What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 804

Deus Ex Machina (4)

A terribly trembling voice leaked out.

“…That’s the first day.”

「……」

I didn’t even immediately recognize that the sound came from my own body.

It was only after a long time that I realized what it meant after speaking.

The speed at which my head recognized the sentences was excessively slow, as if a fatal error had occurred in me as a human.

“That makes sense…?”

Or something was completely broken.

【Oh my god…】

“That’s, that’s what I wrote on the first day. The day I was possessed. That morning.”

「……」

“Since when did you respect my opinion? No, before that, this is my private life. This shouldn’t… You can’t just…”

I clutched the trembling cane in my palm as if it would break.

What should I do? What do I do now? I wanted to stop thinking, but there seemed to be no way to recover the fragments pouring out of my head like a burst dam.

My hands turned red and blue as I tensed my whole body to withstand the panic.

Soon, either my hand bones would break or the cane would break; one of the two was bound to go wrong.

I raised my trembling gaze and barely looked at the three sisters.

「……」

「……」

「……」

They finally opened their eyes and deeply soaked me in their black pupils.

The goosebumps all over my body seemed to devour me as I was.

「As the precious one has said.」

「The sacred world line relies on you, the maintainer of the world.」

「It has been so since the first day of its birth. The coordinates of the ending were also designated on this day.」

“……”

Wait a minute, hold on. It was too hard to breathe to utter a simple, short word.

I staggered for a moment, closed my eyes tightly, and then opened them. Then, Jeong Eun-seo finally noticed my abnormality.

The girl made affectionate noises like, ‘Oppa, are you okay?’ ‘Oppa, should I make a chair for you with my fingers?’ and tried to support me in any way she could.

Thanks to that, I was barely able to breathe. Thanks to the existence of my sister and the baby, my brain barely whipped itself and sent out weak electrical signals.

So, I have to make a decent face…

‘Don’t get involved with the main characters, survive until the end of the war, and return home healthy!’

I have to.

‘-What is contained in your vessel is what the regent of the Lord God ruled. I know nothing about it.’

…Once, I met Nikki in a carriage heading to the Blanquer Duchy.

The moment when the guide of the sacred ark borrowed my dream to warn me.

‘-Be careful. The world is already relying on you.’

My throat kept sinking as if I was falling into a swamp.

“…The world is relying on me… So you made my wish the ‘ending’?”

「That is correct.」

“Why…? That goal has been revised several times in the middle, why didn’t you reflect that? It’s strange. It’s sloppy, this is too…”

「The goal has certainly been adjusted.」

Bozena replied like a well-oiled machine.

The six eyeballs were rolling in the air as if reading invisible data.

I now felt an emotion close to terror.

「However, only one will has not changed during that time.」

「…Content search completed.」

-Flap, flap, flap…!

-Swoosh…!

The huge notebook’s bookmark began to run through the pages again, emitting light.

I just stared blankly at the sight.

My head hurt so much that it was hard to even open my eyes.

Someone must have hit me hard in the back of the head without me knowing. And the culprit is…

-Flap…

‘∙ My (new) goals

– Try not to let my friends get hurt

– Stay healthy so that the three siblings of the Divine Kingdom can meet again

– Get information from the main characters and go home’

…It was me. The past me.

“Cough, cough! Huff, huff…!”

‘Go home’.

「There is one additional search result recorded in the Wishing Star Plate.」

「Would you like to confirm?」

【Ah, take a break! Oppa, breathe! Your throat sounds like metal, breathe. That’s right…】

The youngest, who finally shouted, carefully stroked my back with her little finger.

The child’s voice was also trembling slightly in surprise.

I tried not to be too desperate and grabbed the child’s finger.

However, perhaps because of my poor physical condition, I couldn’t feel any warmth.

No, perhaps the existence of the Lord God was originally like that.

She had a hotter heart than anyone else, but her contact with the world was as cold as a liquid crystal display.

She was an existence that only observed and did not descend.

“…Cough, confirm. Confirm…”

【Are you crazy? Why is everyone so persistent?】

-Swoosh…

As soon as the words were spoken, the eyelids of the three sisters closed, and this time, black paint gathered on top of our heads.

I couldn’t understand why I asked to see the additional search results.

However, what was certain was that my mind was demanding a perfect explanation.

A commentary that would convince me and thus completely accept the tragedy that had happened so far…

-Kugugugu…

“……”

There was the sound of an earthquake in the sky.

It was definitely a roar I had heard before.

I raised my head in a flurry and looked up at the roof of the universe.

Eun-seo’s question mark flowed down the purple Milky Way.

【Huh? Our house’s veranda… [A veranda is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch.]】

“……”

And my eyes slowly closed.

It was a space I couldn’t mistake.

The place where the grass doll that Jeong Eun-seo raised in middle school was placed as a flowerpot.

The place where my brother sometimes sat with a fishing chair and blew bubbles, squeezing out the next content of his martial arts novel…

「’Returning home’ has always been an absolute orientation. Therefore, we created the story with that as the goal.」

「However, since this had conflicting elements with the Lord God’s wishes, it was essential to set priorities…」

「A world line that has lost its maintainer was inevitably destined to collapse, but that was the maintainer’s will.」

“……”

I had never once given up on my desire to go home.

Really, not even once.

【…You’re saying you made the story flow that way because Little Oppa wanted to go home? Am I understanding this correctly?】

「Yes.」

Should I have given up at least once?

「We had to plant some threads in advance. Foreshadowing.」

「First, Werner Venetian was used to attempt murder. It was the most certain way to return the maintainer to his original world…」

「Sufficient probability was secured. The person is inherently evil and has tried to kill Yeser Venetian several times in the past.」

If I had given up for just one day…

「However, the maintainer returned to the collapsing world line.」

「There was no change in the desire to return home. Also, you became a part of the Lord God and began to exert a stronger influence on the world as a whole. Dreams and imaginations brought about even more sensational results…」

「Thus, we completely revised the ending plan. A war broke out with appropriate probability, and we devised several ways for the maintainer to return home…」

Then this wouldn’t have happened?

The voices of the past and present echoed in my ears.

Suddenly, I remembered the conversation of the three old women I heard on the northern coast of the Divine Kingdom.

‘「We’re just doing our best. To balance the scales…」’

‘「But is that really possible? Without the Lord God’s sacred blood?」’

The secret words they shared in the dark dawn, in a space where all colors were reversed…

‘「Can an impossible fate also be made into fate?」’

‘「That is our duty. Isn’t it the flow of the writing?」’

‘「Destruction is not the same as failure. Let’s prepare to accept it.」’

“…Destruction is not the same as failure…”

It came out in a dry murmur like old ink.

From the beginning, they anticipated the end of the world line and wanted to exile me from this place.

Because I, of all people, wanted it.

‘Me.’

“…Why me?”

「……」

That wasn’t the question I was trying to ask. I swear that wasn’t my true intention.

It was just that a foolish sentence popped out of my lips unconsciously.

Like a spark in a fireplace, just one of countless questions.

I stared at the three sisters with dazed eyes. A dark gaze met mine.

My whole body was boiling with a high fever.

“There must be millions of Lord Gods around the world who have read Toegye [A prominent Korean Confucian scholar of the Joseon Dynasty], so why me…”

「An answer is unnecessary.」

「The precious one already knows the reason.」

“……”

They replied with expressionless faces.

It was only after a few more seconds that I realized that thick blood was flowing under my chin.

A fishy and salty taste rushed between my lips.

At the same time as wiping the blood with my sleeve, a face came to mind.

‘The Prince shares my name… In other words, he is a sharer.’

‘Could that have influenced my worldview?’

‘Yes. I don’t know the exact principle, but names seem to be very important here.’

Yeser Losna Venetian.

The only person who shares my name across the vast continent and sea.

‘The same name as me outside the world, a particularly similar environment… Because you were born with such points, the Prince’s perception of the world seems to have become clearer.’

Yes, I knew it all along.

【Oppa, you’re bleeding. You have a nosebleed.】

“……”

【Hey, quickly lower your head and press here. That’s how it stops, quickly!】

“……”

Since I made him based on me, from the beginning, the only person who could replace him was me.

As they said, even if countless readers around the world tearfully begged and prayed for the Prince to be saved, he and I would somehow…

【Jeong Yeser!】

No, we were connected in every way.

So it had to be me.

“…Wanting to go home, a person missing their family, that’s not wrong.”

【You crazy bastard, wipe the blood!】

“Even if that’s the case… Still, your method is wrong!”

My vision was blurred, and I was about to fall straight down.

An ominous sensation of my heart pounding in all directions followed.

I tried to hold on to my mind by biting my tongue. ‘Oppa!’ Eun-seo’s cry became distant like a dream, then rushed to my ears again.

“…Because you interfere in the world and disrupt order under the pretext of giving probability… People who didn’t have to die died!”

「Who decides the justification for death?」

“At least not you! You are not gods!”

「Of course. We are merely servants sitting at the Lord God’s dream loom, crossing the warp and weft [The basic components of woven fabric].」

「Everything is God’s will.」

“……”

Blood dripped down my Adam’s apple. Now I had nothing to say.

Among the millions of Lord Gods, some would have wanted Elissa’s death, others would not have wanted Elissa’s death but would have expected it, and still others would not have wanted or expected it but would have accepted it as ‘plausible’.

‘【I didn’t know it would turn out like this, but in some ways, I think it’s right that it turned out this way. It’s really unfortunate… I feel so sorry for her.】’

…Just like Jeong Eun-seo. So theoretically, their words were correct.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players¹. The whole tragicomedy is all God’s will.

But I had no intention of admitting it.

“…Your intrusion makes our world a replica. It makes a world as vivid as Elissa’s blood thinner and flatter than a piece of paper. We could have done it well enough even if you hadn’t intervened, someday… I don’t understand, why make the real thing worse than the fake…”

「Appropriate psychological distance is necessary.」

「Recognizing it as fake will help you return home.」

“If you’re going to spout that kind of nonsense again, leave the Star Plate here and just get out, cough!”

Cough, cough! Finally, blood got caught in my throat, and I coughed.

I wiped away the blood pouring down like a shower and quickly looked up at Eun-seo.

The little girl’s big eyes were glistening with shock and guilt.

My heart felt heavy because I felt sorry for making her suffer hardships that weren’t in her fate.

I know she won’t remember anything when she wakes up…

【……】

“…Oppa is okay, Jeong Eun. This will stop soon.”

I mustered all the strength left in my body and smiled.

There was no temperature in the touching skin, but it was okay.

【It’s annoying, what is this…】

“Really. I’m not lying.”

As long as you’re okay, your brothers will be okay. It’s always been like that.

-Kooong…!

I wiped the blood from my sleeves and looked back at the three sisters.

It was at that moment.

-Kugugung…

“……”

Just like when the Star Plate suddenly appeared in the middle of the universe, this time, a figure with a pure white comet around it was rising between the dark purple star clusters.

I recognized him at a glance.

“Ah……”

Perhaps I would recognize them first in any world.

“Ms. Gain!”

For a moment, I even forgot to hold Eun-seo’s hand and ran towards her, scattering blood in all directions.

Flowing pink hair and clothes as blue as the wide sea were waiting for me. Crash—!

-Rustle!

The moment I hugged her, my arms pressed against my chest, and there was the sound of paper crumpling.

My eyes widened.

―

1) William Shakespeare’s comedy, .