What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 396

#396

Alchemy (5)

And the fire streak in his right hand and the water streak in his left hand began to dissipate simultaneously.

A tragedy was unfolding in the dark corner of the basement.

-Chiiiik······!

-Ssaaaa······!

“Kuh, keuhuk! Cough! Cough, cough!”

The woman’s face turned pale in an instant. Harsh coughing echoed through the musty corridor.

The three of us instinctively huddled together.

Underneath the Crown Prince’s robe, Lopi wriggled anxiously.

‘Crack, crack······.’ Clear, bright blue cracks were forming on the body of the paladin, who was wielding two special ethers.

Upon closer inspection, the blood vessels all over his body were bulging out as if about to burst.

His long, torn eyes widened, and blue blood vessels spread like a curse across the whites of his eyes.

His thick neck and jawline were stained a purplish color like rotten grapes.

Gaine and the Crown Prince froze like statues.

I could only move my lips in shock.

-Crack, crack, zzzzzzz······!

“Heo-eok! No, no! This is just a side effect, cough!”

The woman denied it, scratching at the wall with her fingernails.

Shaking her head, hitting her chest, and frantically trying to get her bearings.

Seeing this, there was no way I couldn’t know. Her ether was not normal.

Soon, her mind began to go haywire like a machine on the verge of breaking down.

Words and sentences scattered haphazardly everywhere flew in and started forming new paragraphs.

First, the words left by the earth-attribute knight in the reed field.

‘Damn it! How did I get such a valuable skill!’

‘Skill.’ Skin rotting into a blackish-purple color, just like that woman.

The paladin who felt pain when holy water touched him. And the man in the black robe whom Gaine spoke to.

‘It is time to embrace the grace that our lord bestows upon us.’

‘Grace?’

‘Yes. Ether infusion, I mean.’

‘Ether infusion.’ A vessel forcibly crammed with two powers. The ‘side effects’ that resulted.

The dead who could not leave this world even in death, sleeping in the darkest part of the salt marsh.

“Ha······.”

My mind, having reached a conclusion in an instant, heated up as if it were overloaded.

I gasped for breath, my eyes wide open.

François Diem’s prophetic voice echoed in my ears.

‘A terrible experiment was being carried out in the basement. In the corner, there were people who appeared to be test subjects······.’

This is a human experiment. To strengthen the paladins of the Divine Kingdom―

“Keoheok, heooo-eok!”

No, perhaps to alchemize them.

She is the result of failing to overcome such a tragic attempt.

“Cough, cough! No, it’s not a failure!”

Now, a person is dying before my eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that!”

-Thwack!

The moment I unconsciously took a step, Gaine and the Crown Prince blocked me.

Only then did I come to my senses. I blankly blinked behind my mask.

There was nothing I could do right now, so I just clenched my fists tightly. My damp palms throbbed.

In the meantime, no one here came forward to help the woman.

Not even someone to support her, or say a word to ask if she was okay.

The group dressed in black robes were merely observing the woman’s condition.

“Heok, heo-eok! Keolleok, keolleok!”

“······.”

“Keuheok! Cough, cough! Keuheo-eok! Lord!”

Yes, ‘observation.’

“Lord, why······! Keok, keoheok······.”

Even as the woman fell to her knees, even as blood began to pour from her mouth, everyone was silent.

Until the vitality finally disappeared from her blackish-purple face.

Until death stole the last light from her eyes······.

“Choose, me······.”

No one came forward.

-Thump!

“Ah······.”

Finally, the woman collapsed.

The two men and women strongly held me back, preventing me from rushing out immediately.

Rustle, rustle! I tried to break free, but even struggling was not easy.

I know that someone who volunteered for an experiment after coming to a place like this cannot be clean.

If I cannot be free from such a huge sin, it might be better to die.

But I was allergic to ‘condoning’ such things.

So, without even forming a proper sentence, I foolishly just moved my lips and looked back at the two of them.

Crown Prince Cedric was holding me with dark, sunken eyes.

I could see his chin vibrating slightly. Gaine―

“Marquis. You can’t.”

“······.”

She was crying silently.

Her watery eyes were churning with boiling anger and disgust.

Clear tears could not flow out from under the mask and were trapped. In an instant, all the strength drained from my body.

For the first time, her hand, which couldn’t control its strength, left a red mark on my wrist.

But I didn’t even feel the pain.

Gaine chewed out in a tone as if she were submerged in the deep sea.

“Not now. We came here with difficulty.”

“······.”

“We need to find out who is behind this. It would be even better if we knew their purpose. Have you forgotten the imperial order?”

“······Yes.”

I barely moved my tongue to answer. That’s right, our mission was ‘reconnaissance.’

To find out what was happening in the salt marsh, obtain information, and return safely.

No one expected things to turn out like this, but first, I had to keep that in mind.

Now is wartime, so we had to be more careful in all our actions than usual.

Even if it was difficult and painful, that was the right thing to do.

Calm down, Ye-seo Jeong. No matter how extreme the situation, don’t be rash.

“Just bear with it a little longer, together.”

Nod, nod. Just as I barely nodded―

-Clang! Clang, clang, clang!

Flinch. A heavy footstep echoed from the other side of the corridor. We stood apart from each other, one step at a time.

Lopi, who had climbed up to the Crown Prince’s shoulder, peeked his eyes out from under the robe and quickly hid again.

Clang, click! Clang! Soon, the noise of armor and military boots moving grew closer.

Like the other groups, they were knights wearing black robes and masks.

-Step, step, step!

Two of them abruptly picked up the dead woman and left somewhere.

One brought a huge basin and poured an unidentified liquid onto the floor.

Swaaaaa! The dark red blood slowly flowed towards the drain.

I eventually turned my head and looked at the wall.

Everything my eyes landed on was so terrible and horrific that it was hard to bear.

At one time, I was worried that this world might be completely fake, but I wished that at least this part was a lie.

How could this be? Why on earth? How can a person······.

-Step, step, step

“Apostle.”

At that time, the last knight spoke to the gatekeeper at the end of the corridor. I doubted my ears for a moment.

‘Apostle’? They’re doing this kind of thing in a place where no one knows?

“What’s going on.”

“There was a fire in the reed field······.”

Huk. We held our breath at the same time.

The knight’s voice was small, but this place was generally a place where sound echoed.

It was possible to hear words intermittently and infer the context.

I tensed up, straining my hearing to the fullest.

“Reconnaissance······. Sent them?”

“Yes. Fire attribute······. A report that they sensed it······.”

“Desertion······. Possible······. The report is.”

“Returned······. Only three people······.”

My heart sank. We stood there, staring straight ahead.

Even if I just roughly combined the words, the situation was clear.

There was a fire in the blue reed field outside, someone sharp sensed the fire-attribute ether there, and they sent a reconnaissance team to check the scene.

The Apostle seemed to think it was likely a deserted paladin.

And the last words were a report that only three people had returned on the wooden boat. Damn it.

“······Was not there.”

“······I understand. I’ll check it out.”

The Apostle replied calmly.

The knight bowed respectfully and quickly disappeared in the direction his colleagues had gone.

Soon, the person holding the blue lantern quietly looked back at us.

The line, which had been moving in an orderly manner, had been stopped for a while due to the commotion of the dead woman and the subsequent report.

“Who are the people who went on the last reconnaissance?”

“······.”

And a chilling silence flowed. I swallowed hard without realizing it.

The Apostle continued in a soothing, gentle voice.

“I am looking for you because I have something to ask, so there is no need to be nervous. The ether infusion will proceed as planned.”

“······.”

“······.”

Tick, tock. The sound of water dripping from the ceiling was loud.

I lowered my eyes and even saved my breath.

“······That’s strange. There’s no reason for you to come out here.”

The Apostle said, slowly taking steps.

He was now making eye contact with people in order, starting with the person at the front.

I felt like my body temperature dropped by about 5 degrees.

We were too close to the end room of the corridor because we had cut in line.

There was no time to prepare for anything. In an instant, it was Gaine’s turn!

“······.”

The Apostle looked at her with deep eyes, then,

“······Aren’t our brothers and sisters one under His sacrifice?”

He sighed and passed by. It was my turn right away. I instinctively held my breath.

It’s okay. The robe is supposed to ‘blur my presence.’

Just don’t do anything that stands out first. Trust Bakari.

“······.”

“You all know the legend associated with this place well. Baron Franken, the blue wizard, in order to create the one and only husband worthy of him······.”

And he passed me. I barely swallowed a sigh and closed my eyes.

Even in the midst of all this, I was secretly surprised that Baron Franken was a wizard. Next was the Crown Prince.

“······.”

“From the first husband, a beautiful face.”

Then he walked away. Wow, I got past it once!

“From the second husband, beautiful hair. From the third husband, a wonderful voice. From the fourth and fifth husbands, healthy lungs, one from each. Stealing strong bones and muscles from the sixth husband······.”

The Franken legend was originally a cruel fairy tale, but the version told by the people of the Divine Kingdom was much more terrible.

I made an ugly face and exchanged glances with my friends.

“From the last, seventh husband, he tried to obtain a brave heart to complete his spouse. But he failed. Because he was careless in front of a fifteen-year-old boy.”

-Step

The Apostle, who had already reached the end of the corridor, stopped and looked back at everyone.

Again, a gentle, androgynous voice flowed out.

“If creating an ordinary human is so difficult, how much more difficult would it be to create a perfect paladin?”

So why the hell are you doing that?

Didn’t the Divine Kingdom have more than enough paladins?

What for, desecrating the bodies of the dead and killing the living······.

“The Lord has come this close to success.”

“······.”

“An achievement that will make us stronger, richer, and live forever with His grace······. It is now right before our eyes. Side effects and reactions are merely part of the process.”

The Apostle’s voice was calm from beginning to end.

There was no madness in his tone, no speeding up of his speech, and no shouting while repeating the same words.

That’s why it was scarier.

I was convinced that nothing in the world, no words, could persuade him.

“Will you end up not becoming a true apostle and becoming Franken’s suspicious seventh husband?”

“······.”

“Those who abandon the Lord gain nothing. They do not even enjoy a common and easy death.”

A terrible curse fell. The audience was silent as a mouse.

Then the Apostle solemnly raised the blue lantern.

The series of movements was very slow and seemed like a sacred movement at first glance.

“Even this is just a small obstacle to Him, the incarnation of the Lord.”

······What?

“Take courage and come forward before Him, who will overcome and move forward. Confess now and receive forgiveness.”

What did you just say? The incarnation of the Lord?

“Apostle.”

Suddenly, someone raised their hand in the dark corridor.

Everyone’s eyes were drawn to him at once. The three of us also quickly turned our eyes.

Damn it.

“I heard these people came for the first time today.”

“······Is that so.”

It was the man Gaine had spoken to earlier.

He kept glancing this way, so it seemed that after recognizing Gaine, he clearly felt the presence of the group.

Crack. Our protagonist ground his teeth and cursed at the same time.

-Step, step, step······

“That’s a strange thing. Franken Castle is······.”

‘It’s a branch that doesn’t accept newcomers.’ The Apostle, who said that, moved smoothly and stood in front of us.

The eyes under the mask were shining fiercely, as if they had found a pest.

It was a gaze that finally ‘recognized’ us.

The moment our eyes met head-on, he instantly swung his arm and snatched my mask.

Flutter! There was not even a chance to resist.

The seconds stretched out slowly like long noodles.

The man who checked my face swung his other arm, and crack! Needle-sharp frost shot out from his skeletal fingertips, and the moment it plunged into my Adam’s apple―

-Swish! Slice, clang!

“Aaaaaaack!”

Red blood spurted out and both of the Apostle’s arms flew away.

The world started running at full speed again.

While the Crown Prince, who had drawn his Hye Geom [his personal sword], lifted me up and put me on his shoulder, thud! Gaine swung her whip and poured out icicles sharper than knives. Papapapapa!

“Get out of here, you bastards! What the hell are you doing, you disgusting cult bastards, doing disgusting illegal experiments! Shit! You’re dead, really!”

“Heuaaaaack! Aaaack!”

“Call the knights! Hurry, keuheuk!”

“Damn it! Fifth Apostle! Request support from the Fifth Apostle!”

‘Keuhaaaaack!’ The scene instantly turned into a scene of carnage.

Gaine flew around, emitting blue light, and by the time some of the robed figures gritted their teeth and rushed in, I aggressively opened the Holy Ground [a protective barrier]. Paaaaa―!

“Keuhaaack!”

“Keueut, damn it! They have a priest!”

“Bring the poison!”

While the guys who fell out were recovering, I was busy patting his wide back. Quickly!

“Crown Prince! We need to see what’s in that room, hurry!”