What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 349

Gold Brocade Return, A Breath (11)

His first and last rampage was seven years ago.

-Whoooosh―!

‘Run! Everyone, run to the fields!’

‘Aaaaaah!’

The small rural village instantly turned into a scene of chaos.

‘Crash!’ The old, dilapidated roof flew off entirely, shattering in the whirlwind.

The stable collapsed in the windstorm, and terrified livestock bellowed.

Residents were scratched all over by sharp gravel, bleeding from being hit by logs tumbling like fallen leaves.

Yet, they were all busy shielding and protecting their neighbors.

Not a single one thought of themselves first.

‘The children first! Take care of the children and the elderly first!’

‘Where’s Herrit! Where’s Herrit!’

‘We’ve got him! Hurry!’

‘Quick! Johan’s about to go berserk! Hurry!’

-Screeeeeech······!

Shrieking voices screamed from all directions.

A cart with a missing wheel and a well pulley creaked ominously.

People fell, collided, and tumbled, yet they looked back, shedding tears.

A woman cried out with a soaking face.

‘How can we leave! How can we leave just us!’

‘We can’t help, Naily! Johan is a paladin [a holy warrior]!’

‘Josephina is lying there! My friend is there!’

‘I know, I know!’

Naily was on the verge of losing consciousness.

Her husband had no choice but to carry her on his back and start running out of the village.

His cheeks were also red and wet.

‘Aaaaaah! Josephina!’ A woman who lost her close friend, like a sister, screamed as if she would vomit her heart out.

But nothing changed.

The village lacked even a proper priest, let alone a professional doctor.

So, stabilizing Johan was virtually impossible.

Right now, avoiding him was the only way to stay alive.

-Whoooooosh······!

-Rumble! Crash!

‘Aaaah!’

Dark clouds filled the entire sky, and thunder threatened.

The children’s cries and the residents’ screams faded into the distance.

The area near where Johan stood was all red.

Over the traces of his wife Josephina, new blood was pouring and pouring.

It was someone else’s blood.

‘Ah, aah, aaaah······.’

The knight who carried her body was crawling away from Johan.

But his leg was cut off below the thigh, so he couldn’t move as fast as he wanted.

His driving force was not shocking pain or the desire to survive.

What dominated his mind redly was only primal fear.

Scary. That guy is so terrible that it gives me goosebumps.

-Thud

‘Ugh, cough, uuuuugh······!’

The sound of the man’s footsteps made him vomit red bile from his mouth.

Around him, crawling miserably on the dirt floor, dead soldiers were lying without even closing their eyes.

The pile of corpses stacked like luggage was only tragic.

The worm-like end of subordinates who couldn’t even draw their swords once.

The knight trembled and turned his head.

Over there, he saw the body of a woman roughly wrapped in straw. ‘Thud, thud, thud―’

Mercenary, Josephina Haynes.

-Swoooooosh······!

Soon, a heavy downpour began. He hurriedly dragged his upper body towards the carriage.

His palms were covered in wounds, and broken glass shards were embedded in them, but he didn’t care.

The cargo hold, which used to carry the lord’s Jenever [a juniper-flavored liquor] every day, reeked of alcohol and corpses.

Seeing the horses, frightened and pawing the ground, made him burst with anger.

He was angry and resentful, spitting and crying everywhere.

A pool of blood flooded by rainwater spread throughout the village.

That was definitely a monster in human skin.

‘You should be grateful that I brought you this far! If it were someone else, they would have thrown you straight into the Winite River!’

Flies were swarming over Josephina’s body when it arrived in the village.

‘Lord, cough. The lord trusted your wife and personally entrusted her with a big task! Ungratefulness has its limits! She gladly accepted it! She was grinning from ear to ear, saying she would receive a hefty reward!’

Rainwater soaked Johan’s chin. The knight spewed words like crazy.

‘Then who told her to act capable? Her husband is an appointed paladin, so she was arrogant, and if she couldn’t handle even 50 people alone!’

She left home knowing there were five opponents.

‘What kind of mercenary can’t kill 50 knights,’

-Thwack! Swish!

‘Kuaaaaaaack―!’ A terrible scream and the noise of slaughter dyed one side of the village red.

It pierced the ears of the residents who were running, braving the rain and wind.

The old man holding the fainted Herrit sobbed silently. The pale-faced children couldn’t even cry out loud and just hiccuped.

Johan’s white shirt had long lost its original color.

‘Uuuuuuu······!’ ‘Swoooooosh!’ The wind tore through the air and whipped the rain around.

Naily, being carried on her husband’s back, looked back one last time.

Thinking that it was a farewell to Josephina.

-Rumble, crash!

[······will not.]

And she was shocked and covered her mouth.

Even though she was a poor person without mana, ether, or any talent, she could instinctively know.

Right now, Johan was trying to do something that no one dared to think of.

He, with pure white wisps of wind wrapped around his forearms, aimed a translucent bow towards the other side of the hill.

At the end of his vision was the old lord’s castle.

‘Oh my god, Johan! No!’

‘You’ll die if you do that! Please, think of Herrit!’ Naily screamed in despair.

Her husband didn’t look back until the end and increased his speed.

‘Woooooong―!’ It felt like all the light in the world was gathering into the paladin’s arrow.

His loose hair was already red from being covered in blood. ‘Thwoong!’

-Screeeeeech!

-Crash, crash, crash―!

The main god’s giant arrow scraped the earth, pierced the rain, and shot out, collapsing the burning huts.

The world was instantly dyed white, and no one could see ahead.

Johan Haynes’s last shred of reason whispered to himself.

‘I still have to live.’

‘For Herrit.’

‘Your reason for existence is only that now.’

‘Don’t give meaning to anyone else.’

And years of memories flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern. It was his future.

‘I heard you can use the Holy Scar.’

The melted candle was flickering in the corner of the table.

‘I heard that a lord’s family in the Theocracy is looking for you. Even the relatives have stepped up.’

‘Wandering can never be a life.’

‘How can you raise your child safely like that?’

It was the voice of Ronald Lüpert, the Director-General.

‘Flutter, flutter!’ In the depths of his unconsciousness, he heard a faint flapping sound. It was strange.

The first place he met the old man was in a narrow, musty underground tavern.

The knights guarding him were waiting outside the door, and this was not a place where living beasts could come and go.

Both of them were dressed in black robes.

Unlike the Director-General, who was neat under the ebony, Johan had a thick beard and no light in his eyes.

‘Come to the Papal States.’

[Sir Johan! Can you hear me?]

Someone shouted from behind him.

It was a voice he had never heard before, but for some reason, his heart fluttered and he was out of breath.

Johan frowned slightly and tried to look back. At that time―

‘The desert will be safer than Venetian.’

‘Clang.’ The Director-General took out a large bag and placed it on the table.

The knight immediately rolled his eyes and looked at it. He could tell what it was without asking.

The stench of gold and jewelry.

But it was more important to him than his tedious life.

‘This is the down payment. I heard that you are the best of the best.’

[······Sir Johan! Please!]

What is it?

‘To be honest, you will never become a cardinal.’

‘But if you work for the Papal States, I promise you a sure reward. And I will free you from the wanted list.’

The conditions presented by the cardinal were excellent.

Johan looked at the old man with sharp eyes and reached out his arm.

‘Snatch!’ Even when he snatched the bag like a beast, the other person didn’t bat an eye.

He quickly checked the contents.

No, he was going to―

-Rustle, rustle!

It was difficult to untie the string because the bag was resisting fiercely.

Johan frowned slightly.

He knew what was inside, but when did it turn into such a soft and living being?

The Director-General, who belatedly realized the situation, reached out his hand.

‘There must have been a mistake. I’ll replace it with a new one.’

‘It’s okay.’

The man replied coldly and untied the bag. At the same time―

-Paaaaaat······!

-Flap, flap!

A dazzling lavender light swallowed the room, and large, warm wings wrapped around him.

Only then could he breathe. Only then did his vision clear and the world came into view.

The muffled call, as if submerged in water, was also heard clearly.

[Sir Johan! It’s me!]

“Kuh!”

Flinch! The man stopped his bloody arm and raised his head.

Pained sweat dripped down his Adam’s apple.

[Are you conscious?! This is the Blanquer Duchy! You almost went berserk!]

Before his eyes, he saw his lord with brown hair.

He was struggling in the strong wind, with a sad and earnest expression.

In his small arms was the unconscious Eva Blanquer······.

-Tap

A familiar forehead touched Johan’s forehead. He only rolled his eyes and looked up.

Under a pair of slowly flying wings, he saw the mint-colored eyes that the man loved the most.

“Hehe.”

“······.”

It was a familiar yet unfamiliar face.

The child was neither the four-year-old who lost his mother that day, nor the ten-year-old boy who had parted with the prince he loved so much.

The paladin stared blankly at his own flesh and blood.

Then Herrit slowly moved his lips.

So that his dad, who always understood and smiled at his words, could surely understand him this time too.

‘It’s okay, Dad.’

‘Dad is not alone.’

‘I want to be with you.’

‘I love you.’

“Ah······.”

Tears poured out. Johan hugged his son, who had grown up so much.

‘Swoooooosh······.’ The gale gradually subsided, and the shade of the old tree began to brighten.

The priest’s kind smile flew through the forest like a butterfly.

Clear air burst from his old lungs.

*

Inland of the Venetian Theocracy.

“Hoo, hoo······. Ahem.”

Elissa, who had stopped crying, got up from the bed with a disciplined posture.

This was one of her secret routines that had been going on for months.

After dinner, she would cry silently, mourn the departed Yeser, and renew her resolve while thinking of her mother and younger sibling.

She would wash her face with ice water so that her eyes wouldn’t be swollen and cause unnecessary rumors.

She would write letters to her father and Cornelissa, and secretly enclose a letter to Martier.

Thanks to the head chamberlain of the royal palace, who had been told about it, the communication channel with her mother was safely secured.

‘You should also examine the head chamberlain once.’

‘It is true that he has served His Majesty for the past fifty years, but you must not be easily complacent.’

······It was thanks to ‘not believing’ what Janin had said.

Recently, she had also been secretly exchanging messages with Count Roseharder of the royal court.

Cornelissa still believed that Yeser had been killed by the guardian spirit of the maze.

Her father returned to the royal palace around the time the desert front retreated, following her aunt’s advice.

In the meantime, Elissa replaced all the attendants and guards who were serving her closely with commoners.

The royal guards, who were in charge of her protocol, were greatly embarrassed, but the crown princess stubbornly insisted on her will.

‘I want to communicate with the people as much as possible on the battlefield. Those at the very bottom will suffer the most.’

No one dared to refute those words.

Of course, it was sincere, but Elissa had a hidden plan.

Princess Wilhelmina Sneider was a person with a thorough sense of class.

The numerous henchmen she used were mostly nobles (as Janin was), or at least bastards from noble families.

In short, commoners were not in the Duke’s grasp.

The ‘lower’ the status, the more unclear the origin, the less Wilhelmina trusted the other person.

-Splash! Slosh, slosh······

It was a good thing for Elissa.

Because status was not important to her in giving trust to others.

-Swoooooosh!

‘Count Roy seems to be Sneider’s subordinate no matter how I look at it······.’

She muttered, lifting her face from the ice water basin.

Clear and cold water droplets washed away her blonde hair.

Sapphire-like blue eyes searched the air for an opportunity.

‘Grand Duchess Judith Kamingha······. She might be able to communicate.’

A faint hope was visible. But enemies were everywhere.

The commoner soldiers cried with her when they saw her crying secretly, and if she asked them for a letter along with gold coins, they would risk their lives to deliver it to the imperial capital.

As the Duke said, even if they lacked learning, even if their ‘blood was dirty,’ they were pure and good.

But other than a few of them, there were no nobles she could easily confide in.

Those who she thought were comrades she could trust her back to turned out to be all close aides of her aunt.

The court count and the head chamberlain could be trusted, but they had to take care of the royal capital and the royal palace, so it was difficult for them to come here.

In addition, Roseharder had isolated himself for a long time, so there were few families he was close to.

The head chamberlain was a self-made man from an ordinary baronial family.

Because there were few clergymen in his family, there were no relatives to speak for in this war.

‘I heard that the Grand Duchess opposed my mother and father’s royal marriage······.’

Elissa muttered, wiping her cheeks with a towel. That was already more than 30 years ago.

It was an unpleasant incident for the Sneider ducal family, so no one mentioned it unless they had to.

But Elissa wanted to know more about it.

The Grand Duchess was her relative, but she had only exchanged conversations with her two or three times so far.

She had never seen her face even on festivals or holidays.

The strong and wealthy Kamingha family had distanced themselves from the royal family since the war era.

And as a result of Elissa’s careful observation, the Grand Duchess and Wilhelmina were not very close.

A faint possibility existed.

‘······.’

However, creating a meeting was the problem.

The inland military camp was no different from Duke Sneider’s main base.

Her henchmen were watching all day long, so how could she meet the old duke privately and have a deep conversation?

How could she hide in the moonlight―

-Kugugugung······!

-Screeeeeech!

At that time, there was a loud noise that shook the sky.

Elissa immediately grabbed her golden spear and ran out of the barracks.

At the same time, shouts from soldiers poured out from all directions. All were tones full of excitement and fear.

‘Something’s falling! Something’s falling from the sky!’

‘Huh? Isn’t this paper, paper?’

‘It’s like an advertisement? Hey! Is the content different on your side?’

‘Uh······. Oh my god! What is this!’

The commotion spread like wildfire in an instant.

It was only a matter of time before the entire military camp fell into chaos.

Elissa widened her eyes and looked at the white streak of light crossing the Milky Way.

That was not a meteor. It was neither an imperial airstrike nor the aura of the Sword Master Emperor.

-Flutter, flutter, flutter······

A flyer fell at her feet.

‘Prince Yeser Venetian has been resurrected!’

This was a cover for the crown princess.