What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 774

The Sub-Male Lead Goes on Strike – Episode 774 (774/920)

Betrayal (13)

“…Your Majesty, forgive me, but did you say destroy?”

“It’s too late, but yes. It must be done.”

The King strode towards the perimeter of the circle. The Chief Attendant hurried to keep up.

Around the circle, white, moon-like jars were spaced at regular intervals, and Christa Ner could easily spot the nameplates erected in front of them.

They all bore the names of deceased former kings.

“But this is where Your Majesty’s ancestors rest…”

The Taesil [a chamber where the afterbirth of royalty is stored] was, literally, the place where the afterbirth of all the kings, except for the first king, was stored.

It was widely believed that the remains of Yuri Venetian were also buried here, but the royal records were lost in places, so it was not accurate.

The Chief Attendant looked at Christa Ner with a bewildered expression. She answered calmly.

“It is precisely where their afterbirth is. The tombs are all outside the royal castle, are they not?”

“…Your Majesty is right, but Duke Sneider’s forces have not yet reached this place. I fear that destroying such a noble site may bring shame upon Your Majesty in the future…”

“No. We must leave no room for hope. We must not give him any chance.”

“Your Majesty.”

Deep concern settled in the Chief Attendant’s wrinkled eyes.

The King’s sword was aimed first at her father.

The translucent mineral nameplate vaguely revealed the name of the prematurely deceased.

‘Theo Cornelia Venetian’.

“There is no guarantee that Sneider is targeting this place yet. Even if that were the case, there is a barrier that would prevent him from invading. I will risk my life to protect this place with the Royal Guard, so please, Your Majesty…”

“He knew the secrets of the royal family!”

The King, unable to listen any longer, shouted. The old man flinched.

“It took Michael years to uncover the connection between the Papal States and Sneider! With no proper evidence, not even a witness to stand in court! I have seen the Duke’s dirty money disappear like a mirage in an instant, time and time again. Do you know what happened when Michael finally found a trace of a clue?”

“…His eyes were gouged out, and he died.”

“Yes! He was brutally hanged just as he approached Sneider’s throat. He was killed in a terrible way, disguised as suicide!”

The persistent smell of blood had not stopped since earlier.

Christa Ner reflexively wiped under her nose. No blood was flowing.

Her eyes burned hotly, but no tears flowed.

Mumbling words escaped through her rough breathing.

“Even when the Vatican’s coroners examined the body, he had two eyes, but when I went to see him for the last time, his eye sockets were empty. What does that mean?”

“…”

“Wilhelmina Sneider warned me! To not provoke her any further, to pretend I didn’t see anything, no matter what I saw! If I wanted to live!”

‘Hah. Hah.’ She was out of breath as if she had been running for a long time.

Christa Ner waved her sword at the air with a flushed face. ‘Swish, whoosh!’

“…It was something that should have hurt my pride. Not only did she dare to mock the authority of the king, but she also desecrated the body of a priest enshrined in the Pantheon [a Roman temple dedicated to all gods], and thus should be held accountable for disrupting the order of the Papal States!”

“…”

“But I became the most incompetent and irresponsible coward on the continent. Is that not so?”

“…”

“The head that should be the smartest is hardened like a stone, and the body that should rest the least is lying in bed all day, saying it hurts, it hurts! I was suffering from a ridiculous disease and acting pitiful! You’ve seen it clearly with your own eyes for decades, so you know it well!”

“…”

The old man looked up at the king with compassionate eyes. Their gazes met for a long time.

“…”

The warm, watery gaze that had always cared for her with utmost devotion when she was bedridden.

For a moment, her heart stopped.

“…How did you know that?”

Christa Ner whispered like a breath. The old man did not answer.

“…I have never been with you when I met him. We were always secret lovers.”

“…”

“Even in the underground chamber of the Pantheon, I was alone. It was the day I said my last goodbye to him.”

“…”

Time seemed to have died. Her voice did not tremble.

“Michael’s eyes were empty… I asked how you knew.”

“…I know it well because I plucked them out with my own hands.”

“…”

A very strange answer came back. It was a truly bizarre sentence.

Her breathing raced erratically.

Christa Ner made a grotesque expression like someone whose facial muscles were broken.

The corners of her lips kept twitching up and down. Why?

Why?

“Why?”

“…It is as you said. It was to warn Your Majesty.”

-Thwack!

The sword pierced the old man’s body, and as it was pulled out again, blood splattered everywhere. ‘Squish!’ Christa Ner’s face was soaked with dark red blood.

At the same time, a familiar stench stung her nose as if a perfume bottle had been broken.

“…Medicine… Blood…”

Exactly, the same smell. The fragrant yet fishy smell that always lingered in her bedchamber.

The terrible smell that rose from the medicine bowl every morning.

-Thud!

“Cough…”

“…”

The Chief Attendant, with a penetrating wound in his abdomen, knelt before the King. ‘Clatter.’ The sound of a bread knife falling from his aged hand.

Christa Ner blinked slowly.

She honestly couldn’t understand how this situation was unfolding, not even a little bit.

Even though she was confident that she had regained her reason more clearly than ever before.

Why?

“…Did you put your blood in my medicine?”

“…Yes.”

“In other food too?”

“Yes, cough…”

“Why?”

The lips of the old man spilling blood, and her answer, were all devoid of reality.

As much as when she heard the news that her only son had died. No, perhaps even more so.

The Queen, her mother, closed her eyes less than ten days after giving birth to Christa Ner.

The Chief Attendant, who had witnessed the moment the baby was born, became the princess’s only nanny.

Babette Pauman was an excellent tutor, a close friend, a sister, and a mother.

So the King trusted and relied on her like family.

For over fifty years. Never once did she doubt her.

“Why? Please tell me. Why…”

“In my blood… A fruit that causes madness, cough. Fruit powder…”

“…”

“Inside my body, densely, I planted poison. To curse Your Majesty…”

“…”

“But now, now there is no way to obtain the fruit powder… Ugh…!”

‘Splatter, splatter.’ Dark clots of blood poured out like a waterfall from between her wrinkled lips.

The King frowned.

Then she smiled brightly, then frowned again, then smiled again and widened her eyes.

She still didn’t understand.

Why?

“Why?”

“I beg you like this. I implore you like this, please! Why!”

‘Whyyyyy!’ A tearing voice ripped through the space, and dragged across the blood-soaked floor.

The Chief Attendant looked up at the King with a small smile.

“…I wanted to get ahead, cough. That’s what I did…”

“…”

Christa Ner dripped blood all over her face as she looked down at the withering old woman.

She wished all of this was just a nightmare.

“Yuliter… Statia’s daughter, for the crime of serving the family of that person… Ugh.”

“…”

“Our Pauman, the Pauman family… Was always a humble family. Even though we were a proper noble family, everyone, everyone looked at us like we were plague patients…”

‘Glug.’ The sound of the old woman swallowing blood echoed.

The King was just staring blankly at her increasingly pale face.

“I, I became the Chief Attendant… Our brother, he had so many expectations…”

“…”

“But Your Majesty, while taking care of our family with utmost care, never, never gave us honor or title…”

“…”

“I could understand, I could understand. Cough, I tried to understand. Annemarie Pauman… Was a servant of the one who caused the war… Even the famous Statia family, was said to be ruined. So how could our family…”

Christa Ner blinked. Tears without warmth drew lines on her bloodied cheeks.

“…My father said so. The Pauman family had diligently served the royal family throughout the war… Please take care of them as much as they did.”

A faint smile formed on the old woman’s lips.

“Your Majesty… Took care of us enough. We were truly… Loved excessively.”

“Then why! Why, why, why, why!”

“…I, I was too greedy. I’m sorry…”

The Chief Attendant’s body, which had vomited too much blood, began to tremble.

Christa Ner stared wide-eyed at her scarred hand.

Whenever she was hit by something the King threw and got scratched, whenever new blood flowed and treatment was given again… They were always together.

Christa Ner would shed tears of guilt and caress the old woman’s wounds.

Why?

“…If you drive me crazy… Then they would give your brother a good position?”

“Yes…”

“How good of a position would they give? What if I give you the title of Duke right now?”

“Money, money… More money.”

Before she knew it, the old woman’s eyes were fading to black.

The King hurriedly knelt in front of her. The floor was already covered in red blood.

“Huh? Do you like money? Then shall I give you all the jewels I inherited?”

“Power, power… More power…”

“Do you like power? Then I’ll give you all of my Royal Guard. Will you come back to me if I do that?”

“The price, at once… Certainly…”

“Do you want to receive it right away? Then shall I put my crown on you?”

“…”

The Chief Attendant slowly raised her tilting head.

Her vision was blurred, and she seemed to be seeing things. The young princess was begging the nanny.

“Tell me it’s a lie. Tell me it was just a joke. I’ll forgive you even if you never smiled once…”

“I’m sorry…”

“…”

“There were so many days I regretted, cough, truly, many. But, if I didn’t keep, keep holding the poison…”

The fruit powder of the spirit, which had become a part of the old woman over time, had to maintain a similar concentration in her blood vessels.

Already, all of her bodily organs were dependent on the power of the divine object.

If the fruit disappeared one day, the Chief Attendant would also slowly die.

Of course, it was a fact she didn’t know when she accepted the offer.

Maybe no one knew. No one.

“Your Highness… Cough, pretend, pretend you don’t know everything… Shh. Shhh.”

“…”

The nanny pressed her finger against the princess’s bloodied lips.

In her dying eyes, there was madness, sadness, and affection festering.

“Then… It’ll be okay…”

Instead of a closing remark, a drop of blood trickled down her chin.

The old woman’s pupils widened greatly and then froze.

Christa Ner was silently looking at her for a long time.

The kneeling servant as if asking for punishment.

“…”

Then, staggering to her feet, she picked up the sword again and shattered all the jars in the Taesil.

She broke the nameplate of her father, who had left too early, and smashed the nameplates of her grandmother and great-grandmother as well.

During that time, no one could hear her screams.

But…

-Whoosh! Crash-!

“Hah, hah, hah…”

When the fierce sword energy of an 8th-grade swordsman struck the floor, nothing happened like a true nightmare.

The King realized only after struggling for dozens of minutes.

“Ah… Ahh…”

This place was entirely carved out of holy stone.

Like the famous Temple of the Boundary.

*

That afternoon.

In a corner of the Pantheon’s multipurpose room, Gain was silently glaring at Jibril Diop.

Tete, in her arms, also kept sending interesting glances.

The man, who was quietly checking his luggage, sighed, unable to bear the stinging gaze.

“…Why again?”

“Hey.”

“What.”

“What are those earrings you’re wearing? They look a bit different today?”

-Awoo?

Haa…