What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 864

What Happens When the Sub-Male Lead Goes on Strike – Episode 864

Some time later.

-Click!

“What the heck was that?”

Gibril Diop asked as he came out of the bathroom. Herrit stared at him, mouth agape.

“Jack-in-the-pulpit [a poisonous plant], bloodroot, water hemlock, mayapple,” Yeseo Fenetian replied casually, eyes fixed on a notebook as he sat on the sofa.

Gibril shook his head inwardly, drying his wet hair with a towel.

He had expected it ever since he had told the Divine Beasts about the appearance of each plant and asked them to cultivate them…

“Ah, and I think I added a little bit of *Farfugium japonicum* [leopard plant] and Nomame beans.”

“Ha.”

Such poisonous plants were rarely heard of in the Empire.

He was aware of the various ‘difficulties’ the Prince had faced in the royal castle, but he never imagined that he would vividly incorporate his experiences into such a thing and catch perfectly healthy knights.

The man looked down at Perry, who had been scrubbed and dried until his fur was fluffy.

‘Squeak!’ The little one was busy exacting his revenge, biting the magician’s shin for throwing him into the water without permission.

How prickly, but what an amazing opera actor.

This time, the royal family member asked the imperial family member.

“Was the antidote you took beforehand effective?”

“You ask that now? I’m so grateful I could cry.”

“I’m glad it worked.”

-Squeak

Demi approached the Prince and held out his front paw.

He shook hands with the sacred being and quietly expressed his gratitude for the cooperation.

Around that time, Benjamin hurriedly approached Gibril and helped him into his gown, and Herrit finally blinked.

The Prince naturally received his attendants’ service and turned to look at the sofa.

“…There shouldn’t be any need to clean up corpses. It’ll be a headache if an accident occurs that the imperial elders might get involved in.”

“I’ve properly adjusted the dosage, so don’t worry. More importantly…”

The Prince smiled faintly and glanced at the magician.

“You’re quite patriotic, aren’t you, Prince? There’s a reason His Majesty is actively employing you.”

“Why does everyone act like I’ve been given a public office as soon as they see me? The meddling is so severe it doesn’t even discriminate against origins.”

“Hehehe.”

The priest chuckled pleasantly and looked at the notebook again.

Gibril narrowed his eyes for a moment and had a random, nonsensical thought.

Like, with that appearance…

‘Be careful!’

‘Ah, ah! Won’t you let go of this?’

‘What did you do so well to talk back—’

…It would have been quite a sight to see him acting picky with that appearance.

-Knock knock!

He flinched. The man snapped out of his reverie in an instant.

As he suddenly fiddled with his amethyst earring, Ganael opened the living room door and entered.

Herrit was overjoyed and stood up from his seat, receiving the young page’s refreshment plate.

“Your Highness, it seems that His Highness Cedric and Lord Rambouillet have safely entered the labyrinth. I received information from the servants cleaning the basement that there was a commotion a little while ago due to an intruder on the lower floor. However, many knights are avoiding giving testimony, so the related investigation is being delayed…”

“That’s good. Thank you.”

The purple eyes, answering gently, were sinking darkly.

Gibril scoffed, seeing him reveal something that could be called emotion for the first time.

“If you’re so worried, why didn’t you go with them?”

“…He doesn’t need my help.”

“I heard that the labyrinth is a maze that only accepts one person at a time. I wonder how those two will cope.”

“It’s already out of our hands. Worrying about them from the outside won’t change anything.”

The Prince slowly lowered his gaze and looked at the notebook.

Labyrinthos. Since the tragedy there, this notebook has not been used as often as before.

There were quite a few notes written by the diligent student ‘Jeong Yeseo’ about that he had studied at home.

After returning to his original self, he chose to talk directly with his friends and confront them, rather than secretly recording and organizing something.

He recklessly threw himself into reckless operations and revealed his emotions more sincerely.

Seeing him act so unreservedly, in a way that was incomparable to when he borrowed the Prince’s body, sometimes made him laugh.

…He cherished ‘Yeseo Fenetian’ very much.

Even though he had never spent a single day with him.

“…If we can safely pass the guardian spirit’s test, then…”

The Prince whispered, stroking the notebook.

Herrit, who was quietly watching him, picked up a tulip cookie and handed it to him.

“…You can get him back. You.”

‘Crunch.’ The man bit into the cookie and smiled softly.

The light of the new morning was coming in through the large, elongated window of the Papal State.

*

By the time Sunday finally arrived, it was truly chaotic.

I was nervous for no reason, my fingertips kept tingling, and my heart was pounding.

No, how? How did the weekend already pass? Is this even possible?

Is the ‘time dilation’ that Eunseo always talked about while watching movies, the special theory of relativity, this kind of concept?

Everyone seemed calm, but only my time seemed to be flowing too fast.

No, it was definitely flowing fast.

“…Eunseo, should we eat and then I’ll continue?”

It was a natural thing. Because tomorrow was the opening day of the Canaries’ ‘Greatest Fanfiction Contest on Earth!’

“No? I’ll keep doing it. It’s not a difficult task and it’s manageable.”

“Really? That’s a relief… Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, not at all. Ah! If I win an award in the contest, buy me pumpkin rice cakes.”

She said, diligently mixing the extra-large bowl of *jajangmyeon* [black bean noodles] she had ordered.

I mumbled through my extra-large bowl of *jjambong* [spicy seafood noodle soup] and nodded diligently.

I could pay for the pumpkin rice cakes right after eating, but winning an award…

I had never even dreamed of such glory.

First of all, winning an award isn’t the goal.

“Ah, it tastes better when I eat while working. But was the large-sized sweet and sour pork always this small?”

“It’s because it’s being compared to the large-sized cream shrimp.”

“Oh, that makes sense. The cream shrimp is crispy! The boss fried it right before sending it, really. Uncle Yohan, you should try it too. Cream shrimp is the truth with *jjambong*.”

…Our ultimate goal is to secure as many readers as possible, that is, as many ‘gods’ as possible who will stay in that world line.

Only then will their wishes build a bridge connecting the two world lines.

No, if a bridge is too difficult, it’s fine if they just give us the coordinates.

No, if even coordinates are difficult, then just…

‘An unexpected error occurred and the file could not be copied.’

‘Error 3BOZHENA01:’

‘The requested operation could not be performed due to a lack of plausibility.’

…The error message I saw that day is still vivid.

“…”

“But little brother, why is the folder name still ‘New Folder’?”

…I don’t know if you’ll like it, but I’ll tell you a never-ending story.

So please, please…

“…If you give me a new plausibility.”

Then I’ll somehow manage the rest. I promise.

“What? Why not as the fanfic title?”

“I thought the title hadn’t been decided yet.”

“You don’t mean to say that you haven’t fixed the most important thing when tomorrow is the contest.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…Jeong Yeseo.”

Slurp. I sucked up the spicy, hot *jjambong* noodles and steeled my resolve.

Okay. Don’t be intimidated, Jeong Yeseo. You can do it. Of course, I have so many reliable allies…

“Jeong Yeseo.”

“…Huh? Sorry, I didn’t hear you because I was spacing out.”

Then my brother looked at me with a serious expression.

I crunched on a yellow pickled radish and faced him. What’s wrong?

“You haven’t decided on a title?”

“Huh? What title.”

“The title of the work you’re submitting to the contest tomorrow. The title of that story that disguised the story of the great world line as fanfiction.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

I blankly put down my chopsticks and looked back at my siblings and Lord Yohan.

But everyone was just watching me and didn’t give me any answers (not even Lord Yohan).

Wait a minute…

“…Does fanfiction need a title? I made a note to search for the original title and put tags at the top and set the category…”

“Hey, you! You’ve never read fanfiction before, have you!”

“Aigo! Idiot! Do you have *jjambong* noodles instead of brains in your head!”

The dining table exploded as it was!

“This brother of mine doesn’t know the first thing about fanfiction, how is he going to serialize a long story! Ah—! We’re all really screwed!”

“Sorry, I was so focused on the manuscript that I didn’t think deeply about other parts. Shouldn’t the title just be easy to read? There’s still time left, like …”

“I’m not curious at all! Sorry, but the content seems really obvious!”

“You really don’t know anything about the web novel world…”

“Seriously, this is also a talent, not thinking about the title until the day before the serialization starts is also a talent! Jeong Yeseo. Forget about saving up today and start thinking about the title.”

‘No snacks until you come up with an eye-catching title. Starve!’ Jeong Eunseo, who was excited to the point of blowing steam from her nose, snapped fiercely.

I hunched my shoulders and nodded.

Lord Yohan, who gave me a pitiful look, put a serving of fried dumplings on my plate as a sign of encouragement.

Thank you…

“…I’ll try my best to come up with a title.”

“Hey, don’t try too hard. I’m already scared of what kind of modern literature will come out.”

Ugh. Jeong Hyunseo threw the last punch.

The tension from the day before the serialization disappeared like a lie, and now all that remained for me was the pressure to come up with a proper title.

I was cornered in an instant.

“…I can do it. I can do it.”

Yeah, summary… If I summarize our story roughly and make it a sensational title, that’ll work.

Like picking a newspaper headline!

*

“…I should have plucked his head like a radish.”

-Thud!

‘That damn guardian spirit.’ Gain muttered as if cursing, sprawled out on top of the black World Tree root.

Cedric barely stood, supporting himself with the scabbard of the Hyegeom.

For a while, only the heavy breathing of the two people lingered in the dark labyrinth.

Sweat was pouring down their foreheads and cheeks like rain, and their necks and backs were already soaked.

How many hours has it been already… Bullshit. This is definitely not in ‘hours’.

“Your Highness, did you bring your pocket watch? How much time has passed roughly?”

“It’s been broken for a long time.”

“Ah… Because it’s a mana stone watch. Haa…”

What they could know without saying it to each other was that it felt like it had been well over a day since they entered the labyrinth.

Maybe two days, or three… If they were terribly unlucky, maybe four?

Honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising if it was five or six days.

Frankly, I had a dirty feeling that it had been a week.

“Aigo… I’m so hungry I could die, and I’m going crazy from not being able to sleep. Seeing our condition like this, it’s clear that it’s been a long time since we came in. Personally, I’d say at least a week.”

“I agree.”

“But is the labyrinth originally this long? I remember you came out faster than this back then?”

Gain asked, wiping the sweat from her temples with her damp sleeve.

Instead of giving a clear answer, Cedric aimed his glaring gaze into the darkness.

As she said, the maze was excessively long.

No matter how much it was a space that lived and moved according to the will of the World Tree, the guardian spirit’s test was excessive this time.

Moreover, it was so dark on all sides without a single point of light that they were on the verge of feeling a primal fear that they might lose their eyesight.

On the other hand, the guardian spirit’s illusions mostly presented a fixed repertoire, and only gave them hardships that they could endure.

“…”

For example, his father. Gain’s sister.

There were times when her bloody father, who had died in a car accident, appeared.

“Agh… Honestly, if my dad comes out one more time, I’m really going to get pissed off and pass out. I’ve been forgetting about it all along, but how did you dig up those memories again… Ha…”

-Kkiwoo…

Gain muttered curses and buried her face in her palms.

It was a sentence disguised as anger, but through the connection of the vessel, Cedric realized that she was very tired.

His condition was not much different.

Cutting down his father, who was covered in blood and dying, while asserting that he was ‘fake’ gave him a heart-wrenching pain each time he repeated it.

It was exhausting. So now…

「Gain.」

He flinched.

「Crown Prince.」

It was then.

「I… I… Please… Save me…」

From the far end of the distant cave, a man as pale as a corpse staggered out.

Gain and Cedric’s pupils dilated at the same time.

「I… I, cough… It hurts so much… It hurts…」

It was ‘Jeong Yeseo’, bleeding all over from being stabbed by a sickle.

-Clatter!

The sword fell from his strong hand.