The Protagonist and the Supporting Protagonist - 2
I had spotted Kang Junhyuk in Ainharden before, but we had never actually come face to face.
He was the bastard who treated Bern like a mentor, sucked every drop of usefulness out of him, then discarded him without a second thought.
That was precisely why I had no desire to leave a presence like Kang Junhyuk lingering on my path.
So I had gone out of my way to ensure our faces never met—yet.
“You, youuu…!”
“Hmm?”
For some reason, he seemed to know me.
I had fled the academy early on, so we should never have crossed paths even outside Ainharden.
We had never so much as met, and I was hardly famous—how did he know who I was?
“You—don’t you know me?”
“What kind of stupid question is that?! Bern, you son of a bitch!”
“Oh.”
The moment I heard that uniquely Korean-style colorful cursing, a hypothesis snapped into place in my head.
Hard to believe, but not entirely impossible.
After all, I had been through the exact same thing myself.
“Are you a possessor by any chance?”
“The fact that you’re even saying that means you must be a possessor too!”
We were both people who had possessed the bodies of the protagonist and the supporting protagonist, respectively.
I had no idea how such a bizarre connection could exist.
First of all, the fact that he knew Bern meant he was a reader who had at least flipped through Adokchoe once.
And here I had been grinding my teeth, plotting revenge against Kang Junhyuk without knowing any of that.
I had been doing him dirty this whole time.
“Fuck! Do you have any idea how hard I’ve had it because you ran away?!”
“I didn’t have a choice either. I don’t know if you know this, but Bern only has hard days ahead if he stays at the academy. So I had no choice but to leave.”
“Choice my ass! You’re just a tool who’s supposed to stay at the academy for Kang Junhyuk’s growth, so why the hell did you run off on your own?! Do you want to watch the world fall apart?!”
“What the hell are you talking about? Bern is the supporting protagonist. He’s the helper who takes care of the problems Kang Junhyuk can’t solve.”
“And what do you call that if not a tool? From the start, the Pong-Pong Guy who does the cleanup for the protagonist until the very end—if that’s not a tool, what is he?”
Confirmed.
This guy was the type who defended Kang Junhyuk and rejected Bern.
Even after watching all the way through the ending, the type who never felt a shred of pity for Bern.
Fundamentally incompatible with me from the root.
“Kang Junhyuk, who would’ve died for sure early on without Bern, treats Bern like a tool?”
“Even so, the fact that Kang Junhyuk is the one who saved the world doesn’t change, right? If Bern had been the protagonist, the world would’ve been destroyed before even getting past part seven of the main story.”
“Don’t rate him however you damn well please. Bern is strong enough to save the world too.”
“Hilarious. No matter how hard he tries, a mere supporting protagonist is going to save the world? With Bern, whose potential is way inferior? Do you really think that’s possible?”
“It is possible. As a matter of fact, I’m currently fixing that broken world in Bern’s body.”
At first, I had simply wanted to live comfortably.
The dream of marrying one kind-hearted girl who wasn’t a gold digger and living a quiet, happy life together.
But this world kept tripping Bern up to the very end, making everything hard.
Once I realized it was a world where looking weak meant game over, I stopped being picky about any means to get stronger.
As a result, I had already transcended the original Bern’s limits and risen to the ranks of the strongest—no exaggeration.
I had achieved feats I could be proud of myself for, yet Kang Junhyuk started laughing at me instead.
“Puhah! Are you okay in the head? Fixing the world in Bern’s body? Puhup! Shouldn’t you fix your head first?”
“……Well, fine. Laugh at my dream all you want—that’s your freedom. But what about you right now? Why is the great Kang Junhyuk wandering around looking like a beggar’s rag?”
At my single remark, the laughter vanished from his face completely.
I had woken him up to reality. No matter what he said, he was a beggar and a wanted man.
The world’s Suke-chans were grinding their teeth, trying to kill him.
Was someone like that in any position to laugh at me?
I had succeeded, while he was walking the path of a failure.
His appearance alone made that fact abundantly clear.
“I-I ended up like this because of Sherin, the one you dumped and left behind…!”
“Oh, come on. Are you bragging right now that you picked up the trash I threw away because I knew she was a complete waste of space?”
“Guh…!”
Whether it was the Kang Junhyuk faction or the Bern faction, there was one fact everyone agreed on.
Sherin is a total idiot.
Of course, the Kang Junhyuk side often said her face was decent enough for a one-night stand, while the Bern faction freaked out at the mere mention of Sherin and set fire to her illustrations—that was the difference in reactions.
And no wonder: Sherin had the symbol of pure love as a childhood friend, yet became a legendary villainess.
A childhood friend is the position of someone who has spent long years together and knows each other well.
In romantic comedies, there are cases where they harbor unrequited love they can’t confess and end up as the losing heroine.
But they usually become characters who receive endless love from readers.
Sherin was the opposite.
After seeing Kang Junhyuk treat her a bit kindly, she immediately kicked Bern—whom she had been with for decades—to the curb.
She switched men like that, then later came back to Bern and turned him into a Pong-Pong Guy. That was her achievement.
It was the kind of atrocity that would make a unicorn tear off its own horn and howl.
Desecrating the symbol of pure love, and all that.
Anyway, even if someone conquered Sherin or slept with her, no one would envy them.
Her very existence was basically a bomb.
Compared to a gold digger, more devoted, more affectionate, and with outstanding abilities to boot……
“Besides Sherin, that bitch Hades made me like this too!”
“Simping for Hades is way better!”
Just as I was about to use Rin as an example, the name of the woman that came out of Kang Junhyuk’s mouth made me react without thinking.
I almost cursed out loud, but thinking carefully, it wasn’t wrong.
A demi-lich with high loyalty, who poured out tons of aegyo on stream, rich, and high-level in magic.
Frustratingly, I couldn’t deny it.
“Ha! What, are you a guy who’s completely fallen for Hades too?”
“No.”
“Denying it while liking her. Looking at that reaction, an idiot like you would never figure it out even if you died and came back. Her outside and inside are different.”
I prided myself on knowing far better than Kang Junhyuk.
Outside a beautiful girl, inside a demi-lich.
A fact no one knew except me, Frach, and Chaos.
“I was a fool. Why did I give my liver and gallbladder for a bitch like that…! When that whore only thought about scamming me.”
It was my intention, not Hades’, to suck Kang Junhyuk dry.
I was the one who harassed Kang Junhyuk through Hades.
There was no reason for her to take the blame, yet she was, so my brow furrowed.
“Whore? You must have done something unforgivable to Hades.”
“No way! I tried to treat her truly precious!”
“And that guy took her to a hotel while drunk?”
“Th-that…!”
“Someone who can’t even properly remember what happened back then has no right to speak carelessly about Hades. Moreover, while you had your legs wrapped around Sherin, you tried to lay hands on Hades? Thinking you could build a harem just because you’re the protagonist? Know your place. You piece of shit.”
“Shut up!”
I raised my voice without realizing it and pressed Kang Junhyuk.
Having scraped his nerves raw, he clenched his fists and charged at me.
I responded by kicking him in the gut.
As someone who had fought countless people, the current Kang Junhyuk was so pathetic it wasn’t even funny.
“Gueeek…!”
“Yeah, piece of shit.”
Hitting him once made me feel much better.
I didn’t really know why I had gotten so emotional.
Probably because Hades was being insulted was the culprit.
It wasn’t love or anything… just anger as a boss over a capable subordinate.
Believing that, I nodded.
I had nothing to do.
My main job of streaming had been put on break after the incident in Ainharden.
The material gathering my Lord had entrusted me with was all finished.
While running to where my Lord was to deliver the materials I had gathered…
My Lord entrusted me with another mission.
Infiltrate the Magic Tower as a spy to extract and deliver information, and turn the corpses Chaos—my Lord’s watchdog—brought into undead to forge documents.
It was an important mission, but the process was extremely boring.
The Magic Tower moved cautiously to a frustrating degree, and messengers came maybe twice a week at most.
Rather, the time spent communicating with Suke-chans while streaming was happier.
But I couldn’t refuse my Lord’s command.
Because I had sworn lifelong loyalty.
However, lately there was a bit of a sense of disappointment toward my Lord.
It was strange. Back when I was active as a lich, I barely had any emotions.
Lately, I kept looking at the world with a girl’s sensibilities.
Because of that, dissatisfaction toward my Lord had arisen.
Therefore, my Lord, I believe you will generously overlook this level of rudeness.
A magic crystal ball that could check the status of a specific person.
I carefully adjusted the crystal ball and brought up my Lord’s image.
Unlike usual, my Lord was wearing a school uniform.
Before I could even wonder why, the single phrase that came from his mouth made me doubt my ears.
To think that my Lord had been thinking of me like this even in a place where I wasn’t present?
I couldn’t say a single word.
I just kept staring blankly at the crystal ball.
After that, my Lord talked with Kang Junhyuk, whom I would have buried with my own hands.
And the moment he heard the words criticizing me, he got upset on my behalf.
In the end, he kicked Kang Junhyuk and easily subdued him, but unfortunately, no tears flowed.
Instead, my pelvic bones trembled, and at the same time, marrow was flowing down my legs.
Ah, my Lord. I feel like I could attain enlightenment and have no regrets now…….
I decided to carefully store today’s recording inside my life vessel.