What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 687

#687

Coward and Catacomb (10)

From then on, the situation unfolded very rapidly.

-Whoosh······!

The hall was as bright as day, with no dark corners, and we were on the verge of discovering perhaps the first ‘meaningful’ clue.

Everyone began to move with busy tension.

“I’ll take charge of one-third of this place.”

“In that case, I will analyze the left third. I’ve compiled all the questions that arise, and we can share our opinions all at once, including the remaining mana traces.”

“Good. It’s decided then.”

“It’s a pity that none of us specialize in black magic crime research.”

“Such researchers usually work in the Bangsel Palace or as university professors. It’s strange that you’re even here, Marquis.”

Cedric, Francois, and Djibril Diop. The three mages decided to analyze the magic circle on the floor and divided the area among themselves.

I tore a page from my notebook for each of them and gave them a quill and a ballpoint pen each (“What is this?” “It’s called a ballpoint pen. If you press the end, an ink-covered steel ball comes out,” “The tip is glistening with oil. Why carry around such crude things instead of magical tools?” “······Give it back.”).

Then, I looked around the wide hall and shuddered once.

The non-combat personnel hadn’t been able to check it in detail yet—Sir Johan warned them not to get too close—but it was speculated that a large magic stone was embedded in the center of the magic circle.

It wasn’t sticking out, but rather firmly planted in the ground, so it might take some time to figure out its purpose and whether it was ‘activated’.

······A super-massive magic circle hidden in a secret place underground. I already felt a chill.

-Flap

“It’s okay, Areum. The circle isn’t active right now. Did it scare you?”

I diligently calmed Areumhart and the other horses, then retreated to the outskirts with the children so as not to disturb the mages.

Now we had to find something we could do on our own. For example······.

“Your Highness, would you take a look at this? It seems there are letters written on the wall.”

“Yes, Isabel.”

Just like Madame Rambouillet, who called me first.

I fed the last carrot to the timid and gentle Allison (I was worried because we were running out of food) and hurried over.

Isabel was pointing to one spot on the stone wall of the hall, where there were traces of someone scratching with a nail or a sharp stone.

Sir Johan, who had approached silently, read it with me.

“‘Living’······.”

‘Living is not living’

“······.”

The intense sentence made my heart sink.

Sant rubbed his damp palms on his armor.

I glanced at the mages examining the magic circle over there and wet my lips with my tongue.

Whoever left this phrase didn’t seem to have pencils or brushes at the time.

All the other traces nearby were also crooked, as if they had been scratching and persistently digging into the stone wall.

Ms. Gain found the following phrase right next to it.

“‘From here’······.”

No. It was more like a scream than a phrase.

‘I want to get out of here’

‘Give us sunlight’

‘We want freedom’

Each letter seemed to be screaming.

The jagged marks on the wall looked very desperate.

Like traces of deep scratches with fingernails.

I felt my shoulder blades trembling and clenched and unclenched my fists several times.

‘Locked’

‘Trapped’

Words filled with despair.

‘The Main God does not watch over the underground’

‘We are cursed by the king’

“The king’s curse······.”

“It probably refers to King Lilianer Venetian, the previous king.”

Ms. Gain frowned at my whisper.

Isabel, who had been listening quietly, also wore a serious expression.

“Could it be······. Are these the words left by the remains that ran out through the passage a little while ago?”

“Eek.”

Sant finally made a gasping sound.

Around that time, a puddle of water splashed and called the group from over there.

We left the horses to rest together and moved quickly.

There were quite long sentences scribbled haphazardly in the place the child had found, and this time, Duke Lasso also stared intently at the wall.

I thanked Ongdangi and quickly checked the contents.

‘We hid deep because we didn’t want to die’

‘But it is a life worse than death’

“‘To future generations’······.”

The letters were gradually getting bigger.

As if the voice of someone who couldn’t control their emotions was getting louder and louder.

Sir Johan read the following sentence in a low voice.

“‘We did not want to become puppets of the king’.”

Puppets.

The first thing that came to mind when I saw that word was the famous title of the previous King Lilianer.

‘The Iron-Blooded Puppeteer’.

‘So we ran away’

‘The king was crazy and we’

······The sentence after that seemed to be unfinished.

But fortunately, there was another person’s record nearby.

The writing was a mess, as if it had been carved by very angry people at different times.

Overlapping each other, unbalanced, and some were reddish as if blood had splattered, making me afraid to even touch them.

They were now shouting at the top of their lungs.

‘The monarch of the Divine Kingdom has no faith!’

‘That man betrayed the Main God!’

Whoosh! The tearing voices of the dead seemed to scratch my eardrums, and my shoulders trembled.

For a moment, I thought it was a hallucination, but surprisingly, the other friends were also frowning and cowering.

It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who felt it. But there was no time to share that feeling.

Every time I took a hurried step to the side······.

‘The war began with the invasion of Romero Riester’

Past scenes.

‘The king led us underground’

A bookshelf that no one had ever opened was being revealed.

‘She prophesied that we would become the greatest soldiers on the continent’

‘Promised that we would not rot even if we swallowed poison, would not be torn even if a storm blew, would not turn to ashes even if burned, and our hearts would not sink even if we fell into water’

‘No paladin of the Divine Kingdom will be able to defeat you’

‘And so all the foolish people believed her’

‘Glory to the Divine Kingdom! Victory to the Holy War!’

Increasingly specific records unfolded before our eyes like a revolving lantern.

‘Aaaaaah······!’ It sounded like a shout-like wind was blowing from outside the stone door on the opposite side.

The group couldn’t even talk for a while and was overwhelmed by the flow.

Duke Lasso recited in a trembling voice.

“‘Those wearing red robes’······.”

‘Came down underground with us’

‘The king praised them as great magicians’

‘It was strange, because the Divine Kingdom did not believe in magic’

‘They pushed our families, friends, daughters and sons into a huge hall’

‘This place where you are standing’

“Hiss.”

Sant stifled a scream.

Sir Johan firmly supported his shaking back.

‘In that place, the king said that you will live forever by my mercy and glorify the Divine Kingdom’

‘I will use that life as precious as a crown’

······What? I blinked blankly.

‘A thick green energy flowed from the king’s fingertips’

It felt like my breath was being choked.

‘Why is this tragedy happening to us?’

‘Young soldiers wandered around looking for their mothers and fathers’

“Gasp······.”

No, maybe I was too breathless.

‘My daughter! My son! We cried and pleaded until our throats were torn’

‘Kill me and give me back my child!’

‘Please save my family!’

‘Your Majesty, we were wrong!’

‘We truly did wrong, even if we don’t know what we did wrong!’

‘But human pleas did not reach the devil’

“Ah······.”

I grabbed and leaned on whatever I could reach. It was Ms. Gain’s arm.

My vision was blurry.

‘The blood-red robed beasts took out their staffs and waved them’

‘Magic circle!’

‘The curse began!’

The sentence was carved very grotesquely, and we couldn’t move forward for a while and froze.

The monstrously red letters looked like they were shedding tears of blood.

“Good heavens······. Could this mean······.”

“······That Lilianer Venetian was a black magician.”

I answered in a terrible voice.

Leopold Lasso pressed his lips with his trembling hands.

Sir Johan and Sant, who were from the Divine Kingdom, said nothing.

No, it was an atmosphere where no one could dare to add a word. I hurriedly turned around.

Cedric Riester, who was examining the magic circle, immediately met my gaze.

He also had an expression as if he had found an unusual clue on the floor, and Francois was resting one hand on his waist and racking his brains.

I checked the wall again with trembling eyes.

‘We watched all those processes clearly and······’

‘Now we carve it here with a heart that spits blood’

‘Lilianer Venetian murdered thousands of innocent people’

‘He took their lives to gain powerful magic, and thereby made his dead body immortal’

‘Our family became empty dolls’

“Oh my god, how could such a thing······.”

Isabel whispered in a choked voice.

‘Joy and sorrow’

‘Anger and happiness’

‘Hunger and thirst’

‘Memories and recollections’

‘None of that remains’

‘Dolls with flesh instead of cotton’

It was terrible. It was such a terrible feeling that my stomach seemed to be turning inside out.

‘Shamefully, we ran deep underground’

‘We did not stand up against the king because we knew that we too would become dolls if we did’

‘Even if we wanted to die following our family, we had to live’

‘And so we had to let future generations know’

‘The king of the Divine Kingdom is a murderer! Never believe him!’

‘That man eats the living and spits out the dead!’

‘The king is trying to cut open the Main God’s belly and steal his power!’

“Damn it, we have to break this right now!”

“Heok!”

At Diop’s sharp cry, the group gasped and returned to reality.

I hurriedly turned around and almost hit all my friends with my wings.

I’m sorry, I apologized like that and hurriedly moved my legs.

The three mages also quickly approached this way.

Their faces didn’t look any different from ours. I was panting like someone who had run several kilometers without stopping.

“Sereniteit.”

“With this magic circle, King Lilianer stole the lives of thousands of people. And he turned them into undead corpses and put them into battle. Oh my god, those skeletons from before······. They are people who could not save their families and could not escape from here, and were cursed by the king. They are people who longed for freedom all along and buried themselves in the underground cemetery.”

“In short, the king created a zombie army to win the war. He even dragged in perfectly normal people, killed them. He’s really out of his mind. Everyone here is just crazy.”

“This side isn’t in their right mind either, Pink Princess. I don’t know what a zombie is, though.”

Duke Diop said sharply, pulling out his staff.

I immediately looked at Francois.

The piece of paper in his hand was already crumpled like a rag.

“That’s exactly right, Your Highness. This magic circle was activated very recently, specifically just a few days ago. The mana traces are clearly the power of a black magician without even needing to be analyzed in detail. As you said, it is presumed to be a magic circle specialized in ‘collecting’ or ‘accumulating’ the life force by killing thousands of people······.”

“Oh my god, that can’t be.”

Even though I already knew it was true, I buried my eyes in one hand.

The Crown Prince continued calmly.

“The magic stone embedded in the very center seems to act as a kind of transmitter.”

“Transmitter?”

Ms. Gain asked back. Francois added quickly like a waterfall.

“That is also presumed to be a recently added component. To be exact, it should be seen as playing the role of a ‘multiple transceiver.’ This terrible magic circle was originally designed to steal and collect the life force located ‘inside’ the circle, and that method is actually the basis of all magic. But the magic stone planted there seems to greatly expand the range of the magic circle’s influence.”

“Then, if it expanded the range of influence······.”

Sant trailed off. It was Sir Johan who took the words.

“The soldiers who died en masse on the Heavenly Road were affected by this magic circle. Perhaps this place and that place are vertically connected.”

“Ah······.”

Thud. The priest sat down with a pale face.

Isabel and the other friends also had blank expressions.

I couldn’t speak for a long time, wondering if a person could even think of such a thing.

After several tens of seconds, Ms. Gain opened her mouth hesitantly.

“Then, then the life force obtained from those precious lives is being used here······.”

“It was sent to the airship. By Wilhelmina Schneider.”

I chewed the sentence between my teeth. Then my friends looked at me abruptly.

I made eye contact with all of them.

“This time, I’ll tell you in advance and ask for your consent.”

“······.”

“I will touch that magic stone and neutralize it, no matter what kind of terrible black magic is on it. Or I’ll borrow the Hyegeom sword hilt [a part of a sword] and break it.”

“······.”

“It’s too dangerous for you all, so I’ll do it alone. May I?”

It was a question squeezed out by enduring my own anger and tolerating my impulses.

Cedric Riester, who exchanged glances with his partner and teacher, looked back at me silently.

In his crimson eyes, a fierce storm was already brewing.

“······I will follow Juliette’s opinion.”

-Whoosh!

As soon as his words fell, I spread all six wings and shot out.

Then, without hesitation, I pressed the magic stone in the center with both hands.

-Crackle······!

-Kaaaaaaa!

“Kuh!”