What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 200

“Haha…”

I burst out laughing at Christel’s words. She widened her eyes and looked at me.

“I mean it. Tell me anything. Of course, I’ll keep it a secret.”

“Yes, I know.”

I just found it amusing.

Just this spring, I was trying so hard to avoid Christel, and I had vowed so many times not to get involved with her.

It was funny that we were sitting side by side in some hallway, whispering.

I was even clearing my throat as she suggested.

Eunseo had emphasized the importance of conversation several times.

I also wanted to confide in someone other than my notebook.

And if the other person was Christel, this was just my own expectation, but…

She seemed like she would understand me better than anyone else here.

“It’s nothing much, but I’m confused,” I confessed, starting the conversation. Her light blue-gray eyes shone with a kind light, waiting for the next sentence.

“I had a few rules that I set when I came here. My own rules. I shouldn’t do this, I should only do that. There were parts I decided on like that.”

“Yes.”

“Those have been collapsing little by little. Of course, looking back… I don’t think I really hated my principles falling apart either.”

As I raised the corners of my lips, Christel folded her eyes [smiled with her eyes, a Korean expression].

She leaned her head against the wall and whispered, “I’m also happy to be friends with you, Your Highness. I’m also excited to have many other friends and to run around and experience strange things. Always.”

I couldn’t help but smile broadly at those words. She knew it after all.

That I had drawn a line to her and others for some reason, and that the boundary had become blurred since some point.

And the borderline was now so blurred that even I couldn’t distinguish it.

“So far it was good, and I could accept it cheerfully. But now I’m worried about the future,” I said with a sigh. Christel stared at me.

“I… have to go back someday. But the people here naturally talk about a future with me. You can call me foolish, but I haven’t even considered that far. I didn’t have the time…”

My words trailed off.

Still, speaking it out loud brought some order to my dizzy head, and my vision became clearer.

Maybe I had been consciously avoiding thinking about the future here.

I might have been refusing to think, making excuses to myself that I didn’t have the luxury to plan such things, that I was too busy trying to keep myself alive.

So I clung to the original work, which I didn’t even know much about, like a rope from heaven.

I hoped it would be my support and act as my compass.

In fact, I was feeling it in a corner of my heart.

That maybe I would never be able to go home and would have to live here forever.

“Isn’t that very lonely? Doesn’t it make you feel desolate?” Christel asked then. I blinked and looked back at her.

The protagonist, who was hugging her knees, smiled brightly at me.

“I felt that way too.”

“…”

“Honestly, I still do. I’m having such a pleasant time with you, Your Highness, but what if I suddenly get kicked out? The memories of the old Christel come back, and I might disappear from here at any moment. Then… how should I live in preparation for that? Those questions pop up.”

My mouth slowly opened. She continued to speak with a bright face.

How could she spill out such feelings and make such an expression?

“At first, I thought I had hit the jackpot. I woke up in a pretty and young body, so I thought I could just consider it a second life. I didn’t know what was what, but I thought I had lucked out.”

‘But in less than two days, I realized how much of an idiot I was,’ Christel added sarcastically and giggled. I couldn’t laugh.

She was acting as a noble lady who had lost her memory after a long illness, but she had lived as a Korean for well over twenty years.

She was fundamentally different from me, who recognized that this was a novel from the very beginning.

I had heard about the appearances and tendencies of the main characters, and I knew the general flow of the original work.

I could maintain my mental strength by relying on that, but Christel…

“Everything was unfamiliar, all the faces were unfamiliar, the food and the neighborhood were all strange. But I had to adapt, and in the meantime, there were many expectations from those around me, and everyone treated me as if they knew me. That was really hard. Even though I was always a well-fed and warm rich young lady…”

She was completely alone here. She just suddenly fell into a different world.

Moreover, when she woke up, she had an unfamiliar superpower.

The power of water, the ‘Blessing of the Sea.’

“How did you endure it?” I barely asked. Even though my voice was hoarse, Christel immediately caught my question.

Her beautiful lips opened without hesitation.

“A reckless spirit.”

I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

That was a word derived from Japanese, so I shouldn’t show that I understood it, but it was hard to resist.

Christel made a serious face.

“What will be, will be. I’m going my own way. That attitude gives you a surprisingly great strength. It might be helpful to you, Your Highness.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

“Then you can focus on the present. You don’t have to be too absorbed in difficult problems.”

“…”

The smile disappeared from my lips. She looked at the air and continued to speak.

“Like I said before. What if I disappear from Eva’s side in 5 seconds? What if I wake up tomorrow and I’m not in the Duke’s residence? Instead of worrying about that… I decided to live in the present to the fullest. I want to leave a trace that I lived well and bravely here. Even if I can’t receive the bouquet when Elizabeth gets married someday, even if it’s not me but Christel who attends… We can still enjoy today while planning for that day.”

‘We can still enjoy today while planning for that day.’

I repeated that sentence several times in my mind. Christel quietly added.

“When my memories come back, the me of that day will definitely hate the current me. Because I’ve done a lot of strange things. I tried to only do things that were okay for me to do, but because of my personality, I can’t help it…”

I smiled faintly. Many moments when she was active flashed through my mind.

The rowdy young lady who poured water on the innkeeper, beat up the demons, and secretly came to see me when I was confined in the palace.

“If I worried about all sorts of things, I wouldn’t even be able to eat properly. Since it’s come to this, let’s just go for it! I acted impulsively. It’s irresponsible, hehe.”

‘Adult my ass…’ Christel muttered in a small voice.

I quietly looked at her profile, which was so close that I could feel her breath.

Not only was she alone in the world of Toegye, but she was also piling up guilt towards the real Christel.

Even if it was an unwanted possession, it didn’t change anything.

Some days it would be a very trivial sense of guilt, but at some moments she would definitely feel an unspeakable sense of guilt.

I would have felt that way too.

If I hadn’t known that Prince Yeseo was a ‘character’ in the novel, I would have had a much harder time than I do now.

Christel is a really strong person.

“…Christel is a really strong person,” I said my thoughts out loud. She was surprised and looked back at me.

Only then did I realize that I had called her by her name. Only by her name, not by her last name or title.

“That’s nice to hear,” Christel said softly. I felt awkward and wet my lips.

Then she slowly leaned her body towards me.

Christel came so close to me that she couldn’t get any closer,

-Thump

She lightly touched her forehead to mine and then moved away. Then she said this.

“Ham Gain.”

“…Yes?”

I opened my mouth dumbly. At the same time, Jung Eunseo’s voice rushed in like a tsunami. Swish!

If memories had buttons, Christel had definitely found and pressed one of them properly.

My younger sister’s voice, which had been stuck in a corner of my subconscious, rang vividly in my ears.

The high school senior in her school uniform top and gym clothes bottoms was rolling around on the sofa and shouting.

‘Okay, let’s go in! Let’s slap her cheeks! Let’s go, Ham Gain!’

‘Hyung, why is she like that?’

‘She’s been eating honey sweet potatoes for a week and is finally having a Sprite shower [celebrating a victory or good fortune].’

‘Toegye?’

‘What else could it be besides that.’

…‘Ham Gain’ was the real name of the protagonist who was possessed in Christel’s body.

I didn’t know how to react to the shock, so I gaped like a goldfish.

Thinking that I didn’t understand her name, Christel smiled brightly and explained.

“My trace. I’ll only tell you, Your Highness, because it’s the most important thing. I haven’t even told my mother yet.”

“If it’s a trace,”

“Later, if you say ‘Ham Gain’ and I don’t understand, then I’m no longer the Christel you know.”

“…”

Christel’s face as she said that was strong, and there was not a single tremor in her blue eyes.

A feeling that I couldn’t explain in words washed over me.

I closed my mouth tightly and barely nodded.

I belatedly realized how spoiled I was being with my worries.

How weak I was to run away from unexpected variables at the age of twenty-nine.

I had started with much more hints than Christel, but I couldn’t even last a year and was looking for someone to whine to, saying I was upset…

“Thank you,” I said what I had to say instead of continuing to blame myself. She tilted her head.

In an unknown palace, the long winter sunlight stretched out its hand beyond the clean-wiped glass window.

The protagonist’s hair, which had been caressed by the sky, shone brightly.

Occasionally, the sound of birds and the sound of the wind tickled the back door and passed by.

Christel wouldn’t know.

That she supported my younger sister with her very existence, and that she is now becoming my anchor.

“Thank you for telling me a good story. I will also learn from Christel’s attitude.”

“That what will be, will be, and I’m going my own way?”

“Yes, that’s included too.”

Then Christel frowned. A lark-like chirping followed.

‘What else did I say? You shouldn’t learn bad things.’

I ended up laughing out loud.

*

The night grew deep.

I was okay now.

After talking to Christel openly and returning to the Juliette Palace, I felt relieved and my head felt much lighter.

Benjamin and Ganael kept looking at me with strange eyes and smiling.

I thought I knew what they were misunderstanding, but I stopped because it seemed like the picture would be even stranger if I denied it first.

Let’s sincerely apologize to the Crown Prince tomorrow. And then I can go back to my daily life.

“That’s right, let’s try again. There’s a rainbow that Perry likes in this picture book.”

-Kkiing!

“Leia likes it too? I see. Hyung [older brother, used affectionately] likes Leia too.”

I am now standing in the middle of the bedroom with the lesser pandas, conducting a new experiment.

Even if I had shaken off my ‘career worries,’ I couldn’t stop my efforts to survive.

No, rather, I had to move even more diligently because I had woken up late.

The goal of returning home was also firm.

Then more accurate and more information would be my extension.

“Do you see the color at the end here? This is called purple.”

Tilt, ‘So what?’

“And this is the tulip that Demi grew earlier.”

Sniff, smelling.

“If it’s okay, can you bloom this color of tulip for Hyung? Not any other color, just this one.”

-Kkiing!

Then Demi jumped up and stood on his hind legs, waving his front paws and waddling over.

I quickly knelt down and hugged him. Today’s goal is one thing.

To see if the earth attribute divine beast can sprout purple tulips or halo grass on its own.

“That’s right, you’re smart. Are you going to give me a purple tulip first? No, Demi. It’s true that Hyung’s eyes are purple, but.”

The divine beast began to lick my eyelids and cheeks.

I was instantly overrun by the other two and rolled around on the floor.

Ddukshim, who was in his bed, and Tete, who was lying on my bed, chattered as if it was funny.

Save your companion human…

“Perry, wait a minute. A cold wind is coming in. I think the window is open.”

-Kkureut

I barely got up wearing a lesser panda scarf, lesser panda earmuffs, and a lesser panda belt.

Cold air was coming in from somewhere.

Ganael had never opened it, so it was likely the work of Ddukshim or the troublemakers…

“Why are you avoiding me?”

I turned around and froze in place like an icicle.

A familiar child’s voice. Big orange eyes and black hair.

I was so surprised that my jaw dropped. It wasn’t because Sadie had suddenly come to the bedroom.

This wasn’t the first or second time.

But, could it be, now.

“…Are you crying?”

I was shocked. I quickly ran to her and sat down!