What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 551

#551

Hell Dive with Bated Breath (1)

“······.”

In that brief moment, Jibril instinctively knew he had messed up badly.

This was his mistake, with no room for excuses.

The man furrowed his brow tightly, slowly closing and opening his eyes.

Calling the soldier over had been purely impulsive.

Being highly sensitive to changes around him and quick to detect anomalies, he had acted on instinct again this time.

It was because the sparkle of that damned necklace was excessively conspicuous. Or perhaps his memory was too good.

“Haa······.”

Damn it, Jibril Diop. What’s so important about the Crown Prince’s trinkets?

“Young master?”

When will this guy’s keen eyesight ever deteriorate? Can’t he just ignore it?

You’re making work for yourself again.

-Krrr······

Even the leisurely flying Four Dragon seemed to be mocking him.

“······I should take care of that. Hand it over.”

“Pardon? This is trash, though?”

At the sudden order, the naval soldiers stared at him with wide eyes.

Even as the group murmured, Jibril simply wore a sullen expression.

The one holding the sack spoke with a deliberately calm tone.

“D-Diop Young Master. I apologize. But the waste of high-ranking officers must be cleanly incinerated according to military law······.”

“Ah, I said hand it over. It’ll be troublesome if you just throw it away like that.”

“Yes?”

Surprised heads tilted. Jibril seized the opportunity and grabbed the Saint Stone necklace.

It was ridiculous how it was covered in ash, as if its noble owner had thrown it into the fireplace.

“Can’t you see the subtle mana flowing here? This necklace has a high-level preservation magic on it. These things don’t burn easily, and it’ll be a headache if it hides in the ashes and falls into the enemy’s hands. Releasing the magic is the priority before disposal.”

“······.”

It was a complete fabrication, but it sounded plausible even to him.

In any case, a 7th-circle preservation magic would block most flames.

Besides, there wasn’t a single magician in the world who would carelessly discard an item with that much magic on it.

Except for his sixth cousin.

“Ah!”

The reaction was immediate.

“Good heavens! We didn’t know it was such an item······!”

“Young Master, you’re truly amazing.”

“We are honored!”

“Now that you know, I’ll take this. I’ll overlook it this once since you didn’t know.”

‘Thank you!’, ‘We’re so grateful!’ The pale faces brightened again.

Jibril clicked his tongue and roughly shoved the necklace into his inner pocket.

It was a stroke of luck that they were mostly naive and young soldiers.

If even one seasoned knight had been among them, the situation would have been very different.

After perfectly silencing about ten mouths, the man strode towards the Crown Prince’s camp.

Come to think of it, there were more than one or two things that bothered him today.

This time, the faces of the passing naval priests subtly caught his attention.

In the midst of being incredibly busy, they seemed somehow distracted and excited.

There was also an inexplicable anxiety······.

-Thud, thud, thud

“······No, it’s true. I heard His Highness isn’t looking for the Palace Lord?”

“Eh, no way. Maybe he just has plenty of Aether [magical energy]?”

“Haven’t you seen her beautiful face?”

“They say he doesn’t even mention the Palace Lord. He doesn’t personally check on her meals or sleeping arrangements.”

“Haven’t you heard the rumors? They say the two had a big fight. Maybe it’s our chance······.”

“Come on. No matter how good your family is, you can’t compare to a resurrected royal.”

“Why, even Lord Rombue can’t do anything about their relationship. Can’t I dream?”

“Hmph. I don’t know······.”

“······.”

Faces mixed with vague expectations. Frivolous and flippant tone.

It was truly a pathetic conversation.

What time is it, and they’re all so caught up in that?

As someone who usually found the palace intrigues pathetic, Jibril was infuriated by the sight of naval personnel gossiping like this during wartime.

He was well aware that the Crown Prince and the Palace Lord had a major fight for some reason and weren’t even seeing each other.

But so what? Is that what’s important now?

The magician frowned slightly and pulled back the tent entrance. ‘Flap!’

“Welcome, Jibril.”

“Greetings! You are four minutes late, Diop Young Master.”

“······.”

The man, with a nonchalant flick of his chin, gave a rough greeting to Stanislas and Cedrick.

François put his pocket watch away and examined the map again.

A moment of silence followed.

He had come because the northern strategy against the Theocracy had changed, and they urgently needed to devise a new formation, but it felt somehow empty and quiet.

The knights lined up behind the table were as stiff as statues.

Jibril slowly scanned the interior before realizing the reason.

“······It seems like one head is missing.”

The Palace Lord was absent.

The Grand Tutor and the Pink Princess were supposed to be out on aerial reconnaissance, so that was understandable, but Juliette’s absence from this meeting was strange.

Frankly speaking, this was a first.

Immediately, a sharp gaze pierced him from across the room.

A suffocating silence gripped everyone’s throats.

“······.”

Anyone would think the Young Master had uttered treason in the presence of the heir to the throne.

The Crown Prince was acting as if he would punish him severely if he said even one wrong word.

Stanislas looked back and forth between the two children with a pitiful gaze, unable to add a word as he usually did.

François let out a soft sigh.

Jibril shrugged, looking straight into the other’s burning eyes.

“No special meaning. But hasn’t Palace Lord Juliette been devising various tactics with Your Highness?”

“······.”

“I recall she was the Guild Master.”

“Enough with the childish theatrics.”

Ha. The Young Master let out a silent exhale.

The old man pushed a cool glass of water towards him, but he didn’t even think of drinking it.

As the Crown Prince of Liester, he had wholeheartedly participated in the Guild Master election, yet now he was showing such an attitude? Was bringing their fight into the public sphere and creating an uncomfortable atmosphere a very mature attitude?

Was letting the lower ranks know about the commanders’ conflict the epitome of a monarch taught in royal studies?

The more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed, and a burst of laughter escaped him.

However, the reason Jibril didn’t voice all those complaints was······.

“What about the letter delivery via the Divine Creature Biryeom’s ark?”

“······.”

The Crown Prince’s condition didn’t seem good.

Cedrick Liester’s cheeks were gaunt, like someone who hadn’t eaten for a week.

The posture he leaned against the table with wasn’t as firm as usual.

His face was shadowed in places and rough, with deep dark circles under his eyes, giving him an overall precarious, knife-like feel.

There was no life in his mottled crimson eyes, and the whites were sparsely bloodshot. On the other hand, his lips had no color at all.

His hoarse voice sounded like the cry of a beast with a rock tied to its body, plunging into a lake.

The carelessly rolled-up shirt sleeves were also crumpled.

“It was completed a little while ago, Your Highness.”

······In short, he looked worse than Jibril, who came home drunk at 6 a.m.

And he looked more gloomy than when the war started with the death of Yeser Venetian.

That was the worst. He was doing all sorts of things.

“A letter explaining the situation here and requesting additional reinforcements was sent to His Majesty, and a separate summary of opinions to be conveyed to the Holy See was sent to Her Highness Aurelia. As the scale of the operation has expanded from ‘infiltration’ to ‘occupation,’ a request for a quick reply was included.”

The Crown Prince gestured after hearing the Marquis’s report.

Jibril immediately noticed that his neck was empty.

“······What about the capture of the State Preceptor?”

“There’s no messenger bird from Emma yet. It seems the scale of the rebellion in the north is growing. However, the Imperial Fleet said they would deploy in a dense line as they advance south upon landing, so our soldiers are steadily advancing north as well. Combat mages are unconditionally deployed at the forefront to minimize casualties among the Imperial youths······. Jibril?”

“······Yes. That’s the strategy for now. Since it’s a search operation, not an invasion, there’s no need to sacrifice infantry unnecessarily. We’re already short-handed.”

“I see.”

As Jibril answered grumbling, the old man kindly took over the conversation.

The poor elder was making every effort to ease the current atmosphere.

The standing knights were sweating even in the January weather.

“Although State Preceptor Werner wasn’t found in the process, they succeeded in rescuing hundreds of refugees trapped in the hills and valleys. Saving so many precious lives is a blessing, isn’t it?”

“······.”

The Crown Prince was silent for a moment, then turned to his grandfather and spoke calmly.

“Please take a hundred soldiers and Francisca Atsma to Atsma Territory, Your Highness, and stabilize the situation there until His Majesty’s support arrives. The land without a leader will be unstable as well. Reconnaissance of the surrounding territories is also necessary.”

“······I will, my dear.”

“Oh! I almost forgot. Your Highness, we are also conducting a search for Lord Martier Jeirstra, as you mentioned recently. There are no clues yet, but some of our mages have seen her description in the Imperial Palace. So if she’s alive, she will show herself, and if so, we will surely be able to capture her.”

François added, marking something on the map.

Combat Priest Jeirstra was the right-hand woman of Princess Eliser, and according to Sem Baren’s testimony, she was a prisoner of Lord Baren.

If there was a rebellion in the underground prison there, it would be related to this situation in some way.

Cedrick clicked his tongue again and buried his forehead in his palm.

Then he stared intently at the fireplace placed on one side of the camp.

“······.”

······He had to move on to the next topic, but it felt like his head would break at any moment.

The old sensation of the vessel shaking entirely made him nauseous and sick to his stomach.

The terrible feeling of his soul leaking out would probably never become familiar, even until he died.

Even though he was in a position where he couldn’t be sick.

“You must have hidden a treasure in the fireplace.”

A sudden, unexpected sneer flew in. The Crown Prince’s irises trembled.

However, Jibril continued without hesitation.

“I also have a report to make. It’s about the black magic crystal ball that Palace Lord Juliette smashed.”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“I apologize, sixth cousin. But since it’s a means used by the enemy’s leader, shouldn’t we clearly reveal its function? We also need to know what potential harm it caused to the Palace Lord’s body.”

“······Harm?”

Between thick fingers, the man’s dark pupils flashed like a beast.

He seemed almost out of his mind now.

Jibril thought of a certain priest who would be drooping like seaweed by now.

He hadn’t seen her face properly in the last few days, but she might be lying on her bed, crying pathetically.

Rumors had been spreading that she had been ailing lately. After vomiting heavily after seeing ‘that book’.

“Or are you not very interested in someone you’ve already abandoned?”

“What?”

“Not trying to pick a fight with a precious person. Just curious.”

Jibril smirked and twisted his lips.

François slowly shook his head at him. It meant please stop.

But the magician had no intention of stopping here, of course.