What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 55

#055 What I Won’t Miss (3)

-Thump! Thud! Boom!

“Hey, easy! Go easy!”

Ugh! I almost bit my tongue.

The speed was too fast, and the mountain’s slope was much steeper than I had anticipated.

Thump, thump! Even with Christelle and the Prince on my back, my body bounced up and down.

With one arm, I tightly hugged Demi, and with the other, I firmly gripped the reins, lowering my body.

This crazy thing Demi made with vines… Isn’t that a cliff ahead?!

“Turn left, turn left! Aaaagh!”

-Kieeeeeee!

The magical beast flapped its long tail and venomous stinger, soaring through the air despite the cliffs. A wingless thing!

The sensation of my brain floating, my eardrums prickling with goosebumps, and my heart plummeting to my feet was intense.

T-Express [a popular roller coaster in South Korea] was child’s play compared to this.

-Screech!

“Demi, it’s okay. We’re going together with hyung [older brother or close male friend].”

I shouldn’t be saying things like this to a kid, but the situation was so crazy that even my words weren’t normal.

I glanced down below, and a dark, bottomless valley was gaping open.

I squeezed my eyes shut and recited a prayer for salvation.

The whistling wind brushed past us.

From the back of my neck, I could hear the soft breathing of the two peacefully sleeping troublemakers.

-Thwaack!

-Kieeeeeek!

Our bus safely landed beyond the cliff!

Without even a moment to catch my breath, I grabbed the second and last apple in my hand.

So far, everything was going according to plan.

Thanks to carrying the two protagonists, my luck was unbelievably good.

“Charge extra!”

As I hurled the blue-gray apple forward, the illusionary magical beast, whether scorpion or centipede, stepped on the gas again.

The sensation of my upper body tilting made my mouth go dry. This thing was truly obsessed with apples.

The moment I threw an apple into the valley, it pounced on us.

-Kiek! Kieeeeek!

‘Wow, the peel is slippery! I really hate it!’

-Screech, screech!

It had been frantically chasing the rolling apple.

It didn’t even care that Demi and I were on its back.

The magical beast tore through towering trees and meadows at full speed, climbing over rocks and clicking its pincers incessantly.

By now, its foaming mouth looked almost pitiful.

Was it possessed by a ghost who died unable to eat apples for generations?

-Kit, kit! Kiek! Kieeeek!

Then, the creature stopped abruptly, showing a distinctly different reaction than before.

I craned my neck, wondering if the apple had gotten stuck in some crevice.

What appeared before my eyes was, fortunately, much better news.

“We’re here.”

At the end of my blurred vision, two white, enormous tents came into view.

It was the audience seating for thousands, arranged on the wide plain in front of the Diem Lord’s castle.

Finally, the ‘Comet Sword of Mars’ seemed to have disturbed the magical beast’s nerves.

It was clear that it would head straight for the arena from now on, with or without the apple.

It was a good thing. The ‘Magical Beast Subjugation’ was almost over.

“Waaaaah…”

“…Hooray! Hooray!”

Faint cheers could be heard in the distance. I couldn’t tell if the crowd had spotted us.

I caught my breath and turned around with difficulty.

Beyond the pink and black hair, the magical beast’s tail stinger, shaped like a brush tip, was swaying.

“Demi, we have to deal with that.”

-Screech.

I whispered. That was definitely it.

Before waking up the two protagonists, and before the damn scorpion-bug messed up the competition, we had to make at least minimal preparations.

“Ugh!”

-Kieeeeek! Grrrr! Krrt! Kit!

My head snapped. The creature emitted a more aggressive noise than ever before, charging forward.

I gripped the reins tightly, trying not to lose my balance.

With my remaining hand, I quickly rummaged through my bag.

*

[Please wake up, both of you.]

It felt like I heard such a whisper.

-Thud!

Cedric Liester slowly lifted his eyelids, feeling stiffness all over his body.

But his vision was blurry.

He couldn’t be sure if he was still dreaming or if he had regained consciousness.

He barely remembered where he had been last and what he had been doing.

Everything was quiet, as if buried in ashes. He slowly moved his fingertips.

-Whirr…

He flinched. The Prince startled and sat up as if electrocuted.

At the end of his left hand, which he looked down at, small sparks were constantly rising and fading.

It was bare.

The powerful magical tool that had barely managed to block his unstable ether flow every day was nowhere to be seen.

His gloveless fingertips were a volcano ready to ignite at any moment.

He frowned. This was dangerous.

Because he was such an ominous being.

“…”

Only then did his surroundings come into view. The surroundings were opaque and hazy.

He remembered seeing a similar sight before he fainted.

To be exact…

‘Father. It’s my fault.’

‘You shouldn’t have sacrificed yourself for me. I’d rather…’

There was long, black hair and eyes as deep blue as the deep sea.

Alexandre le Sair looked exactly like the day he died, with the same face and the same clothes.

His softly smiling eyes and kind mouth were full of affection for his young son.

‘It’s okay, Seidi. Isn’t it nice and warm thanks to your flames?’

It was the figure that had always appeared in the Prince’s nightmares until a few months ago.

He instinctively knew it was an illusion. Just a shallow trick by a mere creature.

But he couldn’t control his wavering emotions, as much as his burning anger.

‘How dare you.’

‘A magical beast using my father.’

‘I will not forgive you.’

After that, everything was red.

The world burned red, and his head boiled so much that he couldn’t distinguish anything.

The Marquis’s land and mountains were all piles of fire.

The beast’s screams and someone’s soothing voice mixed together, making his ears dizzy.

The cursed power had gone out of control. Just because he couldn’t bear that anger once.

He had burned countless lives. As if one father wasn’t enough.

And again, it was fog.

“Ha…”

His breathing became erratic.

The painful hallucination could come again at any time and turn him into a monster.

Until nothing remained, until he devoured everything in the world.

Until the ashes piled up like snow in the valley that had already become a dirt floor.

The Prince clenched his left hand.

“Your Highness, if you’ve rested enough, please cooperate.”

His head snapped up. Cedric looked up at the source of the sound.

“Are you still not feeling well? I gave you enough ether.”

Through the disheveled golden hair, blood was visible on his white forehead.

The purple eyes that met his sparkled like amethysts.

Even though he was the one who was hurt, his tone was full of concern.

“…”

Then, as if by a lie, the world became noisy. His muffled ears cleared.

“Waaaaaaah!”

“Prince, I’ll take care of the entrance!”

“Sarnese! Sarnese! Sarnese!”

The shouts of thousands of people caught up in the heat of subjugation struck his ears.

Then, the heavy sound of waves and Christelle de Sarnese’s voice beat back and forth.

It was as if he was on a beach full of people.

At least it was certain that it wasn’t the mountain range he had melted. He felt like he had teleported.

“This is the arena. We’ve descended. You can use your power as you please because I’m here.”

“…This fog is.”

“It’s clouds that have fallen to the ground. It’s just ordinary fog. I cut off the scorpion magical beast’s stinger, so it can’t spew hallucinatory fog anymore, damn it!”

-Thump!

A magical beast that appeared through the fog attacked the Prince’s circle.

Even though there was no significant impact, the Prince looked quite surprised.

Cedric slowly rose from his seat, watching the scene.

His joints ached as if he had rolled hard down a hill.

-Whirr, whirr…

Hearing the sound of fire, the Prince looked down and stared at his left hand.

His chest tightened for a moment. He would now know everything.

He had witnessed the reality of the terrible curse he had received, right in front of his eyes.

“Are you afraid?”

“No, just…”

He looked troubled.

“I left Your Highness’s gloves behind. I forgot to pick them up.”

“…”

“Since it’s fire, it’ll be warm in the winter. You won’t have to worry about your hands getting cold.”

The Prince smiled and readjusted the divine beast in his arms.

Thump! The magical beast once again rammed into the sanctuary. It looked like a mix of wolf and lion.

It wasn’t a strong magical beast, and it seemed to be a leftover that had come down in response to the Comet Sword’s ether.

“Demi, do you want to do it? Should I scold ‘this bad boy’?”

-Screech!

The divine beast raised its two front paws high.

The Prince silently watched the scene of green vines soaring from the dirt pile on the plain.

Even though the magical beast strangled by the vines was painfully coughing, he felt strangely relieved.

“If you keep spacing out, you’ll lose the championship to the Princess.”

The Prince said. Only then did Cedric blink once.

‘Ooooooh!’ The audience’s exclamations poured out. The sound of water splashing could be heard in the distance.

“That’s the ‘Comet Sword of Mars’.”

The Prince pointed behind the Prince, but he didn’t turn around.

In any case, the Comet Sword’s presence was so strong that it could be felt even with all five senses blocked.

But nothing could be purer than the ether in the vessel in front of him now.

“You really don’t seem to be afraid.”

“I told you when we climbed the mountain, she’s a pretty strong priest. I’m not running away.”

A small breath escaped from the Prince’s lips. It was a sound close to laughter.

He quickly reached out his left hand and grabbed the Prince’s head.

Warm flames mixed into the blood-stained forehead.

The Prince made a flustered voice at the sudden force.

“Wait. What,”

“Don’t forget.”

The Prince ruthlessly drew out the Prince’s ether.

The purple iris contained him with a gaze as if looking at a madman.

“I gave you a lot earlier, why are you taking more!”

“You’re the one who said you wouldn’t run away.”

He wouldn’t miss it. The orange eyes flickered.

This was his last and only chance.

*

“No… That’s totally crazy.”

I was dizzy.

It wasn’t enough to faint, but it was certain that ether had been drained until just before fainting.

Even though I had slightly twisted my right leg when I was thrown off the scorpion magical beast’s back, it was too much to stand any longer.

I slowly bent down and sat down.

Oh, my body.

-Screech, screech, screech.

“Hyung is okay. It’s Prince who’s not okay.”

Demi groaned and crawled up my chest.

I couldn’t help but laugh at his worried expression.

At this point, these were injuries that would quickly heal with the help of a healing priest.

It was a little disappointing that I couldn’t use healing power on myself.

-Kieeeeek!

“This is really the last one!”

Christelle’s powerful voice echoed through the arena.

I stretched out my legs and turned only my upper body to look at her.

In the middle of the hazy arena, I could see a doll leaping powerfully and soaring into the air.

The blue jacket fluttered in the wind.

To her right was an incredibly long water spear floating.

The target was the scorpion magical beast, whose two pincers had already melted from the holy water.

“Hut!”

-Kieeeeeek!

Christelle, who was airborne, swung her whip forward with all her might. At the same time, the spear was fired.

The moment thousands of spectators held their breath with sweaty hands,

-Whoosh!

The air vibrated briefly.

-Kwaaaaa!

“Kugh!”

Then, a tremendous shockwave covered the arena. I fell to the ground in a sitting position.

I tasted sand in my mouth. I reflexively hugged Demi and curled up my body.

“Cough, cough! Cough, cough!”

I suddenly inhaled dust and coughed. I was dumbfounded, wondering what was going on.

A magical beast? But the ones other than the scorpion magical beast were mostly small.

The magical beasts that came out during the first and second advances were all burned by the Prince, and only a handful came down to the arena…

“The subjugation is over.”

A familiar baritone voice cut through the crowd. I creaked and got up to find the owner of the voice.

My vision was clear now.

The ground fog seemed to have cleared completely due to the earlier wave.

“It’s His Highness the Prince! His Highness the Prince…”

Breaking through the tense silence, someone among the spectators suddenly shouted.

The woman’s voice cracked with excitement.

Soon, shock and admiration, fear and reverence spread like wildfire throughout the audience.

The man was standing in the place where the Comet Sword had been, overlooking the plain.

I blankly stared at the Prince.

To be exact, at the sharp, jet-black divine object in his left hand.

“Huh…”

There’s someone who eats the prize before even winning…

“Your Highness, that’s cheating!”

Christelle shouted, laughing as if dumbfounded. She was also sprawled on the floor.

The Prince ignored her and raised the hand holding the sword to his chest. Then,

-Whirr!

Fire ignited from the base of the blade to the tip. It was exactly the same color as his eyes.