed to be a normal sentence.

“Why all of a sudden? Other nobles don’t send me things like this.”

At my words, Ganael, who was standing next to Benjamin, widened his golden eyes and shook his head.

“Prince, there are very, very many unofficial letters coming to the Prince. But His Majesty…”

“Ganael.”

Benjamin sternly cut him off. The boy quickly closed his mouth.

It seemed that the Emperor had been filtering the letters from the nobles coming to me all along.

“I’m sorry, Prince.”

“Please forgive me, Prince.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s not a strange thing anyway.”

I am not a guest on a long-term stay at a resort called the Imperial Palace.

Even though I’m living a life of leisure, playing, eating, and studying, I am essentially a hostage.

There was no way the Emperor would be happy that the Empire’s dignitaries were trying to contact me for any reason.

I didn’t feel bad.

From my point of view, wanting to stay away from society in any way possible, the Emperor’s interference felt more like consideration.

“Then how did the Duchess of Sarnese… Ah, I heard it was delivered through the Head Chamberlain.”

“Delivering a letter through the Head Chamberlain means that Emperor had tacit permission. The Duke of Sarnese is His Majesty’s loyal subject, so it’s understandable.”

It meant that the Emperor firmly believed that the Sarnese family would not send me a suspicious letter.

I had known even before possessing this body that Cristel de Sarnese and Prince Cedric would be tied together first through engagement.

Eunseo used to sing, ‘If it were me, I would have broken off the engagement a long time ago,’ so I remembered it clearly.

Although it hasn’t been announced yet, the marriage talks must be going on behind the scenes by now.

The Duke and I originally had a good relationship, and since our children were about to get married, the Emperor’s trust seemed natural.

“Then I can just forget about this.”

I pushed the Duchess’s letter to the corner of the table.

I shouldn’t think about it anymore, even though it’s nothing.

“If you receive a request for an audience from the Duchess of Sarnese, please block it at Benjamin’s level, even if His Majesty doesn’t stop it. I would like you to pretend that I am sick.”

“Prince?”

“Because I don’t want to get involved with a great family like the Sarnese family. As I said on the first day, I want to live quietly.”

I smiled, and Benjamin nodded with a slightly sullen face.

The excuse of being sick should be saved because no one will believe it if it is overused, but it seemed appropriate to avoid meeting the Duchess.

Benjamin keenly realized that this topic had passed and refilled my empty teacup with lemongrass tea.

“Ganael, what’s that book?”

“Ah, I have prepared a book with pictures and maps as you requested.”

The little boy smiled brightly and came closer to me.

The color of his hair was like the spring sky outside the balcony.

“It must have been heavy because it’s so thick. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Hehe, it’s nothing.”

I received the book and handed a large piece of clafoutis [a baked French dessert of fruit and custard] to the child’s hand.

After watching Ganael take a bite of the pie, I opened the hardcover book, and a wide map came into view from the first page.

“It’s a map of the Empire’s sacred objects.”

“Yes, I was curious. There was also the recent temple theft incident.”

I quickly gave an answer to Benjamin’s curious tone. Well, it was half true.

I wanted to know exactly where the Temple of Vigilance, where the sacred object was stolen, was located.

But the reason I looked for this book today was because I was curious about where little Seidi goes with the Divine Creatures.

He insists that he’s okay, but it would be strange if I wasn’t worried about such a young kid wandering around alone late at night.

“The Sarnese region is really close to the capital.”

“Yes, if you cross the western border of the capital, it’s immediately Sarnese. You have to go a little further to get to the manor.”

Benjamin replied.

The capital and the Sarnese region were intertwined, like Seoul and Bucheon in Gyeonggi Province [a province in South Korea].

I carefully examined the beautifully decorated illustration above the words ‘Sarnese.’

“This is the sacred object that the Sarnese family is keeping.”

“That’s right. ‘The Blessing of the Sea.'”

“How long does it take to get to Sarnese by horse?”

“If you leave from the Imperial Palace… No matter how long it takes, you’ll arrive within 2 hours.”

I pointed to the map with my finger and drew a straight line from the capital to Sarnese.

Memory is a strange thing.

When I wrote down what I knew in a notebook on the first day, all I remembered about the cover of was the appearance of the two main characters.