What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 669

#669

Disagreement (2)

‘…That’s a unique scent.’

‘Have you smelled it before?’

A conversation once held in the Crown Princess’s tent came to mind.

Cardinal Arno Pan Roa had infiltrated the deepest parts of the Yeriho black market.

It was to find the missing Prince Consort, Werner Venetian.

It was an order from his ‘true’ lord, Grand Duchess Judith Kamingha, and Arno moved swiftly and silently as always.

And in the final moment, he succeeded in infiltrating a certain black magician’s mansion.

‘-Kukukukukugu! Kwakwakwakwakwang…!’

However, during the operation, unexpected elements intruded from all directions.

It was a great chaos that he had rarely experienced in his life.

The black market collapsed entirely, and the being sealed and abused there was freed forever.

Arno escaped the maze-like mansion without capturing the disappeared Prince Consort.

Only one trace of the underground remained in his arms upon his return.

‘I’ve definitely smelled it somewhere before. What fruit is it?’

‘It is the fruit of the divine object, ‘Ilan’s Spirit’.’

‘Good heavens. You brought such a dangerous thing into the military camp without permission?’

Upon seeing ‘Ilan,’ Elysee Venetian was greatly alarmed.

‘It’s fine as long as I seal it.’

‘No, I’ve heard that ‘Ilan’ is a fruit that drives people mad. Is there no problem with your safety?’

‘I am already a vessel that has run wild once. It’s fine as long as I have this.’

The golden circlet around his forehead suppressed the madness, so the fruit of the god that caused frenzy had no effect on the Cardinal.

So Grand Duchess Kamingha wanted Arno to continue to keep it in his custody.

The fruit itself was too dangerous, and because it contained the power of a god, destruction was fundamentally impossible—more than anything, Ilan remained the only evidence of the long-standing misdeeds in the black market.

The land was now occupied by Liester, and the day to return was distant.

‘…I swear by the moon, I’ve smelled this fragrance before. But my memory is too old to recall it.’

And the Crown Princess was certain that she knew the scent.

It would take some time before she uttered a clearer sentence.

Arno recalled the words Elysee whispered near a well one day.

‘The royal castle.’

‘….’

It was a place where commoners, who had to survive through the war, gathered in small groups to receive cold water and do winter laundry.

The Crown Princess had lit several large bonfires on the dirt ground for them.

She even personally dried the laundry with her power, which everyone praised as a sacred flame.

So it was truly surprising that Arno, who happened to be near there, heard her voice.

Elysee whispered into the air in a very small voice, as if she believed he could hear her words even from afar.

‘I remember now.’

‘I smelled the scent of Ilan deep within the royal castle when I was a child. Perhaps it was in my mother’s bedroom.’

Around that time, Arno was examining the hooves of his steed with a cold face.

The man was a rare aristocratic farrier [a craftsman who trims and shoes horses’ hooves].

No one spoke to him while he removed the horse’s shoe and carefully trimmed the hoof, and perhaps the Crown Princess knew this well and allowed him to hear her monologue.

Occasionally, the sound of villagers pounding laundry mixed loudly in his ears. ‘Thump, thwack! Thump, thwack!’

‘It means that my mother’s madness may be the result of someone’s crime.’

‘….’

‘Please tell the Grand Duke. If that is true, we must root out the sin by any means. There is no time.’

‘-Thwoom!’

“Is no one here? What does the twelfth apostle think?”

Blink. Arno awoke from his reminiscence with an indifferent face.

Wilhelmina Schneider was still staring straight at him.

The old woman’s eyes, scanning the circlet, were as dark and deep as an abyss.

Even for Arno, who had passed through a long passage of death, he could not grasp her inner thoughts.

Could the Duchess have driven the King mad over a long period of time to usurp her power?

According to the Crown Princess, most of the royal castle’s servants were already from the Schneider family.

It was a plausible scenario. She was capable of it.

“Since you possess the power to control the air, I was wondering if you had heard any stories carried by the wind.”

“Unfortunately, I know nothing. I apologize.”

The man’s ash-gray hair flowed down softly.

Those who wore robes and hid under the shadows simultaneously turned their gaze to him.

The Duchess soon wore a benevolent smile.

“I see. Well, with the black market collapsing like that, there’s no way you could have secured any remnants. And there probably weren’t many survivors…”

“….”

“The Imperial Army must also find that place troublesome.”

The Duchess gracefully adjusted her attire.

She had a relaxed and leisurely attitude that was hard to believe for a commander in the midst of chaos.

She was also the most famous non-combat personnel in the Holy Nation.

So Arno did not anticipate Wilhelmina’s next words at all.

“The byproducts of that fruit have run out, and it’s becoming difficult to care for the well-being of His Majesty the King, who resides in the royal castle.”

…What?

The Cardinal was known for being unable to read his expressions, and he succeeded in maintaining an emotionless face this time as well.

However, the flow just now was shocking.

He never imagined that Duchess Schneider would confess her sins in front of her subordinates with her own mouth.

She was not that kind of person.

Why?

“My lord. What do you mean by that…”

“Ah. The sixth apostle doesn’t know yet.”

The Duchess said, looking at Adriana, the Cardinal of earth attribute.

The paladin, even though she was in her forties, still knew how to make an innocent expression like a child.

The flowers adorning her hair were dotted with crimson red like drops of dead blood.

“To soothe the wounds of His Majesty, who lost his lover long ago, I made medicine with the extract of the Ilan fruit and offered it to him. It was for the peace of mind and body of a precious person.”

“Oh my. There was such a hidden story.”

“….”

What on earth is she thinking? Arno quietly observed the atmosphere.

Some saints seemed to be hearing this story for the first time, but there were others who didn’t even bat an eye, as if it were well-known information.

The man realized anew why Wilhelmina did not regret the death of the apostles.

They were just the biggest stepping stones.

Even if some of the stepping stones were swept away by the rapids, it did not mean that thousands and hundreds of other dense footholds would disappear. The Duchess had countless limbs.

“But it’s a shame that you don’t have any information about Ilan.”

“….”

“It would be good to dismiss the meeting slowly. Let the twelfth apostle return and take a rest.”

The Duchess said in a kind voice.

Arno bowed politely and quietly left the tent.

It was not an unusual measure, as all her subordinates always dispersed with a time difference after meeting her.

However, his head was boiling with complexity and quickly subsided.

Numerous questions chased each other’s tails above his indifferent eyes.

“….”

Is this the end?

What is the reason for revealing her desire for the Ilan fruit and her weaknesses? Wasn’t this a meeting to finally confirm the ‘tactics’?

Well, they already knew all the operations.

They were given the Heavenly Road, a terrain blessed by nature, and if they used this properly, it would not be difficult to defeat or delay the Imperial Army.

There were those who had arrived from other regions yesterday and today, so it may be that the meeting was convened to tell them separately.

However, her attitude towards the Crown Princess a few days ago clearly seemed to have ulterior motives….

Arno paused for a moment to gather his thoughts and then moved his steps.

-Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle…

-Pat, pat, pat…

In the distance, he saw someone heading towards the Crown Princess’s tent. The Cardinal quickly recognized him.

It was a common soldier who unconditionally accepted Elysee’s orders as if they were the will of God.

In an instant, he thought that he should convey the answer to her through that person.

It would probably be difficult to find evidence of the crime in the royal castle. Schneider was originally a demon who did not leave evidence.

The only evidence that the Duchess drugged the King and destroyed his mind was only her confession….

“Cough.”

Suddenly, a feeling of constriction in his heart and a hot lump poured out of his mouth.

Arno stopped walking and caught it with his bare hands.

He could see the liquid glistening red and clearly even in the twilight.

At the same time, a disgusting stench of blood hit his nose and throat.

“…Ah.”

That’s right. The constraint on his heart was up to here.

Every time he passed on Schneider’s information to the Grand Duke, his lifespan was halved, and since when, the man could not convey a single word.

If he dared to even think of doing so, the damn black magic oath would see through his inner thoughts and gnaw at his life like this.

Arno took out a handkerchief with a familiar face and wiped his mouth.

There is no way to directly inform them of the intelligence he learned today. Then how….

Pause.

‘Let the twelfth apostle return and take a rest.’

“….”

Suddenly, he had a chilling premonition.

The Cardinal, who had melted into the darkness, turned around abruptly.

A faint light was flowing out of Wilhelmina’s tent.

The shadow of someone still leaving was not visible.

His long eyes narrowed even more.

‘With the black market collapsing like that, there’s no way you could have secured any remnants.’

Could it be… Arno chewed on her words, returning to the beginning of the meeting once again.

An ominous feeling was creeping in and would not let him go.

Perhaps there was a clue he had missed.

The man’s long hair was wildly scattered in the wind of the canyon.

-Whooooosh…

‘I thought it was time for him to know how futile your dreams are, how absurd and preposterous they are….’

“….”

‘Even if you have the Grand Duke on your back, the future will not change.’

The blood-stained handkerchief stopped abruptly.

“Oh dear….”

The Cardinal slowly blinked his eyes. I see.

The fact that the Grand Duke was backing Elysee, the Crown Princess, was a story that had not yet been publicly known.

She did not publicly mingle with the Crown Princess and only focused on military aid.

However, those with keen senses and information gathering skills like Schneider could not have been unaware.

That Grand Duke was the very person who led the Crown Princess’s change….

‘Since you possess the power to control the air, I was wondering if you had heard any stories carried by the wind.’

…The fact that she was using his apostle as a double agent.

“…This is a disaster.”

Then he was as good as kicked out.

Arno’s lips twisted slightly.

*

At that moment, the Roseharder Count’s mansion was bustling with no room to set foot.

It was a crowd celebrating the last night of the Great God Descent Festival week.

No matter how much the war was going on, the scale of the event to honor the gods could not be drastically reduced.

No matter what anyone said, this was the ‘Holy Nation.’

The Count always kept the gates wide open during the Great Festival week and welcomed visits from commoner guests, especially the poor.

The manor’s workers were busy feeding and caring for the hungry and those with frozen hands and feet for two weeks. Sharing the grains and vegetables from the granary was also a big event.

Because it was already a wartime economy, the whole nation was tightening their belts. It was said that it was time for those who enjoyed it to put down what they had first.

At least, Cornelisse was taught that way.

From none other than Etzardt Roseharder, the Count of the Court himself.

“Honey, where’s the cookie basket? For the neighborhood kids!”

“Leslie took everything just now. You just take plenty of water and drinks!”

“Okay! See you in front of the main gate later!”

“I’ll take the festival decorations. Kids still like this, right?”

“Of course! They’ll probably be wearing it around their waists until next month.”

The kitchen people bubbled like a congee pot hanging on the wall for a while, and then rushed out of the hallway like a swarm of locusts that had devastated the rice paddies.

Cornelisse had never actually seen locusts, but she learned about it by listening to the servants here using such metaphors.

The girl hid in the corner of the hallway for a long time after that, and then sneaked into the kitchen like a stray cat when she really didn’t hear any signs of people.

It was to pack some of the last necessary supplies. The bag she was carrying was quite thick.

-Clatter

“Your Highness.”

“Oh my!”

The moment the child accidentally touched a small ladle, a youthful voice rang out from behind.

Cornelisse was so surprised that she jumped up from her seat.

The gaze she encountered afterwards was so confident that she soon became dazed.

A small mouth hung open.

“…Isel?”

#670