What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 325

#325

Wreck Each Other’s Adventure (3)

-Kuuung…! Tuuung…!

“Hooo… Haa, heup…”

The carriage vibrated every time the Tyrant Dragon moved in the distance.

I regulated my breathing, listening to the diminishing footsteps of the golden Tyranno.

Streaks of morning sunlight filtered into the dim carriage.

I tried to organize my thoughts amidst the dust particles dancing in the light.

I need to stay calm. Staying calm is the only way to survive. I’ve caught my breath, so let’s make a plan.

What’s the most important thing right now?

“…Stubborn Heart.”

I fumbled to check the warmth in my shirt pocket.

He was sound asleep, oblivious to the world.

Since that ‘Dragon Bone’ hadn’t targeted us, Stubborn Heart should be in almost the same condition as before.

Like when we first met, crumpled and asleep in Evelyn’s bell tower.

‘An artifact of the wind element, the Ark of Bireom.’

‘It looks like a rusty almond.’

That was my first impression.

At the time, Demi, Leia, and Perry showed no interest in the artifact.

That’s because the Ark had sealed itself and closed its heart.

In short, no other being could sense its aether [magical energy or life force].

Of course, now I had to interpret it as being in a recovery period due to exhausting its power.

That’s why it was sleeping under my bed.

“And me… Cough. My aether hasn’t returned yet either.”

The Tyrant Dragon also failed to detect the ‘Wish Relic’ within me.

There was a tiny grain, but it was too small to notice.

So, pretending the two artifacts don’t exist, the place that thing is heading to is—

-Kuuung…

“No.”

‘The Comet Sword of Mars.’ I abruptly raised my head. My breath caught in my throat.

The Crown Prince’s weapon had been steadfast until just now. Magical beasts and sacred beasts were completely different creatures.

Unlike sacred beasts, which lose interest if an artifact chooses a master or disappears, magical beasts keenly detected aether no matter what form the artifact took.

They also displayed tremendous aggression.

So, the most dangerous thing right now wasn’t us, but Crown Prince Cedric.

“I have to help… No, Ye-seo Jeong. Don’t meddle.”

I hurriedly shook my head. What could I do?

He had far more capable mages and swordsmen than me.

There were dozens of high-ranking ones alone. The current me would only be a cumbersome burden.

Don’t rush ahead, think about what I can do.

“First, I need to return to where David is. The soldiers who left the riverside because of me, ah!”

I trembled as if struck by lightning. Come to think of it, those people were there.

They had been wandering the barracks alley just a moment ago looking for me, what if they were caught by the Tyrant Dragon—

“No, no, no…”

I would never forgive myself if that happened.

Horrified by my slow judgment, I hurriedly opened the carriage door, and at that moment,

“Hyaaak!”

“Kkeuaak, kkeuheuk…!”

Hmm! People were screaming and falling in the distance.

I hunched my shoulders and narrowed my eyes. They were clearly not Imperial soldiers.

They were mostly young, half of them were covered in blood, and their bodies were tightly bound with ropes.

Their faces were pale and their clothes were shabby.

Only then did I realize where they had come from.

Prisoners of the Theocracy. The Tyrant Dragon had destroyed the prison!

“Uaaak! Ugh, it hurts!”

“Get out of the way! Get lost!”

“Just die here! You!”

The prisoners kicked and ran past those who had fallen.

I reflexively took a step back and covered my mouth. That’s too much, they’re already hurt!

“I have to help.”

There was no time to hesitate.

‘Keueoreoeeo!’ The Tyrant Dragon’s roar was heard in the distance, but I didn’t care.

I immediately opened the cargo hold. Bang!

-Kwaang!

“Excuse me!”

“Ugh!”

Thud! I tumbled backward from the sudden impact.

Someone had invaded the carriage and pushed me over!

Ouch— I roughly rubbed my throbbing head and shielded Stubborn Heart in my arms.

Fortunately, the wren wasn’t crushed or hurt, and was safe.

There was a lot of straw piled up, so I didn’t hit too hard either. What the heck?!

“What,”

“Cough, cough! Haa. I’m finally alive. Cough!”

It was a man I had never seen before.

One side of his face was covered in blood, and blood was dripping from his neck.

I stared up at him in shock.

Outside, there were intermittent horror movie sound effects, and the inside of the carriage felt like a scene from a thriller.

I swallowed hard.

Bare feet covered in wounds, ankles marked with red lines. Torn high-quality pants and shirt.

Ropes tightly binding his upper body and wrists. Disheveled hair… An aether restraint around his neck.

This person isn’t a typical prisoner.

“Hey.”

Flinch. I reflexively covered Stubborn Heart.

He gestured to his torso with eyes as sharp as needles.

“Untie this.”

“No.”

The answer came instinctively. I didn’t even know why I said such a thing.

But that was my true feeling. I had a gut feeling that this man was dangerous.

I didn’t want to get involved, and I didn’t want to lend him a hand.

As I hurriedly backed away, the man’s lips curved into a line in the light.

It was scary to see them glistening with blood. A voice as sharp as an awl cut through the air.

“Does a lowly commoner defy the orders of a noble?”

“…I’m not lowly. I have no obligation to obey your orders.”

I retorted through gritted teeth. My guess was right.

This man is one of the Crown Prince’s most important prisoners, Baron Pique Trossart.

The former lord of Honing Village. A bishop-level cleric who is an excellent healing priest.

-Kwaaaang—!

-Keureoreoeeo…!

From a distant place, fierce explosions and the Tyrant Dragon’s roar poured down.

The Crown Prince’s army was clearly fighting back. I gritted my teeth and looked towards the door.

Even though the Baron was blocking it, it was slightly open.

Since that guy can’t use his arms freely, if I push him with both arms and jump out—

“How impudent. I can see right through your thoughts.”

“…”

“It can’t be helped since you’re a commoner. What culture can you expect from someone who betrayed their lord?”

I quietly rose to my feet, watching him. I didn’t take my eyes off him for a moment.

It’s okay. I can do it. Unlike him, who is bleeding, I’m perfectly fine.

Even though the carriage is dark, there’s only one direction, so it won’t be difficult.

The man began to growl at me in a low voice.

“Untie this when I tell you to. You’re already cursed by the Main God anyway.”

“Hooo…”

“Your parents, your children, will all incur His wrath.”

Just take two deep breaths and do a body slam. One, two…

“If you want to receive absolution, obey my order—”

Thaat! I immediately lunged at him.

In an instant, the Baron’s face came close, and I saw him gritting his teeth.

Then, the man’s lips curved sharply upward, huh?!

-Paaaaa!

“Keut!”

Slip, thud! I covered my eyes with my arms and landed on my butt.

I was more bewildered than hurt.

Light burst out in the dark, so I couldn’t collect myself for a moment.

My eyes hurt from the stinging, cold aether feast!

“No way, your restraint—”

I barely opened my eyes and looked up at him. It was the first time I had felt such an ominous sacred power.

He smiled bitterly and shook his neck wildly. Clang, clackdang.

The loosely moving aether restraint fell onto the wooden floor with a ‘clanging!’ sound.

The blood held by the metal spread out on the floor in an amorphous shape.

The faint smell of blood stung my nose. I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

I tried my best to rack my brain.

“Could it be.”

That person deliberately miscalculated the Tyrant Dragon’s attack to destroy the restraint.

That’s why he was hurt like that. He deliberately hid in the ‘carriage’ and not somewhere else…

[Immediately untie the ropes binding me and steal a horse from nearby!]

Damn it! An overbearing divine message resounded loudly.

Blood droplets splattered this way every time he shouted.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tensed my whole body!

“…”

-Uuung…

[What are you doing?]

I abruptly lifted my eyelids. The blood-soaked Baron was looking down at me, bewildered.

I was just as bewildered.

His sacred power was calmly rotating, and nothing was happening.

I wasn’t being possessed by him. So…

[Free this body and drive the carriage eastward after stealing a horse!]

He shouted again with a haughty attitude. I slowly blinked and smiled.

A confident murmur escaped my lips.

“…It’s not working.”

Just because I can’t use aether right now, just because it’s ‘cooldown’ doesn’t mean I’m not an archpriest-level cleric [high-ranking member of the clergy].

I felt strangely overwhelmed when I confirmed it with him.

My heart was pounding, and in this situation, I felt more hopeful than ever.

Pop! A small aether grain popped up from the tip of my fingernail.

“Hahaha.”

There were no miracles that followed, but this alone was something to be grateful for. Isn’t this the second one already?

The Baron trembled his mustache as he looked at me.

He had an expression that he couldn’t believe it, and didn’t want to believe it.

The denial soon turned into emotions close to anger and fear.

[…Aren’t you a commoner? How could such a thing happen in the sacred Venetian!]

-Kwaaaang!

At the same time as his shout, the door fell off with a loud noise.

Uhaak! I was thrown into the corner of the cargo hold with a pathetic scream.

I’m going to die of shock at this rate!

“Aigo…”

[Kueuk!]

“Shut his mouth.”

I heard a very familiar voice. I was startled and grabbed the pile of straw to stand up.

My arms were trembling, but I didn’t care. Why are you here?

“Your Highness, what should we do with this servant?”

The knights’ questions seemed to be coming from a very distant place.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t heard the magical beast’s roar for some time.

The Baron, with a gag in his mouth, was shedding tears over his blood-stained sacred power.

The soldiers were busily subduing both of his legs with ropes. I was—

“Eueueup! Eubeueup! Eueuemeueup!”

“Oh my god.”

I was utterly shocked to see the Crown Prince soaked in blood.

It wasn’t just the magical beast’s fluids that he had covered himself in.

The shirt he had worn for morning riding was torn like a rag, and his pants were tattered.

The bleeding on his right arm was so severe that he needed to call a healing priest immediately.

A bright red blood streak ran across his orange eyes.

He looked seriously injured from facing the Tyrant Dragon.

A surge of unknown emotions welled up from the shock hitting the back of my head. Hey, you!

“…”

Why did you get so hurt when you’re not alone? There were only five of us during the magical beast subjugation last year!

Now you have an army, how did you—

“Crown Prince,”

“This.”

He cut me off and reached out to the floor.

Saaa… Two bean-sized aether particles were wrapped around his palm.

Only then did I frantically fumble in my arms.

Stubborn Heart was intact, but the aether bead I had taken with me seemed to have rolled over there from the shock earlier.

The man held it and closed his eyes for a moment.

I saw a necklace faintly shining on his chest.

“Ah…”

The sacred stone was empty. Leaving only a cracked shell.

“Is this your aether?”

Flash. Eyes containing August stared at the floor.

The man’s voice seemed to penetrate the surface of the earth.

I didn’t know what to say, so I clenched my fist.

Hot cold sweat flowed down my throat.

I had never imagined this development, and I couldn’t have imagined it.

The hand he held out was clean.

He had absorbed all two grains of aether.

In an instant, my voice disappeared as if under a spell.

“…”

If I say it’s my aether, what happens next? Will I be dragged away?

Will I be imprisoned and interrogated?

“Eueup!”

At that moment, the Baron, who had been gagged, shouted.

The Crown Prince glanced back at him. The cleric captured by the Imperial army was nodding his head like crazy. What?

“Is that your power?”

The Crown Prince’s eyes narrowed. I was horrified and reached out. But the Baron was one step faster!

-Paaaaa…!

“Eut.”

It was truly a dazzling radiance.

The man’s bright aether illuminated the carriage like the sun, and golden sparks flew everywhere as if showing off.

I grimaced and turned my head.

He glared at me briefly with a flashing gaze, then sent a desperate look towards the Crown Prince.

The intention was so obvious that I was speechless.

“Eueuebeueup.”

“…Take him to the torture chamber.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

“Eueueue! Beueueue!”

The situation was resolved in an instant.

Soldiers with blood splattered all over their armor dragged the Baron beyond the barracks alley.

Red, bumpy marks were left long on the dirt floor.

I slowly shifted my gaze, feeling my head spin.

I felt goosebumps all over my body and an unfamiliar sense of fear.

Torture chamber…?

“…”

Startled. As soon as I made eye contact with the Crown Prince, I hurriedly prostrated myself on the floor.

A question of whether I was okay, a word that he would call a healing priest, flowed weakly beyond my throat.

The man stood there for a while without saying anything.

-Jeobeok, jeobeok, jeobeok…

And then silently disappeared.

A knight spoke to me, but my ears were ringing and I couldn’t answer properly.

-Cheolseokcheolseok, cheolseok…!

-Swaaaaaaa!

A huge creature rose from beneath the ocean.

‘Euwaaaaaak!’ Naval soldiers screamed and clung to the masts like barnacles.

What appeared through the white spray was a spherical magical beast, all spiky, black, and as big as a battleship.

Known as the Obsidian Sea Urchin. Christel gnashed her teeth and got angry.

How many times is this already!

“Hey! Stop it and get lost! Before I cut up your belly, make bibimbap [Korean mixed rice with meat and vegetables], and make mulhoe [Korean cold raw fish soup]!”

It was a confrontation with a legendary magical beast that had been going on for a whopping 4 hours.

For the temperamental Hamga, a fight that didn’t have an answer and only drained each other’s strength was not welcome.

The sea urchin, enraged by the provocation, seemed to be preparing an even more powerful blow.

How do I know when its whole body is just round and spiky?

-Kwaaaang—!

They didn’t want to know either!

“Kkeuaaaaaaa!”

The ship rose about 1m, and the sacred crown caught on the sea urchin’s thorns shone under the lights.

Christel was furious as she looked at the artifact that seemed to be within reach but wasn’t.

Who shoved it in so deep, huh?!

-Kuuung! Kwaaaang…!

“Aaaak, ssi-bal! I’m going to freeze that thing today and open a raw fish restaurant!”