What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 539

The torches illuminating the area trembled, as if surprised.

Lopi, who had been quietly resting, suddenly jumped up and ran to me.

-Miyao.

“······Exclusively for black magic, you say?”

While I blankly repeated the question, the Crown Prince strode over and ushered me outside.

‘Squeak!’ Demi, Perry, and Leah tumbled over the collapsed pile of bricks.

I was relieved they seemed to be enjoying themselves, but since black magic couldn’t be good for divine creatures, I nodded quickly and scooped the children into my arms.

Ms. Gain also came over with Tete strapped to her back in a sling.

Jibril Diop glanced at me, then took out his staff and began to unfold a magic circle. Zzzzz―!

“Use an explosive combination formula.”

Cedric chimed in, observing the process.

We, who knew little about magic, busily took care of the horses first.

Among them, I gave plenty of praise and stroked the neck of Areum, who had found the crystal ball first.

In the meantime, Charlemagne nudged Ms. Gain and me with his head.

‘Neigh.’ He was warning us it was dangerous and we should leave. His behavior was exactly like his owner.

“What are the activation conditions?”

“Simple.”

“Yes, sir, I understand.”

-Faaaaa······!

The lightning magician answered the sixth cousin casually.

François, who was holding a mace, was talking to the Crown Prince with a serious face.

They were discussing conditional magic formulas and whether the crystal ball’s operating principle was storage or injection-based, but as someone with a liberal arts background, it was a conversation I couldn’t understand.

Dduk-sim was sitting on the Crown Prince’s crown, giving instructions with a beep-beep.

Admiral Corleone, who had strode up from below, examined the situation and let out a hollow breath.

“······Black magic, huh? Doing this outside the black market.”

She must have heard about the collapse of the Yeriho black market.

I fed Lopi an ether orb and calmly replied.

“It seems that black magic is one of Duke Sneider’s driving forces. He hasn’t been able to create Holy Knights so far, and there’s a clear limit to the number of Holy Knights born naturally. However, a powerful figure who divides the political world can’t openly increase the size of his private army. Since magic is socially suppressed, he’s been building power underground with black magic instead. It would have been easier for him to control that way, too.”

-Chomp chomp chomp······

“Hmph.”

Then the Admiral snorted lowly, took out a cigar box, and looked up at the sky.

In the sky where the sun didn’t rise, there was no blue dawn or red morning.

This place was safe thanks to the Black Dragon’s power, but the increasingly cold weather was a concern for everyone.

I wondered how Frederick the Great was doing, having spent his birthday without us, and what it was like where Crown Princess Aurelia was.

I was worried about how the other friends in the Imperial Capital were doing. It was already midwinter······.

“Even so, it’s not easy for a person to control another person’s life force. Even on the Twin Islands, where the hand of the Main God doesn’t reach, you can’t even imagine doing such a thing. Black magic is a serious crime that abandons humanity. Sneider is a sinner who will never be forgiven, even in death.”

“······.”

“Why? Didn’t you think I would say something like this?”

‘Hoo.’ She exhaled her first puff of smoke and turned to me with a sullen expression.

In the darkness where there wasn’t even a moon, only the Admiral’s cigar trail rose up white.

For a moment, her greenish-gray eyes took on a languid light. For some reason, my cheeks felt a little hot.

She looked kind of cool just now······.

“Ugh, seriously! Don’t smoke in front of other people. If you want to give me citizenship in your feudal state, learn how to be considerate of non-smokers first! There are babies here, too.”

-Slap!

“Ah, it was a sail [a type of tobacco].”

Thud! The cigarette that fell to the floor died without giving its owner a second puff.

Ms. Gain quickly picked it up and handed it to the Admiral, warning her to dispose of it properly.

Perry cried ‘Squeak, squeak’ and protested with her.

I glanced at the magicians who were having a heated debate and headed back to the tent with my precious bundles.

I had a strange feeling.

A crystal ball exclusively for black magic······.

*

The next day, the area around the conference hall became even more bustling.

Moreover, since the sun didn’t rise, people’s biological rhythms were gradually becoming confused.

The whole world was black, and it felt like sinking into the deep sea.

Or a feeling that time and space were trapped in a large box.

“Princess, please step back.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Everyone, prepare the torches!”

It really felt like a flea market, without exaggeration.

The area around the conference hall, packed with tents, was as busy as a large five-day market.

That’s because the population here was now well over a thousand!

“Second cremation started!”

“Start!”

-Whirr······!

The Imperial Marines (the passionate Versace crew) who came up from Atsuma South were holding a funeral for those who died in the guild conference hall battle on one side.

The dead lined up in two rows under the torches were all subordinates of Baron Atsuma.

Prince Stanislas and Sir Johann had been in charge of recovering the bodies, and I performed the final rites clumsily.

I rang the bell as I had seen in the Riester military camp—since there was no bell that made a sound, I used a crystal bell instead—and burned winter weeds instead of spring flowers to create incense.

Joan helped me diligently but grumbled about why we were going to the trouble of holding funerals for bad guys.

Then Grandfather smiled and said, ‘You’re right.’

‘But if we do this, won’t they send the young people of Riester to the side of the one who guides them? Right?’

‘······.’

‘What’s the point of holding a grudge against the dead? It will only weigh down our souls. That’s the horror of war.’

It was the enlightenment of someone who had wandered the distant lands for a long time.

We pondered his story several times.

-Tap, tap, tap······

“Heine, no, Princess Juliet. The students who went on patrol towards the Lord’s Castle have returned.”

Hot.

“Teacher Tess.”

I quietly watched the crematorium and turned around.

The second largest group here was the faculty and students of the Marine Martial Arts Academy who came down from Barne as support.

Next to Tess, Cori, the class president of the 3rd grade, 7th class, was standing with her hands behind her back.

During the monster horde’s invasion of the North Sea, I remembered that this child had excellently led her classmates and was not seriously injured.

I also heard the heroic tale that she had caught five Youki Crimson Cranes alone.

Her tanned skin and broad shoulders were reassuring.

“Cori, you’ve been there. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“······Yes. Th, thank you for your concern.”

The child stammered and bowed. She secretly looked at my eyes and flinched.

I smiled bitterly and waved my hand. I didn’t say hello to receive greetings.

In fact, for the first hour or two, it was truly a crucible of chaos.

The teachers, including Lena, seemed to have already heard the explanation from Tess, but they couldn’t possibly accept the Crown Prince’s party from the enemy country so easily.

Even Tess, who had shared life and death with us, was greatly shocked, so it must have been even more difficult for others.

Of course, they didn’t fight or resist this side—no matter what they did, they couldn’t beat the Sword Master, three 8th-level mages, and three Holy Knights—but I didn’t feel good seeing them trembling with fear and anxiety.

Every time the Black Dragon, who had coiled around the conference hall, tilted his head while looking at them, some of the teachers were shocked to the point of fainting.

In addition, Baron Atsuma’s subordinates, who had regained consciousness, often shouted in the tent, so the students flinched and looked at us.

They probably thought we were dragging them inside to torture them (but they were screaming because their injuries hurt).

Of course, Frederick Riester’s son had been steadily receiving leadership training for times like this.

‘······The Riester Empire has no intention of killing or oppressing you. Rather, we want to protect and support you so that you can live a better life. Know that what we want from you is not obedience but cooperation.’

Crown Prince Cedric looked around at those who surrounded him and said with dignity.

‘If you surrender, we will not attack but help. We will provide food and support for damage recovery and medical staff. In the name of His Majesty the Emperor, the construction of breakwaters and the construction of semi-permanent magic formulas for monster defense will also be carried out. There will be no unreasonable conscription in this process.’

‘······.’

‘This is the promise of the heir to the throne.’

Then more than a hundred members of the Marine Martial Arts Academy quietly stared at Lena, the student director.

For a moment, she, who was burdened with too much, looked at her colleagues and didn’t know what to do.

Anyone in that situation would be dizzy and embarrassed.

She was neither the lord of Barne nor the principal of the Martial Arts Academy.

‘······I will surrender.’

The answer flew in from the south, not from Lena’s lips.

Everyone turned their eyes in the direction of the sound.

‘Oh my gosh, Young Master!’

‘Sem!’

And half of them quickly covered their mouths.

Young Master Sem, who had taken Alain, who was a participant in the secret experiment, to his hometown, returned alone and stood before us.

He had a noticeably more mature atmosphere than the last time I saw him.

His outerwear and boots were all covered in mud, and his clothes were torn, leaving no place on his knees and elbows intact.

He had a mature impression before, but Sem Barne now felt like an adult who had experienced and digested a lot of things.

He paid a polite Shinguk-style greeting to the Crown Prince of the Empire.

‘······The Lord may not forgive me, but I want to be forgiven by my people. So I will surrender with them. Please accept me.’

Then he untied the scabbard from his waist and placed it on the ground.

The situation was settled when François, the Crown Prince’s representative, picked it up.

All the students and faculty of the Marine Martial Arts Academy, as well as everyone who followed Young Master Sem, were under the official protection of the Imperial Army.

Alain took his nephew Brandy and safely left for Yeriho, he said.

I heard that the Riester garrison there was accepting refugees.

This is what happened until around noon today.

“How was it near the Barne Lord’s Castle? Is the sky dark there too?”

I asked with the softest expression and the softest voice possible.

Class President Cori swallowed hard.

“Yes, it’s just as black across the sea. Actually, I couldn’t get close to the Lord’s Castle. There were many fires, and I thought my classmates would be in danger if I went any deeper.”

“Fires? Near the Lord’s Castle?”

Tess and I were surprised by those words.

In Werner Fenetian’s letter, there was clearly a warning that he would use force to subdue Atsuma.

But the army wasn’t even visible, and why a fire in a territory surrounded by the sea?

“Yes. I don’t know what happened, but smoke was billowing from inside the Lord’s Castle. The west gate, which we could see, was completely locked, and knights were running around on horseback with their swords drawn in the distance. There were also soldiers running away, and I saw people in old clothes running barefoot. It was like······.”

“Like?”

“It looked like a war had broken out inside the castle.”

The teenager looked back and forth between us and whispered. I exchanged glances with Tess.

“Something’s wrong.”

“Oh my god, could something have happened to the Lord?”

“······No. If that were the case, it would have been an opportunity for ‘Bozena’ instead. But if the order of the Lord’s Castle has collapsed in any way, it will be just as disadvantageous to him. No one can seize power in an uncontrollable situation.”

I quickly sorted out the situation.

It would have been difficult to come to this conclusion when I didn’t know Werner Fenetian well, but now I knew that bastard a little bit.

The Secretary of State was nothing without someone to support him.

He gained power by parasitizing on someone else’s power every time.

Whether it was power or magic······.

He dug in like a flea, sucked out the energy, and ruthlessly abandoned the host after achieving what he wanted.

He didn’t seem interested in the host’s downfall or death.

He was that kind of person.

“Then······.”

Then this time, we should assume that the host collapsed before he could achieve his goal due to other factors.

He’ll definitely try to run away again.

No way.

“We need to deploy the Imperial Navy at various points along the road leading south from the Lord’s Castle. I need to send Dduk-sim to check how far the North Sea Fleet has come. I can’t decide on the operation of the military, so I need to talk to the Crown Prince and the Admiral······.”

That’s when it happened.

“Huh?”

-Thud!

Over there, someone hurriedly ran out of Baron Eda Atsuma’s tent and fell over!

“Ugh, aagh······!”

“Princess Francisca?”

I was so surprised that I raised my voice. The child was pale and tearful.

“Oh, Mother! Something strange is flowing out of Mother’s body! Please help me!”

······What?

“Green······! A sticky green energy is, like, coming out and being sucked into the orb!”

The girl shouted in a breathless voice.

Jibril Diop, who followed out of the tent, quickly waved his staff.