What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 734

Moonlight of Memphis (2)

About two hours later, we finally managed to have a normal conversation.

The sun had set, and the moon’s time had returned.

“…I lied.”

“Pardon?”

“Your Majesty?”

The seafood Tete had caught was incredibly fresh.

The rice François had gotten from the lord’s castle servants wasn’t bad at all for cooking Korean-style rice.

I diligently removed the bones from six hairtails as long as Herrit (“…Amazing. Are you from a fishing village?” “Your skills are insane, seriously. You could get paid for filleting fish bones.” “Hahaha. Thank you.”), while Cedric and Sir John endlessly refilled butter-grilled scallops, using a deadly combination of concentrated heat and enclosed air.

Sant and Isabel, as instructed by Ms. Gain, made broth with anchovies, kelp, and shiitake mushrooms, which Ms. Gain then used to boil a spicy radish soup.

So, we were all huddled together in the basement kitchen of the annex, simultaneously cooking and eating.

Dressed in ill-fitting clothes, hair half-dried, occasionally tending to our precious pets, we sat or stood wherever we could find space, munching away.

Duke Leopold Lasso, who had come down with us, was fascinated by the unfamiliar food but ate heartily.

“A lie, Your Majesty? What do you mean?”

“…How would you go to the Rose Garden? It is wartime now.”

Empress Hanan said in a somewhat rusty voice.

I, who was emptying my fourth bowl of rice with fresh grilled hairtail, looked at her with a worried expression.

The elder had opened her eyes about thirty minutes ago and hadn’t said a single word since then.

Everyone was surprised because the first thing she said was that, after looking out the window the whole time.

“Listen while you eat.”

“Yes.”

“The ‘Pope’s Document’ found here…”

Pop! A cloth doll jumped down from the window where the moonlight peeked in and walked towards my plate, patting it.

“As I said before, it records how to kill the continent’s only god.”

“…Yes.”

Clatter. All appetite vanished in an instant.

I quietly put down my spoon and pressed down on my chest once.

As soon as the Empress finished speaking, my mother’s crying face filled my vision, making me feel nauseous, as if I was about to throw up.

While I was hurriedly looking for a glass of water, my friends, who had been eating at their own pace, also stopped eating.

The divine beasts, who were sprawled out on their laps, also perked up their ears. As everyone’s eyes gathered on Empress Hanan, she continued in a calm tone.

“…It was written that Yuri Venetian, my chancellor and political rival, secretly sponsored the research.”

“…”

“Matteis Roseharder, the Pope at the time, tried to dig into his background and find evidence alone, but failed miserably. Rather, he was silenced by the cunning and treacherous Venetian. Thus, even to me, the king…”

The doll’s small back heaved.

Isabel, who could feel her soul, wore a very heartbroken expression.

Finally, Empress Hanan spoke in a trembling voice.

“He didn’t even tell me, his friend, the truth.”

“…Your Majesty.”

“Knowing that I had died in battle, he seemed to have made every effort to save Duke Lazar Riester from then on. He declared a neutral zone alone in the heart of the desert… It was also a result of ending the division of the two forces, where every day was a bloodbath.”

‘This place, this place is where the peace of the main god blooms. If you want to see blood here, you’ll have to harm me first!’

…I remembered the contents of a history book I had read at the Juliette Palace sometime.

I looked down at the doll without even breathing.

The small feet walked again towards one side of the table.

“According to what Matteis learned at the risk of his life, in order to kill the main god, her great true form must be brought to this land. To do so, you must have a ‘summoning circle’ with mighty power.”

“…”

“With greed to steal the power of God, Yuri Venetian repeated secret research and experiments… and finally found out.”

The doll’s small eyes captured the face of a round-faced young man.

“Divine object.”

“…”

It was Sant.

“If you use her power, which is the manifestation of the main god itself, in reverse, you can grab the sacred being by the scruff of the neck and pull her down.”

“Then, then…”

The priest stammered with a pale face.

The Empress looked at him as if she were recalling memories buried in the sand.

“Thus, Venetian made the fiefdom, which was once his territory, the capital of the new country, and declared to all the world that it had become the ‘vessel’ of the divine kingdom.”

“…”

“…”

My friends didn’t even clear their throats by mistake.

Soon, a sinister premonition sharpened its nails and scratched the back of our necks.

The direction Empress Hanan’s context was pointing to was only one place.

I hurriedly took out the problematic document from my bag and put it on the table.

The Crown Prince and François also bowed their heads from both sides to check the illustrations.

“Rustle!”

“Indeed…”

The four divine objects that once wandered around Venetian were pictures decorating the east, west, south, and north of the round summoning circle.

François groaned as he stared at it intently.

Even though he had examined it thoroughly in the ruined main castle, he suddenly felt a chill and a choking sensation. No way.

…No way he would have gone that far?

“The capital of the divine kingdom itself is a trap to catch and imprison God.”

“That’s absurd.”

I reflexively shook my head. No, that can’t be.

A country’s capital is a summoning circle? The entire capital?

“That’s impossible.”

“Consider it with the head of Venetian, who is like a viper. Wouldn’t that be the most ultimate way?”

The elder’s question sharply pierced my lungs. The three wizards gave their opinions in turn.

Everyone was shocked, and their faces were gradually turning pale.

“The summoning circle is activated as soon as the four divine objects enter the capital.”

“Oh, my God… The capital was a thoroughly planned city. I never even imagined such a hidden story.”

“It’s a sophisticated mixture of ancient magic and ether circles. You’d have to go through a doctoral program in the Empire to research this kind of old-fashioned magic.”

Crack! Djibril Diop, who was cracking walnuts with his bare hands, threw the nuts into his mouth.

I blankly looked back at them and hurriedly opened my mouth.

Tete twisted his tail anxiously in my arms.

“But Your Majesty, there are so many people residing in the capital. That would be the case in any country’s capital. Even if his plan is entirely feasible, so many people might lose their lives. How could…”

“Perhaps that’s why Lilianer Venetian, the former king, gave up?”

At that time, Isabel carefully spoke. We glanced up at her.

“She was so eager for victory that she only built underground tunnels for black magic. She also sent Prince Theo, who was only fifteen years old at the time, to garner the sympathy and support of all the people. But at the end of the war era, she eventually gave up everything.”

“…She abandoned her desire to become a god and chose to maintain the royal family.”

Cedric, who had his arms crossed, muttered.

Ms. Gain, who was tearing apart a stale piece of bread, also shrugged her shoulders.

“It was an extremely exhausting war for both sides, so she must have had too much to lose. Soldiers were dying. Money was being spent. The country’s economy was collapsing… Public opinion was getting worse and worse even in the Empire, so it’s obvious that the smaller Divine Kingdom was even worse. It would have been too burdensome to push the operation to the end.”

“Ah.”

At that word, a scene suddenly flashed through my mind. Like a blessing from a priest.

‘Yuliter, this is your thing!’

‘「I left everything behind that day. Beloved things, beloved people… and the desire to be forgiven.」’

The person I met in the collapsing Mankrans in the illusion.

The person who never got her hair ornament back from me.

Yuliter Statia.

‘「…Be careful of the Venetian royal family, you who are loved by the main god. Protect the divine objects of the continent.」’

‘「My mother’s ambition was so great and wide that it would even blaspheme God. Such a mind cannot easily fall asleep.」’

Lilianer Venetian’s illegitimate child.

A realization as clear as her hair flashed through my mind.

I startled and raised my head.

“…She couldn’t find the divine objects of the Divine Kingdom, so she targeted the divine objects of the Empire.”

“What?”

“Princess?”

Ms. Gain made a loud squeak.

I jumped up from my seat and pointed to the Pope’s document.

“According to Empress Hanan, all four of Venetian’s divine objects are needed to summon the main god. But the divine objects in the Divine Kingdom were either of unknown origin or could not be tamed. Think of the Ice Silkworm’s Vault, which was sunk under the sea, or the Gale’s Aegis, which was said to have cut down all challengers as the master of ‘Sosori Gorge’. Perhaps for that reason, Lilianer Venetian might have thought this: ‘What if we steal the divine objects of the Empire first?'”

“…That’s crazy. It’s a crazy story, but it’s persuasive.”

“That’s right, Young Master!”

I nodded and said solemnly.

“Yuliter Statia, Lilianer’s daughter, told me that. She told me to be careful of the Venetian royal family and to protect the divine objects of the continent.”

“What? Wait, that person is the former king’s daughter? What are you talking about?”

Thud! The lightning wizard dropped his walnut and grimaced.

Some friends who were hearing this fact for the first time were also gaping (especially Duke Lasso, who looked like his jaw would reach the floor).

But I couldn’t stop the flow of my thoughts.

To be exact, it was grabbing me by the scruff of the neck and rushing somewhere fiercely.

“Lilianer had the ancient research data left by Yuri Venetian, so as a black magician, she felt it was worth taking on a new challenge. Wouldn’t it be possible enough with the divine objects of the Empire? She must have had such a question. She could become a new god with just one war. It might have sounded like a plausible proposition to a king of a country.”

“This is really insane… Is this a country…”

“I also initially felt that the belief itself that the main god would be summoned through the summoning circle and that God would be harmed by the power given by God… was absurd…”

The storm in my head, which had been stirring up the fallen leaves, subsided like a lie, and my forehead, which had been boiling hot, became as cool as a winter window.

Beyond my mother’s faintly reflected smile like a secret….

‘Your Highness, paladins are only born in the Divine Kingdom.’

I suddenly recall the Riester Imperial Palace on a spring day.

‘I don’t know what it’s actually like, but that’s what it said in the book. ‘Priests are born anywhere on the continent. That’s because the main god looks down on humans. But paladins only open their eyes in the land of God’….’

‘Because he must defend the main god with his life.’

Teacher.

“Ah…”

Finally, I clearly understood its meaning.

Only after we went through a long war and came here.

“The main god had already foreseen it.”

Oh my god, Jung Hyun-seo. I rubbed my face and gasped.

“Angel Gong?”

“Leaving aside this vast continent, paladins are only born in the Divine Kingdom because they have to protect the main god with their lives. This is the basis of the Main God Church’s Bible, so everyone knows it. Right?”

Cough, Sant spat water out of his mouth. Ms. Gain blinked rapidly.

“…Wow, wait a minute. I’m getting goosebumps right now…”

“The Divine Kingdom foresaw a future in which its life would be threatened.”

The Crown Prince said in a low voice. I nodded like a madman.

“In order to protect herself in the future, she planted paladins in the Divine Kingdom.”