What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 277

The Sub-Male Lead Goes on Strike – #277

The Last King of the Thousand-Year Kingdom! (1)

Dawn arrived the next day.

We gathered at the entrance of the lodging even before the sun peeked over the horizon.

The horses we would ride were all fast and sturdy ones provided by Baron Langbueye.

The saddlebags were filled with food, water, blankets, and various medicines for India.

We also packed anything that could serve as a weapon.

– Neigh!

“Oh, nice to meet you. Let’s make sure we all come back safely together.”

I stroked the horse I was meeting for the first time and gazed at the horizon.

The sky beyond was brightening with shades of purple and orange. A cool breeze blew.

The air carried the clear scent of dawn and the smell of sand.

Actually, we had planned to leave right away last night, but the Baron and his wife, who had returned from their spice wholesale business, earnestly dissuaded us.

They understood our concern for the child but said it was dangerous after dark.

They wouldn’t stop us from leaving, but they advised us to go at sunrise if possible, as the spirits become more active at night.

However, considering the child in the ruins, every minute felt urgent.

It was Marion who calmed our impatience.

‘There are many adults going with you. If it’s India, she would have stolen all their food. She probably even stole napkins and socks.’

‘Marion.’

‘It’s true. Everyone in the village always said she’s smart, the most resourceful kid.’

‘But we don’t know what situation my sister is in….’

‘What if you go when the sun isn’t out and harm Jeonhana or other important people? India wouldn’t want that. Neither would I.’

How could she be so bold and lovely?

The child who clung to my leg and cried was gone, and I wondered where this bright, polished little one had sprung from.

Decisively, Monica, the manager of the caravansarai [a roadside inn for travelers], also sided with Marion.

She said it was reckless to head to the ruins at night and even asked us to consider the citizens and people of the Empire.

With everyone saying so, there was nothing else we could do.

We decided to sleep early and wake up early to go find the child.

And so, the new day came.

– Squeak, Squeak!

“Are you excited? Are you going to make friends with the spirits?”

– Squeak!

“This is a disaster. Our Demi has finally lost her fear.”

The divine beast seemed to lose its mind when it was too scared. Seeing her settled in the saddlebag made me laugh.

Tete was held in a blanket by Christel, and Leia and Perry were taken care of by Sant and Joan, respectively.

Marion, who decided to come with us, rode with Sir John.

Stubborn, who was asleep, was to be taken care of by the Langbueye family at the lodging.

The Crown Prince elegantly rode alone.

The Chaum Ruins were located south of the caravansarai.

There were no other buildings or terrain in between, so anyone could easily go there if they wanted to.

However, no one had such a desire.

No one from the neutral zone would willingly enter a ruin haunted by spirits.

Unless they were crazy, drunk, or a grave robber.

“Christel, are you really okay? I’m worried, Mom.”

“Don’t worry, Mother. We’re not going to steal anything, and we have no plans to damage the ruins. We will never give the spirits a reason to attack.”

Christel, on horseback, reassured Isabel.

She even made a promise by extending her pinky finger first.

Seeing them like that, they seemed to be on good terms again, but what was with yesterday and the day before?

“According to legend, spirits sometimes sing to tempt human souls. If you hear a suspicious melody, be sure to block your ears. If you don’t listen to the end, you can be free.”

“Yes, Madam. Thank you.”

I replied with a smile.

Lady Mariz Baroness whispered to me about how her granddaughter and son-in-law were doing, and she kept stuffing fruits and donuts into my pockets.

It seemed she wanted me to return safely and introduce her granddaughter’s future husband to her.

*Leave it to me, I’ll do my best. For your information, the leading candidate is over there.*

“Your Highness. Please do not draw your Hyegeom [sacred sword] and control the sacred flame as well. Pretend you didn’t see anything. You must not anger the spirits.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

Crown Prince Cedric said, looking down at Baron Clement.

I always thought he was surprisingly polite to adults.

The old couple approached Christel for the last time and gave her a long lecture, then reached out to their grandchild’s cheek.

Then she flinched and quickly pulled away. The two old people and I looked at Christel in surprise.

She looked even more embarrassed than us. Isabel, whom I glimpsed, seemed quite shocked.

“Uh… well. I’ll be back. If anything happens, I’ll use the magic tool flare, so don’t worry!”

Christel wrapped up the situation with an awkward greeting. It was true that there was no time to delay.

Lastly, Monica held Marion’s arm tightly, and the Crown Prince spurred his horse first.

I pulled the veil over my nose and strode forward with energy.

“Hut!”

“Giddy up!”

– Clatter, clatter, clatter!

Bluish-white dawn dust rose. We said a brief farewell to Chaum Village like that.

The ruins were really close.

They looked far away from the village, but it only took about 30 minutes to ride a horse.

– Clatter, clatter, clatter…

“Ugh! Isn’t that the zucchini bee or whatever it’s called?”

As we approached our destination, Joan pointed to the sand with a grimace.

The paladins were indifferent, but only we had rabbit eyes [wide and alert eyes]!

“I believe so, Baron.”

Sant replied with a similarly miserable look.

‘Ugh, I feel nauseous.’ Baron Hwa shuddered.

The corpses of black zucchini bees were scattered near the historic site.

Most of them were buried in the sand, so there weren’t many, and even those were severely damaged by the storm.

Calling them bees was a nice way to put it; they were almost as thick as an adult’s forearm when you looked closely.

The beetles from series were cute in comparison. I frowned and quickly turned my head away.

I didn’t have the stomach to observe such things closely.

Sir John was covering the eyes of Marion, who was sitting in front of him.

– Neigh!

“That seems to be the entrance.”

The Crown Prince, who had stopped his horse, said heavily like an old Western movie protagonist.

I quickly followed his gaze.

Beyond the faint morning glow, the traces of a vast history were unfolding.

“Wow…”

– Squeak…

Demi and I exclaimed at the same time.

There weren’t any apartment-sized pillars standing like the ones we saw at the entrance to the neutral zone.

However, there were huge rocks lying around here.

There was no way to know what the original appearance was, but it seemed that there was a very magnificent building on the ground.

Traces of ancient times clearly remained in the places eroded by the sand wind and time, and looted by grave robbers.

Wide tiles made by carving rocks were densely placed where the sandy soil was dug out.

Whether it was a road or a path, it must have served as a road.

“Demi, look there. How could they have made something like this a thousand years ago?”

– Squeak.

“It must have been really heavy. Isn’t the reason the country collapsed because they made their subordinates do this kind of construction?”

Joan sharply pointed out in a nonchalant tone. As expected, the commoner-born artist was different.

I, who was acting like royalty against my will, just gave an ambiguous smile.

“Heave-ho.”

– Thud!

The group tried to keep the noise down as much as possible.

The Crown Prince and Sir John tied their horses to stone pillars that came up to their waists.

We followed the two men’s actions in a rush.

Then, Herit, who was taking Marion down, laughed softly.

The horses, suddenly gathered together, snorted as if they found it amusing.

Other than that, everything was quiet as if it were a lie. There wasn’t even the sound of insects or birds that I always heard in the Imperial Palace.

It was eerie.

“It’s like a pyramid site.”

Christel muttered instead of my inner thoughts.

I fixed my head, which I almost nodded, and carefully walked into the ruins with Marion’s hand in mine.

Sant looked around and said.

“But I don’t see any spirits. That’s a relief…”

“Because the sun is about to rise. Spirits instinctively avoid the time when light overcomes darkness and gains power. Of course, they don’t weaken when they face sunlight.”

‘They’ve probably hidden deep in the ruins by now.’ Sir John kindly explained.

They weren’t vampires, but they were a typical gathering of ghosts who liked yin energy [a concept in Eastern philosophy referring to darkness, passivity, and the feminine].

I’m glad we came at dawn.

“There, it’s stairs.”

“Yeah. It’s the entrance the Crown Prince mentioned.”

Marion bravely pointed to one place. I swallowed hard and moved forward.

The Crown Prince and Christel stood on the left and right, and Sant and Joan stuck close to our backs.

Leia patted the priest’s chest as if to cheer him on.

Sir John took charge of the rear as always.

– Softly, softly, softly.

– Step, step, step…

Pitch-black darkness waited for us with its mouth open.

The path leading underground had the form of a plausible corridor.

The side walls were built sturdily, and the descending stairs were intact.

As we approached, a cool breeze rose from below. I screamed only in my mind.

“Gasp, that.”

Ugh! I almost had a heart attack because Marion jumped.

Regardless of whether I was clutching my chest or not, the child rushed to the stairs and crouched down. Christel ran like she was flying and embraced the girl. The Crown Prince looked down at me and clicked his tongue.

“When are you planning to have some dignity?”

“Be quiet.”

Yeah, if I’m nervous, even the Aether gets scared. Did you contribute anything!

“That’s right. It’s writing left by India. She scratched it with white pebbles. It’s definitely a code we always use.”

“I see. It says ‘D. G. REG.’”

“What is it? Does it mean ‘Do you want to die’?”

Joan asked, listening quietly. I hurriedly bit my lip.

If you laugh when you’re scared, strange things will happen.

“Dei Gratia Regina.”

Sir John gave the answer. We turned around at the same time.

He smiled gently like a warm breeze.

“‘By the grace of God, the one who is King.’ That’s roughly what it means in Divine Language.”

“Ah, I saw it in an old theology book… It just so happens that India knows the phrase, so it became a code. I didn’t know that’s what it meant.”

“You can’t learn Divine Language unless you’re a cardinal-level clergyman. You know a wonderful phrase.”

The paladin curved his drooping eyes.

Christel stroked Marion’s hair and whispered.

“You learned such difficult words? You’re genius sisters.”

“I just memorized the spelling, and India said she saw it on a brick.”

“A brick?”

I whispered and approached.

Marion nodded her head and looked up at us with sparkling eyes.

“Sometimes broken bricks come out around the village. She said it’s written like that on them. Grave robbers don’t take them, so they probably aren’t worth much.”

“…”

We quickly exchanged glances. Silence lingered for a while.

Could it be that the king of the National Salvation Unio [likely a typo and should be ‘Union’] is buried here?

“No one knows that.”

I don’t know, I don’t know… Step, step, clatter, clatter, click, click…

The child’s clear voice and the group’s footsteps mixed together and echoed.

Demi was silently hopping around everywhere.

Anyway, we had come down underground through the stairs.

It seemed certain that India had gone down, and according to Sir John, who had patrolled the ruins, there was no one around.

There were corpses of horses that seemed to belong to grave robbers, but he also explained that the black zucchini bees had eaten them all.

So there was only one option.

– Whoosh!

In the corridor where not even a little light came in, the Crown Prince raised a flame and took the lead.

Christel, holding a whip, walked alongside him, preparing for the appearance of any monsters.

The Baron told me not to use the sacred fire, but I’ve already broken one of the adults’ words. I’m sorry.

“There are many rumors that this is a tomb. I saw in a book that it might not be. India said so too. Maybe it’s a secret prayer room where the residents hid during the Holy War… Or it could be a tumulus [an ancient burial mound]. But I don’t know what a tumulus is. My sister doesn’t know either.”

‘I forgot to ask Grandpa Scotty.’ Marion said with sparkling eyes.

I smiled faintly and shook the child’s arm.

In the other hand, I held the rosary that my teacher had passed down.

The air underground was as cold as a refrigerator and as humid as rainy season weather.

Still, the body temperature we held was only warm.

“A very, very old tomb is called a tumulus.”

“I see. So the adults in the village just call it a tomb.”

“Whose tomb do they say it is?”

“A long time ago, when His Holiness Pope Irenaeus was alive, many high-ranking people came to study it. But after he went to God’s side, no one cares anymore. The villagers keep living without knowing because the Vatican doesn’t tell them. We studied hard… But it’s still difficult.”

Marion said, munching on a Ma’amoul cookie [a Middle Eastern shortbread cookie filled with dates or nuts].

I barely swallowed a sigh.

I had often heard stories that the Vatican was nominal or that they were focused on saving money after the Pope passed away.

Still… That’s enough. Never mind.

“Then this is probably a tomb.”

I muttered, looking at the clean ceiling.

The old site outside was too magnificent to be a secret religious facility.

Hmm, if it’s the monarch of a ruined country, he certainly has a grudge…

“No, maybe it’s a wealthy aristocrat?”

“Hey, Prince. If it’s this big, it must have been a virtuous king.”

Christel replied from behind. I nodded, saying ‘I see,’ and then stopped. Wait.

“…”