What Happens When The Second Male Lead Powers Up [EN]: Chapter 94

#094 Counterattack (2)

‘You are going to lose another connection. How pitiful.’

What could that have meant?

Did it mean the Prince would break up with Kristel? That couldn’t be.

The old man’s tone was tinged with pity.

His attitude wasn’t exaggerated, which made it all the more unsettling.

If I were from this place, I would have ignored it as the ramblings of some quack.

But this looked like a device hinting at future developments, no matter who saw it.

Regardless of the truth, that was the nuance.

Cedric turned around without much reaction and got into his carriage.

I asked the coachman for his understanding and held onto the carriage door….

-Squeak

“Why, are you nervous? It’s okay. The other bishops won’t touch you.”

I snapped out of my thoughts and picked up Demi, who was circling my feet.

Recently, Demi had become fond of ‘airplane rides’ and loved it when I lifted him high.

After a few airplane rides, he seemed satisfied and grinned.

I put the red panda on my lap and watched Leia and Perry playing tag with Stubborn, falling into thought again.

‘Are you alright? You don’t need to take it to heart too much.’

‘Do I look like I’m taking it to heart?’

The Prince, who had been looking out the window, turned his gaze to me.

His orange eyes showed no agitation.

He really had an indifferent face.

‘Fleur de Lis predicted my death.’

‘…….’

‘That old woman’s nonsense is nothing.’

‘Fleur de Lis.’ I muttered.

They were the Emperor’s direct magical advisory group, the ones who predicted the exact date of the ‘Great Monster Subjugation’ and the timing of the ‘June Gale’.

Announcing the empire’s major events was the noble and sole duty of Fleur de Lis.

It was an honorable position that only those invited by the Emperor could join, and it included high-ranking mages with a knack for foresight.

Considering that, their prophecies weren’t 100% accurate, and reversals sometimes occurred.

“They predicted your death.”

I stroked Demi and muttered.

I didn’t know when that was, but I thought it might be related to the Prince occasionally turning into Seyed.

Sir Haines had assessed his etheric state as being close to ‘fundamental depletion’.

“Prince, is something troubling you?”

It was the voice of Cardinal Aurelia Boutier. I quickly raised my head.

She had come from the First Divine Office next door, dressed in her splendid formal attire.

At her gesture, the attendants all retreated to the side room.

The bishop’s residence sparkled like a jewel under the magical lighting.

She looked a little thinner, having prepared for today’s annual prayer meeting for over a month.

I immediately rose from my seat.

“It’s nothing. Just….”

“Just?”

The Cardinal’s beige eyes followed me.

Oh, Teacher’s intuition was so quick; she noticed my mood even in the midst of this busy schedule.

I thought about making something up, but I opened my mouth honestly.

I didn’t want to deceive her, and there was nothing to gain from deceiving her.

“When the four of us went to the trading post….”

“The incident where Cedric rented the trading post just a day before, turning the Imperial City upside down.”

It even turned it upside down? I smiled bitterly and continued.

“I met a fortune teller that day. He said something ominous, but the Prince didn’t care at all. Then he said that Fleur de Lis had also predicted the Prince’s death.”

“Is that so?”

She straightened my attire. It had been a while since I wore formal attire, so it wasn’t easy to adjust.

I didn’t expect to come to the annual prayer meeting, but now it felt stranger not to be involved in the protagonists’ affairs.

Still, after today, I’ll be looking for another divine partner, both of us.

“That was when he was very young. About a year old?”

The answer came without warning. I quietly looked at her.

“His ether depletion was severe from birth. It was natural for such a prophecy to come out. Of course, we weren’t unaffected.”

So that’s how it was. My gaze unconsciously lowered.

Then the Cardinal smiled softly and cupped my cheek.

“So kind. That’s why he tries to rely on you.”

-Knock knock

At that moment, the Cardinal’s attendant, Natalie, knocked on the open door. She also bowed slightly to me.

“Your Highness, it’s time to leave. Everything is ready.”

*

-Squeak!

“Right, it’s huge.”

-Squeak, squeak!

“Yeah. It can’t be compared to the Imperial Palace Temple. If that’s an apartment playground, this is Lotte World [a large South Korean amusement park].”

Demi in my arms shook his front paws, appealing to my surprise.

I whispered answers to him every time.

Leia and Perry went back and forth, and Stubborn was nowhere to be seen.

It must have been a great sight for him too.

I tilted my head back and looked at the high ceiling.

The murals personifying the sun and moon, water and fire, wind and earth seemed to come alive.

Admiration came out on its own.

“Leia, look over there. They even prepared your favorite nap cushion.”

-Gureureu

The Empire’s Central Temple was located in the Le Haut district, the center of the Imperial City and its largest downtown area.

It was also close to the opera house and the trading post that performed .

I thought the Imperial Palace Temple, which accommodated hundreds of believers, was quite large, but now I saw that it was only a facility with the minimum requirements.

I swallowed as I watched the 2,000 bishops filling the dim Central Temple.

Even that was with them sitting at a distance.

If they were packed tightly, it seemed like it could easily hold twice as many.

A stir arose in the hall as I and the divine beasts appeared.

“Perry, come this way. It’s dangerous there because there are candles.”

-Kking

Perry, who was curious about the sacred fire that lit up the platform, cried briefly and scurried back.

The reason why I, who was not from Liester, was invited here was simple.

The bishops, curious about the divine beasts staying in the Imperial Palace, had sent the Cardinal an enormous amount of letters since a couple of months ago.

The content could be summarized in three lines.

‘Please bring the divine beasts with you. I’m turning sixty. I’ll die without Demi.’

So I attended as the children’s guardian.

“You can sit over there.”

“Thank you.”

Reaching the back of the platform, an attendant wearing a white veil guided me to my seat.

In the temple where the ceremony was held, everyone except the clergy had to wear such cloth.

I tried to ignore the gazes fixed on me and headed for the chair.

“Welcome, Your Highness.”

“…Lady Sarnese?”

There was a guest.

I didn’t recognize her at first because she covered her face with a long veil and the temple was dark.

I looked at the man sitting one space away from Kristel.

He was also wearing a white mesh, making it difficult to read his expression.

He wasn’t a formally appointed holy knight yet, so he had to cover his face like an ordinary believer.

Like a bride and groom, it looks good.

“Your Highness.”

I greeted him. I could feel a clear gaze beyond the mesh.

As I took a seat in the empty middle chair, the two men and women simultaneously let out a long breath.

“We will begin the 1048th Liester Bishop Council Annual Prayer Meeting.”

Someone’s voice echoed.

The thousands of candles that subtly lit up the hall created a solemn and mysterious atmosphere.

Cardinal Boutier, who was standing in the center of the platform, opened her mouth.

[We pray to the high Main God of the great continent.]

-Paaaa!

As her sanctuary unfolded, the room became as bright as a white night. It felt like my eyes would pop out.

-Squeak! Squeak!

No. This wasn’t a sanctuary.

“Holy Ground… Holy Territory.”

I muttered blankly.

A sanctuary was the ‘minimum’ unit of an ether circle that any proper priest could open.

Of course, deacons, who were at the bottom of the Main God Church hierarchy, often couldn’t open a sanctuary because they were still in the training stage.

However, to become a priest, one had to be able to unfold a sanctuary.

When one became a bishop, the size of the sanctuary became even larger.

A priest who rose to the rank of archbishop with the blessing of the Main God would open a second ether circle.

That was the ‘Holy Ground’ with a different level of sophistication.

While the maximum diameter of a sanctuary was 30m, the maximum diameter of a holy ground reached 100m.

My primary goal was also to awaken the holy ground.

“Oh my.”

And the third circle, the ‘Holy Territory’, was a space where only cardinal-level priests could manifest the authority of the Main God.

The maximum diameter recorded in the Bible was 500m.

“Look at this, Your Highness. The patterns of the circle are moving.”

Kristel whispered. Her fingertips pointing to the floor were tinged with gold.

I nodded and stared at Cardinal Boutier’s enchanting holy territory.

The unbroken golden curves danced and stretched in all directions like the tip of a brush painting orchids.

In some parts, they leaped into the air like dolphins, scattering light.

I laughed because it was so amazing and fun.

I learned that holy grounds and holy territories were not to be opened at any time, and indeed, there was a good reason for that.

If the ether consumption was this great, the Emperor, the Cardinal’s religious partner, would surely have sensed the flow in the Imperial Palace.

“It’s so beautiful, but it’s a shame I can’t feel the ether itself.”

“Is that so?”

“The covenant is a contract that shares a soul with only one person. Unless you open a healing circle, it’s difficult for me or His Highness the Prince to sense it.”

Kristel explained. The impressions of a holy knight sensitive to etheric flows were different.

[With the Main God’s unsparing love and abundant grace, two holy knights have finally appeared in the history of the Liester Empire.]

The Cardinal, standing in front of us, continued her prayer. Only then did I look at the faces of the believers.

The bishops were all praying with their eyes closed and their lips moving.

“Shall we pray too?”

“I don’t think I need to pray. That fortune teller grandmother told me last time.”

Kristel whispered in a playful tone. I leaned in reflexively.

“She said my impression was very good. That my energy was very clear. That I was close to the center of the world.”

“Keuk.”

I quickly covered my mouth with my sleeve.

I had been serious until a moment ago, thinking about that elder, but when I heard Kristel’s words, I suddenly leaked a laugh.

It was really a line I had heard a lot.

She smiled like a star under her dense veil. As if telling me not to have any vain worries.

“But that person is also very funny. If it’s the center of the world, it’s the center, but what is close to the center?”

I silently shrugged my shoulders.

Demi on my lap pressed down on Kristel’s leg.

It seemed like he thought she was bothering me.

“Lower your voice.”

The Prince said.

I cleared my throat slightly and turned to look at him, but I almost burst out again.

“Why are all the kids going to Your Highness?”

“I want to ask that.”

Leia, who didn’t even look at the cushion, was wrapping her tail around the Prince’s ankle.

Perry was sleeping, occupying one side of his chair.

Stubborn occasionally pecked at his epaulettes from his shoulder.

“Like the Bremen Town Musicians [a German fairy tale about a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster who set out to become musicians in the town of Bremen].”

Kristel chirped. I bit my lip tightly.

*

[First question, Chairman!]

The voice was loud. I woke up in surprise, thump!

“Ugh. I’m sorry.”

I dozed off and bumped my side hair into the Prince’s shoulder.

He seemed to have been hit by my bishop’s residence, but he didn’t openly express his dissatisfaction.

As I suddenly straightened my posture, Kristel, who had been leaning her head this way, bumped her forehead into my shoulder with a ‘kong’.

“Ouch.”

My shoulder blade hurt as if it would break. She was worthy of being the protagonist who made the monsters panic with her headbutt.

“Sss….”

Kristel wiped her saliva with the mesh hanging in front of her and straightened her body.

Before I knew it, Stubborn was curled up in her jacket pocket.

I stroked the crumpled red pandas in my arms and asked the Prince.

“Is the prayer over?”

“The sermon and confession of faith are over.”

He answered cynically. I tried hard to listen alone, yeah.

“Then now…”

[Your Highness!]

I blinked. Before I knew it, a strange archbishop was out in front of the platform.

Judging by his appearance, he seemed to be the ‘Chairman’ of the Liester Bishop Council.

As the Chairman called out to the Cardinal loudly, she in the center answered with an unwavering posture.

[I had a meeting with His Majesty Frederick in the morning regarding state affairs. After the annual prayer meeting, I will have a dinner meeting with the bishops of the Imperial Capital Archdiocese.]

I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Everyone was issuing oracles with their sanctuaries open.

Why suddenly a schedule? Are they holding a government audit with the Cardinal standing there?

[Archbishop Tourcoing!]

The Chairman called out. Then a person named Tourcoing stood up and spoke.

[What does Your Eminence the Cardinal think about the common opinion of 20 archdioceses that the investiture of His Highness Prince Cedric and Lady Kristel de Sarnese as holy knights should be brought forward to next month?]

He’s speaking very aggressively….

Wait, next month? Today is the 30th.