What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 84

#084 Not Exactly a Villain (2)

“Divine Beast······.”

Eva’s eyes widened like saucers as she spotted Demi.

When the red panda opened and closed its mouth threateningly, she seemed flustered and took a couple of steps back.

I quickly got up from my seat.

“Demi, it’s okay. Lady Blanquer, causing a ruckus against a priest in the temple is impious.”

I said calmly.

Eva flinched and looked up at me, then returned to her resentful expression.

“I know that too. I’m also a bishop like the Prince now. I······ I will definitely take the Prince away!”

“I think you misread your lines.”

“Ah. I will take away His Highness the Prince and the Princess!”

“Prince?”

Perhaps hearing the commotion, Benjamin and Ganael hurriedly opened the door and came out of the priest’s office.

I smiled wryly and looked at them. I was making them worry for no reason.

-Tap!

Eva, not wanting to be caught by others, quickly threw her robe over herself and started running towards the main gate.

Now that I saw it, she was wearing the heavy and luxurious formal attire of a bishop.

That outfit is not something you’d wear unless it was a special event······.

‘She’s Lady Eva Blanquer, the Young Duke’s younger sister. I heard she’s being ordained as a bishop next week.’

The voice of a noble I heard at the duel venue flashed through my mind.

It had been a week since then, so perhaps Eva had become a bishop today.

On such an auspicious day, she came to the Imperial Palace temple alone to see me?

“Ugh!”

Eva ended up tripping over her formal attire! I quickly moved my feet,

-Tak!

“······Lady Blanquer? What are you doing?”

A reliable voice rang out. Eva was startled and looked up.

A woman much taller and more mature than the girl was firmly supporting her body as she fell to the floor.

The dark green bobbed hair swayed briefly.

“Countess Mute, how are you here······.”

“His Highness informed me of an emergency.”

Lady Elizabeth smiled brightly and met my gaze.

I waved my hand lightly and smiled. Eva turned her head sharply and glared at me.

It was the first time I had actually pulled the confessional’s decoration cord.

I didn’t expect to catch such a little girl.

*

“Lady Eva Blanquer, were you aware that your actions could be considered an attack on the Liester Imperial Family?”

Eva’s face turned pale at Lady Elizabeth’s calm question.

We were sitting on one side of the empty pew, having a conversation.

To be exact, Lady Elizabeth, the commander of the Imperial Guard, was interrogating Eva, the ‘suspect’.

The temple was closed, and knights and guards came inside and blocked the entrance.

Benjamin and Ganael confirmed that I was safe twice before returning to the priest’s office.

I divided the olive leaf tea that Benjamin had specially prepared into three teacups.

A savory and subtle scent rose.

“I, that’s, why!”

“Prince Yeser is an Imperial Family priest who entered the palace to receive the Imperial Family’s confessions, and he is a guest of Romero staying at Juliet Palace. You must have realized that disrespecting the Prince is an insult to His Highness Prince Cedrick. There was also the matter of the Young Duke [the heir to a Dukedom].”

The Countess’s gray eyes sank heavily.

When the story of her older brother, Young Duke Robert Blanquer, came up, Eva finally started hiccuping.

Oh dear.

“Hic. This is strange. The Prince is a hostage, hic. My brother said that the Prince is deliberately seducing the Imperial Family members and great nobles, hic. He said.”

If I had such talent, I would have taken over the Empire a long time ago.

“Lady Blanquer, may I ask your age?”

I said as gently as possible and handed Eva a teacup.

She hurriedly drank the olive leaf tea.

When I advised her to ‘stand up, bow deeply, and swallow the tea’ [a folk remedy for hiccups], the girl obediently followed my instructions.

She doesn’t seem to have a bad nature.

“The hiccups have stopped now, right?”

“Amazing······. No, I am sixteen years old. I had my coming-of-age ceremony last week.”

Eva muttered innocently, then spoke again with a sharp face.

If she turned sixteen last week, she was practically a newborn compared to Ganael.

Moreover, perhaps because she was raised preciously, she seemed to act much younger than her peers.

I sighed briefly and exchanged glances with Lady Elizabeth.

“Lady Elizabeth, if possible, I would like to handle the Lady’s matter on my own.”

“Are you sure? Should we report to His Majesty and conduct a formal interrogation?”

“No, she’s too young.”

“She is not young; she is an adult. Do not speak like your brother!”

Eva narrowed her dark brown eyes and glared at me.

I’m experiencing all sorts of things since I possessed this body. Eunseo was gentle, and her adolescence passed quietly.

“She is an adult in age, but I say this because the Lady’s heart seems immature. It seems she cannot yet take responsibility for her actions.”

“······.”

I gestured towards the entrance with my eyes. Burly young men were standing tall like grim reapers.

The child quickly turned her face away.

“Why did you do that? I think I have the right to hear the reason.”

When I asked gently, Eva gripped the teacup in her hand as if she would break it.

Her red curly hair drooped towards the floor.

“······I already told you. It’s because I hate the Prince. I am the second child, so I cannot become the Young Duke, and I am a cousin of His Highness the Prince, so I cannot have a political marriage. But······.”

“But?”

“It seems difficult to become His Highness and the Sarnese Princess’s religious partner as well.”

I paused for a moment. Too many thoughts filled my head at once.

About a hundred words to point out formed on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them down, leaving only a few sentences.

“First of all, His Highness the Prince is twenty-four years old. He will be twenty-five soon. Even if you are not cousins, a sixteen-year-old marrying a twenty-four-year-old is, in my opinion, a bit much.”

I replied.

Cristel is also nineteen, but I decided to make an exception since a former office worker is inside her body.

She is also the Prince’s official partner.

“Isn’t sixteen an adult in the Holy Nation as well?”

“Still, it’s not okay. A twenty-four-year-old with a sixteen-year-old? That’s trash.”

Eva’s eyes widened at my words.

Lady Elizabeth, who had been silently drinking her tea, spat it out.

“Lady Elizabeth, a waterfall is flowing from your mouth.”

“Cough. I’m, I’m sorry. I······.”

The Countess babbled and took out a handkerchief to wipe her mouth and uniform.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like she was feeling unwell.

‘I am in a position to be proposed to,’ she continued. Suddenly, I couldn’t understand what she was saying.

I started to persuade Eva again.

“And I am not interested in His Highness the Prince or the Sarnese Princess’s religious partner position.”

“Liar.”

“Really. It’s not realistic in the first place. As the Lady said, I am a hostage, so which member of the Imperial Family would want to form such a relationship with someone from an enemy country? It’s the same from the Sarnese family’s perspective. There’s no reason for such a powerful family to take in a troublemaker. There are many capable archbishops in the Empire as well.”

“······Then. Then what about now? Everyone in the capital knows that the Prince went to the summer palace with His Majesty and the two Highnesses. I heard you are even in charge of the two Holy Knights’ ether support.”

Eva asked in a small voice. Hmm.

“That’s······ It’s because I am friends with the two of them. But it’s temporary,”

“I knew it. Everything starts with friendship. And then they become partners!”

The Young Lady frowned again and got angry.

I had to refute that not everything is like that, but the only cases I knew were the Cardinal and the Emperor, and Lady Antoinette Diem and the priest Mariel.

Both were cases where best friends became religious partners. Damn it.

“That, hmm. Lady Blanquer, is there a special reason why you want to succeed?”

At that moment, Lady Elizabeth, who had excellently cleaned up the spilled tea, asked.

My and Eva’s gazes turned to her at the same time.

“The Blanquer Dukedom is a wealthy family. There are also quite a few advantages to not inheriting the title. Becoming a religious partner of the Imperial Family or a great noble is by no means an easy position. I am very satisfied with my life as a Countess, but not all heirs are like me.”

It was a calm and mature tone. I quietly looked at Eva.

Eva was silent for a moment, then bit her lip once and began to speak.

“I want to have power.”

Oh.

“Just, it looked good since I was young. My mother said that the higher the position, the harder it is, but I want to go as high as possible. I also want to do well. But because I have an older brother, I cannot become the Young Duke······.”

The girl frowned terribly. My and Lady Elizabeth’s eyes intertwined meaningfully.

“Lady, perhaps after the last duel, you glared at me······.”

“Yes?”

“Because His Highness could have killed the Young Duke, but I stopped him. Were you angry that you missed the opportunity to push your brother out?”

“I, I’m not such an evil child!”

Eva’s voice grew louder. She had an incredibly wronged look on her face.

Lady Elizabeth and I were swept away by the atmosphere and immediately apologized.

I’m sorry, I’ve seen too much of the naked face of internal politics.

“Even though my brother bullies me, he is still my brother. There are many times when I am ashamed and humiliated. He will be greatly scolded by my parents when he returns to the territory soon.”

“Your brother bullies you?”

I immediately asked back. The Young Lady had a troubled look for the first time since coming here.

“It’s nothing much.”

“No, tell me. I won’t reveal it.”

-Squeak

At that moment, Demi, who had been lying silently on the floor, wagged his tail and got up, resting his paws on my leg.

He seemed bored. When I picked him up and put him on my lap, Eva stared at him intently.

Being a priest before being a noble, she seemed to find the Divine Beast fascinating.

Demi is very cute, so her favorability will probably skyrocket.

“He likes it if you give him ether [magical energy]. Imagine sprouting a flower bud on your fingertips.”

At my words, Eva hesitated and held out her small hand.

She definitely wanted to communicate with Demi, but it seemed she couldn’t say it first because of her pride.

-Saaa······

-Squeak

Near the Young Lady’s fingernails, an ether bead the size of a candy rose.

I supported Demi’s warm belly as he rose.

He pressed Eva’s golden fingers with his front paws.

“Isn’t he adorable? He also eats fruits and flowers.”

“Oh my goodness.”

Eva exclaimed purely.

It was an utterly innocent expression, unlike when she said she wanted power.

When I smiled softly, the child looked back and forth between me and Demi, then bit her lip tightly.

“It’s really nothing much. Just······ My brother just teases me for being wicked.”

“The Young Duke says that to the Lady?”

“He’s been doing that since I was four years old. You’re wicked, so you can treat the servants badly. You’re wicked, so you don’t have to apologize. You’re wicked, so if you shout, they’ll listen to everything. Like that.”

“······.”

I subtly reached behind me and grabbed Lady Elizabeth’s arm.

She looked like she was about to draw her sword and go cut down the Young Duke right away.

“Don’t your parents say anything to the Young Duke?”

I barely maintained my composure and spoke.

“My parents are always busy, so they are not that close to us siblings. But my brother is 9 years older than me, so I think he saw it properly.”

Eva said in a slightly weak voice.

The child was looking at the empty water bottle that she had poured on me a little while ago.

“I think I am wicked too.”

I gritted my teeth. How long has that bastard been brainwashing the child?

*

At that moment, Cedrick Liester and Cristel de Sarnese sat facing each other in the Romero Palace reception room.

A single sentence spread like wildfire throughout the Imperial Palace in an instant.

The Prince had never brought a strange noble into his palace.

Not even his Holy Knight teacher, Sir Johann Haynes, and the priest Sant, and even Prince Yeser Venetian, whom the Prince had personally stepped in to protect his honor, had been invited to Romero.

As a result, the Romero Palace servants were very excited.

David, the head servant, sternly scolded them, telling them not to talk nonsense and wake up from their dreams, but they were already discussing national celebrations and ceremonies from afar.

All of them were words that could only be said because they did not know the relationship between the two men and women.

“What is it that you want to say?”

The Prince asked in a low voice.

There was not even the ceremonial greeting of offering something to drink, but Cristel did not bat an eye.

David, with his quick wit, served her ‘lightly brewed coffee with ice’ and the Prince’s hot, black coffee.

Cristel opened her mouth calmly.

“I told you I came to get my handkerchief.”

“The point.”

“The Annual Prayer Meeting.”

The orange eyes opposite her shone sharply.

The protagonist raised the corners of her lips refreshingly.

“Before you go, shouldn’t we come to an agreement first?”