What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 851

If It Doesn’t Work, Make It Work (1)

“…You haven’t read it all yet, have you?”

Jeong Hyeon-seo, who had been crossing his arms, said calmly. Only then did I let out a long, heavy breath.

Even though I knew it was a situation where I absolutely couldn’t let my guard down, my brother’s words felt like a last lifeline.

Of course, I couldn’t afford to fail at ether control even at home.

Then, the youngest immediately agreed.

“That’s right. I’ve only read about half of it.”

“As you read more—in short, as your absolute amount of reading increases—the later parts will naturally become visible little by little. The squares started disappearing from the moment you started reading that file.”

My brother’s voice, pointing this out, was as calm as usual.

While trying to comfort myself with his words, I kept replaying the story I had just heard.

My heart, which had been beating normally, was now stumbling with a strange rhythm, shocked.

‘My brother’s friends, they don’t remember him.’

…Why? How?

They don’t remember me? Really? How did that happen?

“I thought so too, but no. The situation is really strange,” Eun-seo replied to my brother, hurriedly went into her room, and brought out my old cell phone and laptop, then started connecting them to the living room TV.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t find any words to say, so I just held my hands tightly together, staring at the black screen.

A TV screen empty of anything.

My dazed figure was reflected on the pitch-black panel, like a black hole that absorbed all light.

For some reason, the room felt a little chilly. For a moment, auditory stimuli, including the sounds of daily life and my family’s voices, faded away into the distance beyond my ears.

‘”Believe… Please. We are… moving towards the promised goal…”

Black eye sockets. They look like a well of unknown depth.

‘”So that we can surely reach such an ending…”

Or it looks like ink.

‘”We are mobilizing all means and methods…”

‘Cough…’

Or it’s like the darkness of the universe without a single dying star.

I recalled the situation of that day, as vivid as if it were yesterday, and clenched my fist so hard that my fingertips turned white.

I kept having bad thoughts, making it difficult to manage my expression.

I knew that my brother and Eun-seo were working hard to keep me from despairing. Above all, I had Sir Johan, who had left his precious child behind.

So, I absolutely couldn’t anticipate misfortune or be anxious without doing anything, spoiling the mood.

…Bojena.

-Woooooong!

‘You, you bastard…!’

-Kwaaaaaaa!

‘Princess! What is this, Yeseo! Yeseo…!’

“Look at this.”

I flinched. I dragged my black, sticky brain out of the mudflat of thoughts.

Eun-seo, sitting at the table, clicked the mouse, and the blocky file that had appeared on the TV screen was now moving little by little.

This time, instead of the cold, it felt like an unseasonal heat was coming.

My throat was parched, and I reflexively looked for the water cup.

The one I was drinking from earlier must be around here…

“Here it is.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Sir Johan, sitting next to me, found the cup and handed it to me before I could.

Only after I had gulped down all the remaining water did I realize that my hand was shaking terribly.

Then, the man met my gaze and smiled gently.

“It’s okay.”

“…”

“It’s okay.”

The words were repeated very slowly, and it wasn’t just comfort given out of pity.

Since it was Sir Johan who said it, not anyone else, I steeled my heart once again.

Around that time, Eun-seo’s voice rang clearly in my ears.

“Okay, here’s the part I was reading just now. Right here.”

-Click!

The guy placed the cursor on a part of the file. We read it at the same time.

‘”…But the World Tree branch is torn, Sir Christel!”

“How could this happen!”

Our pink princess immediately asked back. I held tightly to Areum’s reins, which the boy had handed me.

In the center of the sky I looked up at, there was a faint white line drawn.

It was long and distant enough that the end could not be seen.

It gave the impression of a line rather than a cloud, but its identity could not be known.

That was all.’

…Warning window. I remember.

That was probably the day the sky’s ‘warning window’ revealed its first outline.

At the time, we only thought it was an unconfirmed weather phenomenon or anomaly…

“It’s almost all visible. There shouldn’t be any problem reading it…”

“Yeah. And I’ve got the hang of it now, too. You can’t just scroll down suddenly. Then the squares below won’t disappear again. You have to read quickly but digest the content well in your head. You have to read with genuine immersion for the next squares to disappear completely.”

“Because it’s a world where the gaze of the Main God is the most important. It’s useless if you read it carelessly.”

Eun-seo and my brother exchanged words.

I was tracing the following sentences with a blank face.

‘”I felt a chill and raised my eyes. I met Ms. Gain’s eyes.”

“…”

“…”

Her expression, which could not read Hangul [Korean alphabet] at all, was full of confusion in her bright blue eyes.

For a moment, I thought it was a relief…’

…Ah. When we discovered the ‘setting book’ of the Holy Relic.

If my memory is correct, that was after we got to know each other more deeply.

However, it was a time when my brother, my mother, and my sister had not yet imagined that Toegye-gong [a renowned Korean Confucian scholar] would be involved.

And the world line began to shake in earnest from around that time.

“I’m reading diligently here like this. Then, because I’m so curious about the content behind, I scroll down once in a while. Like this… Launch!”

Swoosh—As the youngest lowered the scroll bar quite a bit, the future sentences quickly revealed themselves.

The part that was 100% squares when my brother and I saw it was definitely wearing black letters.

The stories after we parted ways.

After I returned home with my heart stabbed by Bojena’s scythe, and after Sir Johan, who didn’t miss me, accompanied me here…

“Look, it’s visible here and there. It’s a bit annoying, but if you focus on the context, you can understand the meaning.”

‘”…And on the battlefield, the light of life shines again…”

The lives of the friends who remained there.

I focused so hard that I felt the top of my head getting hot.

Of course, people’s lives continued even in a world without me.

The battlefield was stained with terrible traces, and hundreds of corpses were scattered everywhere.

Another pile of corpses piled on top of it, the shouts of the generals bursting out…

‘”But even more than that, what is grating on Frederick’s nerves is something else.

Surely there was something there…

“Wasn’t there something?”

Beautiful gold.”

“…”

“I felt a bit off from here. In the context, it seems like His Majesty Frederick forgot something, right?”

“…”

I couldn’t even breathe and counted the upper part again with my eyes.

The royal castle. The arrow of the Divine Palace was embedded in the middle of the Venetian royal castle.

The arrow that flew to the abode of the Main God and shot the six eyeballs of the three sisters was shattering the universe, falling, and finally putting an end to the Great War.

I could easily recall the golden something that had been in that place until just before.

‘[Noctilúca!]’

‘-Taang!’

‘[Repent!]’

‘-Kwarrrrr…!’

‘Wowwww…!’

…That was me.

My power. My Noctiluca.

“So I scrolled down. The atmosphere was unusual, so I didn’t go back up and kept going down… Look here.”

‘”Don’t you have anything you forgot?”

….

‘”Wait, the Divine Priest?”

“Divine… Didn’t we have a dedicated Divine Priest? Or not?”

“…”

That’s right, the man frowned.’

“…If you look, our Chris definitely has a problem with his memory, right? If it’s a dedicated Divine Priest, it’s 100% about Little Brother. But he doesn’t even know if he exists, right now.”

“…”

‘”I really don’t remember. It seems like there was someone… Didn’t you come here together?”

“…It must have been Art Ross.”

“Ah!”

Gain clapped her hands reflexively.’

“Look at this. Suddenly, they’re talking about Art.”

“…”

“…”

“And if you go down further from here…”

Eun-seo muttered in a serious voice, moving the cursor.

I thought it would be better if my sister just stopped now.

‘”…Find Johan first, … Our teacher is not someone who would go so easily.”‘

The holy relic hanging on Gain’s neck flickered for a moment in the sunlight. Cedric lowered his head stiffly, ignoring the pouring greetings of the soldiers. An inexplicable thirst arose.’

“…That’s the end. After this, it’s all squares, and even if I read ten more pages from above and go down, nothing changes.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

A terrible silence flowed. Surprisingly, it was Sir Johan Haines who opened his mouth first.

“You mean that even if you read more and go down, nothing changes…”

“It’s like this is the limit line. Below this sentence, no matter what I do, the squares never change into letters. In other parts, when I read and go down, the squares decrease as much as I read, you see? But from here, even if I read twenty pages from above and go down, it’s just all squares. Really.”

“…”

“It’s completely impossible to decipher. Of course, I don’t know how it will change after I read it all, but for now, that’s how it is. So I thought I should show you directly…”

“…”

…My friends don’t remember. The memories about me have disappeared.

‘If, in that world, you are no longer needed.’

The sentence my brother had said one day stabbed my chest again.

‘What if it’s a perfect world line even without you?’

‘My friends must be looking for me right now. There are even young children among them.’

…I had retorted like that. But maybe I was wrong that day.

‘My friends will try to get me back, and I can’t give up on my friends either.’

‘When the old woman who protects the plausibility stabbed your heart with a scythe. From then on, that place stopped relying on you.’

‘Ordinary people call that an ‘ending’.’

….

“Jeong Yae.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them. My whole face must be red by now.

I was struggling to keep from bursting out ether [magical energy] while desperately trying to hold on to my sanity, so I was on the verge of dizziness.

My heart, which didn’t hurt even when hit by the scythe, was stinging and aching as if it had been cut. Still…

“…Still, it’s right to send Sir Johan back. Eun-seo, please keep reading whenever you have time. I’m asking you.”

“…Yeah. It’s not like reading is a difficult thing… Oppa [term for older brother used by females], but I have midterms starting next week, so I might be a little busy. But I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you. Don’t… Don’t overdo it.”

I couldn’t tell if my voice was trembling or not.

My thoughts couldn’t follow each other and kept breaking off.

I took a hot breath and sat staring at my knees for a long time.

“Princess.”

“…It’s okay.”

I’m okay. I gave back the words that Sir Johan had said to me just a few minutes ago with a faint smile.

“…”

…It’s really okay. If my friends are happy, that’s all that matters.

My existence is no longer essential.

*

Meanwhile. D’Artagnan and the Moon Hunt party.

-Flutter!

“So, let’s see… Where should I go to find Gigolt Caravan Ssarai? Ssarai Ssarai. Ssarai is alive.”

“Carp, can’t you read a compass? I told you to go straight east.”

“Hold on a second. You said your compass has dirt in it and it’s going back and forth.”

“There’s no harm in being careful. Since there are no roads here, I think it’s good to have a habit of checking the map from time to time.”

When the prince took his side, Gain’s lips curled up.

Jibril Diop let out a ‘Huh.’

Just then, Herrit tapped Gain on the shoulder and pointed to a sand dune not far away.

Everyone’s eyes moved in unison.

A lonely shack that was about to collapse came into view.

‘If it doesn’t work, make it work!

The home of the genius alchemist’.

“…You’re talking nonsense.”

“Rambouillet.”

“Sorry.”