What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 82

#082 The Knight’s Honor and a Middle-Aged Romance (6)

The exploding sphere dissipated into ashes, scattering like flower petals.

“I feel so refreshed!”

“That rascal Blanquer got what he deserved.”

“If His Majesty had faced him, he wouldn’t have been spared.”

“His Highness is truly powerful. He is, quite literally, the empire’s little sun.”

I could clearly hear the nobles’ excited chatter as they gave a standing ovation.

Several healing priests rushed towards Grand Duke Blanquer.

Lady Elisabeth retrieved her sword from the floor and approached Prince Cedric.

The Prince seemed unharmed, but it was important to check his condition just in case.

Ganael and Benjamin quickly packed their things, and Christel hurried ahead to assist the healing priests.

It seemed she was prepared for situations where clean water might be needed.

The audience fanned themselves and called for their servants one by one.

“You two should head down first.”

I said to Benjamin and Ganael.

I watched them nod and leave the tiered seating, then turned around.

Sir Johann Haynes stood quietly beside me, almost as if he weren’t even there.

“Sir Belliar.”

“‘Like a glass of lemonade with pomegranate jam and lemon slices, it was a refreshing duel.’ There were many stories to tell. It seems like today’s events will provide enough material for a month,” the old woman in the back said, closing her notebook with a ‘thud’ and smiling.

It seemed she had even figured out what I was drinking.

I smiled wryly and offered my arm to the editor of .

She seemed slightly impressed and gladly accepted my escort.

The jade-colored dress rustled softly.

Sir Haynes followed silently behind.

“How is your grandson doing?”

I asked cautiously.

According to what I heard at the Imperial Temple, Sir Belliar had a young grandson who had collapsed and was unable to open his eyes.

Her green eyes widened slightly as she looked at me, a look of surprise.

“I didn’t expect you to be curious about that.”

“I couldn’t ask during the last interview.”

She gave me a strange look in response. Her wrinkled lips seemed to be carefully choosing her words.

“He is the same as always. But the fact that a royal priest is taking such direct care…”

Her voice trailed off, and she didn’t finish her sentence.

I didn’t press further and walked down the stairs with her.

The venue was very noisy, with servants rushing to escort their masters, attendants taking care of the fainted nobles, and people discussing the duel.

I felt eyes observing me and whispering, but I stubbornly ignored them.

Turning my gaze to where the duel had taken place, I saw a pair of garnet-like, hard orange eyes looking at me.

*Good job.* I gave a casual smile, and he quickly turned his gaze away.

“His Highness the Prince listened to the Prince’s words,” Sir Belliar said, changing the subject and putting her notebook in her arms. I tried hard to come up with an answer.

“…He is a wise man. He knew there was no need for unnecessary killing.”

“Well, considering the Grand Duke’s attitude, it wouldn’t have been strange if he had died today. I knew he was a rascal, but I didn’t know he would be so arrogant in front of royalty. It seems the rumors that he acts like an emperor in his territory are true.”

She regained her usual voice and continued sarcastically.

The short staircase was coming to an end.

“I’m going to write this article choosing between two angles. Our magazine’s space is limited. One will be about His Highness the Prince receiving attention, and the other will be about Prince Yeser receiving attention.”

“…”

“Which one do you prefer, Prince?”

The old woman raised the corner of her lips and looked at me.

The small glasses perched on her nose signaled that she was still in ‘journalist mode.’

I never intended to persuade or win her over, so I simply smiled back.

Even if I persuaded her here to write an article favorable to me, it wouldn’t be a unilateral favor but ultimately a transaction.

I didn’t want to start such a difficult relationship with a journalist.

“I want to stay out of the spotlight, but… that’s for Sir Belliar to decide. As a subscriber, I have to wait.”

I stood on the ground and waited for her to come down the last step.

Sir Belliar looked at me with a twinkle in her eye.

She seemed to think I was a funny young man.

“Then, please be careful on your way back. I hope your grandson recovers soon.”

“Thank you. May blessings be upon you as well, Prince.”

Sir Belliar’s servant quickly approached and greeted her.

The two bowed politely and walked away.

Haynes and I then quickly moved to the scene.

“Your Highness, are you alright?”

He didn’t bother to answer, as if it were obvious.

His handsome face and the back of his hands were smooth without a single scratch. *Right, who am I worried about?*

Dduk-shim, who had been on my shoulder, flew to his shoulder and sat down.

“Prince Yeser, were you not injured?”

“Yes, I’m fine. There was a barrier too.”

I answered Lady Elisabeth’s question immediately.

Ganael hadn’t gone to the carriage first and was standing next to her; now that I looked, his face was paler than before the duel.

The young viscount was comforting the very startled boy.

“The Grand Duke’s condition is…”

“You bastard, you’ll live regretting that you didn’t just die today.”

I opened my mouth but stopped in shock, swallowing my breath.

Our protagonist was sitting next to Grand Duke Blanquer, who was being cared for by the healing priests, and whispering 8-bit threats [referring to the simple, pixelated graphics of older video games, implying harsh, direct insults].

It seemed she was helping not to speed up the healing, but to delay it.

Even the hand pointing with opera glasses was very unruly.

Since the Prince was openly condoning it, no one could step forward to stop Christel.

Besides, she was the only daughter of Duke Sarnese, a confidant of the Emperor.

The bloodied Grand Duke lying on the dirt groaned and opened his mouth.

“Ugh, cough… Sarnese, Lady…”

“Does it hurt? I hurt too. Seeing someone like you makes me worry about the country and gives me a headache. A kid whose blood hasn’t even dried yet only learned how to attach and detach his manners. Lady Elisabeth’s fiancé almost fainted because of you.”

Fiancé?

“Lady Sarnese, that’s enough.”

I gently placed my hand on her arm.

Only then did Christel raise her head, look at me, and smile dazzlingly.

“Oh, Prince, you’re here! I was just saying goodbye to the Grand Duke so he could go home safely.”

It seemed like she was seeing him off not just to his house, but to the afterlife…

“Let’s go to the carriage. If we stay any longer, we’ll become the nobles’ teatime snack and evening drinking snack [meaning the subject of their gossip].”

“Yes, I understand.”

She got up lightly.

As the Prince also showed signs of leaving, the healing priests rose up and bowed.

It was definitely a coincidence that the eyes of one priest and mine met.

“…”

“…”

The fiery red curly hair fluttered under the robe.

The eyes glaring at me resentfully were a clear sepia.

I was momentarily flustered by the intense emotion the woman was showing and couldn’t speak.

After missing a beat or two, I was able to remember who she was.

“Lady Blanquer. Please be careful on your way back.”

“…We will meet again, Prince Yeser.”

She was the Grand Duke’s sister, Eva Blanquer, who had tied a scarf to the hilt of his sword.

She was a beauty that anyone would be surprised by, but the look in her eyes towards me was so fierce that it couldn’t be sugarcoated with any words.

I figured she must be very upset that her brother had ended up like this.

Of course, in my opinion, it was his own fault, but as a family member, she couldn’t accept this situation well.

…I hope ‘we will meet again’ isn’t a double meaning?

“Then.”

I bowed once to the Grand Duke, who was bleeding all over, and turned away.

I didn’t feel pity for the person who threw a sword at me, but I also didn’t want Christel and the Prince’s future to be twisted because of him, so I wished him a speedy recovery.

Before I knew it, the Prince was walking ahead with his attendant David.

Christel, Ganael, Lady Elisabeth, and Sir Haynes accompanied me.

“…Are you two close?”

Huh?

I stopped for a moment.

I turned around, thinking a strange question had been asked, and Eva was turning her head away from me without any lingering feelings. She bent down again and began to check on her brother. *Did I mishear?*

“The Grand Duke’s right hand will never feel anything again. The Holy Fire burned all the way to the nerves, so it can’t be regenerated even with healing power,”

Christel explained in a very satisfied voice.

While we were heading to the carriage, the nobles stood in front of the Prince and bowed once before stepping back.

I didn’t know that the Hyegeom was so picky about people.

It was quiet when I tied a handkerchief to the hilt, but it’s almost an ego sword [a sword with a will of its own].

“All the blades stuck in his body were heated in fire, so scars and burns will remain. If he’s unlucky, he might limp.”

“You seem really happy, Lady.”

“Is it obvious? Am I smiling right now?”

“Yes, you look the happiest in the world.”

Christel laughed at my words.

It seemed like there was a slight hint of affection in her eyes as she looked at the Prince’s back.

Before I knew it, Lady Elisabeth, who had arrived in front of the two carriages we had come in, kissed Ganael on the temple and opened the door.

*They’re really close.*

“Heok!”

Ganael, who looked inside the carriage, stepped back in surprise.

Lady Elisabeth, who also looked inside in response to the boy’s reaction, also had a shocked expression.

I wondered what was going on and quickly moved my feet.

“What’s wrong, Sir Belliar?!”

My body moved before my head, and I stepped back.

The Prince, who was about to pass us by, also paused.

Sir Sarah Belliar, whom I had parted with a little while ago, was getting out of Juliet Palace’s carriage.

“Why are you coming out of there…”

“Hehehe, you could call it a middle-aged romance. I will really leave now. Your Highness, Prince.”

The elderly woman shook her white hair, bowed gracefully, and disappeared quickly.

I was momentarily stunned and stared at her back.

Her attitude and movements were so natural that none of the many nobles looked at this side suspiciously.

*No, what did she do in the imperial carriage? Shouldn’t we catch that person?*

While I was thinking that, Ganael held onto the carriage door tightly and looked inside, saying this.

“…Benjamin, what did you talk about with Sir Belliar?”

*Who?*

*

“This is a really big deal. You took an outsider in the imperial carriage, so you have to tell us everything without leaving anything out!”

-Beep beep!

Christel, sitting on my right, fired off quickly.

Dduk-shim on her lap agreed and made a loud noise.

Benjamin in the opposite seat smiled awkwardly, with Lady Elisabeth on his left and Ganael on his right.

In his hand was a colorful and pretty envelope that I had seen a few days ago.

*Wow, could ‘middle-aged romance’ really be…*

“I don’t think I need to be here.”

“Your Highness, I think so too, but it seems too difficult to leave now.”

The Prince, who was sitting on my left, leaned his arm on the window frame and complained.

Because six people were riding in a four-person carriage, it was cramped, and the Prince was tall and had long legs, so it must have been even more uncomfortable.

But the person sitting by the window was originally difficult to get in and out of.

The Prince had a lot of body heat and Christel’s body was cool, so I, who was stuck in the middle, was experiencing a temperature conflict between the left and right.

About 2 minutes ago.

Christel and Lady Elisabeth, with expressions that they had caught a huge piece of bait, kidnapped me, Ganael, and the Prince and put us in the carriage in question.

When I came to my senses, it was like this.

In an oppressive formation surrounded by five people and one animal, with a middle-aged person sitting in the center, the carriage was acting as an interrogation room in place.

David and Sir Haynes, looking bewildered, were seen outside the window.

“If you and Sir Belliar are in that kind of relationship, we won’t ask any further in that direction…”

“Lady Sarnese, that’s not it.”

Benjamin cut her off gently.

His always kind face had a troubled look, but it soon relaxed again as if he had given up.

He slowly handed me the envelope he was holding.

“Benjamin?”

“Please open it, Prince.”

He said kindly. I swallowed hard.

A thought that I shouldn’t open this carelessly and a counterargument that it would be okay since he told me to open it were clashing wildly in my head.

But if I just held it like this, a lightsaber seemed like it would come out of Christel’s sparkling eyes.

I clenched my fingertips once for no reason, then calmly took out the contents.

Soon, neatly printed letters appeared.

‘Questions from readers to the author of ‘

…Huh?