What Happens When the Second Male Lead Powers Up

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – A person’s crash landing (2)

I repeated my name, ‘Jung Jesse’ in my mind.

“Your highness?”

Benjamin and the attendants looked toward me. I stood there forgetting what I was going to say.

A fictional character whose name is the same as mine that I know about…

There was only Jesse Venetiaan.

“Ah……”

Everything suddenly turned white, and I got a headache.

I felt as if all of the blood was rushing out of my head.

“Your highness!”

“Are you okay, your highness?”

The young attendants became anxious as Benjamin shouted in shock.

I barely managed to support myself using the armrest of the couch.

I slowly sat down and looked up and noticed that the dizziness went away and I could see clearly again.

I first needed some time to organize my thoughts.

I looked at the concerned faces and smiled as if it was nothing.

“I think that trip really did take a toll. May I be alone for a bit?”

*

“No wonder.”

I couldn’t help but talk to myself as I sat there. No wonder it looked so familiar.

This was not my first time looking at Jesse Venetiaan. Eunse had shown me so much fan art of this guy.

“Excuse me?”

A young attendant who brought my bag for me looked at me with his eyes opened wide.

It was part of the stuff that the owner of this body, Jesse Venetiaan, had brought from the Holy Kingdom.

I felt sorry for making the kid shocked and told him that it was nothing and to go rest as gently as possible.

I watched the boy close the door before sitting on the ground and unpacking my things.

“……How can he come so empty-handed?”

‘Well, he wouldn’t bring a gift when he was coming as a diplomatic hostage and there was no need to pack a lot of things since the people here were taking care of everything including his outfits, but really? Did he have to pack so lightly?’

I even looked in the small pockets of the bag, but all I found in the prince’s stuff was a small notebook, and a few pairs of clothes he must have worn on his way over.

There were no weapons, treasures, money, nor anything.

Or maybe the Empress already took it all.

“Aigoo.”

I sat there with my legs crossed and opened the notebook.

I hoped that he wrote some things on his way here, but unfortunately, there wasn’t a single drop of ink on the notebook.

‘This lazy little punk.’

I went and shined some light on it, thinking that there might be some magic spells I didn’t know about.

That did absolutely nothing.

“I guess he’s pretty chill about everything.”

I made a short observation about the prince before returning to the first page of the notebook.

I needed paper to write down the things I knew anyway, so I might as well write it down in here and keep it with me.

I sat down on the table and awkwardly picked up the quill pen.

Some black liquid came out once I pushed the pen against the notebook.

I wrote the name of the novel I came into on top.

.

I took a deep breath as I felt like my hand was shaking.

“Jung Eunse, what the hell did you do……”

I mumbled my sister’s name as I started writing down everything I remembered.

‘I quit my job and ended up as a noble young lady in another world’ aka ‘QNW.’ It was a bestseller romantic fantasy novel that was extremely popular in Korea.

The romantic fantasy genre is called ‘RF’ for short but QNW pretty much rewrote the history of RFs and was a super extra mega-hit series that continued to achieve new record sales day after day.

QNW was number 1 in the RF category on any platform with web novels, and it naturally took the top spot in the live, daily, weekly, and monthly best charts.

Even people who did not read RFs knew about the QNW title and its cover image.

As the first-ever novel in the RF world to reach the unprecedented height of being a million-seller, it quickly expanded into other mediums.

Its webtoon was the start, and it was so popular that Korea’s top webtoon platform server went down before the first chapter was released.

There were even talks about an animated series with a significantly high monetary investment.

The QNW drama CD filled with major pop stars sold out two minutes after it started taking pre-orders, and the fans complained so much that they had to increase the production by 300%.

They even took top actors and recently recorded an audiobook, which was where QNW’s official OST was included.

The MC’s theme song was sung by a popular idol, and it easily reached the top position on the music charts.

How do I know about all of this?

“I don’t know whether I should be thankful or upset about this.”

My younger sister, Jung Eunse (age 20, college student), is an obsessed fan of this work.

Obsessed might not be strong enough of a term for her, but anyway…

QNW came out the year Eunse turned 19, so about January last year.

For Eunse, who was on the edge about being a senior in high school in March, QNW was a place for her to escape.

QNW was her source of relief when she failed her practice test in June, and she claimed QNW gave her the strength to do well when she did fabulous on her practice test in September.

When she hit the jackpot with the college admissions test? I don’t even need to say anything.

‘My life is a total novel. I mean it. How do I live when it ends?’

Eunse is nine years younger than me and twelve years younger than my older brother.

My brother and I raised our youngest sister as if she was our daughter, and Eunse’s storm-like QNW love swept us up like the numerous people handing out flyers for gyms on the street.

After I registered for my college courses, I had to keep the server open to pre-order the drama CD while my brother, who works at home, was tasked with the QNW OST.

Eunse strongly emphasized that we needed to help get the streaming count up.

QNW was always a topic when we three siblings sat down to eat together.

Eunse would analyze the contents of the daily chapter and even give almost a thesis about why the second male lead, ‘Jesse Venetiaan,’ should be the main lead.

‘Crapdric is no good. He sinned against our Christelle again. (TL: Author’s spelling, not mine. I do not agree but I will stick with it) She’s meant to be with Jesse.’

It was really awkward to hear Eunse talk about a character with the same name as me at first.

But, as with all things, I eventually got used to it. He was just a character in a novel, anyway.

‘Is the male lead’s name Crapdric?’

‘Ah, hyung. You asked that last time too.’

‘The fans call him Crapdric because his actions are really crappy.’ (TL: The Korean has it as a pun for trash, but the name doesn’t do the pun the same way in English so Crapdric it is.)

Eunse had asked my brother and me to read QNW multiple times.

My brother quit after reading about half of it, saying that it wasn’t his kind of novel and Eunse was disappointed but didn’t push him further.

As for me, last year I was busy quitting one job and applying for new jobs.

Once I got hired, I needed time to get adjusted to the job.

I couldn’t even read the three or four web novels I was reading.

Eunse knew my situation and didn’t ask me to read it, and by the time she got into college, the QNW stuff slowly died down.

My brother often said that he enjoyed Eunse talking about QNW more than QNW itself.

I’ve never read QNW myself, but I always agreed with him.

That’s right.

I was not a reader of QNW.

‘Damn it.’

“How can I get transported into a book I didn’t even read?”

I could only scoff in disbelief.

But now that I know I am Jesse Venetiaan, I guess I can imagine why I’ve been transported into this body.

Eunse had been crying her eyes out after reading yesterday’s chapter.

She talked about how she felt numb, how she was going to send a letter to the author, and caused all sorts of ruckus before saying she was going to sleep first and think about it in the morning. She went into her room before it was even 10 pm.

Jesse Venetiaan had died in the latest chapter.

“Is it a body possession and a regression?”

Seeing as how a dead guy was still alive, someone must have sent me to the past to save this punk.

The reason someone random like me instead of a reader was transported probably has to do with my sister Eunse.

‘Wait a minute. Wouldn’t it be better for someone like Eunse who knows every detail inside and out to be here instead? Why did I get sent here?’

Eunse was a fierce and independent girl.

She would take care of things like this on her own instead of leaving it for my brother or me.

Then Eunse’s sadness might be the reason for my coming here, but is there someone else who actually sent me here?

“……There’s just no way to know.”

It seemed more complicated the more I thought about it.

I decided to slowly do what I can for now and learn things one by one.

I put my name, well, the name I would be called in this place, down on the notebook.

I recorded the few things I knew as well.

– Jesse Venetiaan

The body I am possessing. The second male lead of QNW. Prince of the Holy Kingdom.

Reasons unknown as to why I have been sent here as a diplomatic hostage and imprisoned inside Juliette Palace.

Dies in a war in the future protecting the Imperial Crown Prince.

I then wrote the MC’s name underneath it. ‘Christelle’……

“What was her family name again? Sarcoji?”

‘No, that’s not it. I don’t think that’s right.’

It wasn’t easy to remember her family name because Eunse usually just called her, ‘our child’ or ‘our Chris.’

– Christelle

The MC of QNW. Has long wavy pink hair and sky-blue eyes. Cute personality.

A woman who quit her job ended up waking up as Christelle.

The fact that she is called a young lady must mean that she is the daughter of a noble household.

I remembered her hair and eye colors because I frequently saw QNW’s cover.

I remembered the face of the man who was frequently holding her by the waist and protecting her from the side as well.

“What was Crapdric’s real name again?”

‘What was the male lead’s name…’

It was a cool name fitting a male lead, but I couldn’t remember since my sister just called him Crapdric all the time.

‘I do know it starts with a C.’

– Crapdric

The male lead of QNW. The Empire’s Imperial Crown Prince. Black hair and red eyes.

Significant height difference with Christelle.

I believe he is a sword master.

His personality is said to be shit.

I could remember that the male lead was the Imperial Crown Prince since Eunse was always like, ‘that punk is supposed to be the Imperial Crown Prince but he……’ and complained a lot.

I’m disappointed that I’m in this world without having read the novel, but I’m relieved that I have my sister’s ramblings to work off of.

I hope I keep remembering things I heard from her.

I then wrote down anything that came to mind.

The things my sister said last night while crying, the things she said last week, and even things she talked about when we went out to eat last month.

It was smarter to jot them down now while I remembered them, since I might mix things up or forget them in the future.

Writing it down made it easier to memorize as well.

I filled a good number of pages before noticing that the sun was all the way up.

I wrote down the last topic.

– My goal.

If my suspicions were correct, I was transported to the past in this body so that I can save this guy from dying on the battlefield in the future.

There’s only one way to save a punk who is supposed to die. Don’t participate at all.

There’s only one way for a guy who is supposed to die in the Imperial Crown Prince’s place to live as well. Don’t get involved with the Imperial Crown Prince.

There should be many ways not to get involved with the Imperial Crown Prince, but in this novel, the core of the matter was that the Imperial Crown Prince and I were rivals for the same woman’s heart.

Eunse said that Jesse Venetiaan saved the Imperial Crown Prince and died in his place for Christelle’s happiness.

That is why not getting involved with the MC, Christelle, should increase my chances of survival as well.

I stopped thinking about it and put down one last thing.

– My goal.

Don’t get involved with the MCs and survive until the end so that I can go back home in one piece!

Don’t do anything to stand out, just quietly eat well and keep myself alive.

Don’t do anything that goes against my conscience, but do let others take care of things when possible.

Be respectful to both people above and below me.

“Well, it’s pretty easy for a loner like me.”

It’d be one thing if I had to interject in the two of their relationship, but I was more confident than everybody else in being completely unrelated to them.

I had quite the confidence in doing that since I was #foreveralone.