What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 692

Sub Male Lead Goes on Strike-Episode 692 (692/920)

#692

Animal Crossing in Silence (1)

A few seconds of silence passed, and finally someone from our side spoke.

“Do… Do you not know me?”

It was Duke Leopold Lasso, the lord of this land.

The man had both hands raised above his head, looking around at the children, seemingly very bewildered by the current situation.

He clearly hadn’t expected to find young sentries at the end of a hidden secret passage.

Even if he didn’t know them, it seemed the situation had changed a lot while he was away from the territory.

In wartime, an entire city could disappear, so it wasn’t entirely surprising.

“Don’t know you, mister? Why should we know you?”

“I, I placed children in this passage…”

“Who are you?”

“Who do you think you are?”

“Ugh…”

The little ones sharply retorted from under their masks.

The Duke, already low on self-esteem, hunched his shoulders even more.

His beloved horse, Allison, neighed softly and rubbed its muzzle against its owner’s neck.

I heard Sant whispering, ‘Hang in there.’ It was a very cold forest.

Then, the girl at the front scanned me and widened her eyes.

“Mister, do you have wings on your back?”

Oops! I hadn’t put the two feathers away yet.

Zibril Diop sighed openly. I quickly gave a bright smile.

I mustn’t appear scary.

“…Yes. Amazing, right?”

“Liar! How can a person have wings!”

“It’s probably fake fur. He must be an actor, Coby!”

“Quiet. You’ve never even seen a play.”

“Those adults look rich. They must be wealthy.”

“I don’t know. They just look like people who ran away from the battlefield?”

Wow, hitting the nail on the head.

“But what’s hanging on the mister’s back? A puppy?”

“Isn’t it a raccoon?”

Another child asked, unable to contain their curiosity, and a wildfire-like murmur spread among the masked children.

Beyond the wariness and fear of strangers, curiosity flickered like a heat haze.

When Leah, carried on my back, yawned widely, some of the children’s eyes sparkled.

The gazes toward Titena Rofi were filled with unavoidable desires—‘Cute,’ ‘I want to see it up close,’ ‘It looks soft.’

Sensing the loosening atmosphere, Fransua quickly stepped forward.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you don’t mind, we’d like to introduce our animal friends first…”

“Stop before I shoot!”

At that moment, a girl named Coby shouted, raising her bow.

The Marquis immediately stopped in his tracks at the frosty momentum. The other masked children quickly hardened their expressions as well.

Coby seemed to be acting as the de facto leader in the absence of the ‘boss.’

Her eyes were blazing as she glared at us, and it was so scary that I swallowed hard.

Gain and I exchanged glances and simultaneously drooped our eyebrows.

What to do?

Attacking the kids was out of the question, and it seemed impossible to talk to them right now.

But being dragged before the ‘boss’ was even more troublesome.

-Clatter!

…Huh? Clatter?

“Kyaaaaaa!”

Scary!

“Huuuueok!”

“Kkeueo!”

Ugh! Startled, I grabbed the baton [leadership] from Fransua and Sant, who jumped up, and made a final sprint.

A child’s piercing scream echoed from the direction of the passage we came from.

The masked group glanced at each other at the voice that shook the mountains.

The crooked trees looked down at us and rustled together.

“S, skeletons! Skeletons are moving!”

“What? What are you saying?”

“Skeletons, they say? Over there.”

“Pin? Wasn’t that Pin’s voice just now?”

“Uhhh…!”

-Rustle!

‘There!’ Just as one child raised a finger, a pale skeleton emerged from the underground passage, pushing through the bushes.

Most would have run in the opposite direction, but it seemed some remains came this way.

The group quickly exchanged glances.

We were familiar with them, so we weren’t more surprised, but the children here were different.

And originally, people lose their words and can’t move when they receive too much shock….

“Ah…?”

-Clatter, clatterclatter

“What, what is that…”

“Coby? Coby?”

“Pin, don’t joke around.”

-Rustle, rustlerustle

Coby sharply retorted into the air, but the skeletons had already increased to three, four, five.

The remains, crawling out of the thin-branched shrubs, desperately stretched their arms towards the sky.

And finally, the bones that had escaped the shadow of the curse began to crumble into dust whenever sunlight touched them.

Sir Johann, who had been silent all along, recited a short prayer.

I felt Leah’s warmth as she hugged my neck and swallowed a sigh. The fact that the end of those who finally regained their freedom was annihilation was quite bitter.

-Clatterclatterclatter…

“S, skeletons are moving!”

Of course, it was a very different kind of bitterness for the masked children.

Life is so bizarre.

“Aaaaaah! Run away!”

“Run! Don’t stop, run to our cave!”

“Take care of the youngest ones and run! Quickly!”

“Kyaaaa!”

The middle of the forest instantly turned into a scene of chaos!

The masked girl Coby glared at us for a moment, but she decided that this wasn’t the urgent matter—very wise—and quickly issued orders.

Peeeeeep! When the child blew a whistle from under their mask, a well-organized presence was heard from the nearby bushes.

Spectator birds soared into the sky, and the little ones who rushed out in a panic began to run in one direction.

The thin voices shouted loudly and quickly faded away, and Gain lowered her arms and turned to look at me.

“Let’s run away too. Quickly!”

“Yes, yes?”

“It would be good to meet the ‘boss’ and look into the children’s situation, but we’ve only just come out of the passage, so shouldn’t we infiltrate the royal capital right away? Or find a city where we can get information? We’re commandos!”

“For once, the Pink Princess is saying something right.”

“Shut up.”

While Diop and she bickered for a moment, I hurriedly looked up at Cedrick, who was standing next to me.

The man and the tenacity sitting on the crown of his head also had agreeing eyes.

It was true that I was very worried about the children gathered without guardians.

But we were carrying out a war, and somewhere on the battlefield, there were other cavalry units sharing our operation.

Wasting time here could cause fatal damage to everyone.

Charlemagne nudged his owner’s shoulder with his snout, urging him on.

The group quickly took their heavy feet off the ground.

“Then… Let’s go.”

“The ground is rough, be careful. There are many pebbles.”

Isabel, who had scouted the retreat in advance, skillfully took the lead.

Sir Johann estimated the direction by gauging the wind direction and the position of the sun.

The shouts of the little ones, already far away, felt like a dream. I couldn’t hide my troubled heart as I looked at the scattered white bone dust.

Duke Lasso kept looking back, worried about the children of the territory, but seemed to remember his own situation as a prisoner.

His complexion was dark as he silently grabbed the reins and followed us. The soil floor, full of fallen leaves, was all damp and cool.

-Thud, thud, thud…

“……”

“Duke Lasso.”

Unable to watch any longer, I comforted him.

The Water Ongdangi [a water spirit] finally poked its head out from my arms.

The little one’s eyeball-like thing blinked transparently.

“It’s not like we’re comfortable either. But this time… we can only wish for the children’s luck. It’s really unfortunate.”

“……You speak the truth. I know it well.”

“Fortunately, none of them seemed to be in bad condition, and some of them were even wearing clothes made of monster hide. Maybe the adults who take care of them are just temporarily absent.”

“……While I was away… they must have been forcibly conscripted. I guess even those who are not healthy were all taken.”

“……”

“It must have been my mother’s order.”

His cavernous voice sank. I lost my words for a moment and looked at him.

The Duke’s downward-facing eyes reflected the light weakly.

His shiny boots were covered in mud and dust after passing through the long underground passage.

“I… I had no choice. I wanted to stay in the territory and protect the people and animals, but since I was born a royal and became a cardinal-level paladin…”

“……”

“Even Count Roseharder of the Imperial Court demanded my participation. My heart pounded so much on the day I received his letter… If I didn’t go to the battlefield, I felt like I would become the worst villain who abandoned the country…”

The man’s wet voice and eyelashes trembled. I bit my lip and looked around at my friends.

The lightning wizard next to me frowned with a ‘wake up’ expression.

“Wake up. Don’t forget you came up with this tactic.”

“……You have the same expression and words, Count.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

He cocked one eyebrow and strode forward.

I clenched my mouth, knowing that his words were a hundred times right.

Cedrick, who was walking ahead, glanced this way. Then Diop glared at me and clicked his tongue.

“That face again.”

“……What’s wrong with my face?”

-Kkia

“Since the last meeting, everyone has been talking about how you should enter politics, but that’s nonsense. How can you do politics when your thoughts are so obvious?”

“That’s very kind of you. I’ll take that as a compliment too.”

“It’s not a compliment. If you were going to be so weak-hearted just because you met some kids, you shouldn’t have made such a boast about participating in the war.”

-Kkurururu

If you think about it, everything he said was right, and you could think of it as good, stinging advice.

But maybe it was because the topic was children that I felt a little bad.

“……”

-Thud, thud, thud…

No, actually, I felt very bad.

How unsettling and sorry it is to leave those who should be protected behind.

In the end, we just left, so isn’t that enough? Why does he have to say such mean things?

I calmed my bubbling stomach and patted Ongdangi’s back.

The Ongdangi, which had grown to the size of a four-year-old, was quite heavy.

Perhaps because my ether [magical energy] was fluctuating slightly, I felt Gain, Sir Johann, Isabel (and somehow even Fransua) looking at me.

Not to mention the troublemakers.

“You’re too soft, Princess. If you’re thinking of settling down in the Empire, you’d better be tougher.”

“Hoo……”

-Kkuu……

Seeing that there was still clear light in the forest path, it didn’t seem like it was late afternoon.

I walked, only looking at my toes, thinking such thoughts.

Yeah, we barely escaped the underground, let’s not fight with our comrades.

“If you like young ones so much, just stay in the palace and watch the kids. Don’t bother wandering around.”

“Hey!”

Why you little—!

-Thwack!

“Ugh!”

Huh, before I knew it, my left wing went out first!

I was horrified and stopped dead in my tracks, Cedrick Liester’s sneer echoed lowly, and at the same time, the heads of all the group members followed the lightning bum’s body in a circular arc.

For a moment, I had the illusion that the world was turning slowly—

-Thud!

“Aha ha ha! I knew that would happen to him!”

-Kkihiu!

“Count! Are you hurt?!”

Gain and Demi grabbed their stomachs and started laughing, but I was so embarrassed that I was breaking out in a cold sweat.

As I hurriedly started running towards where Diop had fallen, Sir Johann immediately followed.

The fact that I express my emotions with my wings must not have been just something my partners said to tease me.

Oh my god, that’s why everyone grabbed my feathers when they stood next to me!

“Count, please answer me!”

Because I move without realizing it and keep hitting the person next to me! And this isn’t even the first time!

“Ugh, your hands are really….”

I thought he had fainted because he was closing his eyes and collapsing, but fortunately, he seemed fine.

I took a deep breath and approached to support him.

The wizard swept his hair back with one hand and supported his upper body by pressing the ground with the other—

-Poof!

“Huh?”

As soon as he pressed down on one spot in the fallen leaves with his palm,

-Whirly!

“Eueoeoeo?!”

-Whaaaaaaam!

The entire dirt floor heaved greatly and suddenly soared up with a net!

-Clatter!

“Damn it!”

“Crazy, Count Diop!”

He was hanging from a tree like in a movie, in the net!

“Count! Are you okay?!”

“Would you be okay if you were me? Damn it, I’m dizzy.”

‘No! Just stand there!’ Gain shouted in a clear voice, and Sant and Fransua seemed to have given similar warnings.

This was also a hundred or a thousand times right.

However, I was already too surprised to follow that advice.

An unidentified white powder was pouring down from the sky like snow, and Diop, hanging from a large tree branch, seemed to be losing consciousness for some reason.

I thought I would be fine since I had my friends, but my heart was pounding.

My body, which didn’t have much balance, swayed greatly to change direction.

The moment I barely managed to crab-walk and get into position—

-Poof, clatter!

“Oops!”

Ugh, I stepped on a trap too!

-Whirly! Whaaaaaaam!

“Eueoeoeo!”

The net that covered me in an instant wrapped around my whole body and soared up.

At the same time, a small leather pouch hanging above my head burst with a ‘pop’ and scattered white powder.

Then, the shouts of my friends and the confused voices quickly faded beyond my ears.

Just like getting a sleep endoscopy injection….